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The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. And then skipping down toward the very end of the chapter, Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanliness, lest they die in their uncleanliness, by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst. This is the law for him who has a discharge, and for him who has an emission of semen, becoming unclean thereby. Also for her who is unwell with her menstrual impurity, that is for anyone, male or female, who has a discharge, and for the man who lies with the woman who is unclean. Heavenly Father, as we look at this text, I pray that you'll give us wisdom and understanding. Lord, help us to realize that the principles contained herein do apply to us, even though we live in this new covenant age. Give us sight to see that is from you, and I pray that you'll enable me to speak those things that have been placed in my heart by your Spirit this week. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Leviticus chapter 15 is part of the law that we don't typically spend much time with. Not only does it deal with the topic of uncleanliness, it has as its focus some rather embarrassing or personal matters, I guess we'd say. As we have already discussed, we know from the rest of Scripture that we do not need to concern ourselves with clean and unclean in this new covenant era. One of the things that Jesus did when he established a new covenant administration was to cancel that ceremonial law, or more accurately, I guess I should say, that he fulfilled the ceremonial law, and it is now evidenced in his reign as King of the universe and as a mediator between God and man. Therefore, those things that previously had rendered man unclean and unfit for fellowship with Yahweh are done with in the work of Jesus Christ. We see examples of this in his healing of the lepers. They came to him unclean, full of disease, but they left him whole and clean, especially significant for this passage in Leviticus that we're looking at. We consider the woman who had the issue of blood, which we looked at some weeks ago, months ago actually, and as you recall, she touched the hem of Jesus' garment and her uncleanliness was gone. Her health was restored and the stigma of her unclean condition was forever removed. So we need to remember that the laws relating to clean and unclean in the old covenant administration were designed to remind the people of God that there is no aspect of this life that has not been touched by original sin. In other words, it's Adam's transgression that has brought the stain of sin into every part of creation. Because of Adam's rebellion, no part of creation remained, and I will say the word normal because normality is what Adam was created as and his creation was normal in the beginning. No part of creation retained its original perfection, I suppose we should say. Indeed, the impact of sin was so great that even those people who were in covenant relationship with Almighty God found themselves in constant need of cleansing. This was the case because the blood of bulls and goats and sheep could not remove sin once and for all. The scripture tells us that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin, but it had to be the blood of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ, in order to finally close the book on the laws of clean and unclean. And this is what Jesus accomplished with his death and resurrection. As we have already discussed many times, he inaugurated a new age. It's the age of the son of man, and in him we find permanent cleanliness. We find permanent relationship. We find permanent holiness. No longer is the world filled with clean and unclean, but instead all things are being reconciled back to God and Jesus Christ. There is no clean and unclean in Jesus Christ. No longer do the laws of clean and unclean burden us in order to remind us of the power of sin, and that was really the purpose of these laws of clean and unclean. Now, instead, we look to the cross in order to refresh our memory concerning the depth and weight of sin. We look to the cross and we understand that sin is so heinous in the sight of God that it required the sacrifice of his only begotten son. So those laws serve the purpose that the cross now should remind us of the same thing. Therefore, we are free from the laws of clean and unclean. They have found their fulfillment and conclusion in Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, we find instruction in the Old Covenant document that is of valuable instruction even to us today. Now, our natural reaction when we read something like chapter 15 of Leviticus may be one of embarrassment, and when we read about laws concerning bodily functions and so forth, we may think this is not the kind of thing we should talk about during a Sunday sermon. And yet, because we're working our way through the book of Leviticus every fourth Sunday of the month, we find ourselves confronted, I guess we could say, with chapter 15 of the book, and therefore we're required, so to speak, to examine its contents. Probably the most interesting aspect of this chapter in Leviticus is the fact that the material contained therein is presented in the form of a chiasmus. Now, we've talked about this before, how it throws the emphasis on a particular issue, and in this chapter, the entire chapter falls into a chiasmus like this. A, the first thing, individual long-term uncleanliness in man. We then move to B, individual short-term uncleanliness in man. The center of the chiasmus is C, uncleanliness in man and woman together. And then we move back away from that with B, individual short-term uncleanliness in a woman, and A, individual long-term uncleanliness in a woman. So we have, I didn't put that into the bulletin or anything, but you can think about that, and when you look at the chapter yourself, that is A, B, C, B, A, and that's how this chapter is structured. We have previously discussed the fact that the Canaanite religion was steeped in sexual immorality. Every form of perversion was considered a religious act, and this was an imitation of the false gods of the Canaanite religion. When we look at Leviticus chapter 12, which we have done, we saw that part of the reason God placed parameters on the intimate relationships of the children of Israel was to impress upon them the fact that God was not to be worshipped the same way as the pagan deities of Canaan. We see the same thing here in chapter 15 of Leviticus. To begin with, this chapter reminds us that even the most elemental aspects of human existence have been touched by the stain of sin. Even the most personal and even natural bodily functions are in need of redemption. That was true then, it's true today. This might sound a little strange, but the children of Israel needed to know that they could not separate any aspect of their life from the authority of God. There was nothing that they could say this is outside of God's authority and realm. They needed to know that the worship of the false gods in sexual license was not a legitimate worship at all. That was the second thing they needed to understand here. Therefore, those things that might have been considered merely a matter of personal health are, in the scripture, seen as subjects worthy of legislation in the old covenant administration. In other words, a man who finds himself in the condition described in the first part of chapter 15 could not just go merrily on his way, so to speak, as if nothing was wrong, because the law required him to realize that he was a sinner. The law required him to acknowledge that God can have no congress with sin. As I should point out, these circumstances described in chapter 15 are not matters of personal sin, by the way. These laws don't imply that the actions of the individual are sinful in these circumstances. In other words, it isn't as if the physical relationship of a man and a wife is sinful. This portion of the law does not tell us that these activities in themselves are sinful. What it does tell us is that the original sin of Adam and Eve, the original sin of rebellion, the transgression of Adam, warped all of creation, and nothing is now normal apart from God's redeeming intervention. So that's the key here, is that everything must be brought back into relationship with God. This is why even a circumstance that is not symptomatic of disease renders a man unclean. You might wonder why a natural and uncontrollable situation would make a man unclean. It's yet another reminder that nothing is exempt from the pollution of sin. It also reminded the children of Israel that they could not emulate the practices of the Canaanites, which we've already talked about. So this is most emphatically presented at the center of the chasmus, where the Canaanite people considered an act of worship actually rendered a man and woman unclean. Again, this is not to say that the physical act of marriage is dirty or sinful, but as we will see in a moment, even the marriage relationship is unsound unless redeemed by Jesus Christ. Having arrived at the center of the chasmus, we begin to move back to the beginning as the chapter now deals with individual short-term uncleanliness in a woman. And there are those who would use this passage of Scripture to attack the Bible as a whole. Their suggestion is that this portion of Leviticus, this is verses 19 to 24 by the way, displays an obvious hatred of women. Well, as you know if you've read the whole chapter, that's ridiculous. It's no more true than the idea that verses 1 through 17 display an enmity toward men. And we've already discussed the reason for this law of uncleanness, so there's no point in further elaboration on that at this time. I do want to point out that the final part of chapter 15 deals with a woman who is suffering from the issue of blood over a long period of time. Excuse me, this is what the woman who touched the hem or the fringe of Jesus' garment was suffering with. As this section of Scripture reminds us, the woman who was healed by Jesus would have spent many, many years cut off from the fellowship of the people of God. So you can imagine her relief when she was suddenly and miraculously healed in the presence of Jesus Christ. As we have seen when I read at the beginning of this introduction, the chapter closes with an explanation of why these laws were important. To paraphrase the reason, we can say that these laws were given to make the children of Israel aware of the need for God's cleansing touch. These laws were given so that the children of Israel would never fall into the complacency, or never fall into complacency concerning the pervasive nature of sin. These laws were given so that the children of Israel would not become self-satisfied and therefore invite the wrath of Almighty God. Therefore, we can learn from these laws concerning uncleanliness by recognizing three things which we'll look at here as we make some application. Number one, mankind is unclean as an individual. Number two, he's unclean as a corporate entity and we'll explain what that means. And third, he's made clean only in Jesus Christ. So, that was a long introduction but I didn't want to really delve into the material as much as extract the principle from this portion of Leviticus. And so, what I want to do is now briefly cover these three ideas. Mankind is unclean as an individual, as a corporate entity, and it's only in Jesus Christ that mankind is made clean. The Bible tells us very plainly that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In fact, if you read in Romans 3, you'll see that Paul quotes a variety of scriptures and his whole point is that no one is righteous. Nobody is righteous, not one. Natural man is born in sin and what that means is that we inherit a sin nature from our father, Adam. And if we are in that line of Adam, we have a sin nature. It's only by coming into the family of Jesus Christ that we have a new nature. I can tell you, and I'm sure you realize this as well, but people are very offended by this to say, well, you're naturally sinful. They don't like to hear that. It implies certain things. One thing it implies is that because of that natural state of sinfulness, they have to submit to somebody else, which is Jesus Christ. And if they don't do that, then they're going to suffer an eternal punishment or at least some kind of a punishment, even if they don't believe in eternal punishment. Nobody likes to be told they're a sinner. Nobody wants to be told that they're born into sin. Nobody wants to be told that the natural state of man is one of wickedness. I should say as an aside, this would be typical according to those who hold to an evolutionary or atheistic point of view, but it's interesting that I've read recently Theodore Dalrymple, and I forget his real name is Anthony something. He's an atheist. He claims to be an atheist, and he's what I would call a reasonable atheist. Doesn't mean he's going to go to heaven just because he's reasonable, but he is willing to admit that mankind is naturally wicked, which is kind of unusual because he doesn't really have any basis for judging right and wrong. When you boil it right down to its most basic ideas, basic presuppositions, he, like other atheists, does not have any reason to evaluate one set of actions as good and another set as wrong and bad, but he does. That's a bit of an aside because what it tells us is that this fact of human sinfulness is so obvious that even those who reject the basis for making that judgment still come to the same conclusion. That's what Theodore Dalrymple would be one example. What most folks do, or many folks do, is say, well, no, mankind is not naturally sinful. He's a blank slate, and he becomes sinful because of environment. It's the parents' fault, or it's the school's fault, or it's the friend's fault, or somebody else's fault. Someone else is at fault for making that person a sinner. And the scripture says plainly that's not the case, that everyone is judged by their own, because of their own actions. They can't say, well, my parents made me do it, my parents made me do it, or my friends pushed me into it. In fact, again, just to reference Theodore Dalrymple, he talks about this in one of his latest books, Romancing Opiates. And romancing opiates, I think I said romancing, I don't know what I said. But anyway, he talks about this idea that is common among that class of people to blame the drug itself, for instance, or blame, I fell in with the wrong lot of friends, or the drug got a hold of me, or whatever. In other words, it's not the person's fault, it's somebody else's, or something else's fault. That's what people want to believe. Blank slate, it's the fault of the environment, it's the fault of something, but it certainly cannot be the fault of the individual, but the Bible says something else. Mankind is unclean. Everything that we're a part of, everything we do, apart from Jesus Christ, is unclean. There's no getting around that fact. Now, you think, well, wait a minute, I know some pretty good people, and I do too, who do things that are laudable, and they are helpful to people, they're serving folks. Well, the Bible says in Proverbs 15, 8, that even the sacrifice of the wicked, or even the prayers and the sacrifice of the wicked, are an abomination to God. By wicked, it means those who are not in relationship. Even the good deeds of those who are in the natural state, those good deeds are displeasing to God. You say, well, why is that? Well, because they're doing them out of the wrong motivation. They are impelled or compelled to do these things for the wrong reasons. Now, all of this that I'm talking about is repugnant to the natural man. They don't like to hear this. I've used the example before of a fellow that I minister to, he's Lewiston parish, you might say, and he claims that he's a good man, and we've had some long discussions because that's obviously bothering him, or it continues to, when it comes up, it bothers him, when he hears me say things like, he's a sinner, that we're all sinners apart, and lost apart from Jesus Christ, and he'll tell me, no, I'm a good guy. I'm a good man. I've never been in jail for anything. I've never done anything wrong. I try to be fair in his business dealings. He tried to be fair and just and so forth. I said, I understand that. I understand that you're not some terrible low-life person, but everything about the natural man is touched by sin, and what he'll often do is recount his good life to me, trying to convince me that, hoping that I'll say, no, no, you're right, you're okay, and eventually, invariably, what he'll do is point to a ring he has on his finger, says, see this? This is proof. I'm part of a group that demands moral behavior, and it's a Masonic ring, Masonic lodge. I don't remember what level he is in the Masonic lodge, but he always, almost always, will point to that ring and say, here's proof that I'm a good man, which leads us to the next idea. Mankind is unclean as a corporate entity as well. In other words, you can't join something and through the efforts of that corporate identity, that corporate group, somehow be rendered unclean. It still leaves mankind in a state of unclean. cleanliness. The idea is that the corporate wisdom is somehow morally superior to the individual. That if you are part of an organization or an assembly of people of some sort, a great congress of mankind, that there is an assembled wisdom there that elevates the whole above the individual. And so you have secret societies like the masons and there's others. Or you have just a reliance upon the state or faith in the state as the highest expression of humanity. But the truth is, 1,000 buckets of filth is still 1,000 buckets of filth. You still have the same wisdom, the same point of view, the same uncleanliness, just in a larger portion is really all you have. And so this desire to find security in the corporate body, in these clubs like the Masonic Lodge or in the state or in the elite minds together, this desire is an attempt to overcome what people do in fact know. Even though they don't want to believe it, point to the ring and say here's proof, it's simply saying I know by myself that I'm unclean, but my hope is in the assembly of great minds and the Masonic ritual and so forth harkens back hundreds of years and the idea is that they're bringing forward this old wisdom that will save them or the state will save us. That's the hope, that this assembly of people, these elite minds in corporate unity and identity will bring forth utopia, they will bring order to all of life, they will bring about a workable morality that everybody will be okay, everybody will be clean, everybody will be moral. And we see this in our own nation, sadly enough, indeed any nation you'll eventually see this begin to happen without the strong check of scripture upon man's efforts, but you see the idea that the state is the highest expression of humanity can somehow render us clean and in order to do so they order every aspect of life, climate change legislation for instance, cap and trade is designed not to save the environment but to order our lives so carefully that we will be clean, we will be righteous. The health care legislation is more of the same, in fact health care legislation will cover every aspect of life if it's implemented because there's nothing that is not related to health and therefore the morality that has been determined workable by this corporate elite will be enforced upon us and they will declare, yes we have arrived at the utopia where mankind is now clean because everything we do is ordered by the state, those who know best for us and it's this belief in the wisdom of the corporate entity. I know there's a lot of people in the United States who reject it and rightly so, but there are many who embrace it as a means of alleviating their sense of uncleanness, their sense of being lost, that the state will save me, so the health care legislation would literally cover everything in life, set up the different kinds of boogeymen that they will then get rid of that will make everybody feel good. So this impulse toward the corporate entity as the savior of mankind we see everywhere, we see it in this country, we see it in history, but it doesn't work, it will never work, it's not possible to bring perfection simply by combining the ideas of the multitude and ultimately what happens is you have the intellectual elite who says they speak for the people, they become the will of the people and then impose upon the people what they claim to be their own will which in fact of course as we know from history is never the case and we're seeing that play out in our own nation to some degree even today. Hopefully by God's grace as an aside that won't happen and we'll see a return to even greater liberty than what we have seen perhaps for several generations. But mankind is unclean as a corporate entity just as he is unclean as an individual. You cannot say that the individual somehow transcends his state of being lost simply because he is under the authority of the intellectual elite who has declared man saved. It's not man's job or prerogative or privilege to say you are saved, it is God's. Therefore it's only in Jesus Christ that mankind is made clean. The only way man is an individual, the only way man is a corporate entity is made clean is in Jesus Christ. Now when we talk about the individual we know that's pretty obvious, it requires the individual to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, they have to admit they need a savior, they have to admit they are a sinner, they have to recognize that they can't pay for their own sin and all of this by the way is because of the illumination of the Holy Spirit. You can't generate this from within yourself, otherwise a man could make himself clean. But they recognize the need for a sinner and they recognize that Christ is the only substitutionary sacrifice. They recognize somebody has to die for this sin and it has to be only Jesus, the only one who can do that. So we don't need to recount the whole process of the gospel as it applies to the individual, you know that I hope. And the point is that once this takes place, once the person comes into relationship with Almighty God and Jesus Christ or a new creation, they begin to cultivate that as we've talked about a couple of years ago, then they begin to demonstrate that or manifest that and to rest in that. This leads to the idea of mankind made clean as a corporate entity. We've talked about this, as I bring my arena of activity under God's authority and as each of you do the same, there's overlap and pretty soon there is a tremendous expression worldwide of God's sovereign control and rule in this universe. I want to, something else that's come to my mind as we're talking here, let me have you turn over here and just mark it in 1 Corinthians 7, I believe it is. There's a spillover effect. We were talking at this point about the corporate body, the corporate entity becoming clean because of the work of Jesus Christ and we've already said the individual is clean, obviously through salvation. But verse 14 of chapter 7 in 1 Corinthians, for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband, otherwise your children would be unclean but now they're holy. And then he goes on, he's talking in this section some principles of marriage and staying married even if it's an unbeliever, unless the unbeliever departs and you're not under bondage and so forth. But I want you to focus on verse 14. The unbelieving spouse, just to paraphrase it or condense it, is sanctified by the believing spouse. There's a spillover effect. Does that mean they're saved? It means they're sanctified, they're made clean, the children in fact would be unclean apart from this relationship but now they're holy. Yeah, they're made clean, they are not the same as someone who's in the world without that relationship to a Christian. This is important for us to understand. I'm not saying that they're saved but they are reckoned as members of the visible covenant community. They may not come to church but there's this spillover effect and the kids will probably be coming to church if one of the spouses is a Christian and the other is not. And this is why we baptize babies by the way because they are considered to be holy. They have to apostatize actively and willfully apostatize from the faith in order to be considered outside of the covenant community. If you're born into a Christian household the point is that the assumption is you're part of the covenant community and unless you willfully and obviously apostatize you continue to be reckoned part of the covenant community. How can you apostatize? It can be as simple as refusing communion for instance. I don't want to take communion anymore, I don't want to come to church anymore. Well you've apostatized. You've been excommunicated. You excommunicated yourself if you just say I don't want to take communion anymore, I'm not going to come, I'm not going to partake because if you say I don't want to take that meal because that meal proclaims me as part of the covenant community. So to refuse it or just not to take it or just to forget about taking it or whatever or just don't come to church is to say I'm not part of the covenant community. I don't want to be identified with that covenant. I don't want to be submitted to the one who died and bled and who claims to be king. To take that meal is to say I'm in fellowship with the king and if you don't do that you've excommunicated yourself. Now I'm not saying you miss communion once in a while, I'm talking about a person who just doesn't go. They just say I'm not going to go to communion, I'm not going to go to church and they may still live a great life, they might be the sterling example of godliness in the community but if they have excommunicated themselves they've apostatized. Now I'm not going to go into all the detail as to whether we should, well I guess I will say this, what should happen at that point is that the leadership of the church would approach them and ask them, have you apostatized? Maybe not quite so bluntly. But if you're not taking communion, not attending church anymore, what does that mean? Well I don't want to. Why? Well because, and then you'll get some answers and go from there. But the point is that those who are in relationship to other members of the covenant community by marriage, by covenant, themselves in covenant, they are enjoying the benefits of covenant. There's a spillover effect if you will. Now some of this is obvious that a person with a godly spouse is going to obviously enjoy a blessing aren't they? Much more so than if that spouse is ungodly and they couldn't count on them, they were just a total jerk. If that were the case, then obviously they would not have any benefit. But if they are a godly Christian, they are going to be a benefit to that spouse and of course the children will be raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord and so forth. So we're talking about a spillover effect here. And that happens within the covenant household, it also happens in the community. As you have a number of people who are worshiping God, the other people in close contact with them will benefit as well. That's the way it should be. If it isn't, then there's a problem with those who call themselves Christians. There's more to it than that though. Let me read to you, perhaps a lengthy portion of scripture, but I want you to pay close attention. This is Ezekiel, he is in a vision, he's having a vision I should say, and the angel is leading him. He brought me back to the door of the temple and there was water flowing, this is Ezekiel chapter 47, from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east. He's seeing the temple, this would be before the temple was totally destroyed by the Babylonians because there was still more to come here by the time Ezekiel was prophesied. So what he's seeing in this vision is Solomon's temple, later of course that was destroyed by the Babylonians, rebuilt and then expanded dramatically by Herod, basically totally rebuilt. So the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple south of the altar. He brought me out by way of the north gate, led me around the outside, so they go out one side and they go all the way around the front and where the gateway that faces east there's water running out from the right side, there's water coming out from the temple, just a little trickle of water, like maybe he sprung a leak somewhere. When the man went out to the east with a line in his hand, he measured 1,000 cubits and he brought me through the water. So they walk 1,000 cubits away from the source of the water and at this point the water's up to his ankles, kind of goes through this little stream, it's growing as he moves away from the temple. Again he measures 1,000 cubits and they walk through the water again, they go along and this time the water comes up to Ezekiel's knees. He measured 1,000 and brought me through the water, this time it comes up to his waist. Every time he goes further and further away from the temple, it's becoming a big river, this water started as a trickle flowing eastward out of the temple, out from under the altar, and now as he moves away from the temple it's getting bigger and deeper. So he measured another 1,000 cubits and it was a river that I could not cross for the water was too deep, water in which a man must swim, a river that could not be crossed. He said to me, son of man, have you seen this? Brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. When I returned there along the bank of the river there were many trees on one side of the river. When he said to me, this water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, reaches the sea, when it reaches the sea the waters are healed. This is the gospel, this is what he's talking about. The gospel going forth from the temple, what is the temple? Christ is the temple. But we are the living stones that are made the temple, he is the cornerstone. So the metaphor covers both Christ as the temple, the true temple, and we as the people of God. So the gospel goes forth and through the ages it grows in power and strength and the waters are healed when it reaches the sea. The gospel brings healing to the sea, those are the nations. Every living creature that moves wherever the river goes will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish because these waters go there for they will be healed and everything will live wherever the river goes. There shall be the fishermen who will stand by from En Gedi to En Aglam. And there will be places for spreading their nests, their fish will be of the same kind as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. What are these fish? Obviously, remember Jesus said, I'll make you fishers of men. This is what he's talking about. The angel is just foretelling what Jesus is going to do. So the picture at this point is the gospel going forth from the origin of the gospel is Christ and what he had done. We are part of that as well. We are also those who work the river, casting the nets and bringing in the fish and exceeding many it says are brought out of the sea as the waters are healed by this river. Now here's the thing I want you to last two verses, its swamps and marshes will not be healed. It will be given over to salt. In other words, not everything's changed. The gospel is not universal in the sense that not everybody's saved. Some people will reject it. Then it goes along the banks of the river. There are all kinds of trees used for food. Their leaves will not wither. Their fruit will not fail. Bare fruit every month because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food. Their leaves for medicine or for healing. This is what the gospel does. This is a very powerful picture of the gospel and what it will accomplish or is accomplishing. But what I wanted you to see, I read all that really for this one point. There's going to be salt marshes that will not be healed. Not everybody becomes a Christian. Nevertheless, most of mankind, not all, but a majority of mankind will one day come into the kingdom of God. There will come a point in history when most of the population of the earth will bow the knee to Jesus Christ willingly. Not because he holds a sword over their head and demands it, but because they will do so out of love and gratitude for the salvation that he has given them by his death and his shed blood, by his resurrection and his ascension. Most of mankind, not all, but a majority will come into the kingdom and be made clean. Thus, man as a corporate entity is made clean in Jesus Christ, both by the spillover effect as a community, as a society, is blessed by those who are in Christ, and indeed eventually as most of the world's population comes into this relationship with Jesus Christ. Let me just make some quick summation here. Everyone as we've seen is guilty of sin. Without Jesus, we are unclean. Without Jesus, even the most elemental aspects of life are unclean. There's nothing we can say, well this is personal, that's not part of what the Lord cares about. Everything without Jesus Christ is unclean. But if we're in relationship with him, we are then made clean and whole. The problem is sometimes our garments can become spotted or stained. And the way that we keep our garments clean and unspotted, without spot or wrinkle as Paul describes what he hopes to have the church in Corinth be, is to walk even as Jesus walked in 1 John 2.6. And we do that by knowing what the scripture says. This is how Jesus walked. He walked according to the Bible. And the Bible he had, by the way, was what we call the Bible of the Lord. We call it the Old Testament. So we have to know all of the Bible, to know the mind of God, and we need to know Leviticus chapter 15. Those principles that we see there are still valid. And I think the chiasmus helps us to understand the principles that even by ourselves or in Congress with other people, we're still unclean. It's only Jesus Christ that can bring cleanliness and wholeness. And if we want to walk as He walked, we need to know what the Bible says about everything. We also need to understand this in the corporate sense. The family, in fact, the most fundamental corporate identity is a man and woman in marriage. Again, we see that in Leviticus 15, that that doesn't solve the problem to somehow think that we're going to be finding salvation in the corporate entity. That doesn't happen. We need to show the cleansing power of Jesus Christ in the marriage relationship, in the family, in church, in business, in the state. And what that requires is that every one of us who are involved in a corporate group of some kind, we reach out, we express that to people, cultivate it, manifest it, and then the rest they'll see as we are at peace and at rest in our relationships. Finally, we must be sure to make clear that cleanliness as an individual and as a corporate identity is only because of Jesus Christ, not because of our effort, not because of the friends we have, not because of the associations, nothing. There is no reason for the cleanliness of the individual or the corporate identity except Jesus Christ. All of our life is under the authority of Almighty God. Even the most elemental and personal aspects of our being and experience must be submitted to Him. We've talked about this in different contexts. This is true because Jesus Christ has encountered everything that this human existence has to offer and He's fully equipped to apply His cleansing power to our life and arena of activity and He demands that. That's why it's important for us to realize that everything in life must be submitted to Jesus Christ. Without Him we have no hope of being made clean. So I encourage you to turn to Jesus Christ and ask Him to wash your garments that you may be free of every spot and wrinkle and to be fully able to show the world what it means to be made clean by Jesus Christ. Truly, He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your mercy. We pray to You for all of us. We pray to You for all of us.