Set Apart For Obedience & Cleansing

The feast of tabernacles is a joy filled time. During the feast we focus our thoughts on the rule of Christ on earth, our eternal inheritance, and teaching the ways of peace and reconciliation to all of humanity. We spend a week plus a day surrounded by Godly people of the same mind and we are able to shut out the madness of the world around us [to a greater or lesser degree depending on the effort you make].

The temporary dwellings of the feast are a reminder that we live as strangers in a strange land, sojourners, pilgrims. We live here among the rest of humanity but we have our eyes and hearts set upon that city and society built on the solid foundation whose builder and maker is God.

This year, like every past year, the feast ends and we return home to the lives we temporarily left behind. We are once again immersed in the ravings of a world that is twisted, perverted, and hostile to the truth of God. The feast pictures good things to come… but…  we are not there yet.

We are still sojourners in a strange land. Called to live by a different standard, and headed toward a different goal than the society surrounding us.

1 Peter 1:1-2 your time of sojourning is by God’s design. It serves to prepare you to fulfill a mission to prepare you for the time we are all looking forward to:

1. As a sojourner you learn obedience to His will in a matrix of testing & temptation 

2) As a sojourner your mind, thoughts, attitudes and actions may be cleansed, purified and made holy

As a sojourner you stand apart from the sin-filled world around you. Defilement, uncleanness, lust, and evil are all round you. Your job is to resist sin, overcome sin, and be purified in mind and heart, clean and acceptable for entry into the family of God.

Your renewed contact and interaction with the sin sick world is going to [in one way or another] infect you contaminate you, defile you. You will get through your days of sojourning seeking through the cleansing power of Christ's blood.

The Cleansing Power of Blood

Repentance and cleansing from sin is not complete and finished at the moment of baptism. Recognizing sin, repenting from sin, seeking forgiveness from sin, and cleansing from sin is a lifelong process. The  holy spirit works with you every step of the way. But the process calls for endurance and perseverance until it is made full complete on the day of your resurrection.

1 John 1:7-10 this letter is written to members of the Church of God. It acknowledges the question of sin among baptized people. If we are willing to admit to our sin, repent of that sin, we can rely on Christ to attain forgiveness for us and cleanse us through His blood. Notice though that Christ does not "do it all for us".

1. WE have to acknowledge our sin and repent
2. To acknowledge sin WE have to train our minds in God's word to know what sin is, spot it, identify it
3. WE must seek forgiveness
4. Christ’s blood will cleanse us

This training of our minds is the cleansing of our conscience spoken of in Hebrews which we will address in a few minutes.

1 John 2:1-8 knowing the mind and will of God begins with the commandments of God. Developing the mind of Christ begins with the commandments of God. The core of the new covenant is to have the commands of God written on our heart.

Cleansing With Blood In The Old Testament

Cleansing through the sprinkling of blood is not a new idea, it is a carry over from the old covenant which has been adapted and modified under the terms of the new covenant.

1.Ratifying The Covenant

When the obligations and promises of the covenant agreement between Israel and YHWH were spelled out the covenant was formalized "signed" with the sprinkling of blood Exodus 24:5-8.

When Jesus inaugurated the new covenant Passover He lifted the cup and spoke of His own blood which  that same day would be shed to ratify the new covenant. Each year we remember that blood of the covenant. The act itself was performed once for all... but the application and use of that blood goes beyond that single day in history... it goes beyond  that special day when we personally enter into the covenant through our baptism... the cleansing power of Christ's blood is powerful and effective throughout the rest of your walk with God.

Hebrews 9:18-22

2.Cleansing the Altar, Tabernacle and Mercy Seat

Once the covenant deal at Sinai was agreed to by both parties God in His wisdom instituted an all encompassing set of instructions to deal with the inevitable sin and transgressions of the people. These are the laws of sacrifice, priesthood, and tabernacle [the law added for transgression mentioned in Galatians].

In most of the old testament sacrifices blood is sprinkled on the altar Leviticus 1:11, 3:13, 5:9. This serves the purpose of cleansing the altar itself which may have become defiled in some way through its day to day contact with sinful people. Once a year the sprinkling of blood is also applied to the mercy seat [the ark of the covenant] and the tabernacle itself. This cleanses them from uncleanness through the transgression of the people camped around the tabernacle Leviticus 16:14-16.

Under the new covenant God’s present dwelling place on earth is within the people He has called and chosen... in other words... You! However you become unclean through contact with sin and you must be cleaned up on a regular basis so you may continually enter the presence of God... for example coming to Him in prayer.

Hebrews 9:11-14 if your spirit is interacting with God's holy spirit your spirit, your conscience needs to be clean. So keep it clean through an active ongoing awareness of sin, active turning away from sin, and humbly seeking forgiveness. Do these things and Christ’s blood will cleanse you [which is a necessary pre-requisite for holiness… nothing in creation is made holy unless it is first made clean].

3.Cleansing & Ordination of the Priests

The priest who administered the sacrifices and ceremonies of the tabernacles were of the family of Aaron. They were set apart by a sprinkling of blood Exodus 29:16-21. Every person who offers sacrifice before God, even the living sacrifices of the new covenant must first be made clean which is the pre-requisite to being made holy.

1 Peter 1:1-2, 13-15

You are called to sojourn as strangers living in world filled with sinful desires that pull at you. You are a stranger because you are living by a different code, you are not on the same page as all those around you. This is the training ground for your future assignment as a priest before God in His kingdom.

1 Peter 2:1-3, 9-12

The priesthood of God must learn how to discern good from evil, choose the good, and teach it to others. God does not put you in the role of a teacher until you take it upon yourself to learn the material.

Leviticus 10:10 -- Hebrews 5:12-14 -- Hebrews 10:16,19-25

4.Purification of Lepers

The term leprosy is not exactly the same as what we now consider leprosy. The bible word leprosy covers a wide range of infectious skin diseases. Getting one of these infectious skin diseases was serious trouble. You would but forced to live outside and apart from the community of Israel, you had to wear torn clothes and unkempt hair. You were cut off from the community and if you ever crossed paths with another person you had to cover your mouth and shout "unclean... unclean".

Once a person with a skin disease like leprosy was healed they required a sprinkling of blood to be declared clean and fit to rejoin the community of God's people.

Leviticus 14:4-7, after this initial sprinkling the cleansed leper offers a sacrifice and is admitted back to the community verses 14-18. Interesting that the healed leper is restored to the community using a ceremony similar to the ordination of the priests. I think this shows the importance God placed on the cleanness and spiritual well-being of each and every member of the nation.

Sin in our lives is like an infectious disease. Some diseases are hidden and some are noticeable [like a skin disease]… some sins are hidden and some are visible. God sees both. Whether hidden or visible  these cause a rift and separate us from Him… because we are unclean and unholy.

Hidden sins are between you and God. Sins that others can see and notice will not only separate us from God they will separate us from the assembly of God's people.

Consider the case of the man in Corinth who was committing incest. Everyone in the assembly of God's people there know about it... and Paul handled in a very public way... by commanding the man to stay away from the community of the Church. Later when that man came to recognize, acknowledge, repent, and seek forgiveness… he was restored back to the community.

If someone comes to me as the local pastor with some hidden or secret sin that they are struggling with, then the tow of us deal with it in a private manner. But if it's a matter that becomes common knowledge then it might have to be dealt with in a more public way. It doesn't happen a lot because most of us are pretty good at hiding our sins from others. But it does happen and it usually results in some form of separation from the community... often by the person's own choice but sometimes as a command from church leadership.

But the goal is always a change of heart, reconciliation, forgiveness. and restoration [if only we accomplished that end goal more often].

Finally, notice that the leper did not come to the priest and seek the sprinkling of blood so that he might be healed. The healing came first and then only if he was healed was he was ceremonially cleansed and declared fit to re-join the community.

Likewise on the spiritual plane the cleansing of Christ’s blood comes at the end of a process of healing and recovery:  1) confess and acknowledge [a step which you must do] 2) repent and commit yourself to change [a step which you must do] 3) seek forgiveness [a step which you must do] 4) be cleansed,.. purified and made right [which Christ does through His blood]

Psalm 51:1-17

Conclusion:

The Feast of Tabernacles this year was a wonderful celebration of God's way of peace and reconciliation. A time spent in the fellowship of fellow believers dedicated to the same vision of a better city and a better country founded on the will and spirit of God.

But we're not there yet. We are still strangers in a strange land. A strange land that always threatens to suck us in to its sins and passions... to draw us away from our dedication to the cause.

Your resistance to the pulls and temptations are actually your training for the world we look forward to. During out training we get dirty, we get messed up, but we overcome and we will prevail.

Actively participate in the renewal of your mind, prepare yourself for the time ahead, become cleansed in Christ’s blood so you might be declared holy and fit for service.