Pursueing Holiness
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Welcome back to Leviticus, we’ve had a 3 week break from it, but we’re back for the final installment.
And The word Holy or Holiness comes up 28 times in these last 11 chapters.
Do you know what Holiness is?
Do you know how to be Holy?
Do you want to be Holy?
Is it even worth bothering trying to be Holy?
Pray
1 - Life is in the blood - Lev 17
1 - Life is in the blood - Lev 17
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood.’
Sacrifices were being made to God and to other idols, false God’s - before the tent of meeting was set-up in Leviticus some 3.5 thousand years ago.
And the point of chapter 17 seems to be that now the tent of meeting is established and all the sacrficiial system laws and offerings have been explained - all other sacrifices are to stop.
Obviously they are to stop if they are to false Gods,
but any blood sacrifice is now not to be taken lightly.
You cannot do it in the field and expect God’s holiness to be satisfied.
They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.” ‘Say to them: “Any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice and does not bring it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to sacrifice it to the Lord must be cut off from the people of Israel.
Why is blood so significant?
Why can’t they even eat the blood of an animal they kill to eat - one that isn’t a sacrfice?
the answer is in v11 again.
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.
Remove the blood from a creature and it will die - it is literally it’s life.
But why do we need our life to be atoned for?
Why can’t we just be at one with God? Right with Him?
Well I’d encourage you to listen to the rest of our series in levitiucs if you haven’t already,
but in short it is becasue God is Holy and we are not.
A holy and righteous god cannot co-exist with unholiness!
Light and Dark cannot overlap.
However hard we try, we can never be as wonderful, glorious, morally perfect, just and loving as God.
We are full of hate and pride, self-centeredness, not God-centredness, we are not perfectly moral by God’s standards - we are as the bible simply calls us - sinners.
And God should not and cannot accept us in his precense.
That is why the Holy of Holies in the tent of meetings in Leviticus had a thick curtain to keep a seperation, a holy set apartness between God and his people.
So how could they ever draw near?
By the blood shed, the representative , the substitute life, the blood of another in their place.
SO you don’t eat the blood of an animal if you’re an Israeliete - becasue that blood is your reminder of how Holy God is, and how blood is set-apart as a substitutionary atonement for your very salvation.
When they sin - blood - the very life of another is demanded!
It is serious.
In reality though, animals blood cannot truely atone for a humans sin.
We’ve already seen how these sacrifices were just sign posts to the perfect blood sacrifice to come Of JEsus.
1 John 1:7 (NIV 2011)
...the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Hebrews 9:14 (NIV 2011)
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
Revelation 1:5 (NIV 2011)
...To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
If you want to be holy - to be acceptable to a Holy God - you can’t achieve it through hard work or moral behaviour - although it’s right to aim to be holy - as we’re about to see.
But we will fail!
And your blood, your life, will be demanded in payment before a Holy God.
OUr only chance is to ask for the blood of Jesus (our subsititute) to give his life for ours.
That is why Jesus had to die, as a sacrfice on the cross.
Blood reminds us of the gravity of our sin and the judgement we face if we refuse the Lord Jesus and his substitutionary blood.
Most Christians now are happy to eat blood in an animal becasue In the NT (mark 7v19), Jesus declares all food clean and fulfils the sacrifice and substitute himself.
But we still have a sacred reminder of the blood shed for us - when we share the Lord’s Supper and drink the wine - we are to remember the blood of Jesus shed for us.
Jesus Blood gives us life - His life for ours.
He makes us Holy.
Pause
But being made holy by Jesus, does not mean we are now free to forget about striving to be holy.
2 - Holy Obedience Lev 18-20
2 - Holy Obedience Lev 18-20
‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.
One of the unique points about being holy is that it means to be set apart. To be different.
obedience to God and His rule is to be Holy - becasue it will set us apart from the normal behaviour and standards of the world around us.
We will behave differently to how we behaved before we came to believe in God.
And if you don’t believe today, then following Jesus and accepting His forgiveness by His blood,
will mean you will be choosing a life that is Holy, set apart, you will seek to behave differently from how you did before.
SO we read - do not do as they do in Egypt,
you must not do as they do in Canaan.
Do not follow their practices.
Instead - be careful to follow my (The Lord’s) decrees.
Holiness is to do as God wants not as we naturally want.
I could spend much time trying to convince you that God’s ways and rules are better than the world’s, but the bible doesn’t really do that.
The bibles’ motivation to obey God is simply that God is God.
v2 - I am the Lord your God, you must.,
19v2 - Be Holy Because I am Holy.
If God is God of all - and not only that, God is the one who saves us from our sin by an atoning sacrifice.
And God is the one whom loves us,
And God is the one who will judge and either condemn us to hell or give us eternal life.
I fail to see what choice we have!
We will surely strive to obey!
To not bother must mean we don’t appretiate the blood of Jesus shed for us.
We will surely want to be set apart from the world through our obedience to Him.
The western world is complete mixed up about sexuality, relationships, rights, power, purpose, gender.
It is rapidly rejecting the Christian moral structure that much of it was built upon,
So the world that has no basis for any moral or just behaviour other than who can shout the loudest,
God’s people are called to be different.
It’s easy for us - we simply obey.
‘Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
Being Holy it turns out is not some super spiritual mindset - or meditating as a monk or nun for 30 years,
It is simply obeying God’s commands.
And now those commands come thick and fast in Leviticus:
Chapter 18 is mostly about sexual relations.
It excludes sexual relations with any close relative, whether by marriage or blood.
It tells us to be careful about temptations with our neighbours,
- probably the ancinet world equivalent to pornography, your best chance of seeing a bit of sexualised flesh was not online but watching your neighbours.
It covers homosexuality,
v22
‘ “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
Same-sex relations are not part of God’s design, avoid it says God.
I realise how un PC that is, but it shouldn’t surprise us that it is un PC!
This is what holiness is - to be different to the world’s standard.
It was the same back then,
‘ “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.
The world even then practiced these things - but that doesn’t make it right or good.
Just as it’s not right to sleep with your immediate family, or sleep with an animal - if society said these things were ok, that does not make them right either.
Presumably some people would like to do such detestable things - does that make it right?
- some people genuinely struggle with same sex attractions. - does that make acting on it right?
- Some people struggle with lust for other people's wives or husbands - does that make it right?
Wanting to do something can never be a measure of what is right or wrong.
The world sees nothing particularly wrong with adultery, or divorce,
but we - God’s saved people - whatever our feelings - turn to the Holy laws of God - despite our temptations and desires - and seek to be different.
We put God before our desires.
For some that will mean a call to celibacy, for others to persever in a difficult marriage,
for others a life long struggle with fighting fantasies.
But our God is worthy of our obedience.
pause
It’s sometimes hard ot know which laws still aplly in NT times and which don’t.
Genrally the sacrficial laws are completed in Jesus,
And the societal laws are no longer relevant as we are not a geographic people now, but a people linked by faith.
But the moral laws - almost all of which are repeated or applied in principal in the NT still apply.
And chapter
19 continues with mostly moral laws but covers a much wider breadth of topics -
Some make good sense to us - even if we struggle to obey them:
‘ “Do not steal. ‘ “Do not lie. ‘ “Do not deceive one another.
‘ “Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling-block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.
Others are more obscure and understanding why they are important is lost on us today.
‘ “Keep my decrees. ‘ “Do not mate different kinds of animals. ‘ “Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. ‘ “Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.
These unusual ones have no apparent moral impact on others, unlike sexual laws, but are more about being distinct as a society From the other nations - so most don’t see them as being applicable any more.
But the moral aspects of these laws are all summed up by Jesus:
He answered, ‘ “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”; and, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”’
What do we find in these chapters of Leviticus?,
I am the Lord your God - repeated again and again.
And law after law that reminds us how to love our fellow neighbours.
And even the very phrase itself.
‘ “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.
Being Holy then, is simply being obedient to God, distinct from the world, which is summarised by Loving your neighbour as you would love yourself.
And that - is the way in which we love the Lord our God.
Chapter 20 repeats v18 but explains the punishments deserved for breaking sexual laws - and it’s often death!
Holiness then - obedicene to God, is a very serious matter.
An eternity in hell, suffering the punishment and displeasure of a Holy God awaits those who do not take this call seriously,
and who do not repent and ask for the blood of Jesus to atone for them.
And who do not respond to his free forgiveness in a desire and effort to obey Him.
So, Do not take the Lord’s Supper later - and disgrace the name and blood of Jesus - IF you have no intention this week to strive to live in obedience to Him - if you have no desire to be Holy as He is Holy.
Jesus says,
So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Do not be luke warm- Christians - it’s a dangerous place to be!
Be either refreshingly Cold, or wonderfully warm. - Pursue Holiness!
otherwise you will be spit out of God’s grace.
Seek holiness in response to Jesus blood is the overriding application of Leviticus.
You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.
FInnaly
Restoration Despite Disobedience - Lev 26 40-46
Restoration Despite Disobedience - Lev 26 40-46
I trust Leviticus has reminded us that God Our Lord is Holy.
And we are not.
I trust that we have seen the need for a blood sacrifice - for them animals that pointed forward to the perfect blood sacrifice and death of the one perfect man, the son of God, the Lord Jesus.
I trust we have seen the essential need for God’s people to rightly respond to His grace, His substitution - in seeking obedience to Him, in seeking holiness ourselves.
And I trust that we are painfully aware of the times we have not done so.
For most believers that will mean we daily repent and restore our commitment to Jesus as we strive after holiness again - what a joy to know the grace of Jesus.
But for some here, perhaps we have taken the Lord Jesus’ blood for granted - we have not been pursuing holiness.
We are luke warm at best,
We have exiled ourselevs from the Lord God while still blindly assuming God doesn't really care what we do.
And if that’s you,
you should rightly feel fearful at the end of Leviticus.
Worse judgement is to come. Jesus will spit you out.
But, we are not left in hopeless despair, we do all have a choice,
‘ “But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility towards me, which made me hostile towards them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
All any of God’s people need do, however severe their rebelion, however long you have failed to take the pursuit of holiness seriously, is to
Confess our unfaithfulness and hostility.
And the blood of Jesus will pay for your sin in full.
God will remeber his covenant to love and forgive - and you will be made Holy by the blood of Jesus.
Resotred to the promise of eternal life.
And if you would like to confess again, or confess for the first time becasue you have just realised you need Jesus to pay for your sin,
then join in with the Lord’s Supper.
As we confess together, remembering the blood of Jesus together,
and celebrating His resurection the promise of His return together.
If you have confessed for the first time today, or realised you have been wayward and ignored God’s Lordship of your life, then please make sure you chat to me TIM, CLAIRE/ANNA after the service so we can pray with you and help you think throug the next steps.
and if you want to read more pursuit of holiness
\Finaly - I’ve covered som e hard things that may have been sensitive to you - please do talk
Pray