Penalties for Breaking Law

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. We grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus. So glad to be with you today.
Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to come and to worship you, to hear from your Word, Lord, we plead with you that you would help us. Lord, this is a hard chapter. It's not an easy one for us to get through.
Lord, we pray that you would please help us to understand it and that you would apply it to our lives in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so we are at Leviticus chapter 21. This is probably one of the, or 20, sorry, Leviticus chapter 20. I almost did the wrong chapter. I did that last week. I messed it up. So I was late getting online.
But we're at Leviticus chapter 20, and this is one of the last whole chapters we're doing. It's dealing with a whole bunch of capital punishment laws. And so as we go through this, it's just now over the next couple of days, we're gonna have shorter. chapters, just the way that the Bible program broke this up.
So, Leviticus chapter 20, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Again, ye shall say to the children of Israel, Whoever of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who gives any of his descendants to Molech, he shall surely be put to death, and the people of the land shall stone him with stones. I 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 profane my holy name. And if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man, and he gives some of his 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 them off from his people and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech."
So we're going to go kind of paragraph by paragraph because of how this chapter is broken up. But this is, if you, what's this about? This is about cutting the person off. stoning him. Capital punishment. If you find out a man has been going and worshiping Molech because he profanes God's tabernacle himself. So he's got to be cut off. And if he doesn't and the people follow along, God himself will come and avenge. He won't be marked. He says it's like spiritual harlotry, spiritual prostitution, going and worshiping Molech when Jehovah is supposed to be their husband. Verse six. and the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits to prostitute himself with them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from his people.
Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God, and you shall keep my statutes and perform them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you." Right? It's the Lord who has made them holy, the word here is kadosh, sanctify, to set them apart, to put them in a special place, and so they're not to go and talk to medium and spiritists, right?
If you're going to go do that, if you're going to act like King Saul, you've got to be cut off. and the people, right? Because he says, no, no, no, no. I'm the Lord. I'll go follow after demons. Verse nine, anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood shall be upon him. This is a hard one, right? I mean, I remember people saying to me one time, well, if you think that the law is still applicable, then you have to stone your children. We have to be careful, right? I mean, I do think there's a general equity here. I think we are far, far, far more comfortable in our culture and society with children just disobeying, going off and hitting and cursing their parents. There's entire lines. for elder abuse, right? So if you're talking about children who are abusing their grown parents, right?
That type of stuff was not to happen in Israel. As I go and I travel to other countries and as I talk to people who live in other countries, how children treat their parents here in America is detestable, right? And this is the Lord saying, you're not going to do that, right? There's a, strata or hierarchy in society and children are to honor their parents. Doesn't mean there's not a time that if parents are sinning that there's not a place for that as well. But the point being here is that in Israel, the default is honor your parents, not cursing them. Interestingly, this is a side note, Jesus picks up on that with people who say Corban and they won't care for their elderly parents, but instead devote their money to the temple in spite of caring for their parents.
Well, verse 10 through 16, here's laws about sexual immorality that result in the death penalty. And so we'll kind of work through these as we go. The man who commits adultery with another man's wife, he who commits adultery and his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death." Right? So what's in Israel? This is a civil law connected to the moral law. What's the moral law? You shall not commit adultery. Now this is a civil penalty for it, right? So if this happens in Israel, what's to happen?
Both the man and the woman are to be put to death. Oh, there goes the balloons again. I got to figure out how to fix that. That's not supposed to happen. But both the man and the balloons are supposed to. Oh, that's bright, isn't it? I'm getting multiple things here that are going wrong. Sun is coming up. It's getting lighter in here. OK. The man and the woman are to be put to death when the woman caught in adultery is brought to Jesus. Yes, the woman. Where's the man? They want the law to be applied. And Jesus is saying, where's the dude? Let him who?
I think he's pointing out their hypocrisy here, that they're not law followers. They know what they've done is actually wrong, but both the man and the woman here. But the point of this is the sanctity of marriage. The man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both of them shall be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them." So what's this talking about? If there's a guy who goes and he sleeps with his mother or his mother-in-law, something like this, right? It's an abomination. He says they're supposed to be both put to death.
This is what we find out happening in 1 Corinthians. When a guy is sleeping with his father's mother, and nobody's even saying anything about this, and he says, even the Gentiles know that's wrong, and yet we in the Christian church feel pressure to say, oh, we can't follow the law anymore. No, there's a general equity that the Apostle Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, seems to recognize that even the Gentile people know that that's not right. So I think there's a moral element to it here. The man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness.
Both of them shall surely be put to death. Again, this is a capital punishment in Israel. Their blood shall be upon them. If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have committed perversion. Their blood shall be upon them.
Again, if someday one of my boys gets married and I was to sleep with their wife, that's a perversion and both of us would be put to death, right? That's how seriously the Lord takes this. In Israel, this was their civil laws. If a man, sorry, verse 13, if a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
Again, this is, this is, man, a hot button item in our culture right now. And you read this verse, I have no doubt this might get demonetized or taken off of social media platforms. If that ever happens, go to Sermon Audio. You'll still find these. This is what this is talking about. In Israel, civil law was that homosexuality was a capital offense. It is not. It is within my own lifetime. I'm still a young man. At least I think I'm a young man. I'm a millennial. I'm somewhere at the bottom of that list, but the point being that I can remember when LGBTQ stuff wasn't paraded in all the major cities. This is new, guys.
The moral aspect of what the sanctity of sexuality used to look like isn't too far in our rear view mirror. We've been taken over by a cult. And sadly, people are saying, oh, look at all these different laws. And so they're all, even in the Christian church, these are all just Old Testament stuff. I don't think it is because people want to explain away Romans chapter 1. And even in the New Testament where things are repeated, we have theologians and wannabe theologians and wannabe pastors who aren't being faithful to God's Word and our children are getting sucked into this.
And I got to say, I'm sorry for any of you who your children have been abducted by this. I know this is hard. It is relationally difficult because in our culture, this is being paraded. This is being pushed. This is being called the new good. And that if you hold to something like this, even in a general sense in which homosexuality is wrong and a sin, you're going to be called a bigot, backwards, intolerant. You might be the one who's stoned for it. The world has flipped us on its head. This is hard. I'm saying this is hard. This is hard relationally, this hard emotionally, this hard spiritually. But the question is, do we trust the Lord? Or do we trust the land that seems like we might get vomited out soon because of our iniquity?
If a man marries a woman and her mother, it is wickedness. They shall be burned with fire, both he and they, that there may be no wickedness among you. What is this talking about? Again, this is this idea that you're not supposed to marry a woman and her daughter, right? This idea of incestuous polygamy is wrong. It's so bad, he says, don't even throw stones at them. You've got to burn those people with fire.
Now again, this is where I'm saying the penalty aspect is part of the civil law. I'm not saying we need to follow the exact civil law, but what I'm saying is that the moral equity, the general equity behind it is wrong. If a man mates with an animal, he shall be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal and mates with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood is upon them.
There are people who will tell you now that a law has to be restated in the New Testament for it still to carry any type of weight. Well, I gotta tell you, there's no laws in the New Testament against bestiality, no explicit laws. And so this is one of the things I struggle with, is this is where we find out that there's a moral component that, no, we don't mix animals and humans. No, they'd be separate. And it's so serious that the Lord says, whether it's a man who does this with an animal or a woman who does it with an animal, both of them are to be put to death. The person and the animal. The moral component to it of this, it's not the way the Lord intended his creation. It's definitely not the way in which he intended his people to live.
If a man takes his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a wicked thing. And they shall be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness. He shall bear his guilt. If a man lies with, so again, this is incestual relationships, brothers and sisters, whether you're a half or full-blooded, doesn't matter. The Lord's saying, knock that stuff off, guys. And if you do that, you're going to be cut off. That's what he's saying in ancient Israel.
Verse 18, if a man lies with a woman during her sickness, this is a time of ritual impurity, it's her period, right? And uncovers her nakedness, he has exposed her flow and she has uncovered the flow of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from their people, right? Again, this is one of these points where is this moral law, is this ceremonial law, is this civil law? I think the point is, guys, give your wife a flippin' break. Give them the time off. Give them that time where they're able to say, hands off, buddy. Give them a time when they're going through hormonal things and going through stuff.
And this is not me slaying down new law for you. I'm not adding precept upon precept. I'm trying to give you what I think is the heart behind this law. That the Lord gave women this time of ritual uncleanness, and I'm not saying that we hold the clean and unclean stuff like that anymore in the same way, but is there a general principle behind this? I think there is. I don't want to push that, but it's something that we have to wrestle with. Verse 19, again, back to laws of sanguinity.
You shall You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, nor your father's sister, for that would uncover his near kin. So this is your aunt and your uncle. They shall bear their guilt. If a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness. They shall bear their sin. They shall die childless.
That's the Lord himself. He's going to do this one, right? It's not capital punishment, but the Lord is saying, I'm not going to give them kids. It's like a cutting off of their line. It's the Lord warning. He's going to intervene in this one. Verse 21, if a man takes his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing. He has uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be childless. A history lesson here.
This is why Henry VIII actually thought when he married Catherine, that he married his brother's wife. And so he thought that's why he wasn't having an heir. And so he sought a divorce from her because of this verse. So you can go back and read English history because of this, but that was what the Lord is saying in verse 21. All right, then we're going to read, I think this is finishing off this chapter 22 through the end of the chapter 22 through 27.
You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgments and perform them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out." Right, the Lord is doing this for their good. He doesn't want them to get vomited out of the good land He's bringing them.
You shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you, for they commit all these things and therefore I abhor them. Hey guys, I just need to tell you again, If the Lord abhorred these things back then, I don't think he's necessarily changing his mind all over the place. I need to be careful now in my life, right, that some of these things, the general equity, the principle behind these things, I don't want the Lord to abhor me. And so there's many of these things that I wrestle with in my own heart and I go, you know, no matter what, I don't think that these are things that we should be involved in.
Some of them are very clear witchcraft and idolatry. But even when you start talking about the more minute stuff where it gets between ceremonial and civil law, you know, you got to wrestle with these things and ask yourself, if the Lord abhorred these, do I really want to engage in them?
But I have said to you, you shall inherit the land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am Jehovah your God, who has separated you from the people. There is a holiness aspect here. I've made you... I'm the Lord your God. I've separated you from their people. You're to be my people. This is how you're going to behave. This is how your society is going to run. This is how you're going to show that you're my people. Love me and follow me.
You shall therefore distinguish between, and this is where it specifically gets into again, it's ceremonial laws. You shall therefore distinguish between clean animals and unclean. between unclean birds and clean. And you shall not make yourselves abominable by beast or by bird or by any kind of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. And you shall be kudosh, you shall be holy to me, for I, Jehovah, am kudosh, I am holy, and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine.
How does this all apply to us? Right, man, we've gone way long here. Some of this has been very uncomfortable. How does it apply to us? The Lord has made you holy. He has sanctified you. He has called you. If you believe in Jesus Christ, he has called you his son and his daughter. You're his. He's made you holy. Now you need to walk in that holiness.
This same phrase is found by Peter. By the way, this whole issue of clean and unclean animals, the Lord resolved that in the book of Acts with Peter when he brought down the vision of the sheet with all sorts of animals on it. And he said, all of them are clean. And what I've declared clean, you can't say is unclean.
The Lord has shown us that now it's not by what comes into us, but by what comes out of us, what's in our hearts, right? So we need to plead with the Holy Spirit that he would turn our hearts away from those things that are impure, away from those things that the Lord abhors, and that our lives would be transformed. We will not save ourselves by that, but it is what the Holy Spirit does as a fruit of us being connected to Jesus. And so we turn. We turn away from our old selves. We turn away from our old pagan ways. We turn away from how our former life was and the former lust of the flesh. And we try to walk in holiness because he is our God and he's still holy. And he has separated us to be a holy people, to live our whole lives as a living sacrifice.
So may you rest in Jesus. May you live your life for his glory. Let's pray and then I'll let you go. God, we pray that you would please help us. This has been a long chapter, a very difficult chapter emotionally for some of us, a very difficult chapter to parse through. We're wrapping up a section where there's been lots of mixing between moral law and ceremonial and civil. Lord, we pray that we would be able to have conversations about this with honesty and grace, but with an eye towards your glory. Lord, we pray that you would please turn our hearts away from those things that you abhor and towards you because you are the one whom we love and you are the one who we want to live our lives for your glory.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I promise you later we're going to have smaller sections. 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.