I stand before you tonight as
Moses stood before Israel, a man with a message from God for your
souls. Moses said to his people, behold,
I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. A blessing if you obey the commandments
of the Lord your God. which I command you this day,
and a curse if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord
your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you
this day. I set before you a blessing and
a curse. That's my subject, a blessing
and a curse. If you'll turn to Leviticus chapter
26, Just hold your Bibles open, we'll look at this chapter together,
and this will be our text. Hear the word of God to you,
all of you, believer and unbeliever. This is God's word to me and
God's word to you. It is a word about obedience,
about great promises of grace, and great threats of mercy, of
wrath, great threats of wrath. In this chapter of Leviticus,
we have God's own commentary on his holy law given throughout
the Mosaic era. The whole doctrine of the Levitical
law is here summarized for us. There are four things in these
46 verses to which I'll call your attention. Offense, Fence
of protection. Promises. Promises of bounteous
grace. Threats. Threats of indescribable
wrath. And a call. A marvelous call
to repentance. First, verses one and two. Here
the Lord God graciously sets up a fence of protection for
our souls. A fence for which we can never
be adequately thankful. The fence he set around our souls
is the blessed, blessed fence of public worship. A fence for our soul's protection. Nothing in this world Nothing
in this world compares to the blessedness of this fence of
God's protection. The greatest earthly blessing
God can ever give to a community, to you, to a family, is to establish
in your midst the preaching of the gospel the regularly established
preaching of the gospel in a place of public worship just like this. By this means, by the preaching
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God calls out his elect. By this means, by the gathering
of God's saints in worship, by the preaching of the word of
God, by the power of his spirit, God gives food for his people. edifies and strengthens, comforts
and teaches his elect. The greatest privilege in the
world is the privilege you enjoy this hour. And I wish I could
convince everybody who hears my voice. Every believer, few
are convinced of it. It's the most important aspect
of every believer's life. Oh, God give you grace and wisdom
and give me grace and wisdom to arrange our lives around the
worship of God. The most important thing in this
world for you is to hear from God regularly, to worship God,
to worship him in his house with his people. God demands that
we worship him and worship him alone. because he alone is God. Look at verse one. You shall
make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a
standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone
in your land to bow down to it. How come? For I am the Lord your
God. God demands our whole heart,
our entire soul, our undivided devotion. He will have no rival. Salvation is neither more nor
less than knowing and owning the Lord God, our Savior, as
God. It is bowing to and worshiping
him as he is revealed in Christ, a just God and the Savior, confessing
him as Lord. Listen to this word the apostle
gives concerning the Jews and concerning believers. He said,
brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. For I bear them record, they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, not ignorant of the fact that
God is righteous, Ignorant of God's righteousness, the righteousness
brought in and established for his people by the Lord Jesus
Christ, the only righteousness by which sinners can be accepted
of God. Being ignorant of Christ, they
go about to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. To be saved is to believe
that Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, that man who lived on this earth
for 33 years on the other side of the world, that man who was
raised as a poor, ordinary man, That man who most looked upon
as a prophet and a teacher, even a good man, but at last was crucified
upon the cursed hill of Calvary. That man is the Christ of whom
the scriptures speak in all the Old Testament scriptures. He
actually accomplished Everything the prophets and the law said
he would accomplish. He put away sin. He brought in
righteousness. He saved his people from their
sins. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you're born of
God. If we would worship this holy Lord God, we must worship
him in Christ Jesus and worship him in the way he requires. God is spirit. They that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. We are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. All true worship is spiritual
worship. We come to the house of God and
in this place where we worship God, we don't have stained glass
And we don't have images and icons and pictures of Jesus and
pictures of angels and images of angels. We don't have pictures
of saints. Don't even have pictures of the
pastor. Just don't have those things. How come? Because we've
come to worship God. And we worship God in spirit.
And anything that draws your mind, your heart, your thought,
your attention to itself, as a representation of God is nothing
but idolatry. That's all. Men make idols out
of the most ridiculous things. Do you remember that brazen serpent
Moses lifted up in the wilderness? What a magnificent picture of
Christ. God commanded him to raise it up as a picture of Christ.
But Moses made a mistake. He kept it. He kept it. The children of Israel kept it
through all the days of Moses and Samuel and the judges and
David and Solomon, all the way up to the time of Hezekiah. And
the children of Israel burned incense to that stinking piece
of brass. Burned incense to it, how come?
because they worshiped it instead of God who portrayed himself
in the redeeming work of Christ by that day. The children of
Israel equally made for themselves idols out of the very sacrifices
God required them to bring to his house, to his altar, to his
holy place. Read Isaiah chapter one and you'll
read about it. Worshiping God in spirit and
in truth means we worship God according to what he gives us
in his word. Precisely, exactly as this book
requires we worship him. Not as society desires. Not as men would want. not as
playing games to entertain me, not to suit this group or that
group, but precisely as God gives it in his word. No idols, no
images, no icons, no religious relics, no crosses, no rival
to him. In verse two, the Lord tells
us what this worship is. You shall keep my Sabbaths and
reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. Keep my Sabbaths. This Old Testament requirement
of Sabbath keeping was a portrayal of something important. It was
a portrayal of faith in Christ. The only way a sinner can know
and worship God is by this blessed rest of faith in Christ, by ceasing
from our own works and trusting the finished work of Christ,
the sinner's substitute. We must not keep any legal Sabbath. We must not. We must not. It's
not a matter of indifference. I know people today, some say,
well, we have to keep the Sabbath. Some say, no, we're not Sabbath
keepers. Some say, it doesn't matter. It does matter. First
Colossians chapter two forbids Sabbath keeping. The scriptures
forbid circumcision. The scriptures forbid keeping
the Passover because Christ has fulfilled it all. We worship
God in spirit. Our Sabbath is Christ. We rest
in him. You shall keep my Sabbath, he
says, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. This commandment,
reverence my sanctuary. His sanctuary is the place where
God himself met with men, and men met with God. The place of
instruction, the place of teaching. the place of worship, the place
where the children of Israel came together and celebrated
God's praises, worshiping Him. Our songs of praise to God are
best songs. The best hymns we sing are hymns
that celebrate the person and work of God. They just extol
Him. David just read the psalm, David's
singing God's praise. All he's doing is celebrating
who God is and what God's done for us. All spiritual declension,
all spiritual decay begins with neglect of public worship. Failure to reverence God's sanctuary,
this place where we meet with God. and God meets with us. This place where God gives out
his word, where God promises he will be. This fence the Lord
has put around us is to keep us from idolatry, to keep us
believing, worshiping, and loving him. I want you to hold your
hands here in Leviticus and turn to Hebrews 10, Hebrews chapter
10. I meet with a lot of people in
this country and around this nation and across various nations
of the world who are turned aside by lots of little idiosyncrasies
of religious nonsense. And they get caught up in lots
of religious stuff, just stuff, and lots of questions. I'll tell
you what I have not yet met. I have not yet met a man or a
woman who regularly put himself or herself under the ministry
of a faithful gospel preacher who got caught up in that nonsense.
This is the place where God puts a fence around you, where God
protects you from all the idiocy in this world about religion.
Look at Hebrews chapter 10. The Lord God calls us to worship
him. Verse 22, let us draw near with
a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for he is faithful to have promised. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works. not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching.
For if we sin willfully after we've received the knowledge
of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but
a certain fearful looking for a judgment and fiery indignation
which shall devour the adversaries. This is exactly This thing that
the Lord is warning us against here. This is exactly what John
and Jude refer to in 1 John 5 and in Jude 21. John says, little
children, keep yourselves from idols. And you can expand that
in many directions. Keep yourselves from idols. Don't
let the influence of idolatry influence you. yourselves from
idols. Keep yourselves from idols. Keep
yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Keep yourselves. And the best way you can do that,
Bill Raleigh, is right where you are right now. That's the
best way you can do that. People, we live in this age of
mass media, we have such great means of disseminating the gospel,
but people listen to stuff and read stuff and debate about stuff
and they spend their time wasting time doing nothing, doing nothing
except feeding their minds with idolatry. How I give thanks to
God for establishing this blessed ordinance of public worship for
the honor of his name. for the benefit of our souls.
I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house
of the Lord. Years ago, Brother Mahan had
a brief article in his bulletin. I think I can almost quote it
verbally. He said, I was glad somebody
asked me to go. I was glad there was a place
to go, and I was glad I went. I was glad when they said to
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Thus, the Lord God
says, will I magnify myself and sanctify myself, and I will be
known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am
the Lord. All right, back in Leviticus,
verses three through 13. Here, the Lord God promises bounteous
blessings of grace upon all who obey his commands. He threatens
indescribable wrath upon all who disobey. Without question,
our obedience or disobedience to the revealed will of God are
matters of indescribable importance. Let no one imagine otherwise.
If we're disobedient to that which we know God reveals, we
bring upon ourselves great trouble. God will show his disapproval
of our disobedience manifestly. Ask Moses in Exodus chapter four
when God met him in the end. Ask David when God finally confronts
him by his prophet Nathan. But this passage is not talking
about, I repeat, it is not talking about conditional grace. Leviticus
26 is God's explanation of his law. He's declaring how he always
deals with sinners in absolute, strict, unbending justice. The text clearly reaches beyond
temporal earthly blessedness and temporal earthly curses.
In verses three through 13, the Lord God promises bounteous,
indescribably bounteous grace to all who obey his commands.
As we read these verses together, Note that the blessings here
promised are seven. Seven, he repeats it time and
time again, seven. The number of perfection is the
number seven. The number of completion, the
number seven. The number of grace, the number
seven. These are described in Deuteronomy
33 as the precious things of heaven. Things promised to the
sons of Joseph. Understand them spiritually,
understand them as referring beyond physical, material things,
to gospel, heavenly, eternal things, and you understand them
right. Verse three, if you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments
and do them, then, here's the first promise, it's a promise
of land blessings, I will give you rain in due season, and the
land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall
yield their fruit. Since our Savior ascended to
His throne, having obtained eternal redemption for us by the sweet,
irresistible grace and power of His Spirit, there has been,
and there continues to be, and there will be to the end of the
days, a constant in-gathering of His redeemed from the four
corners of the earth. He sends His Spirits. He establishes
His church here and there. He establishes the ministry of
the Word, and He gathers in His elect. daily adding to his church
such as should be saved. Verse five, the Lord promises
satisfaction and safety, and your threshing shall reach unto
the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time,
and you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your
land safely. The Lord God says you, you obey
my commands, you believe me, you trust me, and I will satiate
your soul. and you will dwell safely. Not
only in safety, but in confidence of that safety. And then he promises
peace, verse six. I will give peace in the land,
and ye shall lie down and none shall make you afraid. And I
will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword
go through your land. Where sin abounded, grace does
much more abound. And God not only promises plenteous
redemption and plenteous grace, he promises peace with it. Verse
seven, here's the fourth promise. Triumph. And ye shall chase your
enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And
five of you shall chase 100, and 100 of you shall put 10,000
to flight, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. Paul puts it this way. Our Redeemer
has made us more than conquerors by His grace. When I was growing
up, as you might anticipate from me, I was a scrapper, and I was
always the biggest fellow wherever I went, and the biggest fellow
in school, and the littlest fellow in school. Every year, first
week of school, got to go through something. Every year. I guess
it's still that way. Every time school opened, somebody
wants to whip the biggest fella and prove he can, and somebody
wants to whip the smallest fella because he can. And they got
to get in a fight. And we went through those things
all the time. And I did all right. I didn't often walk away too
messed up. But I never so thoroughly whipped
anybody that I was confident he wasn't coming back. But in
Christ Jesus, he who was defeated principalities and powers, who's
conquered Satan and death and hell, has so defeated our foes
that they shall never rise against us, more than conquer us. Greater
is he that is in you than he that is in the world. No weapon
that is formed against you shall prosper. Verse nine, he promises
divine favor. For I will have respect unto
you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, and establish my
covenant with you. Then in verse 10, he promises
blessings upon the old and the new. You shall eat the old store,
that which you have in hand, and you shall bring forth the
old because of the new. I will not only grant my blessings
upon what you have, but I'll give you continually that which
you need. Verse 11, he promises his presence. And I will set my tabernacle
among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk
among you and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. I
am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of
Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen. And I have broken
the bands of your yoke and made you to go upright." That's God's
promise of salvation, a promise of salvation to a covenant people.
The psalmist said, remember me, O Lord, with thy favor, the favor
that thou bearest unto thy people who visit me with thy salvation. Well, what is the requirement
of God's commandment? What is it? He speaks of all
these things. He's commanded in his law, all
these sacrifices, all these services, all these duties, all these ordinances. What, God, do you require? This
is his commandment. that you believe on His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And believing on His Son, we
establish the law. Believing on His Son, we fulfill
the law. These blessings of grace promised
to all who believe on the Lord Jesus speak of the perfect, full
inheritance of grace in salvation, the blessedness of heaven's eternal
glory, the blessedness of eternal life, They speak of that grace
and glory God promises to give to his people. There is a day
coming when we shall enjoy the reign of heaven, the former and
the latter reign perfectly. And in that day, there will be
no barrenness in the earth. The earth shall yield her fruit
to the full satisfaction of our souls. We will look back over
time and say, thank God for that. Oh God, how wise, how good you
were in that. How ignorant, how foolish I was.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
The earth shall yield satisfaction, complete satisfaction to our
souls. In that day, when our God makes
all things new, there will be nothing to cause us pain, Nothing
to cause a tear, nothing to cause sorrow, nothing to cause sighing. The former things shall be passed
away forever, never to rise up again. No foes, no strife, no trouble, no robbers,
no fear, no evil beast, no sword, uninterrupted divine favor. uninterrupted divine presence,
the perfection of heaven salvation. Now back in Leviticus 26, there's
a statement made in verse 12 that almost seems out of place.
As the Lord comes to the end of these promises, he says, and
my soul shall not abhor you. What on earth does that mean?
My soul shall not abhor you. It is just this. The Lord would
have us to understand and remember, and we shall forever remember
it, that all this blessedness we enjoy, this blessedness we shall enjoy
forever in heaven's glory, is a matter of pure, free grace,
established to us by God's everlasting covenant love. We deserve His
wrath. But he said, I will not abhor
you. Oh, clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with
a voice of triumph, for the Lord Most High is terrible. He is
a great king over the earth. He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. He shall choose out our
inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved. Third, verses 14 through 39. Sad fact is, many will not enjoy
such blessedness. These infinite bounties of everlasting
mercy are reserved for saints who obey God, sinners converted
by His grace, who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But to
those who believe not, God promises all the horrid terror of his
indescribable wrath and justice. Verse 14, but if you will not
hearken unto me, if you will not believe me, if you will not
trust my son, and will not do all these commandments, and if
you shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments,
so that ye will not do all my commandments, but ye break all
my covenant, I also will do all this unto you. I will even appoint
over you terror, consumption, the burning ego that shall consume
the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your
seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set
up my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies.
They that hate you shall reign over you. and ye shall flee when
none pursueth. I try to pray for everybody in
this assembly, you and your sons and daughters. I call your names
before God, and some yet are without life, without Christ,
without faith, without God, and without hope. And I never think
of them except in that stage. Without question, their misery
and rebellion brings their hearts and souls into misery, wrecks
their lives, and they're constantly terrified. Look at verse 18 and
learn this. In hell, the wicked shall reap
exactly what they sow. They shall eat the fruit of their
own ways, and be filled with their own devices. And if you
will not yet for all this hearkening to me, then I will punish you
seven times more for your sins. Seven times more. Now notice
the Lord promises seven more plagues to all who despise his
word. In verse 21, he promises seven
more. In verse 24, seven more. In verse 28, seven more. And
yet, if you count the plagues that follow each announcement
of seven more plagues, not one time is the number seven succeeded
by seven plagues. There are six, then four, then
10, but never seven. Why? Because these plagues are
symbolic of the complete, perfect justice of God's punishment of
sin. And he punishes men always according to the light he's given
them. The greater the light is that
men despise, the greater shall be their condemnation. That's
the reason our Lord Jesus said, Sodom and Gomorrah will rise
up in judgment against this generation. Would you like to have some idea
of what awaits the wicked? This is what God says he will
do, verse 16. I will appoint over you terror. Terror. Oh, the terror of the damned. Oh, the terror of the damned. Consumption. A constant, everlasting
consumption of soul. A burning ague. A burning fever. that consumes your eyes and consumes
all hope. Sorrow of heart. It says in verse
17, I'll set my face against you. You'll be slain before your
enemies. Those you hate and who hate you
shall reign over you. Verse 19, all that you sought,
all that you've labored for, All you spent your life to gain
will prove vanity and vexation and torment. And then in the
rest of the chapter down through verse 39, he speaks of wild beast,
famine, famine in the soul, pestilence, pestilence in the body. He speaks
of dissatisfaction, lust that are never satisfied, fury, divine
fury and mockery. mockery even by your idols. Look
at verse 30, I will destroy your high places and cut down your
images and I will cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols
and my soul shall abhor you. Verse 34, the Lord God will rid
the earth of the wicked, of all evil and cause all his creation
to rest and the land will enjoy her Sabbaths. And they shall
fall. The wicked shall fall upon and
trample upon and devour one another. The wicked shall perish among
the heathen. And look at verse 29. Maybe you'll
begin to see what awaits the damned. Behold the wrath of the
Lamb and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons and devour your
daughters I'm sorry, the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. What can that be talking about?
Yes, there've been such times in history when men were in such
circumstances that they did just this. But Moses is talking to
us about what God's law says. He's giving us a summary of God's
law. He's talking to us not about earthly things, but about heavenly
things and eternal things. What's he saying? You'll eat
the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. In hell,
mamas will curse their daughters and daughters, their mamas. Fathers
will curse their sons and sons, their fathers. The lost preacher
will meet with the lost soul And they'll scream in his face,
why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me? And they'll
curse him. And the lost mother and father
will look at their lost children as those children with hatred
in their teeth. Curse them, curse them for their
ungodly ways. Hell will be a place of horrid
terror and torment such as none can describe. Fourth. Here, the Lord God himself calls
hell-bent sinners, hell-deserving sinners, to repentance and promises
eternal salvation to all who turn to him, confessing their
sin, trusting his son. Verse 40, if they shall confess
their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, I've looked
at that for a long time. I don't know if I have much confidence
in why. Why does the Lord say you've
got to confess your sin and your father's sin? They didn't do
what their fathers did. They had nothing to do with that.
They had nothing to do with that. Why does it say this? And it
says it over and over again. Because confessing your sin means
identifying yourself with that. and identifying yourself with
all who've gone before you in your rebellion against God. Confess
your sin, the iniquities of your fathers, with their trespasses,
which they have trespassed against me, and that also they have walked
contrary unto me, and that I also have walked contrary unto them,
and have brought them into the land of their enemies. If then
their uncircumcised hearts be humbled. And they then accept
of the punishment of their iniquities, take sides with God against themselves. Then will I remember my covenant
with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant
with Abraham will I remember. And I will remember the land.
The land also shall be left to them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths
while she lieth desolate without them. and they shall accept of
the punishment of their iniquity, even because they despise my
judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that, when they
be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither
will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, to break my covenant
with them, For I am the Lord their God. He scattered the nation
over and over again through history. He scattered the nation of Israel.
Picture what he's done with his elect since the fall of Adam.
After the Tower of Babel, he began to scatter people into
the four corners of the earth. Scattered them that he might
gather them, remembering his covenants. Because there is yet
amongst the fallen sons of Adam Among the children of Edom, among
the fallen, vile wretches of this world, there is yet a remnant,
according to the election of grace, who must and shall be
saved. Of this we may be confident. Wherever a soul is made partaker
of the riches of God's grace, Most heartily and fully will
that soul subscribe to God's rights of justice, accepting
the punishment of our iniquity. Verse 45. But I will, for their
sakes, remember the covenant of their ancestors. I'll remember
what I promised Abraham way back when I brought him out of Ur
of the Chaldees. I'll remember what I promised him about his
children going down to Egypt. I'll remember my covenant whom
I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the
heathen, that I might be their God. I am the Lord. These are the statutes and judgments
and laws which the Lord made between him and the children
of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses. This is the message
of God in all the commandments of the law. Are you listening? Would you like to understand
what the law says? All the commandments God gave
to Sinai, here it is. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth. When God the Spirit comes giving
faith in Christ, he comes to convince folks of sin. What is
that? He'll convince you, he'll convict
you. People talk about conviction. Oh, God convicted me, I ought
not to eat red meat. God convicted me, I ought not
to eat pork. God convicted me, I ought not to shave my beard. God convicted me, I ought not
to wear shorts. God convicted me, I ought not
to listen to radio. God convicted me, I ought to
live up in the woods as a hermit. Psst, where do you get such stupidity? Where do you get such stupidity?
What's he talking about? He will convince you of sin.
And here's the essence of it. Here's the sum of it. Here's
the totality of it. Because they believe not on me. Of sin. Because they believe
not on me. Oh, God give you grace to believe
his son. Believing his son. is the evidence
that has given you everlasting life. If you refuse to believe,
the wrath of God abides on you, and you'll find it out soon. Amen.