And so, you don't have to commit the act, you're still a sinner. Because you were brought forth in iniquity. We're all conscious of this uncleanness, and this is what we need to tell the world. And it's such a good thing, you know. What unbeliever is going to read Leviticus 15?
I would guess none.
Well, I mean, there certainly could be you could have Jews that would read Leviticus 15 and not be Followers of Christ. But on the most part, we'll likely not meet anybody like that, so we can take them there. 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. Leviticus chapter 15 is where Pastor Rick will be teaching from today on this edition of Cross Reference Radio. 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, This 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. He could have just I'm not saying anything. Hey, the guy's riding on his saddle and I saddle and 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 12.
The vessel of earth, that'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 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, 2 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. Hymenius and Philetus are of this sort 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. Watch out for idle babbling! You know, I'm Yeah, I don't believe in a creator because and they just okay, fine, we'll get to that, but right now we're gonna get to you. and your soiled self, just like the rest of us. Why do you get a pass and think that You're not a sinner when you know you're a sinner.
And then you define what the word sin means. It means you missed the mark. It's one thing to Miss a boat? It's another thing to miss the target when the target is firing back at you. And he doesn't miss, and that target would be Satan.
He's gonna shoot back. And those who are not followers of Jesus Christ are his hostages. Victims. or body count, however, whatever metaphor you choose to apply. Shun profane and idle babblings.
You got to know when, okay, you know what? This is going down that rabbit trail that is just useless. The Jehovah's Witnesses are notorious for getting you to talk about what they want you to talk about and not the Bible. And you'd hold their feet to the fire. And who's Jesus?
He can't do that. But You might want to, but Anyway, well, Peter did. He hacked the earth. That's where I learned it, Lord, not my faults in the Bible. Anyway.
Shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. Their message will spread like gangrene. That's the proper translation of that Greek word, because that's the Greek word Paul uses where we get our English word gangrene from. It's not only a sore, it's spreading. In other words, it's not only a visible wound on the flesh, it's eating away, it's gnawing away, which is what essentially a kangaroo does.
And then he names names.
Sometimes it's okay to name names.
Some people all don't talk about them. Why? They're spreading bad stuff. Oh, you know, they did that with Jesus. Lord, you offended them.
Hey, load it up again. Hit them some more. Woe to you, Pharisees. Woe to you, scribes, you wouldn't stop.
So he says Harmenius and Philetus are of this sort, going around saying, you know, the end is already come, the resurrection, and they're just spreading lies. Anyway, verse 13 of Leviticus 15. And when he who has a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count for himself seven days. for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe his body in running water, and shall be clean. This is one of those moments in preaching where I feel the Lord telling me something.
And maybe this person has big problems in their life. Maybe there's a marital issue. Maybe there's a health issue. Maybe there's a loved one that's caught in sin and messed up their lives. They're still required.
to be believers. They still are required to do their duty. You can't say, I'm sorry, I've got a problem in my life, and I'm not going to follow Jesus until I get this thing fixed. It's a Textbook move of Satan. Job did not say in all of his misery, Come back some other time.
He dealt with those boys. They couldn't deal with him. I just wish there was one word in Job's vocabulary. I just wish he just would have said that. But no, because he does, we're stuck with all these chapters monologuing.
Anyway. It's And he has no offer or anything. He's the one God ignores, actually. I like pointing that out. Although it you'd probably be in heaven.
I will avoid him. Yeah. All that stuff would be gone. Just think how powerful. Glorification is When David and Uriah will be friends.
I mean just one example. the person that killed you. It's done. No more sorrow. The former things have passed away.
But that's how powerful the glorification that awaits us is. And we've got to keep our eye on that ball sometimes. It's not enough to just say, I'm going to heaven.
Sometimes we've got to remember: okay, I'm going through this junk on earth. But I'm going to have it. It won't last. Faith the substance of things hoped for. What a contrast.
Hope is not a substance. You don't have it. But the substance, you've got it, it's the thing. You're touching it. On the eighth day, verse fourteen, He shall take for himself two turtle doves, Two young pigeons, and come before Yahweh to the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
and give them to the priest. Then the priest shall offer them. The one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, so the priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh because of his discharge. The point here is not for us. What's significant is that there's restoration That there are solutions.
Again, the gospel in Leviticus telling a lost soul, you know what? I've just pointed out to you the things you already know about yourself, that you're a train wreck before a God that is holy and pure. But I'm also now pointing out there is a way to get her friendship with this God. Restoration maybe for the backslider. But Fellowship with the same God.
And this God demands that after we Have a relationship. that we be perfect. But has built into the system provisions for our imperfections which are not Possible. But are guaranteed. And so that's why when sin abounded grace did much more.
We have an advocate with the Father. Who is that advocate? What did He ever do for me? Where does He come from? What's He all about?
What qualifies Him?
Well, that's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It would turn out, I saw him just because where's the running water to carry? You just can't. Where are you going to find? Pigeons.
So you see the magnificence when you get to the New Testament, you see all the work Paul puts into saying, stop it with the old Judaism. Christ has freed us. And if he didn't free us. then there are peoples on the earth that would never make it in. But he has freed us and they do make it in.
And so very big Point there. These things don't apply. You can't do them in many places.
So the keynote. Of Leviticus fifteen especially, Is that personal and spiritual purity requires maintenance?
Okay, you got it right yesterday. What about today? The idea of walking with Jesus Christ, not having visited with him. to walk with him daily. Verses 16 through 18.
are for your private reading. because it's more about the discharging stuff. Laws for A man's natural discharge were made them ceremonially unclean. Without Since If he had a relationship with his wife, he didn't sin. But he's still ceremonially unclean.
It's kinda profound when you think about it. It's like God saying there's no wiggle room here. Unclean is what you are. I'm using biology. to point out Your spiritual condition That without an act of sin, you're still impure.
Sinners reproduce sinners. It's just like in Genesis. We repeat after our, we read some of those old commentators that came along before Darwin's, and they're. They look at Genesis, or even when Darwin came out, and they just said this: we repeat after our kind. That was their defense.
God and it was the perfect defense. And Darwinism has not Defeated it. Elephants make elephants They don't make Chickens And it's that way across the board. And so, of course, now we live in an age where we try to just lie.
So, oh, we found it. No, you haven't. You're lying. And proving the point. That you are defiled before a holy God.
People who lie, they can't stand being lied to. That points out that they understand it is a flaw. To Say it lightly. Anyway. Psalm 51, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and sin, my mother conceived me.
You can't get away from it. That's the point. And so, you don't have to commit the act, you're still a sinner. Because you were brought forth in iniquity. We're all conscious of this uncleanness, and this is what we need to tell the world.
And it's such a good thing, you know. What unbeliever is going to read Leviticus 15? I would guess none.
Well I mean there certainly could be you could have Jews that would re Leviticus 15 and not be Followers of Christ. But on the most part we'll likely not meet anybody like that, so we can take them there. And we can say, you probably haven't read Leviticus 15, and they'll go, huh? And you can say, well, let me tell you what it's about. It's about how messed up we are.
humanity, and begin to lay out these points without even having to read anything from the chapter. Chapter 15 verse 19 If a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she shall be set apart seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. And no sin, she said. It didn't commit an act of sin. In 2 Samuel.
Chapter 11, verses 2 through well, beginning in verse 2. We have the record of, and the record shows, Bathsheba bathing to purify herself. She was going through the purification process. when David saw her. And She this is this let's listen listen to this.
she was in compliance to Scripture. When she and David were swept into sin. By their own sinful passions. She wasn't committing a sin. When she became a stumbling block Less skin is better.
Bathsheba. He should have taken steps. But she didn't. David's proximity to her Patio would have been well known by her. Who would live next to the king?
and not know that's his balcony up there.
So anyway, you know, the responsibility of being responsible. In compliance to Scripture. She and David were swept away into sin by their sw sinful passions, and that puts every single one of us on alert. It doesn't have to be sexual sin. It could be any kind of sin.
Satan's not picky. He's had my heart set on this kind of sin, and you went and did that kind. He's not going to be. He says, I'll take it.
So we have to take all these spiritual lessons seriously.
Now, verses 20 through 24 are straightforward enough to bypass. Notice I didn't say they were insignificant. You can read them on your own. Verse 25. If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, other than at the time of her customary impurity, Or if it runs beyond her usual time of impurity.
all the days of her unclean discharge, Shall be as the days of her customary impurity, she shall be unclean.
So, if the monthly cycle comes around, it doesn't go away.
Now she's in an impure state. Remember When God walked the earth, The only thing he showed women was love. They never treated them like second class citizens. The woman In The life and times of Jesus the Messiah. One in particular had a twelve year ordeal, this dread upon her.
Can you imagine the loss of energy, the social stigma to she's almost a leper. She fell under this law. The story is in the three synoptic gospels, And look Chapter eight is one I'm going to draw from, where the story is told. The three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are called the synoptic gospels. Then, what is the Gospel of John?
It's the independent gospel. Anyway. Luke chapter 8, this woman, she touched Christ, the g his garment. According to law he's defiled now. But he doesn't ever say, Oh, now I'm unclean.
He doesn't have to. Luke chapter 8, verse 46, Jesus says, Somebody touched me. For I perceive power going From me. It's a one-way street. There was power coming out, there was no iniquity coming in.
That's why he says in John 14, the independent gospel. The ruler of this world is coming and he had nothing in me. It couldn't stick. It's like Teflon, you know. Nothing could stick on him because of his purity.
He had Deflector shields up. Phasers. Leviticus 15, 25 shows up in the Gospels. And how Christ is not defiled by her touch. And that would be the same with the lepers.
When he cleansed the lepers, he did not become defiled, he could not be contaminated. As I just read in those verses, I felt power go out of me.
Well, the woman was touching a lot of people. This was Peter's complaint when the Lord says, Somebody who touched me, Peter, are you kidding me, right? We're being thronged by this mob, and you're asking who touched you? Who hasn't touched you? Yeah.
How can I not? And Peter, of course, was dismissed in the sense that Jesus is moved his eyes just moved away from him. I felt power go out of me.
Something unique has happened. This was not a casual touch. This was not someone brushing up against me. This was the cry for help to God. and it was answered.
And a poor woman she and he called out, Who touched me? to go off Verses 26 through 31. Give us how ritual purification was handled.
Now, we don't again, it's straightforward. You can read it. They have to do this, they have to do that. There's no direct application anymore. There's no more template.
Even the Jews, the Jews can't carry this stuff out. Nor can they the next chapter, the Day of Atonement, They cannot carry out any of it. And it doesn't seem to sit with them that You know the Prophet said this would happen. And there's a reason why you're without it, and there's a reason why you're not going to get that temple back until it's really too late. That's really a fight.
So we go to verse thirty-two. This is the law for one who has a discharge. And then there's some more detail given. But verse thirty-three continues. And for her who is indisposed because of her customary impurity, and for one who has a discharge, either man or woman, and for him who lies with her who is unclean.
And so as I mentioned at the beginning, verses 31.
Well, 32, 33 are driving home the point. This is God's way of dealing with this. It's not casual. Don't dismiss it. Learn from it and apply it.
Develop what you apply. Maintain the purity. It has to be maintained. It's not going to do it on its own. I remember one time When I lived alone, my laundry folded itself.
It's not gonna happen. They're just things you have to do, whether you like em or not.
Some people have this approach, some of these motivational speakers. At least do at least one thing a day you can't stand. I don't listen to them. But I do like to pick on them. And if you really get bored, watch how many people get pulled over for a misdemeanor and end up with a felony.
Because they won't shut up. And they just won't shut up and they won't comply And it should be mandatory viewing in all schools. Anyway, I know that's t but this is kind of it. The same idea in this sense Comply. With the authority of God's Word.
And it will go well with you. As God told Cain. If you obey, will it not go well with you? And if not, sin lies at the door. It's right at the entrance.
Its desire is for you. Satan thinks we're scrumptious. and he wants to devour He's a lion that goes around. roaring, seeking whom he may devour. And he's never been thin.
There's plenty of food for him. All disease and sickness is directly associated with the fall of man and with sin. God takes the possibility of spiritual cross-contamination more seriously than biological contamination. He takes biological contamination seriously. That's the whole Leviticus 13 and 14.
But here in 15, the ailments didn't seem that serious compared to the leprosies. But they weren't dismissed, they were brought out in the open with equal authority. of God's Word. And God is saying, I take contamination seriously. How many Christians Don't want to hear it.
Israel's defiling of Yahweh's temple. precipitated his departure from the temple, and the destruction of the temple, and it issued in the times of the Gentiles, which we covered this past Sunday. And that you can read Ezekiel eight through Ezekiel eleven. To close with this verse, From Jesus. Which sums up the entire chapter we've looked at, and he said.
Matthew seven twenty What comes out of a man that defiles him? Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, Lord ye It's a hard life because of sin. But you make it bearable. And Worthwhile.
If we would just endure If we would take the hits as chastenings as painful as these things are. We're actually built to take 'em. To continue forward. the mundane things of life, the boredom, The attacks were built for all of it. And may we remember that none of this has caught you off guard.
And all of this Is something that you can turn into service for the kingdom and the salvation of souls. We love and worship you in Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah. Bye, 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. Yeah.
