Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Um, good morning. 945.
[00:00:07] Good morning. If I have not met you, my name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church. If you have a Bible, open up to Leviticus, chapter 21. Next week we're going to be in Leviticus again, and then we're actually going to be off of Leviticus for quite some time. So savor Leviticus while we're while we're in it. All right?
[00:00:28] In order to be a real Christian, and what I mean by real Christian is not a fake Christian. There are cultural Christians. There are people who think they're Christians because generally they grew up as a Christian. There are people who think they're Christians because they wear a cross or because they're better than the worst person that they know. I am not talking about that. I am talking about a real Christian, somebody who has actually personally believed that they are a sinner, has asked God to forgive them, and believes in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you are a real Christian, not only have you professed faith in Christ, but you also have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, who encourages you, changes you, convicts you, et cetera. So I'm talking about real Christians. In order to be a real Christian, there are some things you have to believe. You can call yourself a Christian, but if you don't believe these things, then you're actually not a real Christian. Okay, so here we go. I know I just kind of left some suspense here. You have to believe in a literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It wasn't mythology, it wasn't a metaphor. It was a real historical event.
[00:01:44] You have to believe that Jesus Christ as he came the first time, is going to come again to judge the living and the dead. You cannot be a real Christian and say, yeah, the second coming is optional. The resurrection is mythology. That's not how it works. In order to be a real Christian, you actually have to believe that there is going to be what the Bible calls a new heavens and new earth. That when Jesus comes back and judges the living and the dead, he's going to usher us into eternity. Now, to bring a little bit of clarity, when the Bible says new heavens and new earth, it doesn't mean heaven where God dwells. The heavens is going to be the stars and the clouds and the sky, and then the earth is going to be this. All the material, physical parts of the universe, when Jesus comes back, are going to be remade, reformed. Sin is going to be extracted from them, and they're going to be recreated, if you will, imperishable, including our physical bodies. Amen. Village church. Amen. One day those things are happening. You don't get to be or call yourself a Christian again. People do all the time, but you don't get to call yourself one or be one. If you don't believe in the historical resurrection, if you don't believe in the second coming, the judgment, and that there is going to be a new creation, those are kind of Christian essentials, if you will. So I just want you to imagine for a moment what are some of the things in this world that won't be on the new earth?
[00:03:05] I have a list of 30.
[00:03:07] There are thousands. This is the tip of the iceberg. Are you ready?
[00:03:13] Sin, death, suffering, disease, natural disasters, war, poverty and famine. Now, I think about 31. Those are two separate things poverty and famine, injustice, fear, tears of sadness, evil, temptation, hatred, loneliness, shame, aging, doubt, relational conflict, envy, addiction, discrimination, betrayal, greed, insecurity, despair, lust, disappointment, division, pollution and fatigue. And could you not, on your own, probably come up with a few thousand things on this earth that when Jesus comes back and renews the earth and takes sin out of it, will no longer be here? Now, why are these things here? Two reasons. Number one, either because of our choice to sin, some of these things exist in the world because we chose them or other humans chose them. That's real. The second reason that sin is here, that these things are here, is because of the corruption of all the physical matter in this universe that came as a result of Adam and Eve's sin. Sin has pervaded every part of creation. And you, your mind, your heart, your body, your desires, your wants, your thoughts, all of it. As Christians, we come to the table acknowledging that every part of us has been infected with sin. And not only do we need forgiveness, but we need renewal in every single part of our life. One of the gifts of Old Testament law and Leviticus is very simply is. It tells us, teaches us with a little bit of study, which parts of our world are not right, which parts of our world are not the way it was intended to be. And so you find these things by looking at the laws that are made. And more times than not, the laws that are made are regulating an unfortunate reality of this world from sin. Either the things that we do or just some of the natural repercussions of sin in this world. But what they also do is they teach you the parts of this world that are good, the things that are going to be here now and then when Jesus comes back, they're going to be part of our new creation. Things like love, kindness, generosity, fun, justice, peace. The list goes again, on and on. When we get to the new earth, the new heavens and the new earth where sin is removed, leviticus also teaches us some of those things that are forever things because they're part of the character of God. And wherever God is, those things are there. All right, so Leviticus 21, it has two sets of priestly laws.
[00:05:48] One set of laws is for your average, everyday Old Testament, Old Covenant priest. And these are going to be relatives of Aaron, and there were going to be a bunch of priests. The second set of laws, it's not going to be just for the priest's, plural. It's going to be for the one person who occupies the position of high priest. And so what we're going to find here is that there are some really, really specific questions that are being addressed in Leviticus 21. Here's the big question. How can a priest approach God and be confident that they're not going to die? You remember on the first day of Atonement, you had Nadab and Abihu. They approached God, and what happened? They got incinerated with fire. And so this is like a question that kind of lingers over the Book of Leviticus. If I'm a priest, I don't want to die when I approach God's presence. So how can I do this and know that I'm going to live? And the answer it's honestly, fairly simple and very complicated. Here's the simple answer.
[00:06:49] When you're coming into God's presence, into the tabernacle, we're talking Old Covenant here, not now. Old Covenant before the death and resurrection of Jesus. If you're a priest and you are coming near the presence of God in the tabernacle, don't participate in sin and unclean things and then take that junk that you've been in the orbit of into the tabernacle. If you want to live, don't sin and then run into the presence of God. Can we all agree that that's fairly logical if you understand how the Old Covenant law works? All right, the priestly laws are going to provide three kind of gifts to the priests, and then we will apply these to New Testament Christians. Number one, they're going to bring clarity just to kind of real life questions that are going to come up in a priest's life. Okay, God, I'm going to the tabernacle. This is going to happen. What do you want me to do in these circumstances? They're very practical.
[00:07:39] Number two, what we're going to see is that these laws are also preparing the people of Israel for Jesus.
[00:07:48] They probably don't have a clear understanding of the nature of a forever high priest yet, but they are going to one day. And when Jesus comes, all of these laws, all of the restrictions and prohibitions and guidelines are there to kind of prepare them for Jesus.
[00:08:03] Number three, they're also going to teach Israel what human experiences are not good. These are not going to be a part of the created order forever. There are things that are in this world not as a result of God, but as a result of sin. So this list of sin and unclean things, it falls into five general categories. Five, prohibitions. Five things that the priest is not allowed to do. If you're going to be a priest, there's just some things that other people can do, you cannot do.
[00:08:33] And again, why restrict these five things? I'm going to give you the big principle here, because anybody who comes into the presence of God cannot come into the presence of God polluted by things that are the result of sin. And so there is an incredibly high standard of ritual purity for these priests. And so you're going to see some of these things. You're going to be like, that feels a little bit strange. But you need to understand that in the way the clean, unclean Old Testament system works, I can be defiled simply by being in proximity to something that is sinful. And so for the priests, they need to know, what are the things I cannot be in proximity to? What are the things that I am not allowed to do because I don't want to be like Nadeb in a bahu. Enter the presence of God and be incinerated. Let me just take a moment and say, praise God for the New Covenant, because you get to go into the presence of God anytime, anywhere. You run to the throne room with confidence that you will be received with both grace and mercy to meet you in your time of help, no matter what. If you have trusted in Christ, you have now full access. This is now before the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is the Old covenant, the old way of doing things for the priests. Okay, five restrictions, then we're going to look at how these apply to us and the way I frame this. And this kind of helps me. Five human experiences that when Jesus comes back, we are never going to have to deal with again. All right, number one, death and all of its ugliness.
[00:10:05] Verse one says, and the Lord said to Moses, speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, no one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people. If you're going to come into proximity of the tabernacle, the presence of God, if there's one thing God hates more than anything in the world, it is death. There is no physical experience that encapsulates the ugliness and the reality of sin in this world. The wages of sin. Village church is what? Death. And it is hunting all of us down. God hates death. Christians hate death. Humanity hates death. God can redeem death for sure, but we don't rejoice at death. We weep over death. It is disgusting. It is not the way God designed or created the world to be. We don't grieve as the rest of the world. We grieve with hope, but we dog on it. We still grieve in the face of death. Now, the priests, here's what they're not allowed to do. They are not allowed to go near a dead body and then go into the tabernacle and worship because that makes them unclean. Again, I want you to remember this for the priests. God doesn't want his priests being in proximity to the things that have been caused by sin. Those make them unclean.
[00:11:28] So God's prepping them, okay, you can't be near dead bodies. And then here's the question in a priest's brain, what if one of my immediate family members dies?
[00:11:37] Can I not go leave and take care of the body? Because that would have been the husband's responsibility and as well the priest. So because God's not a monster, in verse two he says except here's the stipulation for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, or his virgin sister who is near to him because she had no husband for her. He may make himself unclean. He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. Now this word, it's going to become important. So I want you to do is I want you to kind of monitor in your brain all the times that profane comes up. And then at the end of this we're going to address this word.
[00:12:21] So if a priest family member dies, you are allowed to leave your duty and go take care of the body because we've got a lot of backups. As a priest, you're not on duty. Twenty four seven. And so if a priest needs to leave, another priest can come in and take care of those priestly duties. Very, very practical. But here's kind of the principle. Death makes someone unclean and the priest can't be in proximity to this and then walk into the presence of God.
[00:12:51] The second human experience that's going to end when Jesus comes back is the deception of false religions. I want you to watch this. It says verse five, they shall not make the priest bald patches on their heads. This, we've already learned is natural. That's fine, you can't make bald patches on your head, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. And again, you've heard me say this, but if you pluck verses like this out, you'll hear people say something like, look, the Bible just has random, arbitrary laws. Not so this is the behavior or the identifiers or the marks of demon cult priests. And so God's like, listen, you're going to go into the promised land and you're going to know with clarity what the laws of worshiping Yahweh are. There's a way that we worship and this is what we do. It's written down for you. You're going to be profoundly tempted to take demon cult religions, merge the two of them into one new syncretistic super religion that gets you everything you want from Yahweh, but then allows you to indulge all the fleshly things of this demon religion. And here's what he's ever, ever take any aspect of what they do and integrate it into the worship of Yahweh. We are not demon people. We're not cult people. We're not false religion people. Syncretism, taking two separate things and merging something new out of them is not appropriate or permissible those things. Priest make you unclean because you're literally participating with demons. Verse six goes on. They shall be holy to their God, set apart, and not what's the word? Profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lord's food offerings, the bread of their God, therefore they shall be holy. And so the priest is to not be integrated or syncretized with these people. They are to be separated. And one of the things that God knows, but it seems the nation of Israel couldn't quite get their head around, is that every single one of these demon cult religions were designed by the demonic realm themselves.
[00:15:17] Now, just because the people received them, it doesn't mean the priests knew it was a hoax, but the demons all knew it was a hoax.
[00:15:25] And the reason you find these demon religions all over the world, all throughout history, is not just simply because eternity has been put into the heart of man. It's because the demonic realm everywhere humans are, are absolutely committed to doing everything they can to keep every single person away from the truth of who God actually is. Now, if you think about this, we're going to say 99%. Just to be safe. 99% of false religions were created and conjured up in the mind of the demonic realm.
[00:15:58] And then they were given to some person who was probably tricked. Like, here's the deal. Muhammad probably believed to a degree about what he was writing, but the entire Quran was a demonically coordinated book given to him in trickton the Book of Mormon. Same thing. Joseph Smith probably believed he was integrating with some angel called Morani. That should have been the first clue that something isn't right.
[00:16:19] But the angel understood exactly what they were doing. They were creating and conjuring up a false religion that would do everything it could to keep them as far away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ as humanly possible. This is the design and the scheme. And so God's like, we don't just not do the kinds of things we do, even our priests, we don't even look like them. We don't even want to create this idea that it is okay to be in proximity to these demon false religions.
[00:16:49] Another human experience that ends when Jesus comes back. The lure and the corruption of sexual immorality.
[00:16:56] Verse seven. The priest shall not marry a prostitute. Does that feel obvious to you, right? If I wanted to marry a prostitute, you'd be like, but you're a pastor. And so God's like, listen, there are some positions and you're not allowed to do some things. And so here's the deal.
[00:17:15] You're not allowed to, first of all, marry a prostitute. But number two, a lot of these were part of the demon cult religions. It's dabbling with all of that over there. You're not allowed to do any of that stuff. But bigger than that, when you approach me, yahweh, when you approach God, when you approach him, he's like, I don't want the corruption of this on you because if you bring this corruption into my tabernacle, god will be obligated to destroy them. And he's like, I don't want to do that. So here's the deal. Don't do that and don't marry a woman who has been defiled. Okay? So there's again two sides to this coin. The first one is don't marry cult priestesses. Don't do that. That is off limits. And if you find a prostitute that you really like, don't marry her either. So in America, if you want to be the President of the United States, we have a pretty significant restriction. It's not just age, but you have to be born in what country to be the President of the United States.
[00:18:18] United States. Absolutely. And one of the agendas is to kind of reduce the possibility that a foreign spy would come in and kind of, from the top down corrupt the entire system and nation. That was one of the stopgaps that the original founders put in place to kind of stop this from happening. Genius idea, right? And so here you go. And God's like, listen, the priest's responsibility is of such weight that we cannot take the risk that you will fall into pagan, false demon cult religions and therefore corrupt the entire people of God. There is going to be a standard. Now here's the deal. Let me be very clear. This may be a weird conversation for you, but let's say you have, I don't know, a prostitute and her name's Rehab, and Rehab converts to Judaism and Rehab worships the one true God. Can she marry a Jewish man? Of course. Absolutely. From any of the eleven tribes or even the tribe of Levi if they're not of the order of Aaron and they're not a priest.
[00:19:23] And so this is not like you are now second class. It's not that you are now ostracized. It's not that you are set aside and not important. It's just that for this position, because of the weight of the position, the implications of the position, there's going to be a no risk policy here that you might fall into, or she might fall into her old behavior.
[00:19:43] Verse nine also addresses this theme.
[00:19:46] The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring profanes her father, and she shall be burned with fire. And so here's this idea. There were priests who were offering their own daughters over to these cult prostitution, false religious demon cult religions. And so the Lord is like, listen, you can't do this kind of stuff and there's going to be a standard for your kids. Any kind of bringing these worlds together. It is just completely off limits. And there is a lure of sexual immorality for not just now but even people back then and God's just like, listen, we're not dabbling with any of this. And listen, there are severe, severe consequences if your daughter engages in these demon cult religions, all right? The next human experience that ends when Jesus comes back is the pain of divorce.
[00:20:44] Verse seven says, neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband. The priest is holy to God.
[00:20:53] You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I the Lord who sanctify you, am holy. All right, here's a question. It should not be a surprise to anybody who has read the Bible.
[00:21:11] Does God love or hate divorce?
[00:21:16] Hate. Okay, now, does God hate divorced people?
[00:21:20] No, that's ridiculous. That is not what is being said here. Divorce is inherently excruciating and painful, and everyone in its orbit is negatively impacted. We know this.
[00:21:33] Bigger than that, the covenant of marriage is the most visible, tangible, representation and human experience that helps people see, know, and understand the gospel. It is sacred to God. And under the Old Covenant, there are reasons that the old Covenant gave where God would affirm it is okay to be divorced, the chief of which was adultery. So if that happened, there would be, yes, a severing of the covenant, which God hated, and it hurts, but he permitted it, and it was acceptable under the New Covenant. It's interesting. There's really kind of one example in the book of First Corinthians where you have this person who became a Christian, but they married this person when they were both not Christians. And the non Christian is like, I don't really like who you're becoming. You're not the person I married. I'm out. And so these Christian men and women were like, listen, our spouse is like running for the hills. They don't like this whole Christianity thing. They don't like what God's doing in my free? Are we free from this covenant? We don't want this. But they're done, and they're gone. Have I done something wrong? And it seems the elders and the apostles of the Corinthian Church, what they came back and said is, no, for the sake of peace, you guys are okay. There are circumstances where it is necessary and it is inevitable, and it is real. And God even says, I get it. Okay, but does he hate it every time it happens? Absolutely. There are a lot of things in this world that are real, that are hard, that are excruciating, and when they happen, God says, I hate it. I have to. There are stipulations like, I get it. Sometimes it's a hardest of heart. Sometimes there's other things, but God hates it. And so we're never flipping about the covenant of marriage because it is sacred and so near and dear to the heart of God. So looks at the priest, says, listen, you can't marry a divorced woman. There's too much there that is not something I'm going to let you do if you're going to be a priest. And so this is one of the rules. Now, this is like a mind blowing thought. I have such a hard time apparently understanding the reality of the new redeemed Earth. I cannot imagine a world where there will not just be no divorce, but there will be no marriage.
[00:23:55] I don't know how to get my head around that whole thing where Jesus teaches like, yeah, that's going to be the new Earth. That's going to be the eternal state of things. So whatever it is, it's going to be better. But I have a hard time kind of wrapping my brain around that.
[00:24:09] We're going to go down to verse 16, because verses ten to 15, they talk about the high priest. We'll deal with that in just a minute.
[00:24:17] The struggle of disease and deformity.
[00:24:23] So the Old Testament priests, there's restrictions about who we can marry, about not dabbling in false religions. All of these are part of the fallen order.
[00:24:31] But this is interesting because there are restrictions that if these things are occurring in or on your body, your physical person, you can't go into the tabernacle. You're not allowed to go in. And here they are. Lord spoke to Moses saying verse 16, speak to Aaron saying, none of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God like you have eczema. Psoriasis.
[00:25:01] It's interesting here is there's a parallel that not only does God expect and require by law for the sacrifice, the lamb or the ram or the goat to be flawless and blameless, but there is the expectation that not just the sacrifice, but the sacrifice are to be blameless on a physical level? Verse 18 goes on and says, for no one who has a blemish shall draw near. And you'll see the blemish is going to be the dominant thing because it's the most common, but he kind of goes on a man blind or lame or who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand. None of these experiences were to be a part of the original created order. These are all the result of sin. And so God's like, listen, we're not going to bring any of these into the tabernacle. Verse 20 goes on and says, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sight, or an itching disease or scabs, or for fun, crushed testicles, most of your translations probably are going to say eunuch.
[00:26:13] So whether the deformity is from birth or it is after birth, these things, these disorders, these diseases, these deformities are the result of a sinful world, and on the new earth we will be set free from these things.
[00:26:31] I don't exactly understand the nuances of how the physical body will look. Will there be scars, all this kind of stuff. We'll figure it out when we get there. And somebody might say, well, that's not fair.
[00:26:43] I only have one leg or I have a mutilated face, somebody beat me up. I didn't choose this.
[00:26:51] I think God, if he could step back and say something, he would say, listen, this isn't about equity. It's not even about equality.
[00:26:59] This whole thing, this priest thing, it was never about you in the first place.
[00:27:05] You've never been the point.
[00:27:07] Because the priest and the high priest, they're not about the person. They are a shadow, they're a metaphor. They're a big arrow that points to something way bigger and eternal. In fact, the reason we're laying down these standards, priest, is because you actually are preparing people for the Messiah, because the Messiah isn't just going to be the lamb, but he's also going to be the priest. And so the lamb and the priest, when they come, like, you're going to get this, they don't understand all the nuances now, but when they come, what I want you to see is that I'm actually preparing you. Because not only is the sacrifice Jesus going to be pure, spotless and blameless, but so is the priest. Jesus going to be pure, spotless and blameless. It's actually not about these things. It's about preparing the people for a Savior who is not under the impact or the corruption of sin. And so these are all preparatory. They're not about the thing. It's not about being fair. Fair was never the point. The point was this office exists to prepare the nation of Israel for their coming. High priest. Verse verse 21. It doubles down honestly, on the blemish stuff. No man of the offspring of Aaron, the priest who has a blemish, shall come near to offer the Lord's offerings. Since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. What's interesting is, could they still be a priest? The answer was yes. But there's one job, there's one location going into the tabernacle that they were restricted from if they had these things. It's not like he's saying, oh, you're not perfect, you can't be a priest at all. But if you're going to enter into the proximity of things, you got to have some things in order. Verse 22 he may eat the bread of His God, so you can participate in the gifts of the priest, both of the most holy place and the holy things, but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar because he has a blemish that he may not there's the word again. Profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.
[00:29:07] Verses ten to 15. Now we're going to deal with the high priest, and all the restrictions for the priests apply to the high priest. And then there's kind of two more. The first is pretty simple.
[00:29:17] If the high priest. Has an immediate family member who dies, he is not permitted to leave his job and go take care of his family member. He's not permitted, why? Because there isn't a backup and because the high priest really his main job on the day, I mean, he's got a lot of jobs, but like most significant job is on the Day of Atonement, one time per year, he goes in and makes offerings for the sins of the entire nation. And if the high priest does not do his job fully on the Day of Atonement, the entire nation of Israel is still in their sin and guilty before God. And this is unacceptable. The stakes are too high for the high priest because he is sad because somebody in his life died to leave, even if it's his wife or child.
[00:30:07] The implications are catastrophic for the nation of Israel. And so if this ever comes up and there is a high priest who is in the tabernacle on the Day of Atonement, it does not matter what happens to you, you finish the job no matter what, because the implications are devastating for the nation of Israel.
[00:30:25] There's another limitation, which is on who they could marry. All the original restrictions applied, but then the high priest was not allowed to marry a widow, even anybody who had been married. Otherwise they can only be married to somebody where this was their first and only spouse.
[00:30:44] Okay, I know there's a burning question and you have all just been probably for years wondering, okay, Michael, how does Leviticus 21 and these priestly laws at all apply to me as a New Covenant, new Testament Christian? Because after all, aren't all of these laws retired, like with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Isn't the old covenant and all of its regulations put aside? Absolutely. Okay, so so what number one?
[00:31:16] When you trusted in Jesus, you became a priest and Jesus your high priest?
[00:31:26] Before Moses, there were priests in the world, but this levitical office of priests did not exist. And with the death and resurrection of Jesus, this priestly Old Testament office was retired once and for all. Better yet, maybe even fulfilled in Jesus. But no longer is there going to be a bunch of Old Testament priests who have to abide by these laws. It's done in the New Covenant, though, there's a huge, huge change.
[00:31:52] Every single person who personally trusts in Christ is now a priest.
[00:32:00] Everyone. Are you a kid? And you've trusted in Christ. You are a priest.
[00:32:07] Are you disabled in any way? And you have trusted in Christ. You are a priest. Are you a teenager? And you have trusted in Jesus Christ.
[00:32:16] You are a priest. You have full access to God unhindered through Jesus Christ. Your high priest Hebrews says that we run, we can go into the throne of grace, the holy of holies, with confidence, knowing that we're not going to meet retribution and vengeance. But we're going to find mercy and grace because our sins are forgiven because of Jesus. And we can approach because we are priests. That's an incredible gift. But here's the deal.
[00:32:49] You are not just priests who have access.
[00:32:53] Every single person who is trusted in Christ is a priest with a ministry. I want you to see this first, Peter two nine, you are a chosen race. Now, talking to Christians. You are a royal priesthood. You are God's priest. And then one, Peter two nine, it goes on and says this a holy nation set apart. You're not like the world. You're different. You are a people for his own possession. Okay? Why? And here it is that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
[00:33:32] All your ministries, by the way, Christians, they're going to look different in different seasons, different times. Every single Christian, everywhere you go, you have a specific ministry job. And here it is. It is to make Jesus look good. It is to talk about Him and to show how excellent and good and great he is. Can a four year old do this? Everybody, the answer is yes. Can a blind person do this? Yes. Can a disabled person do this? Yes. Can an old person do this? Yes. Can a teenager do this? Yes. Can men and women all do this? The answer is yes. Every person who trusted in Christ, you have not just full access, but you have a lifelong responsibility that those who are in the orbit of your life. It is your spiritual ministry to make Jesus look good and excellent. That is our job. Proximity to me should somehow, after long enough, should help you see how good and wonderful Jesus actually is. But not only this. Not only is there access to God, not only is there ministry, but there is actually a fundamental calling on your life to look different than the rest of the world. Which brings us to so what? Number two, priests do not profane God's name by making yourself common with sin.
[00:34:50] The word profane comes up multiple times in Leviticus 21. And here's what profane means. It means to bring corruption through sin, that somehow when we are sinning or are in proximity to some kinds of sin, they actually profane us or corrupt us. And so here's how Leviticus 21 describes it. Our sin in verse four, profanes ourselves, corrupts ourselves, that when we choose sin, that there is an internal, intellectual, spiritual corruption that actually happens as we willingly participate in sin. But not just that. Our sin profanes God's reputation. From verse six, he says that it profanes the name of their God, that somehow when we choose willfully to sin, that it makes God not look excellent, but bad. Here's another one. Our sin profanes others. We find the daughter of the priest profaning herself, and not just herself, but also her father. We find in verse 15 that the sin, the willful sin of a priest profanes his offspring, corrupts them in a way that is unhealthy. So that when you and I willingly sin, it's not just against us, it's not just against God's reputation, but the collateral is to your family, to your children. And so we understand that, like, listen, the stakes are just way too big here. But it's not just that our sin profanes God's church. Twice. In verse twelve and verse 23, he says that when you do these things, you profane my sanctuary. So that not only does our willful sin profane ourselves, not only does it profane God's reputation, not only does it profane our family and those in proximity, but when the people of God live in willful sin, it actually has a power to profane or to corrupt an actual church. One Peter two nine through eleven, you are a chosen race, a royal priest and a holy nation. Verse eleven says, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.
[00:37:02] God bless you.
[00:37:05] Somehow in the New Covenant modern church, there has been this weird notion that the pastor has a ministry but the people don't.
[00:37:20] Or if you come from a more liturgical or Catholic background, that the pastor has unique access to God separate from you, or that the pastor has a different standard of holiness that God expects. And you can live more sinfully because you're not a pastor.
[00:37:42] Is sin not sin no matter who does it. Is there a different standard? Like if I do this, it's sin, but you can do this?
[00:37:51] No, there's this weird notion where we kind of separate ourselves from the priest, if you will. Now, evangelicals, we don't call ourselves priests, we call ourselves pastors. Right? But here's the deal.
[00:38:06] I'm a priest and you're a priest, and I have a ministry, and you have a ministry, and I have access to God. You have the same access to God, and I have a standard of righteousness, and it's not different than yours. Isn't that interesting? We're all called to be holy priests who pray and talk to God, who have a ministry to make God look good wherever we are.
[00:38:35] This is everyone's job.
[00:38:38] The local church should be filled with gobs of men who are qualified elders and village church is doesn't mean every man is an elder, it just means they should be. It should be filled with gobs of women of character and integrity, who are strong, who know how to handle the word of God and know how to pray, because that should be every. There's not like a different standard for a pastor's wife or a priest's wife than there is for women in general. We all want to be holy. We all want to be holy as God is holy. We don't pray more because we're pastors. We don't pray more.
[00:39:14] This is the point. You are a priest with full access to God, a ministry to make God look great and a calling to stay away from sin and to be holy as he is holy.
[00:39:30] You are priests. Don't sell yourself short.
[00:39:34] Don't lessen the standards. And you know what? I have great news. Raise your hand if you have ever oh, praise God.
[00:39:43] The blood of Christ covers all of our frailties, all of our failures.
[00:39:49] I just love the new covenant. You, if you've trusted in Christ, are forgiven, you will absolutely sin. I wish I could tell you it wouldn't happen, but you will. And when you sin, has your access been denied?
[00:40:04] Nope.
[00:40:06] Has your ministry to make much of Jesus gone away?
[00:40:10] Nice try. You can't use me. You don't know how bad I am. Okay, is your calling to be holy now gone because you messed up in a big or small way? No. And this is what I love about Jesus, is that you don't get to disqualify yourself from having access to God. It wasn't given to you by being good and it's not taken away by being bad.
[00:40:34] In your worst moment, if you have trusted in Christ, you run to God, and he is waiting to give you grace. And and even though your ministry might shift from season to season, every season you're in, you still have the ministry to make much of Jesus. No matter where you're at and what you're doing, and no matter what you have done, god is still calling all of us to be like Christ, to be holy, to get rid of sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so here we are, phil's Church, a whole bunch of priests. Not Catholic priests, not Anglican priests, priests in the biblical sense of the word, with full access to God, a ministry, and a calling to holiness. Let's pray together. Father, we love you, so thankful for you. Would you help us?
[00:41:23] Would you help us not just be grateful, but God? Would you help us be more like Christ?
[00:41:29] Would you remind us of our access to you? Would you remind us of the ministry? Would you show us ways that we can make much of Jesus and God?
[00:41:38] I pray, God, that no matter what struggles and sins that we all, 100% of us face in this room, God, that there would not be this temptation to kind of just give up and not be holy. Lord, thank you for second chances and redemption that comes through your Holy Spirit. Lord, we love you and we pray and we praise you in the name of Jesus Christ, our pure spotless priest and lamb. We love you. We pray and do all this in Jesus name. Amenville. Church amen.
