Turn with me, if you would, for a short time. This evening, as the Lord may enable us, to Leviticus chapter 26. Leviticus chapter 26. We wish to take as our text verse 13. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondmen. And I have broken the bands of your yoke. and made you go upright, and so on. Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 13, the last of the second, the penultimate chapter in the book of Leviticus. And in some respects, it sums up what has already been given in the whole book. A blessing and a curse is set before God's people. A blessing if they're obedient to the Lord, their God, there is a reward for that obedience. And a curse for those if they do not obey the word of the Lord. blessings and cursing, keeping God's law and doing that which is well-pleasing before the Lord. When you read the first verses, verse 13 verses of the chapter, what a happy state you have described for you. The state where They are blessed because of obedience and the blessings that accrue from their obedience. Blessings that flow from faith and obedience. But from verse 14 onwards, we see the unhappy state of disbelief, unbelief, and disobedience. And what you find in the Old Testament in terms of the children of Israel, the blessings and the curses are outward, temporal blessings and curses, and outward obedience. But in the New Testament, the heart that is changed by God's grace, and that heart received spiritual blessings. It doesn't mean to say that the children of Israel never received spiritual blessings. They did. And it doesn't mean to say that the Lord's people in the New Testament may not at times receive temporal blessings, even though they are not promised. But the children of Israel in the Old Testament, they had that covenant whereby If they were obedient, then they would be blessed. And we want to look something of that this evening. You might, in some respects, think that these blessings are simply being all out of works. But you discover the verse that we've got, that it is already in the covenant of grace. The Lord says here, I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt. He has already delivered his people out. He has already shown himself to be able to fulfill all the covenant promises. His delivering them out of Egypt was a pledge to that covenant. And it ought to have been a motive to them to obedience. And so it is in the New Testament that God has demonstrated that he is able to save even the chief of sinners through Jesus Christ. It is through Christ who has fulfilled the law, fulfilled all that was there set before us in Leviticus. He has fulfilled it on behalf of his people, and therefore he is able to save all who come to him by Jesus Christ. And indeed, the cross itself is a pledge from God that all who do come to him will be saved. All who rest on Christ for their salvation, they will be saved. And the very fact of the cross and the faithfulness of God Even as it is here, I am the one that brought you out of Egypt and brought you out from bondage, broken the bands of your yoke and made you to go upright. These ought to have been the very fact of God's faithfulness, the power and the way in which God delivered them ought to have been the greatest motive for the children of Israel laying hold upon God by faith and trusting in him. Now when you come to the covenant in the Old Testament, you discover that very often the children of Israel broke the covenant. They broke the covenant. They were unable to keep it and very often they turned aside from it. But what you discover here is that when you come to look at what that the writer here sets before them, there are three or four things that give us a clue as to why it is that they failed and why they so often brought upon themselves the curse rather than the blessing. There are three things in particular, and that is, first of all, knowing who God is. knowing who God is. At the beginning of the verse that we have before us, he says, I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God. You go back to verse one at the end of it, for I am the Lord your God. You are my people. He says, I will walk among you. I am the Lord your God. Why is it that the church of the Old Testament The children of Israel so often rebelled against God and the covenant and the terms of the covenant. Why did they not walk in his statutes and keep his commandments to do them? Because they forgot who God is. They forgot their God. And that is the very first thing that God warns them about in this chapter. as they come to the end of the book of Leviticus, setting out God's law, what it is that they were to do, his statutes, his commandments, and how they were to fulfill them. They forgot who God is. So that you go to the very beginning of this chapter, and you notice right at the beginning, he says this, you shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it, for I am the Lord your God." The children of Israel so often departed from the Lord their God because they forgot who God is. And so it is even today. In order for us to please God, we must come to him and we must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him. When he says, I am the Lord, your God, I am Jehovah, your God. But so often they turned from God, not knowing who he is, bowing down rather before the idols and graven images. Sometimes they sought to worship Jehovah through these images, or by means of these images, and they would bow before the images. You remember how when Moses went up onto the mount, and Aaron was down among the people, and that the cry was of the golden calf, this is the Lord your God that brought you out of Egypt. It wasn't that they were replacing Jehovah. It is that they were seeking to bow down before that idol as an image of Jehovah. And you find that even today with crosses, with images, with all manner of idolatry and graven images, people bowing down before graven images. The very essence of the first commandment is that thou shalt have no other gods before me. The Lord our God is a jealous God, and he will not give his glory to another. He will not give his glory to another. And it's not just that sometimes they will worship the true God in a false way. Sometimes they will try to worship both gods. Very often you see that in northern Israel, as we have been looking through, they begin to depart. They don't all of a sudden depart like that. They are worshipping Jehovah. Then they are seeking to worship Jehovah through images. Then you end up with both. You end up with worshipping both, a mixture of both. And then ultimately, they worship the false god altogether. They come and they worship Beal. How it was necessary, therefore, when the writer here comes and says, you shall make you no idols or graven images, neither rear up a standing image. You'll not set any image of stone in the land or bow down before it. Because if the children of Israel were going to seek to keep the covenant and be faithful, they had to know who God is. They had to know, I am, as at verse 13, I am Jehovah, your God. You cannot worship any other God. I am Jehovah your God. And what is true of the day of the children of Israel is equally true of the church today. We cannot worship a God of our own devising. We ought not to worship a God of our own invention. We must not bring any idols in before God, nor bow down before them. Every day we must seek to cast out the idols of our heart. We must seek to cast them out and not bow down to them, but rather bow down before Jehovah the Lord, our God. How easy it is for man to raise up idols and bow down before his idols, the work of his hands. But yet Isaiah said, when was it that the work of your hands was ever able to tell you what was yet to come to pass? Only Jehovah was able to tell God's people in the Old Testament what was yet to come to pass. And only Jehovah delivered them out of Egypt. It wasn't their idols or their graven images or that of Baal or anything else. It was Jehovah, your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondsman and that the bands and the yoke should be broken. And is that not true today for the Lord's people? It is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has delivered his people out of bondage. The children of Israel should have remembered that it was Jehovah that delivers his people. And today we are to remember that it is Jehovah who delivers his church. We go to a communion and come towards a communion season. God willing, if we are spared to see the communion season within the congregation, what are we remembering? We are remembering that it is God who has appointed the means whereby his people are saved. It is the Father, God the Father, who has appointed the way of salvation and the way of redemption. It is not the inventions of a church. It is not the inventions of a Pope. It is not the inventions of man, nor the way of man. The gospel is God's way. It is God who has delivered. It is the same God who delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt. who today delivers his people in fulfilling all the law that is given. Christ has fulfilled the law. And therefore, we must not bow down to any idols, but we must come and bow down before, for I am the Lord, your God. And when we sit at the Lord's table, that is our declaration. We are his people and he is our God. So the very first thing that Leviticus brings before us here is that of idolatry, that which the Bible continually tells us and warns us about, that which is an abomination in his sight, idolatry, an abomination before him when we bow and worship at the feet of man, at the feet of an image, but rather than giving to him all the glory that belongs to him. So in order then for them to be obedient, they had to know who God is. But secondly, they ought to also remember what God has done, who he is. I am the Lord your God. I brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be a bondsman. And I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you go up right. It was the Lord himself who delivered his people out of the land of Egypt. And he reminds them here of what he has done, what he has done. And he has that something as well. Again, when you go back to the beginning of the chapter, not only does he say, I am the Lord your God, but you shall keep my Sabbaths. That is, you will remember what I have done, not just the Sabbath day, the seventh day, and it is probably principally referring to the weekly Sabbath, but all the Sabbaths. the Sabbaths whereby they had peace. The Sabbaths indicated to them and preached to them of God's peace, of the peace that was theirs. That is what he has done. You remember how the Sabbath day, the seventh day, reminds us of how God has created the heavens and the earth On the seventh day, the Lord rested from all his labors. And we are also reminded on that day now in the New Testament of that new creation, of how Christ has risen from the dead. We are to remember the Sabbath day. We are to remember the things of the Sabbath day. We are to make it a holy day. It's a wonderful provision God has made for us when he has given us the Sabbath day. And he says here, and ye shall keep my Sabbaths. It is reminding us what he has done, not only in creation, not only the seventh day, but all the Sabbaths that were set out in the book of Leviticus. They were preaching to what God had done and the peace that God had brought among his people. they were to remember the Sabbath day and the Sabbath, the various Sabbaths that had been established in the land. It was these various days that reminded them of what God had done, but not just reminding them about the peace, but these Sabbaths were so often reminding them of the one who would bring in a Sabbath, a peace that was past, not just days, but who would be peace, who would bring forth, who would be the prince of peace. It was looking forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, who would bring in a Sabbath, a rest for the people of God. It reminded them that there were times where they were to specifically worship God. And it was pointing forward to the day when the Lord of the Sabbath would come, the one who was Lord of the Sabbath and who would be the Prince of Peace, and who would bring forth a day, even the Lord's Day, the Lord's Day when God's people can come together and worship the Lord. They were to remember not only who God is, they were to remember their Sabbaths. They were to remember the times that God would meet with them and bless them. But there was a third thing here, not just that they were to remember their Sabbaths, but, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. It wasn't just who he is and what he has done. They were to remember where he dwelt. They were to remember where the Lord was to be found. reverence my sanctuary. Remember the sanctuary. That was the place specifically where the Shekinah glory was to be found. It was the place of offering. It was the place of the burnt offering. It was the place where the sacrifices were given and where God himself dwelt in the midst of his people. They were to remember that. How would they be able to walk in his statutes, keep his commandments and do them if they didn't know who he was, if they didn't remember what he had done in the Sabbath, by keeping the Sabbath, and if they didn't know where he dwelt? by looking and reverencing the sanctuary. They were to reverence where God met with his people. And my friend, is it not true today that when we gather together in God's house on the Lord's day, is it not right that we should reverence God's house that we should reverence the very place where we are meeting. We are not to come to God's house and to come in any light manner. Think of the church at Corinth when they held the Lord's supper. One of the great reasons the apostle recorded why the Lord said that they were to examine themselves is that they were not reverencing God's house. They were not reverencing God's table. They were treating it like any other table. In fact, they were actually treating it worse than any other table. They were treating it as though it was nothing. But we are to, and the God's people were to reverence the place when they come into the presence of the Lord. And we too are to reverence God's house. We are not to make it a den of thieves. We are not to make it simply a place of entertainment. We are not to make it a place where we would simply entertain ourselves. Rather, we are to come into God's house and reverence the fact that we are in the presence of Almighty God. We are to reverence his sanctuary. What a wonderful opportunity we have then. when we know who it is that we are coming to. When we come to him on his appointed days, the Sabbaths, and when we reverence his sanctuary, we remember where he dwells. He says, I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondsmen. I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you go upright. So in these first two verses, he's given us three things by which, and you might wonder why it is that these three things are specifically given at the beginning of this chapter, at the very last chapter or the second last chapter of the book of Leviticus. Why does he do it? Well, surely it is because they had to know who God is, they had to know what he has done, and they needed to remember where he dwelt. He dwelt at the holy place, reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. And it was out of that, it was flowing out of that, that they were to walk in his statutes, keep my commandments, and do them. If they did not know these three things, Then how were they going to walk in his statutes and keep his commandments? How were they going to do it? Unless they knew who he was. He is the one who had delivered them out of Egypt. How were they to do it unless they reverenced the holy days that he himself had appointed? And how were they to do it if they didn't know where he dwelt in the sanctuary? But look at the great blessing that there was that flowed from these three things when they knew them and when they kept, if ye walk in my statues. It's one small word. but what a weight there is that can be given to these two letters. If, if ye walk in my statues. And you go to verse 14, but if ye will not hearken unto me, and if ye shall despise my statues. Verse 18, and if ye will not yet, for all this hearken unto me, and so on. Verse 21, and if ye walk contrary unto me. That word if, repeating time and time again. The first 13 verses, if ye walk in my statutes, and if ye keep my commandments and do them, what a blessing there is that comes from Jehovah, their God, the God who has appointed the Sabbaths, the God who dwells at the sanctuary, Then I will give you rain in due season. Rain and fruit. How the children of Israel depended upon rain for their crops. You see that, do you not? And we've already seen that. When in the days of Elijah, there were three and a half years of no rain. What a dire straits they had come into. Why? Why was the three and a half years of rain? Because of the sins of Ahab and Jezebel. They had raised up idols, just as we see here. They had raised up images. They bowed before Beal. They never kept the Sabbaths. And they never reverenced God's sanctuary at Jerusalem. And what was the result? It was they had no rain. But there is a promise given to the children of Israel here that if they will keep his statutes and they would they do his commandments, then he will bless them. I will give you rain in due season and the land shall be fruitful. And it's not today that we are looking surely for temporal fruit. These are just, in the Old Testament, these are but shadows. In the New Testament, it is spiritual fruit. It is spiritual blessings that he promises to his church. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost signifies that he will bless his church with the Holy Spirit. that he will give the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. And it is surely spiritual fruit that we seek today. Not necessarily, it is not necessarily that the Lord will bless his church with congregations bursting at the seams. But even in the midst of difficult times, the Lord will bless his people. He will spiritually bless them as they go through this world. They can bring forth fruit. When he was young, I was old, he still saw the elderly bringing forth fruit. God blessing his people, young and old, bringing forth fruit. but not only bringing forth fruit, but peace and safety. He would keep them safe. Your threshing shall reach into the vintage, and the vintage will reach into the sowing time, and I will give peace in the land. You shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. I will redeem all beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go to your land. You see, the children of Israel could lie down at night, even surrounded by all their enemies, even surrounded by evil beasts, beasts of the desert. When they went through the wilderness, how many beasts of the desert were there during that? They could lie down and they could sleep because the Lord was looking after them. He was on the hill watching them, even when Balaam would pronounce a curse upon God's people. They didn't even know it. But God was looking after them. How can he curse whom the Lord has not cursed? Instead of pronouncing a curse, he pronounced a blessing. They could lie in peace and safety. And that is true of the Lord's people today, spiritually. You may be persecuted, you may be cast into prison for your faith, but just like Paul and Silas, they cannot take away the peace and the safety in Jesus Christ. And he says, I will make you fruitful and multiply you and establish my covenant with you. Establishing the covenant with them. What wonderful encouragement that must have been. And when he goes on here, it's not just that they would have rain and fruit and they would have peace and safety and they would multiply. The greatest blessing of all is found at the end. Verses 11 and 12, I will set my tabernacle among you. And my soul shall not appall you, I will walk among you. Notice in verse 12, it is following on from verse 3 almost. If ye will walk in my statutes, keep my commandments and do them, I will walk among you. Verse 3, there to walk in his statutes and his commandments, and I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people. What a wonderful picture we have here of the children of Israel making their way through the promised land, making their way into the land of promise. And they're going hand in hand with their God. They are walking in his statutes and his commandments, and he is walking among them. And I will be your God and ye shall be my people. And then he says, I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt that you should not be their bondsman. He was the one that delivered them. He was the one that would go with them. And it's as though he's saying here, I will walk with you and you can be assured because I have never forgotten the promise that has been given. I have never forgotten the covenant promises that I have given to you. You shall be my people. That's the one, that is the essence of God's covenant, isn't it? I will walk with you, I will be your God, and you shall be my people. That's the very heart of the covenant of grace. It's the very heart of the covenant. They may fall, they may trip, but God is always faithful. And it was looking forward to the time when the Messiah would come. And we would not just temporarily deliver them out of Egypt or bring them into the land of Canaan, but where he would deliver them, where God's people would be delivered from the greatest problem of all. And that is delivered out of sin, out of the flesh pots of Egypt. He delivers them from being bondsmen and slaves, and now they become servants of the living God. They had a yoke upon them, and that yoke is taken away. I brought you forth out of the land of Egypt. By faith they forsook Egypt. So it is that by faith the Lord's people are delivered out of the flesh pots of Egypt. That you should not be their bondsman, that you should not be enslaved to sin, but now you are delivered spiritually and become the servants of Jesus Christ and of God. And you have broken the bands of your yoke. cast my yoke is easy, my burden is light, and has made you to go upright. You see here at the beginning, or at the end of the book of Leviticus, the book of Leviticus that speaks of the law, who was there in Israel that would truly keep the law in a way in which it was intended. It was a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. And it was through the sacrifices, through the shadows that they had before them, that they beheld the Messiah that was to come. And through that, they knew Jehovah. They knew him. They knew what he had done. And they knew where he dwelt. And it was because they knew him and trusted him by faith as the one who had delivered them out of Egypt by a mighty hand, taken off the yoke from them. They were no longer bondsmen. They were seeing. who God is. They beheld Christ afar off, and they sought to keep His statutes and His commandments, looking to the Savior who was to come. And as they did so, so the Lord walked in their midst. But when they forsook the Lord, when they rebelled against Him, When they became self-righteous and they knew not God, they considered not what he had done, nor where he dwelt, but made it a den of thieves rather than the place of prayer. God came and destroyed that temple, but in three days he raised up a temple, the temple of the living God. And there we know, when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, we behold Jehovah. God manifests in the flesh. We see God. He is the one who has revealed the Father. He says to Philip and to Thomas, I've been so long time with you, Philip, and you do not know. He that has seen me has seen the Father. If you know Christ, you know Jehovah, you know the Father. And you know what he has done. He has brought salvation. And you know where he dwells. He dwells not in the holy place made with hands, but he dwells in heaven itself. and he delights in mercy to those who call upon him.