Leviticus 20-22 // Government 101

we're in Leviticus chapter 20 well that it gets chapter 20 this is another one of those chapters you know when I when I go through and do a Bible study I usually title the chapters and I'm titling this one government 101 because of the stuff that's in here and it specifically has to do with punishments for certain specific sins and we talked about some of that in chapter 18 but we have it happening again in chapter 20 and it's because God wants to make sure that people know where his standards are what's pray before we get into it then we'll get into a father thanks again for your word thank you again Lord for the fact that you are not silent you're you're clear on where the lines are drawn on what you expect from your people and Lord as we go through and look at some of these things that we see here in the Old Testament again Lord we thank you so much that you delivered us out of the world some of the things that we're going to be talking about or are things that we may have been involved in at one point or another and god you're good you take us out of bondage you bring us out of slavery you bring us into the kingdom of light and life and you make us new and Lord as we're going through and looking at these things again we just pray that you'd be speaking to our hearts showing us what's up as far as your concern and Lord that you would mold us into your image we'd have your same mind set on these things and we just ask that you do this all in Jesus name Amen okay let's go through and read a little bit says verse 1 then the Lord spoke to Moses saying again you shall say to the children of Israel whoever of the children of Israel or of the strangers who dwell in Israel who gives any of his descendants to Moloch he shall surely be put to death the people of the land shall stone him with stones I will set my face against that man and will cut him off from his people because he has given some of his descendants to Molech to defile my sanctuary and profane my home and if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man when he gives some of his descendants to Molech and they do not kill him then I will set my face against that man and against his family and I will cut him off from his people and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech verse 6 it says the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits to prostitute himself with them I will set my face against that person and cut him off from his people consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy for I am the Lord your God and you shall keep my statutes and perform them I am the lord who sanctifies you verse 9 for everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death his cursed his father or his mother his blood shall be upon him and let's stop right there the reason I went through and read some of that I'm gonna come back and talk about each one of those issues but basically chapter 20 is all about the death penalty so for every one of the the the sins that are committed in in this passage these are sins that according to the Old Testament law were punishable by death and the punishment of death was not something that was just handed out if you saw somebody on the street they would have a trial and so you would take them to trial see if the things were actually done the judges would again judge in the situation and when it was found you know at the you know in the mouth of two or three witnesses when it was found that these things had been done the punishment here was death and the reason I called a government 101 is because that's how God started government he actually started it with the death penalty and a lot of times again and I you know when we when we look at our culture we're so far from what biblical standards are we're so far from many times the the mind of God on some of these issues because of abandonment of God because of abandonment of the Bible that we look at this and we go oh that's oh that's so intense that's a harsh that's so radical and and that kind of thing in the idea behind this was to stop sin it was to keep people from the people who around them turn back with me over to Genesis chapter 9 if you would Genesis chapter 9 and in verses 1 through 7 this is after Noah gets off the ark and it says verse 1 so God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth in the fear of you in the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth on every bird of the air on all that move on the earth and all the fish of the sea they're given into your hand every moving thing that lives she'll be food for you I've given you all things even as the green herbs but you shall not eat flesh with it's life that is its blood surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning from the hand of every beast I will require it from the hand of man from the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed for in the image of God he made man and as for you be fruitful and multiply bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it and so in the passage he does a couple of things number one in two different times he talks about the fact that these guys need to spread out they need to start repopulating the earth and obviously that's that's what needs to happen after the the flood takes place another thing that he talks about is the fact that there's going to be fear of mankind in every beast of the earth and the reason that God does that is because he's just opened up the prospect of men eating meat and so apparently before the flood you could walk up to animals and they didn't have the fear of mankind that animals have nowadays and so have you ever wanted to hug a lion you know I got a big ol huge mane and stuff you walk over to me just grab him and hug him and if he did that nowadays the lines afraid of you and what the lion would do is bite your head off you know something like that bad things would happen if you tried to do that but apparently before the flood there wasn't that kind of fear that was taken place and so after the flood and lions are afraid of you so when lions are afraid of you they they wipe you out Bears are afraid of you they go after you when rabbits are afraid of you they run away and most people aren't eating lions most people are deeming bears or you're eating bunny rabbits and so to protect the rabbits actually that's unclean right but it but to protect the rabbits and the animals that you would hunt the deer and and those kinds of things God put a fear of man in them but it looks like again that the that the world before the flood was radically different then he goes on and he talks about the the fact that when you're eating these animals don't drink their blood don't eat that don't eat the flesh with the blood and from there he goes right into the lifeblood of man and so one of the first this is the first setting up of government that you have in the Bible and it was set up by God and it was all around the death penalty it was all around the death penalty there are things that people are not to do and specifically murdering somebody is something that was not to be done because not because it wrecks the social order or not because it's not very nice it's because man has made in the image of God and no man that's made in the image of God is to be murdered there's a there's a reason for the commandment and it's back a couple of chapters back in Chapter six turn back there real quick chapter six of Genesis before the flood this is one of the reasons that the flood came on the world it says then the Lord saw it then the Lord saw verse did I say verse five yes starting in verse five then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart so the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast creeping thing and birds of the air for I am sorry that I have made them so that's the that's the reason for the judgment of the flood it's because every man's heart was only wicked continually and it's not just talking about you know having lustful hearts and that kind of thing we're living in a culture that's becoming more and more wicked as time goes on and you know some of the things that I've been pointing out actually in the last couple of studies that we've done it's on Sunday night or Wednesday night or Sunday morning is the fact that we are getting more and more brutal as a culture people just you know you've got freaks who walk into places like this where you know people are congregating peacefully and come in with guns and try to shoot them up to make them feel manly or something or to get back at people kids who kids who got picked on in high school or something decide to go out and butcher a bunch of people and it's just ridiculous and part of the reason for that is because we have turned away from what the Word of God has to say and the whole idea that man is made in the image of God is something that's foreign to our culture in fact with most people if you talk to them about that most people who are not people who grew up in church or grew up around the Bible we got a post-christian culture now and we had a lot of people who have no idea that the Bible actually says that and this is something that was drummed into the people of Israel all down through the ages and it was drummed into the people in the church all down through the ages - and specifically because of the commandments the 10 commandments it's a good thing to keep in mind that their Ten Commandments are still things that God hasn't changed his mind on those are those are still things that need to be happening and you know we've talked about that before God doesn't want any other gods before him you're not to take his name in vain you're not to have idols you need to have rest the rest isn't G we're gonna talk about that in a little bit but there needs to be a rest and then there's no dishonouring your father and mother you're to honor them you're not to murder you're not to commit adultery you're not to covet you're not to steal you're not to lie those are the commandments and lots of people don't know that one of the things that we did last year was put the Ten Commandments up in the in the school and it was specifically because of what's happening in the public schools got all these kids who have no clue about the morality the morality that's found in the Bible and I like the idea of walking into a classroom every single day of my life as a little kid get into the into a crowd classroom looking up and seeing a list of things that are important to God as far as morality goes it's a it's a good thing and you know again when you're looking at the Commandments in the Old Testament those are standards of righteousness they tell you where you're at and they tell you where you're not at it's not a way that you can get righteous and so I can look at the commandments all day and say I will not lie I will not lie I will not lie and there's a good chance that I'm gonna still be a liar or I will not steal or I will not you know whatever what needs to happen to get the change is a relationship with Jesus it's the Holy Spirit that changes my heart and makes me a man that looks like what's on that list the list itself can't change a heart but again when you're when you're looking at the reason for the punishment in this chapter it's to keep people from going in a certain direction you know as we look at chapter 20 and actually as you go through through whether you're in the Old Testament or in the New Testament do you realize and when God was dealing with wickedness it was when God was let me put it this way when God was dealing with wickedness in a legal sense were the people of Israel it was about punishment it was never about rehabilitation it was always about punishment and that's one of the the really clear statements that's made from Leviticus chapter 20 you know government cannot change a heart and the whole idea that we can put people in prisons and that the United States government or the prison system is going to be able to turn people around and change their hearts as ludicrous because a lot of the people that are involved in that in that whole situation have exactly the same problems that the that the criminals have they have they have broken lives they have messed up families and they're in a situation where they're fallen in the tweak'd and so how is a fallen tweaked messed-up guy who doesn't know Jesus ever going to rehabilitate some guy who's a gangbanger or you know some some guy who's who's a crook some guys who you know some guy who's a bank robber or some guy who's who's a pedophile how is that going to happen the only thing that really changes a heart is a real relationship with Jesus Christ and these guys don't want to have anything to do with that actually one of the things that's cool about prison ministry a lot of times is the is the fact that many times because the cops and the in the guards and the wardens and all the guys who are involved in that whole thing depending on whether you're in a prison or whether you're talking about the county jail know that for the most part these guys are hopeless cases and things are not going to turn around for them in fact they're going to get into prison and things are going to get worse for them and so a minute many times they allow guys to come in and teach the Bible and that kind of stuff and I am totally aware of prison conversions you know it's like a lot of times you know you got nothing else to do and so you read a Bible right and they'll let you read a Bible and so you read a Bible or you know you know it's like you got nothing else to do and so one of the crazy Christians is gonna come in and do a Bible study so might as well go and listen to what the guy has to say and so there are times when guys make commitments to follow the Lord in prison and as soon as they get out they just fall right back in into the lifestyle that they had before one of the one of the problems with people just in general is that they do what they've always done as far as defending themselves as far as responses to the things that are around them and they tend to default to what they've always done and that's no different for guys who are in prison but the the fact that many times guys get out of prison and they mess up after they've supposedly committed their life to Jesus doesn't mean that there's not some who actually commit their lives to Jesus and turn their lives around one of the things that our church has been famous for over the years is that we've got prison guards in our fellow you know deputy deputy sheriff's and and that kind of thing in our fellowship and we have the prisoners - a lot of these guys will invite all the guys that they're watching to come to church or many times sometimes they'll even lead them to the Lord in there so in the Bible when you're talking about what was happening with the legal system it was always about punishment it was always about punishment and so whether whether you're talking about some of the things that we're gonna be talking about tonight this is all death penalty stuff or whether you're talking about things like stealing you stole something you had to pay back double if you if you broke into somebody's house and you stole something there were specific laws for that if you broke into somebody's house in the middle of the night they'd put you to death for that so on the one hand it could be a feeding thing and you might have to pay back double or you may have to pay back up to four times depending on the situation on the other hand if you're doing it at night they're assuming that you're gonna go in there and you're gonna hurt somebody and so it was a death penalty to break into somebody's home at night in the Bible they didn't have jails that in Habra they didn't have a prison system and so what you did was you you were involved in restitution or you were involved in others or other kinds of punishments but there was no prison system so government can't change a heart but government can restrict behavior and we know that and the reason that we know that is because most of us are law-abiding right and so remember when 55 stay alive drive 55 you guys remember that back in the old dinosaur days yeah when I was a kid you could go 70 miles an hour on a freeway in Southern California when I was a kid and then Jimmy Carter came along and 55 it's one of the reasons I hated Jimmy Carter I didn't hate him I'm just joking but everybody was commanded to go 55 and obviously not everybody did that you have cops who would pull them over and stuff but for the most part everybody in America down didn't they and the reason is because the government can restrict behavior and and we can do that you know we could talk about that in simple issues but it's true in these kinds of issues too you know one of the one of the things that you have with for example we read everyone who curses his father his mother shall surely be put to death he's cursed his father or his mother his blood shall be upon him you know there's only one case that I can think of where that was actually enacted and it was a it was with Absalom and it was in a situation with warfare Absalom had cursed his father David he'd done some things that were over the top of of rebellion against Dave and against his kingdom and Absalom in a battle ended up getting caught by his hair in a tree one of the things that the Bible said that was that once a year he would get a haircut and and it tells you in the Bible how much his hair weighed it was five pounds five pounds of hair every year this dude grew and so he was one of those guys who it was like favio or something you know it's like it's you know long flowing locks and stuff and he was proud of that and so what God did was he caught him by his long flowing locks and a tree and there was a there was a general of David's named Joe app and Joe had sing the whole thing between Absalom and David he'd even interceded for Absalom to David and he'd seen the whole thing you've seen what Absalom did and David when he was going out with his armies to go up against Absalom he specifically said I want you to save my son Absalom Absalom alive and when Joab saw him in the tree actually Joe I've got a report there were a couple guys that saw this guy get caught in the tree was right belong on his donkey and got his hair caught in the branches and they came back and reported to Joab that Absalom is hanging in a tree over there and he said did you kill him and they said no I'm lay hands on the king's son and Joab went over there and he ran him through at that point and again that's the that's the only place I know of in Scripture where you see a situation where this dishonouring of your father and mother was actually given the death penalty David wasn't pleased with Joab at the at the point when he did this whole thing but Joab knew you know there's times when Joab is really weird sometimes he's just off the wall and sometimes you're like yeah probably needed to be done and that's probably one of the situations the point that I'm making to you is that when you go through the Old Testament and you look at some of these commands and the the judgments that were supposed to come from them you don't really see those things enacted so for example there's another place that we read earlier in the Book of Leviticus where it talks about if you have a son actually I'm thinking of the passage in Deuteronomy where you have a son who refuses to listen to his father and mother' drinks constantly a drunk and he's belligerent and that kind of thing that are the taken to the elders of the city there to find out if those things are true and if those things are true you to take him out and stone them and they're to be put to death and there's not one instance of that in the Bible and you know why because most likely they would have done exactly that and so the kids are being raised going hey you know what you better watch it you know you're getting a little mouthy here you just turned 13 all of a sudden your brain cells left you're getting a little mouthy here and you know what the Bible says about these things and there would be enough of a situation where these things would be enacted that there was a deterrent there is a deterrent to these things you can see this in history if somebody knows that what's going to happen to them is if they go out and murder somebody that they're they're going to be caught and when they get caught that there's going to be a trial it's going to be a quick trial and then immediately after the trial there's going to be the sentencing and the execution of the sentence you know that that makes you not want to do certain things I knew guys down in Southern California and these kind of these guys you know they're not guys that I hung out with all the time their work I on the periphery of my group but I knew guys that knew if they took a guy out if they killed a guy they would probably get seven years in a California prison and then they'd be out and so they would just calculate and go is this is this worth seven years of my life and some of these guys would say yeah and then and they would go after it those are guys who know that number one there's no death penalty in that situation here's another thing with the death penalty you know I was just listening on the radio the other day and there's a guy down in Texas who just got the death penalty they just did a lethal injection on him you know how long it's been since he committed his crime 20 years 20 years two decades that that is no deterrent and so when people say that death the death penalty in America is not really a deterrent it's absolutely true because we don't have a biblical death penalty in America you can sit there for 20 years and put things off and put things off and do one lawyer after another lawyer after another lawyer you're gonna have a situation where a guy has no fear of those things you know I'm 60 years old and so if I know that if I want to if I want to kill somebody off and I hate them enough and I know that I'm not gonna get the death penalty for 20 years well it might be worth it you know I'm getting towards the retirement age and so maybe I'll make the government pay for my retirement I'll have a you know all I have a jail cell and you know there there are guys who do those kind of calculations and you know 20 years it's like okay well I'll just die in jail I'll probably die before they can give me a lethal injection that's ridiculous it's ridiculous it's why it's no it's no deterrent have you ever watched old black-and-white movies old black-and-white uh murder mysteries specifically you watch these things and people are always talking about if you got a guy who's gonna murder somebody he's always trying to scam he's always trying to figure it out he's always trying to plan really really well because he knows that if he's caught he's going to be killed and it's it's one of the major themes in all the movies during those during those times and it's because that was the case at those times and so again the whole idea that the death penalty is not a deterrent if the death penalty is executed in a manner that resembles what the Bible has to say on any kind of level obviously it's a deterrent if I know that I kill you that that what's going to happen is they're gonna put me in prison I've got maybe a year and then they take me out and hang me or they take me out and inject me or they they give me the gas chamber or something like that it's going to make me think about those things and so again that's what we have in this situation so in the in the passage here we have number one we have a punishment for spiritual sin and again the first section here is talking about you shall talking about the people who give their children over to Molech and we've talked about Mullah again in verse two whoever of the children of israel or of the strangers who dwell in israel these are people who may not be Jewish who gives any of his descendants to Molech he shall surely be put to death the people of the land shall stone him with stones he says I'll set my face against that man I'll cut him off from his people because he's given some of his descendants to Molech to defile my sanctuary and profane my holy name and if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man it's the idea of you don't pay any attention to it you dis roar disregard this situation if anybody hides their eyes from that man when he gives some of his descendants to Molech and they do not kill him then I will set my face against that man and against his family that's who he's assuming is hiding his eyes hiding their eyes and I will cut him off from his people and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Moloch Moloch was a God that was usually made out of bronze and had a basically a fire pit sitting in front of him and there would be a ramp that would come up and Moloch had they they would shape this Idol with hands that came out like this and the arms were over the fire pit so they'd get this fire going really hot and when they were going to give somebody to Molech they'd bring a child and a lot of times it was a baby or it was a young child they'd bring the child up and they'd lay him in the arms of Molech and all the all the histories tell us that when they were doing that they were shouting they were playing loud music and beating on drums and the reason that they're doing that is to drown out the voice of the victim to drown out the voice of the crying child as they were burning to death and so God sitting up in heaven looking down at this stuff and seeing these people do these things and you know obviously God is not pleased with that you take the weakest in your society and you offer them up as a sacrifice by burning them to death the priests on top of it would come and this is according to to the histories they would they would come to the family members and say you don't have to worry about any pain with the child there's really no pain there and you can tell because look they're smiling well the reason that they would smile is because as the skin was burning it would stretch and there would be a rictus on the face and it would make what looked like a smile as the child was dying and so it was just an awful situation this is one of the sins that the people of Israel got into later on in fact Solomon built built an altar to Molech because of some of his wives I don't know if they started off with child sacrifice immediately but he built an altar to Molech and it was one of the things that got the turret got the the Kingdom of Judah cast into captivity when you go through the Book of Jeremiah Oh and over God says I have never commanded you ever to give your children up to burn them alive to have them pass through the fire you'll see that idiom in the Bible have your children pass through the fire and it's talking about worship of Molech and some of the other guts of that place he says the same thing for he talks about in a in verse 5 he says I'll set my face against that man and against his family will cut him off from his people and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech the whole idea of prostitution behind that passage is the idea that you've turned away from the God of the Bible who you're married to so God in the Old Testament Jehovah in the Old Testament was married to Israel Israel was called the wife of Jehovah and so there's a couple of places in the in the mountain major prophets Jeremiah specifically in Jeremiah chapter 3 where when God is done with these sins and it's all the sins that are listed in this chapter when God has done with these sins were the people of Israel he gives them what he calls a certificate of divorce and he divorces the nation of Israel and our excuse me I'm saying Israel the nation of Judah and he sends them into captivity but for specifically doing these kinds of things verse 6 he talks about mediums in the passage and so the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits to prostitute himself with them and so again this is this is turning away from the Lord and setting your heart on something else it's the idea of spiritual adultery I will set my face against that person and cut him off from his people consecrate yourselves therefore and be be holy for I am the Lord your God and you shall keep my statutes and perform them I am the lord who sanctifies you and so going to mediums going to those who had a familiar spirit that's the idea of having a spirit guide and so you'll run into this in in occult situations and in new-age books people having spirit guides that's exactly what a medium was in the old estimates exactly some what somebody was doing when they had a familiar spirit you hear about these guys who are channelers that's what they call them nowadays who are Chandler's and they have familiar that you know when one guy has a familiar that's a warrior from 40,000 years ago that kind of thing and he's supposedly telling him all this great wisdom that kind of stuff and what the Bible teaches is that that's a spirit and it's literally the spirit of a demon that is deceiving the guy and so again that was something that got to put in into a situation where you got the death penalty we already talked about the penalty for cursing parents everyone verses 9 through 21 is all about social sins and the first one again is against parents and cursing them everyone who curses his father or mother or his mother shall surely be put to death he's cursed his father or his mother his blood shall be upon him one of the one of the things that I did when I first became a Christian was I was having a problem with sin in my life and I was looking at myself and I was excusing my sin and I knew that I was excusing my sin I I was looking at some of the things that I had done and went and and going you know it's not so bad you know I know all kinds of guys who have done worse things than I've done and so I decided to just go on a little spiritual journey through the Bible to find out what God had to say about my sins this is one of them cursing your father and mother there were time and I didn't do that a lot it wasn't like that was a common situation in my household but there were times when things got bad and me and my mom got into arguments about things and a lot of you know I don't even want to get into it but we got into arguments about things and things would be said and they would be said by me to my mom and I always you know even before I was a Christian I always felt bad about but it was it was stuff like that and I never cussed her out or anything like that even when I was a non-christian I didn't do that to my mom but I said things to my mom that were awful I said things to her that were awful and that's what cursing is all about and so I should get the death penalty for that is what the Bible says right and you go through and you look at some of the other things that that the Bible teaches you get the death penalty for I was talking about you know partying and being rowdy and that kind of stuff well that was me and so they could have taken me to the gates of the city and they could have had the judges judge as to whether or not I'd done these things and then they would have taken me out and stoned me you know they didn't have a whole lot of problems with gang you know gang issues back in Old Testament times because they just got rid of the guys and so again it's pretty it's pretty intense stuff he gets into sexual sins in verses 10 through 21 and he says the man who commits adultery with another man's wife he who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death and so there was the death penalty for adultery and again it's it's one of those things that is different than what we have in our culture you know in our culture where God pronounced the penalty of death man first apologizes for the crime then lightens the penalty then removes it and then legalizes the behavior and that's what we've got going on in our culture it's why it's one of the reasons that things are going so far south and so imagine if you got the death penalty for committing adultery how many adulterers do you think that there'd be around how many how many of them would be on TV in a reality show you know it wouldn't be happening again if I if I knew that if I slept with another man's wife they were gonna take me out and hang me I would be thinking a whole lot before any of those behaviors would be taking place in my life and again not in 20 years but maybe next year it says verse 11 the man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness both of them shall surely be put to death their blood shall be upon them and so sleeping with your stepmom or sleeping with your mother it's probably stepmom but it may it might be the mother if a man lies with his daughter-in-law both of them shall surely be put to death they've committed perversion and God is not a God is not worried about what we think about certain terms so he calls it perversion he calls it abomination and they've committed perversion their blood shall be upon them if a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman both of them have committed an abomination they shall surely be put to death their blood shall be upon them if a man marries a woman and her mother it is wickedness they shall be burned with fire so God really doesn't like that both he and they that they may be that there may be no wickedness among you if a man mates with an animal he shall surely be put to death and you shall kill the animal if a woman approaches any animal and mates with it you shall kill the woman in the animal they shall surely be put to death their blood is upon them and you know when when you look at that situation it's like well you know the poor animal and and that kind of thing and again it's it's a it's a situation where what God do God is doing is he's trying to keep the human race from falling into a situation that would destroy it and obviously there there are behaviors that we can be involved in that will it just literally destroy our lives I've seen so many lives that have just been wrecked from some of the things that we've all read already read where families have been torn apart and where people have been diseased you know we talked about this earlier on when we were in chapter 18 a lot of the STDs that we have came most likely from animals and so people having sex with animals the viruses and the bacteria got transmitted into the human body and then it got transmitted from that point on if there had been nobody mating you know if if anybody had been mating with animals or if there had been nobody mating with animals a lot of the diseases that we have but I'm talking about gonorrhea and I'm talking about syphilis some of the most common ones HIV those diseases would not be ravaging the people of the United States and specifically the people the world do you realize that a third of the people in Africa have died of HIV a third of the population you realize that when when I go over to over to Uganda gosh them the mean age in Uganda is about 28 25 to 28 years old you know why all their parents have died of HIV and and again that probably has come from either the green monkey or it's come from gorillas and so something's happening there if somebody commits that kind of sin and mates with an animal if you immediately put them to death what you're doing is you're stopping the disease from spreading the animal becomes somebody you know something that's used to the behavior and you know may be used for that again in in a situation what you do is you stop the the infection immediately I really think that a couple of times you have in the Bible where whole cities were destroyed by God specifically Sodom and Gomorrah I really think that what God was doing there was keeping the rest of humanity from from falling to diseases that were probably rampant in the city you know we've we had the sexual revolution start at the last half of the 60s and by the time we got to 1980 we had HIV and so there was there was gonorrhea and there was syphilis and that kind of stuff before that point nobody had ever I had never heard of chlamydia I I had never heard you know there's a there's a number of other diseases that go along specifically with homosexuality that kind of thing never heard of them all of a sudden in the 80s and from then on there's a there's this widespread incidence of these things and especially when you're when you're talking about like specifically homosexuality and that kind of thing and again God pronounced the penalty of death on these things and what we've done is excuse them we apologized for them then we lighten the penalty and then we remove it then we legalize the behavior and then it gets to the point where we have to memorialize the behavior we all have to agree with it and again God doesn't agree with that God doesn't change his mind on these issues and so had a number of people that I've known over the years that have come out of sexual sin and obviously there's probably many of us that that's taken place with - God has grace for us God has forgiveness for us but he hasn't changed his mind on the behavior and it needs to stop otherwise lives get destroyed and so again you you have you have that verse 17 if a man takes his sister his father's daughter or his mother's daughter and sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness it is a wicked thing and he shall be cut off in the sight of their people he's uncovered his sister's nakedness he shall bear his guilt and that's incest if a man lies with a woman during her sickness and uncovers her nakedness he exposed her as exposed her flow and she's uncovered the flow of her blood both of them shall be cut off from their people you shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister nor of your father's sister for that would uncover his near of kin they shall bear their guilt if a man lies with his uncle's wife he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness they shall bear their sin they shall die childless and you know you look at these things and you're like seriously there are people who do these things and again it's just wild to think of if a man takes his brother's wife it is an unclean thing he's uncovered his brother's nakedness they shall be childless and so you have again the death penalty in these instances and again you know one of the one of the points I want to make with you is that God's never changed his mind on this stuff I am the Lord he says I do not change therefore you're not consumed o sons of Jacob in the NLT it says this this way I am the Lord and I do not change that is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed and so on the one hand God doesn't change when he offers the promises of grace and mercy on the a and on the other hand God hasn't changed when he's setting up morality and so you know ultimately I don't care what the culture says all of these things are pictured as abominations things that are death worthy in the Bible and again we need to be taking them seriously look at verse 22 verse 22 through 26 it's the purpose of the laws it's as you shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgments and perform them that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out and you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you for they commit all these things and therefore I abhor them and so this isn't something that's you know thought up in a in a back room some places as possible situations that were taking place possibly in somebody's life at some point in history those were all the things that the Canaanites were doing and again we talked about that when we were in chapter 18 it's sick so you're sleeping with your sister yeah sick oh you're sleeping with your mom you whack oh it's an abomination and God considers those things to be an abomination these people were doing this stuff going and finding an animal and having sex with it and that's why God throughout the Canaanites was one of the most corrupt cultures that the world has ever seen and he cast him out because of that he still left room for repentance even with a situation that was like this he still left room for repentance but again there was only one person who ever repented and that was Rahab the hooker she was a harlot and she repented and so there was there was a good chance that she was involved in some of the ritual harlotry that was going on in that in that nation he said verse 24 but I have said to you you shall have inherit their land and I will give it to you to possess a land flowing with milk and honey I am the Lord your God who has separated you from the peoples you shall therefore distinguish between clean animals and unclean between unclean birds and clean and you shall not make yourselves abominable by beasts or by bird or by any kind of living thing that creeps on the ground which I have separated for you from you as unclean and you shall be holy to me and again the word holy means to be set apart for God's use for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine a man or woman who is a medium or who has familiar spirits shall surely be put to death they shall stone them with stones their blood shall be upon them so twice he mentions that and probably the reason is because these people were into the occult in all kinds of different ways and literally following doctrines of demons like it says in the New Testament satanic deception was openly practiced in the Canaanite culture and so again you have you have a situation with God's judging these people and you know it wasn't an automatic thing it wasn't something that happened you know after the first committee you know committing of the sin that kind of thing these people had been doing this stuff for 600 years by this time they've been butchering their children they've been committing all kinds of acts of immorality that that are just over the top and God had watched them for 600 years and there was no sentence can you imagine if God did that with us 600 years and again you know late 60s was the beginning of the sexual revolution and so here we are in 2019 and you know I I watch TV and you're seeing things that are absolutely condemned in Scripture on reality shows commonly shown on just about every TV show that you can find whether you're talking about a family show or whether you're talking about a cop show or whether you're talking about Star Trek of all things you see these things that are condemned by God as being normalized and that's just in the period of time that we've had since the 60s about 50 years in at this point imagine another five hundred and fifty years of this and where the culture would be and it was pretty it was pretty messed up there and so those are the reasons that God threw out the Canaanites yeah Billy Graham at one point said you know if God if God doesn't judge San Francisco he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology and it's not just San Francisco now and so again we need to be keeping that in mind when you get to chapter 21 chapter 21 our laws concerning ministry and specifically the priests at the very beginning look at verse 1 it says the Lord said to Moses speak to the priests the sons of Aaron and say to them none shall defile himself for the dead among the people except for his relatives who are nearest to him his mother his father his son his daughter and his brother also his virgin sister who is near to him who has had no husband for her he may defile himself what they're talking about is touching somebody who's dead and so a priest was not allowed to touch the dead otherwise he shall not defile himself being a chief among his people to profane himself they shall not make any bald place on their heads nor shall they shaved the edges of their beards nor make any cuttings in their flesh this again is why when we were back in chapter 19 I was talking about the fact that these things probably had to do with death ceremonies with mourning the dead and it was something again that the pagans did and God says that the people of God were not to do there should be a hope they shall should be excuse me they shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God for they offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire and the bread of their God therefore they shall be holy they shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman nor shall they take a woman divorce from her husband for the priest as holy to his God therefore you shall consecrate him for he offers the bread of your God he shall be holy to you for I am the lord who sanctifies you am holy the daughter of any priest if she profanes herself by playing the harlot she profanes her father she shall be burned with fire and so again there's a there's a picture there of a life that is to be set apart specifically from the practices of the land that they're going to go into the priest is somebody who's a representative of the people before God and the priest is somebody who is a representative of God before the people and so it's important that they have a lifestyle that matches what they're talking about you know you practice what you preach you know that's a that's a really good straightforward picture of what needs to be happening in the life of a pastor and so this is something that would apply to me not necessarily in the in the specifics there the the picture there with the priest is that he's a representation of Jesus and so we're when you were talking about the priests who were offering up the sacrifices not only were the sacrifices a picture of Christ but the priest is a picture of Christ - and so who does Jesus get married to the church is the church defiled No is a church of harlot no church is not to file the church is something that's pure Church is something that's holy I'm talking about the church that Jesus makes not the people who go to church necessarily there can be a difference between those two right and so that's why you have the the injunctions with the wife and and and that kind of thing when you're talking about death Jesus is not all about death he's all about life and so Jesus is the one who gives us life and so the priest is supposed to look like that and so you know it's it's a good picture you know coming straight across into ministry in the New Testament because again we're supposed to be people who are different than what the world is but you do realize that you're all priests right every single one of us is a priest I'm not a priest by myself you know I'm a pastor I have giftings like that but a pastor and a priest is not the same thing 1st Peter 2:5 says you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ and so we as believers are supposed to be people who are set apart we're supposed to be different than the people who around us were supposed to be clean and we're supposed to be clean in such a way that people can see this and I'm talking about biblically clean I'm not talking about taking a shower obviously but do that too that's that's a good thing to do too you know in any case we're supposed to be be people who are different again than those who are around us so when you get to the New Testament again for pastors there are standards that pastors are held to and like we've been talking about on Sunday mornings those standards have to do with being a mature Christian it's not being an above and beyond Christian it's just the idea of being a mature Christian so when you look at first Timothy chapter 3 those kinds of passages you need to understand that that's what being what's being spoken about you are a representative of God to the people who are around you you're a priest and you offer up spiritual sacrifices to the Lord you know your prayer is a sacrifice to the Lord your praise is a sacrifice to the Lord those those are things that we as a corporate body are bringing before God as priests male and female and every single one of us in the room are all doing that and so we're doing that we're also a representative of God to the people who were around us like I was saying before and so when people look at you you're the Jesus Freak when people look at you you're the Christian when people look at you you're the guy you're the lady you're the one who knows the Bible you're the one who prays you're the one who who talks to God you know talk to the big man upstairs for me you ever had people say that's here yeah talk to the big man upstairs for me I always went talk to him yourself you know he'd love to hear from you know that kind of thing in any case we do represent the people before God and so one of the things that we're doing is we're going before the Lord and we're praying for people and you know that's that's again something that we're called to we're also representatives of God before the people and so not only do we go before the people and or before God with the people and say Jesus will you please help them but you please do this in their life we're representatives of God to the people and so we come to the people and we tell them what God looks like this is how he acts this is how he is this is who he is and a lot of times people have a tweaked concept of who God is and it can run the gamut and so you got one group of people who may think may think that God has just mean all the time and he hates everybody and just one and he hates them and he wants to destroy them is that true no God's not willing that any should perish he loves the world he loves these people they're the objective they're not they're not the enemy and so that he wants them and so that's representing God before the people letting people know that you know God you know you think that God's out to get you and you and you're right but you're you're thinking of it wrong because he's out to get you he wants you that's what he wants to do he's not out to wipe you out but then on the other hand you have people who think that God's our grandfather who art in heaven you know I've been my daughter is pregnant with her baby right and so I'm gonna be a grandpa I still don't know what I'm gonna be called you know I always I always thought it was just grandpa you know but I don't know there's all these names and so I don't know what my my daughter's gonna have her kid call me but I'm looking forward to that and I think it's pretty cool people have told me it's better than having kids yourself because you can do all kinds of things with them and you can spoil them and make them little brats and then you hand them over to your you know to your children and they have to take care of them and I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do that I don't want my grandkid to be a brat but you know I have a hard I have a hard time with that whole concept cuz I really loved having my kids I liked it all even the messed up parts you know there were there were there were some hard a good stuff but still I liked having kids and so I don't know how grandkids are gonna be better I just got I'm gonna have to experience it anyway that's that's about to come along and and so I I know that that that kind of thing is gonna be happening but that's the picture that people have of grandparents that they give you whatever they whatever you want and they never say anything to you as far as correction goes and there are people who think that exact thing about God the you know he's our grandfather who art in heaven and so it's like gods never going to God my God would never say that to me if in fact there's a lot of people who if you read them Leviticus chapter 20 they would say something like that my God would never do that have you read the book of Revelation chapter 19 there's blood and it's all over and it's up his garments his robe is dipped in blood and it's not his we know that from Isaiah 63 when Jesus comes back stuff's gonna happen it's not gonna be a good thing for people who aren't following him and so there's a lot of people who don't you know who have tweaked concepts of God on one hand and they have tweaked concepts of God on the other hand the reality is that guts somewhere in between there he's absolutely gracious but when he sees that wickedness is not going to stop and then it's just defiling a land defiling people wrecking people's lives he judges it and so on the one hand he's gracious and on the other hand he's a righteous judge and he's both of those things and so I'm supposed to rightly represent the Lord before the people God before the people and so again you again you have that so were to be examples we're to be examples to the people who around us were to be examples to believers and and that kind of thing goes on talks about prohibitions for for I will actually I already went through some of it prohibitions for priests there's more in verse 10 he says he who is the high priest among his brethren on whose head the anointing oil was poured and who was consecrated to wear the garments schemata and cover his head nor tear his clothes nor shall he go near any dead body nor defile himself for his father or his mother nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary or the sanctuary of his God for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him I am the Lord he shall take a wife in her virginity a widow or a divorced woman or a defiled woman or a harlot these he shall not marry for he shall take a virgin of his own people as wife nor shall he profaned his posterity among his people for I the Lord sanctify him and so you have again prohibitions for the priests we already pretty much covered that it's the idea of you need to be set apart sanctified and these guys are pictures of Jesus and so God is holding them to that verse 16 he says and the Lord spoke to Moses saying and in this section he's going to be talking about the offerings that the offerings that are being brought before the Lord the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to Aaron saying no man of your descendants and succeeding generations who has any defect may approach to offer the bread of his God for any man who has a defect shall not approach a blind man or lame who has a marred face or any limb too long a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand or as a hunchback or a dwarf or a man who has a defect in his eye xima or a scab or as a eunuch no man of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall come near to offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord he has a defect he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God he may eat the bread of his god both the most holy and the holy only he shall not go near the veil or approach the altar because he has a defect lest he profaned my sanctuaries for I the Lord sanctify them and Moses told it to Aaron and his sons and to all the children of Israel this is talking about the fact that the priests need to be clean before God priests need to be somebody who is without defect and you know what that's pointing to again it's pointing to Jesus because Jesus is without defect he was sinless humanity and so it's not that God doesn't love people who have those kinds of ailments because he does and the Bible makes that clear in other places but as far as being a priest in a situation like that it did not fulfill the type and so God was into his types he was into his pictures of Jesus let me give you an example of that that you guys all know really well remember when Moses when the people of Israel were crying out for water and saying you know can God give us water and God tells Moses I want you to go over and strike the rock and the rock will split and water will come out right and so that's what Moses does he goes over and strikes the rock and that happened at the beginning of his ministry in the wilderness well towards the end of his ministry not too long before they were scheduled to go into the land of promise it happened again and by this time Moses has had 40 years with these people and he's sick of them I would be sick of them to you you read some of the things that these guys saying do and study it is like seriously we're gonna do this again one more time we're gonna do this and so Moses the Bible says you know God that the people were crying out for water and God said I want you to go to the rock and I want you to speak to the rock and Moses was mad and you don't see Moses getting mad a whole lot but he got mad and Moses was mad and he goes up to the rock with his staff and he hits the rock first off he says do we have to do another miracle for you I'm paraphrasing do we have to do another miracle for you and and give you water once again who was doing the miracle God was so he's taking glory from God in that instance and then he turns around and he's ticked off and he hits the rock and I totally understand that and God faithfully the rock splits water comes out the people get all their water and that kind of stuff and then God goes Moses come here he takes him out behind the woodshed and he says you know what you didn't represent me before the people and so because you did this I'm not gonna allow you to go in the land I'll let you see it but you're not gonna go in when you get to the New Testament you find out in Corinthians that the rock was Christ and God never tells Moses that he never tells him that it was a picture never tells him it was a type but in the New Testament we find out that the rock was Christ in Christ was always only smitten once on the cross and after he went to the cross you know Jesus talks about living water on if you come to me you'll have rivers of living water that will pour forth from your hearts and the Bible talks about that well you know it's just really clear that because of what Jesus did in going to the cross that's why we get the water it's the water of the Holy Spirit but after Jesus goes to the cross he doesn't have to do it again doesn't have to happen over and over Jesus has already paid for the sins of humanity and now all I have to do is speak to the rock so first the rock had to be struck and in the word the rock was supposed to be spoken to and Moses wrecked it and God said you're not going in and it's because he wrecked it he didn't represent the Lord before the people about that's a that's a seriously cool type and Moses messed the whole thing up and so God serious about this stuff and so when you're looking at the tabernacle when you're looking at the priests when you're looking at some of the purity that's involved in that whole thing it's all a picture of Jesus and the reason that you can't have somebody with a deformity as a priest is because it doesn't rightly represent Christ he's sinless humanity and obviously these guys are not sinless but the type needs to be there it's sinless humanity chapter 22 goes on and talks about things that are prohibited to the priesthood verse 1 it says then the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to Aaron and his sons that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel and they do not profane my holy name by what they dedicate to me I am the Lord and so these prohibitions for the priests are all about again being clean before God say to them whoever of all your descendants throughout your generations who goes near the holy things which the children of Israel dedicate to the Lord which is while he has uncleanness upon him that person shall be cut off from my presence I am the Lord whatever man of the descendants of Aaron who is a leper or has a discharge shall not eat the holy offerings until he is clean and whoever touches anything made unclean by a corpse or man who has had an emission of semen or whoever touches any creeping thing by which he would be made unclean or any person by whom he would become unclean whatever his uncleanness may be the person who has touched any such thing shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat the holy offerings unless he washes his body with water and when the Sun Goes Down he shall be clean and afterward he made the eat the holy offerings because it is his food this is something that happened in the in the New Testament specifically there's a passage in John chapter 18 where it talks about the priests are who have to go before Pilate they don't want to go into his house because if they go into his house they can't eat the Passover and one of the it's one of those passages that people look at and go well this is contradictory because you know when you look in the Gospel of Luke it says that Jesus ate the Passover and then the next day when you is going to be sacrifices talking about the priests eating the Passover and what guys who have that view don't understand is Jewish law there were the Passover included what we would call the Passover you know you guys are sophisticated enough to know what the Passover is the Passover meal itself the Passover lamb but not on that term not only included the lamb it included the the time the seven days of Passover was also called the Passover and it in it also included a number of meals that took place in fact with the Passover there were two meals they were both called hagigah the one was the first Passover the one that Jesus ate the one the other one was another meal another lamb there were two lambs that were offered and so one was offered on the day of the Passover the next one was offered the next day that was also called Passover or hagigah and actually it's soggy God ha ha ha ha at whole everything and so what they were worried about was that if they if they went into pilots house then what was going to happen is they were going to be defiled and they wouldn't be able to eat that meal well this is this is the law that has to do with that if they had gone into a pilot's house on the day of Passover you were allowed to on the day that you offered the Passover sacrifice you had to go and offer the Passover sacrifice yourself for your family but the next day you were allowed to have somebody else offered that second pass over that second Hoggy ah and then you if you were defiled and you could go through sundown you had to wash yourself and after sundown you were able to eat the meal and so it wouldn't be a problem wouldn't be a problem and so the the the deal there is that what you had with guys in that passage was that this was a the second Passover meal was a free will offering that they had to give and they couldn't give it and eat from it if they went into pilots house and it wasn't something that you could pass off to somebody else to do and so that's the that's a situation that was going on there and that's what's being spoken about in that passage again the person who has touched any said anything shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat the holy offerings unless he washes his body with water and when the Sun Goes Down he shall I shall be clean and afterward he meet the holy offerings because it is his food verse 8 whatever dies naturally or is torn by beasts he shall not eat to defile himself with it I am the Lord they shall therefore keep my ordinance lest they bear sin for it and die thereby if they profane it I the Lord's I the Lord sanctify it die thereby if they profane it I the Lord sanctify them no outsider shall eat the holy offering one who dwells with the priest or a hired servant shall not eat the holy thing but if the priest combines a person with his money he may eat it begins part of his family and one who is born in his house may eat his food if the priests daughter is married to an outsider she may not eat of the holy offerings in other words as soon as you a woman goes into another household she's considered to be a part of that household in this culture but if the priests daughter is a widowed or divorced and has no child and has returned to his father's house as in her youth she may eat her she may eat her father's food but no outsider shall eat it and if a man eats the holy offering unintentionally then he shall restore a holy offering to the priests and had one-fifth to it they shall not profane the holy offerings of the children of Israel which they offered to the Lord or allow them to bear the guilt of trespass when they eat their holy offerings for I the Lord sanctify them and what's being spoken about in this passage is the priests meals where did it were the priests get their meat from sacrifices there are all sacrifices they were all things that had been offered to the Lord and so the people who could eat from that were people who were from the priests family and if you were not from the priests family you weren't supposed to be eating from those things whether you were talking about the bread that was offered as sacrifices the the flower that was operative sacrifices or whether you were talking about the meat that was offered as sacrifices and so again you have that then you have sacrifices that are prohibited of the priesthood it says verse 17 Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the children of Israel and say to them whatever man of the house of Israel or of the strangers in Israel who offers his sacrifice for any of his vows or for any of his free will offerings which they offer to the Lord as a burnt offering you shall offer of your own free will a male without blemish from the cattle from the sheep or from the goats whatever has a defect you shall not offer for it shall not be acceptable on your behalf and whoever offers a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord to fulfil his vow or free will offering from the cattle or the sheep it must be perfect to be accepted there shall be no defect in it those that are blind or broken or maimed or have an ulcer or eczema or scabs you shall not offer to the Lord nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to the Lord either a bull or a lamb that has any limb too long or too short you may offer as a freewill offering or yah you may offer as a freewill offering but for a vow it shall not be accepted you shall not offer to the Lord what is bruised or crushed or torn or cut nor shall you make any offering of them in your land nor from a foreigners hand shall you offer any of these as the bread of your God because their corruption is in them and defects are in them they shall not be accepted on your behalf and the Lord spoke to Moses saying when a bull or a sheep or a goat is born it shall be seven days with its mother and from the eighth day and thereafter it shall be accepted as an offering made by fire to the Lord so you weren't allowed to offer an animal before the before the eighth day whether it is a cow or a you do not kill both her and her young on the same day and when you offer a sacrifice of a Thanksgiving to the Lord offered of your own free will on the same day it shall be eaten you shall leave none of it until morning I am and so those are those are sacrifices again that are supposed to be brought before the Lord again it's you don't bring though blind you don't bring the lame you don't bring the deformed you don't bring those things to the Lord when you offer something the Lord it needs to be the best and again the the sacrifices that the people are bringing or sacrifices that again are representing Jesus and so you see some of the same language that was used of the priests in the previous chapter you're not to have a priest who's blind you don't you anybody who has a defect or a scab or eczema or you know leprosy or anything like that you're not - you're not you're not to be a priest in that situation it's exactly the same thing with the sacrifices because again the sacrifices represent Jesus and so Jesus has no blemish Jesus is perfect and he was a perfect offering and so that's the picture there and the picture needs to remain something that's consistent in the Bible we when you're again when you're looking at many of these laws that's what's happening it's pointing to Christ himself but you have another moral situation with this if I have to take an animal to the Lord and it's not gonna be part of my flock anymore why would I want to offer the best animal that I have why would I want to do that I mean kind of a natural thing for me to keep that animal if it's a if it's a you or if it's a heifer to breed it my my my flock or my herd is gonna be better because of it or if it's a bull or if it's a ram to take it and breed it because my flock is gonna be better because of it but what was supposed to be happening is these people were supposed to be bringing their best to the Lord and that remains something that's supposed to happen and it's supposed to be a free will offering we do it freely and so we as Christians it's the same kind of situation we give to the Lord and so the Bible talks about this and in a number of different places Jesus said given it will be given to you press down shaken together running over God will give into your bosom it's the idea that you can't outgive God so you give God you give to and God just comes back and he blesses and you you in ways where he's just packing it in basically you have promises throughout the Bible that talk about when you bring your offerings to the Lord when you bring your tithes to the Lord tides were tithes of animals too and so you know when we think of a tithe we think of 10% of our money when these guys were thinking of a tithe they were tailored they were talking about one out of ten of their animals plus on top of that the firstborn and were a number of other things that they they were bringing as far as offerings and and that kind of thing go and I'm talking about firstborn animals actually firstborn sons too firstborn son you had to pay for you had to give silver for him because he was the Lord so the first point was the Lord's every tenth animal was the Lord's and they were to bring these things and they were to bring it as a free will offering out of thankful heart for what God had given to them and that's something that remains with us that's what we're supposed to be doing as Christians you know one of the things that I've always noticed about newer believers is God has them go through a period of financial difficulty and many times the reason that they're going through the period of financial difficulty is because God wants to show them that he's the one who can supply their needs when I was going through a time like that it was a specific time when God had been talking to me about the whole issue with giving and so I was in the midst of difficulty you know numerous times where I didn't have enough money it was either either pay God or pay the electric bill pay God or pay my gas bill you know that that kind of thing and one of the things that God showed me was that I needed to trust him that he was gonna take care of me that if I would bring in my offering and would do it free you know freely and and with the right heart and out of faith that he would take care of my needs and that is what he has always done with me there's never there's never been a time that I've lost weight with God if I mean if I want to lose weight you know I'll do fasting and and that kind of thing but for the most part all I've been doing ever since I became a Christian gaining weight and even in my my poorest times when my wife and I were first married you know it's like it's like we had a hard time financially and we were eatin beans and tortillas no cheese and I came 20 pounds it was ridiculous and so you know and again God's always been faithful to me and he supplies your needs there's all kinds of promises in the Bible that speak about that if you're wondering about that go read Matthew chapter 6 a half at last half of the chapter God is really specific Jesus is really specific on the fact that he's the one who provides for our needs and we don't need to be like the Gentiles the Gentiles go around saying what am I going to eat and what am I gonna wear and Jesus says says in the passage your father knows that you need these things so don't be like the Gentiles because they seek after all these things but you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you there been times in my life where I where I reminded God of the verse open it up to Matthew chapter 7 or chapter 6 and point to the verse and say God you said that you would provide for my needs and my needs aren't getting provided for and I said it nicer I'm giving you a short version you know they're not being provided for and God said you know when the first time that I did that God goes Steve there's an if-then statement there guys know math if certain things are happening then other things computer stuff that kind of thing it's an if-then statement if you will seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness then all these things will be added to you and what God said are you seeking me are you seeking my righteousness or are you just looking for the stuff and I had to admit that well maybe not so much and so it got my head straight and I started doing that and God again has always provided for me I think it was good training for me as a Christian you know one of the one of the ways you can you can tell that you actually one of the best ways that you can tell if you trust God is what you do with your pocketbook you what you do with your checkbook what you do with your debit card you can you can tell if you trust God or not and I'm not doing that so that you'll give here I'm doing that to make a point we have to you know a lot of times our bank account is something that we don't want anybody messing with that's that's how I was I came from a poor family and so I'm you know I'm not stingy anymore but I watch my stuff and I don't like it when I get ripped off and I don't like it when I get taken and I don't like it when things are wasted I don't like it and I'm just kind of trained that way and I became a Christian and all of a sudden God's talking about 10% I'm like that's nuts you know but once I started doing it it was amazing just amazing God is faithful and so that's again what God's talking about he wants you to bring his bring your best to him and he promises in again in other places that he's going to be somebody who takes care of your needs who watches out for you and and it's something that we need to be paying attention to here's another thing it's wild how often people drop off chunky stuff at church and say I want to give this to God you do it you're you're bringing it here because you didn't want up because you have to pay to dump your trash that's what you're bringing it here what are you doing and in the Bible you always brought the best and and so again something to keep in mind verse 31 we'll wrap it up therefore you shall keep my Commandments and perform them I am the Lord you shall not profane my holy name but I will be held among the children of Israel I am the lord who sanctifies you who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God I am the Lord and so again a whole lifestyle that's that's pictured in in those verses that we went through a lifestyle that's different than the world that's around us a lifestyle that meets up with what God's standards are whether you're talking about in the in the area of interpersonal relationships with your mom and your dad or whether you're talking about the area of sexual relationships marriage is the only place where the sexual relationship is blessed by God and the Jesus defined marriage one man one woman that's one of marriages Jesus's definition and so that's where it's blessed and doesn't matter what the culture is doing you get outside of that and they're going to be consequences that come from that and sometimes the consequences are in the lives of the people sometimes the consequences come because of the judgement of a nation you you cannot sin and expect that consequences won't come you know and and so again that's the point of the passage God doesn't want to wreck people's fun he wants them to have a blessed life and most of us know that that's what's happened with us we turn away from these things we start following Jesus get a pure heart and it's amazing how God blesses us so let's pray get you out thanks Lord again for your word thank you Father for the the fact that again you're clear you're clear on these issues and you're pointed and you have a changed your mind on these things and so we don't live in the Land of Israel and these punishments aren't aren't something that happen in our culture they don't happen in in our nation and obviously the church is not a government when we look at people who are involved in this stuff we need to see them the way that you saw them Lord they're people who are in bondage they're people who are trapped in these things sometimes they're hurting the people who are around them and sometimes they're looking for a way out and so the people who are looking for a way out including us Lord they need you and and so God we want to be faithful to offer them you and Lord again thank you for taking out taking us out of this place out of the out of the place where this kind of stuff is normal and this kind of stuff is going on around people there's all kinds of households where many of these things are common now and we're gonna reap the whirlwind you sow to the wind you said you reap the whirlwind and Lord we again just pray that you would help us to be an example of who you are and what you want for people we know that you love them you want to bless their lives Lord so help us to love them too we ask that you do this all in Jesus name Amen god bless you guys

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 525

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Chapel, Steve Whinery, Leviticus, Old Testament, Sacrifices in the bible, The Bible, Bible teaching, Jesus, Jesus in the old testament, Food Laws, Eating Coshure

Id: QUjRJDUWUAU

Length: 83min 59sec (5039 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 08 2019