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February 19, 2025 | Leviticus 19-21
19th February 2025 • Daily Bible Podcast • Compass Bible Church North Texas
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Shownotes

00:00 Welcome Back to the Daily Bible Podcast! PR BACK IN THE HOUSE

00:36 The Struggles of Being Sick

01:24 The Importance of Asking for Help (And GIVING It)

04:19 Leviticus 19: Laws for a Holy Life in the OT and NT

06:42 Leviticus 20: Condemnation of Child Sacrifice and Sexual Immorality

12:38 Leviticus 21: Rules for Priests

14:22 Understanding Old Testament Laws Today

14:31 Closing Prayer and Final Thoughts

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Transcripts

Speaker:

Hey everybody, welcome back to an exciting

edition of the daily Bible podcast.

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What makes it so exciting?

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I'm not alone.

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Not alone.

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You're back.

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I am back.

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And amongst the living.

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I am.

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Some might say barely, but I do feel

much better than I did several days ago.

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Even better than I did yesterday.

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Yesterday was good, but

I'm glad to be back.

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I'm not fully here though.

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So I just got to say that I'm just,

I'm here, but I'm not fully here.

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Mentally.

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Mentally.

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Yeah.

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I'm still slow to the draw.

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And I, even though I, it's, that's

that weird space between not

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sick anymore, but not healthy.

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It can last for days.

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So I'm there.

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I feel great.

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I'm excited to be alive.

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I got some good rest last night

in anticipation of getting

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back to the office, but I

can't wait until I'm a hundred.

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Yep.

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That's fair.

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Your whole family was down.

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And I mean, like, it

was the weirdest thing.

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I don't think we've ever had

the experience where we all

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go down at the same time.

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And I don't recommend it to anybody.

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I would suggest no zero stars

out of five, zero out of five.

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So there's families that are

like, Hey, let's just get

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this sickness outta the way.

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Everybody come drink outta

the same cup, basically.

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Hey, I was talking to somebody,

I'm not gonna put them on blast,

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but they're like, yeah, we just

like to get sick at the same time.

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You know, we all get it out of our system.

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And I'm like, I don't know if it

works that way, . I don't think

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that's how that's supposed to go.

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So if you could keep somebody healthy to

keep the family functioning, that's ideal.

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It was a bummer 'cause we were just

laying there trying to figure out, okay,

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who's gonna get up and make something

Like, and, and who's gonna even eat it?

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'cause I know some of us are

hungry, some of us aren't.

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And then the little, the little girls.

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Are needing extra help.

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It was just, it was the worst.

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I never want to do that again.

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So that brings up a good point.

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I know you had a couple of families

bring you some food and everything.

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Thank you.

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By the way.

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So helpful was helpful for you guys.

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But, but on that note, I think

sometimes, and in part, it's just

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part of the, the American mindset and

culture and spirit of independence.

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I think we're hesitant to ask for help.

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When we actually do need help, I

think so often people will come and

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offer us up and say, Hey, can I help?

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And sometimes it can be in certain

situations a little bit more

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work for us to figure out a way

for them to help us than it is.

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Yes, actually helpful.

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But then there's other times where it's

like, no, we couldn't really use the help.

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And we're still hesitant

to reach out for help.

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I think maybe what are your thoughts

on, on being more proactive and

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saying, Hey, we could use some help.

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Cause I think our church does a

good job of saying, Hey, can we

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get some meals together for you?

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But not always.

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And so I think that's one benefit

of community groups to be able to

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reach out and say, Hey, we're down.

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Our whole family's down.

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Would you guys mind, you know, it'd

be great to, to get a couple of

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meals that inbounds out of bounds.

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I mean, yeah, I think it, it's

highly contextual to the community

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of people that you're in.

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And I, yeah.

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We struggled because we're like, no

one even has the energy to be like,

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Hey, can you come and help us out?

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We're just laying there.

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Nobody had any desire to get up and do

anything, which is part of the battle.

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Cause I, I, at one point thought

maybe I could ask somebody.

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And then I started asking

myself, well, who should I ask?

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Should I ask any?

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And then I just gave up.

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Cause I'm like, this is too much effort.

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I'm just going to lay here and

just God will send somebody.

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So I get that.

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Part of this conversation has to happen

with the awareness that when you're

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sick, you're just not, you're not You're

not thinking well, you don't feel well.

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You just don't, you have half the

energy at most that you normally have.

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And that's when you need the most help.

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And so I suppose that one of the

takeaways for us here is that when

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people are sick and the whole family's

down, I think one of the things that

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helps is people just assumed they just

came and they just drop stuff off.

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And I'd rather be in that

scenario where it's like, oh

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man, now we have too much food.

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Fantastic.

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Let's just put it in the refrigerator.

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We can warm it up as we need it.

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I think that's my takeaway.

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Because I was trying to figure

out, okay, how do we help other

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people who are going through this?

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Because the strain is still around

flu, a flu B Corona, the Rona virus,

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or the rhino virus, the normal one.

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We're trying to figure out what we do.

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And I think that's just the best

posture is just, we're going

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to, we'll just drop food off.

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And if it's a waste, I'm using air

quotes here where they have too much.

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They already had more than enough.

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Okay.

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I'd rather err on that side

than to err on the side of man.

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I hope they're not languishing

and just dying of starvation.

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That's fair.

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That's fair.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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That's a good word.

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Yeah.

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And meals are so often.

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The way that we express that,

that care at least here.

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But there's other things

that, that people have done.

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I mean, during the warmer weather, people

will go over and take care of somebody's

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lawn or yard or something like that.

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And there's ways for us to

get creative in how we serve.

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All right.

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Well, there you go.

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That's how to help or how to

be helped or how to serve.

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If there was anything to take from that.

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I don't know if there was,

no, I think, I think there is.

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Cause I think our default is to ask

somebody who's sicker or suffering,

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Hey, what can I do to help?

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Rather than thinking, Let me

just figure out a way to, to

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offer help and, and do it.

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That takes a lot more

lifting on that front end.

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And that's hard.

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Yeah.

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Cause sometimes help is not helpful.

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That's true.

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That is true.

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But it's always received with

the spirit in which it's given.

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Yeah.

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That's fair.

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That's fair.

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So better to err on the

side of being too helpful.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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That's good.

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That's good.

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All right.

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Leviticus Leviticus 19, this

chapter contains various laws for

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how to treat one another and how to

maintain order in a civil society.

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One thing that I noticed this time

reading through the book of Leviticus is

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how many times each of the commands is

undergirded by a phrase, I am the Lord.

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And basically it seems what God

is saying here is that's, that's

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reason enough for you to obey.

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These commands that I'm giving you.

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It's not as though you need

more reason or more rationale

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behind why you need to obey.

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You need to obey because I'm

the Lord and I'm the one that

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is commanding these things.

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And there's times sprinkled throughout

that he'll remind them I'm the

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Lord who brought you out of Egypt.

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And so that's kind of the reminder

of the redemption that, that he had

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purchased the people for himself

and people for his own possession.

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And so therefore he has the means and

wherewithal and right to to command

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them to do what he wants them to do.

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But.

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These are the commands

that he's giving them.

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Notice in verse two, the repetition

of the, the command, you shall be holy

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for I, the Lord, your God am holy.

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That is a constant refrain

throughout the giving of the law.

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It's the reminder that we are to be

set aside and holy as a result of that.

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Notice verses nine through 10,

the prohibitions of reaping.

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The field all the way up to the edge.

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You might read that and

go, okay, that's strange.

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But remember this comes into play with

the book of Ruth because Ruth goes out

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to, to glean in the field of Boaz and

Boaz is a man who is obeying the law.

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He's obeying what we read about here

in Leviticus 19, So kind of cool there

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to, to see the overlap between those.

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Yeah, the rest of these,

again, civil, civil society.

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This is how to operate with,

within a civil society as you

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interact with one another.

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Yeah, I think the thing that stands out

to me and there are several and some, some

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of them you've already mentioned, but I

love the fact that care for the The weak

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and the vulnerable is not just a handout.

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It's not just, Hey, take a

tithe and give them this money.

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It's no, give them opportunity to work

for their food, which I think is a really

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important lesson for us to learn today.

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It's important for us to

see that helping people.

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Isn't just saying, let's give

them food or clothing or shelter,

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which that might be necessary.

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I'm not going to say there's

never a time for that.

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We just talked about being sick,

giving people food when they're sick.

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Very good, very helpful.

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But as a rule of thumb, when we're trying

to help people loving them, doesn't mean

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we're just trying to give them resources.

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We're trying to give them it.

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More than resources, the ability to

cultivate their own resources, as it

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were, so that they can learn to, it's

that whole, it's that whole that saying,

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give it, teach a man to fish, you'll

feed him for a lifetime kind of thing.

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I think that's what scripture is.

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Saying here, at least in part,

as we learn to love people.

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Yeah.

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The new Testament reinforces that idea

to let the one who refuses to work, not

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give, not be given support, but they're,

they're supposed to work for that.

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Yeah.

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Chapter 20.

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Then this chapter really

is a chapter that.

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In a lot of ways, the United States

could do well to pay attention

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to because you get two key areas

here that are areas of, of sin and

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rebellion and wickedness in our nation.

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And the first part of it

is, is child sacrifice.

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Now, at this time, it was offering

a child to the God Molech.

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In our context, we would look at the, the

realm of abortion in all of the children

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that have been sacrificed to the God of

women's rights or reproductive health

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care or whatever you want to call it.

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But this is clearly here.

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God condemning this practice with

Israel and the worship of the

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false God Molech at the time.

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And he said, this is not to be done.

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And there's a lot of, of

severe consequences for

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the person that does this.

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He talks about mediums and necromancers

in this same context as well.

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But then the rest of the chapter, and

this is part two of America's sins is

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the punishments for sexual immorality.

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And so here he goes through almost

every conceivable category of sexual

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immorality that you That you can

imagine or think up, which don't

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spend too much time doing that.

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And it gives the results of this.

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And for so many of them, the

result was there to be put to death

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there to put, be put to death.

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And, and most of the time it was the death

of all the parties involved in the chapter

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ends then with a reminder that they're to

obey in these matters because God is holy

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and had set them apart to be holy as well.

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So then again, we see.

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The emphasis on God's holiness and on

Israel being set apart consecrated.

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They were to be holy because God is holy.

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They were to wear the marks of holiness

themselves, respond to the accusation

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that Christians pick and choose verses

that they want to apply, especially

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those that are fitting to their current

cultural standards, because others

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will point out Leviticus chapter

20 or chapter 16, or whatever other

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chapters that we were looking at.

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No christian is enforcing those things.

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You're not, you're not calling a

flag on the play when someone's

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wearing a mixed fabric.

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For instance, you're, you're,

you're cutting your sideburns.

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I could see that here, but Leviticus

21 tells us, Hey, we shouldn't do that.

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Don't trim the sides of your beard.

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So talk to that person and

respond to that accusation.

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I feel like that has a lot of weight.

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People say, well, you're just picking

and choosing what you want to do here.

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And you're interpreting it as you

please help people understand why we do

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what we do in terms of interpretation.

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Yeah.

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And I was trying to drive

at this a little bit.

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You know, With the situations that we

talked about with the laws about the

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childbirth and the laws of after, you

know, sexual relationship between a

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husband and wife and why that the person

is unclean during those times, there is

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ceremonial laws and there are moral laws.

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And the ceremonial laws are the laws

like don't wear the mixed fabric.

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There was nothing morally wrong about

wearing a garment of mixed frat fabric.

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There was nothing sinful about that,

but it was God was saying to his

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people, I want you to be Categorically

different from all the other nations.

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So this is a way that you're going to

demonstrate that and express that cutting

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the, the, the sideburns not rounding

the edges and so forth and so on.

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Again, dealing more with the

ceremonial than it was the moral.

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There were times that that ceremonial

might bleed over into these were practices

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that were engaged in by some of the pagan

nations and may have connotated pagan

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worship or worship of false gods as well.

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And God wanted them to

be separate from that.

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But that was a, that was a cultural.

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Norm at that time, then you get into

the moral law and the moral law is

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clearly distinguished from that.

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And that these are things that are sinful.

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These are things that transgress

God's design, God's order.

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And so when you have these various

relationships that are listed out

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here in Leviticus chapter 20, all of

the different perversions of God's

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intended design and order, these

fall into that category of moral law.

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So this is not about

ceremonial cleanliness.

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This is not about.

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What is indicative of idolatry, but

this is about what is God prescribed

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and how do these things transgress

the things that God has prescribed.

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So when a Christian.

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Looks at the book of Leviticus and

read some of these things and we would

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shake our head and say, yes, we should

definitely not do these particular sins.

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These are still relevant for us today.

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How would you say the average

Christian should read and say,

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yes, this, this does apply.

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Remember, we talked about a young

man back at AV who was trying to

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follow all of the Old Testament laws.

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Do you recall this conversation?

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He was saying how before he

became a Christian, he got

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converted, reading his Bible.

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And then he came to compass and

they started learning about what

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was allowed versus not allowed.

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And he realized, Oh, the old Testament

had been fulfilled in Christ.

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So help the young

Christian or the immature.

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You gave us three

categories of Christians.

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I guess we're not talking

to the mature ones here.

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Talk to the Christians who need

it need help knowing what to

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apply versus what not to apply.

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How do you know the difference

between civil and ceremonial?

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Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it would

come down to having a good commentary,

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a good study Bible, good resource with

you as you're going through this, as the

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questions come up, as you read something

like, okay, don't wear a mixed fabric.

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My guess is that's going to

cause you to ask a question.

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Why not?

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And so having a resource at the ready

to be able to consult, to say, okay,

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what was the reason behind this?

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And hopefully if that resource is good,

like an ESV study Bible or another

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the, the MacArthur Bible commentary

or the Bible knowledge commentary.

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They should help you help you

distinguish what is civil versus

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what is ceremonial in the laws as you

read through them, probably a good

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rule of thumb might be to say, if

it's repeated in the new Testament.

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That's it.

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That's a really good starting place.

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And that's probably a little easier than

saying, well, what does Leviticus say as a

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good place to start, but don't stop there.

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You're going to have to.

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And this is why reading your Bible

every day, every year is so valuable

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because this kind of mastery is kind

of understanding doesn't happen.

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In a week or six months, even, or a

year, it takes years of staying in

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the scripture to say, okay, I get it.

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I know where God is

pulling this idea from.

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I mean, you keep on casually dropping

insights about the text, like, oh,

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Ruth and Boaz and, you know, reaping

the, the, or tilling the soil or

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whatever it is that we just said.

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Someone's never going to

even think twice about that.

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Cause like, oh yeah, I

guess that isn't in Ruth.

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What?

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And they might even forget what's

in the book of Ruth entirely.

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You need to be in your Bible all the time.

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That's what's going to help you

navigate through these things.

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Instead of looking at it in a

superficial trite and I don't know,

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a very foolish superficial way.

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You want to avoid that.

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And it's going to take a lot of

time and effort on your part to

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really invest what's necessary.

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Yeah.

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And that's, that was, as I was preaching

this past Sunday to that, that group of

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baby Christians, especially in that first

point, expect to the unexpected challenges

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or challenges that that you're not ready

for in your, your walk, the more you're

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in the scriptures, that the longer time

you spend in the scriptures, the less

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of those that you'll encounter, because

you will have a deeper knowledge and

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deeper understanding of the word of God.

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And God is never going to operate

contradictory to what we find

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about him in the scriptures.

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The more you learn about God through your

time in the word, the more you will know

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about who God is and how he operates.

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Now that doesn't mean that.

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You're always going to be ready

for what comes your way, but

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it's, it's going to make you more

ready for what comes your way.

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For sure.

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Chapter 21.

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Then we get to rules for the

priests and their place in society.

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These rules were more strict than the

rules for the common people because

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of the nature of their calling and

how they were to serve the Lord.

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And so this is why when you read through

this, there were rules for the priest

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about who he was allowed to marry, that

he was only allowed to marry a virgin,

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that he couldn't remarry or marry

somebody who had been married before that.

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This was.

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Yeah.

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About their role, their calling,

and that God had set them apart.

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And yet they had specific rules and

regulations for who they were versus

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the, the common people at the time.

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And so the priest were to be holy.

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It gets into how the priest should mourn

for their, their, their lost loved ones.

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Again, how their rules for marrying

rules for how the high priest should

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mourn and marry physical requirements

for the priest versus 16 through 24.

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So chapter 21, really dealing

with the priesthood itself there.

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And a good reason why you wouldn't

follow this is because we don't have

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any high priests except for Christ.

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All these offices that we're looking at

are obsolete now because we have Jesus.

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And so the rules for the high priest don't

apply to us because we are a not high

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priest after the order of Levi were high

priest after the order of Michael's deck.

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According to Christ, if

we are kingdom of priests.

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And secondly, what you can

learn from this is that.

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What God asked the high priest

to do principally speaking is to

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showcase his holiness by living a

holy lifestyle, which would include

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even the way that he approached

God and having physical blemishes.

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I thought that was interesting.

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He couldn't have a blemish.

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He couldn't be blind or lame or have

a mutilated face or a limb too long

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or injured foot or an injured hand or

a hunchback or any of these things.

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I'll let you finish.

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Chapter, let's finish that

verse by yourself, but I just

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thought, okay, there's, there's a

connection in God's mind between

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physical wholeness and holiness.

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And we don't draw those same lines today.

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We don't tell people, Hey,

you can't come to church.

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If you're a hunchback or one of

these things, because again, all of

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this has been fulfilled in Christ.

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What we're looking at here is the

principle, not necessarily the

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absolute practice of it, because

again, fulfilled in Christ.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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That would make headlines.

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Church says you can't come if

you've got things happening.

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Here's the beauty standards.

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You can't show up if you

don't measure the biggest.

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Oh man, that'd be bad.

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Well, hey, let me pray and then

we'll be done with this episode.

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God, we are thankful for your word and

we want to be men and women of the word.

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We want to read it and read it in a way

that we can grow in our understanding

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of you, grow in our understanding of

your, your scripture so that we see

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the connections as one part relates to

the other part and how it helps us to

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understand the whole thing better as we

see that the one story coursing through.

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And so God, we are so grateful

to be able to have the Bible,

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even as we're thinking about.

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Coming up this weekend.

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We're going to be talking about that.

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Just our privileged position that we sit

where we sit in the situation that we're

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in being able to understand your word

and have it here and have the access to

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you to be able to pray to you because

we do have the one great high priest.

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So many blessings that we

today as Christians enjoy,

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help us not to waste them.

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And so God give us a passion

to to take up your word and to

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learn more about who you are.

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We pray in Jesus name.

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Amen.

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Keep reading your Bibles.

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Tune in again tomorrow for another

edition of the daily Bible podcast.

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See you folks.

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Bye.

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Speaker: Hey, thanks for

joining us for another episode

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of the daily Bible podcast.

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We hope and pray this has been a blessing

to you and your time in the word.

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If it has, if you would subscribe to this

podcast, leave a like, leave a comment

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and share it with some friends and family.

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:

That would be awesome.

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:

If you need more information about

Compass Bible Church here in North

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Texas, you can go to compassntx.

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org.

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Again, that's compassntx.

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org.

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And we'll be back with you

tomorrow for another episode

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of the daily Bible podcast.

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