The Same Gospel From The Beginning – Sanctification

 

A Seven Week Study Through Leviticus by John Carter

God, Who Are You to Judge?

“Defend the Bible? Would you defend a lion?

Loose him, and let him go!

-Spurgeon

Intro/Hook:

A Job-like monologue of questioning God

1. Author and Creator

2. Holy One

3. Righteous

Conclusion:

Gods Response to the My Questioning of God

Answer: I AM

Leviticus 18:1-5, 24-30; 19:2, 18, 34, 37; 20:22-26

18 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the Lord your God. ³ You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. ⁴ You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the Lord your God. ⁵ So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord.

²⁴ ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. ²⁵ For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. ²⁶ 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 ²⁷ (for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled); ²⁸ so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you. ²⁹ For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰ Thus you are to keep My charge, that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them; I am the Lord your God.’”

19² “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

¹⁸ You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

. ³⁴ The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

³⁷ You shall thus observe all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them; I am the Lord.’”

 

20²² ‘You are therefore to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out. ²³ Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them. ²⁴ Hence I have said to you, “You are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. ²⁵ You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean. ²⁶ Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.

1. Author and Creator

God has the right to do as he wishes with that which is his.

Genesis 1:1

In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2. Holy One

God, in his holiness must punish and condemn sin. God’s wrath is an act of judgment against sin. Grudem: God intensely hates sin.

We serve a Holy God who will and even has judged sin.

Genesis 6:5-8 –  Flood

⁵ Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁶ The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. ⁷ The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” ⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

God knew hundreds of years in advance that he would judge the people of Canaan.

Genesis 15:14, 16

¹⁴ But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.

¹⁶ Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

God’s judgment was a result of the peoples sins in direct conflict with Gods holiness.

Leviticus 18:24-30

²⁴ ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. ²⁵ For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. ²⁶ 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 ²⁷ (for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled); ²⁸ so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you. ²⁹ For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰ Thus you are to keep My charge, that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them; I am the Lord your God.’”

3. Righteous (Just)

God, in his righteousness must punish and condemn sin

Grudem: God’s righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right.

God is Righteous

Deuteronomy 32:4

⁴ “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.

God is Righteous

Isaiah 45:18-19

¹⁸ For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited),

“I am the Lord, and there is none else.
¹⁹ “I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a waste place’;
I, the Lord, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.

Christ’s death on the Cross was a public display of Gods righteousness (Justice)

Romans 3:23-26 (Romans 9 – Clay and the potter)

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; ²⁵ whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶ for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Grudem: If God does not punish sin he is not a righteous God.

Intro/Hook:

A Job-like monologue of questioning God

1. Author and Creator

2. Holy One

3. Righteous

 

 

God, Who Are You to Judge?

23x “I am the LORD” – 16x in Chapter 19

Answer: I AM

 

Conclusion:

Gods Response to the My Questioning of God

A monologue of The Gospel