Holiness and the Fear of the Lord

Victory Life Church September 11, 2024

1 Peter 1:13–23 (NLT) 13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” 17 And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.” 18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake. 21 Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. 22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. 23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 (ESV) 14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17  Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18  and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Hebrews 12:28–29 (NLT) 28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. 29 For our God is a devouring fire.

God’s loving presence is a fire that destroys what it cannot purify, but purifies what it cannot destroy.

Walking in the fear of the Lord keeps our focus on Jesus and living obedient to him. God’s holiness is so pure and good that it poses a paradox for humans living in a world ruined by sin. His power and purity can become dangerous to mortal humans corrupted by sin. This paradox of God’s holiness is seen most clearly in the dangerous goodness of God’s presence living in Israel’s midst in the tabernacle and temple.

Leviticus

Leviticus 1:1 (ESV) The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting…

Leviticus’ Question: How can a rebellious and sinful Israel be reconciled to and live in the presence of a Holy God?

Leviticus’ Theme: How God is graciously providing a way for His sinful people to live in His Presence.

God is Holy. Understanding this is fundamental to understanding this book. “Holy” means to be “set apart” or “unique.” God is “set apart” because of His uniqueness as the “Creator” and the “Author of Life.” And if God is Holy, then the space around Him is holy, full of His life, purity, goodness, and justice. If Israel, who is sinful and unjust, wants to live in God’s presence, they too must become holy, their sin has to be dealt with.

Section 1 (1-7): Ritual Sacrifices

“Thank You” Offerings: grain & peace; “I’m Sorry” Offerings: burnt, sin, & guilt

Through these rituals, the Israelites were constantly being reminded of God’s grace, but also His justice and the seriousness of their evil and its consequences.

Section 7 (23-25): Ritual Feasts

Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Weeks (Pentecost), Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles

By celebrating these feasts regularly, Israel would remember who they were, and who God is to them.

Section 2 (8-10): Priests Ordained

Leviticus 10:1-3 (ESV) 1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

The story of Nadab and Abihu is a haunting reminder to Israel of the paradox of living in God’s presence: it’s pure goodness, but at the same time, dangerous to those who rebel or insult God’s goodness.

Leviticus 10:10-11 (ESV) 10 You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, 11 and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.”

Section 6 (21-22): Qualifications for Priests

It’s important Israel’s priests remain holy and also that all of the people become holy.

Leviticus 22:31-33 (ESV) 31 “So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the Lord. 32 And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, 33 who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord.”

Section 3 (11-15): Ritual Purity

Leviticus 11:44-45 (ESV) “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

1. 1. 1. Contact with reproductive body fluids
      2. Having a skin disease
      3. Touching mold or fungus
      4. Touching a dead body
      5. Eating impure animals

Key Point: Simply being ritually impure was not sinful or wrong, touching these things were a normal part of life. And impurity was a temporary state. What was wrong was waltzing into God’s presence carrying these symbols of death and impurity on your body.

These were cultural symbols to remind Israel that God’s holiness effects every part of life.

Section 5 (17-20): Moral Purity

The Israelites were called to live differently than the Canaanites. They were to care for the poor instead of overlooking them, have a high level of sexual integrity, promote justice throughout the entire land.

Leviticus 18:24-25 (ESV) 24 “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, 25 and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.

Leviticus 20:7-8, 26 (ESV) 7 Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. 8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you…. 26 You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

Section 4 (16): The Day of Atonement

Odds were that not every Israelite sin or act of rebellion would be covered by individual sacrifices. So once a year, the High Priest would take two goats and one would be sacrificed as a “Purification Offering” to “atone” for or “cover” the sins of the people.

Leviticus 16:15–16 (ESV) 15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.

The other would be called the “Scape Goat.” The High Priest would confess the sins and rebellion of the people and symbolically place those sins onto the goat and then it would be cast out into the wilderness. It’s a very powerful image of God’s desire to remove sin and its consequences from His people, so He could live among them in peace.

Though sacrifices seem very barbaric, in the ancient world, sacrifices were the main way of buying favor from the gods. But the problem is that those same gods were unpredictable and fickle, you never know if they are going to ignore you or turn on you. It’s in this cultural setting that we see Israel’s God is totally different. He does get angry over human corruption and rebellion, but it is never arbitrary, and He loves people. So He provides this clear way for Israel to know with confidence that they are forgiven and that despite their corruption and sin, they are safe to live in God’s presence.

Leviticus 17:11 (ESV) For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Hebrews 9:22 (NLT) In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

This makes the book of Leviticus a revolutionary statement of its day.

Hebrews 9:11–15 (NLT) 11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. 13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

1 John 2:1–2 (ESV) 1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Conclusion (26-27): Call to Covenant Faithfulness

The book concludes with Moses calling the people of Israel to be faithful to the terms of the covenant, and describing the blessings of obedience, but also warns them what will happen if they rebel: exile.

Leviticus 26:11-12 (ESV) 11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

If you want to see how the book of Leviticus fits within the overall storyline, you have to look at the first sentence of the next book.

Numbers 1:1 (ESV) The Lord spoke to Moses … in the tent of meeting…

The book of Leviticus worked! God graciously provided a way for for their sin to be covered so that He could live among them in peace. But it was an incomplete and temporary measure that ultimately didn’t work on its own, but pointed forward to Christ.

Things to remember about Leviticus:

These are the terms of covenant relationship between God and ancient Israel.

These are NOT the terms of covenant relationship between us and Jesus.

Colossians 1:18-22 (ESV) 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

1 John 4:7–12 (NLT) 7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

Love fulfills the Law.

Romans 13:8-10 (ESV) 8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.