The Lord God Almighty always insists on being God. He'll never give it up. And He's
going to make you acknowledge one of these days, sooner or
later, that that's exactly the way it ought to be. He's God. He intrudes into the lives and
affairs of men and women. He insists that men and women
obey him. When God saves sinners, what
he does in the conversion of a sinner is just this, by the
revelation of Jesus Christ the Lord in his saving glory, He
causes that sinner whose heart by nature hates God, that sinner
whose heart is enmity against God, to be reconciled to Him,
bow down to Him as Lord, and makes Him tickle to death that
He is, makes Him happy that He's the Lord. Sooner or later, you're
going to bow down to Him. Sooner or later, you're going
to throw up your hands before His throne. Sooner or later,
you're going to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. That it's right for Him to be
Lord. That everything He does is right. You're going to shut
your mouth. You're going to quit arguing
and fussing with God. You're going to quit arguing and fussing
with what God does or what God requires. And you're going to
bow down and say, that's right. He's God. He's God, sooner or
later. Oh, I pray that He'll make you
bow down today and reconcile your rebel heart to Him. If He leaves you to yourself,
as He cast you into hell, He's going to make you bow down to
Him. And you'll continue to hate Him and continue to despise Him. and continue to curse him, but
you'll say, he's God. And I can't stop it. I can't
stop it. I tried, but I can't. I hate
him, but he's God. I don't want him, but he's God.
I'm damned, and it's right, but he's God. And he's right to be
God. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, by the love of Christ that constrains
us, be reconciled to God. Here in Leviticus chapter 18, the Lord God shows himself as God who knew
that the children of Israel, like us, were but dust, easily
blown here and there, easily swayed, easily prone to every
abominable imagination, easily prone and susceptible to every
form of idolatry, and quick to embrace the traditions, customs,
and habits of the world around them, all because of two things,
basically. Because of the weakness of their
flesh, their sinful lust, And because they, like us, love the
approval of men, we like to be accepted, don't we? We like to
be, everybody wants to be in the majority. Everybody really
wants to be just like everybody else. Everybody does. Now, we
all like to, you know, strut and swell our chest Pull back
our chins and say, I'm not like everybody else. I'm my own man.
I'm free thinking. I'm not swayed by the opinions
of others. I'm independent, and I don't
follow the crowd. I set my own way. Well, that's
the puffings of our vain imagination. That's not fact. Every one of
us are easily swayed by other people, every one of us. Every one of us is easily blown
about from here to there. We are more easily swayed by
the opinions and the approval and the applause and the acceptance
of men than the seeds of a dandelion are carried away with the wind. in the store one day, a few years
ago, buying some seed. This fellow was looking for some
weed killer for dandelions. And he said, and he's a fairly
old man, you do learn a few things after you've been around a while.
He said, you know, I told my wife, if there was just one woman
on the block who had those dandelions in her yard, every woman in the
neighborhood would be wondering where she could buy some. Everybody
would, oh, she's got dandelions. I don't have any. Let's get some
dandelions. were swayed by people, circumstances. It was true of
us before God saved us. Oh my God, it's still true. It
is precisely this weakness of our depraved, sinful nature that
necessitated Leviticus 18. In anticipation of the trials
and temptations that his people Israel would face when they went
into the land of Canaan, in anticipation of the temptations and trials
they would face on the way there through this wilderness in which
they wandered between Egypt and Canaan. The Lord God gives instruction
and strict commandments to his people, commanding them specifically. Now listen carefully, this is
what it's about. He says, don't you practice or participate in
the abominable customs of the nations. Verse 30. He calls them the abominable
customs. He calls them elsewhere in this
chapter abominable things. He says, don't you practice,
don't participate in, don't give any credibility to or express
any toleration for those things you learned while you were in
Egypt. and those things that you're going to continually observe
after you've become vindicated. The subject of the chapter is
these abominable customs. The customs of men and women
who don't know our God. And here the Lord teaches us
that we must stoutly refuse to walk in the ways of the world
and walk in His way. We must doubtly refuse to do
the doings as he calls them of the world and do his judgments
and keep his ordinances. Now, remember, the law was given
to Israel alone. The things recorded in this 18th
chapter of Leviticus were never given to any Gentile nation,
never were, never were. God declares that the works,
the doings, and the religion, both of the Egyptians and the
Canaanites, the works, the doings, and the religion of all the Gentile
world, he declares to be horrid wickedness. But he never gave
them the law. He never said it before them.
He said that what they're doing is abominable. It's abhorrent. It's evil. It's wicked. It's
ungodly. But he left them alone. And he
gave his law only to Israel. How come? Why is that? The reason
ought to be fairly obvious. These statutes. Even the statutes
we're going to read in these 30 verses this morning in Leviticus
18 were given to show us our sin, to point us to Christ our
Lord and Redeemer. They are statutes of divine worship
given to God's covenant people based upon covenant relationships
and motivated by covenant mercy and covenant grace. As we read
through these verses, We see God doing something that
we just really hate. God steps into a man's life, steps into his family, steps
into his bedroom, and says, this is how you live. This is what
you do. And we hate it. Nothing we hate
like someone stepping into our private affairs and telling us
how to run our private affairs. There's nothing we hate like
someone stepping into our families and telling us how to treat our
children, how to treat our wives, how to treat our husbands. Nothing
we hate. I will rule my house the way
I will. Good. American, Southern American,
good Kentucky way of doing things. My way! The only way. That's the way men always live.
Unless God stops them. But if God ever saves you, He's
gonna make you tickle to death to run your life. You'll be tickled to death for
Him to run your life. I was looking these things over
this morning. I've been working on this message for a long time. I spent a lot of time with it.
I'll try to give you a very brief digest of it. But I was looking
over my notes this morning and remembered something happened
just before God saved me. A bunch of us were standing out
at the Triangle, hanging out in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
where folks hung out to try their best to get in trouble. And I
visited there often. boy I went to school with just
a few weeks earlier had been in a severe automobile accident. Some folks were killed. He, by
all accounts, miraculously escaped with hardly a scratch. And he
was the only one who did. And some ambulance-chasing preacher
got hold of him and talked him into making a profession of faith.
I know the preacher well. I saw him out there at the Triangle
on Friday or Saturday night. He was just about so drunk he
couldn't stand up. And someone said to him, Ronnie,
I thought you got religion. He said, I did. But that ain't
going to keep me from doing what I want to. That ain't going to
keep me from having a good time. And that's exactly the attitude
of the religion of this world. I'll give God a tip on Sunday
morning. I'll give Him a little piece of my money now and then.
I'll say my prayers, I'll read my Bible, but I'm going to do
what I want to. Not with God Almighty you're not. Oh no, not
with God Almighty you're not. Our Heavenly Father now silences
any possible objection that his people might have to his intrusion
upon their lives in the most tender, loving manner possible. Six times in these verses, the
Lord God says, I'm the Lord, Jehovah, your God. I am your Redeemer. your Savior, your God. Now what I'm calling on you to
do, the way what I'm calling on you to practice, what I'm
calling on you to observe, that which I put upon you this day,
that which I require of you, I require upon the basis of this
fact, I love you. I chose you, I redeemed you,
I called you, I saved you, I hold you in the palm of my hand, I
proved my love for you. Now you walk before me and trust
me. What higher motive could there
be? When Faith was a little girl,
I'd sometimes require her to do things or not do things and
refuse to explain. Well, children have rights too. I wish somebody would shoot the
fellow who first said that. They're human beings too. Children
have the right to do what they're told. That's exactly right. And if you children don't like
it, see me after service and I'll say it again. Children have the right
to do what they're told. And if mama and daddy want to,
if mama and daddy deem it wise to, if mama and daddy think it's
best to, they'll tell you why. But that's always up to mom and
dad. That's always up to mom and dad. How come? Why should
you ask that? I loved that girl. I fed her. I clothed her. I've given her
my life. I'm sure she has in her adulthood. I don't remember. I don't remember
to this day her ever asking me why I do something or why I require
anything. I don't ever remember asking
it. I often explain. I often tell her now, but when
she was growing up, if she had asked why, she would have remembered
asking, I guarantee you. How come? Because I love her,
and it's not her prerogative to ask why. Now listen to me,
sons and daughters of God Almighty, it is not our right to ask why. Did you hear me? It is not our
right. to ask why. It is ours to bow
and nothing else. That's all. All right, let's
read these verses together and see what God teaches. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
I am the Lord your God. After the doings of Egypt, wherein
you dwelt, shall you not do. After the doings of the land
of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall you not do. Neither shall
you walk in their ordinances. You shall do my judgments and
keep my ordinances to walk therein. I am the Lord your God. You shall
therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man
do, he shall live in them. I am the Lord. Now, the first
thing our Lord does here is he commands us to strictly and conscientiously
avoid the deeds and ordinances of both the Canaanites and the
Egyptians. In doing so, it's obvious that
the Lord is demanding here that as his people we must constantly
guard against the horrid tendency of our heart's lust to yield
to the corrupt ways, that is, the doings, and the corrupt religion,
that is, the statutes and ordinances of this world. He speaks specifically
of the Egyptians, where you were, and the Canaanites, where you're
going. Because we have a constant struggle. Unlearning. and putting down
and mortifying and saying no to all the evil we learned before
we were converted by God's grace. It was the evil of our flesh,
the evil of the world, the ways of the world, and the evil that
we continue to learn after God saves us as we walk in the midst
of a lost religious world. Because our hearts lust are ever
inclined to the evil and never to the good. Did you hear that? We are always inclined by nature
to the evil and never to the good. Never. No exceptions. No exceptions. Read this book. You'll see it in a minute. We
are to observe God's ordinances. God's statutes. We are to live
by the rule of God's word. Now watch this. The Lord God here says, which
if a man do, he shall live in them. Now, does that mean if
a man tries real hard to obey God's law, he can have eternal
life by the law? No, of course not. It does mean
this. If you and I worship God in the
way he reveals in his word, in the way of his ordinances, his
statutes, and his judgments, that is to say, if we worship
God trusting Jesus Christ alone as our only Lord and Savior,
then we will live by his law and according to perfect righteousness. He gives it to us because we
offer to God all that He demands. That's exactly the meaning of
1 John 3. That's exactly the meaning of
Romans 3.31. We fulfill the law by faith in
Christ. Back in Deuteronomy chapter 27,
I read a passage this morning to you as we opened the service.
Lord, look down from heaven, from thy throne, from heaven.
And bless your people, Israel, because we have not sinned. How can that be? How can that
be? A man or woman who believes on
Christ comes to Him confessing his sin, confessing his sin,
confessing his sin, ripping open his heart, acknowledging, God,
this is what I have, nothing but corruption and sin. And confessing. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
has so thoroughly put away my sin by His blood, that here I
stand before you on holy ground as a holy man who's never sinned. Now, God can bless me. Now, God
can bless me. And He can't upon any other grounds.
Now, beginning at verse 6, the Lord starts to get real personal.
Oh boy, does he get personal. Look at it with me. Follow me
through the book. Verses 6 through 19, the Lord
prohibits a horrid, horrid evil called incest. He says, none
of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him to
uncover his nakedness, because I'm God. Because I'm God. I won't read the rest of the
verses there, but they go on to tell us who these are with
whom we must not commit incest. The Lord here expressly forbids
the incestuous unions, whether in marriage or in fornication,
of parents and children. of step-parents and step-children,
of siblings, of step-siblings, of aunts and uncles with nieces
and nephews, of cousins, even with step-cousins, or with those
who were once our in-laws. He absolutely forbids this thing. He calls it incest. Now what
is it? What is it? Certainly included
are those more horrible things of pedophilia we see on the news
every day in our society. What is this incest? What makes
it such a horrible thing? It's destructive to society.
It's destructive to the family stability. But you see, incest is physically, it's the betrayal of trust. It's the betrayal of the closeness of a union in which
there ought to be absolute trust, absolute confidence, absolute
freedom. Constantly in these verses, the
Lord speaks of it as uncovering the nakedness of one another. Spiritually, then, there's something
said here. You remember Ham uncovered Noah's nakedness. Incest, as it applies spiritually,
is the betrayal of trust. The betrayal of a close relationship
in which there ought to be absolute freedom and confidence. That's
the way of Ham. Don't you walk after the way
of the Egyptians and Canaanites. The Lord here requires that we
rather than betraying, rather than abusing, rather than hurting
those around us, love your brethren, honor your brethren, Honor them
and serve them and say no to your lust. No matter how much
you think this must be done, how much you think I've got to
have my sister, I've got to have my brother, I've got to have
my way. So I'll say what I want to about
you. You bite your tongue and control your passions for God's
honor, for God's honor. In these verses, Polygamy, obviously,
was tolerated. But our Lord tells us it was
because of the hardness of man's heart. A man was forbidden to
marry sisters, like Laban forced upon Jacob, marrying Rachel and
Leah, lest they vex one another, as Leah did Rachel and Rachel
did Leah. The temporary considerations
were allowed. You remember, of course, Cain
and Abel married their sisters. Abraham married his sister-in-law.
Noah's grandsons rather certainly must have married their sisters.
But God Almighty makes these laws for the stability of family. for the stability of family.
He says, this is how you can behave at home. With trust, with
confidence, with mutual respect, with mutual love, with tender
care. This is how you behave at home.
This is how you behave in my kingdom. With love, with trust,
with confidence, with mutual respect, with mutual care, with
mutual tenderness. Then in verse 19, These things the Lord calls horrid,
wickedness. The Lord puts a check even on
lawful intercourse between a man and his wife. There are times
when a man must not come near his wife simply because God says
so. As a matter of fact, in Ezekiel
22, the Lord speaks of this transgression of the law as being one of the
marks of Israel's great corruptions. Why on earth is this? Why can
it possibly be wrong for me at some time to come near to that
woman to whom I'm married, with whom I sleep every night I'm
in my house? Why can that be wrong? Because
God said so. Because God said so. Now, I'm
not suggesting that law is something under which God's people live
in this day, but I am saying the principle is this. Every
sensual feeling, every carnal desire, every carnal passion,
be it good or evil. Did you hear me? The totality
of our lives, Larry Chris, are to be subordinate to the will
and glory of our God. That's what he's talking about.
That's what he's talking about. Our lives are his. Now either
they are, either we are willingly his, or we are as lost as any
reprobate, hot and taut in the barbaric cannibalistic tribes
of New Guinea. I don't care how religious we
are. I don't care what we say we know. In verse 20, the Lord forbids
adultery. In verse 21, Right in the middle of incest
and adultery and homosexuality and bestiality, the Lord puts
idolatry. How come? Because idolatry is
the root and cause of it all. Adam went astray in the garden
because he worshipped his wife. Idolatry. Worshipped his own
will. Idolatry. Determined to have
his own way. Idolatry. And we've been going
down ever since. Read the first chapter of Romans.
Because men would not worship God as God, but rather they worshipped
Him and served, worshipped and served the creature more than
God, more than the Creator, and worshipped the creature as God.
Because men set up another God. God gives them over to their
vain imaginations to perform horrid things. And in verse 22, He forbids, verse 23 rather,
He forbids not only His prohibition to that horrid, beastly, vile, abominable, cursed,
filthy thing called homosexuality. I hope I said that clearly enough.
Everybody understands what I mean. Vile. Contemptible. Something not, oh, this is a
private matter between adults. To hell it is. It's destructive
to all of society. Destructive to the glory of God. Destructive to the well-being
of man. And it spawns bestiality. Verse 23. The result of these horrid wickednesses,
as God says in verses 24 through 28, I'll spew you out of the land
into hell. In divine judgment, you see,
God leads men to their own way. I'm going to have my way. I'm
going to do what I want to. This is how I want to live. This
is how I want to act. This is what I want to do with
myself, my time, my energy, my thoughts, my life, my wife, my
children, my home, my job. This is what I want to do. This
is mine. All right. You want it? You can
have it. You can have it. Yes, sir. You
can have it. Oh, I pray God won't let you
have that. Oh God, don't leave this people
to their way. Oh my God, don't leave me to
my way. When God leads you to your way,
He's left you for hell. If we would follow the way of
the wicked, then the earth will at last spew us out into hell
and everything in this world. Everything. Everything. Everything. I'm blessed with
such a blessed hope. Thank God for it. But if I live after my way, that
dear lady, every relationship, every experience, that darling
child, that blessed son-in-law, those two precious grandchildren,
there'll be everlasting damnation to me. There'll be an everlasting
torment. Do you hear me? Oh God, help
you to hear me. I don't have any idea what hell
is, but I know this. I know this. In hell, everything
that men have experienced in life shall be their everlasting
torment. Everything. Everything. The earth! will spew you out
into eternity, vomit you out as unfit inhabitants for God's
earth. Pastor, what on earth is God teaching
us here? Number one, He's God. He's God. He alone has the right to be
God, and he always exercises that right. He is the one, because
he is God, who has the absolute right to rule both you and me.
He has the absolute right just because he's our creator. to
control our thoughts and our deeds, to save us or to damn
us, to kill us or to give us life. He says, is it not right? Is it not lawful for me to do
with my own what I will? Yes, sir. He's God. More than
that. Because he's God. He's the only
one who has the right and the ability to determine that which
is good. and that which is evil. He's
the only one. He's the only one. Well, Congress
has gotten together, and they've decided that it's all right for
men to be queers, no matter what Congress does. The schools have gotten together,
and they've decided, the educators have, that it's all right for
men and women to shack up and live like beasts. That's all
right. And the religious world says, well, we can't fight the
tide. I got a letter from a theologian some time ago in another country.
He said, it was right before our daughter got married, Faith
and Doug got married. He said, I'm so glad she'll get
married. He said, in our country, even Christians live together
and try it for a while. I wrote him back. I said, in
America and in your country, not Christians. Religious reprobates,
but not Christians. Oh, but society says it's OK.
The church can't fight that. The church can't fight that.
God determines what's right. What makes it right for a man
and woman to enjoy the privileges of marriage, his husband and
wife, and evil for a fellow to do it with a prostitute? What's
the difference? God said one is right and the
other is evil. That's what the difference is. It's exactly right. He said,
behold, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace
and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
And it doesn't matter whether you have your approval or not.
It doesn't matter whether you think it's right or not. It doesn't
matter whether society consents or not. It doesn't matter what
the trend of the day is or not. Oh, but daddy, everybody, everybody's
going to hell. You want to join them? It's exactly right. Faith and Shelby learned a long
time ago, don't ever say to me, well they don't wear that anymore.
Get me two of them. They put my Lord on the cross
and I ain't going to hell with them. Did you hear me? The world is always wrong. The majority is always wrong. The tide of opinion is always
wrong. The views of the most enlightened
of society are always wrong. God alone determines what's right. Number two, the Word of God and
the Word of God alone is our rule of life. God says, you keep my ordinances.
I don't care what my forefathers said. I just don't care. If they said something good,
that's great. But if they said something bad, let's throw it
away. Our fathers sinned. That's what Daniel said, isn't
it? Time we recognize the same thing.
But we've got these documents. Burn them. Burn them. We've been in this tradition.
Your tradition will take you to hell. This book alone is profitable
for our learning, to give us instruction and wisdom and knowledge,
to furnish us unto every good work. Number three. Oh, how thoroughly corrupt is
the cesspool of iniquity in our hearts. How often do we say, I don't
see how man could do that? I don't understand how he could
do that. The Lord God who knows the heart, even the heart of His chosen,
redeemed, and called people, anticipates that they will be
tempted. in the land of their possession by the tide of opinion around
them and by the agreement of their
flesh with that opinion to every abomination imaginable. And yet, he says, I am the Lord, Jehovah, your Redeemer,
your God. I love you. I chose you. I put my name on you. I redeemed
you. I called you by my name, by my
grace. I made you my own peculiar people. I'm your God. I'm your God. Now, since I'm your God, like
I'm not the God of any other people, since I loved you, and
chose you, and redeemed you, and called you. You were unfit for the earth, much
less for heaven, except by my grace. This is what I demand of you. Bow to me as your God. Surrender to me everything, everything, everything, everything. Believe me. Honor me. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price. So glorify me in your body and
in your spirit and mine. Whether you eat or drink, whatever
you do, do it for my glory. I'm the Lord your God. Now, I sit before you today,
blessing and cursing, good and evil. Here's a decisive day. The Lord God brings Israel right
up to the borders of Canaan, across Jordan, and He sets over
here evil, works, law, corruption, evil. And here you set this altar of
stones, whole stones, and write out the commandment of God with
all its hardness. And over here is Gera's grace
and mercy and blessing. And down here, between cursedness
and blessedness, is the Ark of God, Christ the Lord. And upon this
basis, I call on you now to take sides with God. All the law of God says curse and misery. My God, I'm fit for hell and
nothing else. The blood of Christ admits this
cursed sinner through the valley into this land of blessedness. And bless God, faith says, that's
right. That's right. God's blessing
is mine, rightfully, because of Christ. And God's curse is
right. If you refuse to walk in His
way, trust His Son. Amen.