The challenges Christians face in authentically embodying their faith in every aspect of life. It addresses questions about true worship, the right attitude towards offerings, and the struggle to align with Biblical principles over societal norms. The sermon also highlights the importance of ongoing self-examination, especially within familial and close relationships.
The sermon provides a comprehensive guide to navigate these complexities, emphasizing the need to align one’s life with Biblical teachings on holiness, sacrifice, and worship. It advises that good works should spring from a foundation of faith and dependence on God, not as a way to earn divine favor. Through its integrated approach drawing from both Old and New Testaments, the sermon serves as a roadmap for a life deeply coected to God’s word, encouraging continual growth and obedience.
SERMON
Leviticus 19.2 God is Holy
Some people are offended by the idea of blood, but it’s that blood that unites us together. It’s that blood that makes us a family. It’s that blood that cleanses us and purifies us. So we ought to be thankful for that blood. We should never pull away from talking about the power in the blood. We should always remember to praise Him for the control of His blood.
So, let’s praise Him as Sister Rachel comes. Praise him for his blood. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Lord, we thank you for your blood. He didn’t throw the clay away. And if he threw it away every time we messed up, that’d just be a big old hill of clay. That’d be every day.
I was empty and broken, a vessel unworthy, stained with sin. But he did not despair. He started over again. And I bless the day. He didn’t throw the clay away. Over and over, he molds me and mends me into his witness because Jesus was born. He wants me to stay, but when I stumble and my best breaks, he just picks up the pieces and doesn’t throw me away. He makes me into his likeness. He fashions the clay of a soul today. All because of Jesus. Didn’t throw the clay away. A vessel of honor I am because Jesus didn’t throw the plan away. Amen.
He doesn’t give up on us, does he? Amen. If you were to throw the clay away, he would give up on us, say this is useless, and discard it. We were useless, but even in our uselessness, he considered us. He loved us. Paul says that even in our sins, he loved and gave himself for us.
He has redeemed us by his blood, seeing that he is love. He has saved us, not because of our worthiness, but because we’re useless lumps of clay. But he, in his righteousness, redeems us, brings us into his family. When we see the accuracy of this, when we recognize it, how unworthy we are, and our God’s generosity, it should give us a desire to praise Him.
It should give us a craving, a throbbing to praise Him more. We ought to want to lift Him. When we see others in sin, we ought not to stand in judgment against them and say, oh well, look at that filthy, dirty, rotten sier. But instead, we ought to see them and say, That person requires the gospel.
God, help them to come to the knowledge of the truth instead of us standing and looking down on them. We should pray and say, God, help her hear your gospel. Help him to come to the knowledge of truth. Help them to see your love and to understand you. We ought to be people of compassion, not people of harsh judgment, But we ought to see people as in need of a savior, not as separate from us as in we are better, but rather recognize without him, we are just like them.
They also need a savior, so we should share his gospel with others, not only with words but our actions. We need both our words and our actions. Our efforts need to be testimonies of a life that has been changed, a life that is no longer enslaved to sin, and our conduct ought to be Christ-like.
We’ve said several times that the Word Christian… This means that Christ-like character, our life needs to display that he reigns in us. That he is in charge of us, that he is the owner of us. Everything we do ought to testify that his name has changed us. His blood has cleansed us. We are bought with a price, that he is the son of the living God.
We ought to display his power in us. Sometimes, people want to say, well, I just can’t help myself. It was just so tempting. Well, I couldn’t help it. There’s a little joke that has gone around for many, many years. I heard it as a little child. The little boy goes out to play in the mud. He comes back inside, and the mother gets home to him and says, Johy, haven’t I told you repeatedly to stay out of the mud?
He said, yes, but… The devil made me do it. She said, well, Johy, next time the devil tells you to get in the mud, you say, get behind me, the devil. The next day, little Johy comes in. He’s covered in mud. She says, Johy, didn’t I tell you not to play in the ground? He said yes, and I did what you said. I told the devil to get behind me.
She said, well, Johy, you told the devil to get behind you. Why are you covered in mud? He said, well, the devil got behind me, and he pushed.
Sometimes, we as adults have that attitude, don’t we? When it comes to sin, we say, well, I can’t help it. Well, I do whatever the sin is. This sin, I do it because the devil has control over me. I do it because the devil pushed me into it. I do it because I’m not strong enough to resist. Within our flesh, within our strength, that is true.
We don’t have the power to resist sin. But the grace of God is not only the, um, the unmerited favor. It is not only the unmerited favor. Instead, it is not only a favor we get from God because we don’t deserve it. He gives us his blessing, but it is the strength of Christ. The one who lived without sin is his power being given to us so that we can live a life above sin. Is his strength given to us so that we can resist sin?
We don’t have to live in bondage to sin, but we can say no when we turn our back on sin and cling to him. We ought to do this because He didn’t throw that clay away. His power, the power of His blood, has cleansed us. We ought to be united with Him in all of our actions. We need to allow His light to rain through us, to be shining through us.
Our life should testify to a life changed because of Christ. Can people see Christ in you? In every area of your life, can people see Christ in you? These are, that’s a question for reflection. Not for you to answer openly, just as these are in your marriage, the person who knows you the most Ought to be your spouse.
Can your spouse say that he is a man of God? That is a woman of God. When you’re in your private time, Just you and your family. Can your children say I know my daddy Is a man after God’s heart? I know my mother is a woman who loves Jesus. Because even in the privacy of our home, she has a Christ-like character.
Can your children look at you and say that is what Jesus is like? If not, then you, me. We all need to do better. Not by our efforts do we put forth the image of Christ, but rather, it’s our total dependence on Him. We ought to become more dependent on Him. How do we show our support for Him? By getting into this Word and obeying this Word, we get into God’s Word and study this Word.
Why do we study the Word? Because we can’t live without it. We caot let the light of Christ shine without feeding our spirit this Word. We need to read this Word, study this Word, and live this Word. We can’t function accurately without this Word. We need to have Christ’s love and character displayed through us.
When you see someone who doesn’t have the character of Christ displayed in their life, that’s evidence they’re not living by this Word. This Word is not flowing from them. When you hear someone not speaking like Christ would speak, their heart is whole of something other than God’s Word.
For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak. When we fill our hearts with God’s Word, we will discuss what Jesus says. When we fill our hearts with God’s Word, we will live the way Jesus lived. When we fill our hearts with God’s Word, we will think about things that are right, good, and pleasurable.
When we worry about all kinds of circumstances, now, understandable, to some degree, we do. We are concerned about things around us. But there’s something wrong when we allow those things to control our thinking to maintain our actions. We need to reject that and replace it with God’s Word. We must study God’s Word and live by God’s Word.
If we are not doing this, there’s something wrong. It’s our responsibility to turn to God. It’s our responsibility to draw close to Him. And if we do remove close to Him, James tells us that he will also draw close to us, but we draw close to him on his terms. We draw close to him based on how he has given the instructions.
We don’t just do something and expect God to bless it. Abraham and Sarah tried that, remember, with Hagar? They tried to do something and get God to bless it. When we do that, it causes a mess. Instead, we must bathe our lives and feel our energy with God’s Word. We need to be in obedience to this Word. This Word tells us how to worship God accurately.
Why should we worship Him accurately? Because He is holy and we are not. Locate, please, Leviticus chapter 19,
Let’s go to God in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to study your Word. Thank you, Lord, because you have given us your Word in this Word by this Word. Through this Word, you reveal yourself. Help us to see your character, to know your personality, and to adore your character. Help us to fall in love with you, Lord, as we see the true essence of who you are. We should love you, Lord. Help us, Lord, to fall in love with you every day.
Amen.
Lord spoke to Moses
Leviticus chapter nineteen began reading in verse one.
“And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them,”
So, in other words, Moses, here’s a sermon preaching. So Moses is going to hear what sermon to preach.
“You shall be holy.” Why are the people to be holy? Why should they be holy? Because they belong to God. They’re no longer in Egypt. Remember, they were set free from Egypt. In Egypt, they were enslaved. How did they get in Egypt? By way of a blessing. Have you ever realized that? They were in Egypt by way of a blessing.
Joseph was taken to Egypt because his brother sied. He went into slavery. His brothers were jealous. They sold him into slavery. So Joseph went to Egypt, but God favored him because of his faithfulness. God gave him a favor, and he rose. And because of what God did, God preserved Joseph. And blessed the brothers and brought them into Egypt when the world was in famine.
He brought them into Egypt
He brought them into Egypt, and it was a blessing. So, God blessed the family. They grew up in Egypt. The approval and the location as they grew. Pharaoh means king. It was not his name. It was kind of like king. Pharaoh changed—the new Pharaoh. Moses was afraid of God’s people, and because he feared God’s people, he decided to put them into slavery.
So, the blessing’s location and passing hindered them because the people in control did not like God’s people. So, the man in control oppressed God’s people. God heard their cry, called Moses, and told him, ” Tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Moses tells Pharaoh, let God’s people go, and then we have the book of Exodus.
They’re led out of Egypt; God shows them out of Egypt supernaturally. They are brought to a specific location called Mount Sinai. They are brought there for one purpose. And that is to worship God, not just so that they will be out from under the thumb of the Pharaoh. It’s not so that they can have freedom.
It’s not so that they’re no longer making bricks for the Pharaoh and making him rich. It is so that they can be free to worship God. They have the freedom now to worship God, not to worship the gods in Egypt, and not to be influenced by Egypt. And God gives these instructions to Moses up on Mount Sinai. God tells Moses, you go back and teach the people.
Tabernacle
You’re going to make this tabernacle. When you make this tabernacle, I’m going to dwell with you. I will be in this specific room of the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies. I’m going to come there and meet with you. And when I’m there, the people caot enter. Even the priests caot enter in willy-nilly.
They can’t enter whenever they want, but only based on my instructions and only by the method of blood can they come in. The priest must always Have blood when entering the Holy of Holies. If not, then he will die. The priest can only do things by the blood, not because the animal is holy, but because God is sacred.
And God explains to Moses that the animal’s life is in the blood. So, we must see and understand that God is the giver. And the taker of life. The only way we have life is because God gives it. God gives, and God can take away. We don’t have anything based on what we deserve. If we had the things we deserve, we would have nothing but destruction.
But we have life because God is the giver of life. So, the priest must kill the animals, take the blood, and offer it to God. The animals are given. In sacrifice, five different gifts are told in the first of Leviticus. We are told that there are animals and five further sacrifices.
Some are with lavish offerings, and those are for Thanksgiving. Meaning it’s not for your sin. It’s just to be thankful. Did you know that, well, the offering bag over there, this little offering bag here, and you know, I don’t usually preach a lot on money. But we’re talking about offering this little bag when it comes around.
It’s not the church begging for money. It’s not me begging for cash; It’s us allowing you to obey God’s Word and give in offering. You should give to God because he has given you the first Leviticus. We are told to give an offering, whatever we choose. We offer to him in obedience to him, but we must give because he deserves it.
Not because we’re trying to earn his favor. Not because we’re trying to say, well, God, I gave to you, now you owe me. Oh, I gave a hundred dollars. They use must answer my prayer. That’s a misunderstanding of God’s Word. We give to Him because He gave to us. When we put money in here, we recognize we have nothing except what God gave me.
Everything I have is given to me by God, so I give Him a portion of what He gave me in recognition that everything I have belongs to Him. When we give Him one dollar when we give Him one pey, we’re giving to Him as a… sign that I give it all to you, Lord, because I have nothing without that’s what the purpose of the offering.
Worship to God
It is an act of worship to God. It’s not the church being hungry for money, but it’s the church allowing you to obey God’s Word and give back to him a portion of what he has given to you. So, if you don’t obey God’s Word by sharing in this offering, you should reconsider, and it’s not because of this local church but because of your soul, condition, and commitment to God.
Evaluate what God has given you and see how much you owe God. Everything you have is given to you because God is generous.
So they are told to give an offering. They’re also told to kill animals, not just because they’re vengeful and murdering animals. It’s not because they don’t value their animal. It’s because they do value their animal. The animal’s value shows their desire to recognize their need for God.
So when they’re told to give these animals, it is because they see a value in the animal, but they recognize God is more valuable. And this is a foreshadowing of Jesus. Every drop that is shed, every drop of blood that the animals shed, is a foreshadowing of the blood that is shed on the cross. The blood that Jesus sheds for you and me for the redemption of our sins.
Hebrews
Hebrews tells us. The animals were perpetual; the animals were sacrificed every morning and every night, the animals were sacrificed. Over and over again, the animal sacrifices were without end. They can never sacrifice enough animals to satisfy. They can never sacrifice enough animals to say this blood is more valuable than the depth of my sin.
Christ offering
Until Christ comes along, Christ offering himself as the priest, offering himself as the Lamb of God, offering himself as the ultimate sacrifice. His blood is more valuable than any sin that we could ever commit. His blood is more valuable than all the sins of humanity put together. Christ shed his blood and washed our sins away for that reason. We ought to worship him. We need to take this passage more seriously. We need to recognize that he is holy. Therefore, we, too, must be holy. Yeah. So, with that in mind, let’s go back to the passage I began reading in verse one.
“And the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy. Notice he’s not saying, think about being holy.”
He’s not saying. Just consider it as an option. This is an actual command. Be holy. It’s your responsibility to be holy. This is not a promise saying you automatically become holy because God chose you.
No, this is a command. The recipient, the hearers, the children of Israel, the hearers must do something. This is a command to become something, to become holy. We must choose to be holy. We are not automatically holy just because of who we are now. Understand we are holy because of the blood of Christ. As Christians, the blood of Christ applied to us makes us righteous in God’s eyes.
That’s not anything that we do. It’s nothing that we earn. It’s his gift to us. He gives that to us that after we come into his family, then we must live in obedience. As we live in compliance, we make ourselves holy, not that we earn holiness. But we are recognizing the work of God in us as we recognize the result of God in us.
He works in us
As he works in us, we should live out what he does in us. Does that make sense? Our outward life should display what God has done inside of us. We caot see inside of each other, but we can look at the actions of one another. When we do holy things and righteous things, those actions testify that God is holy and He has brought me into the right relationship with Him.
We should be able to see the characteristics of Christ in one another. The world should be able to see Christ in us. They should be able to recognize. There’s something different about her. There’s something different about him. They don’t fit into this world. They are above us somehow. They should hunger and thirst for His righteousness because they see Him in us.
Christian Characteristic
As we live as Christian characters, the Christian characteristic shining through us is a testimony of His grace, His strength working in us, helping us to turn away from sin. So he says, “Speak to all of the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy for the Lord, your God and holy, every one of you shall revere his mother and his father and keep my Sabbath. I am the Lord, your God. Do not turn to idols nor make for yourselves the molding gods. I am the Lord, your God. And if you offer a sacrifice of peace to the Lord, you shall offer it of your own free will.”
So, just a little side note: when the minister starts putting pressure on you, trying to make you feel like you have to give money to the church, don’t listen. If, regardless of who it is, anybody from any church tries to put pressure on you that you have to give money to the church, that’s not of God. God says you should give out of your own free will. The church should give you the opportunity. The church should give you a chance but not manipulate you to make you feel obligated.
The church should encourage and invite you but understand it’s of your own free will. When you desire and recognize what God has done for you, you will want to give to Him. We need to give out of our own free will. We ought to desire. To give to God, and we should find it joyful to give to him.
We need to worship him based on his standards. We need to worship him based on how he desires.
Leviticus 10
Looking back at Leviticus chapter 10, we see the five sacrifices in chapters one through seven. In chapter eight, Moses washes Aaron and his sons, which is kind of a foreshadowing of baptism. He washes them, inaugurating them into ministry. He takes the blood of a sacrificed animal and puts it on the right ear, right hand, and right foot.
That blood applied shows a holiness, a sanctification, a setting apart. In doing so, he’s saying, let Aaron, the man of God, the pastor, let him hear from God. Let him listen to the voice of God. He was putting blood on his hand. Let him do the will of God. He is placing blood on his toe. Let him walk in alignment with God; we can see this throughout Leviticus. Many people ignore the book of Leviticus because they see this as Antiquating. They know the book of Leviticus as something in the past, and it doesn’t apply today. But actually, this book of Leviticus speaks a lot about Jesus.
This book tells us the importance of the blood, so we understand the cross that much more. As we read through the book of Hebrews, it points back to Leviticus. The book of Leviticus is quoted more than a hundred times in the New Testament. Jesus preaches from the book of Leviticus on the Sermon of the Mouth.
The most famous sermon of all time is the sermon on the Mouth that Jesus preached. He’s reaching into Leviticus. This book is essential because it teaches us one thing. You’re not holy, but God is. That’s the theme of Leviticus. God is holy, and you’re not. Therefore, you must become holy. In other words, you need to become Christ-like.
Become like God
You need to become like God. You are not where you ought to be. There’s room to grow. You’re not what you need to be. There’s room to grow. You have not yet arrived, but there’s room for you to succeed. God is holy. So, strive to be like him. We must do it in alignment with His Word. We don’t do things. I said this earlier.
We don’t do things and expect God to bless them; instead, we need to obey His Word. As we obey His Word, He will bless His Word. When we do His Word, His Word gets blessed. We get blessed as we do His Word. So, the priest began their ministry. They offer up sacrifices. We see in chapter 9 that the priest offers sacrifices for the nation. God accepts the sacrifice. Fire comes down and takes up the sacrifice as the sacrifice is burning. I imagine it smells like steaks cooking on a grill as that animal is cooking. The Bible says it’s a sweet-smelling aroma to God. Is that because God loves steaks?
No, it’s because God loves obedience. But the fragrance shows that fragrance should testify to us that God deserves this. When we watch the smoke, the smoke is leaving the earth and rising. We see Psalms, and David talks about the smoke rising from the incense. And also revelation, the smoke rising from the incense and going before the throne of God.
That shows how our prayers rise from us and go to Him. It’s a reminder that He deserves our praise. He deserves what we give to Him. But we ought to provide him with what He deserves, not give Him seconds, but give Him first. We need to put Him first because He is above it all. In chapter 10, we see… and advise you to do something terrible.
Leviticus 9:23
But let’s go back to Leviticus 9:23 and read through verse up to verse four in the next chapter. “And Moses and Aaron went to the tab I for the meeting, came out, and blessed the. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat of the altar. When everyone saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.”
So, the people are rejoicing. They’re shouting and falling on their faces. This is a loud noise of celebration. The people are recognizing God has accepted. Therefore, we are forgiven. They are celebrating forgiveness because God has accepted the sacrifice of sin.
God has forgiven their slain and washed them clean. Without skipping a beat, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord. Now, what does it mean to provide unholy fire before the Lord? There’s a lot of speculation as to what that means.
In the same sentence, we see here what that propane fire is. Which he, that’s God, which God had not commanded them. So they did something. That God had not commanded in the leadership of worship. They checked they stepped forward while the attention was on God, and while the people were worshiping God, they stepped forward and did something in front of everybody that was not what God commanded.
So they’re trying to get attention to themselves. They’re taking away from the awareness of what God has just done and doing something by their desire. And they died for it. Verse two: so fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord and Moses and Aaron, excuse me, and Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord spoke saying, by those who come near me, this comes from Exodus chapter 19 verse 22, by those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy.
And before all the people, I must be glorified. Remember back in Exodus chapter 19? That’s right before the Ten Commandments are given audibly. Remember the Ten Commandments? God tells by His voice. The people hear God’s voice speak. He gives the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. In Exodus 19, they are said to get ready for three days. They should sanctify themselves and get ready when the shofar is blown. That sound of the shofar is calling them into worship there to cleanse themselves and prepare for prayer, and God tells them Do not cross this boundary marker.
If you cross this boundary marker, getting too close to the mountain, you will die. God is telling Moses, don’t let the people treat me as typical. But recognize I am above them. Nadab and Abihu did not acknowledge that God is holy. They’re doing things. They’re doing something, even amid worship.
They are offering their desire instead of giving God a beating. We need to worship God the way He chooses. We need to know God’s way of worship. So study this Word. Get in this Word and worship Him in alignment with His Word. That’s the only way to please God. We caot please God outside of His Word.
This Word tells us how to please Him. And in all that you do, you’re singing? You’re playing the piano, playing the guitar, studying, and everything you do, what you ought to do the best is worship. Even if you’re a brain surgeon performing brain surgery on somebody, you ought to worship better than you perform brain surgery.
Because God is worthy, everything you do, do it to God. Worship Him. Worship God the best. Let your worship become the best thing you’re good at. I don’t think I said that adequately. You should become better at worship. We, me too, need to become better at worship. We should always look for new ways to worship him in alignment with his words.
We must understand His Word to give him accurate worship because he is holy. We are commanded to be holy. Why? Because he is holy.
Prayer
So, let’s go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you. Thank you for your Word. Thank you for your Word. Your Word tells us to be holy. Your Word instructs us to worship you.
Your Word tells us how to prepare ourselves. Your Word tells us that it’s only by your blood that we are brought into your family. It’s not by works, lest any man boast, but by your blood and as a member of your family, we must give you our very best. Help us, Lord, to give to you. Teach us how to worship you.
You deserve to be worshipped. Praise you. Praise your holy name. Lord, we praise you. Praise you. Lord, your Word is a praise. Thank
You, Lord.
Leviticus 3 Peace Offering – Mt. Olivet Church of God (mtolivetchurchofgod.com)
Leviticus 2 Grain Offering
Leviticus 1 The Burnt Sacrifice: Does It Represent Jesus or the Sier?
Leviticus 19:2 God is Holy. He deserves our Obedience and Worship
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