Leviticus 18:5, "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord."
I. THE TRUE MORALITY IS BASED UPON THE TRUE RELIGION.
1. Special need of insisting on this in times when men seek to make light of religious obligation.
2. Historical confirmation: Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome,—all corrupt because degenerate. No protection, as luxury, increases, from relaxation of manners save in religious safeguards.
3. The life of faith is life in commandments. The Lord is both the Object of faith and the Ruler of life. The commandments do not give faith or dispense, with it, but reveal, test, and approve it.
II. THE WORLD WITHOUT GOD IS A WORLD OF ABOMINATIONS AND DEATH. All God's laws contribute to health and happiness. His judgments on the nations were the clearing away of moral filth and disorder. The state of the heathen is an indisputable evidence of man's natural depravity and ruin. Intellect, physical prowess, wealth, learning,—all were rendered useless, and worse than useless, by moral weakness.
III. JUDGMENT AND MERCY WENT HAND IN HAND IN THE DIVINE DISPENSATION. The offender was excommunicated that he might have opportunity for repentance—which made a warning to all. The land was to be kept from defilement that it might be the land of God's people. The sanctity of the bodily life, of personal purity, of domestic relationship, of the family, and so of the nation, are all made to depend on the sanctity of the first and deepest of all relations—that between man and God. "I am the Lord." The land is mine first, then yours. The Law is your safety and peace.—R.