Man, the title of my sermon tonight is Jesus in the book of Leviticus, Jesus in the book
of Leviticus.
Last week we talked about Jesus in Genesis and Jesus in Exodus.
And of course Jesus is found in all of the books of the Old Testament.
The Bible says to him, give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins.
And the whole message of the Old Testament and New Testament revolves around the Lord
Jesus Christ.
So it isn't hard to find Jesus in the book of Genesis as we saw last Sunday morning.
It isn't hard to find him in Exodus, he's everywhere.
And Leviticus is no exception to this.
So let's dig into this tonight.
In chapter 1, we start out the book of Leviticus by running through a lot of different burnt
offerings.
Look at verse number 3, it says, if his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him
offer a male without blemish.
He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation
before the Lord.
And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted
for him to make atonement for him.
And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord and the priests.
Aaron's sons shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that
is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And of course when we read these scriptures in the Old Testament about killing these
beasts and shedding their blood and sprinkling their blood on the altar, we know that that
is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ dying for our sins.
He's the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.
And all throughout the Mosaic Law, all of these animal sacrifices picture the Lord Jesus
Christ and different aspects of his suffering and his atonement for us.
Now, this is why the Jews today don't do these animal sacrifices because they have
no meaning unto them.
The whole Old Testament has lost all of its meaning when you remove Jesus from the equation.
So this is why Judaism has to have the Talmud and the rabbis with all of their false religion
that they've added on to God's Word.
And this is why they've eliminated the animal sacrifices because the animal sacrifices picture
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now that Christ has died on the cross for us, we don't need them anymore.
They don't do them.
They don't even know why they don't do them.
And if you ask them, of course they'll give you a dumb reason like, oh well we don't have
our temple.
Well that's funny because people did sacrifices before there ever was a temple.
And even while the temple was in place, people like Elijah did burnt offerings on Mount Carmel
and God blessed with fire from heaven.
So you know, God gave them the ability to just pile up stones or pile up earth and do
a burnt offering unto the Lord.
If you're not going to do burnt offerings, you're not observing the Torah.
So for these Jews to say, oh we follow the Torah, or for these Hebrew roots, quote unquote,
Torah observing Christians, no they're not.
I don't see them spilling the blood on the altar.
I don't see them doing a burnt sacrifice.
Now we know of course that these things are done away in Christ, but all scripture is
given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.
Why?
Because we can learn about Jesus through reading about these animal sacrifices.
Chapters one through nine of Leviticus are all about the sacrifices.
They're all about Jesus.
It's all pointing us to Christ's sacrifice.
Let me give you a great example, okay?
If we look down at the scripture, it says in verse four that this animal, when it's
offered as a burnt offering, look at the last part of verse four, it shall be accepted for
him to make atonement for him, okay?
So the animal sacrifice, it says, would make an atonement for him, okay?
Now flip over to chapter 23 in Leviticus, and we're going to look at a holiday called
the Day of Atonement.
And I want to show you something that's very important about this holiday, the Day of Atonement.
Look at verse number 28 of chapter 23, and you shall do no work in that same day, for
it is a day of atonement to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God.
For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut
off from among his people.
Watch this.
And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will
I destroy from among his people.
Ye shall do no manner of work.
It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwellings.
It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest.
Now did you notice how repetitive he was there about no work?
He said in verse 28, no work.
Verse 29, be afflicted.
Verse 30, no work.
Verse 31, no work.
Verse 32, it's a rest for you.
So he just hammers that, why?
Because when it comes to our atonement, when it comes to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his blood that takes away our sins, there's no work involved on our part, none.
He's saying look, this is a day of atonement, therefore don't do any work.
If you do any work, I'll destroy you.
Anybody who does any work is kicked out, they're gone, they're destroyed.
Look, that's sending us a strong message that Christ's atonement is enough and we don't
do any work to add on to it, right?
So people who think that salvation is by believing in Christ and doing work, they're destroyed.
They're cut off, okay?
Because they're not letting Christ's atonement be enough, okay?
So when we read this stuff, this isn't just a boring history lesson about ancient religion.
No, this is relevant to us today because we're learning about Christ and his atonement and
we're understanding that it's the blood that takes away our sins.
It's the blood that's an atonement for our souls and that there's no work involved in
our salvation.
Look at chapter 17, verse 11.
The Bible says in chapter 17, verse 11, for the life of the flesh is in the blood and
I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.
For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
So tell that to false teachers like John MacArthur who say, oh, the blood isn't what saves us.
It's just the fact that Christ died.
No, it's the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son that cleanses us from all sin.
So the Bible as we study these animal sacrifices in Leviticus chapters 1 through 9 is teaching
us a lot about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his atonement, his blood, his sacrifice, his
vicarious death for us on the cross, his burial, his resurrection.
It's all pictured in these sacrifices.
Now jump over to Leviticus chapter 8 because there's more to Jesus in Leviticus than just
sacrifices, right?
I mean we could go through chapters 1 through 8 and we could look at all the different animal
sacrifices and we could find Jesus in every single one of them.
We would find symbolism and imagery of Jesus Christ dying for our sins, every single one.
Now I remember I talked to a mature Christian who had been saved for a very long time and
he was reading through the Bible cover to cover for the first time and when he was reading
through Leviticus, he said, man, some of that's pretty gory because it goes into graphic detail
about butchering these animals, wringing off their heads, dumping out the blood and it
even goes into the spleen and the liver and the call above the liver and it explains how
they're cutting up these animals and taking out their organs and burning them on the altar
and doing all this stuff.
But here's the thing, yes, it is gruesome.
It is gory if you've ever seen an animal butchered but the message that God's trying
to send us is that sin is ugly, okay?
Sin causes death and of course it's going to be ugly killing an animal.
Death is an ugly thing.
But you know what, that's a picture of how our sin offends God and this is the result
of our sin and you know one day that would be Jesus that would be beaten and bloody and
bruised.
If we were to somehow be able to get in a time machine and watch the crucifixion of
Christ and actually witness him being beaten and witness him being nailed to the cross
and actually dying on the cross, it would not be a beautiful sight.
It would actually be a sight that would be difficult to look at.
The Bible says when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him.
He's despised.
He's rejected.
A man of sorrow is acquainted with grief and he's on the cross dying for our sins.
But you know what, that's the punishment for sin, that's the wages of sin and that
should make us think differently about sin when we see how it is in God's sight, you
know, that it is a ugly thing in his sight, sin.
Now in chapter 8, we see that not only Christ is pictured by the animal sacrifices that
abound in the book of Leviticus but also the high priest in the book of Leviticus pictures
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is called our high priest in Hebrews chapter number 4.
The Bible says in Leviticus chapter 8 verse 5, And Moses said unto the congregation, This
is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done.
And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.
And he put upon him the coat, and girded them with the girdle, and clothed them with the
robe, and put the ephod upon him, and girded them with the curious girdle of the ephod,
and bound it unto him therewith, and he put the breastplate upon him.
Also he put in the breastplate, the Urim and the Thummim, and he put the miter upon
his head.
Also upon the miter, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown,
as the Lord commanded Moses.
And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle, and all that was therein,
and sanctified them.
And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar, and all his
vessels, both the labor and his foot, to sanctify them.
And he poured the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him to sanctify him.
Now here's what's interesting.
The word itself, Christ, is the Greek word that is just translating the Hebrew word Messiah,
right?
So in the Old Testament you have the word Messiah, and in the New Testament you have
the word Christ.
But what's interesting is that both of those words mean the anointed, okay?
That's why the Bible says in Acts chapter 4, against the Lord and against his Christ,
and it's quoting Psalm 2 when it says against the Lord and against his anointed.
So the Christ means the anointed one.
Now what's interesting about the Christ, or the anointed one, is that there are two types
of people that we see anointed.
We see kings being anointed, right?
Saul was anointed king, David was anointed king.
But then we also see the priest is anointed.
The Bible says right here in verse 12, he poured the anointing oil upon Aaron's head
and anointed him to sanctify him.
So Jesus Christ was the anointed one.
That's what it means.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus the anointed.
Why?
Because he is the king of the Jews, so he's anointed as that son of David that's going
to reign and rule over this earth with a rod of iron, and then he's also the anointed because
he is the high priest who is the one who intercedes for our sins, okay?
He takes the blood and intercedes, right?
So he's the sacrifice, but he's also the high priest that makes an intercession or makes
atonement for the people.
After Jesus Christ died on the cross and was buried and rose again, then he took up the
blood up into heaven and sprinkled it before the mercy seat in heaven, and he ever liveth
to make intercession for us, and he is our high priest right now in heaven standing before
God.
Now go to Leviticus chapter 16.
So we see that first of all in Leviticus number one, Jesus is found in every burnt offering.
Every animal sacrifice pictures the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only that, number two, we saw that the high priest in Leviticus pictures Jesus.
The fact that he was anointed with oil pictures the fact that Jesus Christ was our king and
also high priest, and that he was anointed with the Holy Spirit above all his brethren.
God poured out the spirit upon him without measure.
But then not only that, we have a special offering that takes place in Leviticus 16,
and this is called the scapegoat.
Now this is something that we've all heard of as an expression where somebody is a scapegoat,
and it's funny how many different expressions come from the Bible.
You know, you'll hear a lot of people just have sayings, and they don't even realize
that those sayings come from the Bible, like the skin of our teeth comes from the book
of Job, and the scapegoat is something in the Bible.
Now what is it when we say somebody's a scapegoat?
It means we blame everything on them, right?
Oh yeah, he's just a scapegoat.
It means we just blame everything on them, even though they didn't really do it, they
end up being the fall guy for whatever bad things have happened.
Well look, let's see what the Bible teaches about the scapegoat.
It says in Leviticus 16, seven, he shall take the two goats and present them before the
Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and Aaron shall cast lots upon
the two goats, one for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat.
Now why is it called a scapegoat?
Because it escapes.
It's really like an escape goat, okay?
It's called the scapegoat because they take two goats and they kill one and they let the
other one go.
Now you say, well if it's the one that's being let go, why is it the scapegoat?
Well we'll see why.
It says in verse eight that one's going to be for the scapegoat.
Look at verse nine, and Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell and
offer him for a sin offering.
But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before
the Lord to make an atonement with him and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.
So it's interesting that sometimes in Leviticus, they kill an animal and shed its blood, and
the blood is for an atonement, right?
But here he says there are two goats.
One of them is killed and the blood shed, that's an atonement.
But then he says that the scapegoat is also for an atonement.
He said at the end of verse number 10 there, to make an atonement with him and to let him
go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.
So the scapegoat is a different type of atonement.
Look what the Bible says in verse 15.
Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring his blood
within the veil and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock and sprinkle
it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.
Look at verse 20.
And when he had made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation
and the altar, he shall bring the live goat.
The live goat is the scapegoat.
And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him
all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions and all their
sins putting them upon the head of the goat.
So this is why the person that you blame everything on is known as the scapegoat because they
are taking this goat and the high priest puts his hands on its head and he says, God, we've
aborted 3,000 babies every single day.
We've murdered the unborn.
We've got sodomites marching up and down the streets.
Adultery and fornication abound, Lord.
Our nation is filled with drunkenness.
Our politicians are wicked.
We've shed innocent blood all over the world.
We're just listing the national sins of the people here.
This is what they were supposed to do.
Back then, they would have listed the sins that applied to them.
Lord, there's people worshiping in the high places and they're worshiping Molech and they've
got the Star of Rim fan and they're doing this and that and the other.
So they would list all the sins and put them on the head of the goat.
And then look what it says in verse 21.
Putting them upon the head of the goat and shall send them away by the hand of a fit
man into the wilderness.
Why a fit man?
Well, they want somebody that's physically fit because they want him to take the goat
really far away.
So they want this guy to be able to do a long distance endurance event here, right, and
be able to take this goat really far away.
So the fit man takes the goat into the wilderness and the Bible says in verse 22, the goat shall
bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited and he shall let the goat
go in the wilderness.
Verse 26, and he that let the goat go for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe
his flesh in water and afterward come into the camp.
So you know what this pictures?
This picture is what I was preaching about this morning.
The fact that our sins have been removed from us.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has God separated us from our sins.
So this is actually illustrating another aspect of our salvation, the fact that God has taken
all our sins away.
So he took our sins and takes them away.
They're gone.
They've been just dropped off in some far distant, uninhabited wilderness, okay.
That's what the Bible says.
It's like he's put them in the depths of the sea, the Bible says.
He's cast all our sins behind his back.
And so this is a beautiful picture of God taking our sins away, gone, forgiven, forgotten,
out of sight, out of mind.
That's what the scapegoat represents.
Now go to chapter 23 of Leviticus.
So number one, we saw the animal sacrifices that were actually killed just as Christ was
killed and died for our sins.
Then we saw number two, the high priest represents Jesus.
Then we saw that number three, the scapegoat that's blamed for everything and then takes
our sins far, far away represents Jesus as well, making an atonement for us, being blamed
for our sins.
Because remember, he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him.
So this innocent goat, it didn't commit all the sins, but it's getting blamed for everything.
All the sins are being put on that goat and then that goat is just cast out, right.
It's burying them out into the wilderness, it's being dropped off in the wilderness.
And of course, we remember Christ said on the cross, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken
me?
He took all our sins, he bore our sins, he was forsaken, he died, he was buried and rose
again.
This stuff is all pointing to Jesus, the whole book, once again.
Now Leviticus 23 is a particularly interesting chapter in regard to the Lord Jesus Christ,
when we're studying the book of Leviticus.
Because Leviticus 23 is the feasts of the Lord.
And these are very strongly picturing Jesus and his first coming and his second coming.
Now the first thing that comes up when we learn about these feasts, it says in verse
3, six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest and holy convocation,
you should do no work therein, it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.
And of course, this is that picture that we talked about with the day of atonement, where
no work is done, meaning that there's no works that get us saved, but that it's all done
by Christ, we rest in him, and that's explained in Hebrews chapter number 4.
So after the Sabbath, then we get into the Passover, which is in verse 4, it says, these
are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which he shall proclaim in their seasons,
in the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's Passover, and on the fifteenth
day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord, seven days you must
eat unleavened bread.
Now we know that of course in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the Bible says Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us.
Now what's interesting in Leviticus 23 is that the feasts are pretty much broken into
two sets of feasts, you have the spring feasts, and you have the fall feasts, okay?
So the spring feasts start with the Passover, now the Passover is in the fourteenth day
of the first month, but what we have to understand is that what we consider the first month is
not what has historically been the first month.
Historically the year started in the spring, okay?
And this is why some of the names of our months don't make any sense.
Like for example, we have a month called October, shouldn't that be the eighth month?
October, right, like octopus, okay, that should be the eighth month.
September should be the seventh month.
November should be the ninth month.
December, like this, right, ten, December, decimal, that should be the tenth month, right?
So our calendar is like shifted two months off, right?
What should be the tenth month, we call it the twelfth month, December, right?
So if you think about it that way, the first month in antiquity would have been what we
would consider the month of March.
So the year would have started in the spring, it would have started in March.
So when we talk about the first month in the Bible, we're talking about the springtime,
okay?
And when we get into the seventh month, we're talking about what we would know as September,
so we're getting into the fall.
So if you think about it that way and understand that, then you'll understand that there are
two sets of feasts.
There are the spring feasts and there are the fall feasts, okay?
Now the first spring feast is the Passover, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Then of course you have the unleavened bread, well Jesus said, I'm the bread of life, right?
But then we have what's known as the feast of the first fruits.
Look at Leviticus 23 verse 9, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak unto the children
of Israel and say unto them, when you shall come into the land which I give unto you and
shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your
harvest unto the priest.
So when they get their first fruits, they bring that in, that was something to celebrate,
the first fruits.
Well, the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection.
The first fruits of the resurrection.
So right away when we look at the spring feasts, we recognize Christ the Passover is sacrificed
for us.
His body was broken for us like when he break bread and said, this is my body which is broken
for you.
The feast of unleavened bread.
And then we see the first fruits represents Christ who is the first begotten of the dead,
the first fruits of the resurrection.
But then next we have something called the feast of weeks, okay?
Look at verse 15, and you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from
the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall ye complete
even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days and ye shall offer
a new meat offering unto the Lord.
Now fifty days is where we get what's called the feast of Pentecost, okay?
So the Greek number five is pente, p-e-n-t-e, pente is how you pronounce it in modern Greek.
And so Pentecost is that feast of weeks which is fifty days after the first fruits, right?
Fifty days later, seven Sabbaths and the day after is the fiftieth day, and that feast
of Pentecost in the New Testament in the Old Testament is known as the feast of weeks.
So feast of weeks in the Old Testament, Pentecost in the New Testament, it's the same event,
okay?
So how was that fulfilled?
Christ was the Passover, Christ was the unleavened bread, Christ the first fruits of the resurrection,
what was Pentecost?
The day of Pentecost.
So this was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, what significant event happened?
Well, of course, we see multitudes being saved, right?
About three thousand people saved and baptized at the day of Pentecost.
So these feasts are actually picturing Christ's first advent or Christ's first coming.
The spring feasts, he came, he died, he was buried, he rose again, and then fifty days
later a whole bunch of people get saved at the day of Pentecost and that's where you
see that early church really take off and they're endued with power from on high and
they continue in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and they're
preaching the gospel and of course the rest is history, okay?
So those are your spring feasts.
It's pretty easy to understand those, isn't it?
Like this is not a deep Bible study to just understand the Passover, the unleavened bread,
the first fruits, Pentecost, these are very basic teachings, okay?
Now we get into the more difficult section because it hasn't happened yet, the fall feasts.
So the spring feasts, those have already been fulfilled in Christ, the fall feasts are still
coming in the future because the fall represents the second coming of Christ.
See the Bible talks about in Matthew chapter 13 the parable of the tares sowed amongst
the wheat and this is what he says in that parable, the harvest is the end of the world.
The harvest is the end of the world and there's strong imagery in the book of Revelation of
a reaper with a sharp sickle reaping the earth.
So we see that the end times for both the saved and the unsaved is seen as a great harvest
that's happening.
So it makes sense that the fall feasts would represent the harvest which represents the
second coming of Christ or what the Bible calls the end of the world, okay?
So let's dig into these fall feasts.
This is future stuff.
This is end time stuff about the Lord Jesus Christ's second coming.
Spring feasts, first coming, fall feasts, second coming.
So we have three main feasts for the fall, okay?
You have first of all the Feast of Trumpets, then you have the Day of Atonement, and then
you have the Feast of Booths, okay?
So these are three fall feasts.
You got the Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and you got the Feast of Booths, okay?
Now let me explain each of these.
Let's start out in verse 23 with the Feast of Trumpets.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the
seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing
of trumpets and holy convocation.
You should do no servile work therein, but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto
the Lord.
Now what is represented here by the blowing of the trumpets?
What do trumpets represent or blowing trumpets represent?
Well, what's interesting is that this comes on the first day of the seventh month.
Well, if you stop and think about a calendar year which has 12 months, the first day of
the seven months is what?
It's in the dead center of the year, right?
If you think about it, that's the middle, because you got six months before and six
months after it.
So the first day of the seventh month is the center point of the year, and it's the blowing
of the trumpets.
Now, keep your finger here in Leviticus, flip over to Numbers 10-9, a few pages to the right
in your Bible.
Numbers, chapter 10, verse 9, and we'll see what trumpets signify in the Bible.
All throughout the Bible, trumpets typically signify going to battle or going to war, okay?
When they sound the trumpet, they prepare themselves to the battle.
Look at Numbers, chapter 10, verse 9.
We'll see that it's an alarm, okay?
It says in verse 9, and if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresses
you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets, and you shall be remembered before
the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.
So blowing the trumpets was a ceremonial thing.
The children of Israel were told to make two special trumpets, and if there was an enemy
oppressing them, they would sound the trumpets, and it was like an alarm, basically saying,
hey, we need to be ready to fight, and God's going to help us and defend us against our
enemy that oppresses us if we obey him and sound these trumpets and do that.
So this pictures warfare.
Now, what happens if you think about it, at the exact midpoint of that final week in Revelation,
that final seven-year period where all of the end times events are culminating before
the millennium, when you have that seven-year period, the Bible talks about how in the midst
of the week, the abomination of desolation is set up.
And what does that abomination of desolation kick off?
It kicks off war with the saints.
So when the Antichrist sets up that abomination of desolation in the midst of the week, it
says that he made war with the saints.
It was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.
So it makes perfect sense with the symbolism here.
The dead center of the year, you blow a bunch of trumpets.
That picture is war.
That picture is an alarm.
That picture is an oppressor, an enemy oppressing them that they need protection from.
What's going to happen in the end times?
Right in the middle, three and a half years before, three and a half years after, the
abomination of desolation is set up and the Antichrist makes war with the saints.
He is oppressing God's people and they need help.
They need to be delivered by the Lord, right?
They need to be protected.
So that's what the blowing of the trumpets represents in the end times, the Antichrist
making war with the saints.
That makes perfect sense, okay?
Now let's move on to the next thing, which is the Day of Atonement.
Now the Day of Atonement, we already mentioned it a little bit, but it says in verse 27,
also on the tenth day of the seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement.
It shall be a holy convocation unto you and ye shall afflict your souls.
Now what does it mean to afflict your souls?
Well, to be afflicted means to be troubled, right?
Evolution is synonymous in the Bible with tribulation, troubles.
So when the Bible says you afflict your souls, this is sort of like when people fast.
It's basically a suffering that you choose for yourself, right?
Where you skip a meal and you endure the suffering of not eating, right?
That's a way of afflicting your soul by not eating, okay?
You know, spending a long time in prayer would be another way to afflict your soul, right?
Because that's not a fun thing you do to party.
That's something that you do to afflict your soul, right?
Mourning, crying, fasting, right?
This is afflicting your soul.
So is this a happy or a jovial time?
The Day of Atonement.
Woo!
Let's party!
No, no.
This is a somber time.
This is a time where you're afflicting your soul.
Does everybody understand that?
So in that sense, it's a negative time of reflection and afflicting of the soul.
But what's interesting about the Day of Atonement is that every 50 years, the Day of Atonement
has a different character.
So for 49 years in a row, on that 10th day of the 7th month, you're afflicting your soul.
It's a sad time.
It's a mourning time.
It's a time of reflecting and being sorry for your sins and being sad and fasting and
mourning and stuff like that.
But then every 50 years, it's actually this great big joyous time known as the Year of
Jubilee.
Now flip over to Chapter 25.
Now stay with me, folks.
I know some of this is a little bit complicated, but I'm trying to break it down and make it
simple enough to where even a theologian should be able to understand what I'm saying right
now.
Look, it's not complicated.
The fall feasts.
What does the fall represent?
Harvest.
What's the harvest?
The end of the world.
The second coming of Christ.
So the events are symbolized.
The blowing of the trumpets at the midpoint of the year is symbolic of the Antichrist
war with the saints at the midpoint.
It's an alarm.
It's danger.
We need help.
We need protection.
That's at the midpoint.
First day of the 7th month.
Then the 10th day of the 7th month, we have the Day of Atonement, a sad, solemn assembly.
But every 50 years, it has a different character because every 50 years, the Day of Atonement
is a special day on the Jubilee, the Year of Jubilee.
Now jubilation is the exact opposite of what?
Afflicting your soul.
I mean if you are jubilant, that means that you're very happy and cheerful and joyous.
The Year of Jubilee is a positive thing.
Look at verse 8 of chapter 25.
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years.
And the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of Jubilee to sound.
When do we sound it?
On the 10th day of the 7th month.
In the Day of Atonement, shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
And ye shall hallow the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all
the inhabitants thereof.
It shall be a jubilee unto you.
And ye shall return every man to his possession.
And ye shall return every man to his land.
So this is a pretty happy day, isn't it?
But with the Year of Jubilee, you've got all these debts.
No more debts.
The credit cards are all at a zero balance.
Because if you remember the Year of Jubilee, all debts are forgiven.
Your college debt is gone.
That debt you owe the IRS, gone.
The unpaid parking tickets, gone.
College debt, credit card debt, mortgage payment, all gone.
You're like, where has this been all our lives?
How do we institute this?
Well, the problem is it happened right before you were born, so you've got to wait 50 years.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, so the point is, you know, it's like a big reset button.
It's really exciting.
It's really happy.
That's why it's called Jubilee, because Jubilation has to do with joy, okay?
And it's freedom, liberty, all the slaves go free, the captives go free, the debts are
paid.
We push a big reset button.
Everybody goes home to their possession.
They return their possession, every man to his family.
Now, this pictures the rapture, the trumpet of the Jubilee, liberty, why?
Go to Romans 8.
Romans 8, and we'll see that the Jubilee trumpet pictures the rapture.
And we know that at the second coming of Christ, when the trumpet of the rapture sounds, and
that trumpet sounds, right?
That's going to be an exciting day, isn't it?
For us.
But, you know, for most people in this world, that's going to be a really scary day, a really
depressing day.
See how it has a dual nature?
Day of Atonement is the sad aspect, Jubilee is the positive aspect.
So what is the world going to be experiencing?
Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath
of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?
The Bible says when that trumpet sounds, then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.
They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds.
They're going to be mourning.
They're going to be afflicting their souls.
That's what the Day of Atonement represents.
It's a great day of reckoning, a day of atonement, a day of punishment, affliction, recompensing
tribulation unto those that trouble Christians.
But the saved, woo!
It's the Jubilee.
I mean, we're going to be excited.
We're going to be looking up and rejoicing because our redemption draweth nigh.
Now let me help tie in more strongly the trumpet of Jubilee with the rapture using
the New Testament.
Go to Romans chapter 8, and we'll see that the event known as the resurrection or the
rapture or the coming of Christ in the clouds is known as the glorious liberty of the children
of God.
The Bible says in verse 20, For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly,
but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself
also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now,
and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we
ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of
our body.
What is it that we're waiting for?
What is it that we're groaning for?
The redemption of our body.
We want to be rid of this sinful flesh.
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
We want to get rid of this carnal sinful flesh.
We want our body to be changed like unto his glorious body.
So we are groaning within ourselves.
What are we waiting for?
What the Bible calls the glorious liberty of the children of God.
So the redemption of our body, or the bodily resurrection, is known as the glorious liberty
of the children of God.
So you can see why when the trumpet sounds and liberty is proclaimed, isn't that a perfect
picture of the rapture?
And every man goes to his possession.
Hey, in my father's house are many mansions, for not so I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, he said I will
come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.
And so he's going to take us to our possession, and we get to go to be with our family.
Isn't that what it said about the time of Jubilee?
It said in chapter 25 of Leviticus, verse 10, you shall return every man into his possession,
and shall return every man to his family.
So you're going to get to see your family, right?
Because you're going to be caught up together with them in the clouds.
The dead in Christ shall rise first.
You're going to see your loved ones.
You're going to your possession, your inheritance, your home in heaven, your family.
So it's a perfect picture of the rapture.
And there's a trumpet that sounds.
For the Jubilee, that's a perfect picture of the rapture.
A trumpet sounds, we're caught up with Christ.
So that's what that one represents.
So that one's pretty clear, okay?
Now here's what's interesting, too, is that the Bible says that the trumpets of the alarm,
right, that feast of trumpets is on the first day of the seventh month, and then the Jubilee
trumpet's on the tenth day, right?
So remember in Revelation chapter 2 when he said, you shall have tribulation ten days.
Be thou faithful unto death, and I'll give thee a crown of life.
Well, that's symbolic.
It's not a literal ten-day tribulation, but what it's symbolic of is those ten days of
that seventh month, because you've got the first day of the month when the trumpets are
blown, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, Jubilee.
So that's the picture of, okay, the Antichrist starts making war on the saints at that midpoint.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten days of that, and then boom, the
rapture saved, right, rescued.
So that's your tribulation ten days is the first through tenth of the seventh month.
See how everything in the Bible just fits together once you get rid of that darn pre-trib
rapture, amen?
It all makes sense, all right?
So it actually fits like a glove, okay?
And what's interesting too is that, and I don't want to go too deep tonight here because
I'm trying to just kind of show you Jesus in the book of Leviticus in general.
Boy, he's really in the book of Leviticus, isn't he?
I don't want to go too deep, but think about this also, okay?
You've got these different ceremonial reasons to blow a trumpet, you know, blow a trumpet
on this holiday, blow a trumpet on that holiday, okay?
Well the last feast that involves blowing a trumpet is going to be this Jubilee trumpet,
okay?
So that makes sense, you know, at the last trump the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
there you go, right?
There's your trumpet of the rapture.
But here's what's interesting, there's another style of trumpet blowing that they would do
because they would also blow the trumpet every time they see the new moon, right?
Remember Psalm 81, blow up the trumpet in the new moon?
So every time there's a new moon, they would sound a trumpet for that.
Well if you actually do the math here, okay, in the leap year where they have the extra
month called Adar 2, if you actually do the math here, after this trumpet would sound
on the tenth day of the seventh month, they would have seven more new moons if it's one
of the every six years where they have Adar 2, then you would have seven more trumpets.
Which makes sense because then after the rapture takes place and God begins to pour
out his wrath, what do you have?
You have seven other trumpets of God's wrath, which are represented by the seven new moon
trumpets that would follow.
So that's pretty interesting how even that lines up, you know, everything in the Bible
has a lot of symbolic meaning, a lot of layers of meaning.
So if that went over your head, don't worry about it, not important.
But anyway, let's look at the final fall feast.
So we talked about the blowing of the trumpets at the midpoint, representing the anti-Christ
war with the saints.
We talked about the Day of Atonement slash trumpet of Jubilee, representing the day when
Christ comes in the clouds, his second coming.
Really joyful for Christians, really down and depressing for the unsaved, right?
Same day, depending on which side of things you're on, okay?
We're on the Jubilee side, they're on the affliction side.
But then we get into a third fall feast, which is the Feast of Booths, okay?
Says in Leviticus 23, verse 33, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children
of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles
for seven days unto the Lord.
The Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths, okay?
It says, And ye shall take you on the first day, verse 40, the boughs of goodly trees,
branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook.
And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days, and ye shall keep it a feast
unto the Lord seven days in the year.
It shall be a statute forever in your generations.
Ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
Ye shall dwell in booths seven days.
All that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths, that your generation may know that
I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land
of Egypt.
I am the Lord your God.
So the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles is where it's sort of like a camping activity.
Because they're not supposed to sleep in their house during this time.
They're supposed to camp out.
So they're supposed to build booths.
They're supposed to build tabernacles, right?
So they take the branches of trees and make like a temporary little hut or like a teepee
or a tent, whatever you want to call it.
That's what he means when he says booth, okay?
A booth or a tabernacle.
It's just a makeshift little shelter, tent, whatever, where they would sleep outside in
these booths for seven days.
And again, this is a rejoicing time.
This is supposed to be a fun thing, you know.
And it's to remind them that the children of Israel dwelled in booths, you know, when
the Lord brought them out of Egypt.
So they're kind of remembering that time of wandering in the wilderness and so forth.
And so before they go into the promised land, they dwell in booths.
Now, you say, well, what does this symbolize?
I think what this symbolizes is the period of being up in heaven between, you know, when
the rapture happens versus ruling and reigning with Christ in the millennium, okay?
And here's why I say that.
Because of the fact that the booths, when they came out of Egypt, was because they were
in a temporary state because they'd left Egypt, right?
But they had not yet entered the promised land.
So they're in the in-between stage, which is in the wilderness, right?
So that's when they dwelt in booths.
That's when they lived in these places, okay?
So what I believe this represents is that when we leave this world, right, when we're
caught up together with Christ in the clouds, that's sort of like we're leaving Egypt.
You know, this world is like an Egypt, right?
So it's like we've left this world, but we haven't really entered into the promised land
yet of the millennial reign of Christ and inheriting the promised land and ruling and
reigning with Christ on this earth.
So we're in kind of a temporary stage there.
And if you remember, what did the children of Israel do during that time?
You know, when they left Egypt and before they went to the promised land, it was a time
of learning.
It was a time of learning.
That's where God gave them his laws.
That's where he gave them the Ten Commandments.
That's where he spoke to them out of the mount and gave them lots of commandments and statutes
and judgments.
And they had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way.
God had to punish them and teach them things.
You know, it was supposed to only last like six months and it ended up lasting 40 years
because they just didn't get it, right?
But the point is it was a time of instruction in God's law and in God's word.
And basically they're being prepared to go into the promised land.
See if they would have just marched out of Egypt and just headed straight for the promised
land and not taken the scenic route, it's like 11 days, the Bible tells us.
It's an 11 day journey.
They could have just left Egypt and been there 11 days, but God knew that they weren't ready
for that.
So he had a plan for them to take a few months, you know, six months, but then of course they
screwed up and ended up taking 40 years to get there.
So the point is, if you think about it, this makes perfect sense where we're caught up
to be with Christ in the clouds.
We go to heaven, but it's only temporary.
We're only there for a temporary time and then we're going to go into the promised land
of the millennial reign of Christ.
And if you think about it, that's going to be a time of what?
Probably getting us ready to rule and reign with Christ.
I mean, if we're going to be up there for a few years, it makes sense that we would
need some training.
You know what I mean?
If we're going to be ruling.
Now, some are going to need more training than others, but then again, some are going
to have more important jobs than others, you know?
But if you think about it, a lot of these pastors that, you know, they're going to have
to be, have it explained to them, you know, this millennium, it's not what you think.
Remember that rod of iron?
Yeah, that's what it's going to be about, you know?
So they're going to have to get like a crash course in Leviticus 20.
They're going to have to get a crash course in ruling with a rod of iron.
You know, so God's going to be teaching us, instructing us, and we're going to be rejoicing.
And what did they rejoice with?
The branches of palm trees, right?
And what happens in Revelation 7 when we're caught up at the second coming of Christ when
he comes in the clouds and we're caught up, what do we all have in our hands?
Everybody's got a palm branch in their hand, right?
In Revelation chapter 7, it talks about the great multitude which no man can number that
appears in heaven and says they've got palms in their hands.
They've got palm branches in their hand and they're singing Hosanna to the Lord and everything
like that.
So that makes sense that that is pictured by the Feast of Booths.
And then, you know, going into the promised land, inheriting the land represents the millennial
reign of Jesus Christ.
And I don't have time to talk about it, but one other powerful picture of Jesus in the
Book of Leviticus is the poor man who is redeemed.
The poor man who is redeemed by his relative, redeemed by his kinsman.
The kinsman redeemer, right?
And that's what the whole Book of Ruth is about.
So that's more like a sermon on the Book of Ruth where you could tie that in.
But you can see just from tonight's brief study that Jesus is all over the Book of Leviticus.
He's in the burnt sacrifices.
He's the high priest.
He's the scapegoat.
And all of these feasts and holidays, they're all pointing to us, the first advent of Christ,
the first coming, and the second advent of Christ.
So the whole Book of Leviticus, when you get down to it, is about Jesus, right?
The dreaded book, Leviticus.
Ah, Leviticus, ah, you're preaching on Leviticus, right?
Hey, Leviticus is about Jesus.
You know, if you love Jesus, you ought to love Leviticus.
He wrote it.
It's all about him, right?
I mean, it points to him.
And by the way, one of Jesus' favorite Bible verses is in Leviticus.
Because remember when they said, master, what's the greatest commandment in the law?
He said, well, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all your heart,
mind, soul, strength.
That's a quote from Deuteronomy.
But he said, the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, Leviticus,
chapter 19, verse 18.
So you see that the second favorite Bible verse of Jesus is from Leviticus, right?
So Leviticus is a powerful book.
And all the books of the whole Bible point us to Jesus Christ.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank you so much for the book of Leviticus, Lord.
Thank you for the atonement that you've made for us, the blood that makes an atonement
for our soul.
Thank you that Christ is our scapegoat that has separated us from our sins as far as the
east is from the west.
Thank you that he's the high priest that ever liveth to make intercession for us.
Thank you that he is our kinsman redeemer that has redeemed us when we couldn't redeem
ourselves.
Thank you for the powerful imagery of Christ coming to this earth, dying, and his resurrection,
Lord.
And thank you for what's to come, Lord.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
And it's in his name we pray, amen.