When Demas left Paul. Where mentally do you put Demas when you read that? Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. Does your heart say, and so he's going to hell? Or Yeah, he went to Thessalonica.
Paul says, There's a church there, there's a good church there. Maybe Demas. will rebound. You see? How do we approach the problem?
I think it matters a lot. and how effective we can be in serving the Lord. 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's Pastor Rick in the book of Hosea chapter 4. He'll begin there and then continue into Leviticus 20 on today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Hosea 4:14, I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, nor Bribes when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go apart with harlots, and offer sacrifices with a ritual harlot, therefore people who do not understand will be trampled. God is saying, you're not going to use me.
To Satisfy your injustices. And that's what Jesus was faced with. And so he said, He did not say, Well, you must not be a believer, lady, He said, Your sin is forgiven, go. And sin no more. Those guys are creeps.
He didn't say that part. But that's what happened. They were so obnoxious that When he said, You without sin, throw the first stone. They were ready to stone her anyway until he started writing down things. Probably What their sins were and who they were with.
And they saw that. We got to get out of here. and so from the eldest to the youngest they left Anyway, so I'm saying that moment is more, is about, there's more to that story than just the law. There's grace in action. And if the Lord can be forgiving to David, If he can be forgiving to that woman, He can be forgiving to me.
And if you don't know that, Satan's going to trip you up real good. You will, if you. Make or he'll use you to trip somebody else up. And tell them, oh, you're stuck now. You're going to hell now?
Get out of my sight. You might not word it that way, but your heart might be having that approach. Grace is so much better. It's so much better to look for the goodness of God solutions. To combat sin.
and keep it from repeating. itself Which is Part of what this Old Testament law was all about. And I say that because I think there are some Christians. That they almost relish judgment. Their approach to Scripture is let's see who we can damn.
Instead of seeing Who they could Save, for example. When Demas, I brought this up before I know, when Demas left Paul. Where mentally do you put Demas when you read that? Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. Does your heart say And so he's going to hell.
Or Yeah, he went to Thessalonica. Paul says, There's a church there, there's a good church there. Maybe Demas. will rebound. You see?
How do we approach the problem? I think it matters a lot. and how effective we can be in serving the Lord. Well, verse 11: The man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both of them shall surely be put to death.
Their blood shall be upon them.
Well, we covered this in chapter 18. A crime beyond adultery. Paul covers it in 1 Corinthians 5. He has a no-nonsense attitude. Get that guy out of your church.
But Maybe you can restore him. And what happens? He gets restored, as opposed to saying, no, he crossed the line. That's it for him. That's not how Paul handled that, and he was brought back into the fellowship.
Verse 12: If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have committed perversion, their blood shall be upon them.
Well, capital crimes. Judah in the book of Genesis was deceived by Tamar. It was not an intentional sin, but a sin nonetheless. Again, many of these are covered in chapter 18 of Leviticus. Verse 13.
He talks about homosexuality. And he says it's an abomination. That's what he says here in verse 13. They shall surely be put to death, their blood shall be upon them.
So that's a capital crime, a death sentence. And today, there are people that know this. Relish this sin. Advocate it, publish it. And hate anybody associated with this Bible because of this.
Well, God would have none of this. And all of these again carry over into the New Testament. Romans chapter 1, verses 26 and 27, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10. And then Even Jude. Verse seven The addition Placed on this sin.
Committed an abomination, elevates this particular sin. Over some of the previously mentioned capital crimes. Of course, the first one with Molech. Yeah. Verse 14, if a man marries a woman, And her mother, it is wickedness, they shall be burned with fire, both he and they.
That there may be no wickedness among you.
Now, this was brought up in chapter. 18, but not the sentence of burning them with fire.
Well, it is here. a public example.
Okay.
Some um 1600 years before Christ, that's where we are. And these kinds of things were not uncommon and were condoned by. many of the pagan cultures. And Moses knows that these people have a proclivity to sin as their neighbors. And so he's trying to salt the earth or salt of the people, the nation.
That's again salt is that agent that slows down corruption. Leviticus 21, 9 Also says to burn the perpetrator, but there it is the daughter of a priest who becomes a harlot. Very heavy. Heavy sentence there. Looking back at chapter 18 in Leviticus verse 17, They are near of kin to her, it is wickedness.
So, God. Adds that. He says it here too: that there may be no wickedness among you, but In chapter 18, he adds that They are near to kin to the To her, it is wickedness.
Now, verse 15. We have some other atrocious sins as well. It was verse 16: for a man and a woman, the death sentence was. There for this heinous capital crime in Israel, but also. The innocent animal.
which suffer Or be in this. And you say, well, why? Perversity causes innocent victims. That's what it does. It doesn't you just Get the guilty, it gets the innocent too, as do all of these capital crimes.
Verse seventeen Now talks about the sister or step sisters. or half sisters. They shall be cut off in the sight of the people? And those who commit the crime of verse 17 will bear their guilt. They get.
you know, what they deserve. You could say it that way.
So these are boundaries against unbridled lusts. And uh When they were maintained, Israel did better.
So in the book of Judges, which is You know, which is worse. The way that people behaved in judges, or the way they behaved in kings. It's a foot race, a photo finish on that one. But When we come out of the period of Judges. Which is really bad.
When we come out with Samuel. And things do get better. Even though King Saul is a monstrosity, King David follows. And David. God did so much through David, preserved so much of what David had to give.
He is the greatest of all the human kings, King David. Josiah was great, but David was in a whole nother class, and had Josiah lived as long as David did. More things might have surfaced about him, but that's speculation. I love them both. How can you not?
But How much has King David influenced the righteous? with his psalms, just counting his psalms. There's one particular author I don't really care for. He's so judgmental. And he talks so negatively about David.
That uh You want to say, and what did you do? And what have you done for the law? What psalm have you given us? What giant have you slain? What lessons uh what do you call the sweet psalmists of Israel?
Fine, you can talk about David's sin. Nobody's sweeping that under the rug, but you better limit that kind of stuff, or else he's just showing everybody you walking around with a chip on your shoulder. I want to so badly say the name of. I don't want to. I'm not going to.
Anyway. For a small fee later if you want to know. But this is interesting. Verse 20 and The penalty that they shall bear their sin, they shall be childless. For this Other incestuous type sin of verses 20 and 21.
The penalty is vague. To us, it's not vague to Moses. Moses knew where this was going, he just didn't give us the details.
Now Various commentators ring in on this. I disagree with them. They don't even agree with each other. Because they have scenarios.
Well, it's, you know, for instance, one is: well, the child will die before the parents, and that's the judgment. God says he's not gonna punish the child for the parents' sins, and that scenario would be doing just that.
So I disagree with that one. And there's a couple of others, and I disagree with them. I think the answer is I don't know what it means. And that's, you know, and None of my Christianity will suffer. You know what, Rick?
You didn't get Leviticus 20:21 right, the judgment part. Yeah. So But what comes out of this, verses 20 and 21, is John the Baptizer. He rebuked Herod Antipas. who stole The wife Herod Antipas' brother's name was Philip, and he stole his wife.
and married her, and John the Baptist called him out on it. And eventually John the Baptist got arrested and ultimately was beheaded. For standing up and blowing, you can say, the whistle. Who came up with stool pigeon being a negative thing? Criminals came up with that.
I mean, now it's a stigma. Oh, you better not rat him out. Let him go ahead and kill more people. Ah, it's what a twisted world But that's is so liberating to be a Christian. It is so liberating to come out of all that muck.
And find out, okay, Lord, what do you want? And that's hard enough. Verse 22. You shall therefore keep all my statutes. And all my judgments and perform them that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not Vomit you out.
Well, I'm glad he didn't say you should keep all my statues. That would be the Roman Church. Uh Roman. Herism. It's statutes.
So the people in the promised land were criminal tenants And they were going to get booted out. They were going to be evicted. And oh, by the way, I'm sure you know that The Israel Got the the head evil man of Hamas. Finally, You know, the Israel strategy has cut the head of the snake off, and they've been working their way up to that. The world just doesn't get it, they don't understand.
that God is protecting the nation Israel. And she is invincible. Even if she suffers, she's going to come out on top every time. And we get it, we see it happening. I don't worry about Israel losing.
I worry about just how much junk they got to go through. and suffering, Well, I don't worry about it, but I I feel it. Anyway. Here it is repeated that If found guilty, there would be Radical ejection of the Jewish people from the land that God was bringing them to. And we all know that.
But the graphic choice of words makes the point. The land will vomit you out because you're repulsive to the land, and you're repulsive to the land because it's my land. And that's where my sanctuary is to go. That's where my face is to be. That's where my holy mount is.
And you're defiling it, and it sickens me. And of course, it shows up to the church too. God says to the church in Revelation: you're not exempt from this, you can do things that repulse me.
So Verse 23. And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation? which I am casting out before you. Will they commit All these things. and therefore I abhor them.
Remember I said earlier that 1600 Years from the Time of Christ They were doing these things. This is why God was outlawing them. It wasn't like, well, let me just think of some things people might do. No, they were actually in practice, and he's telling us that there in verse 23. Holiness disassociates.
Itself from Seriously.
So seriously. Defective behaviors. You know, you might be around somebody who It's problematic. But they've not it hasn't reached the point where you have to cut them off You're hoping maybe you still have a chance, the influence will be there. Maybe you can.
You're just in the workplace, you're just stuck with them. But there are times that we have associates in our lives, maybe they claim to be Christians, but they have no understanding of repentance. You cannot say Here I am, send me, if you haven't first said woe is me That lesson from Isaiah chapter 6 is intentional. It didn't or it just worked out that way. The lesson is, repentance is a change of heart.
It's a change of teams, a change of view, an understanding that You're in big trouble the way you are. Because of your sin. You're a sin and you have nobody else to blame. It is you know, I d I dropped a my Favorite coffee mug today and it broke. and I was so upset I had no one to blame.
But me. It's just my fault. And I just told Eric, I said, Jesus said. Clean the inside of the cup first, but If you don't clean the outside first, it's slippery and you drop it and break.
So I'm cleaning the outside first.
Well, guess what? I just told him this the other day. I didn't clean the outside. I was doing the inside, like Jesus said, and the cup slipped out of my hand and broke. What does that do to my theology?
Jesus said, ah, wood hay and stubble. Go get another. There's a paper cup in the closet over there. Go get one of those. And that's what I did.
Anyway. Yeah. God is pointed out. what those seriously defective behaviours are, And now we come to the To King Manasseh. Who gets saved?
We say that all the time. We can't lose saved. He did so much damage as an unbeliever. If there was anybody that you're woulding to go to hell, it's Manasseh. And he gets saved.
And she said, Oh, man It sure calibrates our faith, right? It gets it back to where it belongs if you were going in the wrong direction. Second Kings twenty one, speaking of Manasseh, God says, Also he made his son pass through the fire, practice soothsaying, use witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of Yahweh to provoke him to anger. What?
He worshipped Molech, the very one we started out with. And yet he's gonna get saved. And then we get to verse seven and eight. He even set a carved image of Asterath, that he had made in the house of which Yahweh had said to David and Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem. Which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
I will put my name forever. And I will not make The feet of Israel wander any more from the land which I have given their fathers only if. They are careful to do according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them as we're reading this. And they didn't do it as so they were Vomited out of the land. Just as God said would happen.
And then the ninth verse is. But they paid no attention. And Manasseh seduced them, To do more evil. than the nations whom Yahweh had destroyed before the children of Israel.
So they were worse than the Philistines. They were worse than the Canaanites and the Ammonites. They were worse. And they paid.
Now, verse 24. But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess a land flowing with milk and honey. I am Yahweh your God. Who has separated you from the peoples? Verse 25, you shall therefore distinguish between the clean animals and the unclean, between unclean birds and clean.
And you shall not make yourselves abominable By beast or by bird or by any kind of living thing that creeps on the ground which I have separated from you as unclean, And verse twenty six, you shall be holy to me. For I am Yahweh Holy Holy And have separated you from the peoples.
Well, this is what the church is supposed to be too. There was another point I wanted to make that I thought was real good, but I don't know if it's getting approved yet in heaven. If I don't remember, it is like we're not going to say that. But it was a fun, it was a good one, Lord. You have to admit.
Oh, yes. All right. Sanctified. Sanctification is what's being talked about. Here Oh, I know what I was going to say.
It just got the stamp of approval.
So when we get to numbers, you know, he says, But I have say verse twenty-four here of Luke. Leviticus 20, you shall inherit the land, and I will give it to you to possess land flowing with milk and honey. I am Yahweh, God. Who has separated you from the peoples? He separated them out of Egypt and kept them separate from all the people in the wilderness.
He's bringing them to their land. And when we get to numbers, what? They get right to the doorstep. They go into the land, they bring back stuff from the land, which is stealing, incidentally. And no, it's not in that case.
But They get right there. And they lose it all because they refuse to trust what God said. And those are the people that yeah, I know the Bible says, but So here he's talking about the menu. They're being separate.
Well, the Jews were called to be a separate people. And we've covered this before, but I think it merits repeat because we've got a little time left. These verses, along with Balaam's oracle and a few others. Form our Jew-Gentile distinction. Because you gotta say, where does that come from?
How did it become the Jews versus the world? And not the Jews versus the world. And then you got the Japanese versus, no, it's just the Jews versus even when Nazi Germany was fighting and Imperial Japan was fighting the world. They were still all Gentiles. Nobody gave them a distinction other than.
Their political views. The Nazis. 'Cause you have to distinguish A Nazi German from a German, not the same thing. There were Germans that hated that system and fled Germany. Yeah.
This is where it comes from. It comes from God. And so there's one verses 24 through 26. But numbers twenty three nine the oracle of Balaam. He's looking at the Jewish people there in the valley from a hilltop, mountaintop, and he says, From the top of the rocks, I see him.
From the hills. I behold him there A people Dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations, and not like everybody else. And this is supposed to be the church. Jesus said, What do you do more than others? We are supposed to be distinct.
contact with the world without being corrupted by the world. Don't worry, if the world can't get to corrupt you. because you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, your flesh will not stop trying anyway. Verse twenty seven A man or a woman who is a medium or who has familiar spirits. shall surely be put to death.
They shall stone them. with stones Their blood shall be upon them. I don't, I never get that they shall stone them with stones. I it just it's a redundancy. What uh they wish to stone them with Horseshoes.
Well, then you're not hor stoning them, you're horseshoeing them. But that's how it goes. I'm hoping there's. A forum in heaven where we get to discuss these things, because I've got a pretty substantial list. Anyway, it's the human element that belongs to Scripture, which adds to its beauty.
It does not. take away from its trustworthiness. We don't talk to angels. We don't talk to dead saints. We do not talk to dead people.
And if you think they're talking back to you, a demon is doing it. We only talk to God. But of course, Romanists, the Reformists, they couldn't stand the Pope so much. They called them all Antichrist and demons. They were just no nonsense intolerant of that whole thing because they do things like this.
talking to saints, praying to Mary, worshiping Mary. It was just Why they risked their lives to get out of that. Anyone trying to contact the spiritual world Is contacting a demon. To God and God alone do we speak, no matter the urge. Ouija boards, what makes them not a toy?
Because there's an element of let's try to have some seance stuff going here.
Well, that's not harmless.
So we close with this, 1 Corinthians 10. Verse twenty The New Testament. backing it all up. The things which the Gentiles sacrificed they sacrificed to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, lessons galore. Once more, Thank you for them and we Pray. We pray that your spirit would be upon us, that we would have. The love and the faith Two.
Live the truth. We love 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.
