Holiness and disassociation. And God is continuing to enforce upon the people A discipline. We Americans We do not like to be disciplined involuntarily. But when you come to Christ, you do. You have to begin to.
Conform. Two. Follow the Lord. And they were no different out of Egypt. They had a lot of problems, and God is.
laying on them restrictions, disciplining them. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Aston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Leviticus. Please stay tuned.
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.
Now, here is Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his study called Holiness Disassociates, as he teaches in Leviticus chapter 19. The idea is God wants to dissociate his people. From what the world is doing. Their religion. Their values.
Because at first, you read this verse, you start drilling down and reading countless commentators on this, and you find, well, you know, it's okay to cross breed d the same type of sheep, But you can't do a cat dog.
Well, those things have their truth to them, but that's can't be what's being said here because when you get to the garment, why can't I mix wool? With the linen.
Well Nobody's died from that. or even gotten sick from that. And again, the only Answer could be As is this entire chapter. Holiness disassociates Holiness separates. That's what the word saint means.
We are separated to God, we're separated from the world's views, we don't take our cues from them. Deuteronomy twenty two, eleven, You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.
So it is upheld farther into their wilderness experience before they go into the promised land. And again, latter times in the history, it shows that the prophets. They were exposed to these practices and they made no mention to condemn it.
So I think the end result, and again, we don't have all the information, but we have. We have enough to crack that case.
Well, that's my take on it. Anyway, verse 20. Whoever lies carnally with a woman and is betrothed to Who is betrothed to a man? as a concubine, and who has not at all been redeemed nor given her freedom. For this there shall be scourging.
but they shall not be put to death because she was not free.
Well, this has to do with a concubine that is a slave. that is also a slave. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world. I mean, it's just the crazy things. You know, we look back from our relatively civilized society and now thinking at these kinds of things, and we say, man, this is just brutal.
Remember, not all slavery was Bad. Much of it was an improvement for the lives of those who were slaves. Like, I'm so glad you people conquered my people and got me out of that mess. It shows up just a little bit. With Ruth.
I'm not going back to those people. And you know, that was he wasn't a slave, but It points out. You know many of the American Indians in this country, they were killing each other. For hunting grounds, you know, the rights, you know, these are my buffalo, and you're killing them, and we're gonna war with each other. Many of them are recorded.
in the days of Lewis and Clark, of how miserable Many of them were.
So my point is, we look at these things from our eyes today. We have to be careful. That we don't miss what was happening then.
Well, anyway, and I'm not supporting this, it's not where that's coming from. It's just that we don't be too quick to judge. without thinking it through a little bit. And The Hebrew word here for scourging.
So you had a man who was a Jewish man, and he had a concubine. that was going to become the official property of another man, and they have a relationship and they get caught.
Well, it technically isn't adultery is the idea, but it is a crime.
So instead of If it were a Jewish man and a Jewish woman, it would have been a death sentence for both. Here, scourging is and restitution is called for. And scourging here, incidentally, is probably monetary punishment. Because it's a different word for scourge than found elsewhere when it has to do with the lash, with beating somebody. This also.
likely involves non-Israelites. could be also Part of this problem here. The concubines were female servants that were brought into the family and regarded as family. Abraham and Hagar Jacob had Bilhah and Zilpah. They were concubines, and that's the world that they lived in.
Verse twenty-one. And he shall bring his trespass offering to Yahweh to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, a ram as a trespass offering. Verse twenty two, the priest shall make atonement for him. with the ram of the trespass offering before Yahweh. For his sin which he has committed.
and the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him. On top of the Civil punishment, there had to be A spiritual offering, a restitution before God. And man. Verse 23: When you come into the land, and have planted all kinds of trees. For food, then you shall count their fruit as uncircumcised.
Three years it shall be as uncircumcised to you. It shall not be eaten. But in the fourth year, All its fruit shall be holy, and A praise to Yahweh. Verse 25, and in the fifth year you may eat its fruit. That it may yield to you its increase.
I am Yahweh your God.
Well, again. holiness and disassociation. And God is continuing to enforce upon the people A discipline. We Americans We do not like to be disciplined involuntarily. But When you come to Christ, you do.
You have to begin to. Conform. To Follow the Lord. And they were no different out of Egypt. They had a lot of problems, and God is.
Laying on them restrictions, disciplining them. calling for them to trust him. This restriction is on newly planted trees, not existing fruit trees. You look at verse. 23 says, have planted all kinds of trees.
For food, this is in the promised land, which they're not in yet. And then verse 25: that it may yield to you its increase. The Jews had fruit. when they got into the promised land. just not from juvenile trees.
that they planted. For five years, they could not eat that fruit. The first three years, They just let it grow. The fourth year they would Take from the tree and make an offering to the Lord, and then in the fifth year, It evidently would be more prolific this way, and thus, verse 25, that it may yield to you its increase.
So God wants things done his way. which could have been a title for this, but It's too many words. Anyway, verse 26. And you shall not eat anything with blood, nor shall you practise divination or soothsaying.
Well, blood is a visible. An appropriate emblem of life and the sanctity of life is Blood is not food and not to be used as food, and the Jews had to be careful about how they prepared their food. There are forbidden forms also in this verse of witchcraft. All witchcraft is forbidden. with the different forms of it.
All of it involves demonic activity. Humans have a natural aversion to uncertainty. We want to know the future.
Well That's where they got in trouble. They would go to these. demons, these witches, and try to find out what's going to happen. as did King Saul. And all of these attempts at telling the future but tampering with the spiritual realm and it is for ever forbidden by God.
We're going to have to have contact with the dead or try to. You can't, and if you think you do, it's a demonic spirit impersonating. the person you're trying to contact. Prayer is to God only. not to Any created being.
King Saul again sought to be an exception.
Sought the witch at Endor. And in 1 Chronicles 10:13, God has the chronicler specify That God killed him for that. And he died, of course, within twenty-four hours of his attempted seance. To bring up Samuel.
Now the sooth sayings I'm saying sooth. There's no problem with saying sooth. You just can't practice saying it. He says right there, you shall not practice divination or still say. Verse.
Twenty-seven. You know, some of these things, the sooth thing is silly, you know, the mediums. You know Snacks or a good diet can keep you in a small or a large. But the mediums have problems. Once you say something silly like that, at least for me, it doesn't get out of my head.
Verse 27, you shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard.
Well, the military has broken that rule. Uh of course The point of this verse is not the shaving of the head. It is personal appearance. and its associations. That's what we're dealing with here.
they were to disassociate themselves from identifying with the pagan practices of the day, And they'll bring that out when they're cutting themselves and they're f you know At the loss of death when someone dies. God is giving commandments that will help disassociate his people. From other people. He said this through Moses. to Pharaoh, I will make a difference between my people and your people.
And again, the word saint Is a disassociation. From the world. We are separate, sanctified, set aside, disassociated. Paul gave commandment to disassociate the Christians in Corinth, the Christian women, from the pagan practices there. 1 Corinthians 1.
11 verse 6 for if a woman is Not covered. Let her also be shorn, cut her hair, shave her hair. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, then let her be covered. Covered her, put a shawl on her um A covering.
Well, you say to yourself, is that New Testament law? No, it is not. It was just for the Corinthians. And we know that for several reasons. One is neither Peter nor Paul.
So restricted women or other churches when again addressing. A woman's appearance. Modest dress. In fact, at the end of this 11th chapter in 1 Corinthians, Paul says this. 11 cor uh 1 Corinthians 11 verse 16.
If any one seems to be contentious, we have no such custom. Nora The Churches of God. In other words, he's saying, look, Where you are located. A particular appearance that you're making. is associated with with people we don't want you to be associated with.
To fix that How about don't dress like them? That to abstain from every form of evil first Thessalonians five twenty two And we'll come to more of that because that's what this section is really. highlighting for us Um Well, Proverbs 7.10. And there a woman met him. With the attire of a harlot.
It matters, it counts. There are things that send signals. But in our appearance, In certain cultures at certain times, And You know, if all the drug pushers wore You know little shiny shoes with shiny buckles on them in a particular part of Where you lived.
Well, you shouldn't be wearing those shoes. But there's no law, God, and the Bible is saying, but you can't. All things are lawful for me. But not all things are edifying. And that's what Paul is dealing with, and that's why he writes that in the first Corinthian letter.
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful, all things are lawful. But not all are edifying. They don't help. Not everything helps. That's the idea.
So here in verse 28, continuing with this disassociation, you shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead. Nor tattoo. Any marks on you, I am Yahweh.
Well, I would rather bear in my body the marks of Christ than anything else. The pagans had no qualms about scarring or disfiguring themselves. Disfiguring what God designed. You can look, you know, there are some African tribes where they have, you know, these scars on their cheeks from cutting. is part of their culture.
Well, if you're brought up in that culture as a Christian, you're not to do that kind of stuff. Jim Elliott. He said, The world cannot hate us. We're too much like its own. No disassociation.
We are identifying with the world.
So we have to be careful of the signals that we send. What made these things trouble is that the pagans used tattoos in connection to their gods as permanent signs of devotion. Those were the marks they bore on their body. I would rather bear on my body, as Paul said, the marks of Christ. than anything else.
The bottom line. In the Old and New Testament is don't allow the world to drape its flag on you. Don't have the world's badges. On you. If the world says Where's your badge?
Say to them. Badges? What badges? I don't need no stinking patches.
So anyway. We you know I mean, it's only to a point if the world wears clothes.
Well, I'm wearing clothes. There's no association there directly. Yeah.
So How we Christians carry ourselves matters. And we got to figure it out. wherever we we may be. And if a cult is known for shaving one side of their head and not the other side, and you say, Boy, I really like that hair, dude, something's wrong with you, first of all. And secondly, don't do it.
It's a direct link. And it's not too much to ask. It's not too much to ask. To be disassociated from these things. And it's in other areas, too.
These are just some of them that are given to us. Verse 29. And do not. Prostitute your daughter. to cause her to be a harlot.
lest the land fall into harlotry, and the land become full of wickedness. Why would God have to make such a commandment? What Father does not what Righteous Father. does not love his children. And have this Desire to protect his daughters and have his sons learn to protect to contribute to the protection.
of his daughters. But because the pagan priests saw women as chattel and children as possessions, they would do these things. They allowed these things. These things were part of certain Societies You get into a gambling debt and you need money real fast, you could do that. You say to yourself, I have a hard time believing anybody would do this.
Look at the monsters today who are trying to change the gender of toddlers. Which is worse. Demonic a hundred percent.
So we know that sin has no bounds. Verse thirty, You shall keep my Sabbaths? And reverence my sanctuary? I am Yahweh.
Well, the sanctuary was the official meeting place with God. I mean, certainly you could pray to God wherever you were, but you know, when you really wanted to express your love to the Lord. In an extraordinary way, then you would take your offering to the temple.
Now he's in the heart. And this is what Jesus was telling the woman at the well in John 4. There's coming a time where you worship the Lord in your heart, wherever you are. The temple of the Lord will be in the soul of the saved. Verse 31: Give no regard to mediums and fair spirits, do not seek after them to be defiled by them.
I am Yahweh your God.
Well People impersonated demons and demons impersonated people. They were woven together. And this again, seeking these familiar spirits. God is saying to his people, don't repeat the gibberish from hell. horoscopes and superstitions and Don't be bringing that here.
is the idea. Disassociation again. Verse thirty two: You shall rise before the gray-headed. Excuse me. When I cough like that, you should compliment me for not trying to continue to talk over that cough.
As I do when I'm not in the pulpit. Anyway. You shall rise before a the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man And fear your God, I am Yahweh. Of course that has to do with the older women too. Respect your elders is the lesson.
Where this is absent, you're stuck with an irreverent people. Crime goes up. and class goes down, And let me ask: Is the phrase, is this a defunct phrase? Is it Obsolete. For a woman to behave ladylike I have never I don't ever recall I'm newsome.
Ladies that Worked in Yeah. They are connected through family. And of course you could get them going and and they could Cuss like a sailor, you would say. But overall, it provoked them to get them to that level. They got hot, they would do that.
Today The women used to be a very good mother. The F word. like it's a preposition. And the men, there's one talk show, it's like, well, you got to use that word if you're going to be on my show, just one time. What has happened to people?
There's just no restrictions. There's no such thing as class anymore in so many places. And to top it off, they get to broadcast it everywhere. There's good things about the internet, and there's some very bad things about it, too. And the whole point that I am trying to make is that in a society to reduce crime and to increase Respect has got to be there.
And with that will come respect for your elders. And I know a lot of people still have that. Even though they may use certain words as prepositions, some still have it. The gray hair is to the saint. What hash marks are to a career military soldier or sailor?
You look on their forearms and you see stripes, and each stripe represents four years of service. And you just do the math, and you say, Boy, this guy's been here a long time.
Well, the gray hair are hash marks. I've been around a little bit. But What are you going to do with your time being here? Proverbs 16:31: The silver-haired head is a crown of glory if it is found in the way of righteousness. It's not automatic.
You can have gray hair and be a fool. I'm not trying to prove that. But you can have gray hair and it can be a crown of glory. Verse 33. And if a stranger sees some teenagers out there dying their hair gray, see what this.
And so when I was in high school, I remember there was a play and this friend of mine comes out. And he's grey-headed on the sides, and they use flour. Then they're like, this is crazy. Yeah.
He looked like he was in his fifties or something and he's only in high school. Verse 33. And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. Verse 34: The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.
This is law. And he's telling the Jewish people Don't go hating foreigners. Because you know what it's like to be a foreigner and to be hated for being one. Act like you've learned something. Resident aliens were not to be ill-treated because they We're not Jewish.
And so verse thirty five. You shall do no injustice in judgment in measurement of length, weight, or flow. Scammers rip off otters, thieves. This is towards them. Proverbs 11.
Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, and a just weight is his delight. Do you go to the market? He says, you know. Pound of cherry, $5. You put the cherries on there, and it comes up to be, you know.
Oh, that's three pounds. But really, it's less than a pound. Or whatever. Yeah, and Every time I do math in the pulpit, it's a disaster. Every single time.
It works out in study time to get up here. Anyway, verse thirty-six, you get the point. 'Cause you're very smart people. No, I mean that. Verse 36: You shall have honest scales, honest weights.
An honest Epha. and an honest hen I am Yahweh your God. who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Well, these are dry and liquid measures. Verse 37: Therefore, you shall observe all my statutes and all my judgments and perform them. I am Yahweh.
Well, where's that in the New Testament? John 15, John 14, verse 15. If you love me. Keep my commandments That's a heavy, heavy commandment, is it not? Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven. I think the message is Very clear. Right to the point. We Christians are to walk as though You've told us what you want from us. and not walk as though We should follow those who ignore or twist.
what you have said. We thank you for this patience, us for caring for us. We ask you. In Jesus' name, amen. 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.
