holding their feet to the fire and saying, you know what? You know you're dirty. You know you're a sinner. And you know. You're accountable to that sin.
And I'm here to help you with the way out, if you're willing.
So I am armed with this fact. All born-again Christians are armed with this fact. If you think you need to memorize the Greek, To be an effective witness of Christ, you're wrong. And you're burying your talent. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston.
Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Leviticus. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Leviticus chapter 15 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Leviticus chapter 15.
Contamination is One of the outstanding Lessons that we're going to get.
Some Old Testament passages do not always allow for public reading. This is one. We're going to skip some verses. Not because they're redundant, but they're repulsive a little bit. What we have before us are laws about bodily discharges.
To do a quick count Unclean shows up thirty five times in this chapter. Discharge twenty four times Well, that tells us we're The emphasis is going to lie. Verses one through fifteen are about the unnatural. Bodily discharges of the man Verses sixteen and seventeen. are the natural ones.
And then seventeen through twenty four, it's the female. And then twenty five through thirty, the unnatural. One's for her? And then verses 31 and 33. Emphasize the severity of what God has been talking about.
And remember, you know, we say, I wish God would speak to me.
Well, God was speaking a lot to Moses. And he wrote it down for us. And this is some of it. reminding us what man is On the inside. That it shows up on the outside.
Whatever's on the inside will show up on the outside, and in this section It's about the unclean things.
Now, that could be the good things too. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, and if the heart is filled with the things of the Lord, or the things of the Lord are what you're going to say.
Now, I mentioned the title is contamination, especially for you younger Christians who've not yet. entered the workforce or have not been long in the workforce. There are a lot of lessons here for you. Because there are people in the work Place? that will contaminate you if you let them.
It happens too often. Pay attention to the lessons. A pastor doesn't spend a lot of time going over the scripture because there's nothing there. He does, because there is something there. Hopefully it won't be wasted on you.
Listen to what's being said. The application of this fifteenth chapter To the New Testament church. How does this. work out in my New Testament Christianity. What does this have to do With me, all these Levitical laws are quite a bit.
For example, should there enter A fellowship? Any church assembly that's looking to honor the Lord and obey him. Those who are casual about The spread of contaminants, spiritually speaking. You know it's going to be a big problem. They get away with those things when churches are careless.
When there are things that enter in that will contaminate a congregation morally. And the leadership doesn't any do anything about it. And the congregants don't squawk about it. The result is it festers It spreads This is a big lesson we get New Testament and Old Testament. Corruption.
Things that come into the flock That contaminates it, and the next thing you know, Christ is not glorified. I'll add that The lessons in this fifteenth chapter are very helpful for evangelism. That's sharing the gospel with those who have not received Christ. Outstanding lesson is: we are to take spiritual contamination very seriously. All right, so where does it show up in the New Testament?
Well, one place. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Verses nine through eleven Do you not know? that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous.
Nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed? But you were sanctified But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus? and by the Spirit of our God.
So there you have. The New Testament Ringing in on what the Old Testament taught and agreeing with it. And telling us that these things are ongoing and will until Christ. Returns. A chapter of uh various instructions and commandments Which are not to be ignored.
The spirit of it. We don't have to get into the Levitical. Rights for cleansing. We are cleansed by the blood of Christ. We don't have to.
follow these procedures. But the spiritual lesson behind it is vital. to our Christianity. Because These things that contaminate are gonna be trouble. They're going to oppose the things of the Spirit.
What something does matters. the behavior of things. If you can mix certain chemicals, what they do matters. It can end up doing great harm.
So There are things about all people that are unclean to God. and to men too. And that's what this chapter is bringing out. Natural things that remind us that We belong to a defiled human race. No one escapes it.
None are untainted by sin. See, now, this is what we need to tell people who don't believe. I'll come back to that s in a moment. Mankind's Fallen polluted nature. it does mean something, and mankind knows it.
Man is aware of it, and spends a lot of energy. Try not to think about it. trying to disagree with it. to oppose it, to shut it up. to silence it.
I don't want to hear any more about the Bible or what it has to say. And the scriptures, of course, are rendering All The things that are unclean as unclean in man, in people, and saying you need a savior. The gospel message, unpopular with some, inescapable to all. The Gospel in Leviticus. man's inescapable need for purification Salvation What are the easiest things about the Gospel to tell a lost soul?
No one confronted me this way. No one came up to me and said, You know, you're dirty. before a clean God. They might have, if they used Bible language, they would have lost me. You know, God is holy.
What does that mean? To an unbeliever, what does a holiness of God mean? Not much. Holiness is purity. It is absolute purity.
And to bring something defiled. Don't eat red sauce with a white shirt. It's going to get stained. and the holiness of God. It was much greater than that.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's just that one little verse in Romans chapter 3, but it has all mankind in sight. When we evangelize, and no matter to who, We are dependent upon these facts. This is what gets the soul. I really believe when I say this to people.
Some Christians are pushed back on that. You need science, you need archaeology, you've got to talk about dinosaurs. I'm sick of dinosaurs. And I don't need them to preach the gospel. They have their place just not first place.
I don't need the Greek and I don't need the Hebrew. They have their place, not first place, when it comes to preaching Christ to lost souls. just holding their feet to the fire and saying, you know what? You know you're dirty. You know you're a sin.
And you know You're accountable to that sin. and I'm here to help you with a way out, if you're willing.
So I am armed with this fact. All born-again Christians are armed with this fact. If you think you need to memorize the Greek, to be an effective witness of Christ, you're wrong. And you're burying your talent. We need Greek scholars we have them.
But we need Christians who are brave also. and who are not Lord. By a false sense of knowledge. If I could just learn all the Bible, if I could just know as much as everybody else, I could be, no, that's. That's not true.
He is certainly not not complimenting ignorance.
So this is too simple for some Christians. And again, they get dragged into useless debates. Paul warned Timothy, watch out for endless genealogies. The Jews keep bringing this stuff, their culture, their tribe, that stuff's not going to save souls. Jesus was very much simple with the delivery of truth.
Fuck everybody reads the gospel. John chapter 8, he raised himself up and said, He who is without sin among you, let him throw. the first stone at her. Who's there without sin? Those guys were so loaded with sin that they were still gonna stone her.
But you catch the point, he didn't say, Hey, let's talk about the dinosaurs. Let's talk about the Hebrew words. He didn't give them a Bible lesson, he gave them a human lesson. You're dirty before a clean and holy God. Even wicked Pharaoh Understood.
that he was dirty. And he asked Moses and Aaron to pray to their God for him.
Now, he wasn't asking to follow Yahweh. But he recognized that there is deity There is accountability, and man is defiled. Exodus 8, verse 28.
So Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to Yahweh your God. in the wilderness Only you shall not go very far away. Intercede for me.
Well, why would he say that if he didn't have a sense of dirtiness about himself? And so my point is that there are people in your neighborhood and you come in contact with They know. They know there are things about them that are wrong.
Well, you can let that die on the vine. And they go to their grave knowing that they were wrong. without the solution. The inescapable fact of Leviticus 15. Is the inescapable fact of personal defilement before an undefiled creator.
When you say it like that, and they try to say, I don't believe in the create, see, that takes you down a trail you don't need to bother with. Let's stay on this first, let's get this straight. Those things are smoke screens. Using how can you trust the Bible? We'll get to that later.
These are important things, but we got to get the first things first. We have to major in the majors. and you can I can answer all your questions and you still go to hell. Accountability. To God for this defilement.
is everything. And salvation is the most important part of our existence.
So now, with that in mind, and let's hopefully keep it stay in the forefront, verse one of Letters. Leviticus 15. Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. Secretions Natural or unnatural, voluntary or involuntary, male or female. If you read the chapter, you'll find out.
Even when Physically not present at the house of God, You were conscious of the Doctrine of impurity. is unavoidable if someone in your home or yourself They had the situation. you'd know in time it was published, you'd know that this is a spiritual matter. It's a physical condition that is affecting My approach to God Because it makes me ceremonially unclean.
Now, none of these things were like the leper where they were quarantined and that kind of contamination, but they still had to go through purification. There were still laws governing this.
So you have to watch out for the subtle things that contaminate as well as the not so subtle. Regulations about the female will come in verse 19. But until then, verse three now, and this shall be his uncleanness in regard to his discharge, whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is stopped up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness. Bottom line, why? Because God said so.
That's why. And that's true with all of the scripture. You've got to come face to face with that reality. He's either God or Or he's not. And if He's God, then he's sovereign.
Seoul usually doesn't understand that. the doctrine of God's sovereignty. They don't understand New Testament love. One of the first things unbelievers do: oh, well, if God is a God of love, then why do the Jews kill everybody in the Old Testament? See, they need explanation on that.
A lot of Christians need an explanation on that.
Sometimes we need refresher courses. It's okay if you forget some of these things. It's not okay if. If you think it's okay to just leave it there. Do you know there was no atheists in the camp?
Even though there were unfaithful Jews and wicked, we have no record of any atheists there. But non-atheists are still sinners. A hundred percent of the time. You mean an atheist? She says, you know, you got other problems too.
That's just one of your problems. You've got other things. That are messing with you. One of them is you have this open doorway to hell. And you let Satan go in and out, you have a ladder that goes down to hell, but you don't have one that goes up to heaven.
And you know it, and you know how you know it. You can't do it in good conscience. You'd be lying. The first murderer in history was an impenitent killer. But he wasn't an atheist.
Cain. He wasn't an atheist. Jezebel wasn't an atheist. She didn't follow the right God, but she still believed in the Almighty Being. Judas Iscariot?
not an atheist. Be he's in hell. The Bible tells us he's the son of perdition. Satan is not an atheist. No one in hell.
Is an atheist. Not a single person in hell is an atheist. In fact, when we get to Revelation, God is judging them. Thing before Jesus said, there's going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth because the sovereignty of God will be upon them and there will be the point of no return. and there's nothing they can do about it but grunt and cry.
And so we say, Lord, use me, use me. To extract as many people from the darkness of hell as you can. And when you commit to that, Satan says, it's on. And he's going to try to ruin your testimony. He has so many tricks up his sleeve.
You lose your temper one time, you're ashamed of yourself. Satan will say, You can't serve in church now. He's chipping away. and sitting you on the sideline. Eventually there would arise within the Jewish world some atheists.
And David wrote about them. He said the fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. Who are these guys to say there is no God?
Well, the ones that want to do abominable things and not be held accountable for them. Like these diabolical Flaunting of sexual perversity parades.
Well, anyway, let's not get sidetracked there. That's basic. It's not high-level, it is very low-level sin. And because they've made it dramatic and parade around, it doesn't it's still low-level sin. When I say low level, you don't need a Bible study to find that out.
Verse 4: Every bed is unclean, on which he who has the discharge lies. and everything on which he sits shall be unclean.
So the contamination is being presented now. Verse five And whoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. Verse seven and he who touches the body of him who has the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.
So you get the idea, this is, they're not being quarantined.
So the idea is not so much contamination, it is purity. Staying away from things that defile. That's our lesson. We're not under the law. But now, verse 8.
If he who has the discharge spits on him who is clean, He shall punch him out. It doesn't say that, but That would be the natural reflex. Not the spiritual. What they do is spitting on people. There's hatred in that.
When you had to spin on it, there's some cultures, this is active. When you want to express your hatred, but you don't want to go to jail. You spit on him And do they spit on the Lord? He says if he who, verse eight, has a discharge, spits on him who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water. and be unclean until evening.
So it wasn't a long period before they were ritually restored to go down to the temple and worship again. And if you were a doctor, you were like, you know what, I can't go down and make an offering, I got to take a week off. Get away from all of this. I'm reading this to draw attention to our not taking what this says with a grain of salt. When we're reading Leviticus in our private time, devotions, we may get to these chapters and kind of just s peruse them, skim through them.
I don't say that's a fault, as long as we understand. That's a big deal. We do not have to memorize. The purification procedures nor implement them, but we are to grasp the point. There is more here than biological activity and religious restoration.
The reality of what. Things That God pronounces unacceptable are unacceptable. And we start there.
Now, many times we then begin to understand why, but what happens if you don't understand?
Well, then you're now saying to God, you've got to apply for the position. You can't be God unless you pass this test. You have to explain to me. God doesn't have to explain anything to you. We accept this.
Moses is with us and saying, you know, I don't think this is right, Lord. He accepted it and he wrote it down. In verse 9, Any saddle on which he who has the discharge rides shall be unclean. That means if he sits in your car, he's messed up everything. Yeah.
Verse 10: Whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until evening. He who carries any of those things shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. There's something else. just beneath the surface with all this. That is being forthright.
and telling people. He said, You know what? I got a problem. You know, he could have just I'm not saying anything. Hey, the guy's riding on his saddle, and I saddle it.
He shouldn't do that. I just thought that it calls for. people to live as though God is part of their life. Is that a new idea for us? Verse 11 and whoever The one who has this discharge touches and has not Rince his hands in water he shall Wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.
Verse twelve. The vessel of earth, it's a clay pot. or vessel? that he who has the discharge touches, shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed with water.
So God takes cross-contamination seriously enough to not ignore it. seriously enough to take a man of Moses' level of calling. and have him put it into law. What about the New Testament? Does it ratify this?
Does it hold the hands of Moses up? Absolutely. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 15, verse 33. And this is especially for you, younger ones, because the older ones should have learned this.
But you as a younger Believer entering into the workforce, maybe you don't have that spiritual stavi.
So, you can learn the hard way through experience, or you can learn. the easier way through perception. And now you're getting the perception. You get the verse, and you can see from a distance that this is the way to behave. And here's the verse.
Don't be deceived. Don't be suckered. Evil company corrupts good habits. Breaks down your Spirituality. Your obedience, your morals.
It will get you. Chapters eighteen through twenty Moses will deal with morals. But in the New Testament, it's still very much active. Spiritually. APPLICATION OF THESE OLD TESTAMANT LAWS are found in New Testament warnings.
Sufficient enough to take away any excuse to say, Oh, I didn't know that was in the Bible. Why don't you know that?
Well, maybe because I don't read the Bible, or maybe because I don't know anybody who speaks the Bible, maybe because I go to a church that doesn't teach the Bible, there's a reason if you don't know. 'Cause it's in print.
Well, Second Timothy chapter 2.
Now, again, he's telling this to a pastor.
Now, Paul was a bit overbearing with Timothy. He loved Timothy so much, he treated him like a five-year-old sometimes. Timothy, watch out. When you cross the street, look both ways and be like, I'm 40. I think I could pull this one off.
But that's just Paul loving on Timothy. And you gotta admire that. He says here. To Timothy But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness, and their message will spread like gangrene. Hymenias and Philetus are of this sort.
Mm.
Now, of course, some of what Paul is writing to Timothy, he knows Timothy knows because they spent so much time together. But he also understands this letter is going to be read in the church, and there are others who don't know it, who do need to hear it. And the cue. Thanks for tuning in to today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. Pastor Rick Gaston is currently going through the book of Leviticus.
We're glad you joined us. We trust that you're gaining some valuable insights into God's Word as we go through this Old Testament book. Cross-Reference Radio comes to you from Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast, you can do so by going to your favorite app store and downloading from there. For any additional information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreference radio.com.
Make sure to come back again for the upcoming edition in the book of Leviticus, as Pastor Rick has much more to share. We thank you for being with us right here on Cross Reference Radio. Uh
