Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves. Sermons
I. THAT BY SIN WE CORRUPT OURSELVES. "Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things" (verse 24); "that ye defile not yourselves therein" (verse 30). Our Lord tells us that "out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications," etc., and that "these things defile a man" (Matthew 7:19, 20). And Paul tells us that we "are the temple of God," and that "if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy" (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17). Those sins which a man commits against his own spirit or his own body - those wrongs which a man does himself - end in positive and serious injury. They enfeeble, they degrade, they brutalize, they bring down a man's tastes and appetites to the meanest levels, they lay and leave his nature open to the worst temptations. In the practice of vice a man sinks down daily until he becomes thoroughly corrupt, averse to all that is holy, prone to everything impure. II. THAT BY SIN WE CONTAMINATE SOCIETY. "In all these the nations are defiled" (verse 24); "and the land is defiled" (verses 25, 27). Societies as well as individuals become corrupt. Even one Achan defiled the whole camp of Israel and paralyzed its power. One incestuous member of the Corinthian Church infected and stained that Christian society. How much more will many evil-doers corrupt the community! It may not take a large number of unholy, impure, unrighteous souls to make a Church or society "defiled" in the sight of the Holy One, no longer a fit dwelling-place for his Holy Spirit, a community to be abandoned to itself. III. THAT BY SIN WE INCUR THE HIGH DISPLEASURE OF ALMIGHTY GOD. "Ye shall not commit any of these abominations" (verses 26, 27, 29), "of these abominable customs" (verse 30). The Holy One, in his righteous indignation, threatens that "the land shall spue them out" if they indulge in such iniquities. No stronger language could be employed to indicate the uttermost conceivable detestation and abhorrence which God has of such sins as these described. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31); and it is a fearful thing to have done or to have become that which God regards with Divine abomination, to be the object of his awful resentment and indignation; to have to feel that he, the Divine Father and the righteous Judge, cannot look on us without terrible aversion. IV. THAT BY SIN WE ARE DETERMINING OUR DOOM. (Verse 29.) Whether by being "cut off from among the people" we understand excommunication and exile or death, the penalty is severe. It is certain that verse 28 points to stern rejection and utter destruction. 1. It is certain that by open sin we expose ourselves to exile from the Christian Church, and even to banishment from all decent and honourable society. The Church, the family, and the social circle must exclude the wanton offender for the sake of their pure and innocent members. 2. Also that by continuance in deliberate sin, whether open or secret, whether of the body or of the soul, we shall be rejected from the city of God. "There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination" (Revelation 21:27). - C.
Ye shall do My judgments This preface of some is taken generally to concern all the laws of God; the observation whereof is ever the sure safety of a state public or private, for it is not the munition of walls, leagues, and alliance with foreign princes, largeness of confines, plenty of treasure, or such like, that preserve a commonwealth, but careful and diligent observation of public laws ordained of God for the good of man. It is said that Lacedemon flourished whilst Lycurgus's laws were observed: much more any commonwealth when God's be kept. For what comparison betwixt man's laws and God's? Demosthenes saith, It was the manner of the Loerenses, that if any man would publish and devise a new law he should put his neck into a halter ready to be put to death, if the law were not good, by which means they made men more careful to observe old and ancient, tried and known laws, than with busy heads to make new. Now what laws so old and so approved good as God's laws? Ever, therefore, are they to be regarded and hearkened unto. Others take this preface particularly of these laws concerning marriage now following, that if they be carefully kept, a kingdom long flourisheth, and if not, soon ii cometh to a fearful fall. For so odious and abhorred of God is the unlawful mixture of man and woman that the Lord cannot long withhold great judgments. And thus much remember as you read them ever, that these laws do not concern the Jews only, as the ceremonial laws now spoken of and judicial did, but these laws belong to all men and women and to all succeeding times, being eternal, immutable, grafted by God in man's nature and given by Him for holiness' sake. Note all the words well that God would not have them like either the Egyptians or Canaanites, and wish with me that there was a like law against our being like foreign nations near us, with ruffs dipped in the devil's liquor called starch, Turkish heads, Spanish backs, Italian waists, &c., giving daily occasion to the mockers that say French nets catch English fools.(Bp. Babington.) People Israelites, Molech, MosesPlaces Canaan, Egypt, TemanTopics Cast, Casting, Defile, Defiled, Drive, Driving, Nations, Sending, Themselves, Unclean, YourselvesOutline 1. Unlawful marriages and unlawful lustsDictionary of Bible Themes Leviticus 18:1-248273 holiness, ethical aspects 4208 land, divine responsibility Library General Character of Christians. "And they that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh, with the Affections and Lusts." St. Paul is supposed to have been the first herald of gospel grace to the Galatians; and they appear to have rejoiced at the glad tidings, and to have received the bearer with much respect. But after his departure, certain judaizing teachers went among them, and labored but too successfully, to alienate their affections from him, and turn them form the simplicity of the gospel. The malice and errors of those deceitful … Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects "They have Corrupted Themselves; their Spot is not the Spot of his Children; they are a Perverse and Crooked Generation. " The Doctrine of Arbitrary Scriptural Accommodation Considered. Epistle Lxiv. To Augustine, Bishop of the Angli . The Two Sabbath-Controversies - the Plucking of the Ears of Corn by the Disciples, and the Healing of the Man with the Withered Hand Obedience The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. ) Meditations for Household Piety. Appendix ii. Philo of Alexandria and Rabbinic Theology. Leviticus Links Leviticus 18:24 NIVLeviticus 18:24 NLT Leviticus 18:24 ESV Leviticus 18:24 NASB Leviticus 18:24 KJV Leviticus 18:24 Bible Apps Leviticus 18:24 Parallel Leviticus 18:24 Biblia Paralela Leviticus 18:24 Chinese Bible Leviticus 18:24 French Bible Leviticus 18:24 German Bible Leviticus 18:24 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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