back to index2018-09-05 Wed Bible Study: Leviticus 20
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If you would take your Bibles please and head over to Leviticus Chapter 20. 00:00:19.320 |
I'm just going to read the first portion of it, Leviticus Chapter 20 verses 1 through 00:00:34.560 |
And the Word of God says, "Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'You shall say to the 00:00:40.920 |
sons of Israel, 'Any man from the sons of Israel or from the alien sojourning in Israel 00:00:46.320 |
who gives any of his offspring to Molech shall surely be put to death. 00:00:51.120 |
The people of the land shall stone him with stones. 00:00:53.640 |
I will also set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people because 00:00:59.160 |
he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile my sanctuary and to profane 00:01:06.400 |
If the people of the land, however, should ever disregard that man when he gives any 00:01:11.140 |
of his offspring to Molech, so as not to put him to death, then I myself will set my face 00:01:19.800 |
I will cut him off from among their people, both him and all those who play harlot after 00:01:29.580 |
So today we're in our continuing study of Leviticus and at Chapter 20 there is an incredible 00:01:36.360 |
like intensity of the tone as we start this chapter. 00:01:41.560 |
By way of quick review, in Leviticus Chapter 18, much of the command was concerning the 00:01:50.440 |
holiness of the people and God going over various sexual perversions, calling the people 00:01:56.700 |
to purity, to abstain from everything from the list of incest, homosexuality, bestiality, 00:02:03.600 |
and all the other types of sexual perversions there were. 00:02:07.680 |
And then in Chapter 19, which was the last time, we talked about a holiness that perhaps 00:02:15.160 |
We talked about the holiness that really comes from personal and national moral qualities, 00:02:22.400 |
namely to have actual mercy, to have a kind of characteristic where you care beyond yourself 00:02:28.920 |
but you're actually seeking the benefit of the people around you, being both equitable, 00:02:37.680 |
In Chapter 20, what's really interesting is that most of the sins or most of the prohibitions 00:02:44.680 |
that you see in this chapter were already seen in Chapter 18, 19. 00:02:49.160 |
It's just that it's actually reiterating them with the emphasis on the consequences, on 00:02:56.840 |
And that's why already as you notice when we read, there was an incredible intensity 00:03:02.480 |
to the section where God says, "You must execute judgment on this individual. 00:03:14.480 |
So as you take a look at this first section, we look at this first verse or first section 00:03:25.120 |
of the passage that we're studying and there's a lot going on there. 00:03:29.320 |
So I'm going to read it for us one more time. 00:03:32.460 |
It says again, "But the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'You shall also say to the sons of 00:03:36.440 |
Israel, 'Any man from the sons of Israel or from the alien sojourning in Israel who gives 00:03:42.260 |
any of his offering to Molech shall surely be put to death.'" 00:03:47.080 |
And we're going to notice that that phrase has appeared many times. 00:03:50.880 |
"The people of the land shall stone him with stones. 00:03:53.800 |
I will also set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people because 00:03:59.680 |
he has given some of his offering to Molech so as to defile my sanctuary, to profane my 00:04:06.880 |
If the people of the land, however, should ever disregard that man when he gives any 00:04:11.100 |
of his offering to Molech so as not to put him to death, then I myself will set my face 00:04:16.480 |
against that man and against his family and will cut him off from among their people, 00:04:23.280 |
both him and all those who play the harlot after him." 00:04:29.480 |
The reason why I read that again is because that pattern of defining the sin and then 00:04:35.960 |
requiring the community of God to recognize it and actually carry out the judgment and 00:04:41.360 |
then really giving the warning of what that would entail for the community is then now 00:04:45.920 |
going to be repeated through the rest of the chapter. 00:04:56.800 |
So what we notice is that infant sacrifice and idol worship was heinous in the eyes of 00:05:06.760 |
The blank there for you is simply "must be punished." 00:05:14.920 |
The idea and running theme of the chapter emphasizes this necessity of judgment, okay? 00:05:22.800 |
Now this kind of thing is not something brand new to us, but there's such a crucial emphasis 00:05:30.540 |
What I mean by that is that phrase "must surely be put to death" and that theme is repeated 00:05:39.680 |
What's more, there is that accentuation of the need and necessity for judgment. 00:05:51.080 |
It's because he says that if the community does not, you know, have concern for this 00:05:58.240 |
man but rather is in neglect and they do not carry out the judgment, then God Himself 00:06:03.920 |
would perform that judgment on him and his whole family. 00:06:09.560 |
So then it now gets even worse because the judgment is beyond just that one individual. 00:06:15.720 |
And so there is something, again, really interesting about that because then that means the burden 00:06:20.300 |
of the sin is actually shared by the family who are presumably in the closest proximity 00:06:29.920 |
There's already just an assumption that the individuals who are going to be sharing 00:06:33.880 |
the responsibility for that person to turn around is actually the family. 00:06:39.600 |
I do believe this is actually in tune with the New Testament, is it not? 00:06:44.440 |
That those of you who are spiritual, those of you who are close, those of you who are 00:06:48.720 |
more mature in the faith, that you should first give attention to yourself and then 00:06:53.200 |
seek, pursue to turn an individual around from their sin. 00:07:00.200 |
Now, we have to say definitely there's a caveat, right? 00:07:04.280 |
Here it's not talking about just turning that person around. 00:07:09.240 |
What's emphatic is here it is the responsibility of the community to execute the individual, 00:07:16.760 |
to take stones in their hands and to throw it to crush the person to death. 00:07:21.960 |
I mean, just take a moment to think about how intense that is. 00:07:26.120 |
And if you were receiving these words from a scary mountain, because the context is they're 00:07:31.680 |
The mountain was on fire, it was covered in smoke, it was like a volcano, there was thunder 00:07:36.720 |
and lightning and God spoke from the mountain, gave words through Moses to the people. 00:07:42.200 |
And he says, "Because of certain sins, there's going to be death and I want you to carry 00:07:50.760 |
Now, obviously God is not calling us to like vigilante ministry where it's our job to go 00:07:56.320 |
slap the guy or punish the guy who's sinning, right? 00:08:01.000 |
The New Testament teaches us that vengeance is in God's hands, that the anger of man does 00:08:07.080 |
However, what's very clear is God does expect the community to be able to discern what is 00:08:13.000 |
right, what is wrong, and then to be able to enforce it within their own community. 00:08:18.800 |
And so, the next point is, sorry, he places the responsibility, okay? 00:08:27.080 |
He places the responsibility of punishing any man guilty of infant sacrifice or adultery 00:08:33.200 |
upon the hands of the people while he still enacts his own judgment as well. 00:08:39.720 |
In this section, God says, "The people of the land shall stone him." 00:08:44.500 |
God could have instantaneously and immediately, miraculously judged the individual by taking 00:08:49.960 |
away his breath, but he says he wants the community to do it. 00:08:54.880 |
But what's more, he says that he too will enact that judgment by saying he's going to 00:09:03.040 |
Here's an interesting passage from a previous section of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 18. 00:09:08.120 |
God clearly said and taught the nation, "You are to perform my judgments and keep my statues 00:09:19.080 |
So here's a moment for us to pause and to think about this, that for us in our Christian 00:09:26.720 |
maturity, God does absolutely expect every single one of us as a believer to have that 00:09:33.840 |
moral standard according to and accurately to God's standard. 00:09:38.920 |
And it is for us, by the renewing of our minds to exercise the discretion. 00:09:47.280 |
And then God has taught us, "You speak the truth in love." 00:09:53.240 |
And then God has taught us, "You go to restore the individual." 00:09:58.400 |
And so here's another passage for you from Herod's chapter 5 verse 14 that talks about 00:10:02.880 |
maturity, "But solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses 00:10:12.480 |
That we have to have both our assessment of certain circumstances, the actions of ourselves 00:10:19.140 |
and of the people around us to be able to have that discretion. 00:10:26.960 |
And your responsibility is all the more implicit in this passage because what you notice is 00:10:34.460 |
that this chapter as you read it is not written to would-be or potential sinners like chapter 00:10:41.900 |
What I mean is chapter 18 is like, "No, you shall not do this." 00:11:03.180 |
But here it's more so that individual needs to be judged so that there be no sin in your 00:11:13.700 |
And this very much correlates to what we find in the New Testament when it comes to 1 Corinthians 00:11:20.420 |
It's a lengthy passage but I'd like us to read it together so please turn there in your 00:11:34.060 |
So I don't have it on the screen but please look on your Bibles. 00:11:37.060 |
And I'm going to start reading from verse 1 so please listen and follow along. 00:11:40.740 |
It says, "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, an immorality of 00:11:45.820 |
such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles that someone has his father's wife. 00:11:53.260 |
You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead so that the one who had done this 00:12:04.220 |
For I on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him 00:12:08.700 |
who has committed this as though I were present. 00:12:12.100 |
In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled and I wish you in the spirit with 00:12:16.580 |
the power of the Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction 00:12:21.940 |
of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus. 00:12:28.860 |
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 00:12:32.780 |
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump just as you are in fact unleavened. 00:12:38.180 |
For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 00:12:41.860 |
Therefore let us celebrate the feast not with old leaven nor with the leaven of malice or 00:12:45.340 |
wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 00:12:49.740 |
I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people. 00:12:54.340 |
I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world or with the covetous and swindlers 00:13:00.860 |
For then you would have to go out of the world. 00:13:03.300 |
But actually I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral 00:13:08.580 |
person or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a swindler, not even to eat 00:13:15.780 |
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? 00:13:18.380 |
Do you not judge those who are within the church? 00:13:24.820 |
Remove the wicked man from among yourselves." 00:13:32.100 |
That's an incredible passage that really kind of sobers you up like, whoa, right? 00:13:38.000 |
But it was the exact same sentiment that Apostle Paul had the same expectation as the Lord 00:13:46.600 |
And the sentiment isn't so much that, "Hey, you've got to be so righteous you have a zero 00:13:55.300 |
But what he was saying is, "You don't care enough. 00:14:05.100 |
Perhaps you are thinking more so of your own comfort that you did not go to speak to this 00:14:12.680 |
You said, 'Yeah, he's that, but I'm not, so I'm okay.' 00:14:21.020 |
And as a matter of fact, if we're so concerned with ourselves, he actually says, "You are 00:14:28.900 |
And in my mind, arrogant people and boastful people are the most cowardice because they 00:14:38.860 |
Sometimes we don't want to get involved with the sins of other people because we fear losing 00:14:47.500 |
We have an automatic self-defensive, self-preserving mentality when it comes to getting involved 00:14:57.300 |
It's like, something's going down and your parents go, "No, no, just go, go, go." 00:15:06.220 |
Well, maybe when you are just trying to survive, maybe when you're in a certain environment 00:15:12.820 |
where, again, you have no business getting involved, but when it comes to the church 00:15:17.300 |
and the community of God, when it comes to your people, God says, "You need to care 00:15:24.180 |
Or do you despise that individual that you're not seeking to restore him? 00:15:34.580 |
That we talked about, A, we all need to have the discernment to be able to say, "Hey, 00:15:41.340 |
by conviction of the Word of God accurately, very accurately, this is against His will." 00:15:48.580 |
But also to have that desire to pursue the individual and say, "I'm willing to get 00:15:58.020 |
Now, we ask the question then, the reason why this is so intense and the reason why 00:16:07.740 |
We have to ask the question, "My goodness, earlier there were different kinds of laws 00:16:13.180 |
pertaining to equity and fairness and balance, and then some of these sins that we see within 00:16:21.860 |
the passage, we're going to read it in a little bit, but you're going to notice like, 00:16:25.540 |
'Hey, yeah, I can see why it's so bad, but others of them, not so much.'" 00:16:37.280 |
And the reason why is because, A, or one, the sin that God is talking about here has 00:16:47.940 |
That's the rationale that God gives for many of these instances. 00:16:51.780 |
He says, "When you do this, you defile my sanctuary and you profane my holy name." 00:16:57.900 |
So there's an element here, it's God takes what we do as a community very personally, 00:17:09.120 |
Like he takes it personally, like, "Oh," it's like you did it directly to him, and an individual 00:17:14.080 |
might be like, "Oh, no, no, no, no, I wasn't straight up trying to rebel against you," 00:17:23.440 |
Is because when the people of God, especially pertaining to the sins of worshiping Moloch, 00:17:31.120 |
and later on it talks about going to mediums and spirits, and later on it's going to talk 00:17:35.640 |
about sexual perversions, God says, "What you do in that moment is rebel against my 00:17:41.620 |
very presence," because right now they're in the context where God in the book of Exodus, 00:17:50.220 |
God in the book of Exodus met them, revealed his glory, covered in the cloud, and then 00:18:00.180 |
Exodus 25.8 says, "Let them construct a sanctuary for me that I may dwell among them." 00:18:12.780 |
God's intention was that his very presence would be seen, evidenced, experienced, and 00:18:22.020 |
In the Old Testament, it's covered, the glory is covered, right? 00:18:25.900 |
But nonetheless, the intention of God is revealed. 00:18:29.300 |
And so, when the people of God persist in these idolatries, when the people of God go 00:18:35.300 |
to Moloch, when the people of God go to mediums, when the people of God go to perversions of 00:18:40.300 |
sexuality, what they do is they strive against God's intention to be one with his people. 00:18:47.100 |
And we're going to talk more about that in a little bit, but just keep that in mind, 00:18:52.500 |
that the reason why the punishment is escalated to capital punishment is because God has taken 00:18:59.620 |
it personally as a rejection of his intent to be one with his people. 00:19:19.860 |
Take a look at the text here, and in verse six through eight, the word of God says, "As 00:19:24.500 |
for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, 00:19:29.820 |
I will also set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. 00:19:35.580 |
You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. 00:19:40.700 |
You shall keep my statutes and practice them. 00:19:46.420 |
What's more, in verse 27, way down at the end of the chapter, he talks about the same 00:19:53.420 |
concept and he says, "Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely 00:20:06.580 |
As we take a look at that, the simple truths are there that both the conjurer, okay, the 00:20:11.860 |
person who is the medium, and the person who uses their services are guilty and therefore 00:20:20.020 |
They're worthy of capital punishment is what the Lord says. 00:20:23.220 |
So here's another instance where we ask, like, "Oh, we get it?" 00:20:27.140 |
Because God is spirit, he does not condone any consulting with demons, any consulting 00:20:34.380 |
with other spirits, fake spirits, whatever it may be. 00:20:46.660 |
And to tell you truthfully, it's not so far-fetched from when people seek mediums and spirits 00:20:59.860 |
The medium literally is just an intermediary, okay, meaning he's a channeler. 00:21:05.220 |
He communicates on behalf of the people, okay, to dead spirits. 00:21:14.540 |
And when you think about that, then the people are going to that medium so that they could 00:21:22.660 |
Many people try to consult spirits, especially ancient spirits, so that they could predict 00:21:28.340 |
They can talk about what can I expect in terms of the success of my endeavor, the business, 00:21:34.540 |
The next one, we have that people have this practice of seeking blessing from their ancestors. 00:21:41.020 |
You know, the idea of like, "Oh, Father, look down on us, have grace," right? 00:21:45.780 |
As they look to their ancestors who are before them, "You know what it means to suffer. 00:21:52.380 |
There are individuals who seek protection from these spirits, right? 00:21:56.460 |
To say that they have a shroud of, you know, even this mentality that there's just this 00:22:00.660 |
like entire mass of people who've gone before us and died, who are watching over our steps, 00:22:06.700 |
and in specific cases when they intervene into our lives to protect us from danger and 00:22:13.700 |
And then lastly, there are many individuals who look fondly at these mediums, or not fondly, 00:22:19.420 |
but try to pursue it and then look fondly at this practice because they want to regain 00:22:27.820 |
Individuals who clung so tightly to their family, and when the patriarch or matriarch 00:22:32.260 |
or whoever is the leader leaves, they want to cling back and regain that power that they 00:22:36.260 |
had or whatever it may be, and that's why they look to these things. 00:22:41.620 |
But if you think about it then, when you take a look at those things that I highlighted, 00:22:46.380 |
future blessings, you know, seeking the blessings and protection, what we can conclude is it 00:22:51.460 |
looks like the people are looking for a deliverer, looking for life solutions, looking for a 00:22:57.620 |
rest from suffering, looking for a savior, a deliverer from their hard times, looking 00:23:06.400 |
So all coming back and connecting it to this, we said God takes it very personally when 00:23:12.820 |
people consult Moloch, when people consult mediums. 00:23:17.860 |
Absolutely so, because when we think about what they're seeking, they're seeking another 00:23:23.340 |
person who will provide what God only provides, and that's why God sees the sin of seeking 00:23:28.500 |
those things from mediums as adultery, as adultery. 00:23:34.220 |
God sees the sin of offering anything to Moloch, let alone precious babies, but anything to 00:23:38.660 |
Moloch as absolute harlotry, absolute harlotry. 00:23:44.180 |
And so for us, we take a moment to think about this, and there's some applications for us. 00:23:50.300 |
Now, we may not be specifically going to Moloch, and we may not be going to mediums. 00:23:58.940 |
However, the pursuit can be something we sympathize with, right? 00:24:04.220 |
The pursuit of the deliverer, the mediator, the savior, the provider, the help, the rest, 00:24:12.660 |
That is something that many people actually have a very difficult time with, and we have 00:24:20.260 |
We have to make sure we understand God's heart. 00:24:32.860 |
And then, to have the people say, "We've already got somebody else." 00:24:42.220 |
Of course he's going to be livid, and then he's going to judge. 00:24:51.660 |
And they're in a context right now, in the context of the scene where they're at, where 00:25:00.820 |
You're going to be my people, and we're going to have this relationship. 00:25:05.260 |
But that's what the people are sinning against, and that's why it's so severe. 00:25:09.220 |
So I just want to make sure that we kind of feel the brunt of that, because the terminology 00:25:14.540 |
then that God uses is not simply, "You're making a mistake," which sometimes we downplay. 00:25:20.220 |
We're not simply doing what everybody else does, going through life, making our mistakes, 00:25:27.660 |
But God says, "I see it like wicked flirtation with the gross world. 00:25:32.780 |
I see it like unfaithfulness, hearts of cheaters, seeking approval, affection from the basings 00:25:39.660 |
And what's worse, God will call it prostitution." 00:25:43.580 |
And he calls it, "You are whoring yourself after Mullen, seeking his blessing. 00:25:53.620 |
An ultimate last-ditch effort to be blessed by Mullen. 00:26:00.780 |
And at this point now, I want to say a couple other things about this, because there is 00:26:07.740 |
an element of we have to understand the heart of God. 00:26:12.360 |
It almost seems a bit of a dangerous area that I'm going into now, but I'm going to 00:26:16.900 |
ask the question, have you ever wondered how sad God was during this time? 00:26:23.280 |
Have you ever wondered in our day, when we come to church and it's just like, we have 00:26:28.300 |
certain moments where we're like, "Oh man, I hit a plateau. 00:26:41.380 |
Have you ever in those moments, took a moment to ask, "How sad is God?" 00:26:50.660 |
God is not a God that's like us, insecure and wondering, "Oh my goodness, what's going 00:26:59.860 |
But God is grieved when the ones he loves reject him, feel apathetic towards him, and 00:27:06.900 |
does not reciprocate the kind of love he shows. 00:27:11.140 |
I feel like just in this chapter, when you read the law, you can hear God's heart. 00:27:18.140 |
Because he says certain things which perhaps come off with high emotion. 00:27:28.140 |
You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. 00:27:34.380 |
When you read it, did you read it like, "I am the Lord your God. 00:27:41.100 |
Or did you read it like, "Do not chase after the idols. 00:27:51.820 |
You shall keep my statutes and practice them, because I'm the one who sanctifies you." 00:27:59.540 |
He says, "You are therefore to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them, 00:28:03.900 |
so the land of which I am bringing you to will not spew you out. 00:28:07.700 |
Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nations, which I will drive out before 00:28:14.700 |
I'm going to drive out the people before you. 00:28:15.700 |
"For they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. 00:28:20.260 |
Hence I said to you, you are to possess their land, and I myself will give it to you to 00:28:30.980 |
Do you think he's saying, "I'm going to bless you with this wonderful land. 00:28:43.540 |
You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal, the unclean, between the 00:28:49.500 |
You shall not make yourself detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps 00:28:54.060 |
on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean. 00:29:01.620 |
"Because I am, so I the holy, sorry, I the Lord am holy, and I have set you apart from 00:29:15.540 |
God saw his people, the whole congregation of people, as a precious possession for him. 00:29:22.860 |
And his love is being poured out in every single fashion to protect them, guard them, 00:29:27.580 |
lead them, and then ultimately sanctify them. 00:29:29.860 |
He says, "I'm the one who's going to bless you. 00:29:35.500 |
I'm the one who's going to cause you to prosper." 00:29:38.180 |
And you look to Molech asking him to bless you? 00:29:42.180 |
You go to your mediums asking them to deliver you? 00:29:56.080 |
Is that the sacrifice to Molech and the horrible practice of sacrificing infants to babies 00:30:02.820 |
and the idol worship of this unreal God clearly was existence in this time. 00:30:11.700 |
At this time, it was about 1445 BC, and king after king after king, the vast majority of 00:30:27.380 |
Did you know even King Solomon near the latter half of his reign, he set up a high place 00:30:35.420 |
Did you know kings like Ahaz and Manasseh and all these people, they all sacrificed 00:30:45.300 |
From this time to then when King Josiah reformed that and said, "Dude, get rid of that high 00:30:50.340 |
That's 900 years of unfaithfulness, rejection. 00:30:57.260 |
Have we ever considered how God feels about that? 00:31:02.900 |
Because to tell you truthfully, I felt so rebuked because there was a sentiment when 00:31:07.380 |
I said, "Oh man, clearly this chapter is all about death. 00:31:14.460 |
And then when I read like, "Oh, when a man sleeps with just a woman who happens to be 00:31:20.520 |
on her cycle or like an individual uncovers the body of somebody and then he says, "They 00:31:26.980 |
As a matter of fact, burn both of them, right? 00:31:32.380 |
But then once I started thinking, "How does God feel though?" 00:31:35.980 |
It really challenged my sense of, "This is inappropriate." 00:31:40.180 |
It really challenged my sense of what is appropriate judgment and not. 00:31:44.100 |
And as we get into that question of what is appropriate and not, I want us to think about 00:31:48.420 |
this, the heart of idolatry and what God is actually judging. 00:31:54.180 |
I want us to remember, lest we be like, "Well, I don't really go and worship Molech. 00:32:01.700 |
That's like, you know, ancestors before us, but we've completely let go of that, right?" 00:32:27.580 |
Remember that these things are created representations of our hopes and dreams, the Israelites' 00:32:34.140 |
Molech is their created solution to their problems that they see in their time. 00:32:38.620 |
Molech is their wishes and desires carved into wood. 00:32:42.380 |
Molech is their ultimate human attempt to acquire blessings on their terms. 00:32:51.940 |
Throughout generations and generations, there were always something. 00:32:55.100 |
Egyptians, powerful nations, mediums, alliances with superpowers, asterisk poles, whatever 00:33:05.660 |
And that's the conviction for us today in this passage. 00:33:10.060 |
I am willing to bet most of us struggle with these, you know, perhaps unnamed idols, which 00:33:17.560 |
we turn to as our dreams, hopes, solutions, wishes, desires, and blessings. 00:33:33.700 |
That idolatrous heart to seek the blessing outside of our Creator. 00:33:38.460 |
That idolatrous heart to seek that rest, satisfaction. 00:33:48.220 |
And yet so many times we reject Him and replace Him with something else. 00:33:52.140 |
That's what God is judging, and that's why it's so intense. 00:34:02.820 |
And that is why every sin is worthy of death. 00:34:09.260 |
And that is why God and before the Lord, there is no diminished small mistake of sins. 00:34:14.420 |
And there are no such things as, "Ah, everybody does it, so let's bypass this." 00:34:19.140 |
Every single sin before the Holy God is idolatrous. 00:34:26.180 |
And so I wanted to make sure that we understand that today. 00:34:29.500 |
Now going through the rest of the passage, we're going to speed up a little bit and take 00:34:35.540 |
And what's really interesting then is we see that that selfish heart, the heart seeking, 00:34:42.580 |
The heart lusting after that satisfaction, the fulfillment, and the hopes. 00:34:48.020 |
Most often it will present itself with sexual lust. 00:34:51.420 |
And that's what we were learning back in chapter 18, right? 00:34:54.700 |
We were learning that when a heart is selfish, maybe you're selfish with your time, you're 00:34:59.460 |
kind of selfish with your authority, you're selfish with your powers, meaning you use 00:35:04.100 |
You use all the privileges you have for yourself. 00:35:07.280 |
What you will find is that the way then it will typically express itself is through sexual 00:35:14.380 |
And so in the next sections we have lots of sins against family and crossing immoral lines 00:35:22.340 |
Now before we read the entire section, I want to say this. 00:35:26.780 |
When we read the law of God, we are going to see his heart is kind of what we were looking 00:35:32.260 |
at earlier, but we're also going to see God's value system, right? 00:35:37.620 |
When you look at the law of the land, you are going to understand that land's values, 00:35:49.160 |
And that's why if an individual is guilty of the felony of laundering money, you know, 00:35:55.300 |
if they're guilty of taking finances and putting it into other countries or even actual cash 00:36:00.840 |
and mishandling currency, did you know that the typical sentence can range from a minimum 00:36:06.100 |
10 years to a maximum of 20, 30, 40 years, depending on how big the infraction, some 00:36:12.320 |
people have mounted like multiple lifetime sentences, right? 00:36:16.260 |
But did you know that in America, the average person who is guilty of rape, convicted and 00:36:19.660 |
tried and guilty, typically only serves six years. 00:36:24.100 |
The average sentence that's give out is about nine years. 00:36:27.580 |
Now the thing about it is you're just like, what? 00:36:31.500 |
But there's a sense to which, yeah, the voice or the value, so to speak. 00:36:35.940 |
And so that law of the land kind of shows you what are certain things that the people 00:36:45.220 |
Well, when we look at this, then we have the majority of this chapter and then now repeating 00:36:50.100 |
chapter 18 and other sections, you know, it's going to come up again, talking about these 00:36:55.200 |
infractions, perversions of sexuality and against the family as well. 00:37:00.180 |
So that's kind of intro to this next section. 00:37:02.940 |
First, there is sin of cursing the parents in verse nine and verse, oh, it's up there. 00:37:08.860 |
Verse nine reads, if there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely 00:37:23.340 |
Moving forward, the next section is verse 10 to verse 16. 00:37:28.900 |
And it says, if there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, so there's 00:37:32.260 |
adultery, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress 00:37:40.300 |
If there is a man who lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness. 00:37:49.840 |
If there is a man who lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. 00:37:58.040 |
If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have 00:38:08.940 |
If there is a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is immorality. 00:38:12.720 |
Both he and they shall be burned with fire so that there will be no immorality in your 00:38:18.940 |
If there is a man who lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death. 00:38:24.620 |
If there is a woman who approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman 00:38:28.380 |
and the animal, and they shall surely be put to death. 00:38:34.500 |
So within that passage, there's a lot going on there. 00:38:42.300 |
But we saw everything that, again, was repeated in the chapter 18, so I'm not going to go 00:38:47.180 |
But there was everything from adultery to incest, homosexuality, polygamy, bestiality. 00:38:54.300 |
And sometimes when we read this in our modern day, we're like, "My goodness, where is the 00:39:07.140 |
But in thinking about this, it's kind of like, "Wow, this has existed from long, long ago, 00:39:15.940 |
Why are these sexual perversions also punishable by death? 00:39:19.580 |
We mentioned this earlier, and we're going to say it again. 00:39:22.720 |
Sexual perversions destroy God's highly precious possession. 00:39:27.940 |
Earlier, we made the mention that the laws signify, at least point to us, what does He 00:39:36.900 |
And what He clearly values is the relationship, the purity of the relationships that we have. 00:39:43.360 |
God absolutely cares for the vertical relationships. 00:39:46.220 |
God actually values the horizontal relationships. 00:39:49.180 |
On all dimensions, God cares for the relational value that exists in all of us. 00:39:55.660 |
Because those relationships really mark us as bearing the image of God. 00:40:01.100 |
And so with that said, when we think about these sins where there is no care for these 00:40:06.100 |
relational values and relational purity, as a matter of fact, there's a selfishness of 00:40:12.900 |
going to even the cost of breaking friendships, even breaking the boundaries of family, breaking 00:40:19.580 |
the boundaries of what's natural, breaking the boundaries even of human to animal. 00:40:26.620 |
Here I just want to move a little bit quickly and say this. 00:40:30.660 |
In this moment then, one of the convictions we're going to have is the sins that we sometimes 00:40:36.300 |
presume to be individual and private, the sins that we presume are unseen and therefore 00:40:42.900 |
does not hurt anybody, is actually destructive relationally. 00:40:49.540 |
Is destructive, absolutely destructive on multiple levels. 00:40:54.260 |
Perhaps our rationale says certain things like, "Oh, but I need to escape. 00:41:01.140 |
No one's going to know and no one's going to care. 00:41:07.660 |
Rather, we recognize that within this context, what's going to happen when an individual 00:41:12.620 |
pursues daughter-in-law, individual pursues a friend's wife, individual pursues boundaries 00:41:18.980 |
that are not meant to be crossed, even if those sins are private, we're going to end 00:41:27.140 |
We're going to cheat people of their dignity. 00:41:29.620 |
We're going to sin against their character, and ultimately we are going to break the relational 00:41:36.780 |
So when we think about this then, we recognize that God absolutely takes these sins very 00:41:44.780 |
seriously, even if this world, this current generation, would be like, "Dude, that's 00:41:57.220 |
He takes these absolutely seriously, and in every one of those sections throughout this 00:42:07.100 |
He's called looking at people's nakedness a disgrace. 00:42:15.820 |
So moving quickly, I'm just going to pass this section here and go to some application. 00:42:21.500 |
Earlier, we talked about how we really want to see the heart of God, and I asked an interesting 00:42:29.140 |
question that perhaps sometimes we should think about even more regularly. 00:42:40.060 |
But here now, we should definitely think about our theology of what is sin and how does it 00:42:47.420 |
Application one, we have to make sure that we see every sin as a destroyer of our relationship 00:42:59.080 |
We have to remember that the severity of sin is in the context of God's covenant relationship. 00:43:07.320 |
We have to remember that our sins even against each other are on the context of family relationships. 00:43:13.580 |
We're absolutely brothers and sisters in Christ. 00:43:21.180 |
And so that's why I believe when God gives the punishment within this chapter, it fits 00:43:27.900 |
God regularly in the scriptures gives punishment that is what's what we call just desserts, 00:43:37.140 |
And then he just shoves them with the food in their mouth, right? 00:43:42.220 |
When they start complaining like, "Oh, we don't have this king." 00:43:46.700 |
They get a king and they abuse him, exploit them, and press them, right? 00:43:51.740 |
Well, likewise, when there is a breaking of the covenant, God says that I'm going to cut 00:43:57.500 |
you off from me and I'm going to cut you off from the people, right? 00:44:02.060 |
And in that way, God addresses that element of the relational consequence of the sins 00:44:09.340 |
And then secondly, as a second application, I just want to make mention of the fact that 00:44:13.780 |
for us, when we think about sometimes the more predominant sins that affect us in our 00:44:23.660 |
Yes, there's trying to, you know, not be honest, dishonest game. 00:44:31.020 |
But for this generation, there is a prevalence of sexual immorality that is attacking every 00:44:38.980 |
And with that said, I want us to make sure how the... 00:44:41.700 |
Like, at least see how these various passages in both chapter 18, 19, and now 20 is highlighting 00:44:48.020 |
for us that sexual sin is almost a surmounting fruit of the general selfishness that exists 00:44:57.580 |
And so the general worldliness that we exhibit in our life, that's going to feed our sexual 00:45:03.460 |
There's a passage in scripture, 1 John chapter 2, it's up there for us now. 00:45:08.300 |
He says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. 00:45:11.140 |
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 00:45:14.340 |
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful 00:45:20.140 |
pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. 00:45:23.860 |
The world is passing away, and also its lusts." 00:45:30.340 |
I really feel like, you know, the fight against sexuality, or sexual immorality-wise, many 00:45:38.980 |
people feel like they're powerless and losing. 00:45:44.260 |
But the way I see it is, if you're at a point where the lust, the passions are strong, like, 00:45:51.580 |
you're probably at a point where that- let's describe sexual immorality as, like, an incredibly 00:45:57.540 |
buff monster, or a guy who's been working out. 00:46:02.500 |
Our selfishness, earlier what I mentioned, of our time, our self-interest with our thoughts, 00:46:07.220 |
our expectations of people serving us, our self-interest with our powers and resources, 00:46:12.580 |
that's like making that monster work out, you know, lift heavy, eat protein, and all 00:46:18.900 |
We're drinking the shake of our other selfishness. 00:46:21.700 |
And by the time we're facing sexual- temptations of sexual immorality, we're absolutely going 00:46:28.580 |
Because the scripture, when it talks about sexual lust, it talks about it in a way where 00:46:32.220 |
it reminds me, in Romans chapter 1, that there is these passions, these lusts that are degrading. 00:46:39.340 |
And even though they see the power of God, even though they see God as creation, that 00:46:43.020 |
lust is so strong, it's just plowing through that and saying, "I don't care, I want what 00:46:48.020 |
And if that's what God says, then I'll give you over to your lust, right? 00:46:53.220 |
The New Testament calls these passions epithumia, which is cravings, it's a hunger, it's a yearning. 00:47:00.780 |
And if it's been fed by selfishness, it's going to be so wrong and so strong, and that's 00:47:04.700 |
why so many people feel like, "I don't have the power to combat it." 00:47:09.260 |
So as a practical challenge to every single one of us, because the chapter had so much 00:47:13.280 |
to say about sexual lust, in the discussion we're going to revisit just, "Has there been 00:47:18.900 |
From chapter 18 to chapter 20, has there been any progress or movement, forward thinking? 00:47:27.780 |
And I want to say, don't just think about fighting sexual immorality head on, but think 00:47:35.180 |
Are you orienting your life on feeding yourself? 00:47:39.500 |
And the monster of sexual immorality is going to be so strong, of course you're going to 00:47:46.060 |
You know, I remember a time, you know, earlier on when I was, you know, like one of my first 00:47:50.820 |
sermons I gave, I remember using how I love cars as an example. 00:47:56.900 |
And so because I did that, I had some friends buy me subscriptions to car magazines for 00:48:03.120 |
It's like $30 for a one-year annual subscription. 00:48:06.700 |
You know, I'm like reading through it, only to realize this is filling the picture of 00:48:15.720 |
Because in order to have Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Bugattis, and all this kind of stuff, 00:48:23.100 |
You got to have millions, and you got to own stuff. 00:48:30.740 |
So if you have millions, you have mansions, and you have cars, guess what else fills that 00:48:36.140 |
I mean, do they have middle-aged, graying guys laying on the hood of the car saying 00:48:43.580 |
A woman in bikini laying on the top of the hood. 00:48:46.480 |
I remember thinking, "This is feeding my flesh." 00:48:49.720 |
I remember thinking, "It's just a car magazine. 00:48:53.840 |
I'm getting rid of every single one of these things. 00:49:00.440 |
Because it's filling the picture of the kingdom of Mark, and in the kingdom of Mark, I'm going 00:49:07.160 |
That's why sometimes fighting sexual morality seems so tough, because you're going against 00:49:14.200 |
You have to fight selfishness at its core towards idolatry, towards the pursuit of all 00:49:19.760 |
the things we talked about, the safety, the deliverer, the medium, whatever it may be, 00:49:27.280 |
A way of conclusion, I know I went a little long already, but I want to conclude by reading 00:49:31.680 |
again the section where God is reiterating His exhortation to be faithful to His command. 00:49:40.400 |
And this is what He says, "You are therefore to keep all My statutes and My ordinances 00:49:47.480 |
and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out. 00:49:53.840 |
Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation, which I will drive out before 00:49:58.080 |
you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them. 00:50:03.280 |
Hence I said to you, you are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to 00:50:09.600 |
possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey. 00:50:13.120 |
I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. 00:50:17.360 |
You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean animal, and 00:50:21.880 |
between the unclean bird and the clean, and you shall not make yourself testable by animal 00:50:27.280 |
or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as 00:50:32.680 |
Thus, you are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, I have set you apart from the 00:50:46.560 |
What's really interesting is thinking about the context again. 00:50:51.240 |
In context, they're standing on dirt, looking at desert in front of a mountain, not in a 00:51:00.380 |
What they need now most of all is to trust God's loving word. 00:51:04.200 |
You will be Mine, and that trust is going to cause them to be faithful. 00:51:15.760 |
Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much, God. 00:51:19.280 |
Surprising Lord, we feel like just looking at your law, we saw your heart, Lord, that 00:51:25.880 |
through your law, you are sparing your people, protecting your people. 00:51:31.480 |
And likewise, as you are a good Father, we recognize, Lord, you're showing us, Lord, 00:51:37.880 |
both the principles, the commands, but also the reason why. 00:51:44.880 |
And I pray, Father God, that we would understand it, and what's more, Lord, that we would respond 00:51:50.160 |
with love, with trust, and I desire, Father God, to follow you. 00:51:55.360 |
I pray for any individual here who feels far from you, Lord, today, God, that they 00:52:01.040 |
would recognize, Lord, that your ultimate intent in sanctifying these people, Lord, 00:52:06.960 |
is to be one with them, and God, that you are on a mission to cause us to be perfected 00:52:14.120 |
And so, Lord, that too, Father, we trust and desire all the more, Father God, to draw near