Walking with God Requires Separation

Our Text:

Leviticus Chapters 11-24

Our Focus:

Leviticus 11:43-45; 19:1-4; 20:7, 8, 22-27

There are many that ask, why do we study the Old Testament, if we are the New Testament Church?

First, we should realize that all the Bible is for our instruction:

2Ti 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

When we look into the Old Testament we should be searching for the “spiritual principles” that teach us the right conduct for “spiritual growth”.

Our God never changes!

Mal 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not;

We must realize that it is our personal conduct that the world sees and judges us by.

I personally am offended every time some news broadcast uses the title “Christian” when someone that may go to some church is implicated in a serious crime. Not every place called a church is a House of God and not everyone that attends a House of God is a Christian.

The title Christian means to be like Christ. If we are truly like Jesus Christ we will not break God’s trust by doing truly evil things. This does not mean we can be perfect while we live on this earth and it does not mean we will not make mistakes.

And it does not mean we will not ever run afoul of the law but that should be at the last resort for strictly godly reasons!

It does mean that our goal should be to try to live a perfect life!

Remember we are to be “transformed in the ways of God” NOT conformed to the ways of this world we live in!

We are not being very smart when we try to find out why God made certain rules!

We are being smart when we accept that God’s Word is the truth:

Rom 3:3  For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
Rom 3:4  God forbid: [yea, let God be true, but every man a liar]; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

*****In our places of assembly of today we make false distinctions between what is sacred and what is called secular.

Some Christians even think “gossip” in the church can be sacred if it is done in the right way and prayed over but that only gossip outside the church is truly evil.

God does not make any such distinction of gossip. It is all evil in His sight!

*****The biggest thing we can learn in these chapters is that, God is real interested in the details of our lives!

There is nothing in our lives that are to big for God to handle!

But, there is also nothing to small in our lives that God does not want to help us with!

God does not want us worrying about anything!

We may not understand why God says some foods were clean and others unclean but there is proof in history that God had a reason for what He taught Israel through Moses.

During the Black Plagues of Europe, most every practicing Jew escaped infection and because of this they were then considered to be a part of the evil behind those plagues. How ridiculous people can be somtimes.

In fact, in all times of worldwide diseases, the practicing Jew have suffered far less than any other group of people!

Israel has also produced more Nobel prize winning scientists for her size than any other nation.

Today, there are not as many practicing Jews, so they have become as prone to disease as any other people in every other nation.

As Christians, we are to take care of our bodies and not abuse them just as much as we are to care for our spiritual side!

To the New Testament Church, God has not told us to stick to any such diet as the Jew!

Book of Romans Chapter 14

Rom 14:14  I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

There is no spiritual value in eating or not eating certain foods!

IN FACT WE CAN FALL INTO “SUPERSTITION” WHEN WE THINK THAT WAY, WHICH IS AN ABOMINATION  TO GOD!

1Co 8:8  But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.

1Co 6:13  Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

1Co 10:31  Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

To over indulge in any thing is wrong for our bodies and can become a health issue and this is what God is teaching!

*****Self-control, with the help of God, is a commandment of God!

Let’s begin:

*****Our Text:

Lev 11:43  Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.
Lev 11:44  For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Lev 11:45  For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

We are to be separated to God in our “personal conduct”!

If you read chapter 11 you will be able to see that God mentions the word “unclean” 32 times. God uses the word “abomination” 10 times. What God says is unclean must then be an abomination in His eyes.

God tells us:

Isa 5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

God says “woe” to them that have moral standards that completely oppose the Bible!

We just do not take this serious enough!

What we see in our world today is that governments, religious groups, and all non-believers, are trying to reclassify sin and make it acceptable in society, when ALL sin is really an abomination to God!

God gave the Nation of Israel 613 laws concerning sin.

God told Adam that a certain tree was off limits but Eve decided that the fruit looked good enough to eat!

We live in a society that rejects God’s moral absolutes and promotes a lifestyle where morals do not exists.

The Bible says:

Jdg 21:25  every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

We live with a government that cannot change every law so they twist some of them to mean something new and society has learned from that error.

It is a shame that a doctor can be sued for malpractice if they diagnose wrong, But, a judge, or a professor, or a news reporter, or a voted official of the people, or even a liberal preacher can excuse sin and defend immorality, [while being applauded by those that are guilty], and suffer no consequences.

God tells us the truth of mankind:

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

This is where we are headed with no end in sight!

Most every Preacher will preach that we the people cannot find God because we are not looking for Him!

God tells us again:

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and [men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil].

This is the truth of the Bible!

The Bible also says of modern day Preachers:

Jer 8:11  [For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly], saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

We are blessed here at Gethsemane, but most preachers will not preach that the ONLY remedy to this world is the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

This world can never be cleaned, until it is washed in the blood of Jesus!

The Bible also says:

Jer 5:31  The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; [and my people love to have it so]: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

Most of the people sitting in the pews do not want to hear the truth of God!

**Every creeping thing was unclean because they represented the serpent and the fall of man. Remember that serpent was cursed to crawl on it’s belly until the end of time.

Why would God ever consider them clean for His people!

These Jews had to remind themselves every hour of every day that they belonged to Jehovah God!

This is the lesson we must learn from these texts!

We are to remind ourselves every day that “A Savior named Jesus”, came down from Heaven to pay our sin debt so we could spend eternity in God’s presence one day soon in Heaven.

There is only one true and living God and He is the “I AM” of the Bible!

God told Moses:

Exo 3:14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Exo 3:15  And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: [this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations].

This is where we get the title “Jehovah”!

No child of God is to walk like other Gentiles walk:

Eph 4:17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eph 4:18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

The church is placed in the world for a reason and a purpose and part of that purpose is to not allow the world into the church!

We are to take great care trying not to defile ourselves and we must not be intimidated by those that call us foolish and narrow minded!

The Bible says:

Psa 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

When the Word of God lights our path, WE WILL NOT STUMBLE OVER SOME CARCASS OR SOME DEAD THING, IN THE DARKNESS OF THIS WORLD!

*****Our text:

Lev 19:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 19:2  Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.
Lev 19:3  Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.
Lev 19:4  Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.

**We are to be separated from the world in our “Worship”!

To be “holy” is not a theory in the Bible, it should be a FACT in the life of a Christian!

No law and no human effort can make anyone holy!

We can only approach holiness after we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

This happens the very moment we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior!

It is only Our Lord, Our God, who can draw the line between what is right and what is wrong!

We all accept that God is Holy! Yet when it comes to our own conduct we don’t seem to see the importance of holiness.

Let’s go back to the Book of Genesis for a moment:

Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness

Now we know God is Holy so, to be created in the image of God was to be created in holiness.

That holiness was lost by the “sin” of Adam and Eve!

The Bible says:

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, [he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son], that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

God has a plan to restore holiness to all that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says:

Col 3:10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge [after the image of him that created him]:

If we do not put on the “new man”, being “born again”, we can never be in the image of our Holy God!

If God is Holy then, We Must Be In His Image to be Holy!

God expects holy conduct because He is Holy and He will never change from being Holy!

1Pe 1:15  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
1Pe 1:16  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

As the Apostle Peter preached to the early church, he made direct reference back to this very scripture in the Book of Leviticus.

God expected Israel to be holy and God expects the Body of Christ to be holy!

That word holy means: sacred, clean, saintly and moral but we can also say that word holy means “to be set apart for God’s use” and “being in the whole image” of Jesus Christ Our Lord!

To be saved is to be joined to Christ, not to Adam, not by any Law, not by any legal system, But Only By The Holy Spirit.

The Son of God wants us to reach a higher plane of existence than we have here on this Earth and we can only do that if we are in His image, and remember that He is Holy.

This is the image we seek to fulfill!

There is nothing in this world, beyond the Word of God, that can make us a holy people in the eyes of God!

*****We should not be amazed that to learn holiness, it must begin in the home.

The very first thing God instituted with humans was the family. A Mother and A Father.

The Bible does not recognize the gay lifestyle as being a family.

There must be a Husband and a Wife!

There must be a Father and A Mother!

God expects “Holiness” to begin at home!

God’s Word has not evolved to mean something else in the days we live in now!

*****God told Israel they must keep the Sabbath. We have already learned that there was no Roman calendar in that day and the Sabbath was every seventh day on the Lunar calendar that Israel used.

In other words the Sabbath did not mean Saturday!

We should also understand that God has some minimums:

1.) God expects the minimum of one seventh of man’s time!

2.) God expects the minimum of one tenth of man’s possessions!

3.) Only after these two conditions are met can it be said we are making an offering to God!

*****The Sabbath is bound up in many ways in the Old Testament:

a.) The Sabbath

b.) The Year of the Sabbath(every seventh year)

c.) The Jubilee(The fiftieth year after seven Jubilees)

It is said that seven is God’s perfect number and this may be true but, the number seven is certainly God’s number of completion in the Bible.

There are over 650 occurences of the number seven and it’s uses(seventh, sevenfold, seventy) in the Bible.

Some examples are:

1.) The word “created” is used seven times in connection with God’s created work.

2.) Aaron and his sons were consecrated seven days before they could be priests.

3.) On the Day of Atonement” the “Blood” was sprinkled seven times on the Mercy Seat.

4.) We should also realize that the Number seven occurs in the Book of Revelation 54 times and “This the Book of Completion in the Bible”.

*****The nation of Israel refused to give God a seventh of their time and most of them hated the Sabbath and the Year of the Sabbath and the Jubilee:

Amo 8:4  Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
Amo 8:5  Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
Amo 8:6  That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
Amo 8:7  The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

They preferred to keep the poor, poor.
They preferred to treat the Sabbath just like any other day.
They preferred to be able to sell their wares on the Sabbath just like any other day.
They preferred to be deceitful rather than to be honest.
They preferred to treat themselves like they were better than all others in the world.

You would think Amos was writing about America.

*****God told Israel He would never forget this!

Do we actually think God will be any different here in America?

The Lord Jesus Christ told us that all laws could be summed up in two commandments:

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

When we obey these two laws:

1.) There will be no room for our meaningless idols.
2.) There will be no room for false worship.
3.) There will no room for the rituals, and pageantry we see in some religions of today.
4.) There will be no room for deviating from the Word of God!

We will worship as a holy people should worship:

Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

*****Our text:

Lev 20:7  Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.
Lev 20:8  And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.

**We must be separated from the world in our “Obedience”!

There are many that say, we cannot sanctify ourselves, we cannot make ourselves holy and this is true.

“Jesus said without Him we can do nothing”(John 15:5)

The word “sanctify” in this verse means, we must separate ourselves from the world.

This is exactly what the Holy Spirit said through the Apostle Paul:

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

The Lord will not receive us if we are unholy!

We absolutely cannot take part in the evils of this world and call ourselves the Body of Christ.

Just as every boat will sink if water gets on the inside, the Christian will sink if the world controls their actions.

Also the Church will sink. The Church is like a ship sailing into this world bringing the good cargo of Jesus but the Church will sink if the world is allowed into the ship.

We must separate ourselves from the evil things of this world!

**There are 15 offenses listed in these chapters where capitol punishment was required by God.

Notice verse 1, God was speaking to Moses here. Moses was the government to these children of God. Moses was the Law-Giver!

To Israel “the Law of God was also the Law of the Land”!

We must separate ourselves from all the people that commit these offenses!

This does not mean we should not witness to them, we are all sinners!

*****Lev 20:3 And I will set my face against that man

God is real serious in what He expects of His children!

The Bible says:

1Pe 3:12  For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: [but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil].

If anyone brings these things into the Church, it will defile the Church!

*****Lev 20:6  And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

God is real serious about separating our selves from false worship!

This is false religion in it’s most evil state!

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
 
Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

There so many “cults” and “isms” and “scisms” in our world today that are promoted by those that are demon possessed.

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

We cannot be surprised that there are people, false preachers and teachers in this world that seem to possess powers that seem to be not from this world.

These people will bring death to the unbeliever, and downfall to the Body of Christ!

God said to the nation of Israel, these people must be put to death before they cause eternal death from the face of God.

God’s people are to be holy, set apart from any of these things.

**To commit such things or allow such things without reporting it is committing treason in the Army of God!

All God’s statutes and laws have a serious reason behind them!

Our God is real and what He says is to be taken seriously!

*****Our text:

Lev 20:22  Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out.
Lev 20:23  And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
Lev 20:24  But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.
Lev 20:25  Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.
Lev 20:26  And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.
Lev 20:27  A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

God would put the Canaanites out of this land and give it to Israel because the Canaanites were guilty of all these sins.

God warns Israel that He would do the same to them in verse 23!

God is no respecter of persons even His own children and we should not think other wise!

God later brought Israel into the Babylonian captivity for seventy years because they had not been obedient to His Word.

God tells them in verse 24 that they can only be a separate people if they obey His Word.

This has not changed! We can only  separate our selves from this world by obeying the Holy Word of God, and that only, will make us Holy!

Up to this point God has shown us that He truly hates evil.

We are more tolerant of the evil that goes on around us than God ever has been!

God warns us over and over again to come out from all this evil.

This world defiles and profanes Our Lord Jesus. This is not going to change!

God requires us to sanctify ourselves (be a separated people) and be obedient to Him(obey the Word of God)!

***God gave Israel two reasons to do this:

1.) They were to be different from other nations!

2.) They were owned of God and needed to act like it!

God gives His Church, the Body of Christ, these same to reasons:

1.) God says:

Psa 1:1  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Psa 1:2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Psa 1:3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Psa 1:4  The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Psa 1:5  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Psa 1:6  For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

2.) The Church belongs to Our Savior:

1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1Pe 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

We owe it to God to be a separated people, after all Our Father is Jehovah God, The Creator of this world!

Gen 1:1 still says:  “In the beginning God”

Let’s have our beginning by serving Our Lord God daily.

Let’s Pray!