WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.160 So, here's the review. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:10.560 Remember that if you were here week one, we looked at the fact that Leviticus is shaped 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:12.839 in what's called a chiasm. 00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:24.719 And a chiasm is a literary term for a structure that follows A, B, C, D, C, B, A. 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:27.480 So we talked about how the Gruffalo is a chiasm. 00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:32.200 If you've read the Gruffalo, most of Julia Donaldson books are all chiasms. 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:36.439 So if you have kids or if you don't have kids and you just happen to have all the Julia 00:00:36.439 --> 00:00:43.560 Donaldson books, you can check this out at home that they tend to be snake, rabbit, duck, 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:47.560 Gruffalo, duck, rabbit, snake, something like that. 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:49.000 That's what Leviticus is. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:52.320 Lots of books of the Bible in the Old Testament are like that. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:54.600 So you can see the chiasm on your outline there. 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:56.400 There's an intro statement. 00:00:56.399 --> 00:01:01.199 The Lord spoke from inside the tent of Moses. 00:01:01.199 --> 00:01:06.000 And the big problem that's presented there is that the people of Israel don't have access 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:07.799 to the Lord. 00:01:07.799 --> 00:01:09.599 They were made for God's presence. 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:11.879 And so the Lord is not speaking face to face. 00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:14.039 He's inside Moses' outside. 00:01:14.039 --> 00:01:15.759 And then the chiasm starts. 00:01:15.759 --> 00:01:18.480 And so I just want to note just where we are. 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:23.599 You'll see we're tonight on C2 on the handout. 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:27.519 Look at A1 is ritual sacrifices. 00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:31.119 A2 at the bottom is ritual feasts. 00:01:31.119 --> 00:01:33.359 B1 is priestly ordination. 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:35.919 B2 is priestly qualification. 00:01:35.919 --> 00:01:37.599 See that? 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:40.959 C1 ceremonial purity. 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:46.479 So all this stuff about not touching dead bodies, not touching blood, things like that. 00:01:46.479 --> 00:01:49.519 C2 where we are tonight is moral purity. 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:55.039 So you see how those correspond to one another and the heart of Leviticus is the day of atonement. 00:01:55.039 --> 00:01:58.479 So we looked at the day of atonement last time and we looked at it. 00:01:58.479 --> 00:02:02.159 We said that the day of the atonement is not only the climax of Leviticus, it's the climax 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:05.719 of the whole Torah, the first five books of the Bible. 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.359 It is the centerpiece, the heart of the heart. 00:02:08.359 --> 00:02:14.800 It is the event whereby God cleanses and forgives his people and it ultimately points 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:15.800 to Christ. 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:21.280 There's the great act of ritual grace in the Torah and the first five books of the Bible. 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:25.560 And so we're in the section just after that. 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:30.439 And if you are around week one, the last thing I'll say about it is that we said is if there 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:32.520 are two things to learn from Leviticus. 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:36.640 One, you are made to enter into God's presence and God has made a way. 00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:40.080 So in the Old Testament through the Levitical rites. 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:45.760 And the second thing is as soon as God makes a way for you to enter the tabernacle, that 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:49.319 is just the beginning of life with God. 00:02:49.319 --> 00:02:55.419 And so the second half of Leviticus is all about the idea of now become holy. 00:02:55.419 --> 00:02:58.799 So in other words, God has purified you, cleans you and cleansed the temple so you can go 00:02:58.799 --> 00:03:02.319 in, but now you actually have to be holy. 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:04.759 So the first half of Leviticus gets you in. 00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:11.680 The second half of Leviticus is now how you go and live in the light of what God has done. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:15.039 So enter into God's presence, part two, be holy as I am holy. 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:17.799 That's the thesis of the whole second half. 00:03:17.799 --> 00:03:22.519 And that's really at the heart of what we're seeing tonight in the chapters that we have. 00:03:22.519 --> 00:03:27.479 So now that means that Leviticus presents a paradigm. 00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:35.719 The paradigm is the law tells you you're unclean and you don't deserve to be in God's 00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:37.639 presence. 00:03:37.639 --> 00:03:43.639 God makes a way by way of sacrifice so that you can enter God's presence. 00:03:43.639 --> 00:03:45.959 And we call that grace. 00:03:45.959 --> 00:03:50.319 And then after God has made a way and purified you and the space to be with you, he then 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:54.559 says now go and live a different life, a new life, a reformed life. 00:03:54.559 --> 00:04:01.239 So that's what theologians or Bible scholars or the church in general, all of us, call 00:04:01.239 --> 00:04:05.799 a law, grace, holiness paradigm. 00:04:05.799 --> 00:04:10.359 That the Bible operates consistently from Genesis 3 on that paradigm. 00:04:10.359 --> 00:04:13.159 The law convicts. 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:15.000 God makes a way. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:20.600 And then when God makes a way, God says now go and live like me. 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:22.680 Take on my character. 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:24.480 Law, grace, holiness paradigm. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:27.399 Okay, that's Leviticus. 00:04:27.399 --> 00:04:30.040 The law tells you you're impure. 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:34.879 The day of atonement makes the way and then go and be holy as I am holy. 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:35.879 That's exactly what we have. 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:37.360 Now that's the entire Bible. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:38.360 That's the New Testament. 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:39.480 That's the Old Testament. 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:40.600 That's the Old Covenant. 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:42.480 That's the New Covenant. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:46.920 Because both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant are covenants of grace. 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:52.480 Ultimately, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant are one covenant fulfilled in Jesus. 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:56.920 And so that means that you have the same ideas throughout the whole of the Bible and it's 00:04:56.920 --> 00:04:59.200 all right here in the book of Leviticus. 00:04:59.200 --> 00:05:05.400 Okay, so in this section, we're being told that God is holy and so we're supposed to 00:05:05.400 --> 00:05:07.280 be holy too. 00:05:07.280 --> 00:05:09.040 So let's look at that. 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:20.360 If you look down with me at chapter 17, we're told at the beginning of chapter 17 that the 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:22.720 day of atonement is complete. 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:25.360 The way has been made. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:26.720 You can enter into God's presence. 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:29.200 God will come down into your presence. 00:05:29.200 --> 00:05:35.280 But then now that the Levitical law, the right is completed, we realize that that's not the 00:05:35.280 --> 00:05:36.800 goal ultimately. 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:39.400 The goal is only part of the way there. 00:05:39.400 --> 00:05:42.960 Now that we are in God's presence, we've got to live a holy life. 00:05:42.960 --> 00:05:48.720 And God first comes and gives the two reasons for the Levitical law to begin with for this 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:50.120 entire system. 00:05:50.120 --> 00:05:51.120 And here they are. 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:53.800 They're down in first and verse 11. 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:55.840 So why this gracious Levitical system? 00:05:55.840 --> 00:05:58.560 Look at chapter 17 verse 11. 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:04.639 First he says, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:09.279 And I've given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:12.919 blood that makes atonement by the life. 00:06:12.919 --> 00:06:17.680 So first he says, one of the big theses of the whole Testament is right here in this 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:18.919 verse. 00:06:18.919 --> 00:06:22.439 The life is in the blood. 00:06:22.439 --> 00:06:25.959 You're going to see this line repeated a couple more times in Leviticus. 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:30.839 It's so fundamental to understanding the Old Testament rites, religious ceremonies. 00:06:30.839 --> 00:06:31.959 And what is it about? 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:33.120 The life is in the blood. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:40.120 It's saying that in the view of an ancient Erester person, blood was the most essential 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:42.800 part of the human body. 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:48.160 And it's very true that we know that we need the blood to be in our body for our bodies 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:49.160 to work. 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:52.480 If the blood gets out of your body, it doesn't work anymore. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:57.240 And so they would say, life is in the blood. 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:05.199 So that's why looking back at the purity laws, bleeding, any type of bleeding, became a sign 00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:07.199 of uncleanliness. 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:13.360 Not because bleeding is sinful, but because it's a symbol of the fact that the world is 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:16.000 losing blood. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:17.439 Chaos has entered. 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:20.280 It's a death sign and symbol. 00:07:20.280 --> 00:07:23.680 People are not supposed to be losing blood. 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:27.480 And so anytime there's a loss of blood, there's a ritual impurity. 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:31.600 And so here on the flip side, on the backside of the David Talmud, we said, look, God says, 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:32.600 life is in the blood. 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:34.079 The blood has been spilled. 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:39.840 And so the blood, the life, has covered over your deathly condition. 00:07:39.840 --> 00:07:46.560 And then from there, he's going to say now, very literally, don't eat food that's full 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:48.319 of blood. 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:50.240 Don't drink blood. 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:52.360 That's one of the commandments. 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:53.800 And that's one of the first things he says. 00:07:53.800 --> 00:08:00.319 And he says, because in the ritual ceremonies, that is the symbol of life. 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:01.439 And so you're not to mistreat it. 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:05.960 It's a representation of chaos and death if you use blood in the wrong way. 00:08:05.960 --> 00:08:12.319 Now there's a second reason that's stacked on top of that one for this entire system. 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:15.319 And we learn about what it is right after that. 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:23.439 If you look down at verse chapter 18, verse three, backed up to verse two, the Lord speaks. 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:28.600 He says to the people of Israel, I'm the Lord your God, you shall not do as they do in the 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:31.199 land of Egypt. 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:38.159 So just before that in 17 verse 14, 15, don't eat the blood, meaning don't consume blood, 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:40.240 or you will be cut off from God's people. 00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:43.439 Right after that, I'm the Lord your God, I brought you out of the land of Egypt. 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:46.880 Do not live as they did in the land of Egypt. 00:08:46.880 --> 00:08:54.840 All right, so now the entire holiness code we're about to read is premised on this line. 00:08:54.840 --> 00:09:00.760 Do not live as they did in the land of Egypt, meaning in the land of Egypt, clearly they 00:09:00.760 --> 00:09:04.480 were using blood for consumption. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:10.440 And the rest of the Levitical code in these several chapters is bookended in that way. 00:09:10.440 --> 00:09:16.840 Verse chapter 18, do not behave in your life as the people in Egypt did, or as any of the 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:18.040 pagan nations. 00:09:18.040 --> 00:09:22.360 And at the end of chapter 20, and at the beginning of chapter 21, it says this again, do not 00:09:22.360 --> 00:09:28.280 live as the Egyptians did in the land of Egypt when you were under their yoke of slavery. 00:09:28.280 --> 00:09:34.000 In other words, it's saying the entire system is I have set you apart from paganism. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:37.440 I have rescued you from your impurities and your sins. 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:41.680 I have given you my presence, and now what does it mean to be holy? 00:09:41.680 --> 00:09:47.280 It means don't be like the nations, because the nations are pagans. 00:09:47.280 --> 00:09:52.960 So this is the distinction that in the Old Testament, holiness is defined for humans 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:56.320 in distinction from pagan lifestyles. 00:09:56.320 --> 00:09:58.120 Now in the New Testament, the same thing happens. 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:01.520 So you read these lists that Paul makes. 00:10:01.520 --> 00:10:07.120 They're not even easy for us as modern people to read sometimes, because the kinds of things 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:13.039 that Paul lists in the list in the Greco-Roman Empire that he's telling the Corinthian church, 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:18.320 the Thessalonian church, not to do are the same types of lists you read about here. 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:24.360 So he says things like don't be full of acts of porneia, sexual immorality. 00:10:24.360 --> 00:10:29.480 He even lists things like orgies and all sorts of stuff that for us modern Westerners is hard 00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:31.519 to even read sometimes. 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:33.519 And he's doing the same exact thing. 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:41.159 He's saying in a pagan culture, these are the types of practices that are normal, common. 00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:47.279 And holiness is that you have been saved, made pure, and set apart to live a life that 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:50.679 is like the character of God, not like the pagan culture all around you. 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:55.480 And so from there, the rest of these holiness laws that we get, these moral purity laws 00:10:55.480 --> 00:11:01.159 in Leviticus, chapter 17, 18, 19, and 20, are really expressions of what it means to 00:11:01.159 --> 00:11:05.919 live a distinct life from a pagan life, a life where you don't believe in the God of 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:08.000 the Bible. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:09.959 Huge applications of this for us tonight. 00:11:09.959 --> 00:11:12.919 I'm going to give you two in just a minute, but let's just quickly run through some of 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:13.919 these laws. 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:20.919 I just want to show them to you because I think all of us are going to say, yeah, exactly. 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:24.319 Of course, of course, most of these laws when you read them. 00:11:24.319 --> 00:11:25.319 And so just look down with me. 00:11:25.319 --> 00:11:29.000 I have some of the texts listed of the holiness laws. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:33.120 Chapter 18, from verse six to eight, none of you shall approach any one of his close 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:35.240 relatives to uncover their nakedness. 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:36.240 I am the Lord. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:37.639 All right? 00:11:37.639 --> 00:11:40.840 From verse six to 18, it's laws against incest. 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:41.840 Okay? 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:48.120 And then, by the way, the language uncover the nakedness shows up earlier in the Bible, 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:49.120 doesn't it? 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:53.000 If you remember, it shows up in the Noah story at the end of the flood story. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:58.279 And so lots of people will talk about how everything was good, the Genesis one mandate 00:11:58.279 --> 00:12:02.519 that's been reissued after the flood story, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:03.720 everything seems to be fine. 00:12:03.720 --> 00:12:09.240 And then it says, Noah uncovered, the sons of Noah uncovered Noah's nakedness. 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:10.959 And people will, what does that mean? 00:12:10.959 --> 00:12:11.959 Okay? 00:12:11.959 --> 00:12:14.439 Well, we understand a bit more of what it means from this list. 00:12:14.439 --> 00:12:15.439 Okay? 00:12:15.439 --> 00:12:22.679 So it does not mean that they simply saw their father in a state of undress. 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:27.799 It's a reference to something in this list here, something much more than that. 00:12:27.799 --> 00:12:29.439 And you can read the rest of this list. 00:12:29.439 --> 00:12:33.240 We don't know exactly what it was, but the language of the metaphor of uncovering nakedness 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:38.279 is something much more serious as its listed here in Leviticus. 00:12:38.279 --> 00:12:42.759 From there, it goes on and on, things that you would completely expect it to say. 00:12:42.759 --> 00:12:47.519 Look down with me at verse 21, for example. 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:52.159 God says, you shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech. 00:12:52.159 --> 00:12:56.240 And so profane the name of your God. 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:59.080 That is talking about human child sacrifice. 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:03.279 You shall not give your children to Molech, which was a God that was worshiped. 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:06.840 It's mentioned five or six times in the Old Testament through actual human sacrifices. 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:07.840 Okay? 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:14.320 So these are big, big, abominable as the text puts it, things that were happening in the 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:15.320 pagan nations. 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:17.399 That's what's being listed here. 00:13:17.399 --> 00:13:21.639 If you keep going from there, jump to chapter 19, verse three. 00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:25.879 Every one of you, now it gets a little more normal, which you're probably saying, thank 00:13:25.879 --> 00:13:27.799 you, goodness. 00:13:27.799 --> 00:13:33.080 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep the Sabbath. 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:34.080 Okay? 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:35.360 So honor your parents. 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:36.360 That's one of the next lines. 00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:38.200 And then you keep going from there. 00:13:38.200 --> 00:13:40.039 Verse nine in chapter 19. 00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:43.919 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:44.919 edge. 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:47.240 Neither shall you gather the gleaning at the harvest. 00:13:47.240 --> 00:13:53.320 So you shall leave a part of the field ungleaned at the edges so that the poor can come and 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:55.120 eat from your extra. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:56.120 That's the command there. 00:13:56.120 --> 00:13:57.120 Okay? 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:58.120 Just a few others. 00:13:58.120 --> 00:13:59.399 Verse 11, you shall not steal. 00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:00.399 Right. 00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:01.840 Don't steal. 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:05.560 You shall not oppress your neighbor. 00:14:05.560 --> 00:14:08.440 That's something we would expect not to happen today. 00:14:08.440 --> 00:14:09.440 Don't oppress your neighbor. 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:10.440 Right? 00:14:10.440 --> 00:14:11.440 Keep going. 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:14.759 Verse 15, you shall not do injustice in court. 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:17.639 So if you go to court, you don't lie in court. 00:14:17.639 --> 00:14:19.200 Don't bear false witness in court. 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:20.200 Right? 00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:23.600 So these are things we'll see that we've seen in the Ten Commandments already. 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:27.680 Verse 17, you shall not hate your brother in your heart. 00:14:27.680 --> 00:14:28.680 Right? 00:14:28.680 --> 00:14:35.279 So that shows back up in the Sarmadon the mountain when Jesus talks about it. 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:37.200 So we see, let me just give you one more. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:44.720 Chapter 20, verse 22 says, you shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:50.440 do them that the land where I'm bringing you, you may live and the land might may not vomit 00:14:50.440 --> 00:14:51.879 you out. 00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:55.960 So if you were here last Sunday, we talked about how much human beings are connected 00:14:55.960 --> 00:14:57.120 to the land. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:01.559 Adam and Adamah, the very words in Hebrew, how tight they are. 00:15:01.559 --> 00:15:05.679 And throughout the Torah, throughout the first five books and the rest of the Old Testament, 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:10.960 it says that when you act like pagan nations, the land wants to vomit you out. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:14.879 You know, you're sinning not only against God and against people, but also even against 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:18.200 the material creation to the point where the land can't hold you in anymore. 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:19.519 It has to get rid of you. 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:20.639 You have to go into the wilderness. 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:22.240 You have to go into exile. 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:26.039 And so in all these things, if you read this list, more and more, most of these things are 00:15:26.039 --> 00:15:31.600 things that you would recognize as normal for what you would think to be a decent moral 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:35.559 society, the things that are listed here. 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:43.279 But the way that it's pitched in the moral code of holiness here in Leviticus is you, 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:47.519 Israel, are going to be the exception. 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:49.919 So just think about that for a minute. 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:55.319 He's telling them, don't be like all the other nations. 00:15:55.319 --> 00:15:58.839 Therefore, honor your parents. 00:15:58.839 --> 00:16:00.599 Don't steal. 00:16:00.599 --> 00:16:02.919 Don't oppress your neighbor. 00:16:02.919 --> 00:16:08.439 Leave a little bit of extra food at the edges of your field so that the poor can eat. 00:16:08.439 --> 00:16:12.000 Don't marry your siblings. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:14.799 This is what's going to make you different from everybody, wildly different. 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:17.240 And this is what it means to be holy and be like me. 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:21.120 All right, so let's apply that. 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:25.759 The point, we could list it in multiple verses. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:30.600 I've listed all the verses for you that it says it very explicitly underneath the heading, 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:31.600 the point. 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:38.879 Chapter 19, verse two, speak to the congregation and say to them, you shall be holy for I am 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:40.039 holy. 00:16:40.039 --> 00:16:41.919 Be like God, distinct from the nations. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:46.240 Be holy as I am holy because I am the Lord your God. 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:48.480 Not Molech, he's not your God. 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:53.240 Not Ray, the deity of the sun in Egypt, the principal deity that they would have been 00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:56.080 forced to often worship when they were in slavery in Egypt. 00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:57.720 He's not your God. 00:16:57.720 --> 00:16:59.600 The Lord is your God. 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:04.240 And whereas Ray told you you could do all of these things, Molech demands these evil 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:05.240 things from you. 00:17:05.240 --> 00:17:06.720 I'm the Lord your God. 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:08.599 So be like me, not like them. 00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:09.599 That's the idea. 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:17.759 Then chapter 20, verse seven, consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy for I am the Lord your 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:18.759 God. 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:21.240 Again, Ray is not your God. 00:17:21.240 --> 00:17:23.439 Molech is not your God. 00:17:23.439 --> 00:17:26.359 I am your God. 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:29.679 You could say, as a modern person, you could say, man, man is not your God. 00:17:29.679 --> 00:17:32.039 Your money is not your God. 00:17:32.039 --> 00:17:33.959 Sex and power are not your gods. 00:17:33.959 --> 00:17:35.199 I am the Lord your God. 00:17:35.199 --> 00:17:38.119 All right, it's the same exact idea for us as well. 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:43.959 Chapter 20, verse 26, you shall be holy to me for I am the Lord and holy and I've separated 00:17:43.959 --> 00:17:47.879 you from the peoples that you should be mine. 00:17:47.879 --> 00:17:48.879 So same idea. 00:17:48.879 --> 00:17:55.159 And then lastly, chapter 21, verse eight, you shall sanctify him, the priest, for he 00:17:55.159 --> 00:17:56.479 offers the bread of your God. 00:17:56.479 --> 00:18:00.719 He shall be holy to you for I the Lord who sanctify you and holy. 00:18:00.719 --> 00:18:02.439 So that's specific for the priest. 00:18:02.439 --> 00:18:04.039 All right, so you see that idea? 00:18:04.039 --> 00:18:05.039 Be holy. 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:06.559 Be separate from the nations. 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:10.359 If you've been saved by grace, you've been set apart. 00:18:10.359 --> 00:18:12.119 And to be set apart is to be holy. 00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:13.480 And to be holy is to be different. 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:19.599 And to be different is to be morally pure relative to the nations around you. 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:22.480 And to do that is to act like God's very character in your life. 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:28.599 Now let's apply that a little more concretely to us. 00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:33.919 First is, I want to just mention Tom Holland's book, Dominion, and the thesis that comes 00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:39.960 out of it because the thesis is right here in what we're talking about tonight. 00:18:39.960 --> 00:18:49.120 We don't realize Western people in a city like Edinburgh do not realize how Christian 00:18:49.120 --> 00:18:55.920 everyone in the city really is by value without knowing it. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:56.920 They don't realize it. 00:18:56.920 --> 00:18:59.840 They're unaware of how Christian they really are. 00:18:59.840 --> 00:19:02.640 Not Christian in the sense that they follow Christ and believe the gospel, right? 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:05.560 We know most people in our city do not follow Christ. 00:19:05.560 --> 00:19:13.759 But how Christian our city is based on a text like Leviticus 17 to 20, right? 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:19.240 So this is Tom Holland's famous thesis and his great book, Dominion, which has been one 00:19:19.240 --> 00:19:24.560 of the most important books written in the past decade probably that has changed for 00:19:24.560 --> 00:19:30.360 many people the viability, the plausibility structures of believing in God actually. 00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:34.079 So we have people even in our church that have come to the Christian faith through the 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:38.240 means of Tom Holland's being convinced by Tom Holland's book, Dominion. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:40.519 And in the book, Dominion, I've given you just a little bit. 00:19:40.519 --> 00:19:46.079 He says this, we swim in Christian waters, not Roman or Greek. 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:50.799 So he's a historian and he says as he studied history, he realized that even as an atheist, 00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:56.079 which is what he was and sort of still is, but he said, I realized how much of a Christian 00:19:56.079 --> 00:19:59.839 I am that when I read about the history of Rome, the history of Greece, the history of 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:05.759 Egypt, I realized that these dominant cultures that existed for so many centuries are just 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:08.519 not my culture. 00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:13.720 And the main way he realized that is through the moral values that are most prominent in 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:15.799 the law of the land in which we live. 00:20:15.799 --> 00:20:22.279 And so this is what he writes, just as a bishop of Oxford refused to consider that he might 00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:24.720 be descended from an ape. 00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:31.440 So now are many in the West reluctant to contemplate that their values and even their very lack 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:36.319 of belief might be traceable back to Christian origins. 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:42.960 So Tom has this thesis that even the possibility to say, I don't believe in God was made possible 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:48.440 by Christianity because Christianity came and said, we don't coerce people. 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:51.360 We don't enslave you and force you to worship our God. 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:55.759 Instead, we give you freedom and we tell you, you need to be convinced in your heart. 00:20:55.759 --> 00:21:00.240 It's Christianity that makes atheism possible in a sense. 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:06.119 And then ironically, there were no atheists, not legally in most empires prior to the modern, 00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:07.359 right? 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:12.079 The ability to be free to believe what you want to believe is a Christian value that 00:21:12.079 --> 00:21:15.519 atheists of the modern age like Dawkins stand upon. 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:18.319 Now Richard Dawkins has come out saying this very recently as well. 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:24.039 He's recognized that his values are overwhelmingly Christian, Judeo-Christian, he said. 00:21:24.039 --> 00:21:28.200 And he says he realizes that that's embedded into his cultural life and that he can't get 00:21:28.200 --> 00:21:29.439 out from underneath that. 00:21:29.439 --> 00:21:30.439 So I just want to point this out. 00:21:30.439 --> 00:21:35.240 It's very important because people will say, look, you don't have to believe in God, the 00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:38.759 Christian God, to be a good person. 00:21:38.759 --> 00:21:40.559 And there's a sense in which that's true. 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:44.720 By God's common grace, he gives everybody the possibility to recognize the moral law and 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:47.319 to step into it, to be a decent human. 00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:54.000 But when you read the Bible really carefully, actually what you see is that the norm is 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:59.759 the anti-Tin commandments that are implicit in all the laws we just read about in Leviticus 00:21:59.759 --> 00:22:00.759 17 and 20. 00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:05.119 There's a reason God is coming and saying, don't be like all the nations because all 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:14.439 the nations are consuming the blood, practicing incest, stealing, lying in every court case, 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:18.519 doing the sins that all of us humans, to some degree, struggle from the bottom of our 00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:23.400 heart, but they're doing it at a maximized level where it is culturally normal. 00:22:23.400 --> 00:22:24.680 And Tom Holland talks about this in his book. 00:22:24.680 --> 00:22:28.680 He says, when I looked at Greek culture and Roman culture, I realized it is completely 00:22:28.680 --> 00:22:34.120 culturally normal for a powerful man in the Roman Empire to do whatever he wants with 00:22:34.120 --> 00:22:36.840 anyone around him. 00:22:36.840 --> 00:22:41.480 And in a sense, even the ability in a city like Edinburgh for us to say all collectively 00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:45.799 agree no matter what we believe in, a man cannot go around the city just doing whatever 00:22:45.799 --> 00:22:51.039 he wants, speaking to a woman even, even using his words to do whatever he wants. 00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:57.920 Tom says, is fundamentally because of Christianity, fundamentally, that that is not normal in 00:22:57.920 --> 00:23:02.400 Greco-Roman society, that is not normal in the ancient Near Eastern nations. 00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:08.680 And so here we see how much our society owes its life and values to Christianity. 00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:14.320 And it starts right here, God separates Israel from the nations and says, don't be like everybody 00:23:14.320 --> 00:23:15.920 else, be holy. 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:20.160 And it's just basically the 10 commandments, which have become completely normal for almost 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:21.160 all of us. 00:23:21.160 --> 00:23:22.160 All right, that's the first thing. 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:26.200 The second thing, and final thing, I just want to point out. 00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:30.519 The second application, the New Testament, when you come to the New Testament, it quotes 00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:35.840 these quotes we read, be holy as I am holy, for I am the Lord your God. 00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:42.079 So we have a direct quotation in the New Testament of this 1 Peter 1.16. 00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:48.959 So Peter comes and says, Christians in exile, living in the pagan Roman Empire, 1 Peter 00:23:48.959 --> 00:23:53.959 1.16, be holy as I am holy. 00:23:53.959 --> 00:24:00.359 So this is Peter quoting from Leviticus to say that the same thing applies in the New 00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:02.159 Testament, you shall be holy. 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:07.759 So it's very simple and we'll wrap up, but when you've experienced the grace of atonement 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:13.360 in your lives, when you've experienced the true day of atonement through the Lord Jesus 00:24:13.360 --> 00:24:17.759 Christ, you have now been set apart from the nations. 00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:20.480 Be holy as I am holy. 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:22.800 Be the image of God, take on the character of God. 00:24:22.800 --> 00:24:29.759 And so as I was preparing for this, again, anytime you study holiness, you're 100% convicted. 00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:30.880 You have to be. 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:32.040 You have to be. 00:24:32.039 --> 00:24:37.440 Because the command is have that possess the character of God into this world because you've 00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:39.200 been set apart. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:43.720 And so we've got to say, I need to come underneath this command tonight and think about all the 00:24:43.720 --> 00:24:46.480 ways in which my life is not holy. 00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:47.480 I'm not holy. 00:24:47.480 --> 00:24:49.279 I am like the nations. 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:53.359 I'm pursuing things from my heart out to my hands. 00:24:53.359 --> 00:24:59.319 It starts the desires out to the hands in ways that are not following the character of God. 00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:03.799 So let me give you three things to close and I'm just going to list them about how to pursue 00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:08.679 holiness in your life, something, a couple of things to think about. 00:25:08.679 --> 00:25:11.279 The first is this. 00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:16.759 Holiness is not fundamentally about rules and law. 00:25:16.759 --> 00:25:22.000 Holiness is underneath this law code. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:25.000 Holiness is a posture of the heart. 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:30.799 It is a love for God from top to bottom. 00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:34.400 It's a utter devotion to the Lord. 00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:35.940 That's what holiness actually is. 00:25:35.940 --> 00:25:42.839 So it's when your heart is so utterly devoted to the Lord that your hands look like that. 00:25:42.839 --> 00:25:45.359 Your behavior looks like that. 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:46.759 It flows from the inside outside. 00:25:46.759 --> 00:25:50.920 So we see this really clearly right in the sermon on the mount. 00:25:50.920 --> 00:25:52.920 Here's an example. 00:25:52.920 --> 00:25:57.279 Holiness is not a plea for money, but it's just an example. 00:25:57.279 --> 00:25:58.279 Giving, you think about giving. 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:00.480 So in the Old Testament, there's a tithe, 10%. 00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:01.800 Give 10% of your tithe. 00:26:01.800 --> 00:26:07.720 In the New Testament, the tithe is abrogated or fulfilled and replaced by the concept of 00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:08.720 generosity. 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:14.720 So in the New Testament, we do not have any more a direct command that says, give 10%. 00:26:14.720 --> 00:26:16.279 We're going to check on that. 00:26:16.279 --> 00:26:19.320 Instead, it's just be generous. 00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:28.200 And why? because if you come and say, how much do I have to give to the work of the 00:26:28.200 --> 00:26:33.759 Lord, to the ministry, then immediately you've revealed, we've revealed in that question 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:37.599 that we're not yet prepared to say, I'm utterly devoted to the things of the Lord. 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:39.480 I'm utterly, utterly, truly. 00:26:39.480 --> 00:26:42.839 No, instead, how can I be generous to the point of sacrifice? 00:26:42.839 --> 00:26:48.119 There's no tithe in the New Testament because the tithe says you must give 10%. 00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:52.599 But after you've experienced the gospel of Jesus, we no longer say, I must give 10%. 00:26:52.599 --> 00:26:55.599 We say, I just want to be generous. 00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:58.839 So there's holiness that comes out of the bottom of the heart. 00:26:58.839 --> 00:27:06.839 The second thing, the holiness of the heart is only possible if you've come in by grace. 00:27:06.839 --> 00:27:12.719 So the holiness code can only be observed truly if you've come in through the day of 00:27:12.719 --> 00:27:17.599 atonement, the real one, the full one, Jesus Christ's day of atonement, the day of atonement 00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:20.799 that's been offered through the Lamb of God. 00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:31.399 In other words, our hearts cannot follow the law of God because without grace we will always 00:27:31.399 --> 00:27:35.159 lack love for God from the bottom. 00:27:35.159 --> 00:27:43.480 Another way to say it is if you try to be holy by simply practicing the law that God's 00:27:43.480 --> 00:27:46.119 given you, the 10 commandments. 00:27:46.119 --> 00:27:49.879 You are practicing holiness for holiness sake. 00:27:49.879 --> 00:27:55.079 So you're actually obeying the law for the sake of the law. 00:27:55.079 --> 00:27:58.599 And instead, you've got to come through grace. 00:27:58.599 --> 00:28:02.959 In other words, you've got to have experienced God's love for you, utter devotion for you 00:28:02.959 --> 00:28:07.639 before you can ever have utter devotion for God in every area of life. 00:28:07.639 --> 00:28:13.359 So the day of atonement, that's why the day of atonement precedes the law giving here. 00:28:13.359 --> 00:28:20.079 And in the same way in the book of Exodus, Israel does not go to Sinai and then cross 00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:23.359 the Red Sea. 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:27.079 The only way you ever get to Sinai is if you've passed through the Red Sea. 00:28:27.079 --> 00:28:32.279 In other words, you have to have already gone under the waters of death and up from the waters 00:28:32.279 --> 00:28:37.439 of death into salvation before you ever get to Mount Sinai and hear the 10 commandments. 00:28:37.439 --> 00:28:41.079 Otherwise, it's a gospel that's not good news at all. 00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:43.000 It's just get your life better. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:44.200 Be holy. 00:28:44.200 --> 00:28:45.640 Do better than you have then. 00:28:45.640 --> 00:28:48.599 And then maybe I'll let you pass through the Red Sea with me. 00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:51.960 Now we passed through the Red Sea and then we come to Mount Sinai. 00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:56.599 We passed through the day of atonement and then we come to the holiness code. 00:28:56.599 --> 00:29:00.759 Only if you've experienced the grace of Jesus Christ to the bottom of your soul and seeing 00:29:00.759 --> 00:29:04.960 how much Jesus has devoted to you, can you turn around and be devoted to him. 00:29:04.960 --> 00:29:06.279 And that's real holiness. 00:29:06.279 --> 00:29:07.279 That's real holiness. 00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:08.279 All right. 00:29:08.279 --> 00:29:12.880 Lastly, just a quick little note on some very practical things. 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:20.760 Oh, third, holiness means that law is good. 00:29:20.760 --> 00:29:23.760 God's law is good, not bad. 00:29:23.760 --> 00:29:25.320 The law convicts us. 00:29:25.320 --> 00:29:26.320 Grace heals us. 00:29:26.320 --> 00:29:28.040 And then we go back to the law again to learn. 00:29:28.040 --> 00:29:31.400 This is what it means to reflect God's character in my life. 00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:34.280 The law is good, not bad. 00:29:34.280 --> 00:29:40.560 Grace does not free us from God's law, but frees us into it. 00:29:40.559 --> 00:29:43.720 Grace frees us from the impossibility of obeying God's law. 00:29:43.720 --> 00:29:48.879 And so frees us to step inside of it and live out of it, actually. 00:29:48.879 --> 00:29:53.960 So the Levitical Ethical Code here is reconstituted for us in the Sermon on the Mount in the 00:29:53.960 --> 00:29:54.960 New Testament. 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:58.839 So so much of what we read here is found in Jesus' words in the New Testament. 00:29:58.839 --> 00:30:01.079 And so the last thing is this. 00:30:01.079 --> 00:30:08.639 That means that, I know, I think that for us modern Christians in a great city like this, 00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:16.200 a very modern city like this, probably one of the biggest holes to quote Kevin DeYoung's 00:30:16.200 --> 00:30:24.200 book title, holes in our holiness, is that we tend to play down the role of law in our 00:30:24.200 --> 00:30:26.560 Christian lives. 00:30:26.560 --> 00:30:29.720 And we just don't take it that seriously. 00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:36.120 So we're all grace to the point of actually neglecting the call to be holy sometimes. 00:30:36.120 --> 00:30:38.600 And it is all grace. 00:30:38.599 --> 00:30:43.480 And there's a call for those of us who experience that grace to be holy. 00:30:43.480 --> 00:30:48.679 And that I just love John Owen's line is one you can always keep in your back pocket. 00:30:48.679 --> 00:30:54.319 Be killing sin unless it be killing you. 00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:56.439 Kill sin or it's going to kill you. 00:30:56.439 --> 00:30:57.439 Right. 00:30:57.439 --> 00:30:58.839 Mortify your sins. 00:30:58.839 --> 00:31:00.359 It's a command. 00:31:00.359 --> 00:31:03.039 Be holy as I am holy. 00:31:03.039 --> 00:31:08.359 Lastly, don't lose heart when you sin. 00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:10.759 Don't give up the fight against your sin. 00:31:10.759 --> 00:31:14.959 So there will be folks in this room tonight, in a room this size, even though we're smaller 00:31:14.959 --> 00:31:20.879 in number today, that are absolutely all of us to some degree, but some of us very specifically 00:31:20.879 --> 00:31:27.559 struggling with sin patterns that have been there that we've felt like we've lost to a 00:31:27.559 --> 00:31:30.879 long time ago and can't get past. 00:31:30.879 --> 00:31:32.959 Don't lose heart. 00:31:32.959 --> 00:31:36.119 Today is the day to fight that sin, to kill your sin. 00:31:36.119 --> 00:31:41.079 Even if you've lost to it every single day for the last 25 years or however long, today 00:31:41.079 --> 00:31:45.119 is the day to start killing that sin, to start fighting that sin. 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:49.759 C.S. Lewis wrote a letter to a friend of his, and I've truly got to stop. 00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:56.000 C.S. Lewis wrote a letter to a friend of his, and he confessed in that letter a sin that 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:01.000 had surprised him that he had committed after he had come to faith in Christ. 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:08.799 And he wrote in the letter that even though he was shocked at his own behavior, that he 00:32:08.799 --> 00:32:13.319 had been strengthened by the fact that he had just written the screw-table letters, in 00:32:13.319 --> 00:32:15.920 fact, about all the ways Satan can come and tempt him. 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:17.079 And so this is what he said. 00:32:17.079 --> 00:32:23.799 He said, I feel grateful that the enemy has been driven to resort to stratagems to defeat 00:32:23.799 --> 00:32:24.799 me. 00:32:24.799 --> 00:32:31.440 He used to walk boldly up to me for a full frontal attack in the face of all my guns. 00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:33.359 That doesn't work anymore. 00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:36.240 Now he has to use clever strategies to get to me. 00:32:36.240 --> 00:32:37.240 So he's saying he did. 00:32:37.240 --> 00:32:38.240 He got me. 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:39.240 I send in a way that it surprised me. 00:32:39.240 --> 00:32:41.399 I didn't see the temptation coming. 00:32:41.399 --> 00:32:46.519 But he said, but I do know that I used to just dive right in. 00:32:46.519 --> 00:32:48.279 And now it doesn't work anymore in me. 00:32:48.279 --> 00:32:49.839 My desires have changed. 00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:50.839 Right? 00:32:50.839 --> 00:32:55.679 So he said that the more you kill your sin, the more you kill it, whatever it is that 00:32:55.679 --> 00:33:00.240 you struggle with, the less tempting it will be over time. 00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:02.240 That's how it works. 00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:04.959 Kill your sin lest it be killing you. 00:33:04.959 --> 00:33:05.959 Let's pray. 00:33:05.959 --> 00:33:11.799 Father, we thank you for the holiness code and we ask that you would teach us to be holy. 00:33:11.799 --> 00:33:13.919 So give us a desire to be like you. 00:33:13.919 --> 00:33:14.919 We pray in Christ's name. 00:33:14.920 --> 00:33:20.920 Amen.