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We're going to take another big 
section of scripture tonight. We may finish early. We may not. We'll see where the spirit takes 
us here. It's a tough section of scripture, 
but it is a unit. So Leviticus 11.1 to Leviticus 
15.33. Basically, the theme is cleansing the house of the Lord. So I want to read chapter 11. 
It's a lengthy chapter. It obviously deals with the unclean 
animals and clean animals that Israel was permitted or denied 
from eating. But then we'll notice how this, 
along with chapters 12, 13, and 14, have the same theme. So beginning 
in chapter 11 at verse 1, Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, 
saying to them, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, These 
are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that 
are on the earth. Among the animals, whatever divides 
the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud, that you 
may eat. Nevertheless, these you shall 
not eat among those that chew the cud or those that have cloven 
hooves. The camel, because it chews the 
cud but does not have clove and hooves, is unclean to you. The 
rock hyrax, because it chews the cud but does not have clove 
and hooves, is unclean to you. The hare, because it chews the 
cud but does not have clove and hooves, is unclean to you. And 
the swine, though it divides the hoof, having clove and hooves, 
yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Their flesh you 
shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. They are 
unclean to you. 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. But 
all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, 
all that move in the water, or any living thing which is in 
the water, they are an abomination to you. They shall be an abomination 
to you. You shall not eat their flesh, 
but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination. Whatever in 
the water does not have fins or scales, that shall be an abomination 
to you. And these you shall regard as 
an abomination among the birds. They shall not be eaten. They 
are an abomination. The eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, 
the kite, and the falcon after its kind. every raven after its 
kind, the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the seagull, and the hawk 
after its kind, the little owl, the fisher owl, and the screech 
owl, the white owl, the jackdaw, and the carrion vulture, the 
stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. All 
flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination 
to you. 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 you 
may eat, the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after 
its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after 
its kind. But all other flying insects 
which have four feet shall be an abomination to you. By these 
you shall become unclean. Whoever touches the carcass of 
any of them shall be unclean until evening. Whoever carries 
part of the carcass, or of any of them, shall wash his clothes, 
and be unclean until evening. The carcass of any animal which 
divides the foot, but is not cloven hoofed, or does not chew 
the cud, is unclean to you. Everyone who touches it shall 
be unclean. And whatever goes on its paws, among all kinds 
of animals that go on all fours, those are unclean to you. Whoever 
touches any such carcass shall be unclean until evening. Whoever 
carries any such carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean 
until evening. It is unclean to you. These also 
shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep 
on the earth, the mole, the mouse, and the large lizard after its 
kind, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the 
sand lizard, and the chameleon. These are unclean to you among 
all that creep. Whoever touches them, when they 
are dead, shall be unclean until evening. Anything on which any 
of them falls, when they are dead, shall be unclean. Whether 
it is any item of wood or clothing or skin or sack, whatever item 
it is, in which any work is done, it must be put in water. And 
it shall be unclean until evening. Then it shall be clean. Any earthen 
vessel into which any of them falls you shall break, and whatever 
is in it shall be unclean. In such a vessel, any edible 
food upon which water falls becomes unclean, and any drink that may 
be drunk from it becomes unclean. And everything on which a part 
of any such carcass falls shall be unclean. Whether it is an 
oven or cooking stove, it shall be broken down, for they are 
unclean and shall be unclean to you. Nevertheless, a spring 
or a cistern in which there is plenty of water shall be clean, 
but whatever touches any such carcass becomes unclean. And if a part of any such carcass 
falls on any planting seed which is to be sown, it remains clean. But if water is put on the seed, 
and if a part of any such carcass falls on it, it becomes unclean 
to you. And if any animal which you may 
eat dies, he who touches its carcass shall be unclean until 
evening. He who eats of its carcass shall 
wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. He also who carries 
its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. 
and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be 
an abomination, it shall not be eaten. Whatever crawls on 
its belly, whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet 
among all creeping things that creep on the earth, these you 
shall not eat, for they are an abomination. You shall not make 
yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps, nor 
shall you make yourselves unclean with them, lest you be defiled 
by them. 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, 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. This is the law of the animals 
and the birds, and every living creature that moves in the waters, 
and of every creature that creeps on the earth, to distinguish 
between the unclean and the clean, and between the animal that may 
be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten. Amen. Well, 
as we come to this particular section of scripture, as I said, 
chapters 11 to 15 deal with one theme, and that is to cleanse 
the tabernacle, to cleanse the people so that they can go into 
the tabernacle. There is an obvious connection 
with chapter 10 and the judgment on Nadab and Abihu. So I want 
to look at the problem identified tonight that this section addresses, 
and then secondly, the categories addressed, the various chapters 
and what they entail, but not a detailed exegesis. And then 
finally, some practical lessons observed from the whole. But 
with reference to the problem, go back to chapter 10, verses 
1 and 2. Remember in chapter 9 at verses 
22 to 24, they followed the legislation, they followed the commandment 
of God, they did as the Lord had commanded through the mediation 
of Moses, they offered up a sacrifice, God was pleased with the sacrifice, 
so God sent fire down from heaven to consume that sacrifice. Chapter 
9 ends on that high note. fire came out from before the 
Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When 
all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. Then 
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and 
put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire 
before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. So fire went 
out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the 
Lord. So there is a note of tension introduced into this section 
of scripture. Remember, we saw that the book 
of Exodus ended with tension. It ended with the tension of 
the Shekinah glory of God dwelling in the midst of the tabernacle, 
and yet no one being able to go in to meet with God. So, Leviticus 
1-9 addresses that tension. It provides the solution. The 
solution for Israel to come into the presence of God is sacrifice 
and priesthood. Well, now that the priesthood 
has become deficient, Now that the priesthood has been rendered 
judged by God, we have another tension, and that's precisely 
what chapters 11 to 16 address. So 11 to 15 deal with laws pertaining 
to cleanliness, and then chapter 16 refers specifically to the 
Day of Atonement. So it is this section that provides 
the rationale for cleanliness or uncleanliness and how Israel 
is to maintain the former so that they can have truck and 
communion with the living and true God. So what we have is 
resolution to the tension created in chapter 10. If you turn to 
chapter 16 at verses 1 and 2, you see that obvious link. So 
in chapter 16 verse 1, now the Lord spoke to Moses after the 
death of the two sons of Aaron when they offered profane fire 
before the Lord and died. And the Lord said to Moses, tell 
Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the holy 
place inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on the 
ark, lest he die, for I will appear in the cloud above the 
mercy seat. So everything connected to chapter 
10, or everything that we see up to this point, is connected 
to that event, that judgment, in chapter 10. If we kept on 
reading in chapter 16, we would see the detailed instruction 
concerning the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, which, God willing, 
we'll look at next week. So we've got judgment on Nadab 
and Abihu, or the wrath of God, and as I said, what we need is 
the cleansing with reference to the people and with reference 
to the house of God itself. In fact, if you look at chapter 
16, when the high priest goes into the tabernacle, the Holy 
of Holies, on the Day of Atonement, you'll notice that he offers 
up sacrifice, and that sacrifice is for himself, That sacrifice 
is for his house. That sacrifice is for Israel. The sacrifice is for the holy 
place. The sacrifice is for the tabernacle. The sacrifice is for the altar. 
And then it ends with the sacrifice being for the priests. So in 
other words, everything that comes into contact with those 
sacrificial victims in one sense or another contracts, or there 
is a contagion, there is a pass along in terms of the altar itself. So it needs to be cleansed. There 
needs to be atonement made for all of those articles. And specifically, 
it's verses 16 and 18 in Leviticus 16 that deal with the holy place 
and with the altar. So going back to chapter 10. 
with reference to cleansing of the house of God, this whole 
idea of cleansing in and of itself, clean and unclean, when we move 
through this list of animals, when we get to the ritual after 
childbirth, when we move to the law concerning leprosy and the 
treatment of lepers, and then we finish this section with reference 
to the the laws concerning bodily discharge, just know it's very 
difficult to exegete what is precisely in view. There's a 
lot of conjecture and there's a lot of, I hope, sanctified 
guesswork because there's a lot of things we just don't know. 
Why is it the case that a woman is defiled or unclean twice as 
long after having given birth to a female than to a male? I do not know. The few commentaries 
I had access to today, too, they had suggestions, but basically 
nobody agrees with each other. I mean, there are some similarities, 
there are some overlap, but the bottom line is that this section 
obviously was understood by the people of God in that particular 
context, but it's not as easy for us. Some of it seems to be 
arbitrary in the sense of the various animals indicated, the 
various animals listed, the various things addressed in terms of 
these lists and whatnot. So what renders something clean 
and what renders something unclean? First we should appreciate with 
reference to the Nadab and Abihu situation that the tabernacle 
would have been defiled by their corpses. Remember the order coming 
on the heels of the declaration by Moses in chapter 10 at verse 
3, those who come to God must regard him as holy. Then there's 
instruction to the other brothers to basically drag their corpses 
out of that tabernacle. There would be defilement. There 
would be that contagion of uncleanness. And as Morales says, corpse pollution 
is the most serious pollution in the cultic system, as well 
as the most contagious, referred to as the father of the fathers 
of uncleanness in later rabbinic tradition. So there was an immediate 
necessity in laying down law concerning cleanliness and uncleanness 
so that the people of God would be prepared to meet with God, 
but as well so that those holy articles involved in the tabernacle 
could be cleansed and could be washed and could be purified 
for sacred use before the Lord God Most Holy. Now, with reference 
to this concept of cleanliness and uncleanness, I think we probably 
all have a bit of understanding. To be clean is to be rendered 
fit to come into the presence of God. To be unclean would be 
rendered unfit to come into the presence of God. The concept 
of impurity and defilement, and then the connection with holiness 
and unholiness. So I want to lean on Wenham here 
and his commentary. He kind of explains this whole 
idea of clean and holy. He says, everything that is not 
holy is common. So basically, the other word 
for that is profane. Profane doesn't always mean something 
bad. Profane typically means something 
outside of the sacred. So everything that is not holy, 
those things consecrated specifically to God, is common. Now, common 
things divide into two groups, the clean and the unclean. Clean 
things can become holy when they are sanctified, but unclean objects 
cannot be sanctified. Clean things can be made unclean 
if they are polluted. Finally, holy items may be defiled 
and become common, even polluted and therefore unclean. Pay attention, 
there will be a quiz at the end of all of this. Just kidding. Sanctification can elevate the 
clean into the holy while pollution degrades the clean into the unclean. The unclean and the holy are 
two states which must never come into contact with each other. 
According to Leviticus then, sacrificial blood is necessary 
to cleanse and to sanctify. Sacrifice can undo the effects 
of sin and human infirmity. Sin and disease led to profanation 
of the holy and pollution of the clean. Sacrifice can reverse 
this process. So there is a connection between 
cleanness and holiness and uncleanness and unholiness. Morales goes 
on to say, thus to be clean means to be fit for the presence of 
God, while to be holy means that one belongs to God. And then 
he says, approaching Yahweh God, then, is the integrating element 
of Israel's cultic system. Now, the word cultic here shouldn't 
be pejorative. It shouldn't make us think of 
Jehovah's Witnesses, shouldn't make us think of Mormons or those 
pseudo-Christian cults. Cultic is a legitimate word, 
cultess. The idea is that this is the 
worship apparatus used by the children of Israel to access 
the presence of God Most High. So he says, approaching God then 
is the integrating element of Israel's cultic system. This 
means that above all else, to be unclean is understood fundamentally 
as being excluded from the presence of Yahweh, while being made clean 
means becoming fit for his presence. So all that to say that's what 
chapters 11 to 15 are designed to specify with reference to 
the children of Israel. Now go back again to chapter 
10 in the book of Leviticus. Remember, chapter 10, on the 
heels of the death of Nadab and Abihu, their bodies had been 
taken out from the tabernacle. The priests were cautioned against 
engaging in mourning rites. Remember, they're still on the 
clock, They're still consecrated with the holy oil. They're still 
conducting themselves in the fear of God, in the presence 
of God. Then comes specific instruction 
from Yahweh to Aaron now, not mediated through Moses. And in 
the section we're going into, God speaks to Moses and to Aaron. Why is that? Because Aaron is 
now the functional high priest in the nation of Israel. So remember 
that in chapter 10 at verse 8, Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, 
saying, Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you nor your 
sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest 
you die. It shall be a statute forever 
throughout your generations. Now notice the particular purpose. that you may distinguish between 
holy and unholy, and between unclean and unclean." This serves 
as a kind of a programmatic statement for everything that follows now 
in the book of Leviticus. Chapters 17 to 27 deal with those 
things that are holy and unholy, and chapters 11 to 15 deal with 
those things that are unclean and clean. So do not be intoxicated. Make sure that you are able to 
distinguish between holy and unholy and between unclean and 
clean. And then notice in verse 11, 
and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which 
the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses. So in other 
words, the priests were tasked with taking the book of Leviticus 
and teaching the children of God, the children of Israel, 
what the difference was between clean and unclean from chapters 
11 to 15. and what the difference was between 
holy and unholy in chapter 17 to 27. So this becomes sort of 
a programmatic statement concerning the priesthood in terms of what 
they're supposed to do relative to the teaching function involved 
in the priesthood. Notice in chapter 11 at verse 
47, to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, and between 
the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be 
eaten. Notice over in chapter 14, specifically 
at verse 57. to teach when it is unclean and 
when it is clean this is the law of leprosy the rationale 
for the instruction at verses 44 to 47 notice God's holiness 
is preeminent verse 44 after this legislation concerning the 
clean and unclean animals 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." So when 
we move through the book, this is a primary theme in the book, 
is that God is holy. We don't just wander into his 
presence as if he's our fellow or as if he's an equal, but rather 
we esteem him as the high and lofty one and we understand that 
fear is due with such a great God. So he argues, or rather 
provides the rationale from the holiness of God. Notice he goes 
on to indicate the responsibility of the people. There's a reciprocity 
involved when God saves a sinner, there is a reflex on the part 
of the sinner. This is somewhat corresponding, 
obviously, to New Covenant situation. When Paul argues against sexual 
immorality in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the rationale is that you've 
been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your 
body and in your spirit. Don't engage in that activity 
that is contrary to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ with 
reference to your life. So notice in 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. So the 
great redemptive work serves as the backdrop for what Israel 
is to be that is representative of the concept of cleanness. 
Notice in Leviticus 21 at verse 5, They shall not make any bald 
place on their heads, nor shall they shave the edges of their 
beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. They shall be 
holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God. For they 
offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire and the bread of 
their God. Therefore they shall be holy. 
And then look at verse 16. And the Lord spoke to Moses, 
saying, Speak to Aaron, saying, No man of your descendants and 
succeeding generations who has any defect may approach to offer 
the bread of his God. For any man who has a defect 
shall not approach, a man blind or lame, who has a marred face 
or any limb too long, a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, 
or is a hunchback or a dwarf, or a man who has a defect in 
his eye or eczema or scab, or is a eunuch. No man of the descendants 
of Aaron the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to 
offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord. He has a defect. 
He shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He may 
eat the bread of his God, only he shall not go near the veil 
or approach them. So back to the quote from Wenham. 
The priests, for example, had to be free from physical deformity. 
...who did apparently some amazing work on the book of Leviticus. 
The things I've seen being a good overall approach to the book 
of Leviticus. But she says, holiness requires 
that individuals shalk probably a variety of skin diseases that 
are envisaged in being sort of an overarching term that found. 
So there's probably a series of skin diseases that are involved 
with reference to chapters 13 and 14. So there are tests for 
diseases. So we see the first test, the 
auspices of God's rule. So I think that one of the effects 
of this, the cleanliness and unclean laws, and then the holiness 
code in 17 to 27, easy to distinguish yourself from the nations around 
you with this series of things going on in your life. Every 
time you sat down for a meal, you would be reminded, based 
on what you could or couldn't eat, that you were not a pagan, 
that you were not a heathen, that you weren't a Hittite or 
a Hivite. They probably didn't have any prohibition against 
shrimp or bacon or anything like that. So when the Israelites 
sat down to eat, they were mindful that they were under the eye 
of God Most High. They were mindful that they were 
the covenant community, the people of God in the Old Testament. 
And then the treatment for skin diseases comes in verses 38 to 
59 in chapter 13. And then chapter 14 deals with the cleansing of 
skin diseases. And again, just by way of an 
observation, the priesthood had a lot going on. It had a lot 
of tasks and a lot of business in terms of keeping things straight 
and keeping things on the up and up in terms of the cleanliness 
laws so that the people of God could approach the God of the 
people. One passage I don't want to sort 
of bypass there is in chapter 13. Look at verse 45. Now the leper on whom the sore 
is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare, and he shall 
cover his mustache and cry, unclean, unclean. He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore, 
he shall be unclean. He is unclean and he shall dwell 
alone, his dwelling shall be outside the camp. There's that 
wonderful bit in Matthew chapter 8 where Jesus heals the unclean 
man. He heals the leprous man. And not only can we rejoice in 
the fact that the man's skin is cleared up, but he now can 
rejoin society. He was an outcast. He was dispossessed. He was disowned. He was cut off 
from family. He was cut off from friends. 
He was cut off from the temple of God. And so that's the reality 
in this particular section. And so it was very much imperative 
that they follow the rule in terms of how to cleanse and how 
to fix this status. So that's chapter 14, the ritual 
after healing a skin disease in verses 2 to 31. the treatment 
of skin diseases in houses, verses 33 to 53, and then the summary 
concerning skin diseases in verses 54 to 57. So in 54, this is the 
law for any leprous sore and scale, for the leprosy of a garment 
and of a house, for a swelling and a scab and a bright spot, 
to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the 
law of leprosy. And that brings the narrative 
to chapter 15, which is unclean discharges. Bodily discharges. You've got the male in verses 
2 to 18, the female in verses 19 to 30, and then you've got 
a summary statement in verses 31 to 33. And notice that in 
verse 31 we have the purpose for the legislation. 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." So sort of a comprehensive overarching 
statement that affects the children of Israel in a way of reminding 
them how important it is to follow these instructions and the priesthood 
excuse me, to follow these instructions and to teach these instructions. 
And then verse 32, this is the law for one who has a discharge 
and for him who emits semen and is unclean thereby, and for her 
who is indisposed because of her customary impurity, and for 
one who has a discharge, either man or woman, and for him who 
lies with her who is unclean. So as we conclude this particular 
section, again, we want to underscore the holiness of God. This all 
points to the fact that you don't just wander into the presence 
of God. He is not like the heathen gods. He is not like the deities of 
the pagans. He is not Dagon in a temple that 
can fall down and be picked back up. He is God Most High. As well, this section underscores 
the sinfulness of man. The sinfulness of man. Now, not 
everything that is happening in this passage or in these passages 
are necessarily sin. A woman having a baby isn't a 
sin, but I think the idea is that there is this sinful context, 
this sinful world in which we live, and that results in the 
various things that come to pass. but the sinfulness of man is 
presupposed in the sense that he needs to be cleansed, he needs 
to be holy before he can dwell in the presence of God Almighty. 
As well, all of this secures for the worshipper the presence 
of God. So it's not like for the common 
Israelite that wasn't a faithful believer, this probably would 
have seemed like a whole bunch of rigmarole for no good reason. 
He had no heart for God. He didn't want the presence of 
God. He didn't want the nearness of God as his good. We can't 
assume that everybody in the Old Covenant was necessarily 
saved. The text does not support such a supposition. But for the 
faithful, for the remnant, for the believer, for the one who 
saw in this the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah to come, all of these 
things were means of grace, all of these things were means employed 
so that access to God could be had, so that access to God could 
be enjoyed. So for them it wasn't a drudgery, 
for them it wasn't a chore, for them it was part and parcel of 
life lived in the presence of God Almighty. And then as well 
the separateness of Israel from other nations. The separateness 
of Israel from other nations. You see that? We saw it in 1145. 
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. Holy has, as its sort of fundamental 
meaning, separation. Sanctification is to be separate. It's obviously connected with 
moral purity. That's how we usually use holy. 
I want to be holy like God is holy. That means I want to be 
morally pure. But in the first sense, it's 
sanctified. It's set apart. It is distinct 
from. And so the children of Israel 
were to be distinct from the various nations that they were 
surrounded by. Look at chapter 18 when it deals 
with specific sexual sins that are violations of the seventh 
commandment. Notice in chapter 18 at verse 24, Do not defile 
yourselves with any of these things, for by all these the 
nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. And then 
look at chapter 20 at verses 23 to 26. chapter 20, verse 23, a land flowing with milk and 
honey. I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the 
peoples. You shall therefore distinguish between clean animals 
and unclean, between unclean birds and clean. And you shall 
not make yourselves abominable by beast or by bird or by any 
kind of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated 
from you as unclean. And you shall be holy to me, 
for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples 
that you should be mine." So again, the idea of moral purity 
is certainly involved in holiness, the idea of separation, to be 
distant from, to be distinct from others. Morales said every 
meal served as a reminder of God's election of Israel out 
of the nations, but also of Israel's call to keep themselves separate 
from the uncleanness of those nations, to be a holy people. 
the food laws thus became a sign of Israel's identity and calling, 
a wall of separation between Israel and the nations. This, 
I think, provides some rationale for some interesting passages 
in the New Testament that the Apostle Paul has to deal with 
in terms of Jew and Gentile sort of camaraderie in the church 
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jewish mindset being steeped 
in the Levitical law saw certain foods as unclean and any truck 
with those foods as being unclean. So now these Gentiles start coming 
into church and they're eating bacon and They're, you know, 
having some shrimp, and their fellowship meals consist of things 
that were horrifying to the Jews. So I think that having this sort 
of background helps one, say, in Acts chapter 10, when Peter 
gets the vision to kill and eat, and Peter says, I've never eaten 
anything unclaimed, and Peter says, this happened three times. 
Well, why did it happen three times when God's telling you, 
Peter? Because this was ingrained. You 
stayed away from these meats. You stayed away from these animals. 
Now, of course, in the New Covenant, there's passages, Matthew 15, 
the parallel in Mark's gospel indicates that Jesus purified 
all foods. There's no longer this ceremonial 
sort of emphasis in terms of eating. It's not a diet that 
regulates our conduct. It's not a meal plan that separates 
us from the heathen around us. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, the 
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. So with this 
background, when you get to the New Testament and you see some 
of the disputes, especially when Paul in Romans 14, 1 Corinthians 
8-10, when he's talking about not eating that which is an offense 
to your brother, he's most likely dealing with Greeks or Gentiles 
eating their bacon in front of Jews. And he's saying, you know, 
don't do that. Don't offend a brother for whom Jesus died. Not that 
there's religion in not eating bacon or shrimp, but there is 
an offense that you give to your brother, and that's what is unlawful 
in terms of your approach to food and whatnot. So, all that 
to say, we ought to be very thankful we live in the days of the New 
Covenant, wherein the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of 
the world, comes as the fulfillment of all that is written in the 
Book of Leviticus. Well, let us pray. Our gracious 
God and Father, we thank you for the provision of your Son, 
your only begotten Son, that word became flesh who dwelt among 
us. We give praise to you for his 
life, his death, his resurrection. We give praise to you for the 
liberty that we have as sons and daughters of God Most High. 
May we rejoice in these things. May we be holy for you are holy. May we seek by your grace to 
let our conduct be worthy of the gospel. May we live in a 
manner that is consistent with that high calling. And may we 
be distinct. And may we be distinguished from 
the heathen around us. And may it be the case, God in 
heaven, that you would give us boldness and courage to speak 
the truth concerning the gospel to our neighbors, to our friends.