There is in every human heart
a struggle. A struggle that all men and women
experience in this world. Everybody wants to know how can
I be accepted of God. God has stamped in you. God consciousness
From which you cannot escape He stamped in you an awareness
that God is That God is holy That you are sinful and that
God will punish sin There's not a human being on the face of
the earth that who can escape that God consciousness. Men hold the truth in unrighteousness. That is the truth God stamped
upon them. And the word says they hold it
in unrighteousness, they push it down. They suppress it. Suppress it. Like trying to hold
your hand over the end of a garden hose that's turned on full blast. After a while, it's gonna get
out. You can't stop it. Men suppress that fact and they
cry, there is no God. They cry that they're atheist
and they defy the things of God, but they're lying against their
own conscience. All men have this God consciousness,
which makes them seek, by some means, peace with God, acceptance
with God. A sacrifice by which they can
come to God and be accepted at last. Somehow by which they can
meet God in judgment and be comfortable in the anticipation of that.
So they turn to religion and sacrifices. and moral decency
and good works and all of the things that religious people
teach them to do. And there's still no stopping
of the screaming guilty conscience until Christ is revealed in you
and God gives you faith in his dear son. Oh, may God do that
for you this day. Let me show you where the answer
to this question is. How can I, a sinner, come to
the holy Lord God and be accepted of Him? Leviticus 22 gives us
the answer. If you would come to God and
find acceptance with God, if you would be saved by God, if
you would be eternally accepted with God, You must come to Him
in a way that does not at all profane His holy name. You must come to God in a way
that does not at all profane His holy name. God will not lower
Himself to meet you. God will not tarnish His holiness
to receive you. God will not bend His righteousness
to embrace you. God will not violate His law
to accept you. God will not defy His justice
to receive you. How then can a sinner come to
God? You must come to God by some
way. in which his name is not profaned
by your coming. And that way is Jesus Christ
the Lord. The Lord God will not be worshiped
by any who profane his name in their approaches to him. He will
not accept any who profane his name in coming to him. His commandment
is, profane not my holy name. That's my subject this morning.
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his saints, and
to have in reverence of all them that are about him. In these
33 verses of Leviticus 22, God tells us what it is that he requires
of his people, and that is the reverence of his holy name. God requires that we reverence
His holy name. And the only way we can reverence
God is coming to Him by faith in His Son, holding Him high
and holy. holding Him reverend indeed,
holding Him infinitely superior to ourselves. And let me show
you here five things God requires of men and women who come to
Him. Would you come to God? Would you be saved by Jesus Christ?
Would you enter into heaven's eternal glory? God requires first,
total consecration. consecration. As I was just about to get up
and preach Sunday morning in Robert Street Church in England,
I was overwhelmed with a thought. I pray God will never let me
cease to be overwhelmed with it. The God of glory, the triune
Jehovah, is totally consecrated to me. He is totally devoted to me. Everything he has ever done,
everything he is doing now, everything he will do tomorrow, He does
just for me, for my everlasting good, for my eternal salvation. Children of God, what I've just
said concerning myself is true of you. The God of glory is totally
consecrated to you, totally devoted to you. Is it not therefore reasonable
that I should be totally consecrated to Him, totally devoted to Him. This is what it requires. Our
Lord put it another way. He said, if you come after me,
you're going to take up your cross and follow me. You're going
to have to hate your mother and your father and your brother
and your sister, yea, and your own life also. Take up your cross
and follow me. Nothing else is faith in Christ. Nothing else is trusting the
Son of God. All who are gods are made priests
under God in Christ. And God's saints are God's priests
in all places, all the time. None but priest, chosen, consecrated,
anointed priest can approach God and offer sacrifice to Him. That's how we come to Him. Verse
1, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and
his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things
of the children of Israel, and that they profane not My holy
name in those things which they hallow or sanctify unto Me. When I speak of God's people
as being priest, obviously, I'm not talking about any kind of
religious priesthood. The Papist Church and the Mormon
Church and the Episcopal Church, Anglican Church, all of them
have priests. Well, that kind of priestcraft
is nothing but idolatry. That kind of priestcraft is totally
contrary to Scripture. There is no man on this earth
who is a mediator between God and men. There is no man who
offers sacrifice for another man, not on this earth. No man
except the God man, Jesus Christ our Lord. He alone is the mediator
between God and men. He alone has made satisfaction
to the justice and the law and the holiness of God. He alone
has put away the sins of his people by the sacrifice of himself. No other man can do that. No other man can intercede before
God on your behalf. No other man can plead with God
on your behalf. I mean by that, in your stead,
instead of you pleading with God. Oh, we pray for one another,
that's what priests do. We plead with God for one another,
that's what priests do. But we do not stand in the room
of another before God. God's priests are saved sinners. Men and women who are accepted
of God, who live upon the altar of God, who live in the holy
place with God, who walk with God, who in their lives serve
God. Christ Jesus has made us priest
unto the most high God. Priest unto God, so that we live
upon the bread of God. We live upon the sacrifice of
God, Jesus Christ, blood and righteousness. And we live in
communion with God. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians,
rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything
give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. What's he talking about? Our
believer is supposed to walk around, and I know if you get
your gas pumped at the service station, well, nobody does that
anymore, but if you go in and pay before you got gas pumped,
somebody's gonna say, the Lord bless you, God bless you, have
a blessed day, and everybody's just giddy happy with religion.
No, that's not what it means. It doesn't mean that you put
on a religious show. It doesn't mean that you act. Like you're
walking on clouds. It doesn't mean that you pretend
that there's no pain and no heartache and no difficulty. That's not
it at all. What does it mean rejoice every
morning? Rejoice in God, your savior. Rejoice in his goodness. When
you weep, When you hold your hands with your friends and you
weep together, when your hearts are breaking, rejoice in the
Lord always. Everything give thanks. Pray
without ceasing. I was years ago playing golf
with one of the men in the church at lookout, one of the deacons
and one of the former pastors. And for some reason, right in
the middle of the fairway, this preacher and this deacon got
to talking about something, I don't even remember what it was. And
the preacher said, let's pray. And he got down on his knees
out in the fairway so everybody could see him praying. I wanted
to hide. Religious stupidity. Religious
show. Wasn't he sincere? That's insignificant. It's religious show. That's all. We're not here to put on a show
for men. What do you mean pray without ceasing? You live constantly
leaning on God. Constantly pouring out your heart
to God. Constantly seeking God's grace. Constantly seeking God's will.
Constantly seeking God's favor. Constantly seeking God's forgiveness.
Live by faith on the Son of God. That's what Paul's talking about.
And this passage here, he tells us we are priest under God. Priest in, by, and with Jesus
Christ. As God's priest, we are to act
like his priest all the time, in all circumstances of life.
The requirement here that a man separate himself from the holy
things seems strange. It means that he must keep aloof
from those things at home, from those holy things. If he had
gone through some uncleanness, he must separate himself. as
if the holy things were to be pushed away from him in reverence. You see, the priests at home
were not to handle holy things with familiarity. I mean by that
with carnal familiarity, like Nadab and Abihu did, like Eli's
sons did, but rather they're to separate themselves from them.
Even though he was ceremonially unclean, the priest was to separate
himself from the holy things lest he profane God's holy name.
You and I ought to take care never to profane God's name at
home or in our day-by-day lives anywhere. You who know me fairly well know
that I don't ever joke about the things of God. I don't joke
about preaching and I don't like jokes about preaching. I don't
joke about this business of worshiping God, and I don't like jokes about
it. I don't joke about prayer, and
I don't joke about God, and I don't like jokes about prayer. I don't
like jokes about God, and if I hear it, you will know I don't
like it. We're not to profane God's holy
name. His name is to be thought of
and spoken only with reverence. And as we behave ourselves in
this world, we who are God's representatives are to reverence
him in all things. He says, profane not my holy
name. Treat sacred things as sacred
things. When you use God's name. The
more I say this, the more I know it needs saying. I hear folks
all the time. Oh my God, gosh, golly, Lord,
lordy, gee, geez, Jesus. I'd rather hear you cuss. That's taking God's name in vain. Don't do it. Honor God. Make it your business in life
to honor God in everything. You remember on one occasion
that God commanded Moses to take his
rod and strike the rock. That rock, Paul tells us in 1
Corinthians 10, that followed them through the wilderness.
For 40 years, everywhere they went, there's a rock that walked
along with them. There's a rock that followed
them. Wherever they went, there that rock appeared. That rock
was Christ Jesus. And God said to Moses, smite
the rock, that water, water of life may flow from the rock.
And he smote the rock. And on another occasion, the
children of Israel murmured, And God said to Moses, speak
to the rock. And Moses was angry with the children of Israel and
he took his rod and he smote the rock again. And God said,
you're gonna die here. Why? Because you did not sanctify
my name. I will be sanctified of them
that come near me. God demands that we consecrate
ourselves to his honor in everything. Our Lord Jesus taught us to pray
like this. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. I take that to mean our first
concern in all matters all the time is to be God's honor. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. All right, look at verses three
through nine. Here's another thing God requires. He requires
that there be about us no uncleanness. Only those who are altogether
perfectly clean can approach God and be accepted of him. Say
unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed, among your generations,
that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel
hallow unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, that
soul shall be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord. What
man soever of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath a running
issue, he shall not eat of the holy things until he be clean.
And whoso toucheth anything that is unclean by the dead, or a
man whose seed goeth from him, or whosoever toucheth any creeping
thing, whereby he may be made unclean, or a man of whom he
may take uncleanness, whatsoever uncleanness he hath. The soul
which hath touched any such shall be unclean until even. and shall
not eat of the holy things, unless he washes flesh with water. And
when the sun is down, he shall be clean, and that shall afterward
eat of the holy things, because it is his food. And that which
dieth of itself, or is torn of beast, he shall not eat to defile
himself therewith. I am the Lord. They shall therefore
keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it and die therefore
if they profane it. I the Lord do sanctify them.
Now this is what it says in verse three. These priests were never
to be careless regarding God's worship. If one went into the
tabernacle in a careless state, unclean through some ceremonial
pollution, some ceremonial uncleanness, he would be cut off. just like
Nadab and Abihu when they offered strange fire before the Lord.
Let's apply the law to ourselves. We are men and women purified
by God's grace, washed in the blood and sanctified by the Spirit. In verses four through seven,
God's object in giving these laws was to keep the priest from
any appearance of evil, even in his home. The causes of defilement,
many of them, were such that only the defiled man and God
were aware of it. He might be polluted by the very
slightest thing if he just was sitting in his easy chair with
his shoes off and he had a creeping thing run across his foot. Nobody
saw it but him and God. He's unclean. He's unclean. The
slightest pollution meant banishment. In the most private situations,
the priest must be ceremonially holy, undefiled, clean. Why? Because he's a type of Christ
here. But in this particular passage,
he's set before us as a type and representative of believers,
God's priest. Sinners who've been sanctified
by the grace of God. Those holy things were the portions
of the priest's sacrifice that were his due. He makes that clear.
They were pledges of God's fellowship and communion, but because the
Lord God is holy, he cannot allow even a ceremonial pollution to
be accepted. Before the priest who's unclean
could eat, he had to be washed and he had to wait till the sun
had set in the evening. We cannot come to God. We cannot
come to God. We cannot come to God except
we be made clean. Hold your hands here and turn
to Zechariah 13. I want you to see three or four
verses of scripture here. Zechariah 13. I'm sorry, we'll
start in chapter 12. If you come to God, you must
be washed in the Savior's blood and sanctified, born again by
God the Holy Spirit. You must be given a new nature
and you must be washed in the Savior's blood. Now the washing
took place at Calvary 2,000 years ago. But you don't know anything
about it until you're born again by God's Spirit and believing
on Christ you wash. Zechariah 12 verse 10. I the
Lord will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications. When will
a sinner Look to God in faith. Come to God, believe in Christ.
Call on God in prayer. Are you listening? When God puts
his spirit in you. Not until then. Until then, all
that's called prayer is talking and making words. trying to make
deals with God, and acting religious. But when God pours His Spirit
upon you, then, watch what it says, they shall look upon me
whom they pierced. And they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day
shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem. as the morning
had had rid him in the valley of Megiddo, and the land shall
mourn every family apart, and the family of the house of David
apart, and their wives apart, and the family of the house of
Nathan apart, and their wives apart, and the family of the
house of Levi apart, and their wives apart, the family of the
house of Shemai apart, and their wives apart, all the families
that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. What does
that mean? What does that mean? I got a
letter, I can't remember how many years ago now, but a long
time ago, I think Josh was just 11, from David and Celeste, and
they suggested they were thinking about moving to Danville, and
they did. And I started praying for them. That couple and their five children. I recall the first visit, you
probably recall. I said, you must be David and
Celeste Previston. I said, how do you know? I said, They had
five children. As I know, they had five children.
Not many folks do these days. What a blessing. And I call their
names in prayer and still do. But I can't believe for them. Neither can you. I can't give you life. You must have God pour out his
spirit upon you and in you. And when he does, you won't need
me to tell you how to pray. You'll look on him whom you pierced
and you'll mourn for him. And when that happens, this follows.
Verse one, chapter 13. In that day, in that day, I can't
tell you how many times I've heard Folks say to me, preacher,
I try to believe, I try to believe, I try to believe, I just can't
believe. I agree, you can't, you can't. And then suddenly,
you do. How come? Because God put his
spirit in you. In that day, there shall be opened,
a fountain opened to the house of David. and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. You find yourself believing. And then the evening has come. The sun has set. Those three
hours of darkness. When our savior bore our sins
in his body on the tree, And God sent darkness over the earth. God set the sun of his wrath
gone forever. And God causes the darkness of
just judgment to depart from your soul when the fountains
open and you're made clean in Christ. In verse eight, in his
home the priest was never to set his table With anything that
died a natural death, I was torn. Anything that spoke of death
and violence, even in the food he provided and served to his
family and for himself, God's priest was to have his eye to
God's honor and God's worship and God's sacrifice. The family
dining room. It's a place where the family
of God met and worshiped God, even as they ate their food.
Oh, may we, in all our movements of life, feed upon Christ the
bread of heaven, worshiping him. In the ninth verse, God requires
this thirdly, absolute holiness. They shall therefore keep mine
ordinance, lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore if
they profane it. And he keeps saying, I the Lord
do sanctify thee. This holiness, this sanctification. In the experience of it is talking
about the new birth. Sanctification is God the Holy
Ghost coming to a center and creating in you a new man, a
holy, righteous man, making you partaker of the divine nature,
causing Christ to dwell in you, Christ in you, the hope of glory. These ordinances of worship were
typical of our Savior, His person, His work, His priesthood, His
obedience, His righteousness, and His sacrifice. They all portray
His salvation. To profane God's name, to profane
His ordinance, was to profane His Son. And God still sends
people to hell for profaning His Son. How do people do that? They treat his son like something
that's in their hands. They treat his son, his son's
sacrifice, as a common, ordinary thing. They treat his grace as
a common, ordinary thing. Something that belongs to man
rather than something that belongs to God. This religious generation, how can I say this and be understood
and not misunderstood? This religious generation, in
everything they do, in their attitude toward singing God's
praise, in their attitude toward prayer, and their attitude about
preaching, and their attitude about the gospel, and their attitude
about God, about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
and their attitude about grace, and their attitude about righteousness,
and their attitude about sanctification, and their attitude about worship,
this religious generation constantly profanes God's holy name. profane God's name. I don't suggest that you do it,
but if you are silly enough, if you are insane enough to go
visit a local church, just go visit one. Just sit down in the
back, if you can put a blanket over your face, nobody knows
you're there, but just sit in the back and watch and listen. Tell me if you hear or see anything
that even cast a shadow toward reverencing God. Everything is designed for the
honor and the pleasure of man, nothing for the honor of God.
I recall, Ruth, years ago, when your dad was dating the lady
he later married, or not your dad, I'm sorry, your grandfather,
dating the girl he later married. She was a pretty young girl,
about 83 or 84 years old at the time, but they would come to
church out here. She said to Brother Hubert, she
said, it's no fun going to church out there. Well, Brother Hubert
was always pretty sober-minded. He said, I didn't know it was
supposed to be fun. I didn't know it was supposed
to be fun. Over there it is. Down there it is. Back there
it is. Across there it is. Everywhere you came from it is.
This is not a fun house. It's not a family center. It's
the house of God. We come here to worship God.
anything else is profaning his name. Number four, not only does God require that
we have a holiness, a holy nature, God requires perfect sanctification. Look at verse 10. There shall
no stranger eat of the holy thing. A sojourner of the priest or
an hired servant shall not eat of the holy thing. But if the
priest buy any soul with his money, he shall eat of it. And
he that is born in his house, they shall eat of his meat. If
the priest's daughter also be married unto a stranger, she
may not eat of an offering of the holy things. But if the priest's
daughter be a widow, or divorced, or have no child, and is returned
to her father's house as in her youth, she shall eat of her father's
meat. But there shall no stranger eat
thereof. And if a man eat of the holy thing unwittingly, then
he shall put the fifth part thereof unto it, and shall give it unto
the priest with the holy thing. And they shall not profane the
holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer unto
the Lord, or suffer them to bear the iniquity of the trespass,
which they eat, or when they eat their holy things. For I
the Lord do sanctify them. No strangers were allowed to
eat of these things. No strangers. We don't pressure people to join
the church. As a matter of fact, we do the
opposite. We kindly push back. I don't pressure people to make
a decision for Jesus. I don't pressure people to get
baptized. Rather, I do just the opposite.
I hold back on those things, push back a little bit. Why?
Why? Because he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord's body. What does that mean? If you eat
bread, drink wine at the Lord's table, that's gonna poison you,
no. He's not just referring to the Lord's table. When men and
women are taught to think, when little boys and girls are taught
to think that they're believers, that they're righteous, that
they're children of God, when God has not given them life and
faith in Christ, the practice of religion hardens their hearts
against the gospel. The practice of religion hardens
their hearts against the gospel. You all heard the story of Ralph
Barnard said to somebody, and I've used it myself on a few
occasions, witnessing to folks, witnessing to a lady, and she
said, she said, I've been a Christian all my life. Ralph said, that's
just too long. That's just too long. No, you
haven't. Well, I was raised a Christian.
No, you weren't, you was raised religious. I was raised believing
God. No, you weren't, you was raised
religious. We dare not, dare not take the
things of God and give them to folks who have no faith. All
who are members of the priestly family are given right to the
holy things. All who are the household of
faith have right to all the things of God. In fact, so free are
we with the things of God that our God says to you and me. He says to you and me, to Jerry
Sadler and Don Fortner, come boldly to the throne of grace. Come boldly. A man, you don't
know that Sadler fella. No, I don't. I really don't. God really does. God really does. He knows him in Christ. Oh, yes,
I do know him. I sure do. His name is Christ
the Lord. Are you God's? God says to you,
come boldly with absolute freedom to the throne of grace, that
you may obtain mercy, whatever mercy you need. and find grace
to help, whatever help you need. That's the freedom of God's priest. If a man unknowingly participated
in and ate the holy things of the priesthood, he was required
to add a fifth part to it and bring the thing that he had taken
wrongly and bring a sacrifice to God. If you go back to Leviticus
5, you'll find out that fifth part added to it and making restitution
refers to our Savior who restored that which he took not away. Here's the fifth thing God requires.
Verses 17, 18, and 19. We read these earlier. God requires
a willing heart. He will not be worshiped except
by those who worship him in the way he has prescribed with willing
hearts. I find that wonderful. Wonderful. Tennessee is known as the volunteer
state. But God says you come with a
willing heart, a willing heart to me. And then if you come even
with a willing heart, he says that which you come by which
you approach me, it shall be perfect to be accepted. You see that in verse 21? It
shall be perfect to be accepted. God's people, God's priest, are
people who worship God because they want to. And they serve Christ because
they want to. And they give themselves to the things of God because
they want to. In fact, they want to give themselves more fully.
And they want to worship more completely. And they want to
live more intimately in sweet communion. Tell me, children
of God, have I misrepresented you? Is that not what you want? I quit trying to manipulate and
force and twist arms and whip folks and threaten folks and
get them to come to church and do things up to a long time ago.
I just quit. I just quit. How come? Because if you don't
want to be here, you don't need to be here. If you don't want to pray, you
don't need to pray. And if you don't want to worship, you don't
need to worship. If you don't want grace, you don't need grace.
If you don't want Christ, you don't need Christ. God gives his people a willing
heart. And with willing heart, they
come to worship God in the way that God prescribes. And then
he makes an exception, how quick, but down at the end of this chapter,
he said, now you can bring You can't bring it for a sacrifice,
for your vows, or for a peace offering, or for a burnt offering,
but you can bring your free will offering, just because you want
to do something. You need some money for the tabernacle,
or the temple. You need some money for the missionary,
or for the preacher. You need some money for this
project or that. You can bring that calf that's got one ear
chewed off, or you can bring that lamb that's got a broken
leg. You can bring whatever you want to for a free will offering. Bring it to God. Bring it to
God. He'll accept it. What a strange
thing. What a strange thing. Because
God accepts us in the person of His Son. Because God accepts me in His
Son. Oh, wonderful grace. Because
God accepts me through the blood and righteousness of his son. He accepts anything I bring to
him. That means he accepts me. He accepts you. This here had been chewed off
a little bit. This eye's about blind. This leg's twisted, maimed. Hair's gone. Nose is kind of poked-nosed.
Can't hear very well. If I touch that glass, it's dirty. It's what I am. It's dirt. It's sin. It's corruption. holy, unblameable, unreprovable,
perfect in the person of His Son. Oh, may God now bathe you
in that fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's
veins. Oh, may God now wash you and
make you clean in the washing of regeneration and the renewing
of the Holy Ghost, giving you faith in his son. and make you
to be today a priest unto God. Amen. Amen.