back to indexWed Bible Study - Lesson 6
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I want to strongly encourage and remind you, both of you guys, all the people who are here 00:00:10.400 |
and also the recordings, the people who are listening at home, to do your best to at least 00:00:16.000 |
read it a few times before you come so that when we talk about certain things, at least 00:00:22.400 |
Even if you didn't understand it, if you knew what the issues were, it wouldn't go over 00:00:28.720 |
So, again, I just want to strongly encourage you to do that because there's so many things 00:00:44.880 |
The benefit of studying the book of Leviticus is the details, the details and the significance 00:00:52.520 |
So if you miss these details, again, what you're going to keep hearing over and over 00:00:57.600 |
again is that the sin needs to be atoned for. 00:01:08.480 |
Basically, you just studied the book of Leviticus. 00:01:11.160 |
If you studied the book of Leviticus as just kind of a general overview. 00:01:17.040 |
So the meaning behind the details of what he says is what the foundation, the understanding 00:01:24.320 |
of salvation and the result of salvation that it points to. 00:01:27.680 |
So if you don't know the details and you're not catching the details, then yeah, I mean, 00:01:33.240 |
the book of Leviticus is just, you're going to leave it with the same thing that you came 00:01:41.760 |
So, again, it's just an encouragement to you to do your best to read it a few times, know 00:01:45.920 |
the details, at least know the outline so that when I say that this offering is a bull 00:01:50.800 |
offering and so what is the distinction between this bull offering and the goat offering and 00:01:54.800 |
how is it different from the peace offering and the burnt offering? 00:01:58.040 |
Like what is the significance of the burnt offering? 00:02:19.160 |
Everything that you command us, we know that it has meaning. 00:02:26.800 |
It gives us strength, Lord God, to live lives that are Godly. 00:02:31.320 |
We desire to reflect who you are in how we think, what we do, what we pursue. 00:02:39.480 |
I pray, Father God, that the washing of our regeneration will be more than just the general 00:02:45.400 |
push, Lord, to heaven, that the more we understand who you are, that those are the very things 00:02:57.240 |
We pray that you would bless the time that we have and that your word would have a powerful 00:03:01.720 |
impact on our heart, that our fellowship would cause us, Lord God, to be spurred on toward 00:03:12.160 |
So if we were to look at Leviticus chapter 4, 5-13, obviously we're talking about the 00:03:22.160 |
Generally speaking, what is the purpose of these sacrifices? 00:03:35.880 |
To atone for sins, to deal with the particular sins of God's people. 00:03:53.120 |
Remember we talked about that in the very beginning, in introduction, how the book of 00:03:57.000 |
Exodus ends, and then how Leviticus is introduced, and then how God speaks in the book of Numbers? 00:04:27.280 |
What is the purpose of the book of Leviticus? 00:04:43.520 |
If you remember carefully, you'll probably remember it because I said it so many times 00:04:51.800 |
What was unique about the beginning of the book of Numbers? 00:05:16.720 |
And so the book of Exodus, he came down from the mountain, he's dwelling, right? 00:05:21.600 |
He's about to make his dwelling on the tent, in the tent, right? 00:05:28.080 |
Number tells us that he's in and he invites people to come into the tent, right? 00:05:32.000 |
So you see this progression of a holy God who's drawing near to his people and he's 00:05:37.040 |
preparing all of these sacrifices for what purpose? 00:05:50.040 |
To draw closer so that a holy God can dwell with sinful people. 00:05:53.680 |
That's the whole reason why sins are being atoned for because a holy God and sinful people 00:06:01.840 |
So the only way that God could be with his people is through the atonement of their sins. 00:06:07.000 |
And so that's what all this is for, is so that God can dwell with us. 00:06:15.840 |
If the purpose of atonement is so that he can dwell with us, what is the purpose of 00:06:30.160 |
For atoning for our sins, to keep us from hell, so that the wrath of God may be covered, 00:06:34.840 |
all of that is true, but what is the ultimate purpose? 00:06:44.360 |
Because all the judgment that we know, hell, wrath of God, all of this came as a result 00:06:49.880 |
of being separated from God because of our sins. 00:06:55.280 |
And so there had to be an answer to the sin, and that's why God was atoning for our sins. 00:06:59.760 |
So this whole drama in the book of Exodus, Leviticus, book of Numbers, Deuteronomy, all 00:07:04.520 |
of it is to deal with man's sin in order for the holy God to draw near to us. 00:07:12.400 |
Now I want you to keep that in mind because that gives you the overarching purpose of 00:07:18.120 |
So if you say that you are saved and your sins are atoned for and yet there is no evidence 00:07:23.960 |
of your relationship with God, you know we say, cliche, it's not a religion, it's about 00:07:34.160 |
So if God atoned for sins and yet he never shows up, there's no need for atonement because 00:07:39.520 |
if God is not there, there's no need for atonement. 00:07:43.400 |
Only reason why they need atonement is because God and sinful man can't be together. 00:07:48.120 |
And the reason why there's hell is because the ultimate ramification of sin and holiness 00:07:54.960 |
when we die is going to be separated permanently. 00:07:58.280 |
As far as it can be separated from God's presence. 00:08:04.760 |
So the book of Leviticus is a detailed description of how he's going to deal with sin. 00:08:11.880 |
So he doesn't just say, you know what, you're rebelling against God, God's going to cover 00:08:16.720 |
He does do that, generally speaking, but he goes into detailed explanation of what sin 00:08:29.480 |
What does he think about when he sins or she sins or they sin? 00:08:33.240 |
What particular animal is going to be sacrificed for whose sin and for what purpose? 00:08:38.280 |
And what area of the temple needs to be cleansed because of your sin? 00:08:43.200 |
So every one of these things is a detailed description, like a surgeon going in. 00:08:48.480 |
He doesn't just cut in, it's like, oh is that where the cancer is? 00:08:57.120 |
The detailed part of what sin is he dealing with. 00:09:00.280 |
So in each one of these sacrifices, it's like God is looking through a microscope and he's 00:09:05.600 |
causing you to look through it and it is revelation of how God sees sin and what God is going 00:09:15.040 |
So typically when we think of sin, we just think of sin or we've fallen short of God's 00:09:19.320 |
glory, but the way that God describes sin is much more precise than that. 00:09:25.880 |
And I think part of the reason why there is this general just kind of brushing over sin 00:09:30.360 |
and a general brushing over atonement and why our salvation and redemption, why a lot 00:09:36.300 |
of people, it doesn't hit us like it ought to, is because we have a very elementary understanding 00:09:44.880 |
And we have a very elementary understanding of our salvation. 00:09:49.080 |
God loved us unconditionally, Jesus died for our sins, the end. 00:09:56.680 |
But that's just like saying one plus one equals two, so now I know math. 00:10:04.920 |
But the more detailed you look at it, you start building on top of that where God begins 00:10:09.360 |
to reveal what he sees and his remedy for that. 00:10:13.920 |
So the end result of that, that you have a clear understanding of what Jesus did on the 00:10:18.200 |
cross and what it is that exactly he accomplished. 00:10:23.080 |
So all of this to say is that the details are important. 00:10:28.560 |
And so I want you guys to wrestle with the details. 00:10:31.120 |
Even if you don't have the answers, I want you to ask the details. 00:10:34.800 |
Because God didn't just give these details to confuse us. 00:10:40.760 |
Some of it we are aware of, some of it is a guess, some of it may remain a mystery. 00:10:45.440 |
But the more you ask, the more you search, the more you're going to be able to understand 00:10:50.000 |
what God thinks of sin and how he remedies that. 00:10:59.920 |
The purpose of the sin offering is atonement for sins, was for Holy God to dwell among 00:11:06.800 |
It was not simply to help people live a better life. 00:11:10.900 |
And that is no different today, as I have already mentioned. 00:11:13.500 |
The whole purpose of redemption is so that we can draw near to him. 00:11:19.520 |
He drew near to us because we couldn't draw near to him, so in order that we may draw 00:11:27.280 |
So if you enjoy your salvation from a distance, you don't really understand what you have 00:11:34.760 |
I summon a reasonable response when we understand what it is that we have in him is to make 00:11:42.100 |
every effort to come to him if he really is our life and treasure. 00:11:46.680 |
So the purpose of all the sin offerings, all the offerings, was so that Holy God could 00:11:52.840 |
Specifically, sin is not only a breaking of the law, but also pollution. 00:11:58.400 |
And I think this particular offering details that. 00:12:06.400 |
Sin is not just, I broke the law and so I should have gotten an A, but I got a B or 00:12:17.320 |
Part of the reason why there is attraction to sin is because we don't understand what 00:12:25.440 |
We think, "Oh, we did something we shouldn't have done, so we did it. 00:12:30.080 |
We confessed our sins and we're done with it." 00:12:34.920 |
I used this illustration before, but part of sanctification is recognizing sin from 00:12:43.840 |
If you were eating something that you wouldn't normally eat, so I don't want to ruin your 00:12:50.040 |
appetite, but let's say, I'm just going to, hot dog, right? 00:12:55.120 |
Let's say as an hot dog, because this is the reality, there's a certain amount of excrement 00:13:04.200 |
They can't 100% clean it, so they allowed a certain amount, certain small, small percentage 00:13:38.040 |
1% of the hot dog that you're eating is excrement. 00:13:51.600 |
Most of us will not eat it, because the thought of eating excrement is going to keep you away, 00:13:56.440 |
unless you're starving to death, and the only way to survive is to eat this hot dog, right? 00:14:02.320 |
The reason why he goes through this detail of describing these sins is because he's trying 00:14:11.560 |
And when our understanding of sin is from his perspective, it would be like running 00:14:27.240 |
A man who repents and falls back is like what? 00:14:36.440 |
That's how God describes a man who runs back to his sin. 00:14:43.560 |
So the whole point of all of this is to reveal to us that sin to a holy God and to holy people 00:14:57.120 |
So that's why he doesn't just describe sin as in rebelling against God or you just missed 00:15:03.120 |
He goes into the detailed description of what that is. 00:15:08.000 |
So every little part of this, so think about if you were an Israelite and he said, "If 00:15:13.600 |
you want to have a relationship with me, you got to go through these rituals and they have 00:15:16.080 |
to kill these animals, you know, and they have to make these sacrifices and you see 00:15:20.040 |
blood and your hand gets dirty, they sprinkle it everywhere. 00:15:24.360 |
And this is a part of a day-to-day scene in the nation of Israel. 00:15:29.600 |
Do you think that made an impact on people on how they viewed sin? 00:15:35.440 |
Yeah, it was because it was meant to be illustrated. 00:15:39.400 |
God didn't just want them to hear about sin, he wanted them to see it. 00:15:49.960 |
He wanted them to experience this in every way. 00:15:53.440 |
There's a reason why he kept all the tribes in equal distance from this tent because he 00:15:58.560 |
wanted them to see what it is that you need to be atoned for, right? 00:16:06.320 |
So God, not only does he take it seriously, he wants his people to take it seriously, 00:16:13.400 |
And that's why these details are here because he wants you to know beyond just it's dirty. 00:16:28.240 |
They drop it on the ground with all this hair. 00:16:31.640 |
He's describing the filthiness of the sin that requires these sacrifices over and over 00:16:40.680 |
This sin offering in particular is a description of that pollution. 00:16:45.980 |
What it does to them, what it does to the nation of Israel. 00:16:50.120 |
It's not simply a personal affair, but corporate. 00:16:56.920 |
The offering also reveals a degree of sin based upon the individual knowledge of the 00:17:02.040 |
sin and the individual position of standing in the nation of Israel. 00:17:07.280 |
So not only is it sin, he says there's different degrees of sin based upon who you are. 00:17:14.600 |
If you're a priest, if you're a leader of Israel, a common person, or if it was a collective 00:17:23.960 |
And if you read it, you would have noticed that based upon your standing in the nation 00:17:28.480 |
of Israel and before God, the sin offering that you needed to give was larger. 00:17:35.040 |
It was a bull offering without blemish, it was a bull, it was a goat without blemish, 00:17:53.840 |
It doesn't mean that there's some sins that God doesn't mind. 00:18:00.200 |
But there's these degrees of sin where it required more. 00:18:06.600 |
So again, this particular offering, it helps us to understand sin from God's perspective. 00:18:19.400 |
So there's three parts of this, and before we get into it, I'm just going to give you 00:18:24.760 |
The ritual of the sin, it highlights whose sin is atoning for, what animal is going to 00:18:33.040 |
be sacrificed for that purpose, and where the purification needs to take place. 00:18:41.360 |
I didn't put that up there, but those are the three outlined. 00:18:43.880 |
Who sin is atoning for, what animal is being sacrificed to atone for their sins, and where 00:18:52.440 |
So the first one, this offering is the most detailed as to whose sin is being sanctified 00:19:01.560 |
The anointed priest most likely is referring to the high priest, not simply any priest. 00:19:10.320 |
And again, there is some discussion on this, but most commentators believe that this is 00:19:22.640 |
Even above the whole congregation, he's the number one. 00:19:25.560 |
So if this high priest sins, these are the things. 00:19:28.920 |
And his sin is much more serious, because he's a high priest who was chosen to represent 00:19:36.560 |
Ultimately, the high priest was an office that Jesus himself was going to fulfill in 00:19:55.400 |
But let me explain briefly, just in case you think the leaders may only refer to just the 00:20:04.640 |
Anybody who's in any kind of leadership is under this category, whether it's a large 00:20:11.240 |
So you could be a leader of your tribe, you could be a leader of a particular family, 00:20:21.200 |
Anybody who has any kind of leadership where you're representing God to the people and 00:20:24.720 |
people to God, whether you are a priest or you're a deacon or any kind of leadership, 00:20:31.320 |
would fall into that kind of category, where people are looking to you for guidance of 00:20:36.040 |
any kind, that would fall into that category. 00:20:39.120 |
And then the final one would be the common people of Israel. 00:20:48.600 |
This is the different categories that are listed out for us. 00:20:54.760 |
The type of animals differ based upon who it's being sacrificed for, and obviously in 00:20:59.360 |
decreasing order, you have the bull without blemish for the anointed priest, which would 00:21:08.720 |
have been the most expensive sacrifice, would have been the bull. 00:21:12.480 |
An average person probably would not even be able to afford this. 00:21:16.920 |
This is something that would require a great deal of money. 00:21:20.200 |
So when a high priest, when he makes, he needs to be, his sins need to be atoned for, they 00:21:28.760 |
A bull is also offered for the whole congregation, again, because of the sheer size and number. 00:21:37.200 |
A leader sinned, a male goat without blemish. 00:21:40.000 |
Remember we talked about that before, the male goat was, anything male was considered 00:21:45.040 |
of more value than the females, at least in the sacrificial system. 00:21:48.980 |
And then the last thing for the common people sin, a female goat or lamb without blemish 00:21:54.720 |
So you can see in almost a decreasing order of value, going from the priest, the congregation, 00:22:04.520 |
to leaders of any kind, and then a lay person. 00:22:24.200 |
Degrees of sin, is it taught in the New Testament? 00:22:30.400 |
Or are all sins the same in the New Testament? 00:22:54.280 |
Absolutely, the New Testament does talk about different degrees of sin. 00:23:07.000 |
The New Testament describes that there are degrees of sin. 00:23:15.560 |
God doesn't just see sins as one blanket statement of immorality. 00:23:24.920 |
If they were poor, he permitted them to bring two turtle doves or two pigeons. 00:23:31.360 |
And even if that was too much, he gave an allowance to give a tenth of an effa, basically 00:23:42.320 |
So again, like all of these little details, it's God making provision for everybody. 00:23:54.760 |
I remember the first time going through this, thinking to myself, "Why does this holy God 00:24:00.400 |
I mean, it's one thing for him to go and atone for the sins of sinners. 00:24:07.640 |
I mean, you know in the New Testament, he says that he counts the hair on our head? 00:24:20.880 |
That if you can't afford this, then bring this. 00:24:24.120 |
And if that's not enough, and if you're financially strapped, and you can't do that. 00:24:27.480 |
So he made provision for the poorest of the poor people to be able to come and atone for 00:24:31.080 |
their sins, so that everyone would be able to have access for him. 00:24:36.600 |
And I remember the first time thinking through this, it's like, "Why does he care?" 00:24:42.720 |
The fact that he would even care for a king, somebody noble and moral, but just the poorest 00:24:47.360 |
of the poor person, he's concerned about them? 00:24:50.200 |
That he would go through this trouble to make provisions? 00:24:53.000 |
And then later on, he talks about how the foreigners are traveling through their land, 00:24:58.000 |
Make sure you leave the corners of when you harvest, just leave that alone for them to 00:25:02.400 |
I mean, you're talking about, you know when the Bible talks about how God cares for us 00:25:07.000 |
like a nursing mother, and even if they forget, I will not forget you, right? 00:25:12.760 |
I mean, his love is so intricate and so detailed, and he's caring for the people that you would 00:25:21.240 |
Foreigners are traveling through the land, these Gentiles are going to come defile the 00:25:25.240 |
They're poor people, they can't afford anything? 00:25:27.240 |
And he said he made provisions for them, right? 00:25:33.640 |
He tells the fat portions were to be burned and was to be a soothing aroma for the Lord, 00:25:40.080 |
So every time these sacrifices are made, this aroma that kind of went throughout the camp, 00:25:47.200 |
This atonement that was taking place because of these sacrifices, they didn't just see 00:26:01.440 |
To God and to the nation of Israel, that God is able to draw near because of this. 00:26:08.200 |
And it says the rest of the animals, including its skin, flesh, head, legs, entrails, and 00:26:13.600 |
dung was taken outside the camp and burned beside the ash sheep. 00:26:21.240 |
Even that, even something that seems like if you just read this without really thinking 00:26:26.240 |
through and it's like, well, he took these things and he threw it outside in the camp 00:26:32.640 |
You know, if you didn't understand where it was, I think some of you guys already know 00:26:36.120 |
you know what this ultimately points to because you probably studied it before. 00:26:40.480 |
But if you didn't know that and you were just reading through it, you would think like, 00:26:43.400 |
oh, okay, you know, he, you know, all these details, what does this, any of this mean? 00:26:48.120 |
But even in that detail, right, it's revealed. 00:27:15.680 |
Something that seems so, you know, insignificant, but when you understand redemptive history, 00:27:24.560 |
that little statement here where he says take this and burn it outside the camp had significance. 00:27:29.520 |
In verse 11 to 13, it says, "For the blood, for the bodies of those animals whose blood 00:27:34.940 |
is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside 00:27:41.840 |
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own 00:27:47.640 |
"Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured." 00:27:51.800 |
So even this thing that seems as trivial as just something passing by and it says make 00:27:57.840 |
sure you, after you do all of this and take all of this and take it outside the camp, 00:28:01.560 |
it was a foreshadowing of Jesus coming, right? 00:28:04.560 |
That he was going to be crucified outside the camp. 00:28:06.840 |
He's calling his people to come out and join him outside the camp, right? 00:28:12.560 |
So nothing, even the things that we may not fully understand, there's meaning behind it. 00:28:18.980 |
And this is the reason why I encourage you to look at the details. 00:28:25.120 |
We may not be Bible scholars to be able to catch everything, but what little that you 00:28:32.000 |
That there's nothing that he said that's wasted. 00:28:34.160 |
That even in that, it was pointing and preparing for Christ. 00:28:42.960 |
The sprinkling of the blood was different based upon who they were cleansing. 00:28:47.160 |
So he would say to take the blood and to sprinkle it in different places based upon the different 00:28:55.160 |
He said the anointed priest and the whole congregation, the priest will take some blood 00:28:58.560 |
of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting. 00:29:01.880 |
And then the second part of where it says the priest shall dip his finger in the blood 00:29:05.400 |
and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the Lord in from the veil of the sanctuary. 00:29:18.040 |
Sprinkling the blood with the holy place indicates that the pollution caused by the priest or 00:29:21.600 |
the whole congregation was more serious than a layman's sin because he didn't require this 00:29:30.040 |
He only required this where they need to go in, sprinkle the veil. 00:29:48.640 |
You have a picture of this is what a tabernacle would look like. 00:29:54.160 |
It may stretch from maybe one side of our building to the X and maybe from this stage 00:30:00.960 |
But in the middle of that, so this is kind of like what you would see from the top and 00:30:07.000 |
So if you look at it, you see, you can't see it now. 00:30:17.960 |
Anyway, you see where the arc, can you see the arc? 00:30:22.420 |
You see that box within the box, the rectangle? 00:30:25.040 |
And within that rectangle, there's a outside squiggle line and inside squiggle line. 00:30:30.400 |
The inside squiggle line is the veil that he's talking about. 00:30:34.160 |
And that inside squiggle line divides between the Holy of Holies and the Holy place. 00:30:39.400 |
So the Holy of Holies is where the arc of the covenant is, right? 00:30:46.560 |
And it was supposed to be a symbolic presence of God's throne seated on that seat. 00:30:51.960 |
And so only on the day of atonement, once a year, the high priest comes into the Holy 00:31:03.460 |
And so it was meant to atone for sins, right? 00:31:06.540 |
So this particular sin, if it was a sin from the high priest or the congregation as a whole, 00:31:18.160 |
And this was only required of if it was the high priest or the congregation. 00:31:25.320 |
It had a bigger impact on the presence of God in the nation of Israel than if a lay 00:31:38.040 |
So again, all of this to point to God's preciseness over sin. 00:31:42.000 |
The priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar. 00:31:44.960 |
And then a leader of Israel and the common people, the priest shall take some of the 00:31:49.120 |
blood, sin offering, and they'll put it on the altar of burnt offering. 00:32:02.320 |
So their sins also needed to be atoned for, but it wasn't as serious because they didn't 00:32:12.520 |
What happened with that veil when Jesus was crucified? 00:32:20.760 |
So the sprinkling of the blood on that veil basically meant that the presence of God, 00:32:25.600 |
where people would enter even once a year, had to be cleansed. 00:32:36.920 |
Their sins was more significant because their sins tainted access to God. 00:32:42.960 |
So that veil had to be sprinkled with blood to be purified, right? 00:32:49.640 |
Sin still needed to be atoned for, but again, all of this is to kind of reveal to us how 00:32:55.360 |
And the remaining blood for all the different sacrifices were poured out at the foot of 00:33:01.320 |
And then Hebrews 13, 11, 13, "The bodies of the animals whose blood has brought into the 00:33:16.120 |
Every thing that God called for this offering to be made. 00:33:21.120 |
And this is the part that is mentioned over and over again, right? 00:33:32.000 |
So this is not like you can go and sin willfully and come before God and just make some sacrifices 00:33:43.880 |
And if we're not careful, we can see our sins that way. 00:33:47.920 |
We just, "Oh, we just commit sin because God is so gracious and loving. 00:33:52.680 |
God forgive me of my sins and then I'm free," right? 00:33:56.920 |
We just don't see the weight of the sin because we don't understand how God views sin. 00:34:01.920 |
And so we hear this blanket statement, "God is so loving. 00:34:10.840 |
There's nothing you can do for God to love you any more than he already does." 00:34:17.120 |
And then so you have this vague understanding of sin. 00:34:20.160 |
And so a lot of people commit sin not understanding the consequences of this and how the Bible 00:34:25.800 |
describes this sin and thinking that, "Well, if I said the right things, you know, I just 00:34:33.640 |
I want you to understand, like, this is the reason why this book of Leviticus is so important 00:34:39.360 |
because it reveals God's heart and how he sees sins. 00:34:45.320 |
He specifically mentions five separate times here and it's six separate times in this that 00:34:59.200 |
I know some of you guys are thinking, "A lot of my sins are intentional," right? 00:35:04.320 |
How many of you have not sinned ever intentionally? 00:35:10.520 |
Does that mean that any sin that you sinned, knowing that it was sin, there is no forgiveness? 00:35:29.560 |
If you read this, it's like, "Oh, it's for unintentional sin." 00:35:41.560 |
You didn't understand forgiveness, but you just moved on. 00:35:49.920 |
You can live your whole life not understanding who God is and what he has done and how our 00:35:55.040 |
sins are atoned for, why it's atoned for, what he accomplished in his atonement, if 00:36:02.760 |
You can live all your life not knowing Christ, assuming you know Christ, because you never 00:36:09.440 |
You just assumed because you went to church, right? 00:36:12.960 |
So I keep saying the same thing over and over again because it's true. 00:36:20.600 |
Because there's a lot of people born and raised in the church who serve, give, sacrifice, 00:36:26.400 |
go to missions, and are not Christians all the time. 00:36:32.480 |
So, again, these are questions that we need to ask. 00:36:36.160 |
If he says these are sins for inadvertent sin, unintentional sin, what does he mean 00:36:44.280 |
The repeated phrase "unintentional sins" means not that sinners were ignorant of the 00:36:49.000 |
law, but that they were ignorant of having violated the law. 00:36:56.440 |
If ignorance of the law was not an excuse, if we define sin as a violation of known law, 00:37:03.920 |
the more ignorant you are of the law, the God-dear you would be. 00:37:11.680 |
If somebody wanted to say, "We're only guilty of the things that we know of." 00:37:18.000 |
And then when it gets revealed to us, then we're guilty. 00:37:33.760 |
If you apply that in a wrong way, you would completely get a false gospel. 00:37:38.280 |
Can you imagine that being applied to the gospel today? 00:37:41.680 |
How would that be applied if you understood that wrongly? 00:37:48.400 |
As long as you stay ignorant, you're innocent. 00:38:02.320 |
As long as you stay ignorant, you're innocent. 00:38:04.520 |
This blows that out of the water because we're going to look into that. 00:38:08.720 |
Another way that this could falsely be applied is people who've never heard the gospel. 00:38:18.440 |
If they didn't know, they should be innocent because they were never exposed to it. 00:38:24.520 |
Again, my encouragement to you to really study the details because the details revealed to 00:38:33.080 |
The reality is explained in the New Testament, but these kind of point to that to help us 00:38:39.800 |
Again, you know, I have a few verses just to kind of highlight. 00:38:44.120 |
It says, "For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it 00:38:48.680 |
For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly 00:38:52.320 |
perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they 00:38:58.920 |
He said there is nobody who is absolutely ignorant because God made it plain to them. 00:39:05.480 |
There's no innocent person because of ignorance. 00:39:08.800 |
We are ignorant because we choose to be ignorant. 00:39:12.720 |
They suppress the truth because they delight in the darkness rather than the light. 00:39:16.760 |
Again, Psalm 139, 23-24, this man's repentance is, "Search me, O God, and know my heart. 00:39:23.200 |
Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in 00:39:28.360 |
He's asking God, "Are there sins that I'm unaware of? 00:39:38.920 |
Even when it is unintentional, even when it is ignorant, sin, there is a subjective aspect 00:40:01.240 |
I want you to really, like, let that sink in. 00:40:06.360 |
There is a subjective aspect of sin where your knowledge made that sin more sinful. 00:40:12.760 |
But there is an objective aspect of sin where anything that violates who he is and anything 00:40:17.400 |
that violates his law, whether you did it intentionally, unintentionally, is still 00:40:32.440 |
We typically think that sin is only sin if it is of our heart. 00:40:39.280 |
When our heart is engaged, obviously, it makes it more serious. 00:40:46.920 |
Number 15, 28 through 31, it contrasts between unintentional sin and then intentional sin. 00:40:55.400 |
And the intentional sin, they call it high hand. 00:41:00.640 |
I'm going to have to come back to all of this. 00:41:05.520 |
So Numbers 15, 28 through 31, he makes a distinction between intentional and unintentional. 00:41:14.440 |
It says, "And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a 00:41:17.520 |
mistake when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. 00:41:23.560 |
You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among 00:41:27.920 |
the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them. 00:41:32.400 |
But the person who does anything with high hand," and that means it was willful, it was 00:41:37.680 |
deliberate, "whether he is native or a sojourner reviles the Lord, and that person shall be 00:41:44.420 |
Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person 00:41:47.600 |
shall be utterly cut off, his iniquity shall be on him." 00:41:51.360 |
So he makes a distinction between an unintentional sin where it was not premeditated, it was 00:41:56.280 |
not calculated, and he may have been even ignorant of it, and then when that becomes 00:42:01.960 |
known to him, then he repents and he comes and gives a sacrifice. 00:42:06.240 |
But he said a man who commits a high hand sin, meaning it was intentional, calculated 00:42:16.840 |
Hope that makes you nervous, because we're not done. 00:42:22.920 |
You should be asking, if you stop here, you should be asking, "Oh no, we're all in trouble." 00:42:31.920 |
I don't know if this is the, oh no, this is not the verse we want to get to. 00:42:40.960 |
The sinner who sins with high hand intentionally will not be forgiven, cut off. 00:42:45.840 |
And so an example that he gives us in Numbers 15, 32-35 is a man who breaks the Sabbath 00:42:56.360 |
How many of you knew that breaking the Sabbath was a capital punishment? 00:43:07.440 |
Breaking the Sabbath was a capital punishment. 00:43:10.360 |
And this comes right after when he says, "Unintentional sins are forgiven, intentional sin won't be 00:43:19.760 |
And cut off meaning that he's going to, there's capital punishment, right? 00:43:25.360 |
And so the first example that he gives, to give an example of a high hand sin, is breaking 00:43:33.880 |
Why do you think the breaking of the Sabbath was considered a high hand sin? 00:43:43.640 |
I want you to think these things through, right? 00:43:48.880 |
Because from our perspective, it doesn't seem that big of a deal, right? 00:43:54.480 |
It doesn't, I mean, he's breaking it, he didn't kill anybody. 00:43:58.680 |
By the way, intentional murder comes up next, right? 00:44:04.400 |
So premeditated murder, breaking the Sabbath, has equal punishment. 00:44:12.120 |
Why would these two sins have equal punishment? 00:44:15.560 |
Clearly premeditated murder deserves capital punishment. 00:44:23.720 |
So we have to understand what he means by high hand then, right? 00:44:30.640 |
The reason why the breaking of the Sabbath and premeditated murder, he didn't say killing, 00:44:39.040 |
Breaking of the Sabbath where he said over and over and over again, the significance 00:44:48.680 |
Sin is not, the gravity of sin isn't what it does to us. 00:44:58.600 |
The gravity of sin increases based upon what it does to him. 00:45:08.760 |
If you murdered an adult, it would be a grievous sin. 00:45:11.880 |
If you murdered many children, it would be much more grievous, right? 00:45:17.700 |
So even within us, we have different degrees of what we would consider to be heinous. 00:45:25.120 |
So if there are degrees of heinousness, the greatest of sin is the one that directly offends 00:45:35.920 |
Breaking of the Sabbath was a willful rebellion against God. 00:45:52.120 |
Now I want you to understand in the context of what sin caused the fall of mankind. 00:46:08.420 |
Eating a fruit that God told them not to eat was what brought the condemnation of mankind 00:46:20.800 |
If you take that and then you apply it here, it's like eating a fruit. 00:46:28.200 |
How we understand sin is from our perspective. 00:46:34.840 |
So I hear people say foolish, foolish things. 00:46:42.360 |
As if sin is determined by a fallen heart that the Bible tells us not to trust because 00:46:52.280 |
And to determine whether a sin is heinous or not, or it is acceptable or not, based 00:46:57.280 |
upon if it bothers me or doesn't bother me, in and of itself is supreme arrogance. 00:47:04.640 |
It's supreme arrogance because the core of human rebellion is to say, "I'm at the center. 00:47:13.360 |
We may never articulate that, but that statement of describing sin as with me at the center 00:47:19.640 |
and other human beings is at the core of human rebellion. 00:47:25.320 |
That's not how God sees sin, and that's not how sin is. 00:47:30.040 |
So a heinous sin is a sin that looks to God and says, "No." 00:47:36.080 |
Whether it's eating of a fruit, whether it is gathering sticks or premeditated murder, 00:47:54.080 |
So these details matter because it reveals to us what sin is. 00:48:02.120 |
And until we recognize what sin is, there is no repentance. 00:48:05.200 |
Because if you look at it, "So it doesn't bother me." 00:48:07.120 |
If it doesn't bother you, you don't need to repent. 00:48:12.240 |
How can you repent of something that you're not sorrowful about? 00:48:14.640 |
How can you repent of something you do not see? 00:48:16.680 |
There's a reason why when David repents, remember what he says? 00:48:28.880 |
We look at that and say, "He sinned against Bathsheba. 00:48:34.400 |
It seems unfair and unrighteous for him to say, "To you and you alone have I sinned." 00:48:41.640 |
Because we look at it from our perspective, because he wronged people. 00:48:45.840 |
We're more offended by what he did to another human being than what he did to God. 00:48:54.120 |
Because of our skewed, sinful perspective of how we view sin. 00:49:05.640 |
So this offering, it gives the basis of us understanding what he came to atone for and 00:49:23.280 |
The defiant sin is done willfully and without repentance. 00:49:26.240 |
It is a willful rejection of the Lord, Lord God, and his law. 00:49:30.640 |
So it's not simply that, "Oh, you didn't know and all of a sudden it came to knowledge." 00:49:39.360 |
And so when you recognize that you sinned and you become aware of it, God gives a provision 00:49:50.560 |
The defiant sin is done willfully without repentance. 00:49:52.920 |
It is settled rejection of the Lord, God, and his law. 00:49:56.480 |
The unintentional sin, when brought to knowledge, causes a deep sorrow in the believer's heart. 00:50:09.360 |
"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no 00:50:17.200 |
Once it has been revealed and you refuse to repent, there is no other way of salvation. 00:50:23.240 |
Basically you're rejecting Christ's atonement because you're refusing to repent. 00:50:26.640 |
"But a fearful expectation of judgment, a fury of fire that will consume the adversary." 00:50:31.400 |
And here, before I even read that, here's a problem that we have in our generation where 00:50:35.680 |
we want our repentance to be taken seriously when we really haven't repented. 00:50:46.480 |
We are bothered when people question our repentance when oftentimes we really never repented. 00:50:55.520 |
We have no intention to turn away from our sin. 00:51:01.600 |
There's a willful rebellion happening in our heart. 00:51:05.640 |
And because we said, "Forgive us," you should take it seriously. 00:51:13.920 |
True repentance is when you recognize that there's a rebellion in my heart against God 00:51:27.480 |
Unintentional sin is you're trying to conquer it. 00:51:33.240 |
We have every intention to flee from this sin. 00:51:38.680 |
And so you come before God and there is provision made for us, but an intentional willful sin 00:51:44.320 |
where there is no changing of heart, there is no changing of life, he says there is no 00:51:48.000 |
repentance because that's not real repentance. 00:51:50.000 |
"Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy and the evidence of two 00:51:55.520 |
How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the 00:51:59.440 |
Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he has sanctified and has 00:52:20.160 |
So therefore don't make me feel guilty is absolute heresy and is not new. 00:52:29.240 |
If any of you struggle with that, it is not new. 00:52:32.840 |
It has always existed in the church because the primary work of the devil is to pervert 00:52:37.720 |
the gospel because if you pervert the gospel, you pervert entrance into the throne of grace. 00:52:53.140 |
This is how God revealed himself, the nation of Israel. 00:53:07.440 |
The specific sins that would require the sacrifice are fourfold, at least mentioned in chapter 00:53:12.800 |
If anyone sins in that he hears a public adoration, meaning a specific thing that they need to 00:53:22.480 |
testify against and they do not do so, he says that is a sin. 00:53:26.800 |
If anyone touches an unclean thing, whether a carcass or unclean wild animal or carcass 00:53:31.040 |
of unclean livestock or carcass of unclean swarming things, that is a sin. 00:53:37.440 |
If he touches human uncleanness of whatever sort of uncleanness, maybe with which one 00:53:47.080 |
And this is the reason why Peter was so afraid to touch the unclean animals. 00:53:54.400 |
He's going to give a description of what makes a man unclean, what animals are unclean, what 00:53:59.840 |
So he tells them you can't touch any of that. 00:54:03.080 |
So I'm not going to get too deep into it today. 00:54:04.760 |
But he says whatever God says is unclean is unclean. 00:54:09.800 |
And then when you become unclean, your access to God becomes unclean, needs to be purified. 00:54:14.800 |
And if you happen to be a priest, high priest, if you happen to be a congregation, then the 00:54:24.620 |
If a pastor or the leaders, if we live in sin, whether you think or not, God sees it 00:54:31.040 |
because you've taken on that position, there is a greater weightiness of that position 00:54:42.080 |
So it is a tremendous, tremendous sin for somebody who represents God in any capacity, 00:54:49.760 |
especially from the pulpit, to misrepresent God. 00:54:55.240 |
And I always think about Moses at the end of his life where he's just sick and tired 00:55:04.880 |
And he's like there sometimes he's pleading on their behalf, "Lord, how can you send us 00:55:09.600 |
You know, everybody's going to be laughing at us. 00:55:16.560 |
And then at the end of his life, he's just had it. 00:55:19.640 |
And then he's like, and God says, "Give him the water." 00:55:25.560 |
He comes and he's like, "Here's your darn water." 00:55:28.880 |
I'm not exactly sure what he did, but later on God says he's punished because he didn't 00:55:38.880 |
And as a result of that, he doesn't get into the promised land. 00:55:45.000 |
And Moses wanted so much to see the promised land. 00:55:48.320 |
And he pleads with God, "Look at that beautiful land. 00:55:54.840 |
And then he banishes him because it was such a great sin for him to misrepresent God. 00:56:01.960 |
All of this is embedded into this particular offering. 00:56:08.320 |
Anyone who makes a rash oath, either to do evil or to good, if you made a vow and you 00:56:14.160 |
don't fulfill it, he said it was also considered sin. 00:56:28.360 |
Not everyone, clearly the scripture says, should presume to be a teacher. 00:56:36.360 |
That servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his 00:56:42.380 |
But the one who did not know and did what deserved the beating will receive a light 00:56:47.360 |
Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required. 00:56:49.920 |
And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand more. 00:56:57.160 |
By the nature of who we are, the fact that you are here studying the book of Leviticus, 00:57:03.040 |
this is not something that majority of the people around the world have access to. 00:57:10.760 |
You have pastors in India, all they were given was the Bible and some of them just the New 00:57:18.920 |
And they're taking the literal knowledge that they have and they're risking their lives 00:57:21.920 |
and the health of their families to go and spread the gospel. 00:57:26.260 |
You and I, the fact that you are at a church where the Bible is being taught, you have 00:57:31.120 |
access to the internet, you have fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, 00:57:35.120 |
you are able to come to a building where your children are taken care of, and you have enough 00:57:39.720 |
money to be able to live that you're not sacrificing your family or your job or your comfort to 00:57:44.720 |
be at church and yet to be fed week after week after week after week. 00:57:48.760 |
All of these things are responsibilities that God has given us. 00:57:54.600 |
Because you have more knowledge, more access, more freedom, more encouragement. 00:57:58.960 |
Every once in a while I hear somebody say, "I can't grow because I don't have enough." 00:58:05.700 |
What is it that you do not have enough of that you're going to come before God and say, 00:58:12.680 |
In light of where you are, how can we possibly, how can we possibly with a straight face come 00:58:28.240 |
James 3, 1, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we 00:58:33.640 |
who teach will be judged with greater strictness." 00:58:36.200 |
This is the reason why we don't actively say we're raising up leaders. 00:58:43.400 |
Now obviously there are people who will lead, there are people we ask to lead. 00:58:47.200 |
We don't ask, we don't deliberately say we're raising up leaders. 00:58:50.800 |
Because the Bible says not many of you should presume to be leaders. 00:58:55.160 |
Because there's stricter judgment that's coming upon you. 00:58:57.200 |
So when we appoint leaders, we're not doing them any favor. 00:59:02.880 |
Because the scripture says that the weight of their sin is much greater if we're taking 00:59:11.760 |
So to covet leadership in any capacity is to not to know the weight of what it means 00:59:24.000 |
So what we try to do in the church, we're trying to raise up servants. 00:59:29.440 |
People who will serve, sacrificially serve, people who will mimic who Christ is. 00:59:33.280 |
And in that, if you are leading in serving, you will become a leader. 00:59:41.360 |
We're not raising leaders, we don't see leadership as somebody who's articulate and who has a 00:59:53.280 |
We see leadership as people, first and foremost, who are humble, who's willing to serve and 00:59:58.800 |
And if they are leading in serving, then they could also lead. 01:00:03.440 |
Again, all because the scripture designed leadership that way. 01:00:10.160 |
There's a reason why the last thing Jesus did before he went was to get on his knees. 01:00:14.160 |
Because he knows that our natural human nature is not to serve, but to be served. 01:00:21.200 |
So he's telling his apostles, "I'm going to send you out to preach the gospel, but don't 01:00:31.000 |
And that's probably the greatest advice that I remember from my father going into ministry. 01:00:44.440 |
So if they treat you like Tom, it's because you signed up for it. 01:00:51.160 |
And that's a man who was in ministry for 40, 50 years. 01:00:56.960 |
He said that to me, one, because it's biblical, second, because that's what he experienced. 01:01:03.520 |
The leadership is not something that we covet. 01:01:05.640 |
If you covet that, it's because you don't know how God views this. 01:01:17.780 |
So whenever God puts us together, we're a body of Christ. 01:01:26.000 |
If your finger hurts, it's not just isolated, your whole body hurts. 01:01:29.360 |
1 Corinthians 3.16, the "you" in this passage is plural. 01:01:37.960 |
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. 01:01:40.120 |
For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." 01:01:42.360 |
And the reason why Paul is able to say that, because the Jew would have understood this, 01:01:47.120 |
and he would have immediately seen this picture in Leviticus chapter 4 and 5. 01:01:52.320 |
Because when they sin, it was embedded in them that there was a defilement in the tabernacle. 01:02:05.440 |
Again, two more passages, then we'll wrap up for today. 01:02:10.240 |
Again, these passages, again, point to this sacrifice. 01:02:13.520 |
"He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, 01:02:18.240 |
but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 01:02:22.280 |
For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls, and with ashes 01:02:27.480 |
of hyphor sanctifies for the purification of the flesh," clearly this isn't pointing 01:02:32.760 |
"How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself 01:02:36.760 |
without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" 01:02:43.600 |
So the book of Hebrews is the bridge from the Old Testament to the New. 01:02:50.760 |
"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 01:02:56.080 |
by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his 01:02:59.960 |
flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with true 01:03:04.680 |
heart full of assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, 01:03:12.080 |
Clearly, again, this is in reference to this sacrifice. 01:03:18.560 |
And so all of this, all the details that are mentioned here, it helps us to understand 01:03:26.320 |
Every single one of this, kind of like Jesus is crucified, it's almost like every one of 01:03:33.120 |
The Leviticus is kind of pointing to the bottom. 01:03:41.900 |
And so every aspect of it is a different spotlight on the cross. 01:03:47.600 |
And the more you dig into it, you see different glimpses of what is that we've seen from a 01:03:53.440 |
distance but we get to see it displayed, his glory displayed through the book of Leviticus, 01:03:58.960 |
through Hebrews, through every one of these sacrifices. 01:04:14.120 |
That we would come in awe of who he is and what he has done. 01:04:18.880 |
So that we may worship him in spirit and in truth. 01:04:25.440 |
The discussion questions is, again, is applicational. 01:04:28.800 |
In what ways does a private sin affect the whole church? 01:04:33.160 |
Does knowing that others are struggling with the same sins help you to be more bold in 01:04:37.560 |
fighting the sin or does it cause you to be more relaxed in accepting sin? 01:04:41.880 |
What causes either to happen and how should we strive for the former and not the latter? 01:04:45.840 |
And this is a constant struggle in discipling the church where we don't want to get to a 01:04:51.800 |
point where everybody's living in fear and afraid to be honest with their sins and then 01:04:56.440 |
we don't want to get to the other point where people are so honest that sin doesn't seem 01:05:01.400 |
Where it's just acceptable, we're just a bunch of people who keep sinning and we're okay 01:05:09.840 |
Where we take holiness seriously but at the same time we understand we're sinners in need 01:05:18.640 |
Third, why is it important to confess our sins to one another? 01:05:22.720 |
James 5.16 says, "Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that 01:05:28.040 |
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 01:05:31.160 |
So one of the tools that we are given is the body of Christ to pursue Christ together. 01:05:38.840 |
There's not a single individual who can say, "I don't need these people." 01:05:46.280 |
And so the scripture says that in our struggle against sin that he gave us the body of Christ 01:05:52.560 |
And so one of the things that I'm asking you to do today in Bible study or in your small 01:05:56.560 |
group to as you're discussing that you would end the small group with honest confession. 01:06:05.800 |
So don't try to say something that's actually not there. 01:06:09.960 |
But I know that there's enough of us that if we're honest that there's a lot of things 01:06:20.200 |
You've been just kind of sweeping under the rug and you just kind of like generically 01:06:29.840 |
Maybe you're making some compromises at work. 01:06:33.360 |
Maybe you're getting physical with your girlfriend or somebody that you shouldn't be. 01:06:38.640 |
Whatever it is, you know it's wrong, but the way that you've been dealing with it is you 01:06:43.840 |
just been kind of sweeping under the rug and you've been asking for forgiveness, but you 01:06:49.320 |
really weren't coming to God and seeking to flee. 01:06:56.040 |
And so I'm encouraging you this evening when you come to your groups to be honest, right? 01:07:03.520 |
And if there has been anything willful in your heart saying like, "I'm just going to 01:07:11.440 |
And you haven't really confessed that before God. 01:07:18.480 |
You just kind of swept it under the rug saying like, "Oh, since God is merciful," and you 01:07:24.640 |
If that's been the case, come before our group and be honest and openly confess because we're 01:07:37.400 |
We don't want to say sin is okay, but at the same time, pursuit of holiness can't be an 01:07:51.400 |
If we want to do that, he says to get rid of the ignoble, right? 01:07:57.800 |
So I'm going to pray for us and I'm going to dismiss you to your groups and take some 01:08:03.560 |
And I'm going to pray that the Lord will lead you to fruitful discussion. 01:08:17.000 |
Lord, the more we look at ourself and our inner being, could you have loved us? 01:08:41.320 |
That you would go through all this drama for us. 01:09:06.360 |
Help us to recognize what it is that we have in you so that our lives would truly be a 01:09:13.600 |
reasonable response, a logical response of worship to you. 01:09:19.240 |
That we would live in celebration, in joy, in thankfulness. 01:09:27.560 |
Lord, I pray this evening that you would help us to be open. 01:09:35.200 |
That we would hate sin more than our pride, more than our reputation. 01:09:46.520 |
And I pray for honest discussion, open confession. 01:09:50.720 |
That we would not give the devil even an inch to cause us to hide, to live in shame and 01:10:02.440 |
Knowing Father God that we have your son's blood to atone for our sin. 01:10:08.480 |
Help us Lord God not to hide, but to come forth that we may be free and to be free in