00:00
00:00
00:01
脚本
1/0
We turn in the word of God to Leviticus 21 and 22. Now on the surface of things, as you read these two chapters, you might initially conclude in your minds, well this is the 21st century. And these things seem far distant from us. They happened a long time ago. They speak of things that no longer happen. It speaks of Aaron, the high priest of the Levites and of duties and things that are to be done. And it all seems so strange and foreign to us. But if I suggest to you that every single believer lives in the light of these two chapters, walks in a manner which show the consequences of these two chapters, and that you depend upon what is taught in these two chapters, you will therefore immediately realize that they're not so distant after all. Everything that is stated in these two chapters rests upon three verses. The last three verses of chapter 22. So let us read them again. Therefore, in light of all that has been taught, therefore, as a consequence, in conclusion, 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 to be your God. I am the Lord. I look carefully at what God is teaching. He is teaching us three basic truths. First, You have the demands of God in verse 31. What does God require of us? What does he demand from us? He demands obedience. And that's still the same demand. So in other words, everything that we're going to look at in these two chapters relates directly to God's demand, the demand of obedience. Second, in verse 32, the honour of God. We are to seek to glorify God. And immediately the children will all recall Shorter Catechism 1, living for God's glory, to hallow God. And what do we read in the Lord's Prayer? Hallowed be thy name. So it's still the same truth. So you begin to see the connection between these two chapters and us. So it's firstly the demand of God, secondly the honour of God, and thirdly in verse 33, the work of God. I am the Lord which hallow you, that brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. Here God is saying, the reason for the demand, obedience, And the reason why you are to live for God's glory is because I saved you, I redeemed you. So everything rests upon these three verses. It's a triple foundation upon which the Christian builds their life. It's the very same triple foundation that the children of Israel were to build their lives upon, chapters 21 and 22. It is also a framework in which the perfection of Jesus Christ is being presented to them in this Old Testament form, because as soon as we look at these things, what do we immediately see? Our own imperfections. So everything then that is stated in these two chapters must be examined in light of these three verses. And so our subject this morning is a triple foundation, a triple foundation. So let's look then at these two chapters. First of all, the demands, honor and work of God. In other words, verses 31, two and three, the demands, honour and work of God requires personal integrity. Chapter 21, verses 1 through 15. The demands, honour and work of God requires personal integrity. How do you know a Christian? What is one of their characteristics? They are men and women of integrity. It's a great characteristic, men and women of integrity. There's one word that runs through this section, verses 1 through 15, and it's the word profane. Profanity was to be avoided in four areas of life. What are the four? Well, he is speaking, of course, to the priests, the sons of Aaron. And the first area of profanity that they were to avoid was in their name, verse four. But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself. So his name and reputation, his integrity was to be protected. Second area in verse six, and that is his loyalty. They shall be holy unto their God and not profane the name of their God. So the name of God was to be protected. What do we have a jealousy over? The name of God, the honor of God. his loyalty. The third one in verse 12, his service. Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the crown of his anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the Lord. So in his service for God, profanity was to be avoided. And fourth, in verse 15, his descendants, neither shall he profane his seed among his people. You see, the relevance of all of this, here are four things that the believer strives to protect. The believer strives to protect their name or their integrity, their loyalty to God, the honor of God, the name of God, their service for God, to always obey correctly, but also their descendants. If they have children, they don't want to bring profanity into the lives of their children. That's why they're always so careful about what they watch and what they read and what they say and what they do. They don't want their children to learn all their bad habits. Parents know all their bad habits and all their weaknesses, but we don't want our children to copy us in that area of life. In other words, there is no circumstance in life that requires the child of God to set aside first commandment loyalty. Neither death, nor marriage, nor duties, nor children or a circumstance or an excuse to set aside first commandment loyalty. And you will notice I mention death first because death is the first thing that is mentioned. Of all the areas of life, death has its own peculiar impacts upon us. But not even death should cause us to set aside first commandment loyalty. and yet even in death evangelicals can feel. Let me give you an example or an illustration for the benefit of the younger ones. At a funeral, evangelicals seem to think that no matter how bizarre a funeral is, no matter how daft it all is, no matter how downright unbiblical it all is, they are to be willing and happy participants of all the shenanigans that go on. And then we are expected, after the funeral service, to agree with everyone, wasn't it a wonderful service? Was it all so delightful? Friends, we cannot set aside First Commandment loyalty even in death. And over the years, my wife and I have had times to refuse to attend certain funerals because of being forewarned of what is happening, even to walk out of funerals because we disagree with what is going on. ministers are sometimes persuaded when they're taking funerals, we would like you to do this, we want you to do that, we want you to do the other, and the minister has to say, well, I'm not doing it, but if you want to get someone else, that's fine. First commandment loyalty comes before death. That's a hard thing, isn't it? But which comes first, God or others? So here God is saying to these people, not even death comes before first commandment loyalty. Not even death. So the demands, honor, and work of God requires personal integrity. In other words, everyone should say, well, if a Christian's going to do a certain thing, we could put our coat on it because we know if that's what they say they're going to do, that's the way it will be. If they say they're not going to do something or they are going to do something, if they're not something or they are something, we will accept that because we take their word as bond. That's Christian integrity. We could stand over any Christian. because of that personal integrity. Because here are people who understand the demands and the honor and the work of God and that creates within them this personal integrity so that they're careful over name, loyalty, service, and everything else. Christians are quite a unique people. A very unique people. Romanists are able to tell lies when it suits them because the end justifies the means. Muslims do the same, the end justifies the means. So they're quite happy to shave off their beards and be a suicide bomber because that would deceive the police and everyone else. They're happy to do all these things. The Mormons will happily deceive you. The JWs are happy to deceive you. All the religions of the world will happily deceive you. The communists will deceive you. The politicians will deceive you. All the time and every place deception occurs. But Christians are unique. They are unique. They are peculiar people. because they possess this principle of integrity, the demands of God, the work of God, and the honor of God produces that integrity in Christians that nothing else can. And then secondly, chapter 21, verses 16 to 24, the demands, honor, and work of God requires unblemished fitness. Let me go over that again. The demands, honor, and work of God. In other words, those last three verses, 31, 2, and 3. The demands, honor, and work of God requires unblemished fitness. Now in this section, 16 to 24, the key word here is blemished. Six times The word blemish is used verses 17, 18, 20, 21, and 23. And every and any physical defect disqualified. Speak unto Aaron saying, whosoever he be of thy seed and thy generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach thee offer the bread of his God. So this raises a question. Why should a physical defect disqualify the person? Has God got a thing against disabilities and physical defects? Well, remember three things. Firstly, just as every sacrifice was to be unblemished, so the offerer of that sacrifice was to be unblemished. And secondly, The physical directly points to the spiritual. Remember this is in the Older Testament period. So the physical in this context directly pointed to the spiritual. And thirdly, physical defects did not disqualify for general service, but it did disqualify and making sacrifice. In other words, the principle being taught here runs through all of scripture. God requires a perfect person with a perfect work in order to be acceptable to him. And immediately you see the point that's being made. The demands, honour and work of God requires unblemished fitness. How are we ever to be acceptable to God? If God requires of the offerer a perfect person with perfect works to make a perfect sacrifice, every single one of us are immediately disqualified. So what we have here in this section is a preview of Christ and how we can become acceptable to God. Because what does Paul tell us? We are accepted in the beloved. So that our works and our person are acceptable to God. But the demands, honour and work of God requires not only personal integrity but unblemished fitness. And then thirdly, chapter 22, all of this chapter verses 1 to 30, the demands, honour and work of God requires pursuing excellence. The demands, honor, and work of God requires pursuing excellence. Now you will notice when you read through the whole chapter, which I trust you will do again, it follows the very same order and emphasis of the previous chapter. So the word profean, is in the first half of the chapter, followed by the word blemish in the second part of the chapter. So in regards to profanity, what cannot be profaned? And there are three things that must not be profaned. The first is in verse 2. the name of God, that they profane not my holy name, and those things which they hallow unto me, I am the Lord. So God's name is to be protected. And then in verse nine, secondly, God's ordinance, they shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it and die thereof, if they profane it, I the Lord do sanctify them. So God's name, God's ordinance, and thirdly, in verse 15, God's worship, and they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer unto the Lord. In the rest of the chapter, the word blemish is central. So if in chapter one it's unblemished people, in chapter 22 it is unblemished sacrifices. So unblemished servants in chapter 21, followed here by unblemished sacrifices. And there are three things in particular that occupy this section, or indeed, this whole chapter, we might say. And the first is this, unacceptable service, unacceptable service. Remember the emphasis is pursuing excellence. So there is an unacceptable service, verses one to nine. And here you see that there are no special privileges granted, no excuses could be played. Unacceptable service, they were to pursue excellence in their service. And secondly, verses 10 through 16, unacceptable negligence. We have a phrase, familiarity breeds contempt. Well, there's always a danger of treating spiritual things casually, and God gives us two examples. The first example is in verses 10 through 13, and the second example, verses 14 and 15. What happens whenever we're serving God, when we're engaged in spiritual things, we become careless. We get casual. Here we are reminded that boundaries, rules, and regulations matter in spiritual things. Negligence is a sin. Negligence is a sin. And then thirdly, verses 17 to 30, unacceptable sacrifices. Here God is telling them, don't cut corners. Either by keeping the best for yourself or taking anything even from a stranger, no matter how imperfect it is, verse 25. Standards must be maintained. No matter what age you live in, no matter what the circumstance is, no matter the position in society, God's people are not to lower the standards. What you see is how all of these things that are taught are taught in light of these last three verses. God's demand, verse 31, God's honour, verse 32, and God's work, in verse 33. So in these three crucial areas of life, personal integrity, unblemished fitness, and pursuing excellence, they all flow from obedience to God, the honour and glory of God, and the work of God in salvation. Let me put it very simply, when young people are sitting exams, what is the objective? What is the motivation? Is it simply to pass the exam so you get an A or an A star so you can tell your friends, oh well I got an A star, is that simply it? Before you even go into that examination, there is a principle that is to govern your thinking and your preparation. What is it? Pursuing excellence. It's like sitting for your driving test. The examiner is looking for a standard. And I know we might say, well, if I just meet the standard, I'm content. But even doing that, you want to pursue excellence, don't you? So as you pass the test, you're driving thereafter may not be much good but at least you've pursued excellence in setting the test. Monday through Friday, you've all these various duties to do. You know there's an old song that people sing, I hate Mondays. Well why on earth should you hate Mondays? God has given us seven days a week, why should you hate any one of them? Well what are you going to do tomorrow? you're going to pursue excellence. Why? Because of the demands of God and the honor of God and the work of God. So you go into that workplace as one who's been redeemed by God, living for the glory of God and seeking to obey God to the point of excellence. One of the things that I like to do when I'm out having a cup of tea somewhere. I like to talk to the people who serve. Often people treat them as slaves so to speak. They don't mean anything. But I always like to ask them, well how are you today? And do you like your job? Do you like working here? It's fascinating the answers that you get from all kinds of people. Then there's some places you go into and you ask the girl he's serving, and the way she answers the question, you might pluck up the courage and you might say, are you a Christian? They say, yes, how did you know? Well, of course I knew, because of their whole attitude and the way they do things. That's how we know one another in one sense, pursuing excellence. So whether you're at school, or retired, or at work, in the home or outside the home, wherever you are placed. Pursuing excellence. Personal integrity. Unblemished fitness. Pursuing excellence. But let's come to applications of all of these two chapters for ourselves. And first of all, for our own humiliation. When we examine ourselves in light of these two chapters, there really is only one conclusion we can come to. we have failed. We have failed in many ways. We fail as husbands, as wives, as parents, as children. We fail as citizens, as workers, as students, as carers. In every area of life, we see our failings. When we look at ourselves in light of our obedience, therefore shall ye keep my commandments and do them? I am the Lord. Do we see perfect obedience? The answer is no. When we look at ourselves in light of the first commandment, verse 32, neither shall ye profane my holy name. Do we always live for the glory of God? Do you always seek to glorify God in all things? And when we put all that we are and all that we do within the context of this salvation, verse 33, the Lord had brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. Do we not also see what failures we are? Do we show in our lives that we are saved, that we are a redeemed people? Our whole situation in that sense is hopeless. Let me say to you, if you haven't come to that conclusion, there's something wrong. And if you didn't come to that conclusion, you have missed something. Have you? Do you? Did you? Put your marriage before first commandment loyalty? Do you put your life before first commandment loyalty? Yourselves? You know, when you watch these trade union people out parading, marching, demanding whatever they're demanding, you know, they always shout, what do we want? They give the answer. When do we want it? We want it now. They don't care about anybody else. This is what I want, give it to me now. People love that silly song. Even sing of the funerals by Frank Sinatra, I did it my way. How rather pathetic. If we do it our way, it's always a failure. The absence of First Commandment loyalty, I did it my way. What about our children and grandchildren? Do we put them before First Commandment loyalty? What about our callings? Do we pursue excellence in our callings and all our duties? What about spiritual things? Do we pursue excellence in spiritual things? Or have we become casual in spiritual things? Let me say to the younger ones, what about your spiritual life? I know I often speak to older ones about their walk before the Lord. But children and young people, what about you? What about your spiritual life? Are you pursuing excellence in your spiritual life? Do you have a passion for the Lord? Do you have a drive to learn of the Lord? What are you reading? Do you read? What do you like to read? What do you study? What do you think about? What makes you tick, we might say. Examine yourself, I say to the younger ones, in light of these two chapters, and especially these final three verses, 31 to 3, the demands of God, and the honor of God, and the work of God in your lives. And then secondly, for your consolation. There's a wonderful consolation. What God demands is met perfectly by Christ. God demands a perfect person with a perfect life, offering a perfect sacrifice. How can it be done? Only in Christ. Christ in his person, in his work, and in his sacrifice was fully perfect. Everything he said, was fully perfect. Everything he did was fully perfect. Absolutely perfect. The perfection of Jesus Christ. Of his words. What do we read in scripture? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Fully perfect. Of his person, we read that he was without sin. Of his work, we read he went about doing good. and of a sacrifice, we read that it was without spot or blemish. Christ is infinitely excellent because of his perfection. So in everything regarding Christ, we read he pleased the Father. And that is why in him, we are accepted. Our labours, yes, our labours, one day rewarded. Think of it, well done, thy good and faithful servant. How can God possibly say that to us? How can he say well done with such failures? It's because of Christ. Good servant, we haven't been good servants. Faithful servant, we haven't even been faithful. And yet he is pleased to say, well done, good and faithful servant. It's because of Christ, you see. So we are accepted, our neighbors accepted, and our lives witnessed, and all because of Christ. Revelation 1.5 says of us that we are priests unto God. What an astonishing comment and characteristic, that we are priests unto God, offering the sacrifice of praise to God, offering our lives to God, seeking to live for Him, and honour him and do it all because of him. And then thirdly, for your instruction. There are so many contemporary points of application from these two chapters. It's really hard to know where to start and finish, I have to confess. You know, you get an A4 page, you write everything down and I scratch my head and think, well, I mean, what am I going to do here? Because there's just so many things that we learn from this. But the principle lesson for us is this. How do we reflect this triangular relationship, verses 31 to three, of God's command, God's glory, and God's salvation in our lives? How can we reflect this triangular relationship in our own lives? None of this is possible, let's say from the outset, for anyone unless they're saved. None of this is possible unless you're a child of God. If you're not a Christian, this triangular relationship of God's command and God's glory and God's salvation cannot be reflected in your life. Children, are you saved? Are you? Adults, are you saved? No one has any interest in obeying God, honoring God, or any desire to savingly love God, unless they're one of His children. But for those who are saved, for those who are converted, all these things become possible. This triangular relationship of God's command, God's glory, and God's salvation can all become reflected in our lives because the Bible tells us that we have been called with a holy calling to Timothy 1.9, with a high calling, Philippians 3.14, and a heavenly calling, Hebrews 3.1. To do what? Why has God saved us? that we might obey God's law, verse 31, therefore shall you keep my commandments and do them. To honour God's name, verse 32, neither shall you profane my holy name. And to rejoice in God's salvation, verse 33, the Lord hath brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. We do not do these things in order to be justified, but as Burgess, the Puritan of the Westminster Assembly, points out in Vindicay, let's say he says what? Out of gratitude. Out of gratitude. What does the Lord Jesus Christ say? He picks up on all these things. Listen to this. He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth father and mother more than me. Children, you are to love your parents, but you cannot put them before Christ. You are to love Christ first Let those that have wives be as though they had none. Husbands, you are to love your wives, but you are never to love your wife more than Christ. In that sense, to be as though you had none. And what about those who die? Concerning them that fall asleep, sorrow not as others. not even death comes before first commandment loyalty. In other words, all these truths, all these principles that are taught in these two chapters are all presented to you in the New Testament. There's not a single thing said here that is refuted by the New Testament or overthrown by the New Testament. Neither death, nor family, nor duties, are to come before God, but to the contrary, they are to reflect God's demands, God's honour and glory, and God's work of salvation in our lives. So what about us today? How have we been living since the start of this year? Let's take a time today, if possible, and reflect upon the first half of this year thus far. How have we lived this year? What has occupied your life this year? Have you put anything before these three things, in place of these three things, at the expense of these three things? or have you sought in life to shape everything in light of these things, of God's demand, God's glory and honor, and God's work of salvation? Do we, as professing Christians, demonstrate in life, demonstrate within our family circle, demonstrate within the company that we keep, demonstrate in our callings and duties, This triangular relationship, or this footstool, it's like a three-legged stool, isn't it? You know, in the olden days, when farmers were milking cows, it was a three-legged stool that they used. Very, very steady, very strong. Took away one leg, or was shorter than the rest, but you cowped over, as we say. Well, here's a three-legged stool. Here's a triple foundation. upon which we stand, God's command, God's glory and God's salvation. Do we reflect that in our lives? Do we show that? Can all the children in our congregation say, I know that my parents are Christians because they instill within us the commands of God Because they rebuke us when we bring shame to the honor of God? Esther Edwards Burr, daughter of Jonathan Edwards. She was married to Aaron Burr. Their son became Vice President of the United States. But her husband died very suddenly, left her a widow at a very young age, very young children. When you read the letter that she wrote to her mother, the last two paragraphs of that letter, the one thing she asked prayer for, what was it for? That in her hour of grief, she would not bring dishonor to the name of God. That in the hour of grief, she would not bring dishonor to the name of God. Do we reflect something of that sentiment in all our difficulties? In all our duties? In all our work? God's command, God's honour and God's work of salvation. They're all to be reflected in every part of our lives. May God bless His word to our hearts.
A Triple Foundation
系列 Leviticus
The foundation upon which we build a life
讲道编号 | 725161644112 |
期间 | 42:35 |
日期 | |
类别 | 周日 - 上午 |
圣经文本 | 論利未輩之書 21; 論利未輩之書 22 |
语言 | 英语 |