Let's open with a word of prayer, so if you would. Lord, we thank you for tonight. Thank you for the food you gave us. Pray that after we have consumed it, you would bless it to us. You do it even before we do so. You have our meals planned for us. You know that every meal we have is from you and that sometimes we have more than we need. We end up throwing it away. I pray, Lord, that we would recognize how blessed we are. And we would search for ways to take what you've given to us and spread it around. No less, Lord, as we receive your word, even more so, I pray, Lord, that what we know and what we learn from your word, that we would take it in, not for knowledge, for the sake of knowledge, but that it not only change us, but that we give it to others. We pray that you'd be with us tonight in Leviticus 18 and speak to us, challenge us in ways that only you can do. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Incidentally, we have quite a bit of food left. If you know of anybody, Vicki, am I right? Still okay to say this? Okay. There's still enough food where you can take portions home if you need to, or if you know somebody who needs some, you can take that to them. Chicken, rice, broccoli casserole, that was fantastic. Is there any chicken breast left? Okay. But there's plenty of food, and if you know of anyone in need, we want to give that. Otherwise, it goes in the refrigerator, and I eat it until it goes bad when I get hungry. And Vicki is the only one. So if you don't know the Vicki back there, McCullum, not Carstens, unfortunately not. She's the only one that we allow to eat in here because she served. Leslie would allow you to as well. Okay, all right. Okay, I warned you last week about Leviticus 18. It's about nakedness. So hold on, I have to say that again while I hit the recorder. Leviticus 18, I warned you last week that Leviticus 18 is about nakedness, so read with me. It's in here, can't gloss over it. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the sons of Israel. We know that God is speaking through Moses, to Moses, to his people. Who is it written to? Verse 2, to the sons of Israel. That is the nation of Israel. And say to them, I am the Lord your God. That word Lord is in the Hebrew text Yahweh, often translated Jehovah. That is my name. I am your God. I'm the one speaking to you. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt. Now they are on the They've left Egypt, they're moving into the promised land. Before they get there, God has these laws that's going to separate them from the people in that land. The people in that land are living as pagans live. They're living in a way that God does not want His people to live. They're going to remove those people, put His people in the land, and govern them by a holy and pure law. So that's where he's going with this. Verse three again. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt, hence where you came from, where you lived, nor you are to do what is done in the land of Canaan. That's where you're going. You shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform my judgments and keep my statutes to live in accord with them. I am the Lord your God. You see, he'll say that throughout Leviticus, over and over. I am the Lord your God. Remember, I, he's saying, am your God. Your God is no one except Me, and because I'm holy, you're going to be holy. If you belong to God, you will act in accordance with who God is. That's why He's taken them out of Egypt. Verse 5, essentially the same thing. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them. I am the Lord." Now, we all know that Israel did not keep those laws, and we know that it's impossible to keep all the laws of God, isn't it? Absolutely impossible. What are we going to do at the end of our lives? Stand before God and say, Lord, we did the best we could? Yes, we are. That's what we're going to do. Lord, I couldn't attain to it. I'm too wretched as a human being. I did everything I could. I love you. When I made mistakes, I hated it. I hated myself. I did everything I could to serve you. That is what we should say. We should strive to say, Lord, I did the best I could. I am a wretch, and by your grace I'm saved, and I did everything I could to be holy. And from verses 6 through 23, he speaks of sexual purity. Here we go. None of you shall approach any blood relative of his to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. Now, just so you know, I know there's various translations out there, and that is translated in different ways, but the words approach and uncover nakedness is a euphemism, which is a nice way of saying something for sexual intercourse. In other words, you will not have sex with a blood relative. That's what he's saying in verse 6. That covers the whole general gamut. Now he's going to be specific. You shall not uncover the nakedness, therefore, meaning you shall not have sex with your father. But he's not talking about that literally. He means to have sex with your father is literally to have sex with your mother. That's what he says here. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father. That is the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother. You are not to uncover her nakedness. Now we would look at that and say, okay, do I really need that instruction? But God is giving laws that fit with what was going on in Egypt and what was happening in Canaan. This is what these two bookend nations do. The nation from whence I brought you and the nation to which you are going. This is what they do. You won't do this. They have sex with their parents. Verse 8, you shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife. In this case, obviously that would mean dad has remarried, your stepmother. If you do so, then you are uncovering your father's nakedness. There's a passage here I want you to go back to, a couple of pages in Genesis 9. The first mention of this uncovered nakedness is in the days of Noah, where Noah became drunk, drank too much, and Genesis chapter 9 verse 20. Righteous man though he was, he had too much to drink one day. 920, then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. Now that just, if we take that literal, he took his clothes off, he's in his tent, he's in the privacy of his own tent, he has no clothes on, if we take it literal. And Ham, verse 22, that's his third son, Shem, Ham, Japheth, the father of Canaan, in other words, he had a son named Canaan. saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside." Now, when you say that, see, literally, what do you think happened? He saw Dad naked. Now, as horrifying as that can be, that's really not something that you and I would say, we would laugh about that. Dad, put some clothes on. In this instance, it looks not funny, but a terrible sin. Verse 23, but Shem and Japheth, his other brothers, took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. It looks like Shem and Japheth, with a little bit more sense, took a cover and without literally looking at dad's nakedness, walked backward to the place where they thought he was and covered him up so they don't have to look at him naked and drunk in his tent, if we take it literally. It says, and their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. What had he done? So he said, cursed be Canaan. Remember, Canaan is the son of Ham. He previously blessed Ham. That's probably why he's not cursing Ham. So he's going to curse the son of Ham, this son named Canaan, a servant of servants he shall be to his brothers. And then he blesses Shem and Japheth, from whence the white race and the, at least from the Japhethites, typically, who spread out around the world, and then the Shemites, which we call Semites, Arabian peoples, looks like they're from Shem. At any rate, the point being is, what happened? And why is it so bad? Did he just see his dad naked? I mean, maybe he just peeked in. Dad, you okay? Saw dad laying there with no clothes on. Maybe some have said that he sat there, Noah being the righteous man that he was, and Ham already being a profligate of sorts, looked at dad and said, look at yourself. Mr. Righteous Man, the man with whom God has great favor, lying there drunk and naked. Maybe he did that. Maybe, as some have said, because the Canaanites were known to have sexual relations with their mothers, and because of the passage here where it says, you shall not uncover your dad's nakedness, that is, have sex with mom. When Noah is saying what his youngest son had done to him, is it possible that Ham had sex with Noah's wife? Is that possible? It's possible. But possible. It's the first time it comes open or comes, first time it's written in the Bible here in Genesis chapter 9. Now, I don't have the answer. I don't know exactly what it is, but if it's talking about what He's done to him, I have traditionally just kept it literal, is that Ham looked at Dad, and looking at a person with nakedness is not a respectful thing to do. Maybe he said things about Dad he shouldn't have said, but maybe he actually did something so horrible because it's the curse that goes on his son Canaan. And ironically, quote-unquote, it's the Canaanites that they're going into the land, this group of people that became so profligate doing what they're doing, that Moses has to give a law saying, do not touch your mother. In doing so, you will uncover your dad's nakedness. Are you good and confused as to which it is? It's a reference that can bring some light and just makes more confused as well, can't it, Jim? Canaanites. That's who they're going. Are they a race of people? I do not think they're a race of people. I don't think the Canaanites are a race with DNA that separates them from the rest. I think that they're a designation of people like we would call thugs. They're a bunch of thugs. They might have had their origination from a guy from this really profligate man named Canaan, and who moved to this particular portion of land, and other people came to this land, and they all became like Canaan, and they were designated as Canaanites in their morality, not in their DNA. That's really what I think. But it came from this initial cursing of Ham's son, Canaan, to the point where Israel had to be told not to do this. I mean, I wouldn't need to be told to do that. Canaan actually becomes a representative of Amorites, Jebusites, Girgashites, a lot of other ites, yes. Yeah, it is. I would say it's kind of like Europeans. I mean, Europeans are made up of people from Spain and France and Germany and Britain. And so, yeah, it's a people group, not selected based on their DNA or their skin color, per se. Yes, by and large. They were evil. Their practices were evil and they were in this fertile land that God had set aside for His people, yes. Wow, that's dangerous to say here. Verse 8, verse 9, I should say, the nakedness of your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether born at home or born outside, the nakedness you shall not uncover. So a sister in any form, whether it be your blood sister or your sister who is a stepsister, verse 10, the nakedness of your son's daughter, that's your daughter-in-law, or your daughter's daughter, their nakedness, that would be your granddaughter, nakedness you shall not uncover for their nakedness is yours. Verse 11, nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, born to you, your father, she is your sister. You shall not uncover her nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister. That, who's your father's sister? It's your aunt, right? She is your father's blood relative. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister. There's another aunt. She is your mother's blood. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother. It's your uncle. In other words, you shall not approach his wife. That's what he says. You shall not approach his wife. She is your aunt. He seems like he's saying, I know you would never touch another man, but when you touch his wife, you're touching the man himself, uncovering his nakedness. Fifteen, you shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife. You shall not uncover her nakedness. Sixteen, you shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife. That would be your sister-in-law. She is your brother's nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, nor shall you take her son's daughter or daughter's daughter to uncover the nakedness. They are blood relatives. It's lewdness. And you shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive to uncover her nakedness. We are, by and large, I would say we are astute people. Our morality may not be perfect, but we are way above this, by and large. Certainly the people in this room tonight. And we're looking at this kind of uncomfortable about it. I mean, I am. I don't like saying, I hate the word naked anyway. I got to say it over and over with nests behind it. And if you know me, you know I've got a whole list of words that give me the willies. This is one of them. I have to keep saying it over and over. But this is a group of people who've come out of a pagan society where this was normal. Children may have grown up in Egypt and seen these things. They might have been the product of such unions. Maybe they had, maybe the kids in there had friends, Egyptian friends that they knew that were the products of these unions. So hearing this, they would have been going, really? We can't do that? That was wrong? You and I are going, why do we even need to be told this? These are people that have lived it and lived in a culture where it was apparently quite natural. Yeah, Fred. Normally when we're looking at going through Leviticus, we're seeing things that are an offense to God always and forever. You're ahead of me. You're ahead of me. I will address that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, where Fred is going is this happens a lot in the Bible with good people. Don't worry. You're thinking. I like that. You're not asleep yet. Hang with me. Verse 18, you shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive. To uncover her nakedness, which right there, who are you thinking of in the Bible? Jacob, who had Rachel and Leah concurrently. Verse 19, this goes outside the blood relatives and the sexual union. Takes another approach, also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness during her menstrual purity. We saw that back in chapter 15 because the blood makes the man unclean. Does he have to die? No, he's unclean for seven days. And you shall not have intercourse with your neighbor's wife to be defiled with her. That's just plain and simple adultery. Neither shall you give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech. nor shall you profane the name of your God. I am the Lord." Don't profane my name. He's saying, and by the way, my name is Yahweh. Don't dare use my name in a punchline. Don't dare sing a song about me unless you actually mean that. But why would it be In the midst of all these sexual do-nots, why is there something about offering or profaning the name of God by worshiping Molech? You've heard of Molech in the Old Testament. There are some in the Old Testament, even King Manasseh, the son of good King Hezekiah, offered his children to Molech. Molech was a God, a concocted God. All of these gods, they don't exist. People make them up. And Molech was a God of the pagan peoples, where if you wanted to appease this God, you gave your children to a fire. You burned your children in a fire. That's how you offered it to them. Apparently, being in the midst of this, what is known about Molech is that the way you had children is you came to these, and I'm sorry, folks, I know this is not John 3, 16. You would come to this temple, and there would be temple prostitutes, male and female prostitutes, and you would come together in a union, and you would have children for the purpose, apparently, of offering that child in the fire. So it was very sexual in the sense that you would have children to offer them in the fire so that you could appease Molech. That's what he's saying. Don't go giving your offspring, after having had sex at their temples, to have these children to offer them in a fire. Nor shall you profane the name of your God." In other words, in doing so, you are profaning God's holy name. You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination. That's a new word to us in here. This is obviously homosexuality. All of these are written from the male standpoint. Lesbianism is not mentioned, but it seems to be implied. I would say it's implied. I've read other commentators. Jacob Milgram, now deceased, Jewish commentator from UC Berkeley, you've heard me talk about him before, said, no, since lesbianism isn't mentioned, then lesbianism is perfectly fine. And if you're a professor at UC Berkeley, That fits, doesn't it? You wanna keep your job, you gotta come up with things like that. He also says that the homosexuality here has only to do with Israelite men living in the land. He said that means most Israelite men, Jewish people today, can be homosexual all you want. He said this hits about 1% of the population all over the planet. He said the reason lesbians is not an abomination here is because there's no seed that's spilled, therefore it's okay. And really, it's all about spilling of the seed in a worthless way. Well, that's an interpretation, isn't it? You've got to be creative. If you're going to teach the Bible and you want to make it fit into a liberal context, you've got to manipulate everything about it. Of course, we can get the interpretation of the homosexuality just from other passages in the Bible, name of the New Testament as well, and we'll look at some of those tonight. Verse 23, also, you should not have intercourse with any animal, to be defiled with it. We call that bestiality. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is a perversion. Again, these were things that happened. Happened in Egypt, happened in Canaan. Remember why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Was it because they were homosexual? Not necessarily. When a society goes homosexual, moves that far in their perversion, it means they've moved that far in their perversion where it's normal. There were many other sins. Ezekiel speaks of their lack of hospitality as part of their sin. So when it gets there and that's normal, God destroys it for that reason. Well, God is going to destroy Canaan because He's telling His people, don't act like they are. I'm taking you in there and you're going to wipe them out. Verse 24, do not defile yourselves by any of these things, for by all these nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. There it is. They're practicing these. For the land, whenever you see the land in the Old Testament, it's the land of Israel. Ancient Canaan from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, all the way down south to the wadi of Egypt. You can see it on a map. It's about 400,000 square miles. of God's the apple of God's eye this land he has set it aside for his people he said for the land has become defiled therefore I have visited the punishment upon it so the land has spewed out its inhabitants but as for you you are to keep my statutes and my judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native nor the alien who sojourns among you. For the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled, so that the land may not spew you out." Same verbiage used for Jonah being spewed out by a whale, or by the big fish I should say. So that the land may not spew you out should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you." God is speaking in past tense of what's going to happen. You're going to spew that nation out. And if you do what they do, I'll get rid of you just the same." And that's exactly what God had to do hundreds of years later with Israel. He spewed them out, took them into exile in the Babylon, brought them back. Took them back out in AD 70 and rid of the land of them completely in AD 135. Didn't bring any of them back until, what, the UN resolution in 1948. And now they've slowly populated that region again. God has shown himself true to these words. Verse 29, for whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. Thus you are to keep my charge that you do not practice any of the abominable customs that have been practiced before you so as not to defile yourselves with them. And by the way, I am the Lord your God. Now, Leviticus. Leviticus is not the New Testament. Leviticus is not taught to you and me, the Gentiles. I have told you on occasion that so much that's in Leviticus and the Old Testament as a whole, as it pertains to the temple, has nothing to do with us. We don't go to the temple, do we? There is no temple. There are no priests. There's certainly no high priest. We don't even know who the priest would be. The tribes of Israel are lost. And if you're going to be a good Israelite, you have to go to the temple. There's no temple. You have to mediate with God based upon the high priest who's from the line of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi. None of that exists. Those are gone. Jesus made everything from the Old Testament that was unclean. He declared all foods clean. So the civil laws that were based, the ceremonial laws, I should say, that were based in Israel around the temple, gone. Jesus fulfilled those. All the food laws, dietary laws, Jesus declared everything clean. And as we talked last week about blood, whereas if you, Jesus said, that which goes into your body isn't what makes you unclean. It's what comes out of your body, out of your mouth, that makes you unclean. Hence, you can eat blood if you want. I wouldn't advise it, but we talked last week. So all we're left with is this moral law. Where does this fall to you? The moral law wrapped up in the commands of God that represent His character. Is this ceremonial law? Thou shalt not with these sexual practices. They don't fit anywhere in the temple. It's about being holy. Does it fit with the food laws? Is there any food talked about here? No, this fits. Are there any shadows? Remember we talked about shadows, the tabernacle as it's a shadow pointing to the Christ, the lambs and the goats brought for blood sacrifices as they point to the Lamb of God in Jesus Christ? We see a lot of that in the Old Testament pointing to Jesus. Do we see any of that in Leviticus 18? Are there any shadows here pointing to Jesus? Just typical morality, right Brian? Is the purity of the marriage relationship repeated later in Christ? Of course it is, right? Pointing forward to Him and repeated by Him. You think that's important? Absolutely, no doubt about it. So when there's something about the Old Testament that is repeated by Christ and the apostles, by the way, when the apostles speak, Christ speaks. It doesn't have to be in red to be Jesus, ever. You know, you get the people that say, well, Jesus never condemned homosexuality. Was Jesus speaking through Paul and Peter or is He not? Absolutely, it's inspired Word of God. Each person speaking for God in the New Testament is speaking for Jesus. It should all be in red. So what we're going is, we don't wanna be inconsistent here, where we say, well, we don't like some of the things that, Leviticus says things that aren't always for us, but some of it we like. We can't pick and choose. We have to interpret it properly. And what I'm telling you is, if we're interpreting it properly, we're looking at the things that point to Jesus and were fulfilled in Jesus, and the things that were not are left over, always fall into the category of moral law, and are repeated by Jesus our Lord. Does God's morality ever change? Does God's plan ever change? Now, I'm not trying to, that's not a trick question. Just use a little common sense. Does God's plan change? I mean, what used to be brought to the temple versus what's not a temple today, has his plan changed? Yes. No, he's not making things up as he goes, but everything works in a different dispensation of time moving towards his ultimate goal. That's all I mean by there's a change. Is he speaking through prophets today? Well, he's speaking through prophets in the sense that we're speaking from what the apostles said, but there is no Moses, and there is no high priest, and there is no temple, and there is no Ark of the Covenant. God's presence is not in one location in the temple. God's presence exists in all Christians today. We are the temple of God. All right, let's move. I'll show you a few things. The sin of the Amorite. If you remember when God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 15 and 16, He's predicting to Abraham, giving him the covenant between Himself and Abraham. And He said, know for certain that your people are going to be enslaved 400 years. Obviously He's predicting what's going to happen 400 years later under Moses. But He said, that's not going to happen yet. The sin of the Amorite is not yet full. The Amorite being another designation here for the Canaanite. In Abraham's day, the sin of the Amorite was just about here. By the time Moses got around 400 plus years later, the sin of the Amorite has reached its peak. It's a cup that's overflowing with sin. And now the Israelites are positioned and ready to go in and bring about God's discipline on this nation. The sin of the Amorite is now full. Israel was going into Canaan to rid the land of wickedness so that they could live in righteousness. God did not want his people corrupted by that which they went to destroy. Not then, not now. Does God have something to say about you and I living in this world as Christians and not being corrupted by this world? Isn't it sad that people that call themselves Christians today blend in quite easily with the rest of the world they live in? Is that as sad to you as it is to me? If we look in the mirror, is it as sad a sight in the mirror as it is to you as it is to me? In some of the ways in which we live and blend in with the world? God's people are not supposed to want to be corrupted with that which is an abomination. You've got churches today fighting for all of these sexual rights. And we're not going to pick on homosexuals today because homosexuality is not the only sin highlighted here, is it? There's lots of things. Sleeping with a woman and her menstruation cycle. Adultery itself. Let's just take adultery and homosexuality. Which one gets the most bad press today? Homosexuality. Yet adultery is also condemned. Why do Christians today go out and we want to minister to homosexuals? Why not go minister to adulterers, too? You've got a bigger audience there, right? Why is one condemned more than another? In the New Testament, homosexuality is listed right alongside thieves. No worse. A little bit more perverted in our minds, but it's no worse. God's people distinguish themselves, according to chapter 18, 2 to 5, from His corrupt world by loyalty to Him and His commandments. Only those saved by God, I would say, this is what God's telling His people, only those truly saved by God, truly desire to honor Him as God. That's a big statement. You got to think about that with regard to yourself. Who am I in Christ? I can know who I am in Christ by how I feel about living my life for Christ. If I just blow it off and say, oh, He's in love with me, He died on the cross, I'm good no matter what I do, versus I truly want to live my life in purity, that says a lot about who you are. Yahweh's people walk, that's the verbage in verse 2, they walk in His ways. Is it verse 2? Did I miss that? Speak to the sons of Israel, say to them, I'm the Lord your God, shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you live, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you, shall not walk in their statutes. Verse 3. Walk is just your daily life. God's law, which is his word, enabled Israel to live holy unto him. That's all these, God loves them with this law. Here's how you can know for sure that you're pleasing me. Live holy unto me. Life is given to those who honor God by keeping his laws, and their salvation is evident by their disobedience. Do you believe that? Is salvation in our lives evident by our obedience or disobedience? I've summarized a lot of this in these. God's people may struggle sexually, but they sexual perversions. What was I trying to say? I would say, he wasn't on that typing, was he? But they struggle with sexual perversions. I think that's where I'm going. The point being is this, is that you have people today, certainly in the homosexual community, that will say, this is how God made me. Don't try to transform me. This is how I am. I'll grant them that. Because I, in my own perversion, I'm an adulterer. I have the same sexual perversions in the other realm of adultery. Who's worse? What am I to do? Tell my wife, I'm sorry, dear. I find other women as attractive or more attractive than you. This is the way God made me. It's just as absurd to say that, isn't it? Especially to her. Or you stand before a judge, sorry judge, I just have this inclination to steal everything that I don't have. That's just the way I am. Why is it that the homosexual church has been taught that way, led that way? Well, that's the only way to justify it. Yes, some people have a propensity for sex with the same sex, but does that make it right? Rick Warren, I'm not a big Rick Warren fan, but I love what he said on TV, live TV a couple years ago, being interviewed. He said, I have a propensity to have sex with every woman that walks in front of me. That doesn't make it right. Yes, Rick, chalk one up. That is so brilliantly spoken. So you can't just say, well, that's just the way I am. Tommy, do you have your hand up? You're stretching, okay. God's people may struggle sexually, but it doesn't mean they can give in to their sexual perversions. Nakedness, it's interesting. Before the fall, what were Adam and Eve? Naked and unashamed. Why? They didn't know. There was no sin. There was no exploitation. Wow, you're getting kind of round around the belly, honey. You don't say that. To naked people, unless you want that remembered the rest of your life, it's exploitation. It's making fun. There's no sin. Naked before the fall, that's why they were unashamed. And something happened along the way, and God asks them, who told you you were naked? Because they covered themselves. Who told you you were naked? How did you know you were naked? How did you even know there was such a thing as being clothed? Well, that was after they fell to uncover the nakedness, as we looked at a minute ago. From the male perspective, as we looked at earlier, what is forbidden? Sex with mother, stepdaughter, sister of any kind, granddaughter, aunts and uncles, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, stepdaughter or step-granddaughter, marriage to a woman and her sister at the same time, woman during her menstruation, cycle, neighbor's wife, homosexual sex, and bestiality. Now deceased, at UC Berkeley, said, all these things we can't do, but let's take a look at all the things that aren't mentioned. Hey, that preaches, folks. It preaches to people that want to hear it. And he comes up with all kinds of others. And this is a very dignified man. Now to Fred's question, Adam and Eve, they're the only people on the planet. They weren't representative of people. They were the only people. So if they have children, how are you going to populate the planet? Brother and sister are going to have to sleep together. You say, ooh. Yeah, I would, too. I'd say, ooh, too. But it wasn't immoral. There's no law to mitigate against it. And the only reason that is illegal today, the only reason is it's dangerous to our genetic code. That's it. As gross as it sounds, there's nothing inherently wrong with it. It's not good for us and for our health. but it wasn't that corrupted at a certain point DNA it starts to line up and these things begin to be multiplied and you know we get over some of the problems mom and dad came together and had we can but when it's in the same family And when it remains that way, sickle cell anemia is a huge problem within the Amish communities who do this. There's other health problems I don't know about, can't even pronounce, having looked up some of them, just difficult problems. So early on, even though there's sin in the DNA, in the code of the DNA, it took a while before it became dangerous. So it didn't make it wrong. This is the only way to perpetuate our species, is that brother and sister sleep together early on. Close cousins. It's not wrong. It was never outlawed. Abram married his half-sister, Sarah. Nothing wrong with that. There was no law up to that point that said he couldn't. And he used it to his advantage, right? Who is she? Is she your beautiful wife? Knowing that if he said, she's my wife, that he would be killed so that they could have her, he just told the truth. She's my sister. We rip him for not telling the whole truth, but he was just a shrewd and smart guy, I think. What would you have done? I wasn't lying. She is my sister. Jacob married Leah and Rachel at the same time. This is in the same, or just the next generation I should say. Abram had a son named Isaac and Jacob's his grandson. No law against it at that point. Tamar, who is the daughter-in-law of Judah, the fourth-born son of Jacob. She seduced Judah to have sex with her. He thought she was a prostitute. Shows you his character, right? He thought she was a prostitute and sought her services. What she needed, because Judah's first two sons had died, Judah apparently thought she was cursed, she needed a seed, and he was going to keep her out of his family. So she seduced him, he has a kid, and what does Judah say about her righteousness? That it was greater than his, which wouldn't have been hard to be, right? No law against it? What's even more interesting is what were her children's names? Oh, come on. Perez and, what'd you say? Don't even put your foot in your mouth. Perez and who else? Joy, you're looking at me like, come on, bring it. What, Taylor? No, Taylor's not it. I'm gonna let you look it up. Not even gonna give you the answer now. But they have, and Perez becomes part of that line of who? of the Messiah Himself. By the way, there's a prostitute in there named Rahab, a Canaanite woman, and then there's a Moabite cursed woman named Ruth, always in the line of Messiah. Who else is in the line of Messiah? Lance Wally. As a seed of God, wretched idiot that I am, I'm a child of God. Nothing better. If God can't use prostitutes, homosexuals, and fools like me, what else does He have to work with? Isn't He a God of grace? Jochebed was Amram's aunt. Who are they? Thank you. Moses, Aaron, and Miriam are the offspring of aunts, family members sleeping together to bring about them. But there's no law against it up to this point. Othniel married Aksa. You're already going, yeah, we know who they are. That was his first cousin. It's the daughter of Caleb. This is in the book of Joshua and Judges. You know who Caleb is. First cousin. Tamar, this is much later. This is after the law is given. Remember Tamar was loved by her half-brother Amnon. They're both, they share the same daddy, David. And Amnon is quote-unquote in love with Tamar, wants to be with Tamar. He finds a way to rape Tamar. And she tells him, don't do this wicked thing. Our father will give you, will give me to you as a wife. And he raped her anyway, and then he stopped loving her that day, which shows how deep his love was. Was she just saying what she needed to say? Do we think David would have given her? Let me just ask you this. Could David have given her to Amnon as a wife? Not according to the law, no. She's probably just doing whatever she can at this point to get out of that room. I don't know. I can't get in her head, but whatever she's saying is wrong. It's against the law. Of course, David didn't always take the law literally, did he? Neither do we. sees a woman bathing out on the roof, do you think he said, hmm, God said it's not good to commit adultery? Do you think that when he brought her in, got her pregnant, that he said, hmm, God said it's not good to commit murder of her husband? Hmm, God said it's not good to dishonor my mother and father, to covet another man's wife, or to lie? No, no. David knew, but once again it goes back to what we looked at Sunday. The fool says in his heart there is no God. What is foolishness? A fool is one who says, I believe, I know, but I choose to do something else. One who acts contrary to what he knows to be true. And John the Baptist, as we know, rebuked Herod Antipas. And what was Herod Antipas doing? He was sleeping with his brother Philip's wife. And what did it get John? A lost head. As with adultery, which brings the death penalty, so does homosexuality. Hence, what I was talking about earlier is that we rail against homosexuals, we ought to rail against adultery just as much. It's no different. In the Old Testament, both received the death penalty. Today, you were caught cheating, or it's an affair, right? It's just an affair. Today, it's taught, actually, that you need to have sex before marriage to see if you're sexually compatible. It's the way you need to do that. How many of you have heard that? How many of you had marriages, don't raise your hand, had marriages where you were not sexually compatible for years until such a time as you became sexually compatible? So that if you slept prior to marriage and you weren't sexually compatible, you never would have married that person. No, that's not it at all. We water everything down and make it so horrible. And people buy into it, our children buy into it. Because that's what everybody does. Even Deuteronomy 22, 5 commands against cross-dressing. And I put probably to avoid homosexual activities. It doesn't mean you can't dress your little boy up like a girl for Halloween. I wouldn't recommend it. But I don't think it's a violation of it. Walt Kaiser, one of my favorite commentators, godly man, says this, there's a category of temporary ceremonial laws, but I do not agree that homosexuality is among them. Remember the ceremonial laws associated with the temple. He said, I do not believe homosexuality is among them. Nothing in its prescription. points to or anticipates Christ and the death penalty demanded for its violation places it in the moral realm not in the temporary legislation like the temple did. A temporary realm where it was pointed to Christ where we now come to Christ alone. Doesn't mean it's he's right. I give you people that know what they're talking about so that I can back up what I think is right. Make myself look good. Excellent point. And as we saw in Leviticus 13 and 14, to touch blood was never called an abomination. It made you unclean for seven days. Clean yourself up, come back to the camp. Not called an abomination. This, you're right, it's added. It's an abomination and the death penalty ensues. No death penalty for touching blood in Leviticus 13 and 14. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says this, for this reason, he's speaking of those who have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. He says, for this reason God gave them over to degrading passions. For their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another. Men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error." Now, I've got that. That's out of a larger context, but the context is the wrath of God is on these people. Romans 1, 18 and 19 speaks of God's wrath on, and he begins to list. This is part of that list. Lesbianism, homosexual error. Homosexual practice is an error. It's a sin. Who practices it? People who have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. The lie being, this is the way you were made, you should act just the way you are. Some are actually taught in the homosexual churches today that you are sinning against the way God made you by not acting this out. Very common, by the way. 1 Corinthians 6, 9, the Apostle Paul asking the church in Corinth, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals. will enter the kingdom of God. The word for effeminate and word for homosexuals are actually two different Greek words. Effeminate are the men who became women, who took on the feminine role of that relationship, and the homosexual is typically the one that was the more dominant one. Very common in the Roman Empire when Paul would write this. Very common among the Corinthians before they came to Christ, because later Paul says, such were some of you. The Corinthian church. Paul is saying, that's what you were. You were converted out of this. Don't be deceived that you can act like this and actually believe that you're a child of God. Paul tells Timothy, speaking of, and immoral men, and homosexuals, and kidnappers, and liars, and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, even in that day they existed. So it's spoken of in the Bible. Now, if you have a King James Version, you will not see the word homosexual. Do you know why? Because the word homosexual didn't exist in 1611. Did you know that? Another one, this is kind of a bit of a rabbit trail, but you don't hear about dinosaurs prior to the mid-1800s. You want to know why? Because the word wasn't even invented until the late 1800s. So everything that's talked about dinosaurs was usually dragons, fire-breathing dragons, large lizards, and behemoths. So it's just one of those words that didn't exist in 1611, so it's not in your King James Bible that way. Remember I had a, I don't know the word exactly offhand, but it's a word with homo, it's one. I'm trying to remember what it is, I can't offhand. But it's not a, it's not one of those transliterated words that homo, sexual, it doesn't do that. You know what a transliterated word is? One of the words we use in our society today, we call it your fiancé. Fiancé is a French word, isn't it? What other word are you gonna use? I married my girlfriend. I guess you could say that. Fiancé just sounds so much more romantic. Yeah, but without fiancé, all you're left with is girlfriend. Isn't that terrible? In our English language, we've not come up with a better word than girlfriend. Mate, that's Australian, right? My old lady. Good night tonight, huh, Jan? Anybody got a King James? No King James in here? Okay, good. Some old-timers. Let's hear what the new King James says. 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Dixie, where are you? 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and the King James and New King James. It might be updated in New King James. Mankind. Sins against mankind. Yeah, that's pretty broad, isn't it? Yeah. Sins against mankind, yeah. Folks, let me just say very bluntly, if you have a King James or New King James, you have the worst of the best English translations. It's still the Bible. It's the worst of the best. So you're still in the realm of the best, but you have the worst of the best. It's Old English. The words in there, for instance, this is another rabbit trail where the passage in 1 Timothy is study to show thyself approved. You know what the word study meant in King James English, 1611? It meant be diligent. Just be diligent. It didn't have anything to do with reading and studying your Greek text. I'm studying, therefore I'm approved. It's be diligent. And all old dictionaries, these are words that are, suffer the little children to come to me. What? I suffer when lots of little children come to me, yes. It means to allow. That doesn't mean the same thing today, does it? So you have the worst of the best translations in that it's orthodox, but it's archaic English. Get a New American Standard Bible. NIV is not a nearly inspired version. It's an excellent, readable Bible. ESV is good. None of them. None of them approach the literal truthfulness of the New American Standard Bible. It's by far the best. It's a bit wooden, so it doesn't always make the best sense, and the ESV helps that, but the ESV is not nearly as good, in my opinion, and I offer that as in my opinion. I have no authority other than my opinion on this one. All right. Sodomites in the new King James and crimes against humankind mankind in the old King James madam, ma'am Abusers of man do you have the old King James? Okay, and the new King James is sodomites. Okay Yeah, poor thing she knew she's not about yeah, I brought the King James I had to preach in a church one time in Dallas. It was just a fill-in, and it was an old church, and no one was there. I'm sorry, folks, I don't mean this as an insult, but no one was under the age of 70. And I was in 7th time, I had a New American Standard Bible, but I had a W.A. Criswell study Bible in the King James Version. And I thought, if I'm gonna go teach in there and tell everybody, if I start reading a Bible that's not King James, and I get tossed out before opening prayer, Better bring my crystal study Bible." When I had to check with him, is everybody okay with me having the King James Bible? When I left that day, he said, we don't use King James. So I lost that battle anyway. Another guy asked me to church one time and he wanted me to teach on Daniel. Well, I'm a dispensationalist. Daniel is, his prophecies are yet to come to pass, and the prophecies, the way they fit, and I had to stop and ask the church. It was Phil Arms' old church. It was way out off Eldridge, and a formerly large church, and it was whittled down to a few, and I said, folks, before I get started, I gotta know, am I gonna be tarred and feathered if I tell you I'm dispensational? And the whole church, no, no, no, Phil taught us dispensationalism. Okay, we can move forward. At any rate, you never know. But it's okay, you're welcome here with the King James Bible. We will pray for you. So do I after saying stupid things like that. Paul also is speaking and addressing the works of the flesh and how they relate to the Old Testament, and I didn't even cite it well. It should be Galatians 5, 19 and 21. It's, now the works of the flesh are evidence, sexual immorality. By the way, the Greek word behind sexual immorality is porneos, porneos. It's where we get pornography. It's a very general word for all sexual impurities. These are the works of the flesh, porneos, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery. Sorcery comes from the word from which we get pharmacy. It's about doing drugs, about dropping acid and listening to Pink Floyd, if you want a modern-day thing. Enmatiste, yeah, sorry, can't do that anymore, John. Fits of anger, that means don't play golf. Rivalries. dissensions, or have kids, divisions, envy, drunkenness, not drinking, but drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warned you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus says essentially the same thing, Mark 7, 21 to 23. I say we should recognize that there is a difference between homosexual desires and homosexual practices. As I said earlier, a person can be a homosexual. They can sit with you and say, I have homosexual tendencies. That is no more sinful than you and I saying I have a tendency to have a wandering eye and see other women that are not my wife, not my spouse. It's one thing to have the inclination. We all have sinful inclinations throughout our lives that are related to sex and not related to sex. It's what we do with those. It's what we don't do with those. We are here to serve the living Christ, knowing that our flesh is at war with the Spirit. God's Spirit lives in us. His power, the power that raised Jesus from the dead, resides within us, fighting the battle against our flesh that wants nothing but our desires and what we want. Who should win that battle? The Spirit of God. Therefore, Paul says, be filled with the Spirit. Have the fruits of the Spirit because you're filled with the Spirit. It's not about getting re-baptized by the Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit. That's done once, but being filled with the Spirit happens as often as we choose to walk with Christ and be filled with His Word and let the overflow of the fruits, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, these flow from us because we're filled with the Spirit. Not filled with this, and by the way, what I just quoted follows right after these things of the flesh, where Paul contrasts. Here's the things of the flesh, but the person is filled with the Spirit, is filled with love, joy, peace, and on and on. Concluding observations in the four minutes I have left, I say this, believers must remain loyal to their covenant God and not become involved in the abominable practices of the world that God will judge. There is no excuse. Just because everyone else is doing it, just because it's a priest in some churches, doesn't mean that it's right. There are many churches today who are still arguing about whether to ordain gay and lesbian priests. Rectors and preachers. Why? How can they do that? One reason. They don't believe the Bible means what it says. Or they have found a way to reinterpret it. God's people, being faithful to Him, out of His faithfulness to us, we want to please Him. The New Testament prohibits incest, adultery, homosexuality. These are timeless laws. They're not shadows that point to Christ. Whereas some of the shadows of the Old Testament do point to Christ and are fulfilled in Christ, these are not. I think it takes just a little common sense to figure that out. And a little is to say not a whole lot at all. We note Jesus' teaching on divorce that a man should not divorce his wife and be joined to another since in marriage the two become one flesh. That's not to rip anybody here who's been married and remarried. The past is the past. If you're remarried, I've had people say, well, maybe I should divorce this one and go back to the other one. Absolutely not. That doesn't make it right. You remain married. You love the one you're married to now. You ask for forgiveness of what you did, and it's done, washed away, as all our sins are, and move on towards holiness. But Jesus' teaching on it does reflect back on the timeless morality found in Leviticus. God still demands holiness from His people, so let us call people to repentance and love. I put that because Mike Aftosma sent me a great article today from a woman, I forgot her name, but she was a professor. You remember where she was, Mike? Was she in California? Did you send it to them too? You know it, Brian? What was her name? Yeah. Giddy up, Rosaria, yep. She was a liberal, lesbian, gay rights, bisexual rights, marcher. She believed all of this. She said, I had the butch haircut to look the part. And she said, and I thought all Christians just hated me and I hated them. And her testimony is just beautiful. I'll send you the link if you want it. Mike sent it to me today. She said, I was won over by this one. She said, I published this article, and this pastor, Ken Smith, from Reformed Presbyterian Church, wrote her a letter. And without condemning her, just asked her certain questions. It really challenged her. She said, I was won over by love. It wasn't the hate. It wasn't Christians out there saying, marching against homosexuals. Not that any of us would do that. And I mean that. I know we wouldn't. Go out there and saying, you're going to hell. with signs that say, fags go to hell. You've seen these people. What possible good do people that call themselves Christians think that's gonna do? This woman was won by the love of a man. She's actually married and has children today. Her testimony is absolutely astounding, but it's no better than yours. You too were saved of the wretchedness of your own sinful life. Just loved reading it. Sexual perversions bring chaos to human relationships. You wanna sleep around, find many partners? You do that. You let me know how that works for your marriage. You let me know how happy you can be while fooling around with many partners. You wanna be homosexual? Yeah, they make themselves look real good and they call themselves gay. The other word for being happy. Read their testimonies. Read what's going on inside their bodies, literally, the way it's rotting away. and the way they try to justify it. They're not happy people. If you want a lousy marriage, sleep around on your spouse. Do a lot of it before you get married so that you've got a lot of experience on your wedding night. Spouses love that. You ruin your marriage before it begins. Can it be forgiven? Can you move on? Absolutely. And many of you are here to testify to that. God is good, is He not? distorting God's sexual ideals, forfeits one's right to sexual harmony with the spouse. That speaks for itself. Though the moral impurity of this world is perverse and detestable by any simple assessment, the more it is tolerated, the more acceptable and appealing it becomes. I am not an advocate of us going out there and saying, all right, we're gonna tighten our belts and we're gonna go out and we're gonna let everybody know just how evil they are, no. We're gonna go out and we're gonna show people just how loving our God is. The first statement that you make to one who does not know Christ, the thing that they have to understand is that they have fallen short of God's glory. That's the need. Once the need is there, that's when the good news sounds so good, because it is so good. Yet, though you will die for your sins, our Lord died for you while you were yet a sinner, Romans 5.8. So we can't get around it. Tolerating it just makes it worse for our kids, just makes it worse for the next generation. All the timeless truths of Leviticus and the fact that they're timeless, they still ring true today and will ring true until our Lord comes and may come soon. Amen? Let's pray. Lord, I don't think that I've said anything tonight that anyone would disagree with. Even those who would disagree, You know it's true. I pray that You would cause the knowledge that we have to line up with the way we act. That we not be the fools that Psalm 14 1 speaks of, trying to deny that which we know is true. And I pray, Lord, that we would Spend less time trying to deny the things we know are not true, that we would go out and spend more time loving You by keeping Your Word, learning it, being taught it, glorying in it. Give us the joy that can only come from knowing Christ. It's already within us. May we be filled with Your Word, and may the fruits of the Holy Spirit be evident in our lives as we go forth this night. Take us home safely, Lord, and bring us back for more worship. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.