2019-02-17 Leviticus 20
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
22 “You are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
23 You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and I abhorred them.
24 And I promised you: You will inherit their land, since I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who set you apart from the peoples.
25 Therefore you are to distinguish the clean animal from the unclean one, and the unclean bird from the clean one. Do not become contaminated by any land animal, bird, or whatever crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.
26 You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be mine.
You should be transformed.
You should be transformed.
22 “You are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
23 You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and I abhorred them.
The mark of God’s work in your life is transformation.
The mark of God’s work in your life is transformation.
22 “You are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
23 You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and I abhorred them.
Illus: People often ask me how they know that they are saved.
There is a temptation to say, when did you join the church, or ask when did you pray a prayer.
Church membership is about as much evidence to your salvation as a gym membership is to your being an Olympian.
Yes, prayer is a way of expressing faith, but many have said the right words, and never trusted Christ.
Truthfully, baptism can just be a dip in luke-warm water. Remember baptism is the symbol of God’s transformation in your life.
The evidence of salvation is transformation. If you genuinely placed your faith in Christ, then you will look like Jesus changed you.
This is the simple teaching here in our passage, if you are God’s people then you need to look like God’s people. Stop looking like people who have not been transformed nor fear God.
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.
22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, “A washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.”
You are not passive in the process of being transformed.
You are not passive in the process of being transformed.
22 “You are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
23 You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and I abhorred them.
Illus: For Israel, God saved them out of Egypt, gave them the law, gave them the sacrificial system, in the wilderness, God fed them, frankly in the wilderness their clothes never wore out, that said, God still called them to keep the commandments.
For us, God forgives us and saves us from our sin, He declares us completely righteous before God, He places his Holy Spirit in us to transform us, that said, God still calls us to keep the commandments.
I think we have this false view of God. We either believe transformation is completely ours or completely God’s… and the truth is it is both.
We can’t see genuine transformation is our work is only in our power. We may change the outside but God changes the heart.
We can’t see genuine transformation on the opposite hand if we are just passive. God calls us to pursue righteousness.
In fact the bible teaches that the worship God desires is the sacrifice of your life in pursuit of God’s righteousness.
So, do you pursure righteousness, are you intentional in following Christ, or have you become passive in your walk.
1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
You have an inheritance.
You have an inheritance.
24 And I promised you: You will inherit their land, since I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who set you apart from the peoples.
The land was never the inheritance.
The land was never the inheritance.
24 And I promised you: You will inherit their land, since I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who set you apart from the peoples.
Illus: Every year at christmas our family has an ongoing joke.
When my girls were little I made a joke one Christmas as I took the wrapping paper off of a gift. I looked at the amazon box underneath the paper and exclamed, “It’s a box!”
Of course my kids did not get me a box for Christmas. The box was simply delivered the gift.
Since then, every Christmas one of my kids will open a gift and say “I GOT A BOX!”
The box is not the gift, what the box delivered is the gift.
Follow me friends, God’s grand plan for this world was never a place, it was a person.
The place, the people, delivered the person.
When we make the promise about the place we shortchange God’s plan. God’s plan all along was to deliver Jesus to this world.
Look at the promises God made in the Old Testament...
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
1 The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
3 stay in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
4 I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring,
16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ.
God always intended a greater land.
God always intended a greater land.
24 And I promised you: You will inherit their land, since I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who set you apart from the peoples.
Illus: When I was a kid I loved going to Baskin Robbins. You know what Basking Robins is right… you go and they have 31 flavors of ice cream.
What I loved most about Baskin Robbins was the itty bitty spoons they had for you to sample any ice cream they served.
It was ingenious marketing. You get a kid to come in, taste any flavor of ice cream with the itty bitty spoon, and boom mom and dad have to buy ice cream for the whole family.
The land was the itty bitty spoon. It was the taste of God’s grander plan. Not only to us, but to the characters in the Bible as well.
Abraham looked through the physical land to the true promised land, eternity with God as the ultimate promise.
Our hearts should yearn for a greater land, the true land where we are restored to perfect fellowship with God.
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going.
9 By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise.
10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
11 By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.
12 Therefore, from one man—in fact, from one as good as dead—came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.
13 These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.
14 Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
15 If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return.
16 But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going.
9 By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise.
10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
13 These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.
14 Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
15 If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return.
16 But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.
You are set apart.
You are set apart.
26 You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be mine.
We have been set apart as citizens of heaven.
We have been set apart as citizens of heaven.
Illus: Today I wanted you to catch your identity, your inheritance, and your call.
If you have trusted Christ, you are a child of God mad new in Jesus Christ.
If you have trusted Christ, you have been given eternity in perfect fellowship with God.
If you have trusted in Christ, you are called to pursue transformation daily in Him.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.