Please take your Bibles in hand and turn with me to Leviticus chapter 18, which you can find on page 96 if you need to use one of our church Bibles. Chapter 17, which we considered last week, dealt, you will remember, with the theme of holy worship – worship that is acceptable to God. Today as we turn to chapter 18, the focus falls on holy sexuality. To our modern, western minds, there may seem to be very little obvious connection between sexual ethics – chapter 18 – and true worship – chapter 17. So chapter 18 can feel, at first reading, like a rather jarring turn to an entirely new subject. But as we are going to see, what a person thought about God and about His worship led directly to the way that sexuality was understood and expressed in ancient Israelite society. And the New Testament actually agrees with that completely. What you believe about God and how you conceive of and express sexuality, those things continue to be profoundly connected.
In our society today, we have largely come to define what a human being is by his or her claimed sexual identity. Sex and sexuality, according to our present cultural moment, is by far the most important fact about us. It’s how we identify ourselves now. Our society says that we are our sexuality, and in fact we are free to remake our world, including the very shape and contours of our own bodies, in order to fit what we have determined our sexual self really is. And all the while, extramarital affairs, pornography, sexual assault and abuses of every kind continue to devastate homes and marriages and churches and communities at an epidemic level. And so the sanity and the sanctity of the vision of holy sexuality that Leviticus 18 provides for us has never been more urgent or more useful that it is today. We badly need the teaching of Leviticus 18.
To help us unpack the message of the chapter, I want to ask three questions of the text. Three questions. First – Who rules the sexual self? Who rules the sexual self? Secondly – What’s wrong with sexual sin? Who rules the sexual self? What’s wrong with sexual sin? And finally – Why rise to sexual sanctity? Why live in obedience to the Word and command of God in this area? Who rules the sexual self? What’s wrong with sexual sin? Why rise to sexual sanctity? Now if you’ve read over Leviticus 18 before you came, which I hope you have, you will know that some of this material is sensitive. There are young children present, and so I am not going to read the whole passage, but please do open your Bibles at Leviticus 18. Keep them open there as we study the teaching of God’s Word together. Before we read portions of the text, let’s bow our heads and ask for the Lord to help us. Let us pray.
Lord our God, Your Word is before us and our hearts are exposed and laid bare to Your gaze. We ask that by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, You would bring the truth of this part of Scripture to bear upon our hearts and to remake us and reconfigure our lives and our understanding in new obedience and in conformity to the image, the moral image of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Leviticus 18 at the first verse. This is the Word of God:
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord.”
And then from verse 6 all the way through verse 23 we have a long list of various sexual sins. And we pick up the reading again at verse 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, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.’”
Amen.
Let’s think about the first question that we’ll ask of this text – Who rules the sexual self? Who rules the sexual self? Our culture almost considers it to be the essence of human freedom for the individual to be the sole arbiter of contemporary sexual mores. “No one but me can determine my sexuality. What feels right to me is what’s right for me.” But Leviticus 18 takes sexual ethics out of our hands entirely and places it under the lordship of the living God alone. Look how the chapter begins in verse 2. “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt,” and so on. Or verse 4, “You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God.” Again, verse 5, “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.” And there it is again in verse 6. “None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord your God.” And at the end of the chapter, verse 30, “So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.”
So bracketing the whole chapter, and repeated four times over in verses 2 through 6, is the assertion that the Lord is Israel’s God. Now we’ll come back to some more of what that means later, but for now I simply want to make sure you see the fundamental claim that is being made for God’s people here. In verse 3, mention is made of Egypt and Canaan, and in 24 through 30, over and over again, we hear a call to the people of God not to imitate the nations that God was driving out before them who live in the land of Canaan. So clearly the sexual holiness that is the focus of Leviticus 18 was not at all the cultural norm in the ancient near eastern milieu into which the Israelites were moving.
These instructions were radical. They made Israel stand out from the crowd. That was true then; it’s certainly true today. Chastity and purity and fidelity in this area of sex and sexuality are virtues that make the Christian ethical vision very different indeed from the morality of our society. At its foundation, that radical Christian ethic is not based on a pragmatic argument about what’s best for human flourishing, although I think we could certainly make that argument. Now there isn’t nearly a venerable, moral tradition passed down within a quaint, if out of date religious subculture in our country. No, no, at the root of the Biblical sexual ethic is the claim of the living God to absolute personal lordship over every aspect of our lives. “I am the Lord your God.” Of course when, for example, verse 4 says, “You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God,” that’s much more than simply a bald assertion of arbitrary authority. The point, rather, is that the moral rule of God over our sexual selves is the implication for us of His own character as the holy God. He is holy and we are to be holy in this area as in every other.
I read an editorial recently which, along the way, featured a story about a certain Mr. Williams, an Englishman who was once in London on business. And on his way home, he was speeding through the countryside when a police officer pulled him over. And the police officer wanted to know two things from him – Was Mr. Williams aware of how fast he was going? And what was his profession? It turned out the answer to the second question would help Williams resolve the first question. “I sell land on the moon,” Mr. Williams replied. And the police officer, so taken with the man’s profession, forgot all about how fast he was driving, replied with fascination, “Do you know my wife has bought some of that!” Williams, who describes himself as “the lunar ambassador to the United Kingdom,” is the owner of Moon Estates, which claims to have sold more than 300,000 acres of moon land. If you are interested, a 1 acre plot of lunar turf will set you back about $40. As proof of purchase, you’ll get a little silver tin with a personalized lunar deed inside and a moon map with a tiny black “X” marking your land’s approximate location. Williams himself received his license to sell parcels of lunar real estate from an American. I was shocked to hear that. His name is Dennis Hope from Nevada, and Mr. Hope claimed personal ownership of the whole moon in 1980. There are treaties, the International Space Treaty of 1967, the Moon Treaty of 1969, that have designated the moon “international commons and the province of all mankind,” so you can’t just simply plant your flag and buy personal fiat, claim the territory, you know, as your own, like Mr. Hope did.
When the Lord lays claim to the rule of our sexual selves, it is not an arbitrary claim over territory to which He has no right, like Mr. Hope of Nevada, claiming ownership of the moon. No, no, no, He is the Lord, and who He is – holy, sovereign, Maker, Sustainer and Redeemer – who He is establishes His royal prerogatives to regulate every aspect of our lives. Now do you remember the first sin, the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, back in the garden, when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? You know what that was? It was a rejection of the right of God to determine moral boundaries for His creatures. It was a counterclaim on the part of Adam and Eve. They said, “No, no, we are free to define those boundaries by ourselves and for ourselves.” They were saying, “Good and evil, they are ours to determine autonomously without respect to the God who made us and on whose grace we depend every day. We’re in charge now.” That’s what they were saying. We’ve been saying the same thing ever since, haven’t we? We decide what’s right for ourselves and, “No one but me has the right to determine my morality, and certainly not my sexuality.”
But Leviticus 18 is telling us that the first step in recovering sexual sanity and restoring sexual sanctity to our lives must come with the recognition of the absolute rights and prerogatives of the Lord your God. He says what is and is not acceptable in this area of sex and sexuality as in every other area. It’s a very simple point, I know, but it speaks directly to our most fundamental struggle today. We don’t want God to be in charge, do we? We want to be in charge. And if you are struggling as a Christian in the area of sexual purity, you need to understand that repentance requires more of you than simply attempting, yet again no doubt, to turn over a new leaf and behave differently. In fact, given the power of sexual temptation, if change is to become a lasting reality in your life, it needs to start further back. Your behavior absolutely must change, but it has to start with your heart, with a deep, abiding recognition and submission to the living God who alone has the right to determine for us what holy sexuality looks like. His prerogative as Lord in every sphere of our lives must be acknowledged. Bow before Him in submission to His mastery. Surrender your usurped rights to sexual self-indulgence. That is the beginning of real, lasting, moral reformation. Who rules the sexual self? Not you, but the Lord your God.
The second question – What is wrong with sexual sin? What is wrong with sexual sin? In verses 6 through 23 we have a long list of sexual transgressions. In 6 through 11, we have a prohibition of sex between close blood relatives. In 12 through 18, we have the same for those who are relatives by marriage. And in 19 through 23, sexual sins are prohibited with those who are outside the family circle altogether, including in verse 22 homosexuality and in 23 bestiality.
Now did you notice though, verse 21? Look at verse 21. It stands out from all the others, doesn’t it? It is not obviously about sex at all. Look at verse 21 please. “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.” Now at first glance, that prohibition seems somewhat out of place, doesn’t it? It’s about the monstrous practices of ancient pagan idolatry, child sacrifice. But the reason it is included here is because in the Canaanite fertility cults that involved child sacrifice to Molech, they likely also celebrated the sexual perversions forbidden in the rest of this list. You see in Canaanite religion, even the gods had sexual partners and the natural cycles of the seasons of life and death and rebirth were bound up in the pagan mind with their gods’ sexual behaviors. And so sex, invariably perverted and twisted from its divinely ordained pattern of lifelong, heterosexual, monogamous marriage, sex became a part of the debased worship of these perverted and twisted demonic false gods, as did the offering up of the fruit of sexual union – the worshipers own children in the monstrous practice of human sacrifice.
And just notice, by the way, that that very connection helps to reinforce the point we just made about who rules the sexual self. Our text is making it crystal clear that being rightly related to the one, true God and living in sexual purity, those things are deeply connected. An embrace of false religion and an embrace of sexual perversion, they go together. The first table of the law, commandments one through four, they deal with love to God. And those first four commandments cannot be divorced from the second table that deal with love to neighbor, commandments five through ten, not least in this area of sex and sexuality. How you think about God shapes how we treat one another in every sphere of our lives. And the neo-paganism of our day and our culture, when everybody makes up for themselves their own spirituality on the back of a napkin, the neo-paganism of our day facilitates and enables and gives permission to the sexual insanity that plagues our society on every side.
But as we look at this part of the chapter, 6 through 23, I want you to see especially – actually 6 through 30 – I want you to see especially how it describes these sexual sins. You’ll notice the repeated use of a euphemism. Seventeen times over the Israelites are forbidden to uncover the nakedness of someone. That’s clearly a reference to sexual intercourse. As a quick aside, the fact that the text uses a euphemism is instructive, or at least it ought to be. It’s a reminder of the godly decorum that is often missing on the lips of many professing Christians in our present cultural moment when it comes to sex and sexuality. The Bible is careful in the way it speaks about these things. It is modest and discreet, where we often tend to be careless and crude. Search your heart and your speech. It may be, dear Christian, you need to let the Word of God discipline your speech in this area more carefully than you do.
Now the euphemistic language here to “uncover nakedness” is likely another echo of the creation story, specifically from the account of the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3. You remember what happened. After they ate the forbidden fruit, we are told Adam and Eve “realized that they were naked and they hid themselves because they were afraid.” Their nakedness becomes emblematic of their shame, exposed to the scrutiny of a holy God before whom they have now fallen terribly short. Their eyes were opened and their nakedness became emblematic of the shame of their sin.
And if that connection is correct, then the repeated use of that euphemistic language here in our chapter is designed to remind us that sexual sin is a shameful and wicked thing. These are not mere sexual indiscretions. That’s how our society speaks about them. No, no, this is cosmic treason. That’s what the text wants you to understand. Certainly the adjectives that are used to describe these acts throughout the chapter reinforces that point. The word “depravity” is used in verse 17; “uncleanness” and “unclean” in 19, 20, 23 and 24. The word “profane” appears in verse 21 to describe pagan worship and “abomination” to describe homosexual sex in 22. And indeed the whole array of sexual sin, over and over again in 26, 27, 29 and 30. And what’s more, God, we are told, will cause the land to “vomit those who commit these things,” to vomit them out as an intolerable and stomach-turning presence. Israel, as well as the Canaanites, their sin is stomach-turning. That’s the point. Unclean. Depraved. Abominable.
I think we need to let the Word of God re-sensitize us. The language used here, it’s force is to make plain to us that our culture has worked incredibly hard to erode and undermine and undo an awareness, a sensitivity to the ugliness and shamefulness and sinfulness of sin. Repentance in this area must fight hard to overcome the anesthetic effects of a society that celebrates sexual depravity, applauds uncleanness, and lionized abominable behaviors. What we ought to feel, we ought to feel the horror and the shame of our sin as our first parents did. Nakedness has been uncovered and God says it’s stomach-turning in its offense before Him. We stand, we stand exposed to the gaze of the God with whom we have to do and to whom we must all give an account.
He executes His judgment, 24 through 30, is very clear. He executes His judgment as readily upon those who claim to follow Jesus Christ but who indulge themselves in these things as He does upon those who reject Him outright. A mere outward profession of the Christian religion is no more insurance against the wrath of God due sexual sin today than merely belonging outwardly to national Israel was an offense against God’s condemnation in the days of Moses. Part of the purpose of this chapter is to re-sensitize the ancient Israelites, to re-sensitize our own consciences to the sinfulness of sexual sin, not to shrug and let ourselves or one another off the hook, but to learn to hate it and to fear it and to turn from it.
Who rules the sexual self? The Lord your God alone. What’s wrong with sexual sin? It is a shameful offense against a holy God. And left unaddressed, it will bring His judgment upon us. And then finally – Why rise to sexual sanctity? Look back again at verse 3 please. Notice there is a motive for obedience that God supplies. Verse 3, “You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you.” So the pagan Egyptians live this way, the pagan Canaanites live this way too; don’t you live this way. That’s the command. But did you hear the Gospel that underpins the command? Look at it again. “You lived in Egypt, but not anymore. I’m bringing you into Canaan; I rescued you from bondage and I’m bringing you home. In the past I saved you; in the future I will bless you. I have kept My promises; I will keep My promises to you. You have been saved; you are being saved. You will be saved!” Those are the great tenses of redemption. They were true for Israel in the wilderness of Sinai; they are true for us if we trust in Jesus Christ. At the cross, we were delivered, once for all, from the bondage and dominion of sin. And now today, by the grace of Jesus Christ, we are being sanctified, made holy, and one day the Promised Land will come. Not Canaan – new creation, when all remnants of our sin will be removed forever and Christ will reign supreme in every believing heart.
Brothers and sisters, if you want to walk in sexual purity, remember where you used to live. Remember where you used to live. You were once slaves in Egypt. Slaves of sin, slaves of self, but God has set you free. He’s brought you out by the blood of the Lamb, by the Lord Jesus Christ. You are no longer who you once were. You are no longer subject to the mastery of sin; the sin that may now still entice you, and you need no longer submit to its demands. You are free now, in Jesus Christ, to live in growing personal purity. The apostle Paul makes this very point quite beautifully in 1 Corinthians 6:11 and following. Doesn’t he? He says to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters” – by the way, notice the link there between sexual sin and spiritual idolatry. “Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.” Such were some of you, but not anymore! Your old address was Egypt, but you live there no longer.
If you are trusting today in Jesus Christ, you are washed and sanctified and justified in the name of Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. That’s who you are now. That’s your new address, your new self, your new identity and your new life. And Leviticus 18 is really a call to God’s people then, God’s people today to start living like it, to be who you really are in Jesus Christ. Now of course the journey’s not over yet; you’re not yet in the Promised Land. The work of grace isn’t complete. You will sometimes stumble and fall. But remember the promise – “I am bringing you into the land of Canaan. I’m bringing you home. I’m going to do it.” “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Dear believing sexual sinner, there is hope for you, forgiveness for you in the blood of Jesus Christ. And though your sin may seem terrible and strong and defeating now, if you are in Christ, the promise is, Jesus, Jesus wins. Jesus wins, not your sin, your Savior. He will drive out the Canaanites before you. He will bring the work to completion. You will make it across the Jordan. He will bring you home. Press on! Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Yes, you should feel the weight and the gravity of your sexual sin, but it’s not meant to drive you to despair. It’s meant to drive you to repent. Get the help you need from pastors and elders, confess your sin to God, keeping nothing back except the pardon the blood of Christ has secured for you. There is no sexual sin from which He cannot wash you clean, and recommit yourself today to the pursuit of holiness.
We noticed at the beginning of the message the repeat phrase that punctuates the chapter, “I am the Lord your God.” And we highlighted, when we looked at that, the assertion it makes of God’s absolute, sovereign authority and lordship. He claims the right to regulate our sexual selves. But I want to close now by looking again at that phrase and noticing the intimation of love even for sexual sinners that it contains. It’s not just, “I am the Lord,” is it? It is, “I am the Lord your God.” “You are Mine and I am yours.” Yesterday, many of us celebrated the wedding of two of our youth staff, George and Mary Helen Herndon. We rejoiced with them as they took their vows and bound themselves to one another for the rest of their lives. It was a beautiful thing. When this text says, “I am the Lord your God,” it’s speaking the language of covenant. God has bound Himself to His people like a husband binds himself to his bride, to love and cherish and honor her forever.
In chapter 17:7, you will remember we considered the stinging rebuke of God, the shocking words where God rebuked Israel for whoring, prostituting themselves in the pursuit of false gods. Because the covenant relationship He has with His people is like a kind of marriage, and to turn aside to other gods and to turn aside from the path of obedience to Him is a kind of spiritual adultery. That’s the language of our text. “I am yours. You are Mine. We are wedded one to another in the bonds of covenant love forever.” That’s the language of the whole Bible actually, to describe how God relates to His people. Ephesians 5 in particular speaks of Jesus Christ as the great bridegroom who loves His bride, the Church, and “gives Himself up for her to sanctify her and to present her to Himself without spot or wrinkle that she might be holy and without blemish.” That’s His commitment in the bonds of the marriage covenant of God with His people – to sanctify us by His blood.
That’s the language of this text. He is wedded to the eternal welfare of your soul. He is your God. He is yours. He’s not against you in Jesus Christ. He is for you. He is for you, and not even your sexual sin, as terrible as it is, can make those bonds, can sever or break those bonds of covenant love. The blood of the bridegroom shed for His people, He will make you clean. He is, Jesus is the refuge for sexual sinners and the source of new sanctity, new holiness, new life, new purity for you. I wonder if you will hear the call of this text this morning and come today in renewed repentance and faith to Him. Don’t be like Adam and Eve who, when they realized their nakedness, ran and hid. Instead, step into the light. Own your sin. Cry to God. There is abundant love and cleansing grace for you in Jesus Christ.
Who rules the sexual self? Not you; the Lord your God alone. What’s wrong with sexual sin? It is shameful and it will bring the judgment of God if we don’t deal with it. Why rise to sexual sanctity? Because God has made every provision for your deliverance. Look to Christ. He will make you clean and He will keep you in paths of new purity. May the Lord help you to do it. Let’s pray.Father, thank You for this important chapter, a tract for our times to be sure. Teach us not only its truth intellectually but train us in the new life of holiness to which it calls us that we may shine like stars in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, as we hold fast and hold forth the Word of life, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.