Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church Podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Glad you guys are here on such a nice night. I even wanted to stay home. I'm just kidding.
Stay out. Yeah, it's so funny. So remember last week or no, a couple weeks ago when
I taught on the bread and when I came down there was van covered in flour, right? I don't know if
you guys heard that. So I just, you know, right before it's gonna be believing my youngest son,
Van, who's won this huge dough ball, I call him, and he comes down and he's got into the flour
in the pantry. He's covered in flour. And I was like, this is such funny timing of like
teaching on bread and flour. And then last week, as I was preparing I hear Maria go,
what is he getting into? And you know, it's a bad sign when your wife's saying that about
your son. I look over and there was, this week we're talking about the olive oil. There's literally
a thing of olive oil on the ground somehow in a gift that he's now covered in olive oil. So
I was like, what are the chances? I feel like he's like a prophet or something. I don't know.
But I swear he must have read the end of the chapter with the stoning because as I'm laying
there on the couch, he threw this big heavy mason jar on my face later. I'm like, I actually
kind of a black eye you can kind of see right there. So I mean, he just is tuned into what's
happening tonight. He's at home praying for me. But yeah, no, it's been a lot of fun. But who
had just a great time this past week with Holy Week? Did anybody else like, who here's at,
I guess the Friday night, good Friday or Friday afternoon, good Friday service? That was awesome,
so powerful. And like, honestly, the whole week, I don't know if it was the same for you. Sometimes,
you know, things could be chaotic, and you can't like take a step back. But this week, I just had
a lot more time during Holy Week from Palm Sunday to, you know, Easter, where I could just really
tune into God this whole week. And it was just so powerful. If you guys were at the Palm Sunday
service, I was actually watching it on the train on the way to go see Jake down in Nashville.
We're going turkey hunting. And for two whole days, we're in tick infested woods and didn't
even hear or see a single turkey. So what a trip, but it was good to see him. But anyway,
on the train, I'm like listening to the Palm Sunday service, and I'm like, you know, crying,
and I'm like, trying to like look out the window of the train and like then, you know,
I'm listening, I'm reading on the plane. And I just felt like God has really been showing up
this whole week. And then good Friday was like such a heavy, but powerful day. Did anyone
else feel that like, and I feel like, I'm saying I feel like a lot, but this is the only way
I could talk. I feel like this year for me coming into good Friday, I was more attentive to Jesus
and how he felt than I guess I have been in the past because, and I think Jesus, I think God in
general, since he is alive, he is active, he's real wants to be seen and understood at a deeper
level than just information of what happened on a day, but truly what he went through and how he
even feels about it to this day. Like on good Friday, there was such a sense of heaviness of like,
Jesus, I can picture what you're going through. I can almost feel in my spirit what you might
have been feeling in a 1% of what you're going through. And like, you can't help but cry,
right? And it's like so much gratitude I felt in that service. And then I love, I mean, my dad's
sermons were great the whole weekend. Like remember the finished and done? I love that.
Like it is finished. The old is gone. It's dead. The law has been fulfilled. Your old life is
totally done with finished. And then done is the new life has been prepared, right? We now
have the new banquet to walk into dinner is done, the table set, are you going to come
and dine, right? And I just thought that was so powerful. So anyway, a lot of what we're going
to be reading today, I mean, you can't get away from what Jesus has done. Everything points to him.
And, you know, I think that's good theology. If you read the word to see him,
that's good theology. And even Jesus says, all of the law and all the prophets speak of me.
So we're going to look for him in this passage tonight. So the title is oil, bread,
and blasphemy. There's a ton we're going to cover. So, and I think we're going to have some good
conversation afterwards. So let's just open up with prayer. Jesus, we thank you so much, Lord,
that you are here, God, that you are alive and active, Lord, and powerful in your word,
Lord, is directly from your mouth. That what you're saying here is a letter, Lord,
to us still to this day, God, and it still refines us, Lord, encourages, Lord,
makes us into your image, Lord. It's your Holy Spirit that does it and your word, Lord,
illuminates God, our minds and our hearts to be able to even see you and understand you.
And I pray that tonight, Lord, as we read and as we think about and ponder God, how great you
are and how significant your life is, God, that we would just fall in love with you more,
Lord, because there's no better practical application in our Christian life than to love
you more. That is the ultimate, Lord, application we can have is can I want to love you more, Jesus.
So I pray that you would speak, that you would move, and you would make this mess of notes,
make sense, and we just thank you that you're here in Jesus' name, amen. So
we're going to be reading Leviticus 24, but I want to start in John 1. John 1 is the ultimate,
ultimate opening to a book of the Bible or a book in general, in my opinion. It really
resembles a lot of Genesis 1, you'll see here in a minute, kind of similar feel,
similar vibe as the kids say. I am 33, I don't say that, don't worry, even though I just did.
But it's just powerful and you could almost feel like a movie announcer, like the trailers,
the voice in the trailers would be reading this, like, in the beginning was the Word,
you know what I mean, like it just feels like that. So it's an epic passage. I read it often
and it just sets the stage for the gospel in such a powerful way. So let's read it.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God and all things, all things were made through him and without him,
nothing was made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men
and the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness
of the light that all through him might believe. He was not the light, he was not that light,
but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to
every man coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him
and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him,
but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God
and to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of the man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Amen.
So we see he is the light. He's the light of the world. He's the light of God coming
into the darkness. And you see the first thing that Jesus does as it says he created the
world which is amazing. Obviously, God, the Trinity is one God so they all were part of that.
It wasn't Jesus off on his own doing it alone. They are fully together and fully one,
but he's the Word and when God spoke, his words created it, Jesus actually created it
because he's the Word. And so the first thing he creates is light. That's the first
clue to who God is. He's light. Before there was a star or a sun or anything, there was light
because he is the light. And in heaven, there is no sun. There's no need for it
because his glory shines so bright that he is the light that illuminates heaven. Isn't that
just crazy? And this light never goes out. We're going to see in Leviticus how this
lamp has to burn continually forever. This light never goes out because the light of Jesus never
dies. Nothing can put it out. Think about the 2000 so years now of Christians being martyred,
people covering up the Bible, trying to get rid of it, and all it does is it grows stronger.
Faith grows stronger. You cannot cover up the truth of Jesus. The truth of God manifests
through him. And he is the only way and he's going to continue to keep showing his light.
Think about the Middle East when these Muslims who have never heard the gospel,
right? And they believe in this false God, Allah, and all these false teachings,
but then people are having visions constantly, like all the time apparently it's happening,
of Jesus coming into their dreams and saying, I am the way. My name is Jesus of Nazareth.
Believe in me. Like, he is a light even to people who are in such darkness
that he shows up spiritually in their dreams. And he's always going to continue to keep shining,
right? He's going to cast the darkness out of the room, the darkness out of your life,
because he's destroyed the sin and the death that wants to keep us down, right? And for all
of eternity, that's going to continue to be true because he's the God of light that came
into a dark world to sinners trapped in sin and darkness. And through his life, death,
and resurrection, he frees us and then what? He fills us with his light.
So, John, you will see that he has set, Jesus has seven I am statements. He says, which it's
an awesome thing to study. I really recommend studying it. But the first two I am statements,
which in the Old Testament, God says his name is I am, which means essentially I am at all
times, no beginning, no end, and I'm all present, right? So there's power in his name and he says
seven times I am, I am. So immediately everyone knows he's claiming deity, right? He's claiming
to be God. And the first two things he said is I am the bread of life and I am the light of
the world. Side by side in this passage we're about to read is the light of the lamp and the
bread of the showbread, the bread of the presence are side by side in Leviticus 24 and even in the
holy place on the one side is the bread on the other side is the light, which is powerful.
So let's hop over to Leviticus 24. Cool. All right. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying,
command the children of Israel that they bring to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light
to make the lamps burn continually. Outside the veil of the testimony in the Tabernacle of
Meeting, Aaron shall be in charge of it from evening until morning before the Lord continually.
It shall be a statute forever in your generations. He shall be in charge of the lamps on the
priest that those lamps can never go out. I can't even put the trash out on Wednesday nights
every week, but obviously there's more significance to this. I know if I'm in a place of worship
for God I'm never going to let those candles go out, right? But at the same time that's a heavy,
heavy calling that these can never go out because this is saying something about God.
And if that goes out it's an actual contradiction to who God is because his light never stops
shining. So this lamp, which I don't have the passage in front of me, but it's a magnificent lamp,
like it has seven lamps on it. The menorah is also what it's called, but it's carved from
one solid piece of gold, a whole massive chunk of gold they carved with all these different,
flowers, and it's just amazing, right? And it was so beautiful that when in 70 AD,
when Rome took over, the Romans took over Jerusalem, they actually took all the articles,
and this menorah was like a cherished item that they were blown away to have. There was nothing
like it at all anywhere. This was an amazing article of the temple, and it was so amazing
that even to this day, if you go to Rome, there's a carving in this arch called the Arch of Titus of
like all the different emblems and articles they took from this temple, and the one right in the
middle, like the biggest one that these people are carrying is this lamp. Like even foreigners
recognize how significant and how beautiful this thing was. And you know, I just think about
Jesus, right? Like, he is the image of the invisible God. He is so beautiful, there's nothing,
there's no one like him, right? And he's solid and whole from one piece, right? There's no,
it says that God is the father of heavenly lights in whom there is no shadow or variation
or shadow of turning, right? There is just one aspect, one holiness of God. There is no
division or separation where things are joined together, right? Solid gold. And this beauty of
who he is still is speaking to this day, like even people who aren't Christians, like you feel
like his name comes up all the time, right? Even in blasphemous ways, like everyone's saying
JC, like all the time, but it's like you can't get, you can't get rid of him. Even the pagans
of Rome still thought this was an amazing lamp. And still even to this day, people who aren't
believers think Jesus is amazing from his teachings, like there were no teachings like his.
And there's seven lamps on it. Obviously, there's a lot of significance to seven,
which we'll talk about. But the thing that I thought was really interesting is,
it was the only light in the tabernacle. There weren't a bunch of other candles or
torches apparently, and especially from what I read, like this would illuminate the whole
inside of the tabernacle. And think about it, these people, these priests coming in here,
the only way they can even see what they're doing, the only way that they can even minister to God,
the only way they can know about the truths of God through this worship they were doing
was from the lamp, right? The only way is from the light from this lamp. And I think there's
something truly profound here where we can't even know a thing about God without seeing him,
without seeing Jesus, without his light shining into our lives. Like think about before you were saved,
like all the false things you believed about God, all the false things you believed about
Christianity, how you looked at your life, right? And then when the light of Jesus
shines in your heart, suddenly things make sense, suddenly everything changes, suddenly
you can actually understand God, you see that he's actually good, that he's actually loving,
and you can see like this tabernacle made a pure gold and how ornate everything was. This light
just illuminated and you can see the beauty that was actually all around you from the beginning.
And his light, you know, he could have chosen a massive bonfire. You know, if I was God,
I would want everyone to know like the magnificence of like how huge I was,
that I would want like a massive bonfire, a hole in the top of the tent for all the smoke to go out,
like, but he said he wanted seven lamps, like seven gentle flames just burning there, burning eternally.
Jesus is both glorious, like this golden lamp stand, but so approachable, right? Like just a
lamp. It wasn't a burning fire that you can't even get close to. It was this gentle light shining.
And you see how Jesus is in the Gospels, like the kids ran up to him, right? The sinners said,
hey, come to my house and he came and would eat with them. Like he was so close and so
approachable then, and he was showing that through Leviticus 24, you can come and you can see.
And he's still approachable to this day. Like we're going to see like, okay, when he comes back,
he's going to rip open the sky. He comes in a different way, but he's still approachable right
now. Even to sinners that don't believe in him yet, you can still come to him. There's a day
when you can't. But even today, you can still come to him. But when you have him,
when you are in relationship with him, even in the eternal kingdom, even when like he's in his pure
glory, we can still approach him because his presence is in us. But I just think about what
the priests probably saw, like as they come into this tabernacle, right? And they're in front of
this light. It would have been so just amazing to see these seven flames
and representing the coming Messiah, right? To think that this is somehow pointing to God,
that even like my breath, these things are moving. That's responding. It's alive. It's active, right?
And then as you look around, you would see the blood. Like everything in this tabernacle had
blood of the sacrifice dipped on it. Even the priests, I don't know how often I forget,
but like they would have to be atoned for too. And when they were consecrated,
they had blood on the ear, the thumb and the foot. So when they're in the light of this lamp,
they would see the blood. And when we are with Jesus, we see that he makes us holy by his blood.
That is the truth of our confession, right? Like we don't have to be afraid of what's
going to come. We don't have to be afraid of losing our salvation because when we're in
his light, he reminds us you're covered in the blood. Everything. You're covered in the blood,
you're made whole. So when they would look around, when they would be in there in the presence of
this light, they would see Jesus if their eyes were open to it. He's just all over this whole
entire passage. And I think about 2 Corinthians 4-6. It says, For it is God who commanded
light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. His light shines from who he is, his face. It's not
just his miracles. It's not just his teachings. It's obviously done through his death, burial
and resurrection. That's how we can even enter it. But it's all encompassing who he is,
this eternal Jesus Christ. We see his glory in his face of who he is. Of who he is,
he sacrificed himself for us. And we can see and understand him because he is the one who brings
the light to us. Now, I wondered, you know, we talked about seven. There's a lot of
importance to the number seven, right? It's God's number. It's perfection. It's wholeness.
But in light of the fact that oil represents the Holy Spirit throughout the Bible,
I thought about seven. And I thought of Isaiah 11. In Isaiah 11, it says it references the Holy
Spirit resting on the Messiah, coming and resting on him. And it's in a seven,
seven ways that the Spirit is described as a seven fold spirit. His Holy Spirit is one spirit.
But this is a describing, a description of him in seven ways. It says the spirit of the Lord
will rest on him on Jesus. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and
of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of power, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear
of the Lord. So here we see the Holy Spirit resting on Jesus, the seven fold aspects of the
Holy Spirit resting on him. And they have seven lamps coming off this menorah. Isn't that powerful?
All of this points to him. And that same Holy Spirit on Pentecost, how does he come?
He comes as tongues of fire, right? There's mighty rushing wind that comes through,
and then these flames just come and rest on each person's head, saying, Hey, Jesus said it himself
in the Gospels, you are the light of the world. He's the light of the world. How are we the
light of the world? We don't deserve that title in any way. But his spirit, because of his
death, he made us pure so we could even receive his spirit. And now we're also lamps like him.
Not to the same degree because he is the Messiah, but because of who he is and what he's done,
now his spirit can rest on us and fill us. And we can also be lights of the world too.
Now there's so much significance to oil. The priests were anointed with oil, the leper
after he's cleansed, which is a picture of us being cleansed of our sin. Man,
he's just dumped with oil. Like this is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And kings were anointed
with oil and everything in the tabernacle, oil, oil, everywhere. And throughout the Bible,
the oil points to the Holy Spirit. And I'm not going to spend a whole study on all that,
and I have a lot more to learn on it as well. But I think about
Jesus in this passage and the oil. And I think about the week we just had, right? Holy week.
There's so much significance to the oil in Holy Week that I want to touch on. And it says,
think about, so Jesus comes in on Palm Sunday, right? And everyone's just praising him.
And I think part of him might have felt like a little bit happy, but honestly he probably felt
serious weight knowing what he's going through. But also almost I would be offended knowing that,
hey, you're praising me right now, but you're the same people who are going to be saying,
give me the murderer, right? Give me the Barabbas instead and crucify him. So it's almost like,
could you imagine like, your spouse is going to severely hurt you in some way, like emotionally,
whatever, like, you know, the Bible uses marriage and adultery. So let's say your spouse is about
to commit adultery, but they throw you a surprise party like the day before. Be like, okay, I don't
want this party. This isn't like, this isn't really what I want because I know what you're
about to do. And now Jesus is coming to redeem all this. These people, a lot of these
people are going to trust in him. So he sees through that, but can't you see in his humanity
at the same time feeling like, ah, but I know what you're about to do. I know what you're about to do.
And so as he's coming in, he sees the Mount of Olives, which is where he's going to descend,
or ascend, sorry, where he's going to send back into heaven after his crucifixion.
And he's just thinking about what he's going to have to go through. And he's riding on a donkey.
Right? Well, the way oil is made back then is a millstone would crush the olives into pulp,
and it would be a big millstone in a circle with a big shaft that would go around.
And many times they would use donkeys to pull this, to then crush these olives.
And I just thought, man, the beginning of the crushing started right then, right?
For Jesus, the beginning started as he's riding in on the donkey,
the crushing started. He was already entering into this crucifixion a week out.
And oil, after it was crushed, then heavy slabs of stone were laid on top of the olive,
and then all the oil would come out. And Jesus, the night he's being betrayed,
is in the Garden of Gethsemane, which means olive press. It literally means olive press.
And while Jesus was feeling the weight of what he's about to go through,
the weight of the sin of the world being laid on him while he's perfect,
and the weight of the punishment that we deserved, as it says in the scriptures,
like the wrath of God, the separation of the Father, being buried, and then rising again,
which is the good part, but literally he's thinking about that, and he's in such
anguish that drops of blood just come out of him. And I think just like those slabs pushing the
oil out, so are Jesus is under the weight of all that and out comes the drops of blood,
the pure blood of Jesus. And in that moment, he says, not my will but yours be done,
not my will but yours be done. Isn't that the most amazing verse like I've ever read?
Like literally he's God, and he's identifying with his humanity of man, I just wish there was
another way, Lord. Like, if there's a way out, Lord, to still redeem the world and
not have to go through this, I want it, but I know there's not. Not what I want in this moment,
but what you want, not my will but yours be done. And then in Isaiah 53 it says,
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, and the punishment
that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. By his crushing,
we receive the Holy Spirit. By the crushing of these olives in the Old Testament for the lamps,
they got the oil to then light the light. And like we said in Pentecost, because of his crushing,
we can now receive the Holy Spirit which revealed itself through fire and lamps,
like essentially you became a human lamp and this fire is on your head.
Lord, we just thank you. Just thank you so much for what you went through. Lord,
we don't want to just brush past this, God, the beauty of your word that pointed to you
from the beginning of time, God. Lord, what you went through, how you were just
pressed and crushed down, God, to free us, Lord, and to fill us, Lord.
I mean, honestly, like I'm just amazed by you, Lord. We love you and we just can't
even comprehend how good you truly are, Lord. Amen.
So everyone has the ability to be saved, and this is kind of
pivoting into some interesting topics that I think we could talk about in
in the small groups and stuff, but everyone has the ability to be saved, right?
And then we also know, like there's, okay, like, you know, predestination, free will,
all this stuff, I think it'd be fun to talk about. But I think it's pretty clear that like
Jesus died for the world and it says he desires all men to be saved, but he foreknew
and he predestined. So he almost knows you're going to choose me
and I am setting up everything to make that happen that you will choose me stay till the end.
So there's predestination involved, but it starts with foreknowledge to know,
okay, this person's choosing me. But Matthew 25, and we could turn there.
We're going to talk a little bit about this topic, but it's not really the point of what
I'm trying to carry, but Matthew 25 is the parable of the wise and foolish virgins,
which they're virgins, but really it's like bridesmaids. So then the kingdom of heaven shall be
likened to 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now,
five of them were wise and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and
took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept all of them. And that midnight
a cry was heard, behold the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him. Then all those virgins
arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil,
for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered saying, no, lest there should not
be enough for us and you, but go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. And while they
went to buy the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding,
and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, assuredly I say to you, I don't know you.
Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
So there's a lot of scripture on both sides to say if you can or can't lose your salvation. Like we
know on the outside, like it says, nothing can separate us from his love. Like no external things
can get in and remove you from him. Not at all, you've been sealed with the Holy Spirit.
But there's plenty of verses that also say you need to hold fast to your confession,
right? You have to. It isn't saying you have to be perfect. It isn't saying never fall into sin.
It isn't saying like you can fall out of grace by sin. It's saying it's your confession,
like your actual belief. Jesus Christ is Lord and he's coming back for me, right?
Like that is the confession that we have. So Matthew in 24 it says,
but he who endures to the end shall be saved and the gospel of the kingdom will
be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come.
So there's the side that nothing could take us away, but there's also plenty of denominations
that believe, well you can walk away, right? And I think in the end, the end is still the same,
but like explanation of what happened is different, right? So we have the side that says
they were never truly saved if they don't hold faster confession to the end. Like if they
renounce their faith, they were never saved, which I can relate to because I'm like, I know
Jesus, I love him, I'm never going to renounce my faith ever. So I don't even understand how someone
who was saved could. So that side, I'm like 100%, like they were never saved. But then there's
the other side that says things like, you know, Paul's delivering people to Satan because
they blasphemed and they walked away from their faith, but it's all related to your faith and
not like sin, right? But I think the thing that makes things like the clearest, the verse
that I love, so it's, it's, they never were saved or they lost their salvation. We don't
have to totally understand every aspect of that, but Hebrews 10, 22 and 23, if you want to write
it down, it's a great one that I think simplifies things a bit. And it says, let us draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience
by the blood by Jesus, he's sprinkling our conscience and our heart says making us holy
and our bodies washed with pure water. That is Jesus doing that, right? Let it, let us be
cleansed. And then it says in verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope
without wavering for he who promises faithful. So he's cleansed us, he's faithful to continue
our faith to the end and we need to hold onto that assurance. That is kind of the end of the
matter for me, right? There's so much hope in that. But in Matthew 25, the thing that I just
take away from it is not, oh, the salvation lost or all that, I take away the oil matters. The oil
matters so much, right? These, these bridesmaids did have oil to start with and then they ran
out and they didn't bring any extra with them. And then their light went out, their light went
out. What I, what I read about, when I read that, I'm like, okay, that kind of tells me
either they weren't true believers or they, their faith, they literally rejected it,
they had no light left. And then afterwards they wished they didn't give up on it because they
saw the bridegroom come. But either way, the, the oil matters so much, right?
And when I think about that, I just think about how desperately I need the oil every day,
right? We don't know when he's coming and I want to be living the fullest possible life for him,
fully aware of him, fully filled with the Holy Spirit every day. We need it desperately,
the continued filling of his Holy Spirit. And I would say it wasn't like these bridesmaids or
virgins were just feeling kind of spiritually dry and then Jesus was like, get out of here,
I never knew you. Like I think if you and I tell, like I'm telling you, I've felt spiritually dry
plenty of times. That's a sign that you actually do belong to him. Your light didn't go out, you
just realized, man, I've been away for a bit and I need him. That is a sign. Like take heart if
you feel like, man, I need a fresh feeling. That is proof, proof that you belong to Jesus,
proof that you are his and proof that he's coming back for you, right? And all it means is, hey,
just come back, receive his spirit again, let him wash over you. And so Lord, we just, we thank you,
God, we thank you that your light never goes out, Lord. And even when we're dry, Jesus, you promise
to fill us with your Holy Spirit. We just need to be available to you, God. We need to be
available. So Lord, we make ourselves available tonight, Lord, and the rest of our lives in Jesus'
name. So let's read the next passage on the bread. And I, oh wow, okay, it's already 742.
I talked about the bread a couple weeks ago. Leviticus 24.
Okay. And you shall take fine flour and bake 12 cakes with it. Two tenths of an ephah shall be in each
cake. You shall make them in two rows, six in a row, one on the pure gold table before the Lord.
And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial
and offering made by fire to the Lord. Every Sabbath he shall set in an order before the
Lord continually being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be
for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place for it is most holy to him from the
offerings of the Lord made by fire by perpetual statute. So, you know, we talked about the
goal of the frankincense and the myrrh, pointing to Jesus so beautifully and stuff. And,
you know, the thing I take away from it this time is it's always there. It's forever.
Forever this bread is in the presence and every Sabbath they eat it. Every Sabbath,
the thing that was in the presence of God is now in them. And what does that say to me?
In a place of rest, you receive Jesus. You can't strive and earn anything from God.
Literally nothing. These people, the priests were holy because of him, and they received him
on the day of rest. No striving, no working, they just received him.
And that's what Jesus does for us. Like we have continued rest, eternal rest with him,
peace with him. And now we rest in God all the time. There's no striving. Now, grace
is anti-earning. It's not anti-effort. We still got to work out our salvation. We need to
progress in our faith. But there's no striving that we can possibly do to ever,
ever, ever earn what Jesus did for us.
Let's talk about blasphemy.
Okay, so verse 10. Now the son of an Israelite woman whose father was in Egyptian went out
among the children of Israel and the Israelite woman son, sorry, and the Israelite woman's son
and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. And the Israelite woman's son blasphemed
the name of the Lord and cursed. And so they brought him to Moses. His mother's name was
Shalameth, the daughter of debris of the tribe of Dan. I love how they provide the information.
You know this really happened. Then they put him in custody that the mind of the Lord might be shown
to them. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, take outside the camp him who has cursed,
then let all who hurt him lay their hands on his head and let all the congregations stone him.
Then you shall speak to the children of Israel saying whoever curses his God shall bear his
sin. And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death.
All the congregations shall certainly stone him. And the stranger as well as him who is born in
the land, when he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death. Whoever kills any man
shall surely be put to death. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, animal for animal.
If a man causes disfigurement, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. We're trying to stay on time here.
So then it says, then Moses spoke to the children of Israel and they took outside the camp him who
had cursed and stoned him with stones. So the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.
So blasphemy, the definition is to speak with contempt about God to be defiantly irreverent.
Blasphemy is a verbal or written reproach of God's name, character, work, or attributes.
This guy saw what God did. This guy sees the fire over the tabernacle, the thing, the pillar of fire
by night, the pillar of cloud by day. Literally, he sees the power of God. He saw,
he had to have seen the plagues, he came out of Egypt. So he saw all the plagues and he knows
that God is holy. God is all powerful and yet he curses them. Blasphemy isn't just something
you can just kind of like say by accident. Like maybe some people will like not agree with me,
but what we see in the scripture is like it's born out of, like out of your heart,
your mouth speaks. Yeah, out of your mouth, your heart speaks. One of those two you know
I'm trying to say. So this came from his heart and it's a stubborn evil blind heart. He saw God
didn't care. He was evil enough to curse him and he is so stubborn that we don't even read
about repentance. Like literally they take him into custody and we don't read a thing about
repentance. And I think God would have forgiven him if he repented because
I see Jesus on the cross, right? On either side of him, on either side of two criminals
and it says in two of the gospels that both blasphemed and cursed him. And then it says
in another gospel that then one blasphemed and then the other said like what are you doing? Like
this is the Son of God essentially. And what happens? I'm going to pull up the actual passage.
Did I not say that? But anyway, so he blasphemes then he says to Jesus. He sees Jesus, the light
of the world, the bread of life crucified and he hears Jesus say forgive them, the people who are
crucified for they know not what they do. And in that moment he realized this guy is not from
here. This guy isn't from here at all. He's forgiving the people who are wrongfully crucifying
him and the light goes off and he says this is the Messiah I've been waiting for. Like this guy who's
evil who is just blaspheming suddenly realizes and he doesn't even think he deserves it. But
in repentance he says hey remember me when you go to your kingdom. Just remember me. And Jesus says
surely I tell you today you'll be with me in paradise. There's repentance. There's forgiveness.
We don't even read here that this guy repented in any way. But Paul he blasphemed. He forced
people to Christians to blaspheme and then he becomes one of the biggest spreaders of the
gospel. And even Jesus's brothers right they thought he was out of his mind and crazy. The king
tried to pull him out like it's blasphemy like you're crazy Jesus. Like no he's the Son of
God. And then later they're forgiven and they walk with him. And they're also part of the early church.
So there is always forgiveness in Jesus. Amen. My voice cracking. I'm like 13 years old.
So I don't even know if we have time for this. I'm not going to do it justice.
Well we could talk about another time. It was the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit which is a whole
thing in itself. But one thing I do want to say is that this blasphemy right
is a sign of a hardened heart. And the Pharisees when they did blaspheme the Holy Spirit
they I believe realized Jesus is from God. And they saw the power and the Holy Spirit of God
healing people doing miracle after miracle after miracle right. And then they were just so
angry with him and had so much unbelief that they said hey this spirit is actually Satan.
And I think
we see in the Old Testament that that Pharaoh hardened his heart a bunch of times and then it
starts to say God hardened his heart. And there was no place for repentance anymore.
Like he did all the work and then God finally said here you go you can have what you want.
And he dies in the sea when he's chasing the Israelites again after just letting them go.
And you know sorry but yeah so we see that. And these these people if I love how
no one ever asks did you commit the unforgivable sin while you're getting saved right. That would
be the weirdest thing. Like even in the early church after Jesus said this it's not like hey
did you commit the unforgivable sin okay then you're allowed in. The fact that you're
coming to Jesus is proof you haven't. Because someone who commits the unforgivable sin
of blaspheming the Holy Spirit is so hardened that they would never even come to a place of
repentance ever. So that's kind of where I want to end that I guess. But
I'm just so thankful Lord just for you. Let's just come around a prayer Lord we just thank you
that while we were still sinners God and we blasphemed you Lord like the criminal and the cross
Lord in a moment Lord all we had to do was turn to you and you forgave and you say I'll see you in
paradise. And Lord we thank you that you are the light of the world you are the bread of life
God we thank you Lord that we can have our souls fed and satisfied by you Lord every single day
in a place of rest not striving to be accepted by you Lord because you you did the work of
accepting us into you. Lord now we can rest in you God it is finished and it is done.
And Lord we thank you for your Holy Spirit Lord that you were crushed to give us the oil of the
Holy Spirit Lord like in the Garden of Gethsemane. And we thank you God that you are the
light Lord that shines in us when we don't know what's going on Lord when we feel
confused and we feel just lost Lord when we feel dry God your light shines in and highlights
things that are off highlights truths that we need to remember again God and you cast out
the darkness everywhere you go. And we thank you for your power Lord we thank you for your love
we thank you that you're here tonight and you're going to bless these conversations as we
think about you Lord. I pray that Lord that your Holy Spirit would just be all over us and filling us
this week God. In Jesus' name Amen. Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God
and discuss his word. Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m eastern
on YouTube. Be blessed and have a great day.