Lev 18:1+2, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'I am the Lord your God. 
	This is the time of year when people will make a whole bunch of declarations as to how they will change their behaviors and their habits in order to bring forth a more positive manner of living the lives that they are given. They make numerous resolutions with the focus on what they need to modify in their way of dealing with their environment, physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. However, even with the greatest sincerity of action, most, if not all of these resolutions fall to the wayside within a short period of time.
	The Lord knew this propensity of humanity to resolve to do the right thing, then to fail miserably in the execution as the prevailing nature of fallen man pushed aside anything that would hinder it from exerting full dominance in the lives of its captives. Therefore, He instructed them over and over and over again that they were to look to Him and to obey Him in the course of their walk on the earth. He had chosen them, He had saved them, He had sustained them, and He would go before them if they would just continually remind themselves that He was their God. 
	This was the powerful statement reiterated again and again by God in order for His people to be fully identified with Him. They were not Egyptians. They were not Canaanites. They were not Philistines. They were not any of the tribes and nations that surrounded them. They belonged to God, the Lord God, Yahweh, Whom none of the other people knew in the manner of His grace and His mercy and His salvation and especially His holiness. The other nations and peoples were under His dominion, as is every man, woman, and child born on this earth. They were fully subject to His Sovereignty and His judgment, as detailed in the reading of this chapter this morning. The truth was that because those nations had so perverted themselves, God had cast them out of the Promised Land. But they did not know God as the Lord their God. That was kept for the descendents of Abraham through Isaac.
	This was detailed by God to Abraham as we read in Gen 17:5-7. Gen 17:5-7, "No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. "And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. 
	When God was set to rescue the Children of Israel, the direct descendents of Abraham, He sent Moses to them in Egypt. The manner of showing those slaves the truth of what Moses spoke was to be reaffirmed in the fact of Who God was and specifically Who He was to them. Moses was to speak as so instructed by God in Ex 6:6+7, to the Children of Israel. Ex 6:6+7, Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, 'I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 'Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 
    	The significance was held in the knowledge that the Children of Israel treasured in their hearts that they were chosen by the Lord God Almighty, the True and Living Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is The I Am from Whom was spoken the Word that brought all things into being. They knew of Him as they had been taught about Him from generation to generation, from Abraham down through Isaac, and then Jacob, and then their fathers’ fathers’ fathers down to the day that Moses proclaimed their deliverance by the power of “I AM”. This was now the time that the Only God of all creation would make Himself their Deliverer and their King. The promise of their heritage was coming into fruition by the fact that God, Himself, was coming to them to show them the way into the Promised Land. 
	During the time of their wilderness wanderings, God made Himself known to this nation through the giving of His Law for their protection and their commitment and obedience unto Him. As He would show Himself ever faithful to them, so they were to show themselves ever faithful to Him as recorded in Ex 20:2+3. Ex 20:2+3, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before Me. 
	He continually established the truth of Who He was to them in the declaration over and over again that He was both their Lord and their God. This fact meant that they owed Him both their worship and their fealty. He was not some nebulous deity in the sky who would seasonally show some providential interest in them. 
God was the Only True and Living God Who was directing their daily path on this earth. He not only hovered over them, protecting them from their enemies, but He was working for their best interests every moment of the day. His Law was given in order to guide and to direct them into those behaviors and actions which would serve to keep them from the danger and the judgments and the plagues that infested the nations surrounding them. God was showering His gracious mercy and loving-kindness upon this people whom He had chosen before the foundation of the world was laid.
	In line with this, they were to be a testimony to the rest of the world as to Who God was in His Sovereignty. They were to show forth, in the full obedience and commitment of their hearts, that God was the Holy One, the Living Lord God Almighty. As declared in Lev 11:44+45, they were to be holy as He is holy. Lev 11:44+45, 'For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. 'For I am the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; thus you shall be holy for I am holy.'" 
    	They were to represent to the nations the reality that not only was there a God in heaven Who directed and ruled and overruled in all the affairs of the humanity whom He created, but, if the peoples were to acknowledge Him and honor Him and obey Him, they would come to know Him as much more than merely the God who created all things. They would come into a living relationship whereby the Holy, Awesome, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient One would be both Defender and Provider of a life filled with the manifested glory of Himself. This was never before seen in a nation, in a complete relationship with an entire company of people. Abraham had known this. Isaac had known this. Jacob had known this. Joseph and some of his brothers had known this. But never in history has there been such a testimony of the God’s ruling and overruling as the Sovereign Lord of a nation of people. 
	On this basis, God reminded them over and over again that they needed to abide by His commands in order to live under the benefits and blessings of His Sovereignty. As they would continue to obey Him, so would they prosper and multiply and fill the Promised Land. They would avoid the ills and the curses of the people whom they were displacing under the directive of God, Himself. As in verse 4 of this morning’s chapter, the Lord reminded His people of His place as their Sovereign Lord. Lev 18:4, 'You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the Lord your God.
	Then, as we will be reading in Lev 19:3+4, God recounted the commandments as well as the reminder of Who He was and how much need there was for the people to honor Him as both God and Lord. Lev 19:3+4, 'Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. 'Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am the Lord your God. 
	As with today’s reading, God was dealing with His chosen people in very practical methods and ordinances. Many of them were what we call common sense or morally appropriate, such as the ordinances against sexual impropriety and incest as we read. The sad thing was that these were practices of habit and custom within many of the peoples of the day. These were not as readily morally repugnant within much of the peoples surrounding the Israelites. It had to be spelled out for The Children of Isreal in order to prevent them from defaming themselves with such reprehensible behaviors.
	In an altogether different light, in Lev 19, verses 9+10, God had to spell out very specific manners of dealing with the needs of the poor and downtrodden who had no other means of survival. He was their Provider through the practical application of His instructions to those who were reaping the produce of the land. 
Lev 19:9+10, 'Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 'Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God. 
As Their Sovereign Lord, God was looking out for those who could not support themselves. This was not with hand outs or social programs, but by allowing them the opportunity to glean from the fields that which would supply their needs for food and for dignity. 
	In Lev 19:34, God was even teaching the people how to consider those who were not of the Chosen nation, but who wanted to know more about the Lord and His people by living within the borders of His nation. Again, He was instructing His people in the manner of how to deal with others in accordance to that which would honor His Sovereignty. Lev 19:34, 'The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. 
    	As well, there is the emphasis reiterated, in Lev 20:7, as to the fact that the manner in which the people, as a nation, conducted themselves was the testimony that they were led by the most Holy Lord God Almighty. Their holiness would be what would set them apart from the rest of the nations. They had the wisdom of God as their source of how to live their lives in the most practical of terms and they had the protection and the provision of God if they would give themselves wholly unto Him. Lev 20:7, 'You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. 
    	The Psalmist, in Ps 33:12, detailed the fact that the nation of God’s choosing, as it abided by the command and the directions and the statutes given by the Lord, would be blessed. Ps 33:12, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. There could be no other way of it! As the nation obeyed and honored God as their Sovereign Lord, His hand would be upon them and guide them and direct them and they would be fully blessed in accordance with His expressed glory in their midst. 
	The Prophet Ezekiel, in the 20th Chapter of Ezekiel, expressed the Word of the Lord in the sorry fact that the people chose to despise His Lordship and thus suffered the consequences as did the other nations surrounding them. God had made very abundantly clear what joy would be theirs if they chose to honor and to obey Him as both God and Lord. 
However, as was so true of fallen man, enslaved by the chains of sin, man could not follow through on his own accord. Even with the very best of intentions and with the promise of the goodness and the glory of the Lord before them, the people did not obey but, instead, chose to be exactly as the other nations. 
Ezek 20:4-7, "Will you judge them, will you judge them, son of man? Make them know the abominations of their fathers; and say to them,' Thus says the Lord God, "On the day when I chose Israel and swore to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them, saying, I am the Lord your God, on that day I swore to them, to bring them out from the land of Egypt into a land that I had selected for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands. "And I said to them, 'Cast away, each of you, the detestable things of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.' 
    	Ezekiel, in verses 19+20, then reminded the people of the truth of the Lord that they can know the fullness of the reality that God is the Lord and Sovereign. Ezek 20:19+20, 'I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances, and observe them. 'And sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.' 
	This is the relationship that we now have through the Lordship of Jesus Christ! As detailed in Gal 2:20, what was impossible with humanity, lost in sin and death, even as the Chosen Nation of God, is now the very course of the life that we can live because of the fact that Jesus lives forth His life in us.    
Gal 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. 
It is no longer dependent on our resolutions and our efforts and our best of intentions. It is all in place by the power and the might and the wisdom and the grace of God, Himself, bringing us into this living relationship with His indwelling Holy Spirit at work to His good pleasure. So be it!
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'I am the Lord your God. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is 1 Peter 1:14-16. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." Amen.