Sunday, January 28, 2024 PM

The Bible, Leviticus, Leviticus, right?

Is that your favorite book of the Bible? Leviticus chapter 19.

And before we read, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day.

We thank you for the joy of Christian fellowship. We thank you for the clarity and the power and authority of the

Bible, your holy word given to us. We pray that you would help us to rejoice in its truth tonight.

Make right application in our lives. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, we've been talking about the

Ten Commandments, kind of. We've been talking about them for a long time and trying to understand their importance.

So often we see them shaken loose of all of their context at Sinai and put in abbreviated form on two rounded tablets on a poster or on a plaque.

What are they really about? They evidence God's covenant with Israel at Sinai.

They stand in as a representative for all that he said at Sinai. They are essential, though not exhaustive, of the covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai.

And when you read the Ten Commandments in their context, they are Israel specific.

And yet at the same time, we know they're bigger than that somehow. Because they talk about things that matter at all times among all people, don't they?

And these things that matter at all times among all people have to do with the fact that we've been made in the image of God.

So you cannot read a single one of the Ten Commandments without thinking, hey, this has to do with loving

God supremely, loving each other rightly, or stewarding the creation responsibly. No matter which way you cut it, the

Ten Commandments all deal with that in one way or the other. And that's the way that all the covenants that God made sound.

They all sound that way. They all handle those things. God's covenant with Noah, God's covenant with Abraham, with Israel, and with David, and indeed the

New Covenant. All are concerned with how we are to relate to God, one another, and the whole world around us.

And so we're thinking about the Ninth Commandment, the ninth word. And the title of this series is

Ten Words About Christ. Jesus was very specific when he taught, and the apostles picked up on his cue, and they said, you know, it is these, the

Scriptures, that testify of Christ. You read the Ten Commandments, we're not to think of, you know, 10 really helpful rules to be successful, right?

We're to think, this is testifying of Jesus Christ. In what way?

In that they identify the priorities that God gave to Israel and his covenant with them, priorities that have to do with the image of God, and Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible

God. And when we follow him, not only are we, we're not really just keeping the law when we follow

Christ, we're told time and again in the New Testament, when we follow Christ, we fulfill the law. And we're going to look at an example of that tonight.

We've talked about the commandment itself, the ninth word, the ninth commandment, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. It stands in parallel with, do not bear the name of the

Lord your God in vain. Don't carry yourself or your communication in such a way that you, that you shame and profane the name of God.

Don't lie about God. Don't drag his name around in the mud. Same with your neighbor.

Don't bear false witness against your neighbor. How do you, how you speak about God matters. How you speak about your neighbor matters.

And we looked at how the truth of God is absolutely essential. I mean, the entire universe was made by the spoken word of God.

The spoken word of God. He said it, thus it happened. So, so the seed of creation and the soil of existence depends upon the spoken truth of God.

The word who was with God from the very beginning through whom all was made. And that's the case in what is lying.

What is lying? We thought about how much lying happened in Genesis chapter three.

When Satan tempted Eve and Eve tried to respond. And then Adam and Eve responded to the confrontation in the garden.

How much lying happened? Oh, a lot of lying happened. A lot of deceit. A lot of slanting things.

And we thought about the importance of God's word. That what he says is always true. And that we're always living in light of his promises.

And have to live on the basis that what he says is true. And we can depend upon it and he's not going to go back on his word.

The things that he said to Noah. We still live in light of today. The things he said to Abraham.

He has brought to pass. So now we're thinking about the covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai.

And the summary statement there is again that ninth commandment. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Let's look a little bit more deeply and see how it integrates with other instructions in this covenant.

So Leviticus chapter 19. And we're going to read verses 11 through 19.

Leviticus chapter 19 verses 11 through 19. And some of these will sound familiar.

You shall not steal nor deal falsely nor lie to one another.

And you shall not swear by my name falsely nor shall you profane the name of your God. I am the

Lord. So you see in this instruction of Moses applying the covenant that God made at Sinai.

How he naturally connects dealing falsely with your neighbor and swearing falsely by God.

You see how he brings those together just naturally. And what's the focus here in verses 11 and 12?

Well it's the Lord and his people. The Lord and your neighbor.

Do not steal nor deal falsely nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear by my name falsely nor shall you profane the name of your

God. I am the Lord. Verse 13. You shall not cheat your neighbor. How do you cheat your neighbor?

You steal from him. You deal falsely with him. You lie to him. That's how you cheat him. Nor rob him.

The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning.

The laborer is worthy of his wages. You shall not curse the deaf.

In other words, somebody has a disadvantage. Somebody has a handicap. Somebody has a problem and you see it as a weakness and then you take advantage of it.

Oh, they'll never know. If you curse the deaf, does he ever know? If he doesn't happen to read your lips? Doesn't matter.

God's watching. I am the Lord. He's saying to his people, how you conduct yourself matters not about the results but about who

God is. You can curse the deaf and get away with it if it was just the deaf to whom we were concerned, but it's

God who's paying attention. You don't put a stumbling block before the blind. Oh, no one will know it was me.

Notice the reason why you don't curse the deaf and you don't put a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your

God. I am the Lord. So in this case, we're reminded that the standard of truth, the standard of right and wrong is not how things turn out or how the experience is, but God.

God is the objective standard of truth. God is the objective standard of right and wrong, the objective standard of beauty, the objective standard of wisdom versus folly.

You should do no injustice in judgment. You should not be partial to the poor nor honor the person of the mighty.

In other words, in the city gates when there had to be some sort of arbitration because something went awry and the city elders have to decide how this whole thing gets sorted, you do not side with the poor because he's poor.

Oh, you're poor. Obviously that means that you can do no wrong and you're righteous and so you get whatever the state can give you.

You also do not side with the person of the mighty who has lots of influence and lots of money and can sway things your way.

You just, you're supposed to be impartial, right? When the forefathers of our nation thought of justice, we had the idea of the blindfold, right?

I can't see if you're poor or rich, right? What's the scales say? Get that idea from here.

In righteousness, you shall judge your neighbor. Don't cheat your neighbor.

Don't lie to your neighbor. Don't bear false witness about your neighbor. In righteousness, you shall judge your neighbor.

You shall not go about as a tail bearer among your people.

Don't go around spreading propaganda among your people, nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor.

Okay? You shall not hate your brother in your heart.

You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him, meaning

I'm not going to get angry and bitter at my neighbor and just kind of hold it in forever and ever until I start throwing crab apples at him.

No, you're going to rebuke your neighbor and say, hey, look, we got a problem. We need to fix this. You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord. As you see how focused God is on his instructions to the

Israelites, who is he concerned that they pay attention to and bless and make sure that they don't sin against.

Don't lie about your neighbor. Don't lie to your neighbor.

Don't cheat your neighbor. Don't rob your neighbor. In other words, the whole way through is don't deprive your neighbor.

Don't wrong your neighbor. Okay, this reminds us of one of the ways in which the law was summarized.

On these two, hang all the law and the prophets, Jesus says, what are the two hinges upon which that whole thing turns?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, so mind and strength and what? Love your neighbor as yourself.

And when you go and read the text about loving your neighbor as yourself, it comes down to don't harm your neighbor.

Don't do things that take away from them. Be a good neighbor in the fact that you're not going to wrong them or deprive them in any way.

That's the main thing. So in this,

Jesus calls this loving your neighbor. But I want you to see that the list of instructions are on the negative side.

Don't deprive. Don't steal. Don't lie against. Don't bear a grudge against.

All of these are on the negative side. And by refraining from all of these things, genuinely, truly,

God was teaching Israel how to love your neighbor. And Jesus says this is a summation of the law.

Love God supremely. Love each other rightly. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Now we're going to go to Matthew in a second, but first notice verse 19.

So after all this instructions about how you're supposed to treat your neighbor, your brother, your people, okay, he says this, you shall keep my statutes.

You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed, nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you.

What in the world does that have to do with refraining from cheating my neighbor?

From refraining from lying to my neighbor? What in the world? We get the sense when we read through Leviticus sometimes, this is kind of like Proverbs, you know, random cartoons everywhere.

Just don't know what's coming up next. You know, these couple of sentences are a little cartoon about the drunk, and then we have a little cartoon about the lazy, then we have a little cartoon about the liar, and it's just kind of like all over the place.

But what goes on here in Leviticus? Why put this instruction right after all of this about how we treat, how the

Israelites were to treat their neighbors in their covenant with God? In other words, what the connection that Moses is making and bringing forward to the people is that they're not supposed to be treating their neighbors like their enemies, right?

They're not supposed to be treating their neighbors like their enemies. They're supposed to be doing what is right and refraining from wrong against their neighbors time and time again.

Now, when you read the instructions about their enemies, did they take from their enemies?

Oh, they plundered them good. Did they ever tell lies to their enemies? You better believe they did.

Deception is one of the key aspects of warfare. Did they ever take vengeance on their enemies?

By the very instructions of God, they did indeed. They had to go after those Moabites, had to go after those Edomites, had to go after those

Amalekites. They were given instructions, and they were told to take vengeance on them. In some places, they didn't even steal from their enemies.

They just burned everything to the ground according to the instructions of the Lord. And God said it was good, and it was holy, and it was right. But when it came to their neighbors and their own people, they were to love their neighbor as themself, and they had their whole way of dealing with their neighbor, but they were not to be mixing the way you dealt with enemies the way you dealt with neighbors.

And this was the law of God, and it was good. Now, let's go over to Matthew.

Let's go over to Matthew chapter 5, and we're going to be in verse 43.

This is in the context of Jesus saying in Matthew chapter 5, there is a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the people are amazed because Jesus taught as one who had authority, not as the scribes.

How did the scribes teach? Well, it's very clear in the Bible how they taught. They were always citing Moses. Well, Moses said this, and Moses said that, and what about this from Moses?

And Moses did this. And they're amazed because Jesus doesn't do that. He does not say,

Moses said, therefore we shall. He doesn't. He teaches as one who has authority in and of himself, and he doesn't say,

Moses said, therefore we shall. He says, you have heard it said, but I say to you. Isn't that interesting?

Jesus isn't against Moses, but he's saying someone greater than Moses is here. So, there is an agreement and an acceleration past, a superior righteousness, a greater fidelity to God than we have seen before.

And so, Jesus will begin by quoting the Ten Commandments. You have heard that it was said to those of all, you shall not murder.

You shall not murder is straight out of the Ten Commandments. And Jesus does not say, but I say to you, murder whoever you want.

He does not say that. No, he says, I say to you a superior righteousness. I say to you something that is deeper, that is more meaningful, and even more brightly attesting to the image of God.

You have heard it said, do not commit adultery, but I say to you, that's fine and dandy. No, he says, we're going to get to the heart of the matter, you see?

Okay, so now it's come down to verse 43, and he's still in the same pattern, isn't he? You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor.

We just read a passage out of Leviticus 19 about what does it look like to love your neighbor, and what did it have to do with?

The negative commands. A lot of them had to do with lying, cheating, slandering, saying awful things about your neighbor.

He said, don't do any of that. That's what Leviticus 19 said, and he says, you have heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

Well, God never said to hate, yeah, he did. That wasn't the idea of the scribes and Pharisees, that is

Old Testament scripture. They were to hate their enemies, and pursue them, and persecute them, and be against them.

And there were some that were never allowed to ever come anywhere near their places of worship.

For example, let's look back just briefly to Deuteronomy chapter 23, and verses 3 through 6.

Verse 3 of Deuteronomy 23, an Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the

Lord. Don't even let him in. Even to the 10th generation, none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the

Lord forever. So, let's just say a Moabite happens to immigrate. He brings his family into the land of Israel.

You have to wait 10 generations, and it's only 11th generation that is allowed into the assembly of the

Lord. Wow. Why?

None of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever. Why? Verse 4, because not even to the 10th generation.

So, really, it's not at all. Even past the 10th generation, none of them get in. Why? Verse 4, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you

Balaam the son of Baor from Pthor of Mesopotamia to curse you. Now, dearly beloved, if someone came up to me and said, we don't let the

Hatfields come into our church, doesn't matter if they're the 10th generation from old

Hatfield himself. They didn't give us bread and water when we were on our hike, and they hired a no do -gooder who spread rumors about us.

Ain't never allowed in here forever. I would say, that's not very forgiving.

Sounds like you're full of bitterness. You need to repent from that. We got to get rid of this feud.

And yet, here, this is the instructions of God. Remember what they did to you, never let them in.

Wow. You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.

Now, verse 7, now, there's a difference between those and an Edomite. You shall not abhor an

Edomite. And notice that that is in contrast to the Ammonite and the Moabite. You are to abhor them, but you're not to abhor an

Edomite. You see that? You don't abhor these, but you do abhor those. You don't hate these, but you do hate these over here.

Now, often, I think one of the questions is like, well, how do you read stuff like that in the Old Testament? And then it's like you read other things in the

New Testament, like how do these go together? They go together in Christ. Israel was the anointed mediator, servant of God in that covenant, and they were told to bring the justice of God upon the enemies of God.

They were to bring the sword of the Lord upon the enemies of God. They were to shine the light of God's revelation to all the nations.

And you know what? They don't have that job anymore. You know who has that job? The greater Israel does, Jesus Christ. Who in this world today has any right to go around and smash nations like clay pots with a rod of iron?

No one but Jesus Christ alone because he's at the right hand of the Father, he's King of kings, he's Lord of lords, he has all authority in heaven and on earth, and he's the judge of all mankind, and all must bow the knee before him.

He has that role. It's fulfilled in him. And thus, if we're in him, now, more than simply loving our neighbors in an ethnically tight group where we're only looking at one another and saying, we'll be nice to one another, but those out there we're going to hate.

You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Jesus says to you, here's how it works in my kingdom, love your enemies.

Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your

Father in heaven. Whoa. Now, this is not inconsistent with one another.

It's not fighting against one another, Old Testament versus New Testament. This is that we may be sons of your

Father in heaven, for he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Jesus said, new wine cannot go into old wineskins. Those two things are incompatible, but it's not inconsistent, and here's how.

Again, the fact that your Father in heaven makes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends the rain on the just and the unjust, that goes all the way back to Noah, doesn't it?

It goes all the way back to Noah. He says, the world is filled with wicked, abominable people. They deserve to all die all over again, but I am not going to flood the earth again.

I'm going to send my rain on the just and the unjust, and make my son to rise on the just and the unjust.

And you know what happens when he sends the rain, then sends the sun? The rainbow comes out, doesn't it?

And he shows himself to be a good God. And so we, as the children of God in Christ, who fulfills all the roles that Israel had, and David and so forth, we are free to be sons of our

Father in heaven, and loving those who hate us. This does not mean that the evil will be unpunished.

Oh, they will be, unfortunately. That's the case. We don't want to see evil people go to hell, but it is righteous and good that God punish the evil.

And that's his business to use his servant to bring that to pass. And what are his servants to punish evil?

Well, in this world, he uses the state, doesn't he, to punish the magistrate, to punish evil doers.

Well, what if the state does a bad job? Well, big surprise there. God has an appointed servant who will judge all mankind and set all things to right.

And his name is Jesus Christ. And he will do that job. Israel did that as a foreshadowing.

Christ fulfills that. Since Christ fulfills that, that is not our role as the people of God in Christ.

That was old covenant. Old covenant wineskins. And new covenant wine busts that wide open.

Not compatible at all. Do we see the difference? So, I'm pressing the mark there as we're thinking about why in the

Old Testament, the instructions that the ninth commandment gets applied is very much in the context of how to love your neighbor.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Don't lie to them. Love your neighbor as yourself. Don't cheat your neighbor. When we get to the

New Testament, you know what we should do about our enemies, those who curse us, those who hate us, those who spitefully use us and persecute us?

You know what we ought to do? Tell them the truth. We ought to tell them the truth.

You're being awful hateful. You're being awful spiteful. You know, when you yell, your spit goes so far away.

But you know what? You're made in the image of God. And the reason why you're so miserable is that you don't want to hear that. If we love people, we will tell them the truth.

If we love people, we will not say, forget you and walk off.

We love people, we'll bother them and say, you know, you're not being the nicest person in the world, but I'm going to go ahead and say this anyway.

I'm not going to get any reward money for this. I'm just going to tell you anyway. You need to hear this.

That would be loving people. You know, God loved Jacob and hounded him and didn't let him go. God hated

Esau and let Esau be Esau and let him go and never dealt with him at all. See the difference?

So when it comes to this, we'll pray for our enemies. We will speak truth to our enemies. And this will be that we are sons of our father in heaven.

He sends light and refreshment upon the evil and the good.

So should we. All right, we'll leave it there. Any questions or thoughts? Yeah, so don't mix

God's instructions. He's saying to Israel another way of you could say, don't you can keep my statutes, not my statutes and another set of laws as well.

All right, which might be I'll love the neighbors who love me or I'll love the neighbors that have a lot of money.

Right, or I'll love the neighbors who will compliment me, but then I'll be mean to my neighbors who who don't.

That would be mixing like I have some statutes from God and then I have some other rules I live by as well.

When you mix those, then it's not a consistent field. Right. That's a good application of it.