The Reason of God Vs Man

Okay, we're gonna pray and we are going to get started. Lord Jesus Christ giver and perfecter of our faith. We thank and we praise you for Continuing among us the preaching of your gospel for our instruction and for edification.

Send your blessing upon the word which has been spoken to us and by your Holy Spirit increase our saving knowledge of you. That day by day we may be strengthened in the divine truth and remain steadfast in your grace.

Give us strength to fight the good fight by faith and to overcome all the temptations of Satan our flesh the world So that we may finally receive the salvation of our souls. For you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever Amen.

Job, Suffering, and the Danger of Self-Righteousness

Okay, any questions crop up as a result of the sermon. Any questions. Yes, sir.

Of you.

Well in this particular case it was the manifestation of God in the whirlwind, okay.

Yeah.

So he was still he didn't really see the face of God in that sense, but I Would say that having a tornado speak to you with the voice of God that would leave a that would leave a mark you know, at least that would indelibly imprint something on your mind and so he was one of the few who got to.

Have his faith result in some type of sight. Does that make sense? Whereas we purely walk by faith and not by sight. All right now have any of you I mean The book of Job. I mean, have you found that book to be challenging?

Yeah.

I almost hate to say it, but then it kind of seems like Satan was right. He did turn Against God. God had to intervene. Yeah.

He didn't curse God, but he did end up trying to find guilt with God and Where he faltered is so instructive for us because he faltered in the belief That his good works made him righteous and that God then was in the wrong for treating him as an evildoer.

It's not as righteous not even one not even joke. Yes. Yeah, the scholars debate on this now I'll tell you. So my translation skills in Hebrew are not Nearly as sharp as my translation skills in in Greek, but I can tell you that Job's Hebrew is Really difficult to translate and as a result of it There are scholars who believe that it represents kind of a pure older form of Hebrew.

Then we get in even the later prophets. And so Hebrew is one of these Languages that over the over the course of the time that the Old Testament was being written You can see that the language is changing.

I guess I would I would liken it to this. It's the difference between reading a modern-day translation as opposed to reading the King James you can still read the King James. So when you read when you when you look at Job's Hebrew, it's more akin I liken it to the King James version of Hebrew, you know.

That's the best way I can put it and there are some real challenges as how to how to properly pull into English some of the things that are being spoken in in in Job and for that reason there are some scholars who believe that's that may be the oldest book.

This was all available like to the Pharisees they just ignored.

Yeah, I would note that the self-righteous who are in it within the visible Christian Church. That all of these scriptures are available to them and they somehow find a way to ignore it, you know somehow deluding themselves into believing that their law-keeping that their obedience somehow merits their Salvation and it doesn't.

It just doesn't you know, and and so we learned from Job's Sin in this part in in putting blame on God by claiming his own innocence that in so doing when we put. Let's just say that for a second. I was sitting there go.

All right, I'm suffering. I'm suffering terribly right and I sit there and go. God. What are you doing here? Why am I being made to suffer? I'm.

Righteous, I.

Worked at the soup kitchen last Thanksgiving, you know, look how much money I gave to Kongsvinger last year. Look at all the good things that I'm doing. Lord, you know, why are you treating me? Like I am unrighteous.

That when you don't recognize your own sin and you think that you're righteous in and of yourself that what you end up doing is. Whether you recognize it or not you are placing on God guilt. When when you are made to suffer and That's that's a that's a that's a dangerous thing to do very dangerous.

So self-righteousness is ruled out in a thousand different ways. And one of the ways the scripture rules it out is because if you think you're righteous in and of yourself. Then when you experience suffering then God has done something evil truly wrong.

To you that and when God doesn't do that.

So a lot of times you hear the story of Joe. What you hear is that well God tested him or the devil tested him, but he was saved by his faith. His faith was strong. You never hear that.

Nearly.

Yeah, I mean I don't know if God were to come barreling down the road at me in a super solo Thunderstorm drop a tornado and start talking to me from it. I.

You know, yeah.

So that would. The experience itself might cause PTSD for like the rest of my life, you know you know and and we've all seen the we've all seen video footage of Tornadoes if you haven't seen one in real life, these things are not small, you know.

And when they're doing their thing, I mean, it's it's just wow. And what would it take for the voice of God to be heard above the sound of the tornado itself? You know. So, yeah, I I think Job is a difficult book.

I liken it to. Have you all seen the movie The Sixth Sense? Okay, like so your first time through The Sixth Sense, you know, you think you know what's going on. But you don't. Okay, and then you have the turn.

All right, and you realize whoa, wait a second what? Okay, so after you watch the movie the first time and then you see the the turn the twist. What do you do you go back and you rewatch it again? And you sit there and you go, of course, it was there the whole time.

It's like wow, right, you know. Okay, so Job is kind of like that. So you you you get the set up, you know. The devil has caused Job to suffer. He sits there in and ashes and and his friends are there in silence for seven days.

And then they open up their mouth and the thing is is that the the the theology the doctrine that is coming out of their mouth.

Sounds.

Reasonable. It's not like they're saying.

Well.

Job what you really need to do is you need to offer some you know and an offering of incense to Elvis Presley and everybody. Knows that once you do that, it'll clear clear right up. It's not wackerdoodle like that what they say sounds so Reasonable, but they each of the different three.

Of the three of them they. You know, they have a different spin off of it and everything they say is wrong. But on a first read you sit there and go well. Yeah, that makes sense. And then you read and then by the time you get to the end of the book you realize oh.

Oh, whoa, wait a second. Nothing. Nothing. They said was right. Okay, cuz God won't even allow God won't even hear their prayers. He'll only deal with them through Job and he he basically says you have spoken falsely of me.

So all that being said then when you see the punchline at the end, then it makes you go back and you reread okay, so what is. Why is this Temanite guy? Why is he? Why is his theology bad? Why is he not speaking the truth about God?

So you have to go back and you have to work your way through it. Once you know what the turn is so Job but Job is like that and and not only that. The the language is very poetic even in the English translations and it's just it's it's a it's a book you have to kind of apply yourself to.

Intentionally and once you do you can start to you can start to suck the marrow out of it. But it you're not gonna get it and on the first read. On a second read you'll start to kind of see okay I can see how this works, but maybe three or four or five reads through it, you know.

And then you can really kind of you know, plumb the depths of it. So.

The Problem of Evil, theodicy, and God’s Answer in Christ

Atheists.

Go to do. Try to say that God isn't good. Look what he did to this person. Yeah, okay.

So I'll give you an example of what you just said. So we talked about atheists. God isn't good. They'll invoke Job or they'll invoke invoke suffering in and of itself. All right, so Stephen Fry a very famous British.

Actor.

He's also a well-known atheist and he was asked a question this is probably more than ten years ago now. He was asked the question What if after you die you stand before God and you realize that you were wrong that God really exists?

Right and. And he immediately his answer was oh. Well, if that's the case, then I would stand my ground and I would say to God God really? Really giving children bone cancer. What kind of being are you as if somehow he can explain it?

He was God of evil, right? And. And that was his answer and I'm thinking a dude. Dude, you do not know what you are doing here. You see none is righteous and that includes children. We are all conceived and born in sin each of us are under the dominion of darkness the wages of sin is death and that sin itself and the rebellion against God has profound Consequences it has profound consequences in our life.

Individually in our lives within our family within our lives as society and then within the whole planet itself even the creation itself is groaning in laboring, you know and under the curse waiting in anticipation for the revealing of the sons of God and to be Set free from the bondage that it is into to decay.

And so we will never be able to point a bony finger at God and say God you were wrong. Really you think you're gonna pull that one off, right and so the in In ten technical terms that they call that the problem of theodicy, you know, what are the existence of if God is good?

Why is there evil in the world? But the reality is when you work through all of the different potential. You know ways of resolving it God by letting sin run its course. Actually, there's a there's a there's a there's profound wisdom because if you say well, all right God, why do you permit evil in the world?

So God goes, okay fine. I'm just gonna eliminate all evil. Oh. By the way, you're gone. You know you got swept up in that one, too. Yeah, be careful what you ask for, you know. It reminds me of it reminds this is there's this fellow who has this Twitter account and it is a riot.

And he's he's a he's a who does photo processing using Photoshop and people send him requests on Twitter. You know, they'll give him a photograph and say, you know, you know, I I look terrible in this picture.

So that you have this woman. She's she's lying in water and the photo didn't turn out right and so she says I'm lying in some water right here. And you know and because the background is black. You can't really tell that I'm in water.

Could you fix the photo so that I everyone would know that I'm in water and he said no Problem and next thing, you know, he photoshopped her face in inside the circle of a washing machine. Everybody now knows you're in water, you know.

So well God needs to get rid of evil. Okay. Yep. Now now everyone's gone. All right, but there's another piece to all of this and that is and this is the part that everybody overlooks. And this is where Ellie who?

His.

Although he's he's youthful in in this account. He's the only one who preaches the gospel and the gospel itself Really changes everything because here's the thing God knows full well. How evil is because he sent his only begotten Son and the Son of God?

Experienced the greatest injustice ever in human history. The sinless spotless never did anything wrong always did good. Lamp, you know son of God he was betrayed and he was murdered and he was crucified and he died and.

So you'll note then that God himself then Doesn't save us by eliminating the consequences of sin. Instead he takes those consequences on himself and then he conquers death on the other side of it. And so he's saving us through the curse and he's saving us through death not Taking death out of the equation.

Does that make sense? So it's a yeah, it's a it's frightening when you consider all of that. But such are the real consequences of sin. So the atheist and remember it's not the educated that says in his heart there is no God scripture says it's the fool.

It's the fool. Okay.

Mm-hmm, and that's a rebuke from the Word of God and the purpose of that rebuke is that they would avoid the pit that God Would rescue them from it as well. All right, we're back in Leviticus chapter 20.

Holiness, Sexual Purity, and the Priestly Call in Leviticus 20–21

We're gonna keep working our way through all of these Commandments as it relates to nakedness and sexual immorality again noting then that it's it's absolutely Just an indictment against us in our sinfulness that God has to Drill down to the nano commandment to to make it clear that there are certain things that you ought not to do that when it Comes to sexual immorality There's so many different perversions involved in this that God had to get very specific and cut off all of the different Ways in which that people would try to twist it and say well, I didn't do that.

So that's that means I didn't my Britain didn't break the commandment alright, so if a man takes his sister a Daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother sees her nakedness and she see and and she sees his nakedness.

It is a disgrace that shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people he has uncovered his sister's nakedness and he shall bear his iniquity and so you'll note then that this is a this is a means by which you cut off all forms of any kind of Sexual abuse within a family.

These are these are commandments that that rule that out altogether. It's not merely Intercourse that is ruled out here, but just seeing the nakedness of a daughter. You know this or a sister, you know of it, you know.

This all is ruled out. So if a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness He's made naked or fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among the people.

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister of your father's sister for that is to make Naked ones relative they shall bear their iniquity if a man lies with his uncle's wife. He's uncovered his uncle's nakedness They shall bear their iniquity and they shall die childless if a man takes his brother's wife.

It is impurity. He has uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be childless. You shall therefore keep all my statutes all my rules. Do them that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out.

So note here.

Sin.

According to scripture is kind of one of these things that has quantum impacts on the environment itself and so You remember that this earth was not created for sin you were not created for sin that when you engage in these things that it Pollutes even the environment, you know, we worry about, you know.

Are there heavy metals in our water and we worry about whether or not there's certain? Pesticides that are getting into our our groundwater and into our wells and stuff like that. I think we also need to consider the impact that our sin is having on the environment.

You shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you. They did all these things and therefore I detested them. I have said to you you shall inherit their land. I will give it to you to possess a land flowing with milk and honey.

I am Yahweh your God who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by the beat by beast or by bird or by anything with Which the ground crawls which I have set apart for you to hold unclean.

You shall be holy to me. I am Yahweh. I am holy. I have separated you from the people's that you should be mine. And then a reiteration of the commandment against Medium spiritists and necromancers. A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death.

They shall be stoned with stones their blood shall be upon them. Chapter 21. Yahweh said to Moses speak to the priests. The sons of Aaron say to them. No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people and we noted this when we were working our way through the parable of The Good Samaritan.

That over and again that scripture, you know that we read about you here. We got the priest and the Levite they see a fellow he may be dead on the road and they don't stop to help him and. So when you don't put the Old and the New Testament together, you immediately want to find fault with them.

Because they aren't going to the aid of this man. But Numbers 21 Forbids them from doing that. Again, it's not the law that saves. It's the gospel only the Samaritan had the freedom to administer the gospel.

To the man who had been beaten and left for dead. The two priests were strictly ordered by God. They're not permitted to make themselves unclean for just anyone. They're not and so consider that then so you always said to Moses speak to the priest.

No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people except for his closest relatives. His mother his father his son his daughter his brother or his virgin sister who is near to him because she has not no Husband for her he may make himself unclean.

He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. They shall not make bald patches on their heads nor shave off the edges of their beard nor make any cuts on their body.

They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God for they offer Yahweh's food offerings the bread of their God therefore they shall be holy. So you get the idea here? It's like, you know.

There's a very very short list and remember being within the presence or touching a corpse. Makes you unclean so a Levite or a priest who's just coming back from the temple is Forbidden by God and unless you're on the short list.

Right a mother a father a brother a virgin sister. You're not allowed to do this. So there's the priest and Levite. They see the guy left for dead and they can't tell if he's dead or not. All right, I mean.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes it's not it's not easy to tell whether or not somebody's dead. You know, this is before they knew that you can just put your fingers here and feel a pulse, right? How would you do it in the old days?

Yeah, they would only be about permitted to make themselves unclean for their fallen comrades, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and then Levites by the way weren't. I don't. I don't know if they made a practice of actually being in the army.

It was usually the other tribes who did that.

Okay.

All right talking more about the priest. They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled either shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband? For the priest is holy to God and so all right, so you get the idea here.

You shall sanctify Him for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you. I am Yahweh who sanctify you. I am holy. And the daughter of any priest if she profanes herself by whoring profanes her father.

She shall be burned with fire. The priest who is chief among his brothers on whose head the anointing oils poured and who has been Consecrated to wear the garments shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes.

All right. So this is the high priest then these are restrictions for him. He shall not go into any dead bodies or make himself unclean even for his father or for his mother. He's like forbidden altogether.

He shall not go out of the sanctuary lest he profane the sanctuary of his God. For the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am Yahweh now. This commandment is going to come into play shortly.

So, you know the high priest. There is no list. You're not allowed to make yourself unclean by being in the presence of a dead body. Period doesn't matter if it's mom or dad or son or daughter when you are in your office and you Are doing your duties in the high priest if a close relative dies.

You stay on.

Duty.

Period. Well, it's kind of like when you're in the military, right? You know, have you ever been on a deployment and somebody on the ship had a father or mother die while you guys were at sea. All right, you turn the boat around say oh we got to get you the funeral.

Okay, it depends on the mission. All right, but then you risk like the limb. Yeah, and then yeah.

Yeah, but if I mean during times where we're involved in military engagements and then the mission is There's no way to do it, you know. So the person they get where mom dad died and they will get to grieve and mourn on the ship and They won't get to visit the grave until after they get home.

And what. Nine ten months.

Yeah.

Wow.

How you didn't know until you.

Yeah, it seems cruel, right.

It's cruel, but it's it's not that there's some duties that.

You know.

That morning. Doesn't permit. A death doesn't permit the ability to mourn properly. So the note the high priest here is not permitted to do this. And so that you know. What will happen coming up is that Aaron will be installed by Moses into?

The.

Into the high priesthood and two of his sons are Going to offer up what's called strange fire an offering that was not Authorized by God and they will die as a result of that and Aaron will not be permitted.

To.

Leave his duty post as the high priest to take care of his sons. All right, so he shall take a wife so note then that the priests are required to take a wife in a virginity a Widow or a divorced woman or a woman who has been defiled or prostitute these he shall not marry but he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people that he may not profane his offspring among his people for I am Yahweh who sanctifies him.

So Yahweh spoke to Moses saying speak to Aaron saying none of your offspring throughout their generations. Who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God? For no one who has a blemish shall draw near a man blind or lame or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long or a man who has injured an injured foot or an injured hand or a hunchback or a Dwarf or a man with a defect on it in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles.

No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish Shall come near to offer the Lord's food offerings since he has a blemish. He shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He may eat the bread of his God both of the most holy and the holy things.

But he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar because he has a blemish. That he may not profane my sanctuaries for I am Yahweh who sanctifies them. So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel, so you'll note then that Perfection is a requirement Here in this sense and then we note then that all of these Ailments that befall humanity in one form or another these are the consequences of sin and are the physical Reminders of our fall into sin and God will not permit somebody to serve him.

If that is the case so I can just see the the lawsuit filed today By certain groups saying how dare you not permit You know people with handicaps to serve in the uh-huh. All right. So Yahweh spoke to Moses saying speak to Aaron and his son so that they may abstain from the holy things of the people Of Israel which they dedicate to me so they do not profane my holy name I am Yahweh say to them if any one of your offspring throughout your generation Approaches the holy things that the people of Israel dedicate to Yahweh while he has an uncleanness.

That person shall be cut off from my presence. I am Yahweh. None of the offspring of Aaron who has a leprous disease or a discharge may eat of the holy things until he is clean. Whoever touches anything that is unclean through contact with the dead or a man who has had an omission of semen.

Whoever touches a swarming thing by which he may be made unclean or a person from whom he may take Uncleanness whatever his uncleanness may be. The person who touches such a thing shall be unclean Until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water.

Which again is a type and shadow of baptism when the Sun goes down He shall be clean and afterwards he may eat of the holy things because they are his food. He shall not eat what dies of itself or is torn by beasts.

So if you see a deer in the dead of winter that has just been hit by a truck and is dead on the road And it's still steaming. You don't get to have that for yourself. Sorry. Bummer. Okay any. He shall not eat what dies of itself torn by beasts or so make himself unclean.

I am Yahweh. They shall therefore keep my charge lest they bear sin for it and die there bore thereby when they profane it I am Yahweh who sanctifies them. A Lay person shall not eat of a holy thing nor foreign.

Guest of the priest or hired worker shall eat of a holy thing. But if a priest buys a slave as his property for money the slave may eat of it. Anyone born in his house may eat of his food if a priest's daughter marries a layman.

She shall not eat of the contribution of the holy things. But if a priest's daughter is widowed or divorced and has no child and returns to her father's house as in her youth She may eat of her father's food yet.

No lay person shall eat of it. And if anyone eats of a holy thing unintentionally, he shall add the fifth Fifth to his value to it and give the holy thing to the priest they shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel which they contribute to Yahweh and So cause them to bear iniquity and guilt by eating the holy things for I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.

Now if you remember a few months back we talked about the fact that.

David.

When he was on the run from Saul He goes to the high priest and he asks for provisions and the priest says the only thing I have is the holy bread and The priest gives it to David this text forbids that and so we noted then that that Christ Addresses that issue and basically says that God Desires mercy rather than sacrifice and that when push comes to shove and you're put into a catch -22 and the catch -22 is I'm going to break the fifth commandment and I'm going to bodily harm my neighbor or I'm going to break the commandment that forbids People from eating the holy things that the fifth commandment stands and that and their physical bodily need trumps The need for these this bread to be not given to lay people.

Does that make sense? All right, and you can see that You can actually see that in action throughout the scriptures Over and over again. I always like to point out that David when he was on the run He ended up sojourning in the land of the Philistines and the Philistine princes and the people in the army of the Philistines Knew exactly who David was and they didn't understand why the the king of the region was giving him amnesty and Said that's David.

This is the guy who's killed like thousands and thousands and thousands of our people kill him now. And what did David do to save his life? He pretended like he was insane he pretended like he was insane so he would go around and he would drool on and let drool run out of his mouth and spittle run down his beard and he would mumble incoherently and he would also whiz in public, you know and What the text talks about and there's a result of this the the king of the Philistines says listen We have enough madmen.

I'm not gonna kill this guy. And so by pretending to be insane and he wasn't He saved his life. So, you know, so you'll note then that putting on a pretense like that. And he's never censored by God as doing something evil, you know, so Getting creative and saving your skin may may not actually be counted against you by Christ just saying Point that out.

All right.

The Appointed Feasts as Types and Shadows of Christ

So the Lord Yahweh spoke to Moses saying speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel say to them when any One of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt Offering as his offering or any of their vows a freewill offering that that they offer to Yahweh.

It is to be accepted for you. It shall be a male without blemish of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. You shall not offer anything that has a blemish for it will not be acceptable for you and when anyone offers the sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh to fulfill a Vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock to be accepted.

It must be perfect. There shall be no blemish in this and all of this is type and shadow of Jesus Christ who is the Sacrifice for our sins and he was without blemish. He was without sin. Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs?

You shall not offer to Yahweh or give them to Yahweh as food offering on the altar. It's sad that people that God has to say this and then you'll note then that in Israel's history later in Israel's history It became a practice a commonly accepted practice that it's time for you to bring your offerings to the Lord.

And so you look in your sheep and go. Oh, there's that mangy awful scabby looking thing. Let's let's offer that to the Yahweh. All right, not much of a sacrifice. I'm just saying so the one you were gonna kill anyway is.

Is that that's not acceptable and the Lord has to say this because otherwise Sinful beings what sinful beings are they'll do that. You may present a bull or a lamb that has A part too long or too short for a freewill offering but for a vow offering.

It cannot be accepted any animal that has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut. You shall not offer to Yahweh. You shall not do it within your land. Neither shall you offer as the bread of your God any such animals?