Skip to content Finding Holiness Amid a Corrupt World: Leviticus 19-21 Mar 10 · 19 min ...more
Finding Holiness Amid a Corrupt World: Leviticus 19-21
March 10, 2026 · 19 min
Explore Leviticus' call to holiness and how Christians remain distinct in today's culture.
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Be Holy Because I Am Holy 0:11 Good morning. Today, our journey through the word takes us to Leviticus chapters 19 through 21. Verse 26 of chapter 20. And you shall be holy to me for I, the Lord,0:22 am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine. There is a lot in that 1 verse. And this morning, we're gonna focus primarily on chapters 19 and 20. I'm gonna save chapter0:34 21 for next time when we take a look again at the priest and the feast. Alright. This is a powerful passage that speaks directly, directly to us as followers of Jesus0:46 Christ. Answering a timeless question. How do we remain distinct within a corrupt culture so that we may fully experience the abundant life that Jesus promises us?0:59 Unfortunately, I think that the critics of Christianity are more familiar with this passage than most Christians. The critics often cite the laws about mixed fabrics and seed1:11 as proof that biblical morality is inconsistent and outdated. Well, what we have here in these chapters is both a restatement and a and a further explanation1:24 of, the both the moral and the ceremonial law. Now, we we will consider we'll talk about the distinction between them. The central theme of this passage1:36 is God's call to holiness. So it's it's good to remind ourselves what is holiness. Holiness means being set apart from the defilement of sin that is1:48 a product of our fallen nature and consecrated for God's purposes. Cleansed and devoted to him for his use and his glory. Now, we cannot do that on our own. The2:00 Old Testament proved that. We cannot be holy through keeping the law because we can't do it. We are made holy through the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. Once we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ,2:11 we are redeemed. We're redeemed. But then we're sanctified by the word and by the spirit. We're set apart. So it's it's kind of the opposite of the Old Testament is2:23 that we're we're they were pursuing holiness through the law, through obedience to god, through keeping his commandments in the New Testament, under the new covenant. We want to obey the lord because we are redeemed.2:35 We don't get redeemed by keeping the law or obeying the Lord. Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. We keep his commandments because we love him. Okay. Verse 2,2:47 chapter 19, speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy for I am the Lord your God, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Every 1 of you shall revere his mother and2:59 his father and keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves idols nor make for yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God.3:11 This summarizes really the 2 chapters. Okay? God is calling his people to be different from the rest of the world. To be holy. Now, holiness is not a a state of3:23 mind. It is a posture of living. Now, Paul speaks to this in his letter to the Romans. In Romans chapter 12 verse 1, he says, I and I'm reading the ESV version. I appeal to you therefore brothers3:35 by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Now, we're studying here what a sacrifice was to be. You know, these animals were to be without blemish. They3:47 were to be spotless. We're to do the same. We're to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. We don't die. We don't kill ourselves. We are living unto the Lord holy and3:58 acceptable, which he says is your spiritual worship. Or in the King James version, it says your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by what? Here's how this4:10 happens. By the renewal of your mind. So how do we renew our mind? I mean, when we're inundated with messages from social media, from TV, from the culture, well, yeah, we're gonna4:22 act like the world. If we listen to the world, we follow the world, we're gonna act like the world. We have to renew our minds. How? Through prayer, through the word of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit. That by4:32 testing, you may discern what is the the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. You see, if we're walking in the world by the in the ways of the world, we'll never know what the will of God is. Many4:44 Christians struggle, I don't know what God's will is for my life. Well, are you spending time with Him? Are you in prayer? Are you in the Word? We must renew our minds. We must be different first4:56 here before we're different in the way we live. Alright. I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get behind here. Alright. In the first 4 verses of chapter 19, weHoliness in Family, Work, and Justice 5:08 have 3 of the 10 commandments and we should take notes of where this passage begins. Where does it begin? Where does it say? In the home, honoring the parents, followed by honoring God5:19 through keeping the Sabbath and keeping away from idolatry. Now think about it from how can we honor God whom we cannot see if we do not honor our parents whom our eyes behold? And5:31 there's a lot to do and we'll unpack that later. What it means to honor our parents. Honoring god is more than lip service. As we've discussed before, keeping the Sabbath was a manifestation of putting God first and5:42 declaring our trust in Him. Not to mention the natural benefits of taking a break. Now, we'll save idolatry for, the next chapter. Chapter 19 then covers gleaning,5:54 a call to, to honesty, to justice, and then the passages about crossbreeding and mixed clothing, the use of divination, cuttings and tattoos for the6:06 dead, and prostitution prostitution of your daughter, which were practices of the inhabitants of Canaan. Alright. Verse 9, chapter 19. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not6:18 wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and6:28 the stranger. I am the Lord your God. Notice how he ends this. What's the authority? What's the authority of this instruction? I am the lord your god. That's pretty definitive. This was6:40 god's mean, of providing for the poor here. We talk about this gleaning. Notice, it was not a government program. It was a god program. The state didn't take its cut as the middleman, as we see today. The6:52 recipient had to work. They had to glean the crops. It was not handed to them or dropped off on their door while they were watching TV or playing video games. Verse 17, you shall not hate your7:04 brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of it. Now, that is the ESV version because I I wanted to read it. Let me read it again because this is a really7:14 important verse. You shall not hate your brother in your heart but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. Now, there there's7:26 some different interpretations of that verse but here's how I take it. I take it as what Matthew 18 says That, brothers and sisters in Christ should resolve their differences and not let them simmer and become7:38 stumbling blocks. And and I will I'll be very frank here. This is sometimes challenging for me because I know a lot of people don't believe this, but I try to avoid controversy. I'm not a person drawn to controversy. And7:50 so I sometimes would just rather not say anything about it. But that's not what scripture tells us to do. It says, you shall reason frankly, Reason frankly with your brother last you in8:01 cursing because we don't let things fester in our hearts Sometimes we need to have conversations with people not unloading on them, but having a frank conversation Alright Getting8:13 behind here. Now, let's look at the verses that the critics of the word know so well. Verse 19. You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another. You shall not sow your field with mixed8:25 seed, nor a shall a garment of mixed linen or wool come upon you. Now these there are 2 reasons for these prohibitions. Alright? Spiritual and, frankly, practical. The spiritual was that8:37 they were to be distinct, separated. This was a way to very clearly, clearly recognize the differences. Now the the the the scholars suggested the mixed seeds and the fabrics,8:48 the fabric issue, addressed a superstitious custom of the heathen. Alright? This was again, a form of distinction. But there were also practical reasons that9:00 science has pointed out for these prohibitions. The mingling of seeds can produce, reduce rather the nutritional value of food and facilitate the spread of harmful diseases among crops. We're seeing that today with the,9:12 the effects of genetically altered crops. Alright. Go to verse 29. Do not prostitute your daughter to cause her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land become full of wickedness. Now, who in the9:23 world would send their daughter out to be a prostitute? Well, I mean, I I know they're I don't I'm not gonna go down that path. This is what we see today. It's horrific. But here's what this is about. And9:35 this passage is about idolatry. The worship of the fertility gods and the goddesses included temple prostitution. This was like a religious rite. It was like, yes, we're we're following this this idol.9:48 And and so a part of that was having temple prostitutes. And it was like it was this this elevated position of being a temple prostitute. But this is a warning against idolatry. Verse9:59 33 And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be as 1 born among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land10:11 of Egypt. Look at the authority here. I am the Lord your God. Now, this verse, even recently, has been used to justify illegal immigration.10:24 Nothing, nothing here suggests the nation should let anyone who wants just walk right in. To the contrary, if they wanted to be a part of the community or the nation, they had10:36 to first obey the laws and the customs of the community and be assimilated in. And when they did, they were treated just like everyone else and they were given justice.10:48 Alright? That's the process. Verse 35, You shall do no injustice in judgement, in measure, of length, in weight, or volume. Justice, we're gonna see here in the Old Testament, God's chief11:00 focus is justice. That's that is that is who god is. That's why his mercy matters so much. But here, he's speaking about economic justice in part. There therefore, you shall observe all my statutes andThe Horror of Child Sacrifice to Molech 11:12 all my judgments and perform them. I am the lord. Now on to chapter 20. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying again, you shall say to the children of Israel, whoever of the children of Israel or of the strangers who dwell11:23 in the land, who give notice here the strangers had to follow the same rules. Who dwells in land, who gives any of his descendants to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with11:35 stones. I will set my face against that man and will cut him off from his people because he has given some of his descendants to Molech to defile my sanctuary and profaned my holy11:46 name. Now I we quoted this a couple of sessions back. And if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes, oh, I didn't see that, from the man when he gives some of his11:58 descendants to Molech, and they do not kill him, then I will set my face against that man and against his family, and I will cut him off from his people and all who12:10 prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech. Right? God keeps bringing up this topic of child sacrifice.12:22 And it's not the last time that we're going to see this This communicates the seriousness of sacrificing children to the principality known as Molech and the guilt of those12:34 who not only give their children but also those who watch and do nothing about it. I believe this is equivalent to today's abortion.12:46 Sacrificing children on the altar of convenience. Now, the Old Testament speaks to the physical, where the New Testament speaks to the spiritual. I believe we should act to stop12:57 abortion. Our law should reflect and align with the word of God That respects life. That understands that it is created in the image of God. But notice, I talked about this last time. And I know13:09 I'm going all along today. But these are important things. The, the, this giving of children to Molech was a part of the temple prostitution. This was a way to13:21 deal with unwanted children. Well, today, we've just opened the floodgates of sex. And there's a lot of children being born. And so we figure, well, the way to deal with that, because these children aren't wanted,13:32 they're going to grow up, they're probably gonna be in crime, etcetera, etcetera. Let's just, you know, let's use abortion. Look what God says. It's the same thing, just different names.13:44 Okay. Verse 6, chapter 20, and the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits to to prostitute himself with him, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from the land. So what's13:56 this talking about? Talking about demons. Turning from the 1 true God and seeking counsel advice from the father of lies and his minions. Rather, this is what we're to do. Verse14:08 7. How did this is the part of the key of how do we live in this world. Consecrate yourself therefore and be holy for I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourself. Set yourself apart. Be different. It's an act.14:20 It's an intentional decision. We return to what Leviticus is all about. It's a book of worship, how we are to worship God, but worship is all consuming. It covers every aspect of14:32 our lives. It is a call to holiness, to be different, to be set apart for the purposes of God. Verse 8, and you shall keep my statutes and perform them. I am the Lord your God who sanctifies14:43 you. He sanctifies us. Like the book, the entire passage is about being set apart as the people of God and the consequences That come if we choose not to and we follow theObey God or Be Vomited from the Land 14:55 ways of the world Look at, verse 22 You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgments and perform them that the land where I am bringing you to well may not vomit you out15:07 And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation, which I am casting out before you, for they committed all of these things, and therefore I abhor them. But I have said to you, you15:19 shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has separated you from the peoples. Now back15:31 in Genesis, I believe it was Genesis chapter 15, where the Lord spoke to Abraham and said, you know, your your people are there's gonna be a nation coming from you. They're gonna be for a time. They're gonna be in15:42 captivity, but they're gonna come out and they're gonna inhabit this land. I think it was of the he mentioned of the Amorites. And he said, but not yet because the their iniquity is not yet15:54 full. And and and so there comes a point where the land itself bears witness against the sin of the people. And the land, he says, it vomits them out.16:06 He was giving them, you know, a chance to turn around, but eventually the the the the weight of their sin caused them to be vomited out of the land. And and we're gonna see that the Lord warns the children of16:18 Israel that if you do the same thing that the inhabitants that I cast out before you did, the results will be the same. Alright. There are there are consequences16:30 for the destruction of society's moral order. History has shown us that truth and unfortunately, whether it is acknowledged or not, we are witnessing it today. As we do the things that were done16:42 before by these heathen nations, by pagan nations, we can't expect to get a different result. So how do we remain distinct within a corrupt culture so that we can16:54 be that salt and light, that we can be that catalyst for change, for transformation? How how can we do that so that we can be that catalyst of change, that we can be that salt and light? And so that we can17:05 enjoy and walk in the abundant life that Jesus promised. Jesus came to save us. He said, I came to give you life and life more abundantly. Well, how do we do that? Well, here's the answer. It's it17:17 may sound simple, but it's profound. We must not follow the ways of the world, but the ways of God God is not merely telling us what to avoid. He is showing us how we should live17:29 Avoid will always be filled. Alright, it's not just keeping things out It's about putting something in. If our lives are not shaped and guided by the truth of God, they will inevitably be shaped and directed by something17:41 else. You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Holiness is not an accident. It's an intentional act of obedience.17:53 Father, we thank you for your Word. Lord, you know, this is a passage that just is skimmed over, overlooked, because many people, it's it's outdated. It has no application to us. Lord, there is so much18:05 in this passage for us. The call to be holy, to be distinct, to be separate, but not to be the Lord to be in the world, but not of the world. And, Lord, our holiness is not achieved on our18:16 own. It is out of that that that that redemption that we have through Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in our life by abiding in Christ that we bear fruit, that we bear the fruit of holiness.18:29 And so, father, I pray that the Holy Spirit would be at work in our in our lives, continuing to lead us on this journey, teaching us, Lord, that we, in fact, would be holy, that we would be separate from the18:41 world. Lord, separate in our conduct and in our actions that the world may look to us to want to know the answer to the abundant life. How do we have that abundant life? It is18:52 Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. We pray this in his name. Amen. Alright. Thanks for joining me this morning. And until next time, keep standing on the word.19:06 Today's study comes from the stand on the word Bible reading plan available for free at frc dot org slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day, you19:18 can read through the entire Bible in just 2 years. Learn more and request the the free reading guide at frc dot org slash bible.In this video 0:00 Be Holy Because I Am Holy5:04 Holiness in Family, Work, and Justice11:04 The Horror of Child Sacrifice to Molech14:46 Obey God or Be Vomited from the Land
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