Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20000830.htm

LEVITICUS: GOD'S CALL FOR A SEPARATED WITNESS
Part I: The Path To Gaining Fellowship With God (Leviticus 1-10)
K. God's Revelation Of Sustaining The Believer's Spiritual Life By Grace
(Leviticus 7:22-38)
  1. Introduction
    1. When one believes in Christ for salvation from sin, though his soul is eternally saved and sealed in the justified state, his day-by-day experience can be an up-and-down, rather fickle one due to the presence of the sin nature that remains within and that can still sabotage his Christian walk, 1 John 1:8-10.
    2. Accordingly, Leviticus 7:22-38 reveals typologically in the Old Testament tabernacle rituals what it takes for the believer's experience to be sustained for consistent spiritual victory as follows:
  2. God's Revelation Of Sustaining The Believer's Spiritual Life By Grace, Leviticus 7:22-38.
    1. God prohibited the people of Israel from eating any fat of any animal that would have been used in the tabernacle sacrifices, Lev. 7:22-23. Though the fat of an animal that had died on its own could be used for all sorts of other domestic uses, it could not be eaten under pain of excommunication, Lev. 7:24-25. The fat belonged to the Lord, and so it was off-limits for human consumption: this reveals the necessity of the believer's recognition of GOD'S wrath appeasement in Christ's atonement as the BASIS of his DAILY, PRACTICAL peace with God status!
    2. God also prohibited the people of God from partaking of blood, whether it be from an animal or bird under pain of excommunication, Lev. 7:26-27. As the pagan peoples around Israel believed in prolonging their earthly lives by partaking of the blood of bleeding, dying animals, this prohibition countered the errant theology of a self-help, works-oriented spiritual vitality for the believer, Eph. 2:8-9, 10 with Galatians 2:20! Rather, the believer is to live by the power of God's Holy Spirit, Galatians 5:16.
    3. The way the offerings were distributed to the priests speak of the believer's perpetual sustenance by the power and provision of the cross of Christ, Leviticus 7:28-38:
      1. When an offerer brought an animal sacrifice to be given to the Lord, and a portion was to be "waved" at the altar, the priest would move the edible portion "toward and away from the altar, as a symbol of presenting the offering to God and of His returning it to the priest," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to Lev. 7:30-31. Thus, the believer's source of SUSTAINMENT is based on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross as was the priest's reception from God of sacrifice food! (Hebrews 13:5-6)
      2. When the offering was to be "heaved," it meant the priest heaved the edible portion "up and down, symbolically setting it aside as a contribution to God for the use of the priests." (Ibid., ftn. to Lev. 7:32) Hence, since even the "heave" portion was eaten by the priests (Leviticus 7:34), God GRACIOUSLY provides for the sustenance of the believer who oversees fellow believers by God's appointment by way of the offerings of others unto the Lord, cf. 1 Corinthians 9:9-14.
Lesson: SUSTAINING the believer's EXPERIENTIAL WALK before God involves the following: (a) He must utilize the ATONEMENT of Christ and confess his sins for CLEANSING, 1 John 1:8-10. (b) He must avoid seeking to live and serve the Lord in his own power (Romans 7:15-8:5), going his own way, etc. (1 Sam. 15:18-23), and opt for a life of obedience to the Word, faith in God and reliance upon the gifting and assignments given to him in the chain-of-command of God's Church leaders (2 Tim. 1:6-7; Heb. 13:7, 17; Acts 13:1-3). (c) He must look to the Lord for his spiritual and physical sustenance at all times, not to his own means and methods for this, Hebrews 13:5-6.

Application: To remain spiritually vibrant in our WALK as believers, we must (a) regularly examine ourselves and confess sins that block our fellowship with God and other godly people, 1 Jn. 1:7, 8-10. (b) Then, we should avoid living and serving God in our own ways and under our own power, opting to stay dependent on His leading, empowering and directing at every step of life's way for victory. (c) In so doing, we must look to God to supply the sustenance that we need both in terms of physical and spiritual provisions so that we can contintue to serve Him and live for His glory in place of seeking to manipulate matters ourselves out of faithlessness for this sustenance!