Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Well, my name is Michael Fueling. I am the lead pastor here at Village Church. And, uh, in lieu of the book of Leviticus and offerings and the shedding of blood that we're gonna be talking about, I decided to wear red. And I see a handful of you, uh, who knew we were gonna be doing this today, and I'm sure intentionally chose your wardrobe for moments like this. Uh, open up your Bibles to Leviticus chapter four. And, uh, we are teaching on the five Old Testament offerings and the word offering literally in the Hebrew, it means a drawing near thing. And so an offering is something that 100% of the time before Jesus, under the old covenant, whenever you were approaching God, you would always bring an offering with you or a drawing near thing to go into the presence of God without bringing an offering would've been unacceptable because as a sinner, when you are in the presence of a holy God, who, who wins and who loses in that battle, God always wins.
Speaker 1 00:01:04 And we always get incinerated. And so God wants fellowship with us and created these offerings as a means for us to enter into his p presence sinners as we are and not be utterly destroyed. And, and I hope you see this through all of the book, Leviticus. God wants a relationship with each and every one of us. God wants relationship and he has in every single age given us a clear pathway to relationship with him. He never leaves us wondering. So the first three offerings that we dealt with are what's called free will offerings. That's exactly what it sounds like. Uh, when you, uh, felt that you wanted to, uh, rededicate your life to God or just express devotion, you could freely do that. Uh, whenever you were filled with gratitude and thanksgiving and it was overwhelming, you could come and bring a free will offering of, of, of, of Thanksgiving and gratitude to the Lord.
Speaker 1 00:01:55 Whenever you kinda just stuck back and you realize, and you were so filled with gratitude because you and God were at peace with each other, you could bring in an offering and do that as well. But the last two offerings we're gonna look at, they're not free will offerings. They are mandatory offerings. And so what we're gonna look at this morning is called the Sin Offering. And the sin offering is exclusively for when you commit unintentional sins. So if maybe God's word says something very crystal clear and you break God's word but are unaware of it, this offering is just for you. So now, now here's a little challenge. Um, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand if this applies to you. And then I wanna just encourage you with the answer on the front end. Everybody raise your hand. Have you ever sinned and you didn't realize it?
Speaker 1 00:02:48 Correct. Welcome to the human experience. And there are certain circumstances when you are, when you're under old covenant law, that if you were in a situation and you realize, oh no, God's word says this, but I did this, and you realize you and God are not okay, what God did is he made a very specific clear pathway to make sure at any moment you and him are on the same page. And, and on the front end of this, I wanna identify a really important principle for us. We're on the same page. No matter the severity or even my awareness of my sin, all sin must be paid for by blood, no exceptions. Now, you may not like that. It doesn't even have to make sense to you. The God of the universe found this to be the most just way to deal with sin, all sin from all people in all of time, whether seen unseen in the heart or just explicit disobedience, all sin will be justly and rightly dealt with through blood.
Speaker 1 00:03:59 Now, in the book of Leviticus, you're gonna hear me say this probably every other week, if not every week, because it's so important. Every single person's sin will be dealt with in one of two ways. And there is no other option. Option number one is through the blood of Christ that the blood of Christ is able to save fully and completely anybody who comes to him by faith. The the second way that your sins can be paid for is by your own self in hell forever. I don't know about you, but trusting in Christ seems a whole lot more interesting to me than paying for my own sins in hell forever. This is where you can give like a hearty Amen. Village Church. Amen. And so thankfully, even though we are all sinners, God did not leave us to that destiny. He gave us another way out through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:04:50 Now, this forces us, I think as we talk about unintentional sins, to ask maybe a bigger question, should I be held responsible If I didn't know the thing that I did was wrong? What if my intentions were good? So, uh, if you've been a part of Village Church, you've heard portions of this story. So forgive me for being redundant, but there's a part of the story that I think is very important. When I was 17 years old, I was arrested for breaking and entering. Now I didn't do it, I'm serious. I didn't do it. But when after a series of events, we got arrested after my friends would go into open garages, steal stuff out of the garages, and then run out. Well, we got arrested one day and they were all 16 and I was 17. And the state of Michigan, guess what, that makes me an adult now, uh, in the cop car, um, I proceeded to defend myself to the police officer officer.
Speaker 1 00:05:52 I didn't do it. And his response was something like, yeah, that's what everybody says. I'm thinking, good point, <laugh>. But then I said, no, for real, I didn't do it. And he says, he gives an analogy. And the analogy was, um, if your friends all went in and murdered somebody and you just stood there and didn't do anything about it, are you guilty? And at that moment I was like, huh, I would be guilty. I deserve to be arrested right now. Oh no, I'm guilty. Now, do intentions matter? Well, when <laugh> about 11 or 12 o'clock at night when, when my parents had to be called and to come pick me up at the police station, uh, my intentions didn't matter. But I do think that with my mom and my dad, despite how angry they were par particularly because I was plausibly facing, I think it was up to 10 years in prison because I was 17 years old and my brother's wedding was coming up in like a couple weeks.
Speaker 1 00:06:46 And my mom was like, my son's gonna be in jail for the wedding. And anyway, it was a big to-do in the fueling home, as you can imagine. Um, and so I'd like to just read you, uh, section one 15 of Michigan Law, uh, any person who breaks and enters, and I love this. I just, I appreciate lawyers. You guys are wonderful. You'll never hear that again right now you are, uh, I love you all. Any person who breaks and enters or enters without breaking, well, I didn't break anything when I entered, so, okay, any dwelling, house, tent, hotel, office, store, shop, warehouse, barn, granary, granary, granary, factory or other building boats, ship, railroad, car or structure used or catch for public or private use or any private apartment therein or any cottage, clubhouse, boathouse, hunting or fishing lodge. And, and I could imagine like 17 year old, me being like, what about garages?
Speaker 1 00:07:38 Does it state it? Oh, yep. Garages, anything with a value of a hundred dollars or more so I can break and enter into something that doesn't have a value of a hundred dollars or more. And also being an accessory to breaking and entering is illegal. Did my intentions matter? Not a lick. It did matter to my mom and dad for sure. They were like, at least you were like, so here's what would happen. They would go in and I'd stand on the sidewalk or I'd sit in the car or I'd be on the street. So in my brain, I thought I was kind of standing up and, and I think my mom and dad, they heard that and they're like, oh, good try total failure. Good try, right? Um, and my intentions mattered, but it did not matter before the law. Because before the law, I was guilty and the law matters.
Speaker 1 00:08:24 And, and, and so I am to this day very grateful for a man, I don't know his name, who lived in that house, who ran after my friends out of that garage, that he had mercy on me because none of them were gonna go to jail. It was gonna be this guy, the one who tried to do the right thing, tried and failed miserably, by the way. And so that man was unbelievably merciful to me and did not press charges. My intentions are important. Now, when you think about this, those of you who are believers and you came to Christ maybe a little bit later in life, I want you to think about the things that you did before you were a Christian that you now know are sin. But, but back then you were like, yeah, I didn't really process it in terms of, of sin.
Speaker 1 00:09:10 You you, if you're being honest, you knew that religious people, they had a bunch of rules and they care and they want you to abide by their own behavior. But if you're being honest, I think what we see with more and more people is that they're not thinking, God cares, as long as I'm happy and nobody gets hurt. If I'm happy and nobody gets hurt, why would God care? And by the way, this is the general ethos that is sweeping across our culture. And if you're like, I don't know, 45 and under, this is the dominant idea of why would God care about anything that I do? If my intentions are good, nobody gets hurt and I am happy. Now, when you, before you were a Christian, you had no category for the things that you were doing that they would require the shed blood of Jesus Christ for you to be forgiven.
Speaker 1 00:10:00 Now, whether or not you intended them to be right or wrong, it doesn't matter when sin is sin, when you violate explicit commands from God's word, it must be paid for by blood. As long as my intentions are good, I am innocent. This may sound good to American ears, but I think the Lord bristles when he hears this, I think relationally, God does care about your intentions. Just like my mom and dad cared about my intentions when I got arrested. But doing the wrong thing with the right intention is still what still wrong. And sin and, and welcome to our life. Our past is a bunch of men, women, students, and children who we have done the wrong thing sometime with terrible intentions, but sometimes with good intentions. But the right thing, no matter what, the intentions is still right and the wrong thing, no matter what, the intentions is still wrong.
Speaker 1 00:10:59 So people often wonder, why does God care Again, my intentions are good. Nobody's getting hurt and I'm happy. I'm gonna tell you why God cares. God hates all sin everywhere because he is bored and judgmental. No, but because it destroys every thing it touches, and we have no idea. We're like little children running around having zero idea that when you run into the street, there are cars coming. All we see is here and now, and we have no category for the damage to our souls, to our relationships with each other, with our own body and with God. That sin causes everywhere you find it. Sometimes it destroys slowly, sometimes it destroys quickly. Sin is like rust. If you see rust on your car, guess what? It's gonna grow, isn't it? Sin is like 11. You're baking, you just put a little bit, everything is impacted by it.
Speaker 1 00:12:00 Sin is like venom. It takes one drop of the right kind of venom. And everything in your body begins declining. God hates sin everywhere. Whether it's intentional or unintentional. Think about the person you love the most in this world other than God. Do you want them doing things that they are not even aware that end up destroying them? No. When you look at your children, your children have no idea whether they're adults or not, of some of the things that they're doing are actually going to harm them. And as a mom or a dad or a grandma or a grandpa or a brother or a sister, your heart is like, please, your intentions may be good, but this thing, it's going to ruin you. And so we are protective intuitively because God is protective and we are made in the image of God. And in the same way that you don't want your sons or your daughters or your friends or your grandchildren doing things intentionally or otherwise that harm them.
Speaker 1 00:12:53 Neither does God. We forget the power of sin to destroy because sometimes it's like a slow roast. We don't see it and experience it. But over time you begin to look at its impact. God sees all that and he knows it, and he loves us enough to say, all sin separates us, but he's gonna create a pathway for reconciliation no matter what kind of sin, because he wants relationship. So as we teach on the, the sin offering, the Hebrew language has a pretty diverse vocabulary for sin. And here's just a handful of the words. The word Avon or Avon is iniquity or perversity. And then this really emphasizes the distorted, twisted nature of sin. Paja means transgression. A transgression is a willful sin. You do it on purpose, knowing what you're doing is wrong. The word raw means evil or wickedness and represents actions and attitudes that are morally harmful.
Speaker 1 00:13:48 And, and the standard of morality is not culture or what we feel, but the standard of morality is explicitly God's word. And and then this word, there's a Jewish way to say it. I'm gonna mess it up if I do it. So I'm just gonna spell it as is chatta or shaah. And this means to miss the mark or to air. And and here's the interesting thing about missing the mark. You can miss the mark on accident or on purpose. And so if you've ever shot a bow or shot a gun like statistically, what are the chances that every time you shoot, you're gonna hit it perfectly right in the middle? Zero. It's not humanly possible. So even if you try your hardest, you will miss the mark because you don't have the ability to shoot and aim perfectly. And, and actually this is the word for sin and sin offering.
Speaker 1 00:14:31 It is this idea that we are living in a way where we have missed the mark. And it doesn't matter if you missed the mark because you turned around and shot somebody else on purpose, or if you miss the mark because you're trying to hit the bullseye and doggone it, you couldn't do it. And anytime we miss the mark, this is sin and it separates us from God. And so God understands this, he's going to deal decisively with all sin, intentional or unintentional, anything that separates us from relationship with God, he wants to make sure that we have full access to him. All right, Leviticus chapter for the sin offering. First one says this, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel saying if anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them, and you might be thinking to yourself, how do you sin unintentionally?
Speaker 1 00:15:27 And, and, and there's a handful of, of of ways this happens. Here are a couple that Leviticus describes. Um, if you touch an animal or an insect that the law says is unclean, then you are unintentionally cynic. You may not know that you've done it, but if you do that and then find out later, you're like, oh, no, and we're gonna do a whole series on cleanness and uncles and what that means for the Christian, but that's, that's later you, if you touch a human that is unclean, you might accidentally be in proximity to a dead body, a dead animal, or a dead person and not even know it. And, and then if you find out later that you were unclean, um, that would be one of the ways that this would happen. Or speaking. Rash promises is another one. So in the, in the Hebrew culture and in biblical culture, if you will, uh, your word is your yes, your no is your no.
Speaker 1 00:16:15 And, and if you rationally make a promise and then you don't keep that promise, um, you're, you're kind of in big trouble. Or sometimes you might say something and then forget. You ever said it, and then somebody might bring it to your attention later and said, you made that promise. And you're like, oh, no, I unintentionally forgot and I didn't keep my word. These all matter. I mean, they are small, but they are all sin. And all sin requires the shedding of blood. Now, what's really important about the sin offering is that these are not elusive things like pride. These have to be measurable, actionable violations of actual laws. So you can't look at somebody and be like, uh, your attitude was a little bit off. I think you need to go offer a sin offering. No, these had to be unintentional, measurable, specific violations of written laws.
Speaker 1 00:17:06 Okay? So Leviticus four, it makes something really clear. Uh, not all sin has the same consequences. The, there's another notion, just a cultural, cultural mantra, if you will. Like all sin is the same. No, it's not. You would much rather me steal from you than murder. You would you not all sin is not the same. You know this intuitively, this is how we justify things. All sin has the same net effect in that it separates us from God for sure, but not all sin has the same consequences. So in Leviticus four, you're gonna find four categories of people who sin unintentionally, and they start with the most serious and influential category of person. And it works its way out. And each category of people, as you go down the list become less influential. And also what you're gonna see is that the offerings that they are required for a sin offering become cheaper and cheaper.
Speaker 1 00:17:56 Now, the reason I say cheaper and cheaper is because in the ancient Near East and in the Bible times currency was animals. So when, when you bring in animal, this is actually a financial offering as well. This is your currency. And so what you're gonna find here is we're gonna go through four categories of people who sin unintentionally. And then we're gonna look at what does this mean for our lives and what does Jesus have to do with any of this? All right? The first category is the high priest. And and verse three tells us why this man's sin unintentional is worse and the consequences for his unintentional failures are bigger and more, more global than anyone else. Verse three says this, if it is the anointed priest that's the high priest who sins unintentionally, thus bringing guilt on the people, all right? First of all, if I'm a high priest, how do I sin unintentionally?
Speaker 1 00:18:54 Here's one. Maybe you accidentally offered an animal that was not blameless. Maybe, maybe it was impure, it was bad blood, and it did not actually work because it did not meet the requirements. But you were unaware. Like what if, what if you're offering this animal and you think it's fine? But then as other priests who are discarding of the carcass look at it, they realize there's actually a disease in this animal, and then they tell you about it, that would be sinning unintentionally. Or maybe there's a, a ceremonial requirement. If you read Leviticus, I mean it's at times it can feel nauseatingly boring because it's so detailed and, and and and detailed about how, um, every single thing is supposed to happen. God wants everything done in a really specific way. And you might have innocently forgot something and God's like, no, every law is on purpose.
Speaker 1 00:19:50 You must do it perfectly. You cannot miss the mark. And if you miss the mark, we're not okay. But thankfully he has created an opportunity to make all of this right. But here's, here's the scope of the issue. The high priest, his job is to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the whole nation. And even though he has good intentions, if the sacrifice knowingly or unknowingly does not meet God's requirements, then the guilt of the entire nation is over them, which is why you and your relationship with God hinged on the high priest doing his job. Uh, if and when he violated God's word, verse three says this, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bowl from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering. And this is the most expensive animal in their arsenal. Verse four explains the process.
Speaker 1 00:20:50 He shall bring the bowl to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord. Now if you know what the tent of meeting is, there's a tabernacle or a tent, it's a big tent, and inside the tent is where God dwelled. And inside the tent are two rooms. One is called the holy place. You walk into the tent, uh, there's a veil. You walk through that and there's a whole bunch of things in there, but you're not fully in the presence of God. Yet at the back of this first room, there is another veil. And behind that veil is called the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the covenant was, where God's full presence dwelled there. You don't walk into that room unless you are perfectly ceremonially clean, because again, what happens when sinful human beings intentionally or otherwise stand in the presence of our glorious God, they are incinerated and destroyed.
Speaker 1 00:21:37 And so you had to make sure the closer you get in proximity to the holy of holies, that inner room, you need to make sure that you are ceremonially clean. Are you guys just so grateful by the way that we don't have to do all this stuff? Holy moly, it is exhausting. And the the implications and the repercussions are huge if they don't do this right? And so what's interesting is that, um, all the other offerings, the blood was never brought into the tent, but with this offering, the blood is gonna go into the tent because it's gonna get closer in proximity to the presence of God. Verse seven, the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that's in that first room in the tabernacle before the Lord that is in the tent of meeting. I don't know about y'all.
Speaker 1 00:22:26 I'd be so nervous if I was this priest, because you are trusting God's word. You're trusting God's word that somehow the blood of this bowl is going to protect you from the wrath of God, the righteous wrath of God. You're, you're also trusting that, that God is gonna keep his word and and, and everybody's gonna do their job. And then you're, you might be wondering, what if I didn't check the sacrifice thoroughly? You know what I mean? Like, have you ever been nervous about something and then you recheck it and recheck it and recheck it and recheck it? You just wanna make sure it's perfect. And then you, you maybe like do the thing and you're like, oh, no, it wasn't perfect. Like imagine the anxiety of these guys wanting to make sure that everything they did was perfect. After they sprinkle some blood on the inside, they then go outside and they take 10 gallons of blood, that so much blood would be in an average adult male, and they would pour it at the altar.
Speaker 1 00:23:28 Verse seven says this, the, all the rest of the blood of the bullish shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offing. That's now outside the tent that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting all, all four categories. Uh, what happens next? It's pretty the same number one, who gets all the fat? The Lord, because the fat is the best. You don't have to agree, but you and God aren't on the same page if you're not agreeing with that. So take that up with him. Uh, and then what they would do is they would take the carcass of the animal, and this is actually really symbolically beautiful. They would take the carcass, they would take it out of the area of a, of the tents to a clean place. They would set it on fire and they would burn it completely as a symbol that your sin has been removed from the presence of God and completely incinerated.
Speaker 1 00:24:14 Uh, I love what happens at the end of this. Uh, it is in, uh, verse, no, that's the next one, nevermind. So, um, what does the high priest require most, the most valuable offering? Very simply because of who he represents. Uh, I want you to read Hebrews 10, um, here with me. It's verse 11 says, every priest they stand daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices. Gosh, this sounds boring, which can never, ever take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. The reason the high priest had the most influential role, the reason that his sin, unintentional sin had the highest cost is because of who he pointed to and what he represented. And, and he pointed to the day when they would come a high priest and the high priest would offer not the blood of a bull or go, but he would be the God man who would offer his own blood.
Speaker 1 00:25:20 And it would be one sacrifice so potent that for every human who would ever exist for all time, it had the power to cleanse and to cover all of our sins that is unique, the perfect character and the blameless blood of Jesus. Our high priest will never fail those who trust in him for salvation. And in God's economy, every sin, intentional or otherwise is going to be paid for by blood, and it will either be yours or Jesus. And Jesus blood never, ever fails anybody who trusts in him. Praise God. The second category of people is in verse 13. And this is when the entire congregation sins unintentionally. Look at verse 13. So if the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, are you guys like wondering how a nation of hundreds of thousands or millions of people can sin corporately, collectively against a measurable specific aspect of the word of God and not know it?
Speaker 1 00:26:26 Lemme tell you, when the priests stop doing their job and teaching the word of God to the people, the people don't know the word of God. And if the people aren't being formed by the word of God, what are they being formed by? The culture. And that's it. And so what happens, and you've seen this ebb and flow in the nation of Israel, is the priests don't open and teach the word. The people don't know the word. And so the people find themselves regularly doing things that are natural to them, but are an explicit violation against God's word. Uh, you may or may not know this, but there are churches all around us and all over the country when you walk into them, here's, here's the main topic of the message, whatever mainstream media is talking about, and their values are whatever mainstream media's values are, and they teach on that, and then they pull out and cherry pick Bible versus here and there, and they sprinkle them on.
Speaker 1 00:27:27 And really their objective is just to repeat propaganda over and over and over again. And you will not hear the gospel. You will never hear the book of Leviticus, that's for sure. Unless it is to unwind and dismantle the authority and the trustworthiness of scripture, what kind of ridiculous evil God would require blood, right? That's gonna be the reason you get it. And I'm telling you, like on any Sunday morning, okay, there are people from different churches. There are people from all over people visiting. We had a baptism this morning at the, at the 9:00 AM So we had families from, from different places coming in. And I just wanna tell you, I would rather be in a church where a pastor preaches the most boring sermon ever on Leviticus chapter four, than in a church that just regurgitates mainstream media's dribble talking points and sanctifies them with a scripture like, give me boring sermons any day on stuff that I don't even know how it applies to me.
Speaker 1 00:28:16 Then the junk that you hear in most places. So if you go home and you have a pastor or preachers or elders who are like, yeah, we're gonna open the word of God, we're gonna teach it, and we're gonna try to love and form and shape our people with the word of God, that is a beautiful, beautiful thing. And when the church and the leaders stop doing that, what happens? The congregation becomes just like the world. We don't want that. Verse 14, when the sin which they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall offer a bull from the herd for a sin offering and bring it in front of the tent of meeting. Now, the high priest, here's the, here's the main difference, the high priest that had to be a male without blemish. And for the congregation, you're gonna see that the cost of sin is less because nobody, uh, is affected more than if the high priest doesn't do his job, but the congregation is next.
Speaker 1 00:29:09 And so you could bring a bull in theory with some kind of imperfection in it. Uh, but if it's a high priest, it had to be blameless. But you still need a very, very expensive animal. And when unintentional sin is dealt with in God's way, verse tells us, verse 20 tells us what happens. The priest shall make atonement for them and they shall be forgiven. Aren't those beautiful words for sinners to hear? My sin has separated me from God, and he offers me a pathway to forgiveness where my sin is taken away from his presence, and it is incinerated as far as the east is from the west. So is my sin removed from the presence of God? The third category is when a leader sins unintentionally, and this is in verse 22, when a leader sins doing unintentionally, any one of all the things that by the commandments of the Lord has God ought not to be done.
Speaker 1 00:30:08 So who are the leaders in Israel? You're gonna get your elders, you're gonna get your tribal leaders, you're gonna get your kings, people who are positions of, of authority. Now, I want you to remember this, that this is not because they have like a heart issue. This is when the leaders violate an explicit, measurable teaching of God's word and don't know they are doing it. All right? So, uh, personally as a, as a pastor, I, I find myself in a handful of meetings every year that are fairly intense. And the majority of these meetings are, are where I am mediating two people who, or three people who are kind of at odds with each other. And whenever I'm in these intense meetings, I have always the same practice. I bring in somebody else for accountability because, um, sometimes my words unintentionally, I don't mean it, but they'll land harder than I want them to.
Speaker 1 00:31:01 Or if somebody doesn't care about my words, they won't land at all. And so I I, I do this just for like the sake of kind of accountability to make sure, but I, whenever we leave these intense meetings and, and, and a handful of you have been in the room with me when it's all done, I, I look at the person I brought in and I ask them the same question every time here. It's, did I sin shoot me straight? Why would I ask that? Because you might be thinking, okay, Michael, how do, how do you not know whether you sinned or not? Because we sometimes are the last ones to see sin inside of us, aren't we? Isn't it really easy to look at other people when they sin and say, look what they did? It's really hard to see sin in yourself. And so what I wanna make sure is that unintentionally, like I go in with good motivations, but what I wanna make sure is that unintentionally I'm not doing something that actually creates harm.
Speaker 1 00:31:54 I think this is a good practice for most leaders. And here's the assumption. Every one of us have blind spots, all of us, and they're gonna come moments where someone says, F fyi, God's word says this, but here's what I saw. And you might go, I didn't even realize that. Wow, God's word is so clear and I missed the mark. And thankfully, we do not have to offer the blood of bowls, of goats because the blood of Jesus for all time. Once for when you trust in Christ, you are cleansed. And I remind myself that the blood of Christ has cleansed me even in my unintentional sin. Here's what happens, then the priest takes some of the blood, um, and uh, splatters it around, does his thing. They burn all the fat because the fat's the best part. The Lord gets it. They take the sacrifice outside of the camp, they burn it, incinerate it.
Speaker 1 00:32:49 And then we find this in verse 26, the, the, the priest shall make atonement for him and he shall be forgiven. The last category is, uh, what Leviticus calls the common person <laugh>. It almost feels insulting. They didn't take it as insulting, but it's the common person. Verse 27, if any one of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any, anyone of the things that by the Lord's commandment ought not to be done. You might eat something unclean without realizing you might touch, touch something unclean without realizing. Have you ever like been in the middle of something and then you're just talking or doing something, and then maybe there's even an argument and, and then you're like, if I was really step back and think about this, I think I'm sitting right now, but you're not even thinking about it. And what they're doing is just acknowledging the reality that as we live, sometimes we find ourselves doing things and we don't even know that it's wrong until we take a step back and think about it.
Speaker 1 00:33:47 And in the old covenant, if you were a common person, uh, what you would do is you would take a goat and you would bring it, it would be currency, it would be expensive, and the Lord would give you a pathway for full reconciliation with himself. Wouldn't that be crazy if every time you sinned unintentionally you would come bring like a thousand dollars offering to the church? I mean, these animals were expensive, by the way. Uh, and it was communicating that sin is costly. Verse 31, he should bring for his offering a goat. It's a female without blemish for his sin, which he has committed. You could also bring a lamb. If he brings a lamb, he should bring a female without blemish. And what you find is with each category, the offering is cheaper and cheaper, all of high value, but less and less expensive.
Speaker 1 00:34:37 And then the high priest, he does some things with the blood. They burn all the fat because the fat's the best. Then they take the carcass, they bring it outside, they incinerated it completely as again, a reminder that all of your sin when you offer the sin offering has been brought away from the presence of God and destroyed. In verse 31, we hear this again, the priest shall make atonement for him and he shall be forgiven. All right, I I have 19. So whats, so I want you to, I want you to brace yourself. Just kidding, boiled it down to three.
Speaker 1 00:35:10 What do we do with <laugh>? What do we do with the sin offering? I mean, you're reading this and you're like, where's he gonna go? All right, resist defensiveness at all costs for the leaders and the common people. There's a, there's a, a striking statement that I don't, I don't wanna just gloss over it. It comes up twice verbatim and identifies that there's two ways you and I become aware of our unintentional sin. The first way, it's pretty simple. You realize you're guilty. Maybe there's new information. Maybe the Holy Spirit brings something to your mind. In verse 22, in verse 27, it says this, if anyone realizes his guilt, but verses 23 and 28, they, they identify a second way that you might find out that you sinned. Unintentionally says this, if anyone realize this is guilt, or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, meaning someone had the guts to sit down with you and say, listen, I know your intentions are good, but God's word says this and this is what you did.
Speaker 1 00:36:20 I have a couple encouragement. Number one, for the one confronting, I'll give you, I think something worth a billion dollars. Always assume when confronting that the sin was unintentional. Uh, first Corinthians 13 says, love believes all things. It's the benefit of the doubt verse. And you are way more likely to help somebody see error if they believe you, believe their intentions were were good. And so always assume when you talk to somebody that their intentions were good because just like you, it's possible to do something dumb and not even realize it. We've all done it for the one being confronted. This is a little different. When somebody tries to confront you on something, confront might be too strong of a word here. Remember that it takes guts to do that. It is, it is an honorable thing and most people are pretty nervous and they don't know how to do it right or do it well.
Speaker 1 00:37:17 And that's, but, but honestly, if someone's like, Hey, benefit the doubt, here's what the word says and here's what I saw in your life, man, that's awesome. Like that's, that's real friendship. That's love right there. And verse 23 and 28, they, they're, they're assuming a culture where sin is dealt with and it's talked about and, and then it's received. And then once you become aware of it, you're like, oh no, I didn't mean it, but now I gotta go and offer a sin offering. And God gives a pathway for restoration with him. One thing I've learned in counseling and in life is that our present defensiveness will pretty much ensure that in the future I'm gonna get less honesty. And I don't want less honesty. I wanna open my heart because I'm capable and you're capable of sinning unintentionally. And when we do that, I don't wanna keep doing that, do you?
Speaker 1 00:38:11 You don't wanna keep doing it. And so we rely on each other to gently and lovingly guide us to righteousness that is aligned with the word of God. Here's the second. So what, this might be a little controversial. Feel free to disagree. I mean, I agree with myself, so I'll say it, but I think it's, I think it's helpful. No one at village church has a different standard for sin. Just because you're not a ministry director or a small group leader or a deacon or an elder or a pastor doesn't make it okay for you to sin. Can we agree on that?
Speaker 1 00:38:53 There's not a different standard for you and any spiritual leader. The standard is holiness. And I fear that often we tolerate sin in ourselves because I'm not an elder, I'm not a small group leader. I'm not the worship pastor. I'm not fill in the blank. Therefore, we lower the standard. The standard is the same for all of us. But what we see in Leviticus four is the consequences for different people's sin can be greater. The high priest had the greatest consequence, the congregation than the leader, than the common person. But the standard of holiness was the same for everybody. And so what we agreed to do in the body of Christ is not to say, well, I'm not in leadership so I can send more. That's actually not how it works. We actually all are accountable to the same standard of holiness measured in the word of God.
Speaker 1 00:39:53 Are the consequences greater for some people when they mess up intentionally or unintentionally? For sure. But it's not a different standard. We don't get to justify sin in ourselves because we're in a different position. And number three, confess your sins and let the blood of Jesus cleanse you. One of my favorite parts of being a Christian and there's a lot of 'em like, I mean, how do you pick a favorite? Okay, forgive me for that <laugh>. Like I know when I close my eyes, I'll be with Jesus. I don't live under the condemnation of God, like my future is secure. I have the Holy Spirit of the Word of God. Like there's so many credible benefits of being a Christian. Lemme tell you one of my favorites. I go to bed every night and I am not worried about whether or not God loves me, likes me, whether or not he's gonna pour out wrath on me because I've trusted in Christ.
Speaker 1 00:40:52 I do not worry about my relationship with God in terms of losing it. My salvation going away. I didn't earn my salvation by being good. And you don't lose it by being bad. I mean, I can do things that can make my relationship with God harder, but it is the most secure thing in my life. And I don't have to go to bed wondering, is there something that I could do that God wouldn't forgive me of? The peace that God gives those of us who have trusted in Christ, it is one of the greatest gifts. I, I have watched many people believe the lie that good people go to heaven. And if I just accrue enough good works, I'll be fine. And the anxiety that they live with is crushing when, when they're facing their death and they are wondering, was I good enough when I face my death?
Speaker 1 00:41:44 I will not have to wonder if I was good enough. I will know this. I wasn't good enough, but Christ was good for me. And his blood cleansed me, not just once, but for all and forever. And there is no ridiculous dumb thing that I can do to mitigate or negate what he has done for me. When I stand before him. He's not gonna say, you were a good boy. Come on in. He's gonna say, my blood covered you. That's it. And that's all I have. But I'm telling you, that creates a confidence that I can go to bed at night and say, God, whatever the future holds, you and me are secure. You and me are good. And there is no greater gift I could give you this morning or offer you, which is what God gives anybody who believes in Jesus Christ. And so you might be here and you're like, I don't, I don't think I've ever personally trusted in him, asked him to save me.
Speaker 1 00:42:30 Like let's just start with this. Do you believe that you are a sinner? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God? He died for your sins and was raised from the dead? And are you willing to tell him you're sorry? Anybody who comes to God with a sincere heart and says, I am sorry. Will you forgive me? Here's the promise. I will forgive you. The blood of Christ will cleanse you forever and there is nothing you can do that can undo that. I will give you the Holy Spirit and I will give you confidence and eternity. And you will know that when you die, you will be with me forever. What an incredible gift. And and there might be this lingering thing in your brain that says, but like, what do I have to do to get it? Cuz I don't like free gifts. This is the gospel.
Speaker 1 00:43:12 This is the good news. It's free. Super expensive for him, free for you. And so if you've never trusted in Christ, I just want to invite you, you can trust in Christ today, here. Now, anytime there's no mantra or like special prayer, you have to pray. Tell him you're sorry. Tell him you believe in him, and then tell somebody else so that we can celebrate with you that your eternity, not just your life, but your eternity has been changed because the blood of Christ now covers you. I wanna read one scripture and then I wanna pray for you. First John chapter one, verse seven, the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us, but if we can confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Speaker 1 00:44:08 Amen. Let's pray together. Uh, father, thank you, Leviticus is a funny book, but it is the foundation of the gospel. You teach us that our sin is serious, it separates us from you, and it has to be paid for by blood. And I say on behalf of all my brothers and sisters, thank you for the blood of Christ. I am not thrilled at the prospect of ever having to kill an animal for my sin, but God, you have given us your son. Thank you sincerely, we love you. We are so, so filled with gratitude and for the days that we forget, for the days that we sin unintentionally and for the days that we sin intentionally, I thank you that the blood of Christ still works. It never fails us. You are faithful. We are faithless, but you are faithful. So we give you glory, we give you honor, and we love you. We do all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
