FB, Lafayette
February 11, 2018
Sunday Morning
The Tolerance of Sin and the
Absence of Worship
Leviticus 16:1-2
Intro.: This year many of you are using the “Read Through the Bible” reading guide provided by the church. Many of you as well are taken advantage of the videos on the church website to help you with your understanding of your reading. This week we completed the book of Leviticus and started the book of Numbers.
Biblical writers refer to Leviticus as “The Law of the Priests.” It’s really a beautiful book of how God graciously provided a way for His people to live in His presence.
As far as I can remember the times that I have read through the books of the Bible, when I turned the page to the book of Leviticus I wasn’t overwhelmed with joy and excitement. If I were putting together my list of the top 10 books in the Bible I’m not sure Leviticus would make the list.
However, this time when I began reading it I had a different approach, I began reading with a sincere belief that God had a special word for me in this book – and God didn’t disappoint. When I came to chapter 13 I read these great words -- And all the bald men in the room shouted “Amen!”
** I wish I was preaching on those verses. It would be a lot more fun and a whole lot easier. Having before wanted to dismiss the book as guidelines of past generations I was preparing to read and meditate on subjects that were relevant for me and my generation.
BACKGROUND: In its true context Leviticus focuses on the worship and walk of Israel, the person and the place of worship. Remember from Genesis God started a covenant with the people. In Exodus, Israel stepped away from the covenant and then was redeemed and established as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Leviticus shows how God’s people were to fulfill their priestly calling in the Old Testament. (In the New Testament Peter wrote I Peter 2:9-10.)
STAND, Turn in your copy of God’s HOLY Word to Leviticus 16:1-2. These two verses brought me to the full revelation of the book of Leviticus and its relevancy on my life. Pew Bible page # ______. READ TEXT/PRAY.
As I meditated upon this passage this week God began showing me something I had forgotten about MY SIN and MY (HIS) WORSHIP. I always knew the concepts were there but God showed me something in full color.
The message title is: The Tolerance of Sin and the Absence of Worship. Let me say it in a more confessional, personal way: I HAD GIVEN (FALLEN) INTO THE PARALLEL OF SIN AND WORSHIP. Just like the two sons of Aaron I had the attitude that I could walk into a place of worship HOWEVER and WHENEVER I wanted.
God quickly chastened my heart this week about the tolerance of sin producing the absence of genuine worship in my life. What I understand BETTER today is that God desired my worship but he would not accept my worship because of my unconfessed sin and my carefree attitude of being in the presence of a holy God.
What Leviticus teaches us about entering the Old Testament Tabernacle in an unworthy manner is to teach us about entering the New Testament house of worship in an unworthy manner. More, it teaches us how to use the New Testament Tabernacle, our bodies in holiness.
What do you suppose would be different if you and I prepared ourselves spiritually on Sunday morning as much as we do physically? What would happen if we spent more time in our prayer room than we did in the bathroom getting ready? Don’t you think things would be different in this room each week? Don’t you think there would be this overwhelming sense of God’s presence in our lives and in our worship, in our response? Don’t you think there would be less sleeping and more singing, less gazing at our phones and more at His word, less getting up and leaving, and more reverence and respect and surrender?
Listen closely: This passage fortunately does not teach that worshippers will die when they come to worship with unconfessed sin – but it clearly teaches that there should be spiritual preparation and a high reverence given to this holy hour.
Favorite quote: “What audacity do we have to enter into the presence of Almighty God without due preparation of the heart.” F.B. Meyer
I. My Sin Must Have BOUNDARIES
A. You and I should always be prepared to stop dead in our tracks when we know we have encountered sin.
1. We should know when to stop it, run from it, and flee from it.
2. Job made a covenant with God not to look lustfully upon another woman.
3. David treasured God’s word in his heart so he would not sin.
4. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”
5. The Bible teaches that there is a war that wages between the spirit and the flesh.
6. Like a mouse trap that trips when a mouse tries to get that piece of cheese believers should respond to sin with that same intensity.
7. We need to always be ready to say no to sin.
8. If we don’t establish boundaries for our sin we will be overcome every time.
B. Unfortunately living in a “politically correct” society with a pluralistic ideology we dilute sin and call sin by other names.
1. We call evil good because we have inverted our values.
2. We have no absolutes anymore because everything is relative or pluralism.
3. Perversion, same-sex marriages, sometimes even rape are now considered only to be alternative lifestyles.
4. We’re no longer concerned about preserving the life of the unborn so we conveniently and medically abort it.
5. Even so we have polluted the airwaves, including social media with profanity and call it “freedom of expression.”
6. We live in the days of pet pills, crooked deals, cheap thrills and sometimes you can’t tell the Jacks from the Jills.
D. Today sin is rampant – it’s all around us and all over us.
1. Leviticus teaches us that God has redeemed us not just for eternity but for this life as well.
2. Leviticus is a call to holiness and righteousness.
3. May it be that someone in our own houses, someone in the church house and State House and even someone in the White House would stand up righteously and declare sin as sin as God has declared sin as sin.
4. For us to break the tolerance of sin and the absence of worship we must establish boundaries to our sin.
II. HOLINESS Must Personify My Changed Character
A. To fully live out a life of holiness means that we understand first the holiness of God.
1. Admittedly, I don’t know how to fully describe God as holy.
2. I know other words that describe God as consecrated, set apart, completely righteous.
3. When the scribes were writing copies of the Bible they had to prepare themselves spiritually and physically.
4. Even to the point of leaving their desk, cleansing themselves, putting on new clothing, return to use a new purified pen just to write the name Yahweh.
5. As I think upon the holiness of God there is an overwhelming reverence, a sacredness.
6. We pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
7. It reminds us that God is consecrated, that God has been set apart, He is unique in His holiness.
8. Therefore, Leviticus teaches us that God’s holiness was to effect all of Israel’s life.
B. Holiness is defined by this verse: “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.” Leviticus 20:26
1. Catch that middle line?
2. God called His people to holiness.
3. For God’s presence to remain in the Israelite camp the people needed to demonstrate holiness, demonstrate God!
4. We will never be holy OURSELVES until we understand the holiness of GOD first.
C. Listen: Just as Israel needed to distinguish itself by being holy FROM other nations so the New Testament believer needs to distinguish themselves by being holy IN the world.
1. Disciple of Jesus are to be IN the world living lives of holiness but not OF the world living in sin.
2. The world needs to see this as a part of our changed character.
3. “If I had my choice of all the blessings I can conceive of, I would choose perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus, or, in a word, holiness.” Charles Spurgeon
D. Practical steps to serve and worship God with holy lives --
1. ACKNOWLEDGE Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Leviticus foreshadows Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice.
2. ABHOR the sin in your life – hate it, despise it, turn from it, run from it, scorn it.
3. Hate what God hates and love what God loves.
4. ALIGN yourself every day with the Word of God -- in the holiness of God so that you can serve Him with a holy life.
5. The more we learn about God’s character the easier it is to align ourselves with His will in our lives.
Conclusion: “The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place.”
Today, we need to break the parallel of sin and worship. We can do that by establishing boundaries for our sin and making holiness a part of our changed character.
