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StandOut or Step Away: What Does God Want for You?
Leviticus 11-16

Introduction: Building friendships are fun as you get to know someone; you talk about your job, your family, and sports. Eventually, the relationship takes a turn toward the personal, and the other person gets to know much more about you. Close friends don’t often hold back, they tell you what they are thinking. They question things you do, things you buy, or how you live your life. At this point, relationships get real uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable when someone says they don’t agree with a personal decision – about your family, about your job performance, or about your house. Speaking about uncomfortable, Rachel and I had our neighbors over for dinner the first time. He happens to be a doctor, and we got talking about a test I had taken revealed a high liver enzyme. I asked him what that could mean. To my surprise, this new neighbor who I did not know very well reached over grabbed my belly and said that high enzyme means you’re fat…so lose some weight. When people get involved in your lifestyle, it can get uncomfortable. Today, God wants you to know that He wants to be involved in your lifestyle. There are most definitely things in all of our lives that God is very pleased with, and yet there are other things that God is highly displeased with. Not only are there things we need to give up, but there are biblical commands that we need to start doing.

The first thing God wants you to know is that you can’t keep living an immoral life and trying to claim God’s forgiveness. Many people are misled in believing that they can have Christ and do anything they want to do.

The apostle Paul talked about the person who said that they could have Christ and live whatever sinful lifestyle they wanted. These people continuously call on God’s forgiveness without much of an attempt to change to conform to God’s moral standards. Paul said in Romans 6:1-2 “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” People think God is so forgiving that they can go on sinning, but Paul said that true believers die to their old lifestyle and don’t live in it anymore. God calls us to live by exceptional moral standards. There are do’s and don’ts in the Bible. God certainly gets personal or might I say involved in our lives. God has much to say about how we live our lives, and this is uncomfortable for all of us.  This should not shock you. A holy God wants his people to be holy, so that means the immoral sins must go.

The second thing God teaches us is that His forgiveness is not cheap. When we claim God’s forgiveness without changing or immoral lifestyle, our lives demonstrate God is cheap.

All of us evidence cheapness to Jesus’ sacrifice in dying on the cross as we continue with certain immoral ways and presume upon his forgiveness. God taught us in the book of Leviticus that his forgiveness isn’t cheap, but it is to be highly valued. Turn to Leviticus 16.Here we are taught about forgiveness through the Annual Day of Atonement. Leviticus 16:10,16 “But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat…In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness.”

DAY OF ATONEMENT: Once a year, all the Israelite’s sins were forgiven and they could start the year anew. This was the holiest day of the year and remains so in Judaism today called Yom Kippur. In the Tabernacle was a place called the Holy of Holies where only the High Priest was permitted to go.[IMAGE - Tabernacle]  In this room was the Ark of the Covenant; the top of the Ark was called the mercy seat [IMAGE – mercy seat]. On the day of Atonement, the blood of a sacrificed animal was sprinkled on the mercy seat to atone for the sins of the priest and the people. Then the sins were placed on the scapegoat which was released to visibly show them that their sins were removed from them. During the course of the year, it was impossible for people to account for every sin. People surely confessed and sought forgiveness for the significant sins, yet many sins did not get cleansed so they were purified generally on an annual basis. This was crucial so the people could continue to come into God’s presence. No matter what had happened during the year, on this day all their sins were carried away, all the defilements were purged, and they were free to enter the sanctuary and commune with God. Atonement of sin is the prerequisite for living in the presence of God; atonement means to appease God’s anger over our sin by God’s chosen method. Did you know that God hates sin? Sin is an attack on the glory of God, so God hates the attacks against him.

With that background, what is there for us to learn for today about the day of atonement? The risk during these days was some Israelites presuming upon the grace to forgive all their sin RATHER than living a morally righteous life day by day. Consider, if you had one big event that forgave all your sins, then why try so hard to live high moral standards…you knew that the sins would be removed whether or not you changed your lifestyle? Here is the problem with that rationale – the annual day of atonement’s offer of forgiveness was extended to those of faith. No sin was forgiven without faith. If a person failed to live a moral, righteous life according to God’s standards, then they presumed on God’s grace. They are saying, we can do whatever we want because God will forgive us. Making a decision to participate in the day of atonement without striving for a moral life throughout the year made no atonement of sin because faith is evidenced by a person who tries to live by God’s standards on a daily basis not 1 time or once a year.

Since Jesus’ sacrificed his life, people have made a decision that he is Lord and they say they follow Jesus’ way. The bible offers forgiveness of sins for the children of God, and it is only through forgiveness of sin that we can be deemed holy and have access to God now and in heaven. Yet, just like some Israelites treated the day of atonement as a once a year decision to live by God’s ways which was unacceptable, so it goes today for those who claim they made a decision for Christ without any morality change from going from unbeliever to believer. They think forgiveness is a one time decision to add on to life without any necessary change to the current lifestyle.

Would you have stayed friends with people who did not make moral changes? Would you have walked away from them to show them that you disapprove? Or, would you have tried to stay friends yet influence them toward God’s moral changes? The Israelite  faithful believers had to make a decision – do we standout in the crowd or do we step away from the crowd. I am certain some Israelites chose to step away from the morally bankrupt trying not to be unduly influenced. But, some Israelites chose to be purple in a sea of brown Israelites. They had to answer the question – what does God want for me…to standout or to step away.

Finally, God teaches us through Leviticus that forgiveness comes through living a morally righteous life. How did God show them to strive to live a morally righteous lifestyle day by day, and then enter the day of atonement in a thankful, humble, reverent attitude to cover all other sins?

The faithful Israelites strove toward the standard of holiness. But, there always seem to be bumps in the road of immorality during the natural course of life. The law was given so that an unholy people could have a way to approach a holy God. The law made way for taking that clean or unclean and unholy thing and putting it through a cleansing ritual then a sacrificial ritual. This was God’s way to allow the people to return to his holiness. The people had to show their faith by consistently complying with his laws and performing the prescribed ritual. If they did not faithfully comply with the laws, then their unholiness kept them separated from God.

[IMAGE] The Levitical ritual the people lived by is outlined in Leviticus chapters 11-15. These chapters inform the priests to distinguish between clean and unclean, holy and unholy. Under the law, everything was classified according to the categories of holy and unholy, with only the holy being permitted in the presence of God. There were two categories of unholy – clean and unholy and unclean and unholy. The normal state of many things was that it was clean and could be elevated to holy through sacrificial ritual. The Levitical ritual was designed to cleanse and sanctify or make holy.

Let’s be more specific. Leviticus 11 formed the basis of the daily food regulations and this reflected the holiness of God. The principal reason for these food laws was to make God’s people a distinct people. When God identifies something as His way, he carves it out as holy. In Hebrews God says don’t stop worshiping in the local church, and in Acts he says to help other believers by sharing your finances to help them. By doing anything God outlines by faith, you take a clean but unholy action and sanctify it making it offerable as holy.  PRACTICALLY: God wanted to prevent his people from being influenced by the beliefs of the other nations and to preserve them from defiling his people. The food rules were very important in accomplishing this goal. Close, personal friendships are easily formed over a shared meal, but it is far more difficult to develop a relationship with people with whom one can neither eat nor drink. By obeying God’s moral rules such as coming to church, God gets us in a culture that will encourage us spiritually and separate us from unspiritual people for a time that discourage us from God.

The pushback on stepping away from people is God’s call to become all things to all people so that we might save some. Tell me, how do we have the relationship and create the opportunity to share our hope and love for Jesus if we step away from struggling believers and unbelievers? Instead of stepping away, believers can choose to STANDOUT among the crowd. While everyone else might be brown and average not living by God’s moral standards, you can desire to be purple and holy among a sea of brown and unholy.

Take divorce for example. A friend of yours comes and tells you they are considering a divorce. You have a choice to step away from them because God never desires divorce. Alternatively, you could standout and encourage them with the Bible and what God wants. Or, you could do what most people do and tell them what you would do whether or not it lines up with God’s moral compass…if this is you, let me give you this advice either don’t talk or step away because you are not a standout for God.

What does God want for you…to standout or to stepaway? This level of holiness and impact on other people all presumes you have that issue right in your life. Consider three categories:

the holy category – morally right things honoring to God. Reading your Bible, prayer, coming to church, loving others, things we know honor God.

the standout category – taking things that could be honoring to God and sanctifying them to move them into a holy category.

the step away category – you personally step away from things that will never honor God; but stay connected with others who struggle here, so that you may standout as a purple influencer. Maybe you will help them step away.