Ephesians 1:3-14

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

Paul begins with a glorious benediction, not to men, but to God. Paul blesses God and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Verse 4 starts with ‘just as,’ meaning these are those blessings. He is going to list all those blessings non-stop until verse 14. These blessings are from the works of the Trinitarian God: verses 3-6 detail the Father’s work, 7-12 the Son’s work, and 13-14 the Holy Spirit’s work.

He makes us climb to the highest heaven, takes a right, and goes to past eternity, showing us the blessing of election. Then he brings us to the present, showing redemption, and goes to all future eternity, showing our inheritance. Past Election, Present redemption, Future inheritance—a whole panoramic view of spiritual blessings. As we make this journey, we will travel to incredible heights. These things will just explode on our minds; they will blow our minds. Are you ready for the journey? Amen.

In verse 4, Paul begins with the first spiritual blessing of God’s sovereign, free, and eternal election. If you know the world outside Christianity, more than 90% today reject this truth. Not only do they not believe in election, they hate this truth. I could take my expository machine gun and start shooting all of them, proving this truth from the Bible and answering objections, but I will not do that. This is because in the context, Paul doesn’t do it; he just declares it as a glorious truth that makes him burst out in rapturous praise to God. The focus of his mind is not on men, but on God. So, I want to show this truth in a way that will make your soul rise from clinging to the dust, forget yourself and your situation, rise to the heavens with Paul, and say, “Blessed be God who chose us before the foundation of the world.” That is going to be my goal. It is a high goal and a prayer, and only God the Holy Spirit can help us achieve this.

If you don’t believe in election, it is because of the poison of man-centered Arminian theology. You don’t know who God is, neither do you know the depth of your depravity, and you don’t know what you are missing. For the apostle Paul, as he thinks of all the blessings of redemption, the first and top blessing that comes to his mind is election. If you don’t believe in election, you should not believe and should stop reading all the New Testament books that talk about election. That is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1 & 2 John, Jude, and Revelation. But don’t worry, you have Philemon with 25 verses and 3 John with 14 verses. Only two books don’t talk about election. You will never be able to praise God like Paul, and I hope today’s message makes you realize what you are missing by not believing this blessed truth. So, the goal of my message is that, like Paul, we should be absolutely overwhelmed that God has chosen us and we should burst into praise. Every word in verse 4 will make you bless God. It talks about the wonders of election. Like the seven wonders of the world, this verse talks about the seven wonders of Election, so I have seven headings.

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Seven Headings:

1. Behold the glory of election.
2. Behold the author of election.
3. Behold the time of election.
4. Behold the object of election.
5. Behold the cause of election.
6. Behold the foundation of election.
7. Behold the goal of election.

I understand some of your stares, “Pastor, are you going to keep us until evening?” Just watch.

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1. Behold the Glory of Your Election

Election. What election? The only elections we know are state and national elections. Let me use that as an illustration. When there is an election, there is so much activity. City-to-city election campaigns, all kinds of false promises made to get elected. Big gatherings, house-to-house campaigns. It is called the festival of democracy. The Election Commission monitors that election. Then the day of the election arrives; people cast their vote. Then the counting day starts. Oh, what tension as the counting begins. When the results are announced, in places like Tamil Nadu, there is an unspeakable celebration and stir—a festival. The counting is done; Mr. K. Marimuthu has received the maximum votes and can form the government. As soon as it is announced, oh, what crackers, what celebration, giving of sweets, dancing, drums. His whole street will be full of lights and celebrations. All the party workers receive big gifts, food, drinks. The great hero comes out; there is a big garland he cannot even bear; so many wishes from the whole country. Oh, what slogans: anjaa nenjam (fearless heart), Tamil singam (Tamil lion), purichi thalivan (revolutionary leader),… hail hail. Imagine a victory like Donald Trump’s. He is elected as President of the U.S. All the world, all business leaders in the world congratulate him, as do all celebrities, national leaders, international leaders, and international organizations: the United Nations, WHO, NATO. Congratulations will be pouring in. The whole day international TV will be showing his face. He gets the highest security: bodyguards, the White House, housing, the Oval Office. Whatever he says is now a world headline. Imagine the emotions of that man, if it’s the first time he’s elected. It cannot be expressed, right? On one side, an unspeakable sense of worthiness, pride, and joy. He will feel as if he’s on top of the world. And on the other side, disbelief. He can’t believe if this is true.

Apostle Paul says, “My brothers, you stand so amazed by this petty election. There was an election beyond all this.” The Trinitarian Election Commission participated in that election. That is not like a 5-year election, but an eternal election. Votes were not cast by a mass of fickle, changeable, mortal people, but by an infinite, immense, unchangeable, immortal God before whom all the nations and all people on earth are counted as nothing, less than nothing, less than zero. This God passed over billions of people, and his eyes fell on you. His heart’s love was fixed on you. The lottery fell on your head. Congratulations, you are an elect of the infinite God. You have been elected. Congratulations. The honor and glory of being an elect of God is beyond every imagination.

This is the greatest election. Not only in the world, there are other elections mentioned in the Bible: a national election of Israel, also called theocratic election, where God elects a nation to be his; there is a vocational/ministerial election, where God chooses someone to do the ministry of priest, king, or prophet. But all that is temporary and ends with this world. The highest and greatest election of God is soteric election: the election of a man or woman to shower all salvation blessings to reveal the riches of the height of this God’s grace. The Trinitarian Election Commission has validated the vote and confirmed your selection. Congratulations! You are an elect from that highest election. Rejoice!

See how simply Paul puts the act of election. The simplest sentence in English: subject, verb, object. Paul says in verse 4, “He chose us.” Subject is He, verb is chose, object is us. Author, Act, Object. The great doctrine of election is given in the simplest sentence; it cannot be said more clearly.

The word “chose” (eklegō) has two ideas: it means out of innumerable things, you pick one for yourself, just as a man out of millions of women picks one for himself to make her his own. Election always implies non-selection. If you are choosing something, you are rejecting others. In this election, think of this great God, when there were quadrillion, quintillion, googol, googolplex numbers of people before him—all the mass of humanity who will be born in this world until the end—all were before his eyes. Out of that vast humanity, he set his love on you and cast his vote on you and selected you. Paul says, “Congratulations, you are an elect.” God picked you and made you his own possession.

Election is the first great saving act of God. If you are a Christian today, you owe it to election. If your sins are forgiven today and you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, you owe it to the divine decision. If you are adopted into the family of God today, you owe it to God’s selection. If you are going to heaven to spend eternity with Jesus Christ, you owe it to election. It is so important to get such a basic idea right. A proper understanding of salvation begins with understanding and believing in this blessed truth. If you don’t grasp or believe it, you know what happens when you put the first button on wrong—the whole shirt will be crooked. Your whole Christian experience will be distorted. You have to unbutton everything again and start thinking of your salvation from here. Blessed be God for the wonder of the glory of election.

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2. Behold the Author of Your Election

Blessed be God even as he picked us out for himself. “He,” God the Father, chose us. Can you believe this? The almighty God—unchangeable, infinite, dwelling in the light which no man can approach, almighty, eternal, most wise, most loving, most just God—conducted an election and he chose me! He chose me! That is what makes this election stunning! If we have any sense of who this God is, this truth will make us stand in shock, speechless. Behold the author of your election.

You are not just chosen by the majority of men who may choose today and reject tomorrow, but you are chosen by the unchangeable, immutable God. It is called the immutability of the decree of election. This selection makes you the object of his love, and you become his. This status never changes for all the eons of eternal ages to come. Whatever comes in your life and goes, may all the devils gather to spoil this, it will not change. The immutable decree of election will stand. This election is not by men who live today and die, but by God who lives forever. It is an eternal election.

Do you know something by this election? I became God’s, the beloved of God, his own. I am his great wealth. It is so amazing to think; we were first God’s own, and we were given to Christ by God. John 17:6 says, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me.” We were first God’s, how? By election. And we were elected and given to Christ to do everything to safely redeem us. But firstly, we were God’s own by election. Allow that to sink in deeply. It will make you burst into praise: “Blessed be God and Father of Lord Jesus Christ.” Oh, believers who keep thinking of all the passing illusions and are discouraged, lift up your eyes and think about your election. Congratulations, you are elected.

So the author of election is God. Remember the perfections of this God. He is a God of inflexible justice. He never does anything that will contradict his attributes. Romans 9 says, all those who object to election as unfair, “Oh, what about man’s responsibility? Are we just robots?” Paul’s only response is a rebuke. “Who are you, man? How dare depraved dust find fault with God? Shut up.” Only people who don’t know who God is, and don’t know how depraved they are, try to judge God and reject election. Don’t take God’s sovereignty and man’s choice and try to find some middle ground, or you will have just destroyed both of them. The Bible reveals both. Leave them alone. Let the tension be there. God knows how to resolve it; we are not God. Let God resolve it in His infinite mind. You don’t understand, but that is how you can wonder and worship this God for election! Blessed be God for the author of election!

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3. Behold the Time of Your Election

Every election has an election date. When did my election happen? Verse 4 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,” meaning before the creation of the world. When is this? Titus 1:2 says “before time began.” If it is within time, we can fix the date, but it says before time began. When was that? See if your minds can grasp. Let us get into a jet plane with Paul. We are in March 2025. Let us go up and take a left turn and time travel into the past in our mind. How long can we go back? Before you were born, not only you, but anyone here was born. Go back to the time of Christ in the 1st century. Go back to Moses, Abraham’s time, Adam’s time, then the creation of the world. Then keep going, going, going… where nothing was created. All the universe was sleeping in the monumental mind of God. Nothing was born. The eternal, self-sufficient God with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit lived alone with all blessedness, without any beginning. Keep going, going, going until you become tired, until you feel your mind will burst, until your lifespan ends. You can go no longer. A very far timeline where only the chariots of Jehovah alone can travel. You arrive at such a time, you see no other life, no stir, no air, no breath, in an awesome silence. Jehovah alone existed. We creatures of time, we struggle to remember what happened yesterday; you cannot grasp this.

Paul says at that time in all eternal past time, however many years God lived in the past, all those past years, Jehovah set his love on you and elected you. You were the object of his love from all the time in the past he existed as God in eternity. Oh, the wonder of this election! All the time God was God in the past without beginning: I was loved and elected by God.

Unimaginable blessedness. To be loved and selected by a nation as Prime Minister or President, to be garlanded and adored by the majority, to celebrate my victorious election—how many million times higher is the honor of this election? Oh, what a blessing for fleshly mortals! Creatures of time. I feel like looking down on Donald Trump and saying, “You are elected for 5 years by these people who are nothing less than nothing, but I am elected eternally by an infinite, eternal God.” Will this make you burst into praise? “Blessed be God and Father of Lord Jesus Christ.”

This time before the world began emphasizes that this election was done purely on the basis of God’s free, sovereign love and nothing based on me. Romans 9 says before Jacob and Esau were born, “Did anything good or evil,” God said he loved Jacob and hated Esau. Why? To show his sovereign election. So, before I was not even born, God sovereignly, freely, and unconditionally set his love on me. Can I ask you to stand back, amazed and blinded with the bright light of this glorious truth? Blessed be God and Father of Jesus Christ for the time of election.

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4. Behold the Object of Election

The word “us.” He is talking about believers in Ephesians and including them. Who are these people? These were worshipers of the dirty goddess Diana, with all kinds of idolatry, adultery, dirty black magic, and all Gentile practices. In chapter 2, verse 1, “you were dead in trespasses and sins,” “in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,” “among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.” These depraved people were God’s object of election. That is the wonder. Even when he saw them so abhorrent and an abomination, he elected them, children of the devil like demons.

How does Paul know such people are the elect of God? In verse 13, it says, “who have heard the word of truth and believed.” Because all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of their sins, by the effect of their faith, prove they have been chosen by God. They live as saints and believers in the world. It is only because God chose them that they come to faith and live as saints. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 says, “But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” How does Paul read their election? He reads their election as through the preaching of the gospel they were effectually called into faith and repentance, and the fruits of it flowed out in the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. God’s eternal election comes to light in the effectual call of the gospel, evidencing itself in faith and the fruits of faith, namely a holy and sanctified life.

Blessed be God. What about us? Were we lovely? We were once dead in sins, children of the devil, walking in all lusts, wallowing, hating God. The deep reason for not believing or not being excited and standing in wonder and shock about election is because we don’t know the depth of our depravity. “Me! Elected by a holy God like this.” Oh, if we could just know the depth of our depravity, we will scream and bless God for choosing us. The Ephesians knew how dead they were, so they could bless God. Paul always carried with him this constant sense of his own sinfulness, depravity, and unworthiness. Remember how he was before; he said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.” And such a heart is a heart into which the doctrine of election finds quick root and flourishes, always creating wonder and worship. If you cannot bless God, you need a sight of your heart.

Why did someone come and share the gospel? Why did you believe the gospel? Why did you join the church? Why are you still continuing in faith? Why did you come to church today? Were you smarter than others, seeking God? No, no, not at all. Oh, all this is not by any chance or accident, but the effects of the sovereign election of God. You were the object of his eternal election, even though you were wallowing in depravity. Blessed be God for the objects of election—sinful, depraved people like us.

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5. Behold the Cause of Your Election

Why did God choose us? The end of verse 5 says, “in love.” The free, unchangeable, unconditional, eternal love of God is the cause of election. Oh, when this God loves, He loves like God. It is God’s love. Jeremiah 31:3 says, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

The thrill of this truth is that for however many years God lived in the past, with no beginning, he set his love on you. Allow that to sink in deeply. “Me, a worm, may live 60-70 years and die. I am a creature of time. I don’t remember most things that happened yesterday. And am I valued so much by God?” Yes, congratulations, you are an elect of God. Before I had any being, any existence, I was loved so much. I feel like running like a mad fellow and asking every man, woman, tree, mountain… “Why me! Why me?” The heavens are silent; the scriptures are silent. The only cause existed in God. Behold how much God loved me. Oh, blessed be God for his free, unconditional love.

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6. Behold the Foundation of Election

What is the foundation of this election? But He is a holy God, a righteous God of inflexible justice. How can he love us, who are so fully sinful and depraved, so much that he chose us in eternity and blessed us with every spiritual blessing? How can a holy God have such great purposes for sinful beings? What is the foundation or basis of election? Can you again see that small phrase, “in Him”? The foundation of the election was done in union with Christ. He chose us in eternity and united us to Christ in eternity. Every blessing comes to us through Christ, even election. God saw us in our fall and depravity and so united us to Christ.

What do you say about this love of God? He loved me so much. It’s not that he saw me in terrible sin, that I would burn in hell, so he pitied me and reacted and did something after he saw my need. But even before I was born, he saw me. He knew I would fall in Adam, would be a depraved creature, a child of the devil, not as a victim, but as a rebel hating God with all my heart and loving only sin, fully depraved, and justly deserving only his wrath. Though he knew what a wretched object I would be, even then he loved and chose me. His love foresaw that I would be so depraved, so helpless, and thought to save me in eternal past, in past eternity. And think of at what cost! To give his only darling of heaven to redeem me. Not in time, not after I was born and became a sinner, but even in eternity, even before mankind fell. He gave his son as a sacrifice for me. That is why the Bible says he was the lamb slain when? “before the foundation of the world” for me.

Oh mortals! Stand back and be amazed at the love of the eternal God! What love is this? I understand humans fall, they will suffer eternally, so God is doing something to save them. But here is God who chooses us knowing we will fall, and his love does not stop but pursues us to save us by uniting us to his most beloved Son, and slays him in eternity in his mind! Blessed be God for the foundation of election. Oh, God saw me in eternity. Will this make us rise to the heavens and say to that God with deep gratitude, “I see you”?

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7. Behold the Goal of Your Election

Ephesians 1:4 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” The goal of election is to be holy and blameless. The verse talks about the immediate goal of election, because there is a difference between the immediate and the ultimate goal of God in election. The ultimate goal is stated in verse six: “to the praise of the glory of his grace.” That is the final goal. But the immediate goal by which that final goal is realized and accomplished is mentioned here. For example, a man saves money. You ask him why he is saving. To build a house. What is the house for? To make my wife happy. So his immediate goal is building the house; the final goal is making his wife happy. You see, it is only by building the house that his wife gets happy. It is only through the immediate goal of making us holy and blameless that the final goal of the glory of God’s grace is achieved. The immediate goal is an indispensable stepping stone for the ultimate goal.

First, we should be holy. This is not talking about justification; it is not that we are just declared holy, but that we should be holy. So it talks about sanctification. It is not imputed, but infused, experimental holiness. We should be separated from sin and everything that is against God’s holy character. Then, “blameless.” This is an Old Testament term for a sacrifice without any spot. We reach a state where there is no sign or stain of any sin or depravity. We reach a state where, seeing us, nobody should be able to say that we have fallen in Adam. None of the effects of the fall and depravity are to be seen in us. Holy is positive; we conform to all the character of God. Blameless is negative; there should not even be a small spot in us against God’s nature. So the goal of election is nothing less than to deliver us from all the effects of the fall and sin, to negatively make us blameless, and to make us like him, holy as he is holy.

Notice the glorious phrase: “before Him.” What does this mean? Jude 24 says, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” The same phrase is used: “before the presence of his glory.” Wow! The Bible uses this phrase to speak of the glorious presence of God on his throne. So the goal is that we should become so holy and blameless, not just before men and externally, but that the all-piercing eye of Jehovah should see us, find no spot, and see us as so holy that he should delight and rejoice in us. Every atom in my being, my soul, body, heart, mind, conscience so cleansed from all the effects of depravity and sin. I am made so holy and blameless. Forget about a thought of sinning, but not even an inclination to think anything against God’s law. So holy and blameless, I can stand before the presence of His glory with “exceeding joy.” This presence, when most holy men stood, they fell like dead men. I can stand with exceeding joy. Wow! This is the goal of election.

If you ask what the goal of election is, the phrase “before him” and “his presence” also means to bring us to the most intimate, closest fellowship with God that a creature can know. Since God is holy and blameless, the only way we can go close to him and have the closest fellowship with him is by becoming holy and blameless. Sin has separated us from God; we cannot hold direct communion with God now. So God makes us holy and blameless as a goal so he might enter into unfettered communion with his creature.

One preacher said, “The end of his choosing to be holy and without blemish was that we might be in his presence, and that he might delight himself in us, and we might delight in him in the most intimate fellowship. He made this the goal so that every last barrier between him and us be removed.”

Isn’t this what we see in Revelation 21? When we see redemption’s purposes coming to their full culmination, what is the state envisioned? A great statement in verse 2, “And I saw the holy city, that’s the church, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride,” Ephesians 5, “without wrinkle, without spot, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, ‘Behold the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God is with men and he shall dwell with them. They shall be his people. God himself shall be with them.'” That’s it. That’s what it’s all about. God shall be with us in close fellowship. That is heaven. And of course, the side effects: verse 4 says, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” But we will be with God in close communion; that is heaven.

Revelation 22:3 says, “They shall see his face.” It is the beatific vision of God. Manton has said, “and I should spend millions of years in describing heaven to you, in simple words: Heaven is perfect holiness in God’s presence, enjoying and loving him, even as we are loved by him.”

So the goal of election is to bring us to a state of perfection, that we would be in a condition fit for intimate communion with God. So the goal is to take us to heaven so we can enjoy him and our inheritance forever. Blessed be God for the goal of election.

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The Seven Wonders of Election:

1. Behold the glory of election.
2. Behold the author of election.
3. Behold the time of election.
4. Behold the object of election.
5. Behold the cause of election.
6. Behold the foundation of election.
7. Behold the goal of election.

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Application

I hope as believers all these wonders make us bless God. Someone said every person in this world is craving for self-worth. All their life is to make everyone think, “I am valuable; I can achieve; I am worthy,” by their efforts, by money, dress, house, job. Some people take a religious turn and do self-righteous works to tell the world and themselves that they are something, important, valuable, to get a sense of value or worth. Do you realize the worth of being an elect of God? Is this value enough? The world was created for the elect; redemption was accomplished and is being applied for the elect. Providence runs for the good of the elect.

Yes, the world was created for the glory of God, but you know God will be glorified through his elect. If you are not elect, it is better not to be born in the world. In that sense, the world was created for them. God had them in mind when he created the world. Not only creation, but great redemption was accomplished for the elect. Jesus came into this world, accomplished salvation, ascended, seated, sent the Holy Spirit. For whom does he intercede? “I lay down my life for my sheep.” John 17:9 says, “I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me.” “Keep them; sanctify them; bring them to heaven so they see my glory.” 2 Timothy 2:10 says, “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” How Paul suffered! He says, “I endure all that for the elect.” For whom is Jesus coming? Matthew 24:31 says, “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Ultimately, the end of Revelation shows all those whose names are in the book of life—the elect will safely land in heaven; not one will be lost.

Not only creation and redemption, but providence works for the good of the elect. Are you here struggling with problems? Sometimes you cannot even share your troubles. You think with all these problems, how can I read the Bible, pray, and serve the Lord? In 1 Peter, when he writes to terribly suffering Christians, whose own family members were burned by Nero, they have seen husbands, children, parents, and wives burned, Christians thrown to lions, put in jail, cut in two pieces, their properties taken. The government and people are against Christians. How can they live with faith? Who needs this Jesus? Who needs this salvation? Peter says in the midst of all these troubles, that what will give them hope and steadfastness is if they understand who they are. The first truth he teaches them to encourage them is that they are the elect of God. If you can just understand the glory of your election, this will fill you with great peace and joy in the midst of any situation. It is the most comforting truth of all truths.

See, providence may be difficult for us; you may be poor, sick, and have many troubles; the world may not select you. Rejoice, you are elected by God. Not only creation and redemption, but providence runs and works for the good of the elect. Romans 8:31-33 says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?” Going back to verse 28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Amazing comforting truth. See, God not only chose us to go to heaven, but remember the immediate goal of election was to make us holy and blameless in this life. So when God chose us, he not only chose the end but also all the means. So everything that happens to us in our lives is chosen by God. Our birth, our lifespan, how our days should go, what experiences we should face, what we should face last, today. All these experiences, with providence working outside and his spirit inside, are working for the great good of making us holy and blameless before him.

That is why if I am elect, all things work for me for God. God not only chose me, but chose every single thing, every single experience, every single event, every single second of experience is chosen in eternity. Whatever you went through last week, what you are going through today, is elected by God. All things in my life are elected by God as a means to be holy and blameless. Oh, how it should comfort us and make us see life in a different perspective.

1 Peter 1:6 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

You should rejoice in this, come what may in life. Suffering comes because it is needed. It is essential because of your depravity to make you holy and blameless. Oh elect, learn to see your life differently.

1 Peter 5:10-11 says:

10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

See, this is what is happening in your life as an elect. Unless you see yourself as an elect, you will not understand the trials in your life. Or you will always be grumbling. So, in this, greatly rejoice. “I am poor,” you may say, but you are an elect. “I am sick,” but you are an elect. “I have family problems,” you are an elect. “Struggling with sin,” you are an elect. All those things will change, but your election is rooted in the immutability of God’s decree; that will never change. This is a rare, unattainable blessedness. If you are a true believer, I should congratulate you. You are an elect. You have greater worth than the President of the U.S. Can you get this blessedness even if you give billions of dollars? No, it is the sovereign choice of God. The lottery fell on me. “Why me? Not my relatives, my forefathers, the millions of people going on, dumping in dirty water; they all didn’t get this blessedness… a rare blessedness on me.” In a way, in election, God elected people, put their names in the book of life, and said, “World creation is for them; redemption is for them; providence is for them.”

God wants you to leave this place rejoicing, blessing him that you were an object of his own eternal electing purposes. So brethren, will this truth not make us rise above our circumstances like Paul and bless God, the Father of Jesus Christ? How pitiable our faith is. We are not caught up and rising to the heavens; a temporary worldly situation removes all our peace and joy.

Arminians argue that election will make us carelessly sinful. But the verse says he chose us to be holy. He did not choose us because we are holy; he chose us to be holy. Left to ourselves, we would never be holy but would die with a death grip, loving our sins. The most holy people who lived on this earth are people who believed in election. The effect of election will result in us growing in holiness. Examine if you are growing in holiness. That is the fruit of election. Yes, God has chosen us, but Peter calls us to make our calling and election sure by living a worthy, holy life. Is the fruit of your life effectual? Examine yourself so you are not deceived.

For those who are unbelievers: If you are not elect, woe unto you. Whatever you have in this world—education, money, achievements, wealth—all will not only perish, but all this will take you to hell. Because if you’re not elect, it is better not to have been born. The non-elect are called vessels of wrath. Just as God elected some to show the height of his infinite grace, God has left others to show eternally how wrathful he is. Those sad people will eternally glorify his wrath. If you are non-elect, you are like a tender chicken. You’ve seen those videos in a shop: nice food, facilities, good health, careful; they clean them daily, but all that is done to fatten it and kill it. You are like that. All that you enjoy in this life, you are allowed to live, allowed to freely sin, freely disobey God, even live a long life. God is patiently with you, giving more mercies. Why? Romans says you are storing up wrath for you if you don’t repent. We should lament for you.

What should you do? You don’t have to climb to heaven to check if you are an elect, if your name is in the book of life. If you believe and repent in Jesus, you know you are an elect, because all the elect will do that. That is how we know they are elect. You can prove you are elect by believing and repenting. Or else, woe unto you.

The work of the god of this world is to blind us to spiritual realities and keep us deceived. He twists things upside down, constantly deceiving with outward appearances. He lies to people about happiness, wisdom, and freedom. He constantly tells everyone that the rich and prosperous are the truly happy ones.

The work of Scripture is to undeceive us from his lies. Scripture tells us that it’s not the outwardly rich, but the poor in spirit, the mourners, the persecuted, the pure, and the meek who are truly happy people (Matthew 5).

He also lies about wisdom, suggesting the wisest are those who cheat, commit fraud, and become successful in this world. Scripture says those who gain the world but lose their soul are the greatest fools. The truly wise are those who are wise for their salvation, are rich toward God, and focus on the world to come.

In the same way, the devil also lies about freedom, which all people desire. This is the world’s great deception: that freedom is doing whatever we want without any limits. Obeying God’s law—walking with Him, reading His Word, and praying—seems like a prison and slavery.

Following rules or discipline… our children sometimes feel, “Oh, rules, rules, discipline!” They’re impatient with any restraint, seeing it as a chain that limits them. “When will I get the freedom to do what I want without control and to speak what I want?” They see discipline as a burden and want to break free from any control. The devil has made them think that is freedom.

Even we think freedom is having enough money, time, facilities, and health to do whatever we please. Isn’t that what most of us think? All who have gone in that direction have realized they’ve become more and more enslaved. Learn this well: carnal freedom without the control of God’s law is the worst kind of slavery.

Here are five reasons why it is the worst slavery.

1. It’s a Prison of Our Own Lusts

The worst punishment God can give us is His fearful and dreadful judgment. After long patience—teaching us again and again that our true happiness is in glorifying and enjoying Him—we keep running away from that toward the world. After much patience and trying to correct us, knowing we won’t listen and want to break His boundaries, He gives us up to the rule of our own hearts’ lusts, to do as we please and destroy ourselves without control.

As it says in Romans 2, we are given up to a depraved mind and the lusts of our hearts. Psalm 81:12 says, “So I gave them up to their own hearts’ lust, and they walked in their own counsels.” We are left to our brutish affections. You don’t know what a terrible tyranny our lusts are. They create a prison for us, putting different chains on us and dragging us in different directions. This fleshly liberty makes a person slavishly follow their depraved heart and destroy the great means for them to be happy—which is to enjoy God by obeying Him.

Worldly people may enjoy this “freedom” as much as fish enjoy being in their element of water, yet the reality is that they are still slaves. They are in a spiritual prison; this is a true and perfect bondage. They spend their whole lives chasing vanity, which will never make them truly happy, and live with a deep void within themselves. This is because we were created to be happy when we enjoy God and obey Him. Pleasures, honors, profits, and wealth will never bring true happiness until they are sought for the glory of God.

Pleasure, delight, and contentment of mind and body are meant to be a subservient help to make us happy only when we seek them to glorify God. These things are not to be desired for themselves but subordinately, in order to our great end. But when they entice and detain our affections, they become our idols, and we become their slaves. The more we serve them, the more we lose our liberty.

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2. Carnal Freedom Creates a Disordered Soul

This “freedom” brings great disorder to our soul and makes us slaves. The proper order of the soul is for the mind and conscience to first decide what is right—what will glorify God and make me happy. Man was created to be ruled by the mind and conscience, which move the heart and produce right emotions, which then move the will and body parts to perform right actions. But this sinful “freedom” reverses the whole order, making a person like an enslaved animal.

In the body, if the head were where the feet should be and the feet where the head should be, such a dis-ordination is in the soul when worldly things are sought for our own selfish lusts and not for God’s glory. This slavery creates an inversion where this order is completely reversed. Outward pleasures affect the senses, which affect the heart, which then overpower the mind and conscience. Although the mind feels it is foolish and not right, the will is carried captive, and the person becomes blinded and goes on headlong to their own destruction. Lust takes the throne instead of reason.

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3. We Become Slaves of Our Lusts

Consider the great tyranny and power of sin; it takes away all a person’s right and power to control themselves and their actions. Many times, they want to change and stop certain habits, but they cannot. The power of slavery draws them with compulsion to do things they know will destroy them. When sin commands, they obey and cannot say no.

This bondage is more noticeable to those who feel some remorse or guilt because of health issues, inconvenience, shame, or loss, yet they still cannot leave their lusts. So, in despair, they resolve to continue as slaves. Romans 7:14 says, “I am carnal, sold under sin.” The corrupt passions are like wild horses that do not obey the driver but pull toward destruction. Titus 3:3 says, “Serving divers lusts and pleasures.” When a man yields himself to his own desires, he becomes a proper slave. Romans 6:16 asks, “Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Therefore, Basil of Seleucia calls a carnal man a slave who is dragged by the chariots of his own passions and corrupt affections. He cannot sleep properly, think properly, or feel properly. He acts like someone mentally unstable.

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4. This Bondage Becomes Deeper by Practice

Sin becomes an unbreakable habit. The more we sin, the more we are enslaved by it. It’s like a nail; the more it is knocked, the more it is fastened in the wood. It’s like an incurable disease that gets worse with practice. We might know what’s right, but we can’t do it because sin has a total hold on us. This is the ultimate form of bondage—being unable to help yourself, even when you want to. Jeremiah 13:23 says, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good who are accustomed to do evil.”

First, a person yields themselves to sin as a servant through a partnership agreement. Then, they become a slave by conquest. “Lord, I am a slave; I gave my will to my enemy, and he made a chain of it to bind me and keep me from You. I can do nothing but sin against You.” Thus, we are enslaved little by little.

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5. As Slaves, We Always Live a Life of Fear and Terror

Living in sin brings a constant, underlying fear. We are afraid of death, judgment, and the consequences of our actions. This fear is like a cruel master, always present and preventing us from having real peace. A life lived in constant fear is the opposite of freedom.

There is a fire smothering in the bosom of a sinner, and sometimes it flares up in actual moments of dread and horror. Living like that, a person cannot hear messages about death, hell, or judgment without trembling. They dare not seriously think about these subjects. They always live with a crushing conscience and fear. Small events in life—small vessels, thunder, news of an earthquake, war, some health problem—all send trembling into their soul. A cruel master will always keep them in fear.

Is this freedom? This is the condition of every “free sinner” without Christ. He is the worst slave: a slave to his sins, lusts, the world, and Satan. He is “subject to bondage all days,” living in danger of hidden fears. So, do you call this a free, jolly life? I call this a cursed life of slavery to sin.

The only deliverance for such a sinner is to realize his slavery and seek freedom from his sin through Jesus Christ.

Some people advised me not to teach Leviticus, and I understand why now. Because in doing so, the Lord touches on a very sensitive and private topic: discharges from the body for both males and females.

You may be appalled at first glance. We may all feel uncomfortable listening to this, and may even wonder why we came to church today, especially with family. You may even get angry that I am preaching this. I also initially felt that way, wondering why I started Leviticus and what this chapter was doing here. I questioned if it was appropriate for public reading and preaching with women and children present. Should I skip this? Many people are actually ashamed that this chapter is in the Bible.

But I realized, “If this chapter should not be read, the Holy Spirit should never have written this.” We should not just nominally or verbally say that Scripture is infallible and “every word of God is pure.” We should believe and practice that, so I emboldened myself and decided to preach this. I encourage you to embolden yourself to listen.

We always see that when the Bible talks about sensitive things such as sexual matters, it does not talk to us like the world does, but in a way that promotes holiness. If we avoid those passages, we will only have a wrong understanding of those things and go wrong in life. The Word of God ought to judge and correct us, and not the other way around. Remember, this is God’s word, and we should not think we are wiser than God. Oftentimes, the way we have been raised makes us overly sensitive in this area. The Bible looks at the human body with a wonderful frankness. It is never vulgar, never obscene, and never descends to disgusting bad language.

In our society, children are facing many problems because they lack sex education and age-related guidance. Children do not know how to handle their body changes and hormonal changes. They struggle with these questions, and parents do not educate them. They learn all the wrong things from friends and media and end up doing wrong things. In an age when sexual perversion and pornography are rampant, we need to have some open and frank talks about these things. Small children, you may not understand many things I speak; do not worry, your parents will explain these things to you at the proper age.

When we finally apply this passage spiritually, you will see that what was an ugly chapter is filled with wonderful spiritual truths that we can realize in no other way than for them to be expressed as they are here. So, please bear with me as I explain this most sensitive chapter in the Bible.

Let us zoom out and see from a bird’s-eye view where we are in Leviticus. After discussing personal sacrifices (chapters 1-7), God ordaining the priesthood, and temple worship (chapters 8-10), chapters 11-15 are where God is talking to his people about holiness. A sense of holiness always starts with a sense of sin, just as only when we know uncleanness will we seek purity. So, God is making his people sensitive to their native depravity and sin with many examples. He started with unclean foods, childbirth, and the disease of leprosy. Now, he is getting to the very deeply impacting bodily discharges. All of this is really preparation for the great chapter 16, the great day of atonement. All this uncleanness will make them see the glory of God’s atonement for sin in chapter 16. So, Leviticus 16:16 says the high priest “shall make atonement because of the impurities of the sons of Israel, and because of their transgressions.” If God had taken them directly to the day of atonement without all these chapters, they would say, “What impurities? We are so good, so holy.” So, he prepares them through chapters 11-15. These chapters show us how sinful we are and how holy God is. How difficult it is for a holy God to allow sinners with so much impurity into his presence. Food can be unclean, we are impure from birth, our bodies, garments, and houses can be impure with leprosy, and now we come to this sensitive yet important part in which God wants us to be holy. It is related to the organs of reproduction which profoundly symbolize impurity in the eyes of the living God.

There are three main headings: the impurity of male discharges in verses 1-17, the impurity of the bond between male and female in verse 18, and then the third section is the impurity of female discharges in verses 19-30.

The Impurity of Male Discharges in Verses 1-17

There are two particular flows they are speaking of here. The first would be diseased issues in verses 1-15, and then involuntary issues in verses 16 and 17.

The first, diseased issues; first, its identity. Verses 1-2: “When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean.” The Greek translation of this Hebrew word for discharge is called “gonorrhoeus.” Known in our day as a venereal disease called gonorrhea. A sexually transmitted infection. A man who engages in sexual activity or with their own sex organs before marriage and outside marriage gets this disease and a continuous discharge. Romans 1:24 says, “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves.” Verse 26: “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.” Verse 27: “Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”

They lusted for one another, fantasizing. Leaving the natural use of these organs, they use them wrongly for self-gratification through masturbation and homosexuality, men with men and women with women, and they “received in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”

You may see your friends talking about engaging in sexual acts and with sex organs at a young age. Scripture says God’s judgment comes on their secret parts, which makes them diseased and weak. Here is one discharge due to infection that flows continuously. So we see its identity.

Second, its contagiousness. There are secondary pollutions that come from the individual who has this particular disease. Verses 4-12: “Every bed is unclean on which he who has the discharge lies, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean. And whoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. He who sits on anything on which he who has the discharge sat shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. And he who touches the body of him who has the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. If he who has the discharge spits on him who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. Any saddle (today, a bike or car seat) on which he who has the discharge rides shall be unclean. Whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until evening. He who carries any of those things shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. And whomever the one who has the discharge touches, and has not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. The vessel of earth that he who has the discharge touches shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.”

Wow! His bed, chair, and saddle are all unclean. Anyone who sits on what he sat on, even if he spits on someone, his saliva, all become unclean. The person needs to be washed, and he too is unclean until evening. Now, it’s interesting that in the case of this individual with this disease, unlike leprosy, he is not quarantined. He is allowed to continue through his daily paces in the camp. He is not banished from the people of God.

So we see its identity, its contagiousness, and thirdly, its purification in verses 13-15. We notice here that the infectious secretion stops. Generally, these diseases do not get cured like leprosy, but in case there is miraculous healing, the gonorrhea flow stops.

Verse 13: “And when he who has a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe his body in running water; then he shall be clean.” A seven-day wait. Why a seven-day wait? Well, it seems one reason was so that there would be a certainty that the infection had indeed departed.

Then, again in verse 14: “On the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and give them to the priest.” Verse 15: “Then the priest shall offer them, the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord because of his discharge.”

So we have seen diseased issues: its identity, contagiousness, and then cleansing. Next, secondly, involuntary issues. Involuntary issues are in verses 16 and 17.

Verse 16: “If any man has an emission of semen, then he shall wash all his body in water, and be unclean until evening.” Verse 17: “And any garment and any leather on which there is semen, it shall be washed with water, and be unclean until evening.”

This is not related to disease or to sexual intercourse. This could be from unnatural, deviant sexual activity. This is the starting stage for him to go to the previous diseased state. Involuntary nighttime emission is due to uncontrolled wrong thoughts, lusts, fantasies, dreams, or masturbations.

“Oh Pastor, am I in church? What is this for you and us? Did you come to torment us?” This is God’s word; we cannot tell him he should not talk about our secret things. God is talking and showing that he is concerned about these sensitive, secret aspects of your life. So this is unnatural sexual activity not because of disease or a man-woman relationship. God is very concerned about that. You know how much. Deuteronomy 23:10: “If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp. He may not reenter the camp. But it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may reenter the camp.” This man has defiled himself. God will not allow uncleanness in the holy camp because he walks in the midst of his people.

An emission from the bodily activity of a man, which can take place even in a semi-conscious, sleeping state. But even then, the man is considered to be responsible for it, as he himself is unclean. No atonement is needed for this. So that is the impurity of male discharges.

After male discharges, verse 18 talks about discharge that comes in the relationship between a man and a woman: “they shall bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.”

The Bible does not say sex is sinful. There is nothing sinful, there is nothing ungodly. This is happening in a fallen state, an accursed world. God then uses this as an occasion to symbolize impurity. They just need to bathe in water; both are unclean until evening, though again, there is no atonement sacrifice necessary.

The Impurity of Female Discharges in Verses 19-30

So we’ve seen the impurity of male discharges, we’ve seen the impurity of sexual intercourse, and now the third heading, the impurity of female discharges, in verses 19 through 30.

Again, there are two kinds of discharges. First of all, there are involuntary issues, things the woman cannot control, in verses 19 through 24. Then, there is a diseased flow in verses 25-27.

Involuntary issues in verses 19 to 24 describe the normal monthly menstrual blood discharge. When this takes place, a woman is unclean for seven days. During these seven days, verse 19 onwards says anything that she sat upon or lied upon was unclean. And all who touched her or anything she touched are unclean.

You may wonder, “Oh, these old rules are absolutely impossible to live in that era, under that old covenant.” Yes, these ritual rules do not apply today. However, these cleanliness rules had their great benefit in a time with no vaccination, no medical facilities, and rampant infections. I remember in old days in our villages they followed such rules. We have to recognize that God was teaching something by giving these laws to a particular people at a particular time, in a particular culture. Its relevance is not necessarily as tight as we might think it to be today. But we don’t have this today as a ritual.

Also, verse 24 says if a man has any relationship with a woman at this time, he “shall be unclean seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.” There was no atonement sacrifice necessary, no turtle doves. During those seven days, we see there was a restriction in the woman’s movement as she was not to go near the tabernacle.

Next, verses 25 through 30 talk about a disease discharge of a continuous flow. Verse 25: “Now, if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days,” now notice this next phrase, “not at the period in her menstrual impurity.” This is not a temporary, short-term problem. This is an extended problem.

We find a woman with this same problem in Mark chapter 5, verse 25. A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years. A “many days” problem. She had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse. After hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his cloak. And she thought, “If I just touch his garments, I shall get well.” And immediately, the flow of her blood was dried up for the first time in twelve years. And she felt in her body that she was healed of her, literally, her scourge. And immediately, Jesus perceived in himself that the power had proceeded from him. He asked, “Who touched my garments?” And the disciples said to him, “You see the multitude pressing in on you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?'” And he looked around to see the woman who had done this.

But the woman, fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed of your scourge.”

So this is the problem that’s being identified here: a hemorrhaging woman who has an extended uterine disease or infection. Can you imagine the stigma for such a poor woman? Anything that she touched, anything she sat upon (bed, benches, clothes), she was unclean. She was, practically speaking, an outcast for twelve years. And that’s why she was so hesitant to approach Jesus in the crowd. She was not supposed to be in that crowd. She was unclean. The reason she had to come secretly to Jesus was that she was unclean. She could not enter the community, and more so, how could she explain her problem to Jesus publicly? And if Jesus touched her, he would be unclean. So she planned a strategy to secretly come and touch him. She was desperate. No physician could help her. Only this great physician could. Her desperation made her seek out her only hope.

So we see such a woman in Leviticus 15. Verse 28 talks about her cleansing if she is healed. She “shall count off for herself seven days and afterward she shall be clean.” You can imagine the euphoria. It almost makes us think of the leper. Clean! A seven-day count to ensure the reality of the cure and the end of the infection. And notice in verse 29, here it is again: on the eighth day. The eighth day, as I mentioned before, is an important day in theological symbolism. On the eighth day, then, she shall take for herself two turtledoves or two pigeons, and she is to then go to the tabernacle, offer up a sin offering and a burnt offering as the priest makes atonement, and then she shall be restored to all of her community and all of her relationship privileges.

So those are the three main headings of the passage: two man problems, a man-woman problem, and two woman problems. Oh, what rituals, what nonsense. “I will not follow all this.” The chapter ends with a terrible warning. Verse 31: “Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness when they defile My tabernacle that is among them.” The phrase “my tabernacle that is among them” is key.

There’s a death warning. Notice, “lest they die because of uncleanness.” It reminds us of Nadab and Abihu, who were consumed by the fire of God’s holy presence. This really leads us to the threshold of the day of atonement just around the corner in chapter 16. God will strike not only when we worship wrongly and offer strange fire, but when we live with uncleanness. Not only a priest or pastor, but even a layman. If they were to approach the tabernacle in an unclean state, they were vulnerable to being struck dead by the living God. So this little epilogue puts a skull and crossbones warning, saying, “Don’t dare violate these regulations and approach the tabernacle in a way that I have not prescribed.”

So that’s our exposition.

Yes, these physical rules of separation and sacrifices do not apply today, though bodily cleanliness and sanitary precautions are still advised by most doctors to avoid infections. God wisely gave some of these rules thousands of years ago to people without vaccination or antibiotics to prevent diseases that were rampant in the ancient world. It is these kinds of restrictions and regulations, cleanliness rules in reproductive organs and processes, that saved the nation of Israel from many dangerous plagues that destroyed whole nations around them. These gracious rules are a major reason that Israel has been preserved as a nation through all these centuries.

Today, we do not have them as religious ritual rules. But the principles are applicable today.

The first principle for small children, young people, and even married people is that a superficial reading should make it clear that God is commanding sexual restraint and avoiding any kind of sexual deviation. Remember that the culture of the Canaanites, where they would go and live, had all kinds of abnormal sexual activities that were actually part of their worship. Sexual celebration was seen as a divine act, worshipping the fertility goddess, Asterah. They thought it was divine love. God is saying any sexual abnormal activity and any physical contact between a man and a woman outside of marriage is not divine love, but horrible uncleanness that not only separates you from God but will bring God’s judgments.

Imagine in that culture, these rules in those olden days were a great means to put a brake on youthful passions and desires for hasty sex before marriage or outside of marriage. God warns here that whether as an individual having these discharges by masturbation or that leading to some weakness and disease, if you come to the temple in that unclean condition without realizing your sin and repenting, you may face God’s judgment and die. See the threat, not that he will remove skin or break bones, but kill you.

Today’s young people, the outside world is full of filth and dirt. There are no rules for anyone. Media, pornography, and sexual perversion are everywhere, and everyone is out of control. You will face peer pressure and media influence, “Oh, everyone has a boyfriend or girlfriend. If you don’t, you’re abnormal.” And your own hormones will all make you hasty in this area. You need sex education. I do not know who will do that.

I hope parents will not get upset with me. Let me say a few things, and if I say something wrong, please correct me. Sex is a beautiful gift from God. You do not have to feel ashamed; it is a gift from God. After a certain age, you will have hormonal changes, and you will have desires and attractions toward the opposite sex. It is part of your growth. It is a gift from God. Every gift God gives, he wants his children to enjoy to the full. It is Satan who wants us to abuse that gift and destroy that gift. He is doing that with sex in many lives. You know God’s will for your sex life is that he wants you to enjoy it purely and to the fullest extent all your life. Yes, how can we enjoy sex to the fullest extent?

When you learn to control yourself, control your desires, allow your organs to mature, not play with them, save it as a precious thing for the right relationship at the right time, within the security of the marriage bond. That is why a good God commands you to control your desires temporarily, and you should not see this as burdensome, but as great love and care, so you can enjoy his gift fully.

There is nothing so joyful as sex within the intimacy of truly knowing and loving the whole person, not just their body, but their character, personality, and enjoying sex with the safety and commitment of marriage with a deeper emotional and spiritual connection. Nothing is like it.

If you allow your stupid friends to pressure you, if you do not learn to control your hormonal urges and you follow them, become hasty, play with sex and organs when they are immature before the right time within marriage, there will be terrible consequences, and you will destroy this wonderful gift for a lifetime. I have to state a few R-rated things now because we live in a pornography age.

The Bible says sex is actually a divine gift. Two shall become one flesh. Before your marriage, if you are involved, that mysterious union will haunt you all your life, even if you end the relationship. For example, playing with sex organs, fantasizing, lust, masturbation, and sex outside of marriage not only defiles the temple of God that is your body, our Lord said you commit adultery in your heart, which destroys your soul. But it also has horrible physical consequences and God’s judgments. As we saw in Romans 1, God’s judgment will come in their secret areas. Sexual energy is a powerful force designed for marital intimacy and procreation. When directed in the wrong direction, there are horrible psychological, emotional, and spiritual consequences in the soul. Such a body makes them unfit for proper married life. I read that one of the primary reasons for increasing divorce is this. No one will say this openly. Why?

Playing with sex organs before marriage leads to intensified lust, sex addiction, and isolated pleasure. It completely twists God’s design and purpose of sex. It brings invisible, secret judgments of God in your soul and body. A soul full of shame, guilt, and regret, which loses all self-respect and confidence in yourself, and a deadness of soul. A body with a secret, addictive, and compulsive habit that loses all self-control and delay gratification. It can also lead to reduced sensitivity and strength. The mind has a distorted view of sex, is addictive, and feels the wrath of God.

Such a person becomes fully unfit for God-designed sex and a satisfying married life, making it harder to experience true, selfless intimacy in marriage. It can lead to reduced interest and even impotence, and previous wrong sins can make sex a completely bitter experience in marriage. Apart from weakness and impotence, like in the passage of gonorrhea, today there are several sexually transmitted infections: Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, Trichomoniasis, Hepatitis B, HSV, and HIV. Some of them may take four to five years to show symptoms.

That is why a loving God tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:18: “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” Deuteronomy 22:21 says one who participates in sex before marriage will be a fool in this life and will live with shame and guilt. Hebrews 13:4: “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” It should be kept pure.

In reading a chapter like this, we can recognize its intense value on the physical level to prevent the contagion of infectious diseases. But it has primary significance on the spiritual level.

The second application is that this passage also teaches us sin’s ubiquity, or universality. “Ubiquity” is a new word to help you remember the meaning. It means sin is everywhere. From chapters 11-15, we see the ubiquity of sin in land animals, water animals, birds, and even flies. It starts from birth, it spreads and destroys the whole body as leprosy, and now, secret discharges. God shows us how he sees us from his holy eyes. We are nothing but full of sins and uncleanness. The prevalence of sin among Adam’s race in the eyes of God. Imagine how difficult it is for a holy God to walk among us and have a relationship with us. A rich, delicate princess who has never seen anything unclean walks among the worst slum toilet areas: “Filthy! Filthy!” So too is the three times holy God, brethren, walking among us as the prevalence of our sin is manifested in these lines.

So, depraved, we live in a defiled world, depraved from birth, lepers, full of unclean discharges that come from us. What do these discharges mean spiritually? Our Lord interpreted this passage in Mark 7. “The truly dangerous defilement that can defile a man is not from outside, but what comes out of a man is what defiles him” (Mark 7:20). Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, and blasphemies. These things which defile the human spirit. The word “proceed” is like those discharges. These proceed from man.

Notice there are some things we avoid externally because of the police and government, but there are continuous discharges we cannot avoid. They keep coming whatever we do: covetousness, lying, pride, conceit, hurtful, sharp responses that hurt others, thoughtless foolish actions. These come without our thinking sometimes. They come without planning, unpremeditatedly. And they represent the fact that our evil, fallen nature is so subtle, so close to us, so silken that it slips out sometimes without our being aware. Daily I say things to my wife that hurt her. It automatically comes out. I had not meant to offend. How many arguments in marriage? All because of these discharges of evil thoughts. We try to justify ourselves: “All I said was…” “Yes, but how did you say it?” Thus, offenses can occur, and defiling, injurious, hurtful relationships can ensue. And these discharges from life come all the time, especially when the passions are aroused, as in anger or sex. It is these discharges from within that defile.

They not only consciously come from us, but we are so unclean from head to toe that they come from us involuntarily without us knowing, like bodily discharges. How many sins of ignorance, sins beyond the conscious purpose of the will, flow involuntarily? It is all a picture of unknown sins.

One said, “Just as physically a man or woman contracts uncleanness, during unconsciousness of sleep, in dreams, so morally we find sinful issues coming forth from the evil heart and nature even in dreams. Oh, so unclean, we sin even in our dreams.” That is why great saints like Jonathan Edwards were careful and even analyzed their own dreams and confessed for sins in their dreams. Because we have such a depraved nature. Even in our dreams, even in our subconscious and semi-conscious states, we are sinners through and through.

And you compare this uncleanness with the uncleanness of leprosy in the 14th chapter. Not only was the ancient Israelite to guard against public impurity, like leprosy, something everyone would know about, but also secret impurities seen only in private places by him. Our secret lusts, adulterous thoughts, lustful impulses, or fantasizing; envious thoughts against a neighbor’s wife, or the opposite sex; our murderous thoughts; our deep resentments against a brother or sister, only you know about it, but God sees it. And the hours or minutes we may spend brooding over our hard lot, thinking to ourselves, “Why does God bless those people with so much riches? I am so poor. He doesn’t have sense.” We are envious of this. Secret, bitter envy against the advancement or prosperity of another.

Brethren, God sees it all with this penetrating eye. How deep is our sin into the most private sections of our lives? We cannot escape, even if we go as monks or nuns, where no one is there. Because it comes from inside. The secret flow of sin does not cease. However moral the outward life may be, out of the heart will flow the secret pride, unbelief, lust, and evil thoughts, which defile the soul and burden the conscience with guilt.

Do you see the benefit of this chapter, brethren? The book of Leviticus, if all these Arminians, self-righteous religious people who do not believe in the total depravity and sovereignty of God in salvation, this “stupid Calvinism,” “the dignity of free will”… if they would just read and grasp the depth of our depravity displayed here. Do you see how in this chapter we can clearly see the distressing vileness of our cursed sinnerhood? We are an ever-flowing stream of uncleanness in the mind of God. Oh, can you imagine what a smelly and deep gutter of sin our soul lives in in God’s eye? There is a continuous flow, and the intensity increases as we grow and get more opportunities. How polluted we are.

Oh, do we understand how difficult it must be for a holy God to commune with us, slum dogs! Like a delicate England queen comes and lives in the worst-smelling slum next to a city gutter! Can you understand that verse in Genesis 6:5-6: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”

You Arminians, how foolish to talk about free will, what occasion is there for any to glory in the flesh? To boast in the dignity of man, of human nature. But brethren, here we see through the spectacles of God the revolting side of sinful man. God shows the depth of the depravity of man, so every mouth is stopped and all become guilty before the living God.

And when we understand our sin as God would see it, the white and pristine and pure God, then we say, “What a wretched man. Who will rescue us from this body of death?” Do you see in this passage a theme of sin’s ubiquity, its everywhere-ness, how high it is, and even how deep it is into our own sinful natures?

What are we to do about them? Are we merely to ignore them? Are we to go on our way and think nothing more of them? No. If we do, we are in trouble. Do you realize why man is always miserable? Because all this gutter flow will add up against us. They will start stacking up in our subconscious. Guilt will begin to increase, and restlessness will come into our spirits. Shame, peacelessness, deadness of soul, a sense of defilement that makes us unfit to come to God, and even hide, and strangely hate God sometimes, his presence. It is this defilement.

I do not want to end with sad news, but there is good news of the gospel. For such dirty creatures, instead of throwing them into burning hell, behold the provision of spiritual purification. Blessed be God. Brethren, this melancholy view of our sin gives us a majestic view of our Savior and his work. We will see that more clearly in the next day of atonement. Atonement becomes gloriously bright for sinners who realize their vileness.

Even in this chapter, God provides a remedy. Verse 13 talks about washing in water, washing his clothes, and bathing his body in running water. To be separated from the temple for seven days, all of this talks about the process of repentance: realizing your sin against God’s word, realizing you are cut off from God’s presence because of all this defilement and sins, and realizing how sinful he is and how he is defiled. Get the sense of sin. Acknowledging sin is the first step of cleansing. All is repentance.

Then it talks about faith: “On the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and give them to the priest. Then the priest shall offer them, the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord because of his discharge.”

All this points to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God never once sets aside the requirement for the blood of an innocent substitute to be shed in the place of one who is defiled, showing that human nature needs to be dealt with by blood, by life poured out. It is a deep and complicated problem. It cannot be solved by a mere rearrangement of surface symptoms.

Those two birds suffering remind us of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how deep and wide then is his love. Do you see the great depths that our Savior plunged into in order to bury the vastness? Think of it: he not only died for our original sin and actual conscious sins, but also for the unconscious, constant flow from our depraved hearts, an unending flow of that gutter. It goes beyond all our conceptions. It is infinite. It is infinite upon infinite. That is the vastness of the height and the depth of my sin. Oh, may God open our eyes to see the colossal depths of our Savior’s suffering on the cross to bury all those defiled oceans of discharges. Yes, our flow could have created an ocean of discharge, but his love and grace and blood covered all those oceans of gutter in the sea of his atoning love. And we are made clean. We are made clean.

Oh, who are hemorrhaging sinners? You see this bleeding from your soul, even when you sleep, just sitting, a continuous flow comes out in evil thoughts. Like the woman in Mark 5, she tried all methods and doctors, but nothing helped. Always flowing, flowing. But one day she believed that if she just touched the hem of his garment, the flow would stop. Wherever God’s word is preached, Revelation shows Jesus invisibly walks there in his church. He walks about the little flock. The Lord Jesus walks among us.

Can I tell you there is no other physician in the world who can cure you of your cursed scourge? None other. He alone. You may feel that you are so unfit, like that woman was. So unworthy to enter into his presence. There is one qualification you need that makes you fit: desperation and being fed up with your sinful flow. You want to stop it. A qualification that says there is none other, no other physician who can heal me. It is only him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who can make me clean and allow me to enter into the presence of the living God. If Christ is your last chance and your only hope, then I invite you to come to him.

Come and just touch him once with the hand of faith. You don’t need great faith to come and hug him with both hands. All you need is faith that can make you raise your small, weak index finger and touch not even his body, but the hem of his garment. That is all you need to do: make a connection between you and him through faith alone.

Through the channel of faith, you will feel his power entering your soul and body and immediately sense his healing and cleansing power. You will sense that the flow has stopped. You will sense that reigning sin is dead. Sin cannot have dominion over you. You will feel the cleansing and joy of deliverance and forgiveness. He will speak to your soul, “Sinner, don’t fear, your faith has healed you.” You don’t need great works. Come with all your uncleanness, unworthiness, and oh, hemorrhaging sinner, touch him today.

As believers, we saw today that we are not saved and gone once we come in faith. Yes, when we come, our reigning sin is cleansed and we are delivered. But we have remaining sin, so we keep coming in faith to him. We need constant cleansing and reviving from our great High Priest. Keep coming back to our Savior to be cleansed. Conscience cleansing is necessary to maintain fellowship with the God who dwells among his people. For believers with remaining sin, this idea of the flow stopping is an emblem of sanctification. This is how, when a man has become cleansed before the living God, there is not the chronic flow of the sinful symbol.

Children are given a game: a connect-the-dots puzzle. At first glance, the page will merely be a jumble of haphazard dots; nothing will make sense. But when we carefully trace out the numerical interconnections—1, 2, 3, 4—we see a wonderful picture coming from what seemed like meaningless dots. Nowadays, there is a color-by-number game where the page first looks full of meaningless shapes and lines, but when you fill in the proper color, a beautiful peacock appears. As we can see, amazing sights are often concealed in obscure images. Only the children who can connect the dots can see those beautiful pictures. In the same way, the book of Leviticus is God’s connect-the-dots puzzle book. For many, it is all confusing and meaningless, but those who, with the Holy Spirit’s help, can connect the dots, can see amazing sights concealed in obscure images.

We have been connecting dots in chapters 1-7 and saw the marvelous picture of God meeting our great need as defiled sinners through five sacrifices. Then we looked at the colossal value of the high priest’s ministry in chapter 8. As sinners, we can come to God only through sacrifice and the high priest to offer acceptable worship (chapters 9-10). All of this points to the earthly and heavenly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we are cleansed, forgiven, justified, adopted, and brought into the temple of God as His redeemed people to worship and enjoy God’s presence. The God we worship is holy.

After instituting temple worship in chapters 11-16, God now talks about how we should live personally as His holy people. We saw in the last chapter, Leviticus 11, what seemed like irrelevant rituals of clean and unclean animals teaching us the basics of a holy life. As saved people, our great need is to continually enjoy God’s presence and His salvation blessings. Maintaining personal holiness is necessary for experiencing all salvation blessings. Otherwise, remember the seven consequences of sin: displeasure to God, grieving the Holy Spirit, impairment of our comforts and graces, a hardened heart, a wounded conscience, hurting and scandalizing others, and experiencing God’s judgments. So, the God who has drawn near to us in grace, we can draw near to Him by holiness. Fellowship with and enjoying His presence requires holiness. And that is the basic lesson taught in the perplexing chapters of Leviticus 11-16, using animals, childbirth, leprosy, and bodily discharge.

As a saved person, your happiness and peace depend on the continual enjoyment of God’s presence. For that, you should not allow anything unclean to defile you. The problem is that our world is full of unclean things, and we defile ourselves in 101 ways by our actual sins. How do we deal with those actual sins of mind, word, and action that hinder the enjoyment of God’s blessing? How do we live holy? Chapter 11 shows us baby lessons on how to deal with our actual sins. I tried to explain that in the last application with an acronym. A great holiness lesson can be remembered in VWWW. How do we live holy and continually enjoy God’s salvation blessing and presence? Four steps: VWWW. If you ask any saint how he maintains holiness, I am the least, but if any holiness I maintain, it is by these four steps.

V – Vomit

Cultivating a nauseous, hateful sense of sin. The Bible calls us to hate sin. Whatever color the devil paints sin, remember the unclean animals. When you look at a woman with lust, see her as an unclean serpent with poison, or a shrilling lizard. When you see a lizard, you don’t eagerly keep looking at it again and again. It is shrilling, so you turn away. You don’t want to look that way again. In the same way, when you see something that can defile you, like an attractive woman. After a wonderful worship in the morning, I was going along, singing and enjoying God’s presence. We go down Nehru road, and there is a lady in a tight white shirt with large breasts, exposing her chest. Everyone on the road is watching her. If I want to continue to enjoy God’s presence and blessing, I have to turn away as if I see a big lizard or a snake coming from afar. “Oh, a snake.” For some, it is covetousness. You see someone’s house, good clothes, or facilities, and your heart will be defiled by envy. Turn away as if you see a cockroach. See anger as a dead rat. Cultivate a vomiting sense of sin. Run from it as unclean. This is the first step. You will not believe how many sins you can avoid at the root by this first step.

W – Watch and Pray

Realize you are not safe anywhere in this world. Anywhere you go, uncleanness can attack and defile you: even after church, on the road, in a shop, at work, on the bus, on the train, on vacation, on land, in the sky, in the water, even inside your house, on your mobile, or on TV—everywhere in the world. No place is an exception, so always and everywhere, watch and pray so you are not defiled and do not lose God’s presence. Don’t let your guard down and relax.

W – Watch Your Mind

Like clean animals, practice the art of chewing the cud more and more, meditating on truths day and night. Your spiritual mouth should always be chewing, chewing like the man in Psalm 1, meditating on God’s Word day and night. That is how your inner life can be clean. If you don’t meditate, you may look like a decent Christian on the outside, but inside you are full of uncleanness and covetousness. There is no inner holiness without meditation.

W – Watch Your Life

Like clean animals with a cloven hoof, be sure you walk uniquely, not like everyone in the world, but firmly and progressively with a single mind on the path of God. Don’t walk back and forth without an aim. That is an unclean lifestyle.

VWWW consists of practical steps of holiness we learn from Leviticus 11 to deal with actual sins. Now, as we come to chapter 12, it again all seems very irrelevant with some ceremonial rules for the purification of a woman after childbirth. A woman gives birth and gets defiled, and rituals must be followed to cleanse her. But if we take the time to connect the dots, we will see marvelous things in the law of God. We will see how God, in His grace, not only teaches us how to deal with actual sins through clean and unclean animals but also uses natural birth in chapter 12 to show us how to deal with our original sin. It’s a short chapter, but it’s strange. It hits our minds and our hearts.

Let us understand this with two headings: 1. The delivered mother and baby’s unclean days in verses 1-5. 2. The delivered mother’s purification in verses 6-8.

First, come with me to the delivered mother and baby’s unclean days. Verse 2 says, “If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity (period) she shall be unclean.” An Israelite woman giving birth is very common; they bore many children in those old days. Now, if she gives birth, for the first seven days, she is to be unclean, as in the monthly cycle of the flow of blood. Then, verse 3 implies that the baby born is also unclean. So, verse 3 says, “And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” Verse 4 says, “She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days.” So, when a male child is born, it’s one week of impurity, and add to that 33 days, a total period of uncleanness of 40 days in all.

Women who have been pregnant know those 40 days are generally a time for recovering from pregnancy with continual bleeding. During that time, she is unclean. She is not whole; it is a weak time, and her godly privileges are revoked and removed. Verse 4 mentions two things: she shall not touch any hallowed thing. She cannot participate in temple worship, and she couldn’t touch any of the meats that had been offered up for peace offerings during this time. If she was a priest’s wife, she couldn’t take any of the tithes, which were sacred things, nor could she eat any of the first fruits. Secondly, she should not come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. She is to be isolated from the tabernacle, and even society. She is to have no access to the public worship of God. She is cut off from much close social contact, since this would also ceremonially contaminate visitors. So, when someone would come to her house, she had to stay at a distance from them for 40 days. This is all for a male child.

Next, what happens if a female child is born? Verse 5: “But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.” Wow, what is this? Male is 1 week, female is 2 weeks. 33 becomes 66, a total of 40 days for a male, but here it is 80 days for a female. Basically, the unclean period is doubled for a female child. Even though the bleeding may stop within 40 days, she has to be unclean for 80 days. Modern feminists may take this chapter and raise their protests. Why this gender inequality or partiality? Secondly, motherhood in the world is seen as the most sacred time for a woman. Giving birth is such a joy to the whole family. At this joyful event, why is God making such ceremonial laws at this very joyful occurrence?

Commentaries mainly explain the health benefits. Yes, there could be many health benefits and safeguards for the woman and child’s health by following these rules; even modern medicine advises some of them. Women get maternity leave, a good recuperation time, after having gone through a traumatic birth. During this time, she might not be busy with burdensome housework, lifting weights, cooking, or washing dishes. This would enable the woman to be nursed back to normal health. The isolation time with the child allows the woman to focus on her child, bond with the child, and give regular mother’s milk. General isolation can help avoid infections. Yes, there could be many health benefits. But I believe the primary reason is not just for physical health.

The highest priority is not focused on health. Look at verse 4. What does this text emphasize as a high priority? The alienation that she experiences is not primarily for health benefits, but the alienation is rather from Jehovah, His tabernacle, and all His means of grace. She cannot touch any consecrated thing, nor can she enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. The question comes: Why? Keep thinking of that question as we look at the next heading. We have seen the delivered woman and baby’s unclean days in verses 1-5.

Next, the delivered woman and baby’s purification in verses 6-8. After these days—40 for a male, 80 for a female—are completed, verse 6 says, “When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting.” So, a burnt offering of a lamb, and a sin offering of a pigeon. Verse 7: “Then he shall offer it before the Lord, and make atonement for her. And she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female.” Just as an addendum, the last verse, verse 8: “And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.”

Now, this chapter may pose many questions. But when we connect the dots, we see that Leviticus, which we think is the most confusing book, is where God in those early days teaches deep lessons of spiritual realities using visible signs. You know that uncleanness typifies sin in the life of man. In those old days, what would people understand about the lesson of original sin, actual sins, total depravity, and the need for regeneration? But here, God wonderfully, through the birth of every Jewish child, reminds and teaches them these wonderful lessons. Imagine you are a Jewish family with a husband and wife, and the wife gives birth to a child. God designed these rules to teach four deep spiritual lessons.

1. Behold a Lesson of Original Sin

Motherhood is seen as such a sacred thing in every culture, some even see it as a divine act. It is seen as a joyful thing by all of humanity. Why does God institute such barbaric rules? It is as if she has committed some terrible sin by giving birth. This is not an ordinary woman, a mother; not a gentile mother, but a mother of Israel, a covenant mother. She gives birth to a beautiful covenant child, and she becomes unclean not for a day, but for 40 days for boys and 80 days for girls, almost three months. She cannot come to the temple, touch any sacred thing, or any means of grace. Then after 80 days, she has to offer a burnt and sin offering for atonement, and only then can she come back into God’s presence. What is her sin? How do we answer this?

In context, verse 7 may give a basic answer that her flow of blood, bleeding, makes her ceremonially unclean. But the ultimate answer comes to us from Eden. I have titled this “Echoes of Eden in Every Birth,” because in Genesis 3:16, we see that every childbirth’s unbearable pain is a memorial of original sin. The great sin which made all of mankind fall. That sin primarily came from the mother of all women. Eve’s wicked disobedience and the resulting curse. As God spoke directly to Eve after He gave the curse to the serpent, it says in verse 16, “To the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.'” That was the penalty for her sin against the living God.

Oh, you don’t believe in original sin and the curse. It is not a reality for you. However much we teach or say that mankind is fallen, you don’t realize it. You don’t believe the truth of Genesis 3 that original sin affects all of us. When you marry and joyfully expect to have a child, what is God doing by giving all that pain and tension in childbirth? Why do the daughters of Eve bear such a sentence? How many women have asked, “Why should I go through such a terrible time of not only bodily trauma, but also psychological depression, weakness, and pain?” Now, with medical painkillers and anesthesia, it is better. Imagine those days, with no medicines for women. Even now, it is so painful. Which science, culture, or religion can answer? God’s Word alone satisfactorily answers the daughters of Eve that they are bearing the curse of original sin. God painfully reminds you of original sin when He said, “when you eat the fruit, you shall surely die.” Every mother knows from experience that she in a way actually dies and comes to life during that terrible experience. Think of the Jewish woman. On top of physical suffering and depression, during this difficult time, she cannot come to the temple or use any means of grace, but is banished from God’s presence. Oh, when you feel like complaining, “Oh, why 80 days, such a long banishment,” you should realize that the justice rule was, “if you eat of this fruit, you will surely die.” God didn’t kill mankind, but in Genesis 3:24, “So God drove the man out of the Garden of Eden and he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life.” Because of the profound sin of the woman, man was banished from the presence of God. Therefore, now when she gives childbirth, and there is that memorial of her sin, she is banished for a time from the presence of God as a holy reminder of original sin. But there is also grace. We should be eternally banished, but only temporarily for 40 days or 80 days. The 40 indicates a time until atonement is provided. We will see that He provided atonement to come back. This is a God-ordained memorial that the woman deserves banishment from the presence of the living God due to her original sin.

Yes, in the New Testament, this period of isolation, 40 and 80 days, regulation has been lifted in the New Covenant. It says in Hebrews 9:10, “These are regulations passed until a time of reformation.” Yet, there are certain effects of the curse that remain on the female gender to this day. Mothers sitting here, have you asked the question, “Why this pain?” All mothers shrieking in pain late at night ask, “Why, God? Why am I experiencing this pain?” And the biblical woman’s mind goes back to the curse. “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.” Two effects of that curse: The first part says, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.” But the second part says, “In pain, you shall bring forth children.” Just as you broke my heart by becoming a disobedient child, depraved children will be born to you who will be senseless, ungrateful, and repeatedly break your heart. Women, don’t you face this pain with your children? Women know her deepest and most unbearable, most profound and relentless pain through relationships with her children, through the physical and the emotional and the spiritual relationships with children. Yes, this is a sad reality. That’s where she would feel the deepest pain. All these little sinners tearing at your heart, bringing you all the grief and sadness and sorrow. And it has been true throughout all of history. But there is good news in the gospel. There is a remedy. 1 Timothy 2:14-15: “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.”

Wow! Great hope for a woman in a difficult situation. Women have a hard road, but it can be softened; it can be changed. “Women shall be saved by childbearing.” This does not mean salvation from sin by bearing a child. The context is talking about a woman suffering from Eden’s curse with her children, but they shall be saved from the impact and pain of the Eden curse that comes from children. How? There is one condition: A mother can be delivered from the impact and pain of the Eden curse, the relentless pain and heartbreak coming from children, if she truly repents and is saved. Not just outwardly saying “I am saved,” but if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control over their mouth, hands, and so on. Basically, living as a godly woman, an example to their children. If a woman will live a godly spiritual life before the depraved sinners born to her, you know what will happen? All these little sinners breaking her heart and giving constant grief will, by her example, repent and be saved. Mothers have the greatest impact on their children’s salvation. These children, through your example, will be saved. As believing children, instead of being a pain and a curse, they will be a joy and a blessing. I read that some godly women gave a witness that their relationship with their children didn’t bring much pain to them. God saved them, and the children were a sheer joy to them. You know why? Because the mother, as a godly woman continuing in faith, was delivered from the curse, so the curse is mitigated and you are delivered from its impact. It’s the only way. Her godly example and life will impact the children and bring them to faith, and she will escape from that curse.

2. Behold a Profound Lesson of Total Depravity because of Original Sin

Here, we not only see that the woman cannot enter the presence of God, but even the child born to her cannot. Now this is a striking memorial that birth not only reminds us of the cursed sinfulness of womanhood, but it also reminds us of the cursed sinfulness of her offspring. The child who comes from the womb is also a sinner. You see the beautiful connection to Chapter 11 and this. Chapter 11, with the clean and unclean animals, was a picture of the sin that was external to man, outside of man, reminding us that the world is full of uncleanness that can lead us to commit actual sins. While chapter 11 speaks of that external pollution, now as we come to chapters 12 through 15, we’re going to see the internal pollution. Man’s problem isn’t only environmental, outside. Man’s problem is inside, and he himself as well. That problem starts as soon as he is born. This is a deep lesson of man’s total depravity. Original sin led to original depravity. All of us unconsciously inherited a depraved nature when we were born. A little child pops out of the womb. The child is a depraved sinner. Not by any conscious sin, but by an unconscious inherited nature from Adam. David says the same in Psalm 51:5: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” In the New Testament in Ephesians 2:3, it says, “We were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Some churches teach that a child is considered innocent until maybe 9, 11, or 12 years old when accountability dawns on him. The Bible knows nothing of this. Think of this idea of childbirth. What could be a more joyful event to humanity than the procreation and birth of a little child? But God says even this is laden with accursed realities. Even this! From a man’s beginning as a bloody child to his ending as a dead corpse (we will see a dead body is unclean and anyone who touches it becomes unclean). God shows that man from beginning to end is unclean. In between birth and death, in the next chapters, we’re going to see in 13 and 14 how, like the disease of leprosy, this birth creates a depraved nature of leprosy within a man. And then in chapter 15, through bodily discharges, we are going to see how what comes out of such a man is only unclean and defiled. Beginning, middle, end—all unclean. From the womb to the tomb, everything that man does in the eyes of God is unclean. Everything about man, within and without, is saturated with the sin leprosy that makes him unfit for the presence of God. So, very early in Revelation, in this old book, God teaches in picture form that man’s sin problem is not merely environmental, outside. His sin problem is personal, inside. Man is a veritable fountain of wickedness and sin and is totally depraved. This is an awesome picture lesson of total depravity in Leviticus 12-15. A picture is given to make us realize the despairing hopelessness in ourselves to make ourselves fit to approach the living God who is holy, holy, holy. That is why not only was the woman banished from the presence of Jehovah as a result of original sin, but also all her seed were born estranged and separated and alienated from God as well. They are born as depraved, defiled sinners by original sin. That is why after Genesis 3, in chapter 4, Eve gives birth to a murderer of his own brother, more murderers, more adulterers, until God couldn’t bear it and drowned the whole world, and then had to control Himself by making the rainbow covenant not to destroy them. And so too, there was a necessity not only for the mother to be purified, but the offspring to be purified. So we learn another sad lesson of total depravity. The woman’s suffering is because of original sin, and the child is born with total depravity. Pastor, all bad news—but next we will see two good news.

3. Behold a Lesson of Atonement for the Woman and Child

Oh, think of the mother. My childbirth reminds me I am cursed with original sin, and my child born is also defiled and totally depraved. We cannot go into the temple, are unfit to go into the presence and be blessed by any of the means of grace. What is their one hope of coming back to God’s presence again after 40/80 days? Their one hope was in verse 6: the Lamb of God as a burnt offering! Oh, when we think of the extent of sin, how it has fully saturated us from birth, not left one area—all leprous, defiled us—and we are utterly unfit to come to God. Original sin and original depravity would have excluded us eternally from the enjoyment of God if He had not graciously provided a way of purification. What is our hope? The Lamb of God! In our hopelessness, we find the blessed truth that in this passage, God has yet made a way. The Lamb of God who takes away not only our actual sins, but even original sin. Eve could have cried out, “Oh, Lord, my punishment is great,” but a hope was promised to Eve: one day the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head. Deliverance will come to the sinful womb. That is why to deliver us from original sin, our Lamb had to be born like us to a virgin. Though He was not conceived in sin, Luke 2:22 says His mother fulfilled the purification days of 40 days and came to the temple. God Himself not only became human to save us, but so poor. So poor were Christ’s parents that they were not able to bring a lamb for a burnt offering but could offer a pair of turtledoves. Joseph and Mary may have felt so bad that they were so poor they could not buy a lamb. Oh, they didn’t realize they were bringing the only true Lamb that day to the temple. He will crush the serpent’s head. Who would have thought that the provision for the poorest people—just the addition in verse 8, “And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons”—was given by God for the Messiah, that He will come so poor for our sakes that He can only offer two pigeons? And that’s just one of the ways this passage is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But He amazingly fulfilled the law for us by becoming our lamb, our burnt offering, and our sin offering. It is because of His life and work on the cross that we can come to God, enjoy the presence of God, and eternally dwell in His house forever. Now, how does God apply the work of the Lamb of God to the depraved child?

4. Behold a Lesson of Regeneration for Born Sinners

The woman is made clean after 40 days, but notice in verse 3 how the child is purified. It is by the ritual of circumcision for the son. It says, “and on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” A rite or ritual of purification enabled the boy child access into the presence of God. In Genesis 17, we find that circumcision was the sign of the covenant, indicating that all of Abraham’s seed, all of the male offspring, were to be circumcised, and that gave them access to the temple and all the blessings of God’s salvation because they had the sign of the covenant. And this idea of the cutting off and the removal of a fleshy foreskin—this is profound symbolism. This depicts the Old Covenant concept of new birth and regeneration in a picture form. The putting away of the flesh, the cursed and unclean and corrupt nature we are born with, leaves a remaining tender, sensible heart toward God. It was an outward symbol of an inward reality. We even see in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 10:6 and Jeremiah 4:4, that even to physically circumcised Jews, God repeatedly said, “Circumcise your heart,” “remove the foreskins of your heart,” “stiffen not your neck,” “harden not your heart,” which is equivalent to regeneration. All of this prefigured the new birth. And we find this clearly in the New Testament. In Romans 2, Paul gives this interpretation of Old Covenant circumcision as a symbol for the new birth. Romans 2:28-29 says, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. There’s a deeper relevance to circumcision. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men, but from God.” Colossians 2:11: “In Christ, you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” You see, God in old picture shadows was teaching Israelites that the only way a depraved child can enter the presence of God and be cleansed is through regeneration. The only solution for total depravity is regeneration. You must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Whatever you do, even if you become a big religious leader like Nicodemus, you can never enter without regeneration. It was done on the eighth day. Why? The Sabbath was on the seventh. In the next chapters, you will notice repeatedly that for leprosy and other uncleanness, all atonement will happen on the eighth day. See, the Old Testament anticipates something special coming on the eighth. The eighth day starts a new week. God completed all creation work in six days, rested on the seventh day. On the eighth day, the old creation started. Guess why the eighth day is important? A new creation will start on the eighth day. All of this is a picture prefiguring the completion of Christ’s atonement work by rising from the dead on the eighth day, on Sunday. Life-giving resurrection power for the new birth, for the regeneration, the circumcision of the hearts of men, came on the eighth day. It is by His atoning death and resurrection completion that we are circumcised and cleansed and we are able to come into the temple of God and fellowship with God. That is why today we have come to church. What day is this? The eighth day. Why do we gather on the eighth day? There is a profound reason for it. The Old Testament expected special things on this day. The Old Testament defiled people were cleansed and expected the eighth day to enter God’s house. Do you see why the New Testament church met on the eighth day? This New Covenant Sabbath day is holy ground. The eighth day. See, this is our New Covenant Sabbath, not haphazardly changed, but profoundly and theologically changed. We are to take off our sandals and greatly respect this day. It is the Lord’s day, the resurrection day. I hope that helps you understand why it is so important not to sleep and watch TV at home on Sunday, but to come to the house of God in the morning and evening. It is a sacred day. Not haphazardly the eighth day, it’s purposefully. This also answers the question of why 40 days for a male child and double that, 80 days, for a female. The male was purified by being circumcised. But there was no act provided for a female, and God had ordained an additional 40 days for female purification. The mother’s extended separation was so that she might endure a longer sentence not only for her uncleanness, but also for her girl child’s uncleanness. The girl, who wasn’t purified by circumcision, had to be purified by the mother’s extra 40 days. Whether male or female, they both need to be purified. They must be purified either by circumcision or the additional 40 days of uncleanness to enter into the presence of God.

5. Practical Lesson for Parents

We need to learn to prudently walk based on the reality that our children are born totally depraved. Some parents go completely wrong by thinking their children are divine beings and give everything to them. No, our children are depraved. Knowing this should result in: Lowered Expectations of Innate Goodness: Realism, not Cynicism. Parents are less likely to be shocked or disillusioned by a child’s selfish, defiant, or manipulative behavior. They understand that these are manifestations of an inherent sin nature, not just a phase or a reaction.

Lowered expectations of innate goodness: Realism, not cynicism. Parents are less likely to be shocked or disillusioned by a child’s selfish, defiant, or manipulative behavior. They understand that these are manifestations of an inherent sin nature, not just a phase or a reaction to bad parenting.

Our only hope for such children is not allowing them to do what they want; our only hope is regeneration. As loving parents, knowing their sad condition—born in sin, alienated from God, accursed under the wrath of God, and hellbound—we need to take out the sharp two-edged knife of God’s word and keep using it on their hearts. We pray that God may one day remove the foreskin of their hearts, circumcise their hearts, and give them new birth. Every time sinful flesh shows its face, we need to wisely and regularly learn to use the knife and show them their heart.

Day and night, we must teach them God’s word. We apply the sword, that sharp edge, to the heart of our child in family devotions. We bring them to Sunday school. They will not want to go to a church with no dancing, jokes, or entertaining messages, and less Bible study. Oh, if we love their souls, we bring them to a church where the sword of God’s word is applied to their hearts, shows them their sin, and regularly brings them to preaching services where the knife is repeatedly applied, and we pray that God should regenerate them. That is the only hope. God’s word is the only means he uses to circumcise the hearts of our children. That is why we don’t do anything else.

How foolish for some parents to take their children to churches because Bible study is boring and they want lively worship. As parents, it is so cruel as pushing our own child into hell. The Old Testament says, “Woe be to the indolent and lazy father who didn’t take out the knife and circumcise his son.” That child had no purification and no access to the presence of God. God even went to kill Moses because he didn’t circumcise his child.

And I say in the New Covenant, woe be to the father and mother who, because of laziness, indolence, or lack of will, don’t take out the sword and daily apply it to the heart of their son and daughter, hoping that the Spirit of God will so press it in that the foreskin of their sinful heart will be thrown away and a sensitive tenderness will come.

May we not be fathers who, on the last day, our son stands before us at judgment, uncircumcised in his heart, and says, “Dad, why didn’t you pull out the knife and lay it to my heart?” May it be on the other hand that we will be able to see our offspring on the last day and say, “Thank you, Dad. I got a circumcised heart, and I bless you that when I got it, when I walked along the way, when I sat down, and when I bent down at night, there was always the double-edged sword at my heart. And bless God, it was applied to my effectual salvation.”

May God help us as we look at this symbolized reality of original sin.

A man wakes up in a critical condition in the ICU after a horrible accident. Most of his body parts are damaged; his eyes see most things double, his ears cannot hear. Worst of all, his brain is so terribly damaged that he doesn’t remember his name, his past, or his very sense of self. He was once a handsome young man, but his face is so twisted that he hates to see it. His sense of taste is gone, so the most bitter flavors are not bitter, and he has no sense of salt or sweet. It is a sad condition. Two people are feeding him and taking care of him, but he thinks they are strangers; he doesn’t recognize his parents. His heartbroken parents bring him home and show him their family photo, his room, his original state; they try everything to somehow revive and spark his old memory so he knows his identity and remembers his original state.

The man in the ICU is mankind. We met with an accident in Genesis 3, where every part was totally depraved and getting worse and worse. Like those parents, in redemptive grace, God redeems Israel, gives his law, and in the book of Leviticus, we see him using many things in creation to remind these demented patients of their original created state. “Do you remember I created you like me? I created you holy, righteous; I created a sense of clean and unclean, holy and unholy.” But since man is spiritually dead and has lost all spiritual senses, God uses created things to appeal to physical instincts to remind him of his created image and restore him back to a holy state.

I titled this message “Whispers of Holiness from the Animals” because we see in Leviticus 11 that God uses animals to remind him of his holy state. Have you asked yourself why you naturally like some animals and hate others? There is a natural revulsion that arises in our hearts, forgetting about eating, to touch, see, or even think of them. The way a certain animal looks, walks, or eats, like a lizard, snake, or cockroach. Think of a serpent; there’s something distinctively disgusting about the serpent crawling on its belly, eating dust, and its slimy and slithering locomotion. The lizard’s shape and color, going back and forth. In fact, even as I describe it, something happens inside you, right? Why? And if I said, “Look, there’s a snake under your feet,” most of you would run away now. Because there is something instinctively repulsive about it. Some other animals we love; we want to touch, like sheep, and cows. We even love all kinds of fish. Last week we went to the biggest aquarium in Bangalore, and we loved to keep watching for hours. We keep aquariums, but other animals like snails and squids have a different appearance. In the same way, for air animals, some birds, like doves, we love to see, but others, like owls, crows, and vultures, are so hateful. Why do we feel that way?

Can I tell you it is the greatest proof that you have been created in the image of God? Every time you feel that, it is your own conscience proving to you that you have been created perfectly holy; you have been created to hate what is unclean and love what is clean. God has written these laws in our conscience when he created us. That is why, even before these rules were given, hundreds of years before, how did Noah know, in Genesis 7, to take clean and unclean pairs into the ark? It remains in our soul that reminds us that God created us holy, and we like clean things. Now, in Leviticus, we see God’s gracious attempt to redeem us through physical instincts.

In Leviticus 11, when the people of God were spiritually just toddling, an immature child, God uses the animal world to remind their demented minds of their creation glory. He teaches them what is holy and unholy, clean and unclean from the animal world. God uses visible signs to teach them important spiritual truths. Chapters 1-7 dealt with sacrifices, 8-10 with temple worship, and after the temple is installed, he is teaching how God’s people should live holy by avoiding uncleanness in every area of life and living holy. He uses food as a baby picture lesson. The whole chapter is divided into three sections. We saw in verses 1-23 the distinction between clean and unclean animals. The second division, 24-43, explains what to do in case you defile yourselves with any unclean animals and how to treat that pollution. And now, the third main division, 44-47, gives the explanation of why they should be so careful about their cleanliness and holiness.

Last time, we saw verses 1-23 on clean and unclean foods. It is given in three categories: creatures of the land, creatures of the sea, and creatures of the air, just like God created in all those three spheres in Genesis 1. For creatures of the land, two things are needed: it must have a divided hoof and chew the cud. It cannot have just one, like a camel, which chews cud but does not have a divided hoof, or a pig or a rabbit, which has a divided hoof but does not chew cud. It should have both; only then is it clean. Similarly, for water animals, it must have fins and scales. For birds, all birds that are scavengers or birds of prey are unclean. So these are the clean and unclean animals on land, in water, and in the air.

Now let us further understand the chapter in 24-47 in two headings: the treatment of pollution in 24-42, and the purpose of this careful observance in 44-47.

Treatment of Defilement by Unclean Animals

Notice with me three areas: clothing, vessels, and seed. First of all, clothing in verses 24-28. If any of these unclean animals are touched by an individual, or an individual touches their carcass, he becomes unclean. So what should he do? Two things: first, that individual’s clothing must be washed, and second, the individual is unclean until evening and must be separate.

Then, he talks about vessels becoming unclean in verses 29-35. If a creeping animal, like a rat, lizard, or chameleon, anything that haphazardly moves to and fro, not straight with purpose but back and forth, dies and falls into a wooden bowl, the wooden bowl is unclean. So you have to wash the wooden bowl with clean water, and then it is made clean. But if it falls into a piece of pottery, you should not wash and use it, but the pot must be smashed. Any edible food upon which water falls becomes unclean, and any drink that may be drunk from it becomes unclean.

Now, what happens if any of this falls into a well? Should we stop using it? That was the source of water for the whole community. No, verse 36 says, “Nevertheless, a spring or a cistern, in which there is plenty of water, shall be clean; but whoever touches their carcass will be unclean.” If a carcass of an unclean animal falls into a spring or into a cistern, the whole spring or cistern was not made unclean. And God in his mercy said that would be allowed to be clean. Moreover, because of the plenty of water, the infection may not spread. But the individual who fished that rat out of the well and puts it out, he himself would be unclean until evening, and his clothing would have to be washed.

Finally, so first clothing, next vessels, and thirdly seed. We see in verses 37-38 that if an unclean carcass, such as maybe a dead lizard, falls into a barrel of dry seed, is the whole barrel unclean? No, it’s dry seed. The seed remains clean. But if it falls into a barrel of wet seed, then that seed is unclean and it is not to be used. Maybe the wetness spreads the bacteria and infection. So we’ve seen the distinction between clean and unclean. So that is the treatment of defilement by unclean animals.

Now, we want to ask the question, “Why, Lord?” Why should we be so careful?

Explanation Regarding Cleanliness and Holiness

Verses 44-47 give the explanation. Verse 44: “For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Verse 45: “For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Then verses 46-47 again summarize the land, water, and air animals. It says this is the law of clean and unclean animals.

As an explanation, two elements are highlighted: the idea of imitation. He says, “See, I created you like me, but now you have fallen. But I have redeemed you now, and I want to restore you to your original glory; so follow me.” Like he tells a demented patient, “Talk like me, walk and eat like me, avoid what is unclean.” As you slowly avoid uncleanness and live clean, you will enjoy my fellowship and gradually you can be restored to the original image. You have to be holy. Holiness starts when you learn and develop discernment and distinguishing between what is good and evil, clean and unclean, holy and unholy. “I want you to learn to be like me in making distinctions between something that is clean and unclean, acceptable and not acceptable.”

The first is imitation, and the second is the theme of separation. “You are my people. You have to be separate.” He talks about this again in Leviticus 20:24. Notice the theme of separation. “Hence I have said to you, you are to possess their land, going into the land of Canaan, and I myself will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has separated you from the nations, Israel!” He says in verse 25, “You are, therefore, to make a distinction between clean and unclean, between the unclean bird and unclean animal. And you shall not make yourself detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean.” Notice this: “Thus you are to be holy to me, for I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from the peoples to be mine.” All humanity is demented patients; you should be separate and follow me, not other sinners.

In other words, you are to be holy because I am holy in imitating me and making distinctions, but also be holy because I am holy in separating yourselves from what the other nations do. God also intended this to be a means of avoiding Israelites from mixing with other nations because most of our deep relationships are built at the dinner table, when we sit down and eat and fellowship; friendships are formed. These dietary requirements will make Israel distinct in the eyes of their neighbors, and in fact, what others eat will be odious to them; what they eat others will hate. Like beef is hated by Hindus, in those days Egyptians hated it, they worshiped it. In the same way, pig is eaten by some, but hated by Israelites. “You are to be different than all the other nations. And a profound difference will be what you eat and what you don’t. And that will be very helpful in teaching you holiness.” Well, that is the survey of the chapter’s contents.

Application

How do we apply this? I explained last time, we should apply this with biblical balance. Though we don’t have New Testament rules, neither should we put them on others, but we should be careful about our diet and ensure we eat healthy food. We must be a health-minded people. God is concerned about their physical prosperity. We should uphold the sanctity of life. And we should be wise and prudent and self-controlled in what we eat. You know I love sugar, I love kebab, but cholesterol is a big problem for me, but I watch. If I don’t, my wife and daughter always watch me like two eagles. We should be careful and take care of our bodies. We should not be careless, spoil our health, become physically weak, lose our spiritual life, become desperate, and keep wasting our time running after these false teachers for healing miracles.

See, verse 44, God clearly says the primary purpose of these rules is to teach you to be holy as I am holy. Two lessons of holiness as application: three general lessons of holiness, and three practical steps of holiness.

General Lessons of Holiness: Discernment

Though God gives rules in written form here, I believe God has written these rules of clean and unclean animals in our conscience when he created us. That is why we have a natural revulsion to some unclean animals and a liking for some clean animals. Our disgust towards certain animals reflects a God-given sense of order, purity, and aesthetics. Our inherent dislike for these creatures is a reflection of our spiritual nature, aligning with God’s own aversion to sin and impurity.

That is the greatest proof that you have been created in the image of God. Every time you feel that, it is your own conscience proving to you that you have been created perfectly holy; you have been created to hate what is unclean and love what is clean. There is a discernible pattern in these animals in the way they eat and walk. Some are so disgusting and unnatural that they make us hate them, and some, by their wholeness, uniformity, and normality, reflect the holy image with which we are created. It reflects basic lessons of holiness.

Physically you are alive, so you feel that consciousness, but when you die, you will not feel any hatred towards whatever snake or lizard runs over you. In the same way, though you feel it physically, because of the fall, your soul is fully dead, and you have lost that sense of spiritual clean and uncleanness. Though you are wallowing in uncleanness, a dead soul doesn’t feel any revulsion. But God, in his redemption and gracious revival of your soul life, uses physical instincts to train your spiritual senses and bring us back to our created image.

So he gives us a sense of clean and unclean and makes us sensitive to sin. If we understand what sin is, the more we grow in spiritual senses, the more we are being transformed into the image of God. Do you know what will happen? We will hate every sin like we hate a lizard, snake, or some other disgusting animal; some dead rat eaten by a cat; we hate even to see it, and our whole body gets goosebumps. You will vomit and run from it, “unclean, unclean.” Every lust, lie, hypocrisy, hatred, bitterness, every anger, short temper, covetousness, envy—you will feel instinctively nauseous.

The reason you don’t run today is because your spiritual senses are dead or very weak, we are blinded. The deceiving devil, knowing our blindness, comes in with his lies. He brings a cockroach soul and says it is sweet corn soup. He brings rat kebab and says it is chicken kebab. He brings crow biryani and says it is special tender chicken dum biryani. He brings snake fry and says it is special sheer fish fry. He brings lizard halwa and says it is carrot halwa. Should I stop? When the devil brings it, it will not look so ugly. He is a master chef. His presentation, color, smell, perfect ambiance, and timing, will all be so fantastic that you cannot resist eating. Even the initial fleeting taste will be good. When will we know it is unclean? When it goes into our stomach and soul, it creates guilt, shame, and all kinds of upsets in our soul. Remember the seven consequences: displeasure of God, grieving the Holy Spirit, impairing comforts and graces, hardening the heart, wounding the conscience, hurting and scandalizing others, and punishments from God. Oh, don’t be deceived. Sin looks delicious, but really they’re dreadful and dangerous.

Do you see? The first step towards holiness is the great important work of God where he opens spiritual senses and makes us see how hateful sin is! He tears the mask of the devil and shows how dreadful and dangerous it is; it should be so unclean and hideous in our eyes, as in God’s eyes, he hates even to see it. Oh, may we pray that God opens our spiritual senses and makes us see how hateful sin is.

The devil may tell you, “Man, sexual contact with that strange woman is like pudding, a sweet delicacy. Look at it. Aren’t you bored with the same old life? See this new adventure; until you taste, you will not know the thrill.” We are blind, we believe him sometimes. If God opens our spiritual eyes, you will see it is not pudding, but smelling dung; it will make both your body and soul unclean. No, God has said it is unclean. We ought to recognize it for what it is. We must learn to train our senses, our minds and our hearts for clean and unclean, and be revolted according to God’s assessments. We must be a holy people by imitation and by separation. So the general lesson is discernment to know what is clean and unclean.

Three Practical Lessons of Holiness

Last week, I mentioned three steps we can learn from this chapter: WWW. Watch and Pray. Watch your mind. Watch your walk.

All practical holiness starts with watchfulness. God, with these rules, is teaching the Jew to live watching. As a Jew, wherever he is in this world, he is always in danger of touching an unclean animal. Whether he is on the land, a camel, a pig, a lizard, or a rat can defile him. He goes to the water, and all creatures without fins and scales can defile him. He climbs a mountain, and a crow or vulture can defile him. He sits at home, shuts the door, and a mosquito can defile him. Anywhere he goes, he cannot escape defilement from unclean animals, so he has to always watch, watch. However beautiful this world is, there is a constant reminder of uncleanness everywhere in this fallen world, and God, by this old type, shows that we should live with watchfulness and a consciousness of sin always. So the first baby step if you are serious about being holy is to leave all your careless, easy-going attitude. Get up, be upon your watchtowers. Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.

The second W is “Watch your mind and watch your walk.” If we apply the distinction of land animals to us, each of us can test now whether we are clean or unclean, holy or unholy in God’s sight; who are saints and who are not. There are two tests: the test of the inner life and the outer life, but we have to pass both these two tests to be clean.

Just like an animal that chews the cud, how do we know if we are truly holy in our inner life? Every holy person will not only read, learn, and hear sermons—even unclean unbelievers can do that—but a true, clean believer will always chew the cud of the sacred word of God and digest it. A man is primarily clean not by how he looks on the outside. Holiness starts from the inside, and that holiness always comes not just from hearing and reading, but like clean animals chewing the cud, from the regular practice of meditation. It is this inward exercise which supports his life. It is that exercise of chewing the cud that makes his inner soul holy, helps him inwardly digest sound food, and fattens his soul. It gives stamina and strength to his spiritual life. Puritans called it the “soul-fattening exercise of meditation.” A man who just hears and reads and goes away, but does not chew the truth by meditation, it doesn’t do anything to make him holy. He doesn’t know the sweetness of God’s ways, the relish of it, the stamina and energy that comes from the truth to be holy; that man can never be clean in his inner life.

Secondly, clean animals are also known by their walk. The Jew at once discovered the unclean animal by the undivided hoof. The divided hoof always gave it not only a peculiar walk but two toes gave it a firm walk, not a hesitant one. So a clean, holy believer not only chews cud but he lives a peculiar walk, but a firm walk, such as God requires.

You are not to be like the world. God expects us to walk and live with a striking difference. Yes, God knows the world will not join us, just like the Egyptians wouldn’t eat with the Hebrews. And that’s okay. That should be acceptable to you because you’re distinct. You should be different. That is one way God keeps you holy, but that is what holiness means. We’re not to try to be like the world. We must be different in dress, words, entertainment, and music. We must be a holy people.

Clean believers are those with the determination to walk progressively forward with a single mind in holiness. See, God has created all these unclean animals with features to teach us how we should not be if we have to be clean and holy.

1. We should not be like an unclean lizard. One thing that makes these animals so disgusting to us is their walk and movement. You notice a lizard or a rat. It never walks progressively straight, but always back and forth without an aim it seems to us. It stops sometimes, and we don’t know why. It stays in a place; a crooked nature. Or a chameleon? Back and forth, back and forth; changing itself for the situation, no firmness. Or a mouse scurries back and forth in a helter-skelter, to-and-fro motion. Is this not a picture of inconsistency? Pray today, read, come to the Bible for one month, move forward, and the next go back. One week in front, next week back. We become unclean in our life if we keep moving to and fro. We cannot be clean and commune with God if we do not walk progressively forward.
2. We are not to be like some unclean frogs; they live in two worlds, water and land, living in two spheres. One leg in the world and one leg in heaven; one for the devil and one for God. We are taught that we’re not to halt between two opinions; that is an unclean lifestyle, trying to serve God and money. We are not to be double-minded. That is uncleanness. We are not to be Christian in our church and pagan at home or at work, like a chameleon changing colors.

Watch your mind, watch your walk. You cannot tell if a man is clean by any one of them—he must have them both. These pictures show the fundamentals of holy living in a baby language, in ABCs. If we have to continually enjoy God’s fellowship and bear fruit, WWW—we have to watch and pray in the world, watch our minds, and watch our walk.

This morning we saw Revelation, and how Revelation identifies true believers and false ones. Those who have the mark of God on their forehead and right hand. Again, some people twisted this to say a technical antichrist chip will come. Where is the Bible support for that? The Bible shows a godly man is known by his mind always meditating on God’s word and his actions and life being based on it. Those who receive the beast’s mark are those who never think of God’s word and never live according to it.

Apply them to yourselves. Are you clean today? You call yourselves a believer? Do you have the mark of the beast or the mark of God on your head and forehead? Do you live with watchfulness in the world? What do you feed your mind always? What is your habit of life? Do you chew the cud of truths by meditation day and night like the man in Psalm 1, or are you like one walking in the counsel of the wicked, sitting with scoffers, and standing with sinners? Today, you don’t have to go out; if you sit with your mobile always, all the counsel of the wicked and scoffers will come to your home.

And what about your life? Is it striving to walk according to all you learn from God’s word? If not, just the first test of reading a lot and hearing a sermon will not make you holy. You may profess the faith within, but if you do not walk aright without, you belong to the unclean.

On the other hand, listen carefully. You may walk aright without, and people may not find any fault, but unless that walk comes from the energy, stamina, and grace of chewing God’s truth, and meditation on God’s truth regularly; unless there is a real feeding upon precious truth in the heart, all the right walking in the world will not prove you to be a clean Christian. That holiness which is only outward and moral, not spiritual, does not save the soul. That religion, on the other hand, which is only inward with no outward acts, is but a fancy—it cannot save the soul either. But the two together—the inward parts made capable of knowing the sweetness, the fatness of Christ’s truth, and the outward parts conformed to Christ’s image and character—these conjoined point out the true and a clean Christian.

Can I apply this specifically to some of you? Some of you can be like a camel: you hear the truth, rejoice, and even sometimes meditate on the truth, chewing, but where are the actions in your life? Where are the fruits? Yet your walk is not right. You never walk in God’s garden of godliness and good works, but your feet always walk only in the hot sandy desert of sin. Oh, you say, “Pastor is becoming more Arminian now; not comforting.” We don’t realize that in fearing the “white devil” of Arminianism, you can run to the “black devil” of Antinomianism. Oh, let us not be like the hyper-Calvinist unclean animal which chews the cud but yet does not divide the hoof. You hear only precious, comforting, sovereign doctrines, with no attempt to live according to it. The devil’s great abuse of reformed truths is preaching divine sovereignty always but neglecting human responsibility.

Some of you are like unclean rabbits or frogs in church; they love to hear the Gospel; their eyes will sparkle sometimes when we are hearing about God’s truth; they enjoy it. They will not abide in one place, one truth, and be grounded in truth, and bear fruit. As soon as church is over, they jump from here and keep jumping here and there, from this food to that food. Church over, they jump into the world. One minute in the water, the next minute on land. They cannot fully come out of the world and be domesticated within a clean church and grow with other believers. Your conscience tells them they should be baptized as believers—but they dare not. Oh! Be not, I pray you, like the timid rabbit, lest you be found among the unclean!

Some of them are like unclean swine, they never chew cud, but they have a divided hoof. These never take time to meditate on God’s word, never sit at Christ’s feet, but know how to live decently outside before men. They are a legalistic animal like swine. They make a profession—they seem devout. Yet they are unclean. Why? Their inner part is not right. The foot is right, but not the inward part. There is no chewing, no masticating, no digesting the Word of Life. There are unclean Pharisees who make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, whose hoof is divided enough, but whose inward part is very wickedness. All outwardly religious people going to church, and so decent on the outside. But all their outward dead morality will not save them. “You must be born again.” If their inner life has to be clean, they must love God’s meditation on God’s word.

See, God wants you to be holy, meaning whole. The way he created you, lacking nothing. Not just clean outside, but inside; not walking back and forth, but with progress; not inconsistency, not double-mindedness, living in water and land, but wholeheartedness in one direction; not changing colors like a chameleon. Holiness and unholiness are depicted profoundly in clean and unclean animals, with symbolic significance.

Finally, for those who are still not saved, by these unclean animals and the sense of hatred inside you, God reminds you that he created you holy and wants to remind you of your sin. Today you are blind, and your soul is dead. You laugh at it now—you do not understand that a deadly poison from snakes running over your soul will soon envenom all your blood and inescapably push you into eternal damnation.

Oh, pray that God opens your eyes. When he opens your eyes, sin becomes hateful like you hate a lizard, cockroach, or snake. He will run to Christ to save him from disgusting sin. May God give you a true sense of sin which will drive you to Christ.

We live in a day of diets: the Keto diet, Paleo diet, Low Carb, and fasting diets. Today, in chapter 11 of Leviticus, we will see the Mount Sinai Diet given by the Lord. Chapter 11 is the third division of the book of Leviticus. So far, we have seen the first two divisions. The first one, Leviticus 1-7, covered the five great personal sacrifices and the need of a High Priest for sinners to gain God’s favor and enjoy God’s presence. Then we moved into the second section, Leviticus 8-10, which covered the installation of the tabernacle, the first inauguration of the Aaronic priesthood, and the first worship of the people of God. Now that the temple is erected and they have worshipped the true God, the next beautiful, logical step, in chapters 11-15, is for God to teach his people how they should live by avoiding uncleanness in every area of life and living holy. We read in the previous chapter, in verse 10, that one duty of the priests was to teach Israel to distinguish between “the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean.” These next chapters provide the teaching about discernment.

The people of God at that early time were spiritually just a toddling, immature child. God uses visible signs of clean and unclean food, diseases like leprosy, the childbirth process, and bodily discharges to teach them important truths. A superficial reading may make it all seem irrelevant to us, but with the Holy Spirit’s help, I believe we can see many wonderful truths that are very relevant to our practical lives as God’s people. We can learn basic lessons on how to live holy, shown clearly as you would teach a small child. So you have to patiently learn and dig for the truths in these chapters.

Chapter 11 talks about the dietary laws in Israel; it is very puzzling to many people. Each commentary will say different things about clean and unclean animals. One great question everyone asks is, “Why is this one clean, and that one is unclean?” Let us see if we can find the answer.

The whole chapter is divided into three sections. First of all, in verses 1-23, we notice the distinction between clean and unclean. Then, in 24-43, we see the instruction in case you defile yourself with unclean things, how to treat that pollution. And now, the third main division, 44-47, gives the explanation of how they should be so careful about their cleanliness and holiness.

Let us first understand the first section, 1-23, and then we will see the second and third sections next week, and we will also see the marvelous spiritual and practical application for living a holy life. Because of English and other languages, I don’t want this to be long.

First of all, in verses 1-23, we notice the distinction between clean and unclean. You will notice the distinction is given according to three categories that are used in the creation account. Three spheres we will see in verses 1-23. There are creatures of the land, creatures of the sea, and creatures of the air, just like God created in all those three spheres in Genesis 1. Animals are divided into three parts. Verses 1-8, we see creatures of the land discussed.

Now, there are two specific distinguishing features that determine whether or not a creature of the land is clean or unclean. For something to be clean, two things are needed: verse 3 says, “Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud—Those are clean and that you may eat.”

The hoof must be divided, meaning the animal’s feet divide into two and look like two toes, and it also must be a ruminator, one who, like a cow, eats the grass but doesn’t immediately swallow, it keeps chewing on it again and again. So clean animals have two features: all that have a split hoof and chew the cud, and there are edible animals like the oxen, the sheep, and goats. These are creatures of the land that are edible.

Now, there are other unclean creatures that are inedible. How do we know they are unclean? They may neither chew the cud nor have a split hoof. Donkeys and horses all do not have two toe nails. That is unclean. Some animals may chew the cud, like the camel, but it does not have two toes; it may seem like two toes, but the foot is one, it just has two nails in front. For an animal to be clean, it must have both these two traits: the split hoof and chewing the cud. If it fails to possess both features, it is unclean. Remember this, it has amazing truths for us. Under unclean animals fall the camel, the rabbit, the pig, the donkey, and horses. You should not eat them. So all of this is for land animals.

The second group of animals is water animals, in verses 9-12. The distinguishing features here are different. It is not a split hoof and chewing cud. Here it is the issue of fins and scales. Verse 9: “‘These you may eat of all that are in the water: whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers—that you may eat.'” Fins are the wings of a fish, which makes it swim, and scales are on the body of the fish, which we brush and clean when we buy fish. If it is to be clean, it has to have both fins and scales. It has to have an appendage coming out from its body that propels it through the water, fins. And it also has to have scales, which is skin overlapping like flakes.

Clean animals, which have both fins and scales, are different fishes, and salmon, and mackerel, sheer fish, Sheela, catla. All of these are clean. However, there are certain types which do not have such, a shrimp, squid, octopus, crab, frog. It doesn’t have fins or scales. These are said to be detestable and abhorrent, even a stronger word than unclean. Oh, what have you said, pastor, I love shrimp, squid. Wait for some time.

So we see land and water. The third category of animals, clean and unclean, is creatures of the air, in verses 13-23. Birds are spoken of. And all birds which are scavengers or birds of prey, these are unclean. Verse 13, you see a list: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the kite, and the falcon after its kind; every raven after its kind; the list goes on.

Then, verse 20, other creatures of the air, not only birds, but what else flies? Well, insects fly. And so, too, certain distinguishing features of the insects. If they are to be clean, they must not be both winged and walk on all fours. If it’s winged and walks on all fours, with four legs of equal size without thighs, it is considered to be detestable and unclean, such as the mosquito. It has wings, but it also walks on fours. Some have six legs. Mainly, I think it is flies that also walk. Those are unclean.

What insects are clean? Verse 21: “Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth.” These would be insects that have legs, but they also have large legs in the back, which enable them to hop. And these would be the locust, the cricket, and the grasshopper, and they are clean.

So these are clean and unclean animals on land, in water, and in the air.

Application

How do we apply this? If you read most commentaries, each commentary takes a single view. Some groups say, “These are only dietary regulations we should follow for good health,” but that contradicts New Testament Bible teaching, which clearly reveals we are freed from these ceremonial dietary rules. Then some say, “God wants to keep them as a distinct people, unlike unclean gentiles eating everything, even worshiping some of these unclean animals, like snakes. They have to be clean, like Daniel guarded himself from unclean food.” Some say, “God arbitrarily, for no reason, made this rule. There is nothing in the animals themselves, but God wants to test their obedience.” And then some say, “It has no dietary applications, only allegorical spiritual explanation.” We have to take a biblical balance and compare it with other scriptures and apply this to our lives. When you see other passages and church history, I believe there is truth in each of those aspects. A biblical balance is not seeing them as a single thing but integrating and blending all these approaches. Yes, there is a hygiene lesson. Yes, God wants to keep his people holy from gentiles by food. Yes, God wants to test their obedience. And yes, there are also important spiritual lessons. We will focus on two applications: hygiene and then the spiritual application.

Dietary Rules and Hygiene

Should we follow these diet rules? The New Testament clearly reveals we are freed from these ceremonial dietary rules. Matthew 15:4 declares that all foods are clean. In Acts 10:15, remember God gave a vision to Peter. He’s hungry, people are making preparations to eat, but there’s no food for him yet. He falls into a trance, and in Acts 10:11, he beholds “the sky opened up and a certain object like a great sheet comes down, and lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.” And a voice came to him and said, “Arise, Peter, kill and eat!” Now, listen to that description of what’s on that sheet: “…all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.” These are things right out of the unclean foods list in Leviticus 11, and yet the voice from heaven says, “Peter, arise and eat.” And how does Peter respond? “‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.'” And the answer comes in verse 15: “‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.'” God taught him a dietary lesson, that these Old Testament diet rules are not applicable. Paul explains this in Galatians and Romans 14. The New Testament makes it clear we are free to eat anything. So if you like shrimp or squid, don’t be discouraged.

But is there no dietary value in these rules? No, the Bible and history show there is definitely a dietary value in these rules. In those olden times, when they were vulnerable and out of the desert, they didn’t have high-tech medical care or vaccinations, where people were dying with all kinds of viruses from animals. Remember our latest coronavirus came from bats, which is an unclean animal mentioned in verse 18. If the Chinese would have followed Leviticus 11, we wouldn’t have a global pandemic. In those olden days, God was careful to preserve his people from diseases so there would not be an outbreak of many plagues among God’s people.

Even today, nutritionists caution us to avoid some meat. For example, eating pork, unless it is thoroughly cooked, can bring about trichinosis, where worms multiply, travel through the bloodstream to muscle tissues throughout the body, stay for many years, and bring terrible suffering later. It is a very serious disease, especially in warmer climates. We talk about swine fever. Also, think of the idea of a mosquito. A mosquito is a blood-sucking insect that can spread malaria by biting us. What if we catch and eat it? So it is unclean.

But what is a locust? What does a locust eat? A locust is a herbivore. A locust eats corn and other types of foliage. And you can see, common sense, one is clean, nutritionally and hygienically, while one is unclean. You think of how a dead rat in a moist flour barrel could result in great tragedy. Zoologists tell us scavenger birds and unclean animals carry a very high load of parasites; therefore, they are a threat to health. It doesn’t mean other animals like chickens don’t have these viruses, but the unclean ones have more.

If you met a Jew, you would know he would be very fastidious about swarming cockroaches and bugs, and that kind of fastidiousness would keep them from bacteria-infested vermin. Historians tell us of the striking health of the Jewish people through the Middle Ages, when plagues frequently decimated the continent of Europe. Kellogg says this: “Even so long ago as the days when the plague was desolating Europe, the Jews so universally escaped infection that, by this their exemption, the popular suspicion was excited into fury, and the Jews were accused of causing the fearful plague among their Gentile neighbors by poisoning the wells and springs.” They were not much affected by the plague; most people thought that they were the ones who were spreading this, trying to decimate everyone else so they could have all the money and all the prosperity of the land.

History tells us Jews were so much healthier than the Gentile population. In fact, in Hungary, in the 1800s, there was nearly double the life expectancy of an individual if they were a Jew, as opposed to being from another Gentile nation. In fact, for years and years, life insurance charts were distinct for Jews, because they themselves lived longer.

I am simply saying I believe these general principles and categories were a means of blessing to his people with scientifically and medically sound diets thousands of years before the microscope was invented or bacteriology was developed. God gave them sound diets, and they didn’t fully understand why, but it was for their good.

Yes, in the New Testament, Christ has delivered us from all these regulations, so can we go and eat daily pork, mosquitoes, and rats? No. Just because we have the freedom to eat anything, it doesn’t mean we can eat anything to spoil our health. Some of these diet rules are good. A clear application to us in the New Testament from this chapter is that it shows God is very concerned about our health and what we eat, and we should learn a lesson about physical diet.

On one side, we have to take seriously God’s law, “Thou shall not murder,” and ensure our diets are balanced with fruits, vegetables, and meats. So you don’t suffer later. No vegetables, fruits, only chicken, meat. You may not feel anything now, but over time, there will be big nutritional deficiencies. After some age, you have to eat a box of medicines like food for not eating fruits. No fibers, so the digestive system becomes weak as you age. Vitamin A, B, C, D, K, all weaken your immune system. Mineral deficiency weakens blood circulation and bodily functions as you age. Magnesium causes muscle cramps and fatigue. Calcium from leafy greens strengthens bones. Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants, which prevent toxins from filling the body. So heart problems, diabetes, kidney, bone, and skin problems. Later, you wonder why you have so many problems. All points to your intake. I know relatives who were trying to be frugal, not eating good fruits, and later kept spending a lot of money on medicine. So God cares for your health. So eat balanced food. Don’t eat anything that will harm your health. If you have no care and are just eating whatever tastes good, don’t blame God and murmur! You are reaping what you sowed.

On another side, we have to be careful not to spoil Christian liberty in Christ, not to make any rules in the church about what people should or should not eat. 1 Timothy 4 says one of the teachings of false prophets, which are doctrines of demons, forbids marriage and advocates abstaining from foods which God has created, to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. We have that Christian liberty in the New Testament, no rules, but take care of your health.

So that is the first point, food regulation and hygiene.

The Great Lesson of Holiness

This and coming chapters will be a great spiritual lesson on living holy lives. I can say this because see what is the purpose of all this, Lord. Verse 44: “For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Verse 45: “For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

We have seen the intent of Leviticus is to teach us spiritual things in a baby language. I believe we have here profound spiritual lessons of holy living. The Lord is as if teaching the ABCs of holiness. Yes, we are positionally saved, but our walk with God and experience of salvation depends on personal holiness, right? Clean means fit for God’s presence, and, therefore, unclean means unfit for God’s presence. And anyone who was unclean or who had come into contact with uncleanness was unfit for public worship, unfit to come into the presence of God. The basic idea is that God himself is holy. He is clean. If we have to regularly commune with God and enjoy his presence, we have to strive for holiness. “Pastor, can you teach me basic lessons on how I can live holy?” Leviticus teaches baby lessons.

There are at least three basic lessons we can learn from this chapter: Watch, Watch, and Watch. Watch and pray. Watch your mind. Watch your walk. We will see the first lesson today.

Firstly, the first lesson of holiness. If you start taking holiness seriously and want to obey God, it all starts with watchfulness—”Watch and pray so you do not enter into temptation.” How does watchfulness come? When you are conscious of danger, uncleanness, and sin always around you. I have been teaching that our spiritual growth depends on how our sensitiveness to sin grows. The more we are sensitive to sin, the more we will grow in God’s grace and holiness. The more insensitive, the more sin is hardening.

We clearly see in this old chapter, God is teaching this clean and unclean to keep his people always conscious that they were in the neighborhood of sin. God is making his people sensitive to sin everywhere in this world. Think of a Jew. A Jew wanting to follow these rules, the next passage will say he shouldn’t even touch unclean animals. A Jew walks on a beautiful road, meditating on God’s word and praising God, but behold, there comes a group of pigs coming opposite to him. “Ah, these unclean animals, that will defile me,” so he has to carefully walk far away, not to touch the unclean. Then he goes to a beautiful flower garden; there are insects among the flowers. “That is unclean.” He should be careful. Then in the summer, he goes to play in the river, lake, or sea. All those creatures in the water without scales or fins were unclean to him. He should not allow a frog or crab to touch him in the water. It is said Hebrew boys would not even play in such standing waters because of this. Oh, he thinks, “Everywhere I go, I see uncleanness that defiles me.” Oh, he thinks, “Let me go out in the wilderness, no uncleanness will come.” Behold, there he sees a camel, a “ship of the desert,” coming. “Ah, an unclean animal.” Then, “cha…” He climbs a tall mountain. “Ah, no one here, I can be clean and meditate on God with a pure mind.” Then, next to his rock, a group of crows comes and sits on the rock next to him. “Ah, unclean.” “Ayo Lord, this world is full of uncleanness.” And at least he lifts his eye up to heaven to see heaven, but behold, there are vultures flying along through the air, and he says, “Ah! there is an emblem of sin there!” Then he comes home frustrated and closes his door and sits and thinks, “Oh, now nothing unclean will come to me.” Then, buzzing around him, even if it doesn’t touch it, mosquitoes bite him. “Ah, ah!” he says, “unclean. Unclean, unclean. There is sin everywhere.”

Everywhere he would come in contact with some creature that would render him ceremonially unclean. However beautiful this world is, there is a constant reminder of uncleanness everywhere in this fallen world, and God by this old type shows that we should live with watchfulness and a consciousness of sin always. Just as a Jew who wants to be holy, we have to be conscious and watchful, otherwise, he will be defiled by this world.

Yes, our Lord said in the New Testament that defilement doesn’t come from outside, but comes from our heart, but temptations to provoke our wicked heart come from the world. There is no place in the world which is safe, where we will not meet something that will defile us. Is this not our experience? Sometimes, you get all alone and quiet, but do not imagine that you are even there free from sin. As the most beautiful landscape, so the sweetest retirement cannot shut out uncleanness. As the fly or the insect would intrude and defile a Jew’s worship, so sin will haunt and molest us even in the closet of devotion.

So the first baby step if you really want to be holy is to leave all your careless, easy-going attitude. Get up, Christians, and be upon your watchtowers. You may sleep, but your enemies never will. You may suppose yourselves safe, but then you are most in danger. In Ephesians, we have put on the full armor of God and are armed from head to foot, and having done all, we must watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.

Every morning we ought to ask the Lord to keep us from unknown sins, to preserve us from temptations that we cannot foresee, to check us in every path of life if we are about to go wrong, and to hold us up every hour that we sin not. Like we studied this morning, 1 Peter 1:17: “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Watch and pray, watch and pray so you don’t enter into temptation and defile yourself.

Finally, for those who are still not saved, you know what you need. The Lord needs to bring your sin before you. I wish that some of my hearers had sin before their eyes now. Oh! you that trifle with it, you do not know what it is! Fools make a mockery of sin. You laugh at it now—you do not understand what a fire it is that you have kindled to consume your soul! Oh! you that think it is such a little thing, but its deadly poison will soon envenom all your blood, and then you will discover that he that plays with sin plays with damnation.

May the Lord set sin straight before your eyes, and then set the cross of Christ there too, and so you will be saved.

We have been examining the Pentecostal movement. I said we would state the problem, the solution, and the benefits of the solution. We saw the problem last week. There are two problems: According to the Regulative Principles of acceptable worship, they are false worshipers not following any biblical principles. We also saw that when testing them against the gold standard of the Sermon on the Mount, the summary of the essence of biblical truths, they fail in everything Jesus Christ taught in that sermon. Starting from true spirituality—the internal state of every true religion the Holy Spirit creates, which is poor in spirit, mourning for sin, meekness, and hungering and thirsting after righteousness—because they don’t have this godly internal biblical spirituality, they also fail in every outward rule. Whether it is an act of charity, prayer, or fasting, everything is done in a manner exactly opposite to the Lord’s commands.

What makes our blood boil is how they casually treat the Scripture. The Lord Jesus gave such great importance to Scripture. How did Jesus, God’s own Son, who had the most direct revelation and experiences from God—heaven opened, the Holy Spirit came on Him, He heard a voice from heaven, and He spoke with Moses and Elijah directly—how did that Jesus see the Bible? He used the most powerful language to emphasize the great importance of Scripture.

Just after the Beatitudes, in Matthew 5:18, He says, “I myself, the Son of God, came not to destroy, I came into the world to fulfill Scripture.” “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” He who breaks one of the least of these commandments will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Look at His powerful conviction about the permanence of Scripture. Heaven and earth will pass away, but not one jot or tittle. A jot is the smallest letter in Hebrew, a tittle is a small dot used to distinguish certain letters, to say not one dot. Jesus so emphasized the importance of Scripture. He saw Scripture as so important that even a small period or comma He observed in His study, and He carefully saw not only the meaning of the words and context, but even the meaning of the punctuation. Even that was inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is the conviction of our forefathers, the reformers who gave their whole lives and risked their lives day and night for Sola Scriptura. Wycliffe, with no printing press, wrote with his own hands. Read what William Tyndale had to go through to give us the English Bible; every page of the English Bible has the blood of William Tyndale. They took so much pain so that every word and punctuation in the original is translated accurately, so you and I can read God’s Word in our language and understand and know Scripture.

What makes our eyes shed tears of blood is to see how this group treats Scripture. They give importance to their direct experiences. There is absolutely no honor for scriptural truth among them. They continuously attack everything our reformers gave their lives for: the authority, sufficiency, clarity, and finality of Scripture. Forget about punctuation, they have no respect for its grammar, literary style, or context. They just take the holy, infallible Scriptures only as a pickle, tear it out of context, take one verse here, one verse there, and babble whatever comes to their depraved minds so people will clap for them. Their treatment of Scripture is appalling. There is no verse-by-verse preaching. Christ says every small letter will be fulfilled. All this Scripture says will be fulfilled. The same Scripture says Christ will say to them one day, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”

The Lord repeatedly, eight times in this sermon, says not to worry about what you eat, drink, or wear—the worldly worries about jobs, money, and family needs. “Seek my kingdom and my righteousness first, and all these things will be added to you.” Why shouldn’t you seek these things? Matthew 6:32 says, “For after all these things the Gentiles seek.” Those who are not born again, who are not poor in spirit, do not mourn, or do not hunger and thirst for righteousness—they seek this always. What do we see in their sermons and prayers? They only seek blessings, what they will eat, money, jobs, promotions, health, and success. Jesus says that is a sign of a group that is not born again. They are not children of the kingdom.

The saddest and most heartbreaking reality is that the Lord shows the end of this group. See the depth of their deception. They will even go to the judgment and not just a few, but many will say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” At least most false religions will have a conscience and know a little bit in their hearts that they are not going to go to heaven. But this religion so blinds people and never allows them to see the condition of their hearts. Even on Judgment Day, they have not come out of deception, until the Lord says in Matthew 7:23, “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'” You never had a saving relationship. If you had known Me, your relationship to the law would be different. What law? It is again the Scripture that says heaven and earth will pass away. They completely ignored and broke it. Their worship was lawless, their sermon was lawless, their songs were lawless, and their lives are a practice of lawlessness. They are not according to the infallible Scripture.

Do you see this is the problem statement: the current state and problem statement? If you have to test any group, you have to first test it with Scripture, and secondly, you have to test them with church history. We can actually do another sermon on that, but they will completely fail the church history test. People will be shocked that before the 19th century, there was nothing called Pentecostalism. They can trace their roots only to false teachers like Montanism and other false groups. Before the 19th century, there was nothing called Pentecostalism; it spread like wildfire only after the 19th century. None of the great reformers—Calvin, Luther, Bunyan, Spurgeon, or the Puritans who lived the most holy lives—never spoke in tongues, and never did what these people did.

So we see the problem statement. Why should we see this? We are learning this so we know its danger and do not flatter them by saying, “Oh yes, you also worship the same Jesus.” I am outrightly telling people, “You are in a false movement, that preacher is a false teacher.” You may not realize it now, but one day you will. At that time, don’t tell me I didn’t warn you; I don’t want your blood on my hands. If any of them are hearing this audio/video or if any of you are talking to them, if someone by God’s grace asks, “What shall we do? What is the solution?”

Let us see the solution the Lord gives in the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord says in Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” What can you and I tell our Pentecostal friends when they say, “How can you ever say that we are wrong?” “Oh, don’t believe anything I say, but can you do three things?” Can I call the solution ERT: Examine, Repent, Trust—not Emergency Response Team, but Examine, Repent, Trust.

1. Examine

The Lord says, “Enter through the narrow way.” Realize there is only one way to heaven. There are two roads you can walk in this life. The broad one may seem fun and jolly; they promise it will take you to heaven. What is one sign of that road the Lord says? Many will go on that way; crowds. It promises to take us to heaven and may seem right to us, but it will lead to hell. There is another way, narrow, which leads to life. He says only a few even find it, but that will lead to life. Why? The next verse says in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” False prophets make it so hard to find the way of life. How can I know if I am on the wrong road? The first thing is to examine. Examine two things: examine your heart and examine your way. If you notice, those preachers never tell people to self-examine. They create a false sense of salvation and belonging and keep reinforcing that. Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith.” First, examine your heart. The reason why such false worship is so attractive to people is because you have never truly repented and are not truly saved. First, examine whether you are truly saved. Oh, I know some of them will say, “Come on.” But there is nothing more important than examining the state of your own soul before you die. What will you do when the Lord says, “I never knew you”? You cannot live forever in deception. You must one day die. You cannot avoid the judgment after death. You must stand before the tribunal of Christ. You can escape the summons of the Supreme Court, but not the court of Christ. The state of your own soul must one day undergo a thorough investigation. It will be found out one day what you are in God’s sight. Your spiritual condition will at last be brought to light before the whole world. Oh, find out what it is now! While you have time and health, find out the state of your soul. You think you will go to heaven, but you are being deceived. What will you do at the last time when Christ says, “I never knew you,” and you are thrown into eternal, unquenchable hell fire where the worms never die? Second, examine your way. Are you on the broad way to destruction or the narrow way to heaven? 1 Thessalonians 5:21: “Test all things carefully, hold firmly to that which is good.” 1 John 4:1: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” With what should you examine? You test it with Scripture. The authority of the Bible: The Bible should be the ultimate authority in matters of faith and practice. The reason you are being deceived is because you are so biblically illiterate and never learned the Bible properly. Start reading the Bible; examine what is the true gospel that the Bible teaches. Why did Jesus come and die for us? Please, please give some time to understand the truths taught in the Bible. Don’t live so blindly like you are living in the Middle Ages. This group is deceiving your mind because of a lack of reading. Read and get to know biblical truths. Any group that claims to be a true religion should be able to trace back its beliefs throughout 2,000 years of church history. There is tons and tons of literature for you to read or hear about God’s Word and to understand the truth. Do some reading online, watch some online videos about preachers who teach the basic truths of the Bible. Start listening to good Bible sermon videos from RC Sproul or Paul Washer. Listen to the series on the Strange Fire Conference by the world-famous Bible preacher, MacArthur. They will help you to see how these systems are completely wrong. Most in Western countries have realized it; it is only in India that we don’t read and are stuck. John Piper says there are four things to identify false preachers: 1. No robust doctrine of suffering: “You must enter the kingdom through many tribulations” (Acts 14:21). In this world, you will have tribulation. They fill you with wrong expectations—no suffering, no sickness—and you will be completely disillusioned and not know how to handle it when it happens. 2. No clear call to deny yourself: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” 3. No serious exposition: Does the preaching take the Bible seriously by explaining what is really there in the text? 4. Exorbitant lifestyles and too much focus on self. Don’t be so naive. Of course, if you like, you can listen to our sermons. I can guarantee if you listen to ten sermons from our church, you will know what biblical preaching means. When you go to church, don’t allow your mind to be numbed by the musical manipulation of praise and worship. Don’t become emotional in church. If you are emotional, you will not think. So, start examining everything the preacher says to see if it is truly coming from the Bible. See our LAC video. See if he is preaching with literary style and context. Be like the Bereans who searched the Scriptures to see if even what the Apostle Paul said was true. The Holy Spirit appreciated them as noble-minded. So first, Examine. If you honestly examine your heart and your way, I can assure you God will definitely open your eyes and give you discernment to see whether you are on the right way.

2. Repent

Repent and turn back. If you are going on the wrong road leading to destruction, the only solution is to turn back and repent. Don’t continue on that road, however attractive or difficult. Turn back. If you discover that some of your beliefs contradict the Bible, be willing to repent and change them. It may even involve leaving that church. That is how reformation can start in your life. This is very dangerous. Repent and Trust in the true gospel of Christ. Trust in the true gospel. The gospel which talks about the work of Christ on the cross as your atoning sacrifice for your sins. Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins, to deliver us from all these false ways. Only when you repent of your sins can you see the way of destruction and turn from it. Only when you repent and trust, you will choose the narrow way that leads to life. The Lord says, “Enter through the narrow way.” Why narrow? It is a metaphor. If it is narrow, what does that mean? You cannot come with that mass crowd, mass hypnotism, with all your family and friends, to enjoy entertainment in the name of worship. No, true salvation is intensely personal; it is not mass manipulation. You have to personally choose and enter alone. It’s not a group event. You leave the crowd behind—the mass hysteria, the rock concert. Stop rushing into a maddening crowd all your life trying to belong to the group. This is not mass manipulation. For the first time in your life, you stop rushing with the crowd, turn, and follow the Lord’s way. Secondly, the way is narrow because you have to leave the baggage of all false teaching and believe only what the Bible says. That is the narrow way. It’s very constricted. What constricts it? The Word of God. We test everything strictly by God’s Word. You have to walk in the narrow way. Your beliefs have to be narrow—Scripture alone. In the broad way, there is plenty of room for diverse doctrine. You can believe just about anything you want. “Let’s not judge anyone; let us not argue about doctrines; let us love everyone; accept everyone.” No, that’s the broad way. “Sure, just come along. Whatever you believe is fine.” But that’s how the broad way works. Not in the narrow way. You have to believe the truth, only the truth, and read, hear, speak, and preach truth alone. Anything away from the truth is false. So, Examine, Repent, and Trust—in the Lord’s words, enter the narrow way. So we have seen the problem statement and the solution. Now, the benefits.

Benefits

What are the benefits of the narrow way? Yes, that will lead you to life, eternal life. Let me show you the blessings of that way in our passage in Leviticus 10. I know this series and this chapter have been negative, but I think there is a wonderful positive in this passage. If you repent of these practices—unbiblical, man-centered, and mindless worship—God not only shows mercy and forgives all your sins, but God comes running to you like the prodigal’s father, embraces you, and welcomes you to a true feast. So I titled this message, “Father’s Feast or False Worship.” Oh, if you can just have one taste of the Father’s feast, you will feel like vomiting when you think of false worship. Come back to the Father’s Feast. A comforting reassurance. Let us see the passage. Imagine Aaron and his remaining sons. Their two sons offered strange fire, wrong worship, and they are dead now. Aaron and his two remaining sons’ hearts are broken. They surely must have repented and felt guilty about what their sons had done. You read of God’s comforting assurance to them through Moses in verses 12-15. There is a reassurance first of all regarding the grain offering. Verse 12: “And Moses spoke to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons who were left: ‘Take the grain offering that remains of the offerings made by fire to the Lord, and eat it without leaven beside the altar; for it is most holy.'” Verse 13: “You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your due and your sons’ due, of the sacrifices made by fire to the Lord; for so I have been commanded.” He says, “Take the grain offering,” then he says, “eat the breast and thigh.” You can count five times that there is the emphasis that says, “for it is your due,” “allotted for you,” “prepared for you.” God calls, “Come to the table.” “Eat it in the holy place, it is your due. It is your sons’ due. It is your portion; it was their privilege. It was their property.” Grain, breast, and thigh—it is perpetually your due to have these portions. God had said this is their due in chapters 6-7 again and again. Why do you think God reiterated these things at this moment? We see great compassionate sensitivity and grace of God here. The Lord knows the hearts of all men. If your heart is broken because of false worship, the Lord knows your heart today. The Lord knew what was going on in the hearts of Aaron and his sons. They were not arrogant and unrepentant like so many, saying, “Oh, what wrong did we do? Why should we repent?” Aaron’s heart is broken in repentance. “Oh, I was such a horrible, undeserving person, I already made a calf and made all of Israel sin against God. But even though I don’t deserve it, He elected me and my family to such a height as high priest and priests. Now my sons have sinned so shamefully.” We know how much we as fathers feel the behavior of our sons; we blame ourselves. So Aaron must have thought, “By offering strange fire, we have broken God’s strict law of worship where He punishes the third and fourth generation. Now God will surely reject me. We will lose all privileges by that awful sin that had been committed. Maybe the earth will open and hell will swallow us like Dathan and Abiram.” There was no doubt a trembling and an insecurity. The same God who killed arrogant sons who offered arrogant, strange fire, when we come to Him with a contrite heart, God is gracious and compassionate and abounding in love. We see that He reassures His sinful servants that their privileges remain as full as ever. With this reassurance, God, as it were, wipes their invisible tears and heals their emotional wounds with continuing love and friendship. See, if you may have been caught up in this movement for many years, doing wrong things, going with the crowd. If you repent and come back to God with a contrite heart, He will shower such true gospel and true blessings and make you enjoy a true feast! Oh, false worshipers, you have no idea of the Father’s feast. He says, “Take the grain offering, breast, and thigh. It is prepared for you.” Remember, all this points to the gospel blessings in Christ’s work on the cross. Christ is the true bread of life, He is our grain. The breast is His eternal love. The thigh is His strength. You feast on that. I welcome you to gospel blessings. The true gospel not just meets your superficial physical needs, but it meets your deepest spiritual, social, and psychological needs, and of course, physical, but that is last. We are studying in Ephesians. Oh, how cheap prosperity preaching seems compared to the infinite, eternal blessings God has given. Let me tell you, those people who say “we are enjoying” do not know anything of true kingdom joys. All their joy is animal tingling to the senses, feeling emotions, music concert highs. They really don’t know what a true soul feast in God’s house is. The feast that comes from God’s Word. “Man shall not live by bread alone,” but by “every word that comes from the mouth of God.” They are only focused on bread, not the Word. When His truth is understood with a discerning mind, that truth doesn’t just touch the senses and skin and make you feel “kundali” senses, but truth pierces through the deepest heart and conscience and transforms your soul. It meets your deepest needs. What joy! Every week we are enjoying this. I see when I wish each of you, “Oh, what joy,” a beautiful joy you go home with. So satisfied that your soul is fattened with the feast of God! Some of our most eager, active, sacrificial, and committed members are people who come out of Pentecostalism, right? Not people who have always been here. Like my wife says, “You are eating good food, and you have not realized its value. I will stop cooking for three months, then you will know.” So some don’t realize the value. But people, when they come out of such Pentecostal churches, always hearing “miracle, miracle” and “blessing, blessing,” all superficial messages, when they hear God’s Word preached, they drink deeply as if they have been thirsty for months. They hear four or five sermons every day, and they find an ocean of truth. There is no limit to their joy in learning the truth. On one side, there is great pain for so many years wasted, but on another side, there is so much joy knowing these precious truths. They know the value of truths more than older people. Oh, false worshipers, come back to the Father’s feast. You don’t know what you are missing. The mountain peak joy of being an elect of God. The joy of forgiveness of all past, present, and future sins. No music joy, worldly blessing, or anything in the world is comparable. Complete atonement, the joy of standing as justified before God. To feel the peace of God beyond all understanding, no loneliness anywhere in the world. The joy of being adopted by God. The Father’s assurance that all my needs the Father will meet; I don’t have to bribe any pastor. Eternal life removes the fear of death. All this you cannot enjoy in that false religion. It comes through the cross of Christ and the heavenly ministry of Christ. That is why God invited Aaron to the Old Testament rituals. Today, we can enjoy the fulfillment of all by faith in Jesus Christ’s work. All this outward music and outward show completely quenches the spirit of faith and never allows us to enjoy. Sadly, people in that movement absolutely don’t know what they are missing. By offering strange fire, they are missing all of God’s feast, the feast of true worship, the feast of truth, and the blessings that come from truth. They have been eating unsound, unhealthy, poisonous food. Here, God says, “Come to the feast.” Just like God said to Aaron, “When you have repented of the false worship of your sons and continued My worship, I know you are crying inside, but I invite you to come to My feast. I want to give you a reassurance of the feast. I want to give you my ministry and my blessing service!” Remember, this is exactly what the Lord Jesus did to Peter. Peter denied the Lord three times with three traitorous denials. He repents and weeps bitterly, and you know how the Lord restores him in John chapter 21. He sees the Lord Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee while he is out fishing. He jumps into the water and he swims all the way to the beach. And no doubt the Lord saw from afar that his conscience was still smarting with guilt. The Lord knew that Peter was still suffering from an insecurity about his own love and his own acceptance. And you know what was the first thing that Jesus said as Peter had just brought this net of fish up onto the beach, standing before the Lord Jesus? Jesus said in John 21:12, “Come and have breakfast with me.” Peter wondered if he still had any affection for the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ invited him to a meal. And so too, just as Aaron had been given the reassurance, “the cereal offering, the grain offering is yet for you.” “Welcome to my feast.” And when the meal of friendship was finished, we see Jesus reassures Peter of his love by giving him an opportunity three times to reconfirm his allegiance. “Do you love me, Peter?” “Lord, you know that I love you.” “Do you love me, Peter?” “Do you love me, Peter?” “Then go off and feed my sheep.” Brethren, we see in passages both Old and New that our Lord does not want His people, whose consciences have been freshly split open by their sin, to be anxious and in doubt about His undying love. Could it be that some Pentecostal brother and sister are hearing our message? Convicted and asking, “Will God accept me? I have done this wrong, man-centered, mindless worship for so many years.” Let me tell you, God still loves you if you repent and come. Just like the father ran and came and hugged the prodigal, He will shower His love. And let me tell you, if you start walking in the path of truth, you will find so much light and love. You will feel like you are feasting on God’s treasures. In this way, God says He welcomes you to His feast. “Oh, pastor, what about my problems?” Come, feed on the breast and thigh. The breast is the heart of Christ. God will fill you with such a sense of love. Oh, we see blessings of election, and acceptance in eternity, loving us as He loved His son. Oh, what thrills! Someone said, “Ah, ha, Paramahamsa,” you will rejoice. “But what about my needs? I am a pastor in that church; I am a deacon; I am benefiting; they are giving me support, they helped…” You notice all these groups, whenever someone is sick or weak, they run and offer support. They catch them in their emotionally weak moments and make them their prey. Yes, you can be grateful for the help, but that doesn’t mean they are right. Most social services are done by the Catholic Church, so should we agree with all they say? It is God who provided for those needs. God will provide for your needs. Feed on the thigh of Christ, the power of God. God is able to provide for all your needs. You seek His kingdom and righteousness; I will tell you God will bless you ten times more. They are the ones who are keeping you in a cursed state.