This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:01] I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the Book of Leviticus.

[00:00:04] The Book of Leviticus 18.

[00:00:08] Which might seem like an unlikely source for a sermon about America. But you need to open your Bible. We need to do something that people don't really do that much these days and open the Bible up to Leviticus. Anybody love and reading through Leviticus here at our church? Hey, well, you've got to turn to Chapter 18 with me. It's on page 96. If you got one of our Bibles. And if you don't have a Bible with you right now, feel free to go up and get one in the back or on the side, because we are going to go through Leviticus 18 here together and we're gonna see what God says in this chapter of scripture. You know, Leviticus is probably one of the least read books of the Bible Belt, the one that is talked bad about the most.

[00:00:52] And even people at church often have bad things to say about Leviticus. Right. And a lot of people have started their Bible reading plan and it's stopped in Leviticus. And they didn't say, well, I wasn't that committed or I should have kept going. They blame Leviticus. They're like, have you read that thing? It's so repetitive. I don't know what it's target about. Like it's Leviticus, his fault that I stopped reading. That's that's what Christians say right now. People who don't go to church, they love to make fun of Leviticus. They love to find a command that doesn't make sense in our culture because it's coming from an ancient context and they find a command that doesn't make sense or they don't think we keep today. And they love to say, oh, look, you're not doing this, and then let's just throw the rest of the book out. There's a lot of things, a lot of people saying bad stuff about Leviticus, a lot of things they have problems with. Let's actually hear what it has to say. Let's stop listening to other people talk.

[00:01:49] And let's listen to God speak here together tonight. And I just want to read the first five verses for you right now, Leviticus 18, verse one.

[00:01:59] And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel. And say to them, I am the Lord, your God, you shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you lived and you shall not do as they do in the land of came in to which I am bringing you, you shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord, your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules. If a person does them, he shall live by them. I am the Lord.

[00:02:40] Now, I've heard about Leviticus 18, I've heard about it has a list of rules, I've heard people say it's a list of old rules that we don't need anymore in our modern way of life. We've moved past these rules.

[00:02:52] And so I when I was reading through Leviticus to prepare for our church to all read through it together, I got to tell you, when I got to this chapter, it hit me.

[00:03:01] And in it it really made me think and I was surprised that it wasn't just a list of rules. Now, before we get to the commands here that God wants to say his statutes and his rules, he he kind of is pulling his people aside. He's saying, hey, you guys can't be like Egypt. That's where they just got delivered out of slavery and exodus. And you guys can't be like Kanan. That's where they're going. The Promised Land in numbers like he's saying, hey, you guys can't be like the other nations. Hey, did you see what I just did to Egypt? Do you know what I'm about to do to Kanan to drive them out and give the land to you?

[00:03:41] You guys, if I am the Lord, your God, you guys gotta do what I tell you. And you can't be like these other nations.

[00:03:53] Now, that that was a part I hadn't heard people talking about Leviticus 18. That guy was saying this nation, Israel needs to be set apart. But really, he's giving these commands in the context of the other nations. He's really telling them what happens in Egypt and what happens in came in that led to them being judged and driven out of their land. Go to the end of the chapter and look at verse 24. Look at what he says here at the end of Leviticus 18. He says, do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things. So between verse five and twenty four, he does give some rules and commands will get to those in a minute. But here's why. He's telling them not to break these commandments because they would make themselves unclean. Four by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean. And then he says this. This really is what got me. And the land became unclean. So that I punished its iniquity and the lands vomited out its inhabitants.

[00:05:07] So God's telling his people the true story of what happened in Egypt, where they'd already been. And the story of what was happening in kanon where they were about to go. That those people broke certain commands. They did certain things that made them unclean.

[00:05:23] And it made the land they live on unclean so that the land wanted to vomit. The people who live there. That nation out of it.

[00:05:35] And when was the last time you vomited? I am sorry to bring it up. All right. I mean, we vomiting, see, that's something we have a gut reaction to, right? You know what I mean?

[00:05:44] Like vomiting, that that's something that's built into the system. It's built into the design. This is how God made us. When something sick is coming into our system, we have this reaction where we just we just vomit it. We just spew it out of our mouth. And God's given us the secret of the nations. He's telling us this is why nations rise and fall right here, because when nations do certain things, they become unclean. And it's so built into my design of how I made this world that the very land that the nation lives on. Kids sick with their sin and the land has this gut reaction to vomit that Nacionale.

[00:06:30] And he's not just saying that about Israel.

[00:06:33] He's saying that about the Egyptians, the Cain, the Knights. He's saying this is how the game of nations is played. So go back to verse five and Liquidy said in verse five, this is why, if I am the Lord, your God, you shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules. If a person does them, he shall live by them.

[00:06:57] God's saying that my rules are designed so that you would live. My rules are the way you're going to be blessed. My rules are the way I designed life to work. When I created all things.

[00:07:14] So when you hear rules and statutes and you have a negative thought that comes to your mind or commandments from God, like he's some kind of parent trying to keep his kids from all the fun stuff that everybody else is doing. No God speaking. And he's saying the reason I give you rules is so that you can live because otherwise you die.

[00:07:38] Otherwise the land gets sick and vomits you out. Otherwise, your sin destroys you. And it's amazing to me how when we come to the Bible and God's giving commands like God, the one who created life, who sent his son to die for us, God who loves us and wants good things for us when he gives us commands were like, I don't know if I want to do what God's telling me to do.

[00:08:02] I don't know if this sounds right.

[00:08:04] But then if we go play a sport or we open up a board game with our family at the kitchen table, the first thing we're gonna do is be like, what are the rules of this board game? Right. And we're gonna all immediately think when it comes to our fun times are free times, our entertainment times. Hey, they broke the rules of this sport. And I'm really upset because we're playing a game over here and everybody needs to play by the rules. And all of a sudden everybody's pro rules when it's fun time. But when it comes to the things that really matter. Why does there have to be rules?

[00:08:35] That just shows how twisted we are in our thinking.

[00:08:40] And I want you to I want to read this again here in verse 24 to the end of the chapter, and I want you to to listen to this.

[00:08:46] And you see if this isn't about the nation that you live in, I'm gonna ask everybody to stand up. Out of respect.

[00:08:52] As I read this section of God's word, this is Leviticus 18, 24 to 30. And I think this is a warning about how it works among nations that applies to our nation directly today. This is Leviticus 18, verse 24. Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things. Four by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean and the lands became unclean so that I punished its iniquity and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For the people of the land who were before you did all of these abominations so that the land became unclean, less the land vomit you now when you make it unclean as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

[00:09:50] For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you and never to make yourselves unclean by them. I am the Lord, your God.

[00:10:12] That's the reading of God's word. Please go ahead and have your see. God has given you a glimpse here into world history. He's given you a glimpse into the rise and fall of many nations, that the reason many of these nations were wiped out is because of the abominations that they did. And. And. This is something that applies directly to us here in America.

[00:10:41] Our nation and I want to take you through some of these abominations, will go through three of them specifically here, the ones that are listed here in verse six to verse 23. And as we see these descriptions here, it's gonna become all too clear that we're talking about us right here in America 2020. And you if you look at verse six and you if you're taking notes, you might want to write down some of these some of these sins, some of these things that we're told not to do like the other nations.

[00:11:13] Well, it says none of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. Now, from that verse six, verse six, all the way down to verse 19, every single verse, there is going to be the phrase uncover nakedness. So you hear the complaint about how repetitive Leviticus is. Here's a great example. All these verses in a row saying don't uncover the nakedness of somebody that's a close relative. And then it's basically going to go through and name all of your close relatives and command. You don't uncover their nakedness. Now, the rest the repetition here, I think, is very intentional by God, because when you're reading all of these verses that tell you not to uncover your relatives nakedness, it gives a certain feeling over you of uncomfortably.

[00:12:14] And it gets very, very graphic about the things that people might do or the reasons they might uncover someone's nakedness, and it talks about your aunt in your your brother's wife and all these specific people in these verses.

[00:12:30] Now, if you've been reading through the law with us, there was a line at the very beginning when God created them, male and female, when God designed marriage to be one man and one woman coming together to be one flush, it says after that description of a man leaving his father and mother cleaving to his wife and the two become one, it says, and the man and his wife were naked and they were not ashamed.

[00:13:00] It's like years, a place where two people were naked and it was a good thing. Here's a list of places where if there was nakedness, this would be a sin.

[00:13:12] This would be wrong.

[00:13:14] Now, when it when it says uncover your nakedness so many times. A lot of people think that's some kind of euphemism for sexual activity, but I think that actually what God is saying is that he does not think that there should be any kind of brief nudity. That that's not the point. They don't think things should be covered. And uncovering nakedness might seem like a like a not that big a deal in a culture where people are wearing less and less and more of the more the things that people look at have nudity involved in them. But God's saying very clearly there are things that should never be uncovered. And you've got to think as he's making this list of all these different relatives. I mean, how many families, when they read through this list, are going to think about secret sins that are hidden deep down that people don't even like to talk about?

[00:14:08] When you got it, when you read through this list about uncovering nakedness, how many people are going to think about things that they have looked at on the Internet, where they looked at people who were naked that they never should have been looking at?

[00:14:23] And God saying this is not. Acceptable.

[00:14:29] This is what the other nations do. This is why an uncleanness breaks out among the people and the land because things have been uncovered that should have never been uncovered.

[00:14:41] It's interesting that they're about to go into the land of kanon, and that's really the main people, God's warning them about that. If I go and give you this land because these people are so much in sin, I'm going to use you to come and judge them because of their sin and you're gonna drive them out of the out of the nation.

[00:14:58] But there's such a concern that God has that you're going to do what they did. OK, so that we're going into the land of kanon here in the law. Now, there was already a really awkward story earlier in the law of uncovered nakedness where Noah was uncovered.

[00:15:16] He was naked in his tent and his son Aham saw him. He saw his father naked. And instead of doing something about it, he went and told his two brothers and then his two brothers, Shem and J5, they got a garment.

[00:15:32] They walked backwards and they put the garment on their father's body without looking to cover up his nakedness. And this was something that was seen as evil, that Ham did to see his father's nakedness and not cover it up or ham, you would be interested to know, is the father of the Canaanites.

[00:15:53] That's why God is making such a big deal here about a people who are okay. With nakedness that they should not be okay with.

[00:16:04] And so God says it from verse six all the way down to verse 19. And he gives all these different situations where there should be no nakedness. And then he says this in verse 20. Look at verse 20 with me here. He says, And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife.

[00:16:26] And so make yourself unclean with her. So now we're moving from a phrase uncovering nakedness. And now we're moving to this idea of lying down with someone. There's a distinction now in the language here in verse 20, and this is a reiteration of one of the Ten Commandments. You shall not commit adultery.

[00:16:47] Hey, there's a there's a place when that man and man or woman come together in marriage and they're one that's where it belongs. Hey, anyone else outside of that marriage, you shall not lie. Was someone like that.

[00:17:01] Don't make yourself unclean with her.

[00:17:04] And after that restatement of adultery, which is a major problem in our nation, which has led now to so much divorce, even people who go to church have committed so much adultery in America, then it says this You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molik. And so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

[00:17:31] What is that about?

[00:17:32] Clearly, we're talking about issues of nakedness and sexual immorality, and then we have this statement about giving your children to Maulik turnover to Leviticus 20 with me.

[00:17:44] And it gives some more about this in Leviticus 20, verse one, Leviticus 20 is very similar to Leviticus 18. It's like, you know, Liddick has 18 gods saying don't do this because the other nations did it. That's how their land became unclean. That's how they got vomited out. Leviticus 20 says what the consequences should be in the nation of Israel for doing these things. And there's really only two different consequences primarily. And the two big ones at least, they keep coming up as if someone does this, they shall be caught, cut off from the people of Israel. And if someone does this, they shall be put to death.

[00:18:22] And so what we see here is some of these same things, but now the punishment, the consequence, the legal action, look at Leviticus 20, verse one. It says the Lord spoke to Moses saying, say to the people of Israel, any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers whose sojourn in Israel.

[00:18:39] So if it's one of you or somebody else who's there among you, who gives any of his children to Moloch, shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and we'll cut him off from among his people because he has given one of his children to Maulik to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molik and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan, and we'll cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in hollering after Malek.

[00:19:31] So God's reiterating here. You cannot give your children to Molik, and if you do, you shall be put to death. And if you tolerate people.

[00:19:41] Giving their children to mullock. Well, then you that whole group of people will be cut off from among the people of Israel.

[00:19:48] If you're taking notes, you white want on right down there. Deuteronomy 18, verse nine, Deuteronomy 89 talks about it doesn't mention Molex specifically, but it talks about this practice of the cane, the Knights, to put their children through the fire. So for some reason in the nation of Kanon, they thought it was gonna be advantageous to take their children and to burn them in fire as some kind of sacrifice or offering to molest.

[00:20:17] So they were doing child sacrifice. They were burning up kids for this false idol, Molik. And it's and it's kind of mysterious exactly why they would do that. It doesn't spell it out. But clearly, there was some kind of advantage that people thought Maulik was going to give them or they were going to get from offering their own children as a sacrifice. Now, I hope when you hear that you're outraged at the idea of people killing their own children, burning them in fire and thinking that they are going to get some kind of benefit.

[00:20:56] But before you get your pitchforks out. And you get all upset about the killing of children, you might want to take a real moment to think about the land that you live in.

[00:21:08] This land is your land, this land is my land from California to the New York island.

[00:21:14] And I did some research into and know why people die in America. What is the leading causes of death in America? And the best information I could find where I could get all the accurate numbers was from the year 2017. So we got some stats here. The leading causes of death in America. Twenty. Seventeen. And these numbers come to you from the CDC dot gov.

[00:21:40] Right. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention. And they're going to tell us that in 2017. First line here, the number one reason people died. I guess we're starting here in the third reason is accidents. Accidental. Let's put all three of them up here. Accidents is the number three. Number two is cancer. And number three. Number one is heart disease. You might even know someone who died in the year of our Lord. Twenty seventeen to one of those three categories. And you can see that's that's a high number of people dying from heart disease. Almost six hundred and fifty thousand people. Almost 600000 dying from cancer in that year. Almost one hundred and seventy thousand people who died of some kind of accident where they weren't expecting to die. And it suddenly happened. This is what they'll tell you are the leading causes of this, what our government is telling everybody. Heart disease, cancer and accidents. And then there's more reasons that people died in this year. Now, here's a number. Are government the Center of Disease Control and Prevention? They don't give you this number as a part of that stat that abortion is the number one leading cause of death in twenty. In fact, I got this number from the Guttmacher Institute, which is committed to making sure that everybody has access to a safe and legal abortion. They are pro abortion. And their number is that there were eight hundred and sixty two thousand abortions in America in the year of our Lord. Twenty seventeen. Our government I don't know what our government is thinking. I don't know what they're doing at CDC. But apparently the unborn babies and all these women who are pregnant and that pregnancy is being terminated. Apparently that is in life or it isn't death because they don't even count it in their statistics.

[00:23:36] That's the nation that you live on.

[00:23:39] And the land underneath you is sick because we kill our children. People think there's a good reason there's an advantage, there's something that they're getting by killing their own kids. That's one of the sure signs that a nation. Is ready to be driven out of the land that it's on. Look back at the Vegas 20 with me, because after it talks about offering your children to Molik. Here in Leviticus 18, verse 21.

[00:24:12] If that wasn't enough and notice how God puts in I am the Lord, he keeps saying this over and over throughout the chapter. I am the Lord, your God. Then there's this verse right here. Verse 22 of Leviticus 18, you shall not lie with a male. As with a woman. It is an abomination.

[00:24:34] So we've we've been talking here about uncovering nakedness that was inappropriate. Then we transitioned in verse twenty to lying with someone clearly referring to sex and not committing adultery.

[00:24:47] And now here it also says you should not lie with anyone. You shall not lie with a male. As with a woman. So this is written here to the masculine, to the male. And it's saying male should not lie with male as he would with a woman.

[00:25:05] And it has a description here. And this is the first time we see the word here in this chapter.

[00:25:10] But then it gets repeated by the end where it becomes abominations in the plural. But it says that for a male to lie with a male for homosexuality is an abomination.

[00:25:22] That's what it says. That's what God spoke to Moses to tell the nation of Israel this is what the other nations do when they make the land unclean so that the land wants to vomit them out. They do this abomination. Now, this word is is used over a hundred times in the Hebrew Bible. And if you looked up in Hebrew, what abomination means, guess what you would think it means abomination. Guy, the other word you might find if you did some digging is you might find the translation, load some.

[00:25:59] I mean, it's meant to be a strong word. God didn't stumble when he was speaking here. Guy wasn't confused about what he was saying. Know what God said? And it needs to be said here today is that for a male to lie with a male is an abomination. Now, that that is obviously a highly debated issue. And that is actually something that's not really even debated anymore.

[00:26:30] Because in 2008, the highest court in our land. When exactly against God's law. And we made our own law that two men, two women, same sex couples could get married legally, legally in the United States of America. And so it says it here. I just want to give you some versus you could write down the verses if you ever are talking to someone about what does the Bible really say about homosexuality? Well, you could write down here, Leviticus 1822, you could write down Leviticus 2013, where it brings it up again and talks about the punishment of it there in the nation of Israel. And then you could also write down Romans chapter one versus twenty six to twenty seven, where it talks about women with women and men with men exchanging what is natural. It says there. And then there are two passages. And I want to turn you to one of them. Turn with me to first, Timothy, chapter one. If you've got a Bible, hopefully you can find first Timothy with me. This is one of the letters written by Paul. First Timothy, Chapter one. Verse eight. If you could turn there with me, it's on page nine hundred and ninety one. If you got one of our Bibles and Paul here, he's going to write about the law. He's he's really he's really referring to Leviticus as a part of the law is referring to the whole thing. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy. And he uses a word here that's translated. Men who practice homosexuality. And this word is used two times in the New Testament. One is here first, Timothy. Chapter one versus eight to 11. The other is in another letter of Paul's first Corinthians. Chapter six. Nine to 11. So he uses this word. Let's look at it together. Let me read this passage. It says.

[00:28:18] Now we know that the laws good if one uses it lawfully.

[00:28:22] Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liers, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the bet, blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

[00:28:57] So the word he used is there.

[00:29:00] That's translated, men who practice homosexuality will put it up here on the screen. It's our sin equate test. Can you see this Greek word up here on the screen? Arson equates. That's what it would look like if you read it in Greek. And there has been. If you read about it, there is a lot of debate about this word because people are desperately trying to get around what the Bible says about same sex marriages. And so people are debating this constantly. Now, let me just take a little time out and let me just say something that the Bible is clear from the very beginning before there is any sin that God made them male and female.

[00:29:39] And he told the two of them, when they became one, to be fruitful and multiply. So if the Bible never said anything explicitly against homosexuality, just by the nature of God's design, if you were studying what God intended for human beings, you would not come to the conclusion that that's how God made us. Just by the nature of his design. So the fact that there are five passages that explicitly say, hey, I know the other nations are doing this, don't do it. It's a part of becoming unclean and making the land unclean. Five times the scripture goes out of its way to warn us about this, even though just by understanding how God designed marriage, we would never come to that conclusion from the scripture.

[00:30:26] And so when this word arson, this it's like this compound word that Paul is using and the arson there means mail and the Coyte test is like the idea of a bed or to lay.

[00:30:37] And so it's the idea of mail and to lay. But it's not really a common Greek word. It's like a word that Paul made up by compounding. The word mail and the word to lay. And so that's why it's translated.

[00:30:49] Men who practice homosexuality. But there's all kinds of debate. How do we know what it really means? Because we can't find it all over in the Greek language of the day. It's like Paul made up this word. So how do we really know if it's really saying that or not?

[00:31:04] Okay, here's what I want to show you. I want to show you Leviticus 1822 translated into the Greek language. OK. So this would be in the Septuagint.

[00:31:14] This would be the the Hebrew Bible that the people would have had at Paul's time. They would've translated it from Hebrew into Greek. This is the Greek translation of Leviticus 1822. And let's see here if a couple of things pop out to us.

[00:31:30] Let's go to the next slide. Can you notice that in the command? It says the RCN, the man should not lie. He is literally taking the command from Leviticus 1822 and he is making a word out of it.

[00:31:45] He is explicitly referring to what we're studying in Leviticus. And he's saying those kind of people, they need to be saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ, just like all of us do. And I'm sure you find yourself somewhere here in this list.

[00:32:02] I'm sure you're one of these people that are described here as someone who's striking their father, a mother, a murderer, sexually immoral, a homosexual and enslaver, a liar, a perjurer.

[00:32:15] You know who you are. And you know what you need. You need the blessed gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what you need. To save your soul.

[00:32:24] So when people try to tell you Leviticus is some old out of date rules that we don't need. That's so ancient, where so much smarter than that, we're so much better than that. We've moved past that. Well, then why is Paul quoting that?

[00:32:39] In the context of people who need to be saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[00:32:45] I turn back to Leviticus 18 because that's that's not the end of what he says of these abominations. It says here in verse 23, something that it explicitly calls a perversion here.

[00:32:59] Leviticus 18, verse 23, it says, You shall not lie with any animal. And so make yourself unclean with it. Neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it. It is perversion.

[00:33:19] And so that's that's how this chapter works now. Now you can see this isn't just a list of rules. This is like God bring in Israel aside and saying, hey, do you guys see Egypt?

[00:33:30] Did you see how they would uncover nakedness? Do you think see how they would have sex outside of marriage? Do you see how they would kill their children? Do you see how they would accept homosexuality? Beast reality? Do you remember that?

[00:33:43] Hey, guys, look at Cain. And you know what they're known for about offering their kids to Molik.

[00:33:48] Do you know the history of the Canaanites, how they uncovered nakedness? These are things that if you do when I give you this land, you, like every other nation, will become unclean so that the land you live on. Wants to get rid of you.

[00:34:08] If you're a kind of person like like myself who has grown up all your life loving America, I love this nation. I love this country. I have the same birthday as Ronald Reagan. You know what I'm talking about. All right. I'm not here to bash America. I love America. I'm I am I am an American. No other country Hadra. You know what? I even love California. I know it's not really cool to say that these days. So many people think in Idaho, Texas, Colorado or better. I'm not going anywhere. Anybody want to say amen to that here? I love this place. There's a reason it costs so much and everybody wants to live here because it's better than other places. I love. I love this place.

[00:34:49] OK.

[00:34:51] I love this country that you and I live on.

[00:34:55] And I grew up my whole life thinking that this is the greatest nation on Earth. And what I'm realizing now is that if we're the greatest nation on earth, what happened to all the other greatest nations on Earth?

[00:35:07] And now what I'm realizing is every time I hear somebody say, well, how strong our military is so that we're not afraid of any of our enemies. I'm like, what is our military going to do for us if God is our enemy?

[00:35:20] Every time I hear somebody talk about the environment and their concern for our planet, I wonder to myself if that's maybe not really what's making the land sick.

[00:35:33] We've got big problems right here where you and I live.

[00:35:37] We got people every day watching people uncover their nakedness. We got all kinds of sex outside of marriage. We're killing more children than any other way that people are dying. We have made homosexuality legal in our land. We are committing these abominations that make our land sick and want to vomit us out of its mouth.

[00:36:00] This is not talking about some ancient nations. This is talking about the nation that you live in right now.

[00:36:09] That if God were to come down here and judge us and drive us out of this land today, he would be right to do so.

[00:36:18] Because not only have we not listened to his law, we mock his law. Look back at verse 19, here's the kind of thing that people would try to use to discredit everything we're talking about here tonight. Look at this. You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.

[00:36:38] Now, if you've been reading through Leviticus, we realized that hopefully you've been sticking with it and reading through it, that God is there and he's in the midst of these people.

[00:36:47] And because he's having this tabernacle and being there with the people, there's all of these ideas about what it means to be clean and unclean. A lot of things that are hard for us to understand in this ancient culture. A lot of things that we're not still thinking about today. But one of the things that clearly made people unclean at that time was blood. This was a big deal.

[00:37:09] Like, there could only be the blood of a sacrifice. All other kinds of blood. If you aided, if you touched it, if it was coming out of you, then you were unclean and you couldn't be right with God and be unclean. That was for this people at this time. And so a woman who's going through her menstrual uncleanness would have been considered unclean. And see, that's the kind of thing out of this whole chapter, they would pick that one verse. And all these other verses are super clear. This is sin. This is an abomination. This is a perversion. This is what makes the land unclean. And now people want to say, yeah, but you guys don't do that one thing right there. So let's just throw the rest of it out.

[00:37:51] No, I think the rest of it's pretty clear.

[00:37:54] And I think God's saying exactly what he wants to say and the reason that we don't keep all the all the little details here about clean and unclean is because we don't have a tabernacle here among us now, because there's already been blood that has been shed that makes us all clean. And that's the blood of our savior, Jesus Christ.

[00:38:14] And so we are clean because of Jesus.

[00:38:17] And so, yes, verse 19, we don't look at the same because we're not living with that same thought of clean or unclean. Based on blood flowing out of us because blood flowed out of Jesus and declared us clean. He declared foods clean. He actually came and started touching lepers and people with bloody discharges. And when he touched them, he made them clean. He started spreading clean this all over the world. That's what Jesus did.

[00:38:43] But everything else here. This is what God says.

[00:38:49] And see, this is what's really intense about this sermon, this moment that we're coming to right now, because somebody is wrong here in this room.

[00:38:57] Somebody is wrong in either God's wrong with what he's saying. Leviticus is wrong and that we don't need it anymore. I'm wrong that I'm here.

[00:39:04] Teach teaching it or America is wrong and we're wrong for where we live. Somebody is wrong.

[00:39:12] Because our Supreme Court has said, hey, you know what, you can aboard a baby anytime you want, and that's safe and legal here in these United States are highest court in the land, has said, yes, two men can lie together. They can get married together.

[00:39:27] We have different laws than God's law.

[00:39:31] And everybody here has got to decide who you think is wrong. Because somebody is wrong.

[00:39:37] Either the nation you live in is wrong, and right now the land is maybe getting so sick of us, it's ready to vomit us out at any moment. Were either God's wrong. And we're wasting our time being here and talking about this tonight, people have been blaming Leviticus for a long time. You're going to blame Leviticus, you're going to take some responsibility. See, when it comes to America, I don't have an us versus them mentality. I'm not here to judge any one of my fellow Americans. I am an American. I still believe in the United States of America. And I still pray that it will be one nation under God.

[00:40:18] And so that's really what we're getting to if you want to flip your hand out over, we got three points I want to leave you with. In response to this chapter. Point number one is the question that you got to ask yourself is not the issues, but is he your God?

[00:40:33] This is the question we've got to take away from Leviticus. The main phrase in this chapter, how he begins it, how he ends it. I am the Lord, your God. You're not gonna be like the other nations because I am the Lord, your God. Our relationship, our covenant is why you would listen to me and do what I said.

[00:40:53] So the question, if you're offended, because we talked about abortion here this evening, you're offended because we talked about homosexuality or or adultery or pornography or or some kind of incest, all these things that came up in this chapter.

[00:41:11] You're offended by those things. I would encourage you. Is he your God? That's the real question you should be asking.

[00:41:21] We spent way too much time in this nation arguing and debating the issues. But really what matters is, are you going to listen to what God says because he has authority over you and he's your God? If he is your God, he's going to teach you how to think about many different things. But if he's not your God, you're going to go along with the opinions of other people.

[00:41:41] It's not about many issues that we need to debate and argue. The question is, who here tonight can say he's my God? And I listen to him. I keep his rules.

[00:41:51] He tells me what to do. He has had authority over my life. And I believe that when God tells me to do something, he tells me because he loves me and has a design for my good.

[00:42:02] And so I listen to God because he's my God.

[00:42:06] Now, if I was talking to somebody, if I was talking to you one on one, and I would want so bad for you to believe in Jesus Christ, I would want so bad for you to repent from your sin and trust in Jesus. And I would not ask you, what do you think about abortion?

[00:42:21] I would not ask you, what do you believe about homosexuality?

[00:42:24] I wouldn't expect you to agree with what God says them about those things until you would be able to say he's your God.

[00:42:33] And then he would teach you. Then he would change you.

[00:42:37] Then he would renew your mind and set your heart on fire. This is why so many Christian people who are arguing so many issues with people are missing the point. If he's not our God, we will be like all the other nations.

[00:42:52] The thing we need to be talking about with our fellow Americans is God. Not all the issues of the day.

[00:42:59] He has to be the Lord, our God.

[00:43:03] If we're really going to submit to his authority and do what he tells us to do, so this isn't about a particular issue and it's definitely not about politics. This is about who has authority over your life. Who do you listen to when it comes down to it? Who do you believe really has your best interest at heart? Do you think you know best for yourself? Do you believe America knows best about yourself? Are you wrong? And your country is wrong. And God's right. And he says, if you do my rules, you will live. Who do you listen to?

[00:43:35] Who do you believe?

[00:43:36] Turn with me to First Corinthians, Chapter six versus nine and eleven. Let's go to the other passage that mentions homosexuality. It mentions that word arson Coyte tastes quoting Leviticus 18 22. And in fact, it mentions many different since the sexual immorality, the idolatry like Moltke here. You need to see this passage is a great passage that summarizes what we're saying here to night. First Corinthians, Chapter six versus nine to 11. It's on page nine hundred and fifty five. This a passage I, I think we need to memorize. I think if you had a chance to to share with your fellow American a passage of scripture, this might be the one that you would want to use right here. It says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

[00:44:27] It's basically saying this fundamental principle that there's two ways you can live the way of the world, which is to live in your sin or the way of God, which is to live according to his commandments, according to his holiness. Not that we could ever keep his commands by ourself, but no Jesus perfectly kept those commands.

[00:44:46] He perfectly fulfilled all the law.

[00:44:49] He shed his blood to pay for all of your sin. And he offers you now righteousness with God.

[00:44:56] And so look what it says here. Don't you know you're either one side or the other if you're unrighteous? If you're a sinner, if you're a wrongdoer, if you're lawlis, if you live like the law of God doesn't apply to you. You're not going to heaven when you die. You're not in the kingdom right now. Do not be deceived. That's a key line. We need to think about.

[00:45:16] When it says do not be deceived. That's implying a lot of people are gonna think I can be unrighteous and I can be in the kingdom of God. That's not how it works.

[00:45:26] But a lot of people are deceived into thinking that. Don't let yourself be one of them. No, somebody is wrong.

[00:45:33] It's either God or it's us. Which one? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral. All that uncovering nakedness, all that idolatry, the idolatry here, it says nor idolaters offering your children to Moloch, nor adulterers, which we read about, nor men who practice homosexuality.

[00:45:50] Do you see what he's doing here in this passage? He's literally taking us through Leviticus 18.

[00:45:57] All the elements there. And then he says this North Thieves, which kind of rolls into Leviticus 19 now.

[00:46:05] Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor reviles nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

[00:46:13] And he says this line right here. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified.

[00:46:21] You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the spirit of our God, point number two, you got to let the law lead you to Jesus. Let the law lead you to Jesus.

[00:46:32] It says that the law, if it's used in the right way, if it's used lawfully. The law is not meant to make you think, oh, yeah, I'm good.

[00:46:40] The law is so that you would identify yourself as someone who needs to turn to God, that you would be convicted of your sin and that the Holy Spirit would bear witness that you need the perfect righteousness of Jesus. You need his blood to wash you and make you clean. You need to be set apart from your sin, from all the sin around you and made right to clear right. Justified, made right with God. You need Jesus.

[00:47:09] That's what the law the law is there. And Jesus fulfilled the law. He actually did everything God commanded. And then he laid his life down as a sacrifice to shed his blood for your sins so that you could have all of his righteousness. And he would pay for all of your sins. So the law here, you see your sin in the law and then Jesus fulfills it.

[00:47:33] And as you believe in Jesus Christ, you are declared not guilty anymore.

[00:47:38] But righteous.

[00:47:41] Do you realize that we have a lot of people who have done time in jail for crime that go to this church that are sitting right here in this service? Julys, we have people who have had abortions that come to this church. You guys, we have people who have committed adultery that are sitting right here in this room with people who identified themselves as homosexuals that are right here in this room and such were some of you. But you have been made new in Jesus.

[00:48:08] See, America is not a Christian nation, not anymore. Not by a long shot, but Jesus Christ is saving Christians out of this nation. And he is making people new. And he is doing a mighty work of salvation, not only here, but all over the world.

[00:48:27] And if we don't start saying that we're wrong and what's happening in this country is not right and that we are lawless and that God is angry with us and that even the land that we live on wants to vomit us out. Then how are people going to see how much they need Jesus?

[00:48:44] You don't have to live in the sin that defines you, every single one of us. We could be described with a word like this. We're not here to judge anybody except ourselves. Can I get any man from anybody on the. Way you read yourself right on in there. Every single one of us. We have a way that we would live.

[00:49:03] A way that that would make us unclean before God.

[00:49:07] But Jesus Christ, he can wash us. He can set us apart and sanctify us. He can declare us right and justify us. And he puts within us now the spirit of his of God, the Holy Spirit, who causes us to obey God's commands and walk in his ways. See that the sexually immoral here among us at this church. They can't describe themselves as sexually immoral anymore because they have been made clean by the blood of Jesus Christ.

[00:49:37] They're new. They're saved. That's what we're here to offer. Now, this is Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

[00:49:46] This is where we remember that in 1963, he gave a speech and he said, I had I have a dream. Remember that speech?

[00:49:55] Martin Luther King Junior.

[00:49:56] He had a dream that he set in America and it became this movement that we know of as the civil rights movement and his dream that he says in that speech that just as God created all men equal, that we would actually in this nation treat one another as equal no matter our economical status or the color of our skin.

[00:50:22] You know what, when Martin Luther King Junior said that he was right to say that. You know why he was right, because that's what God says.

[00:50:30] God says you shall love your neighbor as what I see as the part of Leviticus. Everybody likes to quote right there.

[00:50:38] That's Leviticus 19. That's where it comes from. Martin. Martin Luther King Junior. He stood up and he said, hey, we're not doing what God tells us to do. And he was right. It became the civil rights movement. And then after that came this thing. Which was about women's rights. Which was about the right to choose. And in 1973. The highest court in our land said that it was legal to kill children.

[00:51:12] That's what they said.

[00:51:14] Now, that was another rights movement, see the civil rights movement, which kind of became the the prototype of these kind of movements. That was a righteous thing. But then this movement right here for us to kill our own children. That goes against what God says. And we now have said this is OK here. When God has said this is never OK, this is what makes the land sick.

[00:51:39] Who's right and who's wrong? In 2008.

[00:51:46] We said that same sex marriage is the same as marriage.

[00:51:49] And we made that a law here in our land. We took the word abomination off of it, and we in America blessed it.

[00:52:00] And that's the big sexual rights movement that we're still living in right now. Sexual rights. It's leading to people now deciding which gender they want to be. This is not what God has commanded. This is an abomination. Your nation. What I'm telling you tonight is that your nation is an abomination. What are you gonna do about it?

[00:52:27] It is loathsome. To the Lord, what is happening in your country?

[00:52:33] The land that you're walking on, this shiny sea that you watch the sunset go down on, it is sick with your sin.

[00:52:44] And we are not nearly alarmed enough.

[00:52:48] For our fellow Americans and what might happen to our nation? So I'm asking you, point number three, to pray for revival. I'm asking you did actually do something about this. Asking you to go to God and beg him for mercy that he doesn't judge us. Beg him for patients to bear with us and beg him for repentance to turn people's hearts back to him and what he has said.

[00:53:18] In fact, Martin Luther King, Jr.. He had a dream, he had a good dream that everybody would, as God created them, equal, that we would love one another and treat another equal.

[00:53:28] And so we get a day off. We got a three day weekend. To celebrate that, we should all love our neighbors as ourselves. Doesn't matter who our neighbor is. We are called to love them. That is what God commands. So let me tell you what we're gonna do to celebrate here at the church. Martin Luther King Junior holiday, the day off that you've got at seven o'clock Monday night right here in this room.

[00:53:53] We're gonna have a prayer meeting for this nation. We're going to come in here and we're gonna make a list of all the abominations that our nation is doing. And we're gonna beg God for mercy. We're going to ask God to turn people's hearts to him. And we're going to say loud so that everybody can hear us, that America is wrong and God is right and people need to stop blaming God. And start listening to what he's been saying.

[00:54:27] We've been praying a lot for this sermon, right, for this moment right now, we've probably prayed for this sermon more than any other sermon we've ever prayed for in the history of this church, because we knew what this was going to sound like to America and 20/20.

[00:54:43] And you might find yourself right now, I'm sure there's some here right now you are in the middle. Between a nation that's saying one thing. And God, who's saying another thing, and you're going to make now the most important decision in your life as you choose who is wrong. And I'm just begging you, I'm begging you right now. Don't listen to the greatest nation on Earth. Because they're going to go the way of all the greatest nations on Earth. Listen to the God who rules the nations on earth this into the God who's pulling you aside, and he's saying, hey, you want to know how history really works? You want to know how nations rise and fall. It's their sin. It makes the land sick. The land vomits them out.

[00:55:35] Can you hear what God's saying? This into God.

[00:55:40] I promise you, if you believe him, if you follow his rules, if you believe in Jesus Christ blood to cleanse you from sin, you will live.

[00:55:50] So choose wisely.

[00:55:52] Says in Second Chronicles, Chapter seven, verse 14. God gave this promise to Israel, he said. If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin. And then it says, this blast little part. You know what? How the verse ends. And I will. What? And heal their.

[00:56:15] Why? Because the land was. Now that we don't have a promise like that for America, that's for Israel. There is no promise that there will be a revival in America, that things will turn around. But we need to pray and we need to beg God for his mercy. We need to let him know our land is sick and ask him to heal it. Let's pray right now. Father in heaven, we come to you here tonight. We ask that you would revive us again. We asked you would take us back to a place.

[00:56:47] We really were one nation under you.

[00:56:51] Now, we're so caught up in all these issues and so much hate in our country as people debate and they argue and they judge one another. And guy, before all these issues, there was a time when people. They believed in you. They thought you had commandments. They thought it was about how you created us. And that was the way that we should live.

[00:57:15] There was a time of a great awakening in this nation. There was a time when our first president said that you gotta believe in the providence, the divine providence, the hand of God, because look what he's done in America.

[00:57:27] There was a time when he even people who didn't believe in you knew you. They knew you were true. They knew your commands were the right way to live. They knew that if this nation kept your commands, we would live.

[00:57:41] Please open people's eyes to see. It's not about politics. It's not about issues. It's about a land that has turned away from your roots. You are not our God. We are not living like we listen to you.

[00:57:56] We've gone the way of all nations.

[00:57:59] The land is sick, father, we pray that you will forgive us and you will cleanse us, and then you will stir up the hearts of all your people in this room to pray to you, to cry out to you, to praise you for the cleansing we have in Christ, that we're no longer defined by the sin we used to live in.

[00:58:16] To pray for our fellow Americans, to beg for them. Got to pray for those who find themselves in the middle right now.

[00:58:25] Maybe they're angry right now, maybe they're upset. Maybe they're confused.

[00:58:30] They want to try to say that you're wrong. That your word is wrong.

[00:58:36] Pretty would open their eyes to see what it's all said and done. You will be declared on the right side of history. But you will be worshiping.

[00:58:47] Praise the things that people say about you is that you aren't just that you are right, that you are good, that you are love, and your name will be exalted to the highest place no matter what anyone says down here.

[00:59:01] Please open people's eyes to believe your word. To see that it's true, to turn from they're saying to you, God, please make us a church that actually really prays for America and please God revive us again so that you might get the glory we pray in Jesus name.

[00:59:20] Amen.