Steve Webb 0:00 How can we be holy? Steve Webb 0:09 Well, hello there welcome. This is the Lifespring family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California, podcasting since 2004. I am your OG God caster Steve Webb, how's it going today? I'm so glad to see your smiling face. This is the daily show where we're reading through the entire Bible in a year. And today's reading is Leviticus 19 through 21. Of course, I'll have some thoughts to share with you after the reading, and I'm calling today's episode be different. The show notes page for today's episode is at Lifespring media.com/s 12 v 208. And you can email me at Steve at Lifespring media.com. And I haven't mentioned this a long time. But having been at this since 2004. There are a ton of episodes over at Lifespring media.com that I think you'd probably enjoy. I've got interview shows, I've got music shows I've got shows the talk about the background of some of Christianity's greatest hymns, in almost every episode I've ever done has been what they call evergreen. In other words, they don't they don't expire. I don't talk about current events. I don't talk about what's in the news so much. I talk about God's truth. And as we know that doesn't change. So check it out at Lifespring media.com. Now, are you ready? Let's go. Steve Webb 1:22 Leviticus 19 The Lord spoke to Moses. Speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them be holy because I the LORD your God and holy. Each of you is to respect his mother and father, you are to keep my Sabbath. I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols or make cast images of God's for yourselves. I am the Lord your God. When you offer a fellowship, sacrifice to the Lord, sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. It is better to be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day. But what remains on the third day must be burned up. If any is eaten on the third day it is repulsive thing. It will not be accepted. Anyone who eats it will bear his punishment for he has profaned what is holy to the Lord. That person must be cut off from his people. When you reap the harvest of your land, you're not to reap to the very edge of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must not strip your vineyard bear or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor in the foreign resident. I am the Lord your God. You must not steal. You must not act deceptively or lie to one another. You must not swear falsely by my name profaning the name of the Lord your God, I am your way. You must not oppress your neighbor or robbed him. The wages do a hired hand must not remain with you until morning. You must not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind. But you are to fear your God, I am the Lord. You must not act unjustly when deciding a case. Do not be partial to the poor or give preference to the rich. Judge your neighbor fairly. You must not go about spreading slander among your people. You must not jeopardize your neighbor's life, I am the Lord. You must not harbor hatred against your brother. rebuke your neighbor directly and you will not incur guilt because of him. Steve Webb 3:23 Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community. But Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. You are to keep my statutes. You must not crossbreed two different kinds of your livestock. So your fields with two kinds of seed or put on a garment made of two kinds of material. Steve Webb 3:44 If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman who was a slave designated for another man, but she has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be punishment. They're not to be put to death because she had not been freed. However, he must bring a ram as his restitution offering to the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. The priests will make atonement on his behalf before the Lord with the ram of the restitution offering for the sin he is committed and he will be forgiven for the sin he committed. When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, you are to consider the fruit forbidden. It will be forbidden to you for three years. It is not to be eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit must be consecrated as a praise offering to the Lord. But in the fifth year, you may eat its fruit. In this way its yield will increase for you. I am the Lord your God. Steve Webb 4:40 You are not to eat anything with blood in it. You are not to practice divination or sorcery. You are not to cut off the hair at the sides of your head or mar the edge of your beard. You are not to make gashes on your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord. Do not debase yourself Steve Webb 5:00 by making her a prostitute or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity. You must keep my Sabbath and revere my sanctuary, I am the Lord. Do not turn to mediums or consult spiritists or you will be defiled by them, I am the Lord your God. You are to rise in the presence of the elderly and otter, the old, fear your God, I am the Lord. Steve Webb 5:24 When a foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You must regard the foreigner who lives with you as the native born among you, you are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. You must not be unfair in measurements of length, weight or volume. You are to have honest balances, honest weights, and honest dry measure and an honest liquid measure. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You must keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them. I am the Lord. Steve Webb 6:00 Leviticus chapter 20. The Lord spoke to Moses, Say to the Israelites, any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molek must be put to death. The people of the country are to stone him, I will turn against that man and cut him off from his people, because he gave his offspring to Molek, defiling my sanctuary and profaning My Holy Name. But if the people of the country look the other way, when that man gives any of his children to Molek, and do not put Him to death, then I will turn against that man and his family and cut off from their people, both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molek whoever turns to mediums or spiritists, and prostitutes himself with them, I will turn against that person and cut him off from his people. consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am Yahweh your God. keep my statutes and do them. I am Yahweh who sets you apart. Steve Webb 7:02 If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother, his blood is on his own hands. If a man commits adultery with a married woman, if he commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the adulterer and the adulterous must be put to death. If a man sleeps with his father's wife, he has shamed his father. Both of them must be put to death, their blood is on their own hands. If a man sleeps with his daughter in law, both of them must be put to death. They have acted perversely, their blood is on their own hands. If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman, they have both committed a detestable thing. They must be put to death, their blood is on their own hands. If a man marries a woman and her mother, it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned with fire, so that there will be no depravity among you. Steve Webb 8:02 If a man has sexual intercourse with an animal, he must be put to death, you are also to kill the animal. Steve Webb 8:10 If a woman comes near any animal and mates with it, you are to kill the woman and the animal. They must be put to death, their own blood is on them. Steve Webb 8:20 If a man marries his sister, whether his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off publicly from their people. He has had sexual intercourse with a sister, he will bear his punishment. Steve Webb 8:36 If a man sleeps with a menstruating woman that has sexual intercourse with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them must be cut off from their people. You must not have sexual intercourse with your mother's sister or your father's sister, for it is exposing one's own blood relative, both people will bear their punishment. If a man sleeps with his aunt, he is shamed his uncle, they will bear their guilt and die childless. If a man marries his brother's wife, it is impurity, he has shamed his brother, they will be childless. You are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out. You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you for they did all these things and I abhorred them. And I promised you, you will inherit their land since I will give it to you to possess a land flowing with milk and honey. I am Yahweh your God who set you apart from the peoples. Therefore, you must distinguish the clean animal from the unclean one and the unclean bird from the clean one. Do not become contaminated by any land animal bird or whatever crawls on the ground. I have set these apart is unclean for you. You Steve Webb 10:00 You are to be holy to me because I Yawei am holy, and I have set you apart from the nation's to be mine. A man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist must be put to death. They are to be stoned, their blood is on their own hands. Steve Webb 10:17 Leviticus chapter 21. Steve Webb 10:20 Then the Lord said to Moses, speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron and say to them, no one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people, except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother and his father and his son and his daughter and his brother, also for his virgin sister, who was near to him because she has no husband. For her he may defile himself. He shall not defile himself as a relative by marriage among his people, and so profane himself. They shall not make any baldness on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh. They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God, for they present the offerings by fire to the Lord, the food of their God, so they shall be holy. They shall not take a woman who was profaned by harlotry, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband, for He is holy to his God, You shall consecrate him therefore for he offers the food of your God, he shall be holy to you, For I the Lord who sanctifies you am holy, also the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by harlotry, she profanes her father, she shall be burned with fire. Steve Webb 11:36 The priest who is the highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured, and who has been consecrated to wear the garments shall not uncover his head, nor tear his clothes, nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself even for his father or his mother, nor shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him, I am the Lord. He shall take a wife in her virginity, a widow or a divorced woman, or one who is profaned by harlotry. These he may not take, but rather he is to marry a virgin of his own people, so that he will not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the Lord who sanctifies him. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron, saying, No man of your offspring throughout their generations who has a defect shall approach to offer the food of his God, for no one who has a defect shall approach a blind man or a lay man, or he who has a disfigured face, or any deformed limb, or a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or one who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scabs, or crushed testicles. No man among the descendants of their and the priest who has a defect is to come near to offer the Lord's offerings by fire, since he has a defect, he shall not come near to offer the food of his God, he may eat the food of his God, both of the most holy and of the Holy, only, he shall not go into the veil or come near the altar because he has a defect, so that he will not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them. So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel. Steve Webb 13:25 Well, beloved, I'd like to focus for a little bit on some verses from Leviticus chapter 19. And chapter 20. The verses in chapter 19, are verses one and two, and I'd like to read them for you again, the Lord spoke to Moses, speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them be holy, because I, Yahweh your God, am holy. And then in chapter 20, verses 22 through 26, say, you are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out, you must not follow the statutes of the nations I'm driving out before you, for they did all these things and I abhorred them. And I promised you, you will inherit their land, since I will give it to you to possess a land flowing with milk and honey, I am Yahweh your God who set you apart from the peoples. Therefore, you must distinguish the clean animal from the unclean one, and the unclean bird from the clean one, you must not become contaminated by any land, animal, bird or whatever crawls on the ground. I have set these apart as unclean for you. You are to be holy to me because I Yahweh am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be mine. Okay, in chapter 19, verses one and two, God called the Israelites to be holy as He is holy. What does that mean? To be holy is to be separate, different set apart? Apart, not a part when an orange is still hanging on the tree? Steve Webb 15:00 It is a part of the tree. Once I pluck the orange, it's apart from the tree, no longer a part of the tree. So we are to be set apart. God is holy in that he is different from everything else in all creation. He is apart from creation, every aspect of who and what God is, is different than every other thing. Because he is God, he is greater, he is more righteous, He is more just more pure, more loving, more, more than can be expressed. So how can he call his people to be holy? Because he is holy? We're not God, we're human. How can we be holy, because we are made in His image. He is not calling us to be Gods small g, because God is the only true God. So what is he calling us to do? Well, he's calling us to be separate, different set apart from the things in the world that are not pleasing to Him. Or put another way, set apart from the things that are not like him. We are to be more like him. We are to reflect Him as much as we can. The word Christian means like Christ. So in chapter 19, and most of chapter 20, God through Moses talked about the punishment that was to be meted out for various sins, which had already been spoken of in previous chapters. And then in verses 22 through 26, which I just read for you, God gave his reason for calling Israel to be holy. God has called his chosen people out of Egypt, and into the promised land. This is a land that had been inhabited by people who practice many things that were evil in the sight of God. And he did not want any of that behavior to be brought into the Israelite culture. The fact that the previous inhabitants did such heinous things, is why God had the Israelites expel. And, in fact, why he commanded them to completely wipe them out in almost every case. And God told the Israelites to keep all of his statutes and laws, so that the land where he was bringing them would not vomit them out, as he was having them do to the Canaanites, who were presently in that land. That is why he called them to be holy. And this idea of being different of being separate is the reason for many of the laws in these two chapters. Whenever there was a behavior that was practiced by the Canaanites, God said, Don't do that. Steve Webb 17:34 Some of the seemingly random laws are examples of this, like the shaving of the sides of the heads of the trimming of the beards. These were things done by the pagans in their worship of idols, the same thing for cutting the flesh or tattoos. God said, do not do those things, because you are to be wholly separate, different, don't do what they do. Steve Webb 17:59 The mixing of textiles was forbidden because the pagans did that, thinking that there was some sort of magic associated with clothes made in this manner. Many of the laws concerning sexual activity have the same basis, the pagans had many perverse practices in their religions. So God was very explicit in what he had to say about what was not allowed. Today, as we read through these laws, we say, well, of course, you shouldn't do that. But remember, beloved, our culture has the benefit of being founded on Judeo Christian principles. For now, as long as it lasts, and Judeo Christian culture is under attack today. Most of our way of life is defined even in our legal system by these principles. Steve Webb 18:43 As God warned the Israelites to keep all His statutes at all his judgments, so that the land would not vomit them out. I believe that we have enjoyed God's blessing here in America, because we were founded on these ideals. And for those of you not here in America, what I'm talking about still applies to you too. And just as God allowed Israel to be judged when they first saw him, I believe we are in danger of his judgement. Today, we in America are in that danger, and so is the rest of the world as we well know from reading the Bible. Beloved, again, I say that we must return to God. He said in Second Chronicles 714. Then if my people who were called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. Notice, beloved, who God is calling on to humble themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways. It wasn't the heathen. It wasn't the sinner. God said, If my people who were called by my name, beloved, we must humble ourselves. We must pray. We must seek His face. Steve Webb 20:00 We must turn from our wicked ways. You say, Steve, I'm not wicked. I say, Are you sure? Okay? Maybe it's just me. But I know that I failed God every day. And I am so not like Jesus, I have so far to go. I know that I'm not the man that God wants me to be. I know that the only way I'm getting into heaven is because I am washed in the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. But I still want to continue to strive to be more like him. Beloved, all of us must seek His face, we must ask Him to reveal to us where we fail him, and humbly ask Him to forgive us. We must ask him to heal our land. Will you join me in this? I made this same plea last year on the show when we read these chapters. But here we are in 2022. And we're in worse shape worldwide. And then we were in 2021. Will you commit to earnestly pray with me, our nation, our world will only find healing and peace through God, political leaders or political systems won't do it for us. That's more clear today than it was even just last year, God is the only answer. Would you pray with me? Oh, God, we humbly come to you now in Jesus precious name. And we plead with you to reveal to us those areas in our lives that are not pleasing to you. Show us God where we are falling short. We know that you're not happy with us. We know that we need the forgiveness that can only come because of your great mercy. Please, God, forgive us. Forgive us for the things we do and for the things we don't do. Forgive us, Lord for our cowardice. Forgive us for not standing up for what we know is right and for not fighting against what we know is wrong. Father, we ask you now to give us the courage that can only come from you. Give us courage to speak for the weak among us. Give us courage to fight for what is right, God, we ask that you heal our land, not just here in America, Lord, but in our world. Oh God, we need you. Let this generation see a revival the likes of which have never been seen. Pour out Your Spirit on us, Lord, make us a mighty army for you. We humbly ask that you make us worthy to be called by your name. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Steve Webb 22:35 Will you commit to pray with me for a revival in the world every day? If you'll do that, do me a favor and send me an email. It doesn't have to be a long email. As a matter of fact, if all you want to do is put in the subject line, I'm with you, Steve. I'll know that you're praying with me. Steve at Lifespring media.com subject line. I'm with you, Steve, what are your thoughts? Leave a comment at Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 208. Tomorrow we'll read Second Kings 16 through 20. Boost boost boost. Steve Webb 23:11 I got a comment the other day from Paul Erskine who came to the show a little bit late. So he's behind. He sent a comment in on the second Corinthians four through five episode make a decision from January 2 of this year 2022. That was episode 125. And here we are on 208. So that gives you an idea. On that episode, I said, you know There comes a time in each person's life where they just have to make a decision, given the facts that can be known and accepting that there are some things that cannot be known. We just have to decide and move forward. And I mentioned a person I know who has a tremendous amount of knowledge about the Word of God. He's well read, he listened to some of the world's best teachers. He says he believes and yet he cannot rest in his faith. He continues to have doubts, because there are things of God that he just can't understand. And I ended my comments by saying, decide to believe, and then rest in God's peace and live as God guides you. So Paul's comment was, oh, faith is a choice. I think I've heard a version of this for years, well, decades. But it never clicked until the way Steve put it by talking about the person he knows who still is or was questioning. Paul continues, but it's as simple as that. Jesus died for me. God separated him from himself to pay for my sin. And there's no way for me to empirically prove that. So I have to make a choice. Do I believe or do I wander off into the chaos of this world? Well as that one guy in the Bible says, As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. Sheesh. 40 years of being dense, but let's see where God leads now. Thank you, Paul. for that. I'm glad my words kind of helped that idea to click in your mind. Thank you, brother. Steve Webb 25:00 For your comment, and God bless you. Beloved, has the show ever done that for you? Do you find that the show brings value to your life? Well, if it does, please help support it. Go to Lifespring media.com/support. Take a look at that page, pray about it, and then do as the Lord leads. Thank you and God bless you. Steve Webb 25:31 On this date in church history, march 28 1646, Baptists held their first recorded meeting in Boston. And the meetings have been going on ever since. I can say that since I was saved at a Baptist church. Steve Webb 25:58 Love it, let's pray again, our heavenly Father, oh God, we do seek your face. And we ask your forgiveness. For the many times we've not been holy people set apart, different, striving to be the people you want us to be. We acknowledge that we've not done all we can to be salt and light. We've not spoken the name of Jesus when you've prompted us to do so. And now we're reaping what we've sown. Lord God, let there be revival in the world and let it begin with us. Give us courage, Lord, to live our lives in such a way that people around us will know that we belong to you. Give us the determination to boldly speak the name of Jesus when your Holy Spirit tells us to help us to share the good news of a risen Christ, not just at Easter, but whenever we have an opportunity, and help us to make opportunities when none exist. We know that you are the answer for what is wrong in the world today. And please don't let us rest unless we do all we can to help last in dying people find you. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Steve Webb 27:05 If you've got a prayer request or a praise that you'd like to share with the Lifespring family, please do so at prayer dot Lifespring media.com Your prayer request will be sent to me I'll pray for you in my private prayer time in will pray for you and rejoice with you on the show. Steve Webb 27:27 You know one way you can be salt and light is to share the show. You know that I do everything I can to bring the uncompromised Word of God to the show. You might consider using this show to help introduce the people you know to Christ. Just an idea. If the Lifespring family Audio Bible is a blessing in your life, please help support it. Go to Lifespring media.com/support. You can comment on today's show at Lifespring media.com/s 12 v 208. And you can email me at Steve at Lifespring media.com Until tomorrow, may God bless you ritually thank you so much for being here. I enjoy spending time with you. My name is Steve Webb. Be bold. Be holy, and pray. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai