THROUGH THE BIBLE - Leviticu..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So let's begin our reading in Leviticus chapter 5. If anyone sins in that he hears a public adoration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he is seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity.

Or if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether a carcass or an unclean wild animal or a carcass of an unclean livestock or a carcass of an unclean swarming thing, and it's hidden from him and he becomes unclean and he realizes his guilt, or if he touches human uncleanness of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean and it is hidden from him when he comes to know it and realizes his guilt or if anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good and any sort of rash oath that people swear and it is hidden from them when he comes to know it and he realizes his guilt in any of these, when he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has committed, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for his sin. But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed two turtle doves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. He shall bring them to the priest who shall offer the first one for the sin offering. He shall wring its neck from the neck, ring its head, my apologies, from the neck, but shall not sever it completely. And he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar, while the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar.

It is a sin offering. Then he shall offer the second for a burnt offering, according to the rule. And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven. But if he cannot afford two turtle doves or two pigeons, then he shall bring as the offering for the sin that he has committed a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, or for a sin offering. He shall put no oil on it and shall put no frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering.

and he shall bring it to the priest. And the priest shall take a handful of it as a memorial portion and burn this on the altar. On the Lord's food offering, it is a sin offering. Thus, the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed in any one of these things, and he shall be forgiven. And the reminder shall be for the priests as in the grain offering.

The Lord spoke to Moses saying, if anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of the Lord, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation, a ram without blemish of the flock valued in silver shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary for a guilt offering. He shall also make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy things and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to the priest. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven. If anyone sins, doing any of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, though he did not know it, then realizes his guilt, he shall bear his iniquity. He shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish out of the flock, or it's equivalent for a guilt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him for the mistake that he made unintentionally, and he shall be forgiven.

19, it is a guilt offering. He has indeed incurred guilt before the Lord. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Well, this afternoon, brothers and sisters, we come to the fifth and final type of offering or sacrifice in the book of Leviticus, the guilt offering.

which we'll consider just a little bit later, because as you're probably aware already, the first portion of this chapter from verse one through 13, the text is still descriptive of the sin offerings, the sin offerings of the fourth chapter, that chapter that we meditated and considered upon last week. I feel that it would have been best if that portion, the first 13 verses of chapter five may have been integrated into chapter four, And the first seven verses of chapter six, which we haven't read, may have been integrated into the fifth chapter, because I believe that in those verses, in the first seven verses I'm speaking of in chapter six, are also speaking of the guilt offering. Nonetheless, by God's grace, we'll explore together the content of this chapter before us, chapter five, and the thrust of what this chapter is speaking of. And we trust that our Lord will indeed bless his word to our hearts. Now, last week, together, we spent a little bit of time meditating upon the sin offerings.

We saw that sin requires an atonement, shedding of blood, a covering over for forgiveness. But it also had a defiling effect that goes beyond the sinner himself. We saw this in the priest. He was an example that we gave last week. His sin brought guilt upon all of Israel.

Sin has a defiling effect and that contamination requires forgiveness and also purification. The purification, beloved, that decontamination is only to be found through the cleansing of shed blood. Of course, not the blood of bulls or goats. We said that last week. But the New Testament speaks also clearly that the blood of these sacrifices was all pointing towards the shed blood of the once and for all sacrifice, the precious lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

Now our passage this afternoon in the first 13 verses continues the theme of a sin offering, but with four special cases of sin offerings. And in particular, they seem to be sins of omission. especially sin, the first and the last of these four. I see, unlike sins of commission, which are sins we actively do, whether intentional or unintentional, sins of omission are sins when there's sins that we don't do, the things that we don't do that we are meant to do. Basically, they're a lack of actions.

And sometimes, beloved, the lack of one's actions is a sin. This principle is written beautifully in the book of James. If you remember the verse that reads, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him, it is sin. That's the scene. of omission.

And this is evident in verse one. And this first of the four sins that is written for us is withholding the sin of withholding evidence. This could be the case where someone in the, in the camp of Israel was a witness to a crime or a violation and doesn't, and it seems that he doesn't do anything about it. You see, his silence could mean the difference between justice and injustice upon one of his fellow countrymen. but he doesn't do anything about it.

This sort of indifference is a lack of love for neighbor beloved. Now, one may be fearful to testify, and there are many instances that we can think of even in our modern day that we would be fearful to testify in certain situations, but your duty and my duty ought to be to do what is right before the Lord, and that is to love our neighbor. Not doing anything in this case, is sin and that would require a sin sacrifice for these people in Israel. The second and the third example of these pertains to the defilements of being exposed to what is considered unclean. So verse two in particular describes the defilement of a person who comes in contact with unclean animals, in particular dead animals.

these purity laws are further expounded and explained to the people of Israel a little bit later in the book of Leviticus, in fact, in chapter 11. And in verse three of our text here this evening, the sin offered is required when, we're told, for the defilement that is caused by a person who comes in contact with an unclean person, therefore making him or her unclean. See, more details of these human to human defilements are found in chapters 12 through 18 of Liberticus. But some examples of this that I can quickly make for us this evening is when a person comes in contact, for example, with a woman who's just given birth. That's found in chapter 12.

Or in cases of human contact with someone with a skin disease, as described for us in chapters 13 and chapter 14. or making physical contact with someone who has had a bodily discharge as explained in chapter 15. Now, over the coming weeks, we'll explore those chapters and look a little bit deeply into what it means to be ceremonially unclean. But we'll also realize, and we should take note of this, that to be ceremonially unclean doesn't necessarily mean to be sinful because of the uncleanliness. But see, what God was doing is he was teaching this covenant people to distinguish between that which is holy and that which is unholy.

He wanted them to understand and to see what is pure and what is clean. And only that which is pure and clean can dwell in the same camp as the thrice holy God. This is the picture he wanted his people of Israel to see, to see and recognize his holiness. Beloved Leviticus in chapter 10, God says, among those who are near me, I will be sanctified. In other words, I will be holy.

And before all people, I will be glorified. The people are to see that God is indeed holy. And in order for them to see these things, he's given practical instructions of how this plays out so that his word would not be violate. Because even accidental sin or accidentally becoming unclean is sin and requires a sin offering. And it's so clear in these chapters that using the excuse, but I didn't know, just won't cut it.

Beloved, Sin is sin whether one knows it or not. God's law is violated whether one knows it or not. And if God has given his word and he's given his law to these people to refrain from doing certain things, even if we today in our context don't understand why that law was given, if someone violates the law and the word of God, that is sin. And beloved, when that sin is recognized, we're told in our passage, then action is required. Now I want us to think of the context.

How easy, how easy is it for someone to fall into sin? Especially when we think about the context of these Israelites who have come out of Egypt and now are gathering in the wilderness in swarms. There's an estimated one to two million people at the moment in the wilderness at this time. That's a population close to the population of South Australia, beloved. There's no way that everyone could have known that the people they bumped into had bodily discharges that day and had made them ceremonially unclean.

And furthermore, it's not as though it was when they found out they were made unclean. No, no, that's not the case. You see, when they found out they were required to take action with a sin offering, but the sin, the trespass of God's word was committed at the point of contact. When they found out, they realized that they had already sinned. In other words, there are times that they would be sinners.

They had sinned and transgressed against God's law, against his word, and not even had known it. How easy is it to transgress the incredibly high standard of the law of God? Beloved, if you had a heart that beats, it's only a matter of time before you will sin against God. Whether you know it or not, whether I know it or not, when His law is transgressed, we are guilty of sin. Surely, surely these people in Israel, as they offered the sacrifice in faith, they realized that apart from mercy and apart from grace, they have no chance of being made right with a God who is so holy and a God who is angry and indignant against sinners every single day.

And beloved, the fourth of the examples that we're given is found in verse four. when an oath or a vow, whether in anger or evil, whether in anger for evil or for good, is made carelessly or foolishly without thought. Perhaps for any number of reasons, an oath cannot be fulfilled. A great deal of wisdom is given. A great deal of wisdom is given on how oaths are to be given in Deuteronomy 22.

But in a nutshell, this is the thrust and the spirit of what's spoken of there. Unless you're sure that you can fulfill the oath, unless you know you can keep your promise, don't make it in the first place. Otherwise, you will be guilty and it will be required of you. Essentially, let your yes be yes and let your no be no. Don't make promises under emotion, because if you don't fulfill those promises, beloved, it is an affront to God.

It's an offense to God. All four of these examples that require sin offering, all of them require an atonement. But before a sacrifice is offered, beloved, we're told something very important in verse five. that they must, these people who have offended in this way, must confess their sins that they committed. You see, what God requires is a truly repentant heart, a heart that acknowledges the offensiveness of sin before a holy God, no matter how unintentional, no matter how accidental that sin was.

The offering, as it continues, as the text continues, is to be either a lamb or a goat, two turtle doves or two pigeons. And if they can't really, if they really, really can't afford either of those things for the really poor, because provision was made for even the poorest of people to be included in the sacrificial system, they are to offer fine flour. It's meant to, beloved. It's meant to come at a great cost to these people. This sacrificial system is meant to teach them that sin is costly.

But it goes beyond that. Because the right penitent heart, even though that sacrifice is costly, it's not as though these people had an unlimited supply of lambs and goats, and even if it was flour, that was because they couldn't even afford to have two pigeons. but beyond the cost. For those who had circumcised hearts, those who were truly people of faith, they weren't so much concerned with the cost as much as they were concerned with the fact that they offended God. Because beloved, in this, in the sacrificial system, and in the time that we've spent looking at the offerings, we would quickly come to realize that if it's just simply that these people were going through the motions, then all their offerings, all their sacrifices, no matter how expensive they were, were meaningless.

David says something so profound by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Psalms where he says, for you will not delight in sacrifice or I will give it. You're not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifice of God, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not. You see, the attitude of the heart is paramount.

It is of supreme importance of the person offering the sacrifice. Yes, yes, the sacrificial system and the shedding of blood was necessary for the atonement of sin, because without shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sin. That's true. However, many offered the sacrifices, but only those who truly confessed their sins and were repentant with repentant hearts. were actually forgiven of their sins.

So now let's move to the second section of our passage, the section that starts with verse 14. And now we have that section that describes for us the fifth of the five different types of sacrifice. And it's called the guilt or the trespass offering. It's still, we need to realize that it's still speaking of unintentional sin in this chapter. And the word used elsewhere for guilt has been translated, you'll see that in your ESV Bibles, breach of faith.

breach of faith. The guilt is a breach of faith. Now, three instances are listed for us. The first two breaches of faith in chapter five are clearly unintentional sins, but the third instance in chapter six, sins committed against the neighbor, against one's neighbor, sins committed against another person, seem to have a deliberate aspect to them. But we'll be focusing this week on the first two only, because that's what we find in this chapter.

And these two first sins, the two different types of breaches of faith, pertain to sins against the holy things of God. Now it's important to realize that the guilt offerings are very similar to sin offerings. We were told that fact a little bit further on in chapter 7, actually chapter 7 verse 7, and we're told that they are very similar to sin offerings. They had to be offered by the offender when the guilt is realized. and there to be a burnt offering, that's what's required.

But there are also differences. Later on in that same chapter, in chapter seven, we're told that the blood was thrown against the side of the altar for the guilt offerings, not smeared on the horns as is the case in the sin offerings. And here with the guilt offering, there is no choice of animal. It's a ram, that's it. It's a ram.

Another aspect is this. And not everyone is in agreement on this, but it seems according to chapter six, verse six, that that verse suggests that there was the option of the offender to bring an equivalent sum of money instead of the ram for the guilt offering. This is not the case, of course, with the sin offering. But the main distinctive that I want us to concentrate in a few moments that we have together, the main distinctive of the guilt offering is that a new element is introduced and that is one of compensation. It's a new element of restitution.

This is an act of compensation in the offering for the harm that is caused by one sin to another. You see, the sin offering was primarily focused upon sin and purification, whereas the guilt offering As with any blood sacrifice, it also had an atonement element, that's for sure, but also it was purposed to make payment of a penalty, to make restitution for harm that that sin has caused, or as is written in verse 17, to make restitution for the breach of faith that has been caused. So in verse 14 through 16 the breaches were against the holy things of God. Now we're not told what those holy things in view are, but most likely they're things that pertain to the tabernacle, Of course, there'd be things that pertain to the priestly offerings and the contributions that are made in the tabernacle. And again, we can tell from this passage that these bridges of faith were unintentional and accidental.

Perhaps someone had made a bad calculation with their tithes. And then later on down the track, they found out that they did a bad calculation. And they decided because of this, that they need to make things right. So they need to make compensation for the error. Or perhaps the offender realizes that an animal offered to the Lord on a previous occasion was substandard.

Maybe that animal was inferior. And it's now realized by the person, the worshiper, that he He's offended God in this. And so his conscience is stricken and now it's time for him to make things right with this guilt offering. You see, in these cases over and above the sacrifice to be offered for the breach of faith, the offender would need to make restitution and pay a further, that is over and above a fifth or 20% of what is taken from the person offended. You see, in the next chapter, the 20% payment is to be made to the person who was wronged, the neighbor, but only after the property is restored, of course.

So the property is restored, and then 20% is given over and above for the offender as a guilt offering. But then, then also this person, this worshipper would need to come and offer a ram as a guilt offering to the Lord. Why? He's already restored the property of his neighbour. He's already given 20% to his neighbour.

By the way, that 20% is because this person has come clean. He's recognised his guilt and he's gone to his neighbour and said, I've offended you. I've done wrong by you. And that's why it's 20% but as we go through the book of Leviticus, if they're not coming clean, if they're caught out, then they would sometimes double, sometimes they need to give double to the neighbor or even up to four times what they had taken from the neighbor. But this person has come clean because of his conscience and he gives the 20% over and above.

So why is it that he needs to still offer a ram before the Lord when he's made things right? with his neighbor. Beloved, it's because of this, because his sin is first and foremost a sin against God. Yes, he sinned against neighbor, but he sinned against God first and foremost. You remember the words of David after the terrible sins that he committed.

He committed adultery and he was responsible directly to the death of Uriah. You remember his words? He says, against you and you alone, or you only have I sinned. Of course, David had sinned against Bathsheba. Of course, he'd sinned against Uriah, but he recognized predominantly, primarily his sin is greatest against God.

So our sins are first and foremost an offense to God. and beyond acknowledging one's sin against God, restitution, if possible, is necessary because sin racks up debt. Debts against God and debts against neighbor. In the Lord's Prayer, Luke writes, when the Lord teaches the disciples how to pray, Luke writes, he writes, the Lord said, forgive us our sins. In Matthew, forgive us our debts.

Sin is debt against God firstly beloved but also in this case it was a sin against the priest because in this case the priests were wronged. Remember the Levitical priests were not to get an allotment of land because they were to serve Yahweh in the tabernacle later in the temple and therefore the Lord would provide for their needs, their living for them and their family through the offerings of the people. So if someone is wrong in their tithes, if someone is wrong in their offerings, in their sacrifices, then they have wronged the priests. Therefore, they ought to come and joyfully give the restitution that is necessary. In this case, it's 20% over and above the cost of the ram.

Beloved, this should remind us in the New Testament of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. You remember Zacchaeus? But furthermore, and let's keep going, verse 17 of our text. We're still on the same note, but it's actually a difficult verse. Because in our ESVs, as we read our ESV in verse 17, it looks like it's a summary of the above verses.

But in fact, it's actually likely to be something completely different. The verse in the original could read like this, beloved. If anyone sins, doing any of the things that by the Lord's commandment ought not to be done, though he did not know it, hear this, yet he is guilty. Yet he is guilty. He shall bear his iniquity.

This would suggest a case where someone's conscience seems to convict the person of guilt, but the person doesn't quite know the root of his sin. He is able to come before the Lord and offer a precautionary guilt offering with a contrite heart just to make sure in the case that in case he has wronged God. And if you realize in that case, he doesn't need to pay the 20% compensation because it's not necessary. I liken this offering to the offering of Job. You remember in the first chapter of the book of Job, when Job offers those sacrifices, he says, just in case his children had sinned?

Well, brothers and sisters, how about us? How many times do we know that we are sinners and there's so much deep sin rooted in us that we're not always aware? How many times do we come before the Lord and say, Lord, forgive me of the sins that I have committed, but also forgive me of the sins that I don't know I have committed? Because I know even those sins are an affront to you, O Lord. Brothers and sisters, I'm not sure about you, but as I look at this chapter from a high point of view and as I've been meditating upon the sacrifices for sin and guilt and the contents that is before us, I've become more and more aware of the pervasiveness of sin.

how pervasive it is and how unavoidable it is. Yet on the other hand, I come to realize how of an affront and detestable it is before the holy eyes of a truly holy, holy God. That we are a people so deeply corrupted by sin, which runs through our veins. It's everywhere. And we don't even know the tip of the iceberg of how much sin dwells in us.

All that debt, All that debt that is stored up, we've racked up so much debt that we don't even know of. And that debt cannot be overlooked. The terrifying thing is that debt is against God first and foremost, beloved. Why? Because we belong to him.

He owns us. He owns us. That's not something popular in the world. They don't like to hear those words, but it's true. He owns every single one of us and we were created for him and we were meant to live holy lives that reflect his holiness and bring glory to his holy, holy, holy name.

that is to be righteous as He is righteous. And so when we sin, we rob God because we put ourselves and our own desires before His. We try to selfishly benefit from our own lives when we ought to be living for His glory, not ours. A price needs to be paid because that debt is racking up. Restitution must be paid before the Lord.

Our sins, our debts cannot be overlooked by a just God. No matter how you look at it, we are so, so guilty and we are riddled with the guilt of sin and we know we cannot pay it. But for every $1 of spiritual debt you and I are aware of, there's probably a million dollars we are not aware of. It's a terrifying thought. But praise God, praise God, brothers and sisters, that Jesus is the only one qualified to be our sin and our guilt offering.

It can be our sin offering, as we found out last week, was he who knew no sin is able to stand on behalf of sinners and behalf of a holy God and bear the wrath and the brunt of what the punishment that we deserve. He can be our guilt offering because as you remember, not that Pilate in John chapter 19 is the one who stands as arbiter over all, but you remember what he said when he was judging Christ. He says, but I find no guilt in him and therefore Christ can be our guilt offering. He has paid our debts. Listen to Colossians 2 verse 13 through 14.

You, who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, have him forgiven us all our trespasses by the cancelling of the record of debt that stood against us with all its legal demands that he set aside. nailing it to the cross. What does that mean? That mean our debt has been paid for upon the cross of Calvary through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Is it no wonder why the Apostle Peter says that we've been ransomed with the precious blood of Christ who is like a slam without blemish or spot.

That word precious speaks of a value, a costly thing that is able to purchase sinners just like us. Our sins, our guilt, our trespasses, our debts, all paid for with his blood on that cross where we find total and complete forgiveness. Praise God. And as Hebrews 10 tells us, where there's been forgiveness, there's no longer any offering for sin. Why?

Because our sin and our guilt for those who are trusting in Jesus Christ alone has been dealt with by the blood of Christ, the once and for all sacrifice. Amen. Let's pray, brothers and sisters.