Well let's open our bibles to the book of Leviticus. We're going to do three chapters tonight. We're going to do chapters 20, 21 and 22 and these chapters are pretty much pointing at the same thing. We've learned so far that the way to approach God had to be through a sacrifice. And it had to be a sacrifice made by someone who was acknowledged by God. as being the proper person to offer that sacrifice. And so we saw and understood that Jesus Christ was that person. He was the anointed one. He's the Messiah. He's the one that's, he's able to offer that sacrifice. And he is also the sacrifice. And He offered Himself up for our sins and took our sins upon Himself that He might take our sins away and that we can be forgiven. And so we saw that true holiness comes from the right offerer and the right offering. And so we have to come to God only in that way. That's the only way we can come to God. It has to be through the blood. has to be through the blood. And for the Christian, it's through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, not the blood of bulls and goats. That did nothing. That just covered the sins. It just didn't remove them. But the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us from all sin. And then we looked at the next lot of chapters in the book of Leviticus, and it spoke about uncleanness. Now, uncleanness is not sin. Uncleanness is stuff that you just pick up along the way, living in a dirty, sinful world. You just, as you're walking through, as you're working in it, you just get the dirt that sticks to you. And he's saying, you know, you've got to be clean. You've got to eat clean things. You've got to clean your body. You've got to make sure that you are not letting that dirt from the world stay on you for too long. Because if it stays on you for too long, you become a leper. a spiritual leper. And if you're a spiritual leper, you have no feeling, and so you don't care anymore. And that's when churches die, because they come and they go through all the routines. They sing the songs, they pray the prayers, they listen to the message. It's all a very sweet tune, just like our preacher was saying this morning, you know, it just hardens the heart. and they're not feeling anything and they don't care anymore, they just came and they go, oh, that was a great message for everybody, everyone else. Fantastic message. Thank you, Pastor, for preaching that for them, you know, and not considering yourself and not being a, like, being a hearer of the Word, but not a doer. looking at yourself in the glass and seeing what manner of man you are and then turning away and not actually cleaning the stuff off. And so we learn that we can become a spiritual leper when we allow the dirt and the uncleanness of the world to stay on us because it hardens us, it vexes our soul and we just lose feeling. And we go, well, I suppose it's not so bad anymore, and that kind of thing. You just put up with the sin that's around you. And like Lot, who vexed his soul with the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, has to be dragged out of the city. Someone has to grab you and drag you out because you're going to linger. linger in the world because of that spiritual leprosy. And then we spoke about the sins of the flesh and those things, and then he repeats those things here in chapters 20, 21, and 22, where he's basically telling the nation of Israel, I need you, the nation has to be without blemish. And the priesthood has to be without blemish. And the sacrifices have to be without blemish. It has to be perfect, it has to be holy, it has to be complete. It can't be just the leftovers or it can't be just some rotten thing that you didn't want anymore or a thing that you're going to bring to God and offer before him. He wants it to be a holy thing and an unblemished thing. And I remember, I just want to share with you a little story of mine from Bible College. And when we went to Bible College, it was myself and Billy Eyre and James O'Sullivan, the three of us started together at a college there, and we were all married, we all had children, we all gave up our jobs to go and study for the ministry and things like that. So we were serious about it and we wanted to be serious and we wanted to make sure that we gave the ministry our due diligence and poured our heart into those things anyway. When they teach you homiletics, which is preaching, The test for preaching is that you have to preach at the chapel service. And you get set a date when you have to preach at chapel. And you can't change the date. You have to be there. If you don't preach on that day, at that time, then you fail. And you have to do that course again. Well, that came to my turn to preach at the chapel. And I was so sick. Like I've never been this sick in my life. I had a gastric bug and I was just, I was constantly running to the bathroom and vomiting and it was just, I was just absolutely just, I was just wrecked. My whole body was wrecked. All night, the night before, and I've gone, now I have to go. I have to go to college. I have to preach at the chapel service, even though I feel like this. And I went to the service and went to the Bible college and I'm just, I'm just like death warmed up, you know. You can see it all black in the eyes. I just had such a rough night that night and that morning, and I had to sit through two lectures and things like that, and I'm just every five minutes running out of the bathroom, vomiting my guts up and stuff like that. I was so bad. It was so, so bad. And so I got up and I was preaching, and what was I preaching about? Death to self. And I thought, well, that was an interesting, I would say, I was an illustration of death to self. Well, we're talking about not having a blemish tonight, and just happened to be cleaning up some skin cancers here. This is how the priest would not be allowed to go and offer the offerings if he was like this. And so this is the illustration. of that. And so we're gonna read a few verses here and then we'll pray and we'll continue. And so chapter 20, we're gonna read from verse 22 when it says, and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation journeyed, oh, I'm in numbers, where am I? Leviticus chapter 20 would be good. I'm sure that story would be good too. Leviticus chapter 20. All right, verse 22. You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgments and do them, that the land, whether I bring you to dwell therein, spew you not out. And you shall not walk in the manners of the nation which I cast out before you. For they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. but I have said unto you, ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, which hath separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, between unclean fowls and clean, and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast or by fowl or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground. which I have separated from you as unclean. And ye shall be holy unto me, for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. A man also, or a woman, that hath an familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, or shall surely be put to death, they shall stone them with stones, their blood shall be upon them. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we do thank you for your word, and we pray, Lord, that tonight you would help us to see the life that we are to live as Christians, and what holiness means in a practical sense. And so, Lord, we ask for you to open up your word to us tonight, in Jesus' name, amen. Right, so here in chapter 20, he's talking about the sins of the nations that were there before him, before them, that they cast out. They're going to go in there and they're going to remove these people. And he says, you're not going to be like them. If you are like them, the land that you're going to be on is going to spew you out just as it's spewing them out. So don't do that. Be different. And at the end there, as we read, he said, I have separated you from all people. That's verse 24. So God has taken you and removed you and made you different from the rest of the world. and you're not gonna be the same as them. Okay, so that's what he did with the nation of Israel. And God does that with the Christian. When the sinner comes to the Saviour and asks for forgiveness and asks for salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, he is forgiven of his sin and God says to that man, you are now one of my children. I have taken you out of the world and you're in my family. You're not to be like them. Amen? You're not to do what they do. Otherwise, you know, there's going to be consequences. There's going to be problems in your life. You can't be like, I'm casting them out before you so that you can go into that place and you can be different from them. In verse 28, he says, at the end of verse 28, he says, and have severed you from other people, that you should be mine. I've severed you, like he's cut us off from the rest of the world. That's where the Israel is, separated from the rest of the world. And the Christian is also separated from the rest of the world. You've been severed, cut away. You're no longer a part of the world anymore. You are a citizen of heaven, and you should live like a citizen of heaven. Amen? And that means you don't do what the world does. come out from among them and be separate. What were some of the things here? He says, well, in chapter 20, just a few of the things which the people were doing. In verse 2, they were idolatrous and they were sacrificing their children to these idols. And it says, again, thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, whosoever be of the children of Israel, or of strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. And I'll set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. And so the killing of children and destroying of children for one's own satisfaction. And this is a sin which God does not accept. The death penalty is the mandate from God for doing these things. He doesn't deserve, a person that does that doesn't deserve to live. Verse six, and the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits. and after wizards, to go a-whoring after them. I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people. Sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy, for I am the Lord. And ye shall keep my statutes and do them, and I am the Lord which sanctify you." And so going to people who, you know, like, read cards and read palms and read crystals and people who devil in magic and things like that, and demonic things, he says, you don't be any part of them. You are not to be or be a part of any of that kind of action. You're supposed to be separated. This is a demonic thing. And so he tells them to remove that and anyone that goes after those kinds of people, they will be cut off from the people of God. Verse nine, for everyone that curses his father and mother shall surely be put to death. He hath cursed his father and his mother, his blood shall be upon him. And so notice all these things, these require the death penalty. He's saying these are not acceptable in any way, shape or form. They are not to happen in our lives. in the lives of the people of Israel. And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. And then it goes through all the sexual sins of previous chapter. It goes through all of them again. And the taking of the nakedness of one's father and uncle and so forth. And so he's saying the nation of Israel, as a nation, the people, They have to be holy and separated unto me. There can't be a blemish among the people of Israel. You are different. You are to be different from the world. When Lot was in Sodom, he was different from the people in Sodom, but he lingered in that place and he accepted those things and he didn't teach his family. about those things, that they should get things right. And when it was time to escape and to be taken out, he was dragged out with his wife and his two daughters. And his wife loved Sodom and Gomorrah so much, she turned back to have a look. and to see that she turned into a pillar of salt. And then the two daughters, which he brought out of Sodom and Gomorrah, they were just as bad as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and got him involved in the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. And so, therefore, the sons of Lot were a thorn in the flesh for Israel, centuries, that they were constantly fighting with them, Moab and Ammon. And so that's in chapter 20, he's saying the nation, the people of God as a nation need to be holy and without blemish, a life that is perfect before the Lord. Now, when we translate that into the church and the people of God in our generation, in our time, we are made holy by the blood of Christ. We've been separated from the world. We've been brought out of the world and we're supposed to be different from the world. And we are being conformed into the image of Christ. And he's teaching us as we go along, sanctifying us and changing us and helping us to understand the things which we have in our life that shouldn't be there and helping us to remove them and to live a life that is a Christ-like life. And that doesn't mean that you might do something wrong or you have the uncleanness of the world upon you that God's not going to cast you off. Okay, the promise to the church is that the Spirit of God will be within you, and he's a down payment for your inheritance, which is in heaven. And so there's no loss of salvation, no cutting off from the people of God in the church age. We've been sanctified by Christ, forgiven of all of our sins, and so in the eyes of God, we are without blemish. But we know on a practical level that there's always something in here, in the heart, that shouldn't be there. And the longer and longer you've been a Christian, the more and more you know that there's stuff in here that you might not even know it's there or you've been deceiving yourself saying, no, no, there's nothing wrong here. And God says, if we say we have no sin, we lie and we do not the truth. And so he allows things into our life, maybe, you know, your crockpot breaks or your tyre gets, you know, busts or things like that to show you that there's still something in your heart that's not quite right. You know, where you might be trusting in yourself or you might have a bit of pride there that needs to be dealt with or there might be, you know, you think you're in control and you're not. And in a moment, everything can change. And you look into the heart and you say, Lord, this is a problem. This is something I didn't realize was there. Can you please cleanse me from that and help me to not be like that? And God works in our hearts and changes us to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as a people of God, God is working in our lives to make us without blemish. And we'll have a look at that in a few moments in the book of Ephesians. In chapter 21, we're talking about the priesthood. So the sons of Aaron, they would be, they would have to, they were the ones that were going to be offering the sacrifices. And it says that he can't be, the priests and the high priest especially couldn't be married to just anybody. The person he was married to had to be a virgin, she had to be holy, she had to be without blemish. That was the mandate given to the high priest and to the sons of Aaron. He couldn't marry a divorced woman, he couldn't marry anybody that had been with another man. It couldn't be a woman like a prostitute who has reformed her ways, no. The only people he could marry were virgins of the children of Israel, of the tribe of Levi. And so he was told that there were specific people that he could marry. He had to make sure that he was clean. that he was ceremonially clean before the Lord, before he could offer the offerings. He couldn't touch a dead body or be made unclean by any of those things or made anything profane. If he was in his uncleanness, maybe had a runny nose or something like that, then he couldn't offer the sacrifices. Someone who was well could do it for him. But he couldn't do it until he was made clean. And so there were certain rules for the priest. He had to be without blemish. Had to be without blemish. And have a look at this in verses 16 to the end here. It says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, Let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man be he that hath a blemish, he shall not approach a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or anything superfluous, or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, or crook-backed, or dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or hath scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken, no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron, the priest, shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire. He hath a blemish, he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy, only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish, that he profane not my sanctuary, for I, the Lord, do sanctify them. And Moses told it unto Aaron and to his sons and unto all the children of Israel. So, you know, you twisted your ankle, you kicked your little toe, whatever it was, you hurt your back picking something up. No, you were disqualified from being able to offer the offerings. You could eat of the offerings and you could do those things, because that was their right as a priest to eat of the offerings there, but they couldn't offer the offering. It had to be perfect. And when we look at the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no other person who would have been able to make the offering for the sins of all mankind. Only the Lord Jesus Christ was without blemish. Amen? No sin. No blemish, perfect in every way. And he was accepted of God to be able to offer the sacrifice for the sins of the world. In chapter 22, he talks about the offerings, the sacrifices. And if we read, we'll just read the last part of chapter 22. of the chapter, because it just talks about all the different offerings, one after the other. In verse 29, and when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, offer it at your own will. On the same day it shall be eaten up. Ye shall leave none of it to the morrow. I am the Lord. Therefore shall ye keep my commandments and do them. I am the Lord. Neither shall ye profane my holy name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel. I am the Lord which hallowed you. that brought you out of the land of Egypt and to your God as I am the Lord. And so these sacrifices were coming, they couldn't be... damaged in any way, they couldn't have a mark on them, they had to be absolutely perfect. The lambs that were brought, the cows that were brought, they had to be perfect. They couldn't be just some scungy old sheep that was in a thing that you just wanted to get rid of. And you go, I'll sacrifice that one to God, right? God said, no, no, no. If you're going to bring something to me, it's going to be the best of your flock. It's going to be the lamb without blemish. It's going to be the cow that's just absolutely perfect. The one that you want to keep for yourself is the one that you have to give to me. And this was the practice that God said to him. He said, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. And for the Christian, he says, I am the Lord your God that brought you out of the world. When you sacrifice something to me, if you're going to give something to me, give me the thing that you love the most, or the thing that is precious to you. King David, he was going to make an offering to try to stay the plague which he had caused by numbering the people. And the man, he went to the threshing floor of Aruna and said, I want this land and I'll buy it from you and I want everything that you have here so I can make this offering to God. And he said, you can have it. I'll give it to you. And he said, no, no, no. I'm not going to offer anything to God that cost me nothing. And so he paid for the threshing floor, he paid for the things that were there, and he sacrificed those things to the Lord. And he said, the sacrifice I bring to God has to cost me something. If it doesn't cost me something, it's not a sacrifice. If it doesn't hurt me to give it, then it's not a sacrifice. And so he mentions these things that the nation, the priesthood, and the sacrifices have to be perfect, holy, and without blemish before the Lord. And Jesus Christ being the perfect sacrifice, for the sins of the world, offered himself, being that perfect priest and offerer, offered himself a sacrifice for the sins of the world that we might be saved through him. And so there's no one else. Who else could offer the offering that's going to appease God's anger? Is there anyone? Anyone without blemish? Is there any other sacrifice that anyone could make for the sins of the world? There's none. And so we understand that there's only one way There's only one way to salvation, to be forgiven, and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it can't be Christ plus something else. It's just Christ alone that can save. And when He saves you, He brings you out of the world and changes you and makes you to be different from the world. And if you go to Ephesians chapter 5, talking about the relationship between Christ and the church. Verse 25, it says, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word, of water by the word, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." That's what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing with the church. He's bringing people out of the world and cleansing them and forgiving them and changing their lives, that He might present that to Himself and present it to the Father and say, is my church. This is my bride. This is what I died for. And this is precious to God and precious to Him. And so we see this idea of being without blemish, being passed on into the New Testament and seen in the church where God is making us holy, sanctifying us, changing us, changing our lives, changing us from the inside out. Amen? Not from the outside in. I said this morning, from the outside in will never work. If God can change your heart, then everything else can change. But if you want to just reform, change your clothes, change the way you do things, change your haircut, remove the chains and cover over the tattoos and stuff like that, that doesn't change anything. But if God gets your heart, and He can change your heart, everything else in your life will change. Because He's going to separate you from the world, He's going to sever you from the world, cut you off. from the rest of the world to be one of his children. And so we see in the book of Leviticus, God wants things to be perfect and holy and without blemish. And he wants us as the children of God to be able to reflect the nature of our father and to be like him. We can't be him, we can't be perfect, we can't be absolutely sinless, but we can be like him, amen? We can be like Him. We can't be exactly the same, but we can be like Him. And that's what He is desiring. He wants us to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. And we read that in Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And so he, the Lord God looking down the through time and looking at everyone that was ever going to be born and ever going to be born again, he looks down there and he says, you know, you will be, If you have trust in Christ, you will be like Jesus. I will change you to be like Jesus. I will make you, remember Jesus said, I will make you to become fishes of men. God says, I will make you to become like Jesus. You will be like Jesus. And we read in the book of 1 John that when we shall see him, we'll be like him. for we shall see him as he is. And so, as we go through our life, he just slowly changes us, conforms us into the image of Christ, changing us to be more and more like Jesus and helping us to be more and more effective in sharing the gospel and being able to lead people to Christ. And He's changing us and helping us to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, but then when we enter into the heavens and the day when Christ will come to reclaim His church, we will instantly be like Him. He will just change us. We will put off the mortality and we'll put on the immortality. and we'll get rid of this old body and we'll get the new body, and we're going to be just like Him. Just like Him. We won't be the same as Him, because there's only one Jesus. There's only one God-man. There can only be one of those, but we can be like Him, and we will be like the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to be without blemish. And so when we go through our daily routines and stuff like that and something comes into our life and it kind of makes us realize, hang on a second, I'm still dealing with a problem here in my heart. Come to the Lord and say, Lord, this is a blemish. Can you please help me to... Get rid of this, remove it from my life. You can't do that until you're born again. Amen? You have to be forgiven. You have to be in God's family and then He can begin to change you. So if you're not in God's family, then you need to claim the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to receive Him. You have to bring Him into your life. You have to trust in Him only for your salvation so that you can be holy and without blemish before Him. And so Lord, if there's anyone here this evening that doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, tonight can be the night that you can be severed from the rest of this world, that you can be separated from the world, that you can say, I'm not in the world anymore, I'm in the family of God. and you can receive the Lord Jesus Christ, that perfect offering that was offered by the perfect offerer, and you can receive eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we do thank you for your word. We thank you, Father, for making it plain that you want holiness. You are holy, Lord, and You want us to be holy like You. And so, Lord, we pray that You would help us as Your people to be willing to open our ears, open our hearts to You, and allow You to change us into the image of Your Son. And Lord, I pray if there's anyone here this evening that doesn't know you as their Lord and Saviour, that hasn't trusted you, that hasn't asked for forgiveness and put their trust in your sacrifice as the payment for their sin, Lord, I pray that tonight would be the day of salvation for that person and that you would change their hearts and change their heart and make them one of your children this evening. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.