Moral and Ceremonial Laws

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus. I'm so glad to be with you today. Why don't we have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll jump into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. What a joy and a blessing it is to get to hear from you. We come to your word.
We confess to you, Lord, that we sometimes don't want to. Sometimes our days are crazy. Some days our hearts are hard and our minds are slow. So we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit will help us, that we might understand and believe, and that your Spirit would apply these things to our lives. In Jesus's name, amen.
All right, so we are at Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 19. So, this is moral and ceremonial laws. This is one of those chapters that's hard to parse out, right? There are different chapters in Leviticus, in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and they're typically categorized in three different ways, right?
First is the moral law. That's summarized in the Ten Commandments, right? These are laws that are universal. amongst all cultures, all people, all nations, all times, right? And you shouldn't murder, don't commit adultery, right? These are universal laws.
Second are ceremonial laws, right? All sorts of laws that were really peculiar in particular to Old Testament Israel, right? How they were to be ritually clean, how they were to be ritually different than everybody else. The dietary laws are part of this. And then there's civil laws, right, or sundry laws.
These are things that applied to Israel as a nation, right? If you build a roof, a house with a roof, and it's going to be a roof that you live on, you got to put a parapet, you got to put a balcony around it to protect people. You're going to build you know, a pit, you gotta put a warning around the pit. You have an ox, it gores people, you gotta be responsible for that, right?
So there's all sorts of civil laws if they were to function well. Well, today we get to a mismatch. It's kind of like a grab bag of all sorts of different moral laws and also ceremonial laws. So why don't we go ahead and jump in and we'll kind of work through them as we go. So here we go, Leviticus chapter 19.
What's rooting this? Jesus Christ. What's rooting this? The holiness of God, right? So these are because God is holy and so they are to be holy. Verse 3. Every one of you shall revere his father, his mother and his father and keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord, your God. Right? So remember the fifth commandment. Remember the fourth commandment. Okay. So these are moral laws. Do not turn to idols nor make for yourself molded gods for I am the Lord, your God. Right? The second commandment. So here we have again, moral law.
5. And if you offer a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord, you shall offer it of your own free will. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and on the next day, and if any remains until the third day, it shall be burned in the fire, and if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination. This is one of the ceremonial laws, the sacrificial laws. If you have a sacrifice, you're to eat it the first day, you got leftovers the second day, but never the third day. Burn it. And if you eat it, that's an abomination. The person who does that is to be cut off from their people.
9. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not 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 from your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God." Right? So if you're a farmer, you got a field, don't try to get every single kernel of corn. Don't try to get every single bit of the barley, right?
Leave some for the poor people to come by through and go afterwards. This is what we find in the book of Ruth, right? This is showing mercy. Same thing with vineyards. Go through. Harvest your grapes. They're yours. Enjoy them. But don't go through a second, third, fourth time. No. Leave that for others. Leave it for the poor. Why? The Lord's their God. It's rooted in who God is and God is merciful. Remember the poor and the afflicted. Verse 11.
You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another." Again, moral law, right? You shall not steal, one of the ten commandments. Don't deal falsely with one another. Ninth commandment, not bearing false testimony. And you shall not swear by my name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God, right? Third commandment, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord. Your God, for anyone who misuses His name, will not be held guiltless, right? The Lord remembers His name. Why should they do these things? Why is this moral law true? Because I am the Lord. Again, it's rooted in who God is.
Verse 13 and 14. You shall not cheat your neighbor nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning. You shall not curse the deaf nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God. Why, I am the Lord. So this is, again, God saying, right? You can't take advantage of people who work for you, right? They work for a wage, give them their wage. Don't hold onto it, right? If they're needing to buy bread, they need to pay for the rent, they need to buy clothes, all these things, that's necessary. You're the one who's hired them. You need to pay them. Don't hold it, right? And if you're going to, don't curse the deaf. Don't put a stumbling block before the blind, right? The Lord takes note of those things.
Verse 15, you shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness, you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go about as a tailbearer among your people, nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor.
Why? Again, I am the judge. It's rooted in who the Lord is. You can't show partiality to the poor and you can't show partiality to the mighty. You gotta have blind justice. It's not about the person, but it's about righteousness and justice. And so they were to be a people of justice. This is a moral aspect of the law in their civil laws. And it was rooted in who God was in his being.
Verse 17, you shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. 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." The Lord Jesus Christ himself pointed to this commandment as summarizing all of these commandments, as love your neighbor as yourself, the second greatest commandment, and he points this out here to tell them. You're not to have a grudge against your neighbor. You're not to hate your neighbor, but you're to love them as yourself. If you love your neighbor as yourself, are you going to steal? Are you going to cheat? Are you going to kill? No, you're not going to do those things, right?
This is why Jesus points out specifically this verse, Leviticus 19.18, as the second greatest commandment. Verse 19.
You shall keep my statutes. You should not let your livestock breed with another kind. You should not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you." Now this is interesting. Right now we have a ceremonial law. This is not moral law. We're not talking about not showing justice to poor or rich.
Now we're talking about you can't have different types of seeds in your field, right? So you don't sow corn and you sow barley, or maybe here, you know, you don't sow corn and wheat and soybeans, right? No, no. You have monocrops, right? That's what this is saying. And also your clothing, right? Cotton polyester, not allowed.
What was the point of this, right? It was meant to be a ceremonial sign of them that they were to be pure and holy. Their garments were to show it, their fields were to show it. This was God's plan for them to show forth holiness. This is not one of those statutes of morality, this is a statute of ceremony. Notice what this did not say. It didn't say, I am the Lord. It didn't have that refrain in it because I don't think this is a moral law. This is a ceremonial law.
And all of a sudden you'll even hear people who say to Christians, well, you'll sow different seeds in your field and you'll wear cotton polyester blend. Why are you picking and choosing from the Bible? Because there's a difference in the Bible. Jesus fulfilled these ceremonial laws. Jesus fulfilled the dietary laws. Jesus did these things. We don't need to follow the ceremonial laws anymore, but we do need to follow the moral laws. Okay, well let's go ahead and keep on going. Verse 20.
Whoever lies carnally with a woman who is betrothed to a man as a concubine, or who has not at all been redeemed nor given her freedom, for this there shall be scourging, but they shall not be put to death because she was not free. And he shall bring his trespass offering before the Lord to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, a ram as a trespass offering. The priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed, and the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him.
Right? So if there's a man and he goes and he sleeps with a concubine, that's a sin. She's not his and he's done something wrong. He's committed a sin and he's got to atone for that sin. Now put to death, but he is to be scourged and have to pay a sacrifice.
Verse 23. By the way, I think some of these commands are laws that God gives for people because of their weakness and their sinfulness. Not because he thinks it's good for them to be sleeping with a concubine. Not because he thinks that this is what's moral and perfect. He's dealing with a sinful people in a sinful world. Verse 23. He's given all of this to them while they're still in the desert. They haven't crossed over the other side of the Jordan River yet. So three years it shall be uncircumcised to you. It shall not be eaten.
But in the fourth year, all its fruit shall be holy, a praise to the Lord. And in the fifth year, you may eat its fruit, that it may yield to you its increase. I am the Lord your God." The Lord is taking ownership here. He's saying when you go into the land, you're going to find trees, you're going to find all sorts of fruit-bearing trees.
That's going to be great. You got three years. Three years, you can't eat any of it, you can't do anything, you just let it fall to the ground. This is gonna be what's gonna happen. I'm gonna feed you, don't worry about it, you're gonna be fine. The fourth year, all that goes to the Lord, it's His. The fifth year, have at it, boys. I'm gracious to you, I'm giving it to you. It's gonna be great. How can you trust this?
Because He says, I am the Lord your God. He's giving them the land and He's giving them the produce of the land. but they need to do it His way. This is the type of things, again, non-Christians point at Christians and say, Hey, look, you got tattoos. Hey, look, you got the corners of your beard shaved. You've cut the corners of your hair. You must not actually believe the Bible either. Well, again, hold on.
I think these are ceremonial laws, and I think they are specifically tied to what other nations around them were doing. They were to be visibly different than the other people. When somebody in the culture of Canaan died, they would actually go and take their ashes, mix them with oil, and mark their bodies for the dead. They would especially do this with people that they have conquered to show that they are stronger than that person. The Lord's saying, that's not how you're going to behave. Why? Because I'm the Lord your God. You're going to follow in the ways that I've set for your life. I think these are ceremonial laws. Okay, verse 29.
Do not prostitute your daughter to cause her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into a harlotry and the land become full of wickedness. If you want to say this is all just ceremonial law, though, you got a problem because then we can be witch doctors and we can sell our daughters into harlotry. But no, these are moral laws, right? You don't want to sell your daughter to be a harlot. And nor do you want to become one who binds yourselves to the doctrines of demons with witchcraft. So, some of these are moral laws, even as they're baked into the ceremonial parts also, right?
You have both of these as a scrab bag in Leviticus 19, and this is the chapter. This is the chapter so many unbelieving people will say. See, they don't follow the Bible, and we say, no, no, no, at least we're honest enough to parse the Bible the way the New Testament tells us to parse the Bible. So we want to go and we want to figure out what is applicable to us and what is not applicable to us, what has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but what remains today for Christians to obey.
Verse 30, you shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. Give no regard to mediums and unfamiliar spirits. Do not seek after them to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God, right? You're going to go to the Lord, go to him only. Don't go to the spiritist, don't go to the horoscopes, don't go to the palm readers, don't go to the tarot cards, don't go to the astral poles, don't go to any of this stuff, right? Go to the Lord. He is our God. You shall rise before the gray-headed and honor the presence of an old man and fear your God, I am the Lord. Again, this is an extension of the fifth commandment, honoring those who are elderly.
Verse 33, And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." They're to remember they were sojourners, they were strangers, so when they have strangers living with them, They didn't like being treated as slaves. They didn't like how Pharaoh treated them, and so when there's strangers amongst them, they're to treat them well. They're to even love them.
Leviticus 19.18 above applies here.
And then in verse 35 and 36, You gotta be honest when you're selling stuff and buying stuff. You have a weight, it says a pound, it's gotta be a pound. You have a jar, it's supposed to be an ephah, a flower, it's gotta be an ephah, a flower. Don't change stuff around, right? Have a standard. Therefore, ye shall observe all my statutes and all my judgments and perform them." Again, for the last time, why?
I am the Lord your God. Now let's just count this here. I am the Lord your God, verse three. I am the Lord your God, verse four. I am the Lord your God, verse 10. I am the Lord, verse 12. I am the Lord, verse 14. I am the Lord, verse 16. I am the Lord, verse 18. I am the Lord your God, verse 25. I am the Lord, verse 28. I am the Lord, verse 30. I am the Lord your God, verse 31. I am the Lord, verse 32. I am the Lord your God, verse 34. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, verse 36. I am the Lord, verse 37.
He is Jehovah. He is Yahweh. How does this apply to us? He is the Lord, our God. He is the one who has redeemed us with more than just precious silver or gold, but with the very blood of Jesus Christ. He is the Lord, our God. He gets to call the shots. Because He's redeemed us, because He's loved us, He gives us the laws because He is our Lord. We follow after Him.
We don't just cast it aside. The world loves lawlessness, though there's even teachers who will tell you that the law just completely goes away, but there's still a moral law. The law convicts us of sin, the law restrains sin, but the law also is a teacher of us of what it means to be righteous. And so when we come to laws like this, we want to be careful. We want to parse these things out, figure out what applies to us, what was Old Testament Israel. But if it applies to us, we need to follow it. because this is what is good. This is what pleases our Redeemer and our Lord. What is it in these laws that you need to follow?
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that we could never fulfill all these laws. We can't do all of these, but you, Since your only Son and He fulfilled every single one of these commandments perfectly, gave us His righteousness, we're not trying to earn our own righteousness, Lord. No, we have been saved by grace through faith. And it's a gift, not of works. We can't brag about it or boast about it, Lord. but we pray that we would do the good works that you have called us to do. Help us to walk in your ways in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may God bless you. I know it's been a fast one, but may you rest in Jesus Christ. I'll talk to you later. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.