Leviticus:
A Summary
May 30,
2010
The fact that God devoted an entire book of the Bible to
the subject of holiness would indicate that it is an important subject, one that
we dare not ignore. I pray that we all
have realized this through our study and that the lesson of holiness stood out
clearly. There were many fascinating
details in this book so in closing, let us summarize a few of the lessons and
make some practical applications to our Christian life today.
1. OUR GOD IS A HOLY
GOD!
Whenever we minimize the holiness of God, we are in
danger of minimizing human sinfulness, and the combination of these two errors
results in the minimizing of the cross of Jesus, as with those who would take
out the blood from our Bibles and our Hymn books. If we want to preach the Gospel, we must have
a holy God who hates sin and has done something about it at the cost of
Himself. The great theologian Carl F. H.
Henry wrote, “It is because God is holy, as well as loving, that the atonement
is provided”.
God’s holiness means His complete “apartness” from
anything that is sinful. He is different
from that which is common; He is separate from that which is defiling. But God’s holiness is not an inactive thing,
like a block of ice. His holiness is
active and alive, a “sea of glass mingled with fire” (Rev. 15:2). Everything about God is holy: His wisdom, His
power, His judgments, and even His love.
If His love were not holy, He would never have sent His only Son to die
for the sins of the world and meet the just demands of His own nature and His
own holy law. When He makes a law, He
too keeps that law, unlike those who make our laws today.
Somewhere along the line it seems that we have lost the
awesome sense of the holiness of God.
Why would I say that? For one
thing, we do NOT emphasize holiness in our churches. Too many preachers are preaching
people-centered sermons, trying to “scratch people where they itch”, instead of
pointing them to the holy God who deserves their worship and demands their
obedience. People who get caught up in
the greatness and holiness of God don’t worry much about where they itch.
Another area is the absence of church discipline and
high standards of Christian conduct indicates that we don’t take holiness to
seriously. I read of one preacher who
said that in our promotion, we try to “sell” the church to the world by
conveying the unbiblical idea that Christianity is “fun” and every pagan ought
to join the club and start living on the sunny side of the street. I even read of one church where in the
announcements it said, “Be sure to be at the service tonight. We are going to have a fun time”. But what does James write to worldly
believers: “Lament and mourn and weep!
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom” (James
4:9).
I can’t see Moses and the elders “having fun” on
Mt. Sinai as they beheld the glory of
God, or Isaiah reporting that he had a “fun time” in the temple when he say “the
Lord … high and lifted up” (Isa. 6:1). No one enjoys good humor and healthy laughter
more than I do, but as I contemplate my sinfulness and God’s holiness, I want to
join Job, Isaiah, Peter, and John on my face in reverence and godly fear. How holy is our God and how sinful are His
people?
2. GOD WANTS HIS PEOPLE TO BE
HOLY
Eight times in Scripture, God says, “Be holy, for I am
holy”. Now, think about this. Since God’s commandments are God’s enablements, this commandment assures us that it is possible
to live a holy life. God has never asked
anyone to do something that He has not given them the ability to do. What health is to the body, holiness is to
the soul; and the Great Physician can give us the spiritual health and wholeness
that we need to do what He commands us to do.
God wanted His people Israel
to be “an holy nation” (Ex. 19:6), and that high calling applies to us as
Christians today (1 Peter 2:9). Whatever
else the church may be known for today, it’s buildings, budgets, crowds, busy
schedules, it should be known for it’s holiness. Ask yourself this question: “How many
Christians do I know about whom I could honestly say, “He is a man of God” or
“She is a woman of God”? That is how I
want to be know, how about you?
Israel
failed to be a holy nation and therefore failed to give the witness to the world
that God wanted them to give. Not only
did Israel suffer for her sins, but also the pagan world suffered by not seeing
in Israel the difference it makes when you belong to a holy God.
Now look at America, the country that was founded
on God, the nation that was once a witness to the world for almighty God. Even the church in America
has ceased to be even be a verbal witness, much less a
witness of godly character and conduct.
Remember, Jesus did NOT say, “You are the lips of the word”, but “You are
the LIGHT of the world”. Friends, our
light to the world is fast going out.
Even Southern Baptist are now putting their
emphasis on foreign missions because they see little hope for saving America. Oh God, what have we done, what have we
done?
3. HOLINESS BEGINS AT THE
ALTAR
The Book of Leviticus does not begin with a prayer
meeting, a praise service, or a sharing meeting. It begins at the altar where innocent
sacrifices shed their blood for guilty sinners.
It begins with the description of five sacrifices, all of which point to
the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the cross.
The first step toward holiness is the admission of my
own sin and the recognition of Jesus as my only Savior and Redeemer from
sin. If we think we are going to become
holy because of our sincere resolutions, our religious habits, or our
theological knowledge, we are head for certain failure. It is true that we need spiritual knowledge,
and we ought to resolve to cultivate godly habits; but apart from the sacrifice
of Jesus, all those good things are useless if not harmful.
The cross reveals God’s hatred of sin. Our sins killed His only Son. (Share thoughts on “An Awesome God of
Emotions”)**
How can we be neutral or even friendly toward that which caused
the death of the Son of God? Unless we
learn to detest sin, we will never be able to cultivate
holiness.
But the cross also reveals the power of God to conquer
sin. The blood of Jesus cleanses us (1
John
1:7, 9). Brings us near to God (Eph.
2:13), and purges us from sin (Heb. 9:14).
By accepting His finished work and our sanctified position in Him
(13:12), we take that first step toward living a holy life.
4. HOLINESS INVOLVES OBEDIENCE AND
DISCIPLINE
It was not enough for the Jewish worshiper to bring a
sacrifice to the altar and go away knowing that his or
her sins had been forgiven. That
worshiper also had to obey the rules and regulations that the Lord gave His
people concerning what was clean and what was unclean. In other words, our holy God has the right, yes the right, to tell us what is right and what is
wrong. (Tell about Russell) That is NOT what the world is teaching. That is not what our children and
grandchildren are being taught. The
world is teaching that no one has the right to tell you what is right and what
is wrong. I better move on. I feel myself wanting to climb on my soap box
here.
Believers today, as we talked a few weeks back, do NOT
pay attention to the Jewish dietary laws, but we should heed what they
illustrate: There are some things in this world that must not get into our
system because God disapproves of them.
I am not afraid to touch a dead body or pick up a bone, but I must be
careful “to keep myself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). Christian liberty isn’t license to
participate in the things that are not good for us. There is a good song out today that says,
“Only in the will of God am I free”.
What we need to do in the church is get back to Bible
study. There are so many tools available
to us today to study the Word of God. www.blueletterbible.org is a great resource. It will actually read the Bible to you in any
version you want to hear it. But it is
not enough to read and study the Bible, we are supposed to “keep His
commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John
3:22).
Disciplined obedience is an important part of holy
living. It is much easier to discuss and
debate the Bible than it is to demonstrate its truths in everyday life. That is what we need to work
on.
The OT Jews had to walk carefully to keep from being
defiled (Eph. 5:15). They had to
incorporate God’s standards of holiness into every aspect of their daily
lives: the clothes they wore, the food
they ate, the things they touched, the people with whom
they fellowshipped. There was no such
thing as “secular” and “sacred” to the OT saint, for everything in life belonged
to God.
Too many believers today think they are spiritual
because they attend church once a week.
That does NOT get it. It is only
when God’s holiness increasingly begins to touch every area of our lives that we
can say we are starting to make progress in being holy.