[0:00] You can see it as it actually is. It is not difficult to read. It is just repetitive. So at times we tend to drone it out. But Leviticus 4 says this, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, If a person sins unintentionally in any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and commits any of them, if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer to the Lord a bull without defect as a sin offering, for the sin he has committed.
[0:30] He shall bring the bull to the doorway of the tent of meeting before the Lord, and he shall lay his hand on the head of the bull and slay the bull before the Lord. Then the anointed priest is to take some of the blood of the bull and bring it to the tent of meeting, and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary.
[0:51] The priest shall also put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense, which is before the Lord in the tent of meeting. And all the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the doorway of the tent of meeting.
[1:05] He shall remove from it all the fat of the bull of the sin offering, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the loins and the lobe of the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys, just as it is removed from the ox of the sacrifice of peace offerings.
[1:23] And the priest is to offer them up in smoke on the altar of burnt offering. But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, with its head and its legs and its entrails and its refuse, that is, all the rest of the bull he is to bring out to a clean place outside the camp, where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire.
[1:44] Where the ashes are poured out, it shall be burned. Now, if the whole congregation of Israel commits error, and matters escapes the notice of the assembly, and they commit any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and they become guilty, when the sin which they have committed becomes known, then the assembly shall offer a bull of the herd for a sin offering, and bring it before the tent of meeting.
[2:07] Then the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be slain before the Lord. Then the anointed priest is to bring some of the blood of the bull to the tent of meeting, and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil.
[2:22] He shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar, which is before the Lord in the tent of meeting. And the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the doorway of the tent of meeting.
[2:34] He shall remove all its fat from it, and offer it up in smoke on the altar. He shall also do with the bull, just as he did with the bull of the sin offering. Thus he shall do with it, so the priest shall make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven.
[2:47] Then he is to bring out the bull to a place outside the camp, and burn it. As he burned the first bull, it is the sin offering for the assembly. When a leader sins, and unintentionally does any one of all the things which the Lord his God has commanded not to be done, and he becomes guilty, if his sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a male without defect.
[3:13] He shall lay his hand on the head of the male goat, and slay it in the place where they slayed the burnt offering before the Lord. It is a sin offering. Then the priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering.
[3:32] All that is fat he shall offer up in smoke on the altar, as in the case of the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him in regard to his sin, and he will be forgiven.
[3:44] Now if any one of the common people sins unintentionally, and doing any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and becomes guilty, if his sin which he has committed is made known to him, then he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without defect, for his sin which he has committed.
[4:00] He shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering. The priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and all the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar.
[4:17] Then he shall remove all its fat, just as the fat was removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings, and the priest shall offer it up in smoke on the altar, for a soothing aroma to the Lord.
[4:27] Thus the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he will be forgiven. But if he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring it a female without defect.
[4:39] He shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and slay it for a sin offering, in the place where they slay the burnt offering. The priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and all the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar.
[4:59] Then he shall remove all its fat, just as the fat of the lamb is to be removed from the sacrifice of the peace offerings, and the priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar, on the offerings by fire to the Lord.
[5:11] Thus the priest shall make atonement for him in regard to his sin, which he has committed, and he will be forgiven. Repetitive, I know.
[5:23] But we see here a worship of purity. This has been entitled the sin offering in Leviticus 4, not to be confused with the burnt offering that we find in Leviticus 1, the grain offering in Leviticus 2, and the peace offering found in Leviticus 3.
[5:41] We have seen how we worship the Lord, not we, but the people would worship the Lord in each of these aspects. They would worship him with a burnt offering, just as a result of their giving their all.
[5:52] They are totally committing this that they are bringing to God, and it is their all. It is to be consumed on the altar. It is they're laying it all on the altar. They're giving it to God, and they're worshiping him with sacrificial service, and they're just praising him for all that he is.
[6:09] With the offering of grain, it is really a thanksgiving offering. They're coming to him and thanking him for the produce of the ground. They're thanking him for the provisions which they have, and they're sharing their provisions with others.
[6:22] Remember, a portion, really a large portion, of the grain offering would be for the bread and the sustenance of the priests. With the peace offering, they are coming, and they are really just worshiping him because of the peace that they have with him.
[6:37] These are all just worships of the hearts. I want to give my all to God. I'm worshiping him as a relationship. I'm giving my all. I want to thank him for what he's given me, and I rejoice in the peace that I have with him.
[6:50] Those are the first three sacrifices. Now we transition in Leviticus and Leviticus 4 and 5 to the last of the two sacrifices introduced in the first section. And these are not worships as a result of just of that relationship.
[7:05] Really, these are restorative sacrifices. These are restorative worships. These are, we have fallen, we have messed up, and now I come back to worship you.
[7:18] We see here tonight a worship of purity. While it is a sin offering, the same offerings designated in Leviticus 4 can also be found in other passages by designation for something other than sin, like having a child in childbirth, or being cured of a disease, or any number of things.
[7:38] These same items can be offered in the same way. So some have been led to say that this is a purification offering. Though the scripture tells us, again, it is an offering because of sin, it is not just because of sin or an act.
[7:52] It is really to ensure the purity of your worship, to restore your relationship to a holy God. And we see here how we can worship Him in purity, even being fallen individuals and people with sin problems, as we'll see in just a minute.
[8:08] We come to Him and we worship Him in sincerity and truth, but we also worship Him in purity. One of the grand themes of the book of Leviticus is holiness. It is from here that we get to passage, Be holy as I am holy, says the Lord.
[8:23] It is repeated a number of times throughout scripture. But Leviticus talks much of the holiness of God. And why? Because God is in the tabernacle.
[8:34] He is in the company of His people. He is really living out a relationship with them, right? He is in communion. He is tabernacling with them. That is, He has made His abode in their presence.
[8:46] He has manifested His presence among them. And they are living in a covenant relationship. I am your God. You are my people. This is what it takes because of this covenant relationship. You are free to live in this relationship within these bounds.
[8:59] But this is what it looks like when I'm your God and you're my people. And I'm going to manifest my presence. But a holy God dwelt among an unholy people. And God made means or made avenues for them to continue their relationship with Him.
[9:17] Why? Because God told Moses that if I was to come down and dwell with the sinful people, that they would not last a day. I would kill them in an instant. Because I am holy and they are not, right? And that's Billy Joe paraphrased.
[9:28] I cannot dwell among them, for I would have to slay them. The holiness of God is something that is very real throughout the Old Testament. Even something that's very real throughout the New Testament.
[9:40] These pictures painted for us in these sacrifices are not something that we need to follow to maintain our salvation or attain our salvation. Rather, they are all different facets or different sides of all that Christ has done for us.
[9:59] And we see, some say, well, why couldn't there just be one big grand sacrifice and that be the ultimate picture? Because Christ did so much on the cross. It took a number of sacrifices to really display and show us the price He paid to ensure that we would be there.
[10:17] It is through Christ that we give our all. Because we cannot give our all to God unless we come through Christ, right? It is through Christ that we pronounce He is Lord of our lives. And we come with a burnt offering.
[10:28] He is our burnt offering. We give our all to God through Christ. It is through Christ that we praise the prayer of thanksgiving. And we share with others through Christ.
[10:39] It is through Christ that we have peace with God. And it is through Christ that we worship God in purity. So we see tonight a worship of purity. And as we see a worship of purity, we will kind of step back and see it big picture and see it in three different ways.
[10:55] This worship of purity, number one, is a gracious plan of God. We must understand this gracious plan of God.
[11:05] Someone said that if in the Old Testament the words of God were written and read, just as in many New Testament the words of Christ were written and read, just about all of the book of Leviticus would be read letter.
[11:21] Because the majority of Leviticus is God speaking. And we need to understand that. Okay, because the things that are being laid out here, while they may seem cumbersome to us, they may seem grotesque, and they may seem kind of harsh, we see them in light of what they are.
[11:40] And we see here in Leviticus 4, much as we've seen other, the gracious plan of God. It says, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Always pay attention to this.
[11:51] Who is it that's taking the initiative? Then the Lord, Yahweh, He who is in covenant relationship. Then God, a holy God, spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, If a person sins unintentionally in any of these things, which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and commits any of them.
[12:15] Now just stop right there. Here we see the gracious plan of God, found in Leviticus 4. Now, God gave a very detailed list of what He intended man to do.
[12:31] You remember the Ten Commandments, right? The Ten Great Sayings, or the Decalogue, is really just an overview. The detailed plan, or the detailed expectations, He wrote out in the Book of Covenants.
[12:42] You only do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, which is what follows the Ten Commandments found in the Book of Exodus. And God had these great standards, and we see them later on in the Book of Leviticus, with the sun-dry laws, and all these different things.
[12:55] And really, we kind of scratch our hands and say, Man, these seem strange. But we also understand that many of the laws which God gave His people were so practical. I mean, it was so practical. It made so much sense.
[13:07] As a matter of fact, it was when men went back to the Scripture of the Old Testament, that when the Black Plague was sweeping through Europe, that they realized, We don't defeat the Black Plague this way.
[13:18] We defeat it by when God said, When somebody was sick, you quarantine them. You put them aside. What if we put them aside? I wonder what would happen. All of a sudden, it quit spreading from people to people, right? They began to go back to Scripture, and see these laws, which seemed so obsolete to most people.
[13:34] They just made sense. God was saying, You're going to have a hard time figuring some things out, so let me tell you about them, right? So we see here, the gracious plan of God in this. God speaks to Moses.
[13:46] Just think about this. He takes the initiative. He speaks to Moses, and He's being proactive. This is important. God is being proactive. He's in the tabernacle. Everybody's probably still astounded. I think these things happen in successive order.
[13:58] Not very often in the Old Testament do we have things happening in successive order that we can read them that way. But the last chapter of the book of Exodus has God's glory coming down. I don't want to say God came down, but His glory is manifested presence, because He was already there.
[14:13] He manifested His presence in their midst and began to speak. He manifested His presence in their midst, having forgiven them for their sin of the golden calf, having forgiven them for their failure in obeying Him.
[14:27] We know He forgave them because He came to them, right? So He forgave them through the intercession of Moses. And as soon as He came down, everybody's like, Oh, wow, we can't go into the tabernacle.
[14:37] And God says, Hey, Moses, do this, do this, do this, do this. Starts laying out for us. I know that sounds kind of humorous, but that's the reality. What we find in Leviticus 1 through 5. These are the offerings you need to do so that you can come into here, right?
[14:50] You built me a tabernacle. I'm here. My presence is here. Now you're trying to figure out how to get in here. I want to tell you how to get in here. And God is still speaking. The people are still awestruck. And God says, Hey, Moses, if He's taking the initiative here, any of the people sin unintentionally.
[15:08] Now, one thing you find in Scripture and you kind of look at these things. Leviticus 4 deals with an unintentional sin. There are other portions of Scripture, namely in Numbers, and other parts that deal with the intentional sin.
[15:21] But there are some sins which God does not offer sacrifice of forgiveness for to His people. And that is what is called the sins of the high hand. It is literally, you're looking at God and saying, God, I don't care what you say.
[15:35] I'm going to do it anyway. God makes no provisions for an atonement for that sin through the Old Testament law. Now, we need to keep that in mind. Because if we, let's go back to what Paul says.
[15:48] If we have grace, do we use grace as a crutch to sin? No. Because God says, if you look at me and say, God, this is what you say. I don't care if that's what you say.
[15:59] I'm going to do what I want to do. And God makes no provisions for that sin. There's no offering you can offer on the altar to be atoned for that sin. Actually, God says, if you have the sin of the high hand, and this is how man is, it's like a high-handed just rejection of God, denying God, and telling God you don't care.
[16:15] God says one thing, separate Him, cast Him out of your company, have nothing to do with Him. That's pretty amazing, right? Get Him out of the camp.
[16:27] That is, in my estimation, and you just take it for what you will, what Jesus was talking about, the only one sin that is unpardonable, the unpardonable sin, which is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
[16:38] And the reason that I feel like the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin, people say, well, what is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Have I committed the unpardonable sin? If anybody ever comes to me, and just, I want you to know this, if anybody ever comes to me and says, Pastor, I'm afraid I committed the unpardonable sin, I'm going to look at them and say, that question, or your concern, ensures me that you have not, or assures me, you have not committed the unpardonable sin.
[17:00] You say, huh? Because the only way you would ever be concerned about that is if the Spirit was moving you to be concerned about that. There's none who seek after God, no, not one, none of us come to the Father, lest we be drawn by the Father, and the fact that we care what God thinks about us is evidence of the Spirit's drawing in our lives, which means we have not committed the unpardonable sin, which is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
[17:23] To blaspheme is to deny the existence of, or to put something in place of what? The Holy Spirit. And you cannot come to God, lest you be drawn to God through what? The Holy Spirit. So if you deny the existence of the Holy Spirit, guess what?
[17:38] You are turning your back on the very thing that draws you to the God who loves you. That's why it's unpardonable. And if you look at the face of God, and you say, God, I know these are your standards, and I know this is what you want me to do, but I don't care if that's what you want me to do, guess what?
[17:52] You are turning your back on the God who loves you, and is providing a way for you to come into His presence. That's why it's unpardonable. But we come back to this passage.
[18:02] Look at the gracious plan of God. A lot of people say, God is so mean, but He's not. Look at this gracious plan. God takes initiative. It says, Moses, this is what I want to tell you. Moses, if any man sins unintentionally, unintentionally is a loaded word.
[18:14] It means if he trips or falls into, or if he does not have premeditated plans or purposes, he just does what he knows he's not supposed to do. He comes into it. He's entrapped in it. He slips up and messes up and goes into it.
[18:27] He says, then do this. Of any of the things I've commanded you, I want to ask you a really quick question. If God is such a big, mean God, would He say, if you go against anything I told you, this is how you can be made right.
[18:43] Because many of us, and even our own human nature, say, if I'm going to tell you what to do, and then you're going to mess up and not do it, the last thing I'm going to do is tell you how to be made right once you don't do it.
[18:53] This is how we know God is gracious. God, before man broke the covenants, was already making a way to restore man to the covenant.
[19:09] He gave His commandments, knowing that man would break them. And before they had an opportunity to break them, He provided a way for them to be restored once they broke them.
[19:26] That's grace. We've said when we were going through the book of Genesis, and it was so many years ago, we may forget it, that if we want to know how God responds to sin, then we need to look at the law of first mention.
[19:41] How did God respond to the first sin? The first sin was the fall of man, Adam and Eve. God approached Adam and Eve. God sought them out.
[19:52] They were hiding from Him. Remember that? He came to them and found them. It's not that a holy God said, you sinned against me, you're going to have to work your way back to me.
[20:03] No. He said, He knew they sinned. He's God. He's omnipotent. He's omniscient. And He sought them out and restored them. Now, that's grace.
[20:14] That's grace. He renewed them. Here we see it being played over again. He says, Moses, if anyone does anything unintentionally, not intentionally turning their back on me, not running away from me, if they mess up, I have a way for them to be restored.
[20:34] I have a way for them to come back to me in purity. I have a way for them to be forgiven. I have a way for them to come with worship that is new. I have a way. And He doesn't put a number on it, right?
[20:45] He doesn't say, you can only do this so many times a lifetime, or you can only do this so many times in a year. He says, I have a way. And if they come by this way, I promise I will accept them.
[20:57] And they can worship me in purity. Friend, listen, all this is doing is pointing, ultimately where? To the cross of Calvary. It's pointing to Jesus Christ. God screams throughout eternity.
[21:08] When man falls and messes up, and when man cannot meet my standard of holiness, when man fails in any of these things, I tell them, and you don't have to read Genesis to Malachi very long to realize you fail in a lot of these things, He told us, right?
[21:24] He said, if you fall in any of these things, I have a way. I have a way. I have a way. And if you come by that way, guess what? You can come. You can come. And you can come to me.
[21:35] You can worship me. And you'll be worshiping me in purity. And you'll be restored. It'll be great fellowship. This is the gracious plan of God.
[21:47] This was not a second afterthought of God. God didn't go, oh yeah, they messed up. Now I need to make a way. Before they had time to mess up, God was already providing a way.
[22:00] That's great. That's great. There are certain passages in the scripture that really point to me. The love of God found in the person of Christ and the grace of God.
[22:11] One of those passages you find in the New Testament says, before the foundations of the world were lain, He recorded your name in the Lamb's book of life. I mean, before He created the heavens and the earth, before He laid the foundations of the earth, which was long before man was created, which was long before you were ever born, which was way before you ever had a chance to sin, God already wrote your name down.
[22:32] And the reason He already wrote your name down is because He knew He had a way provided for you and you would respond to that way. That's awesome. That's grace. That's mercy. That's glory. Hallelujah. Let me hang out in church for about four hours and worship you is what that is.
[22:45] That's not like, oh yeah, that's good news. Let's go home and let's go to bed. That's like keep you awake at night. That is amazing. God loves me that much. He, before I was born, knew I would mess up and He took the, He was proactive and made a way by His grace that I could be restored.
[23:08] Thank you, oh God. Thank you, oh God, for that way. We see the gracious plan of God. Number two, we see the grand problem of man.
[23:19] The reason you have to have a gracious plan is because there's a grand problem. The grand problem of man. In Leviticus 4, we are introduced to four different classes of people.
[23:30] I hope that you caught them. This is why there's so much repetition in Leviticus 4 is because there are four different classes of people. We are introduced to the anointed priest in the very first part.
[23:40] If the anointed priest falls, this all of a sudden should get your attention because the anointed priest would be the high priest. Okay, that would have been Aaron and the ones who followed him as high priest. So, all of a sudden, we have the anointed priest who is falling.
[23:53] We have the whole assembly, the congregation as a whole falling. It means that all of the nation could fall. Then we have the leaders falling. We have if the leader should sin.
[24:04] And then we come all the way down to the common man. So, the anointed priest, the entire congregation, the leaders, and the common man. Now, there is a little bit of variation here between the offerings, and I hope that you saw that.
[24:18] If an anointed priest or the whole congregation sinned unintentionally when the sin became known to them, then they would offer a bull, right? And they would bring this bull, a spotless, perfect bull, and they would bring it to the altar, and they would slay it, and then the priest, he would do it for himself, which is amazing.
[24:34] The priest would come in with the blood. Now, this is where it differs a little bit in what they do with the blood. If it was an anointed priest, or if it was the entire congregation, they would take that blood and sprinkle it seven times before that veil of the testimony.
[24:47] That is, the veil that separated the holy from the holy of holies. And then, as was the practice for the other two offerings, they would put some of the blood on the horn of the altar of incense and then pour the rest of the blood at the base of the altar of burnt offerings.
[25:00] But for the anointed priest and the whole entire congregation, they would sprinkle it seven times. So, why would they sprinkle it seven times? Well, because if the whole congregation was sinning, then the way had to be paved for everybody to come in.
[25:13] If the anointed priest was sinning, then he alone was a representative to go before God for the people. So, he had to sprinkle the blood so that he could go in. There was a greater responsibility if the priest sinned and a greater responsibility if the entire congregation sinned or the entire assembly sinned.
[25:32] If the leader sinned or the common man sinned, there was no sprinkling of the blood. There was just a smearing it on the horns of the altar of incense and then poured out at the base. We'll come back to that in just a minute. But what we see here is that each of these was their designated offerings to show us that man has a problem.
[25:51] And man's problem is not limited to just the common man. The problem's not limited to just a few leaders. The problem's not just limited to the assembly. The problem even goes to the one who hangs out in the presence of God.
[26:03] That is the anointed priest. The one who's washing from the laver who is daily offering the other offerings on the altar. The one who lives literally inside the tabernacle.
[26:14] And that problem is every man sins. And the sins that are mentioned in Leviticus 4 scare us even worse. Why?
[26:25] Because these are unintentional sins. sins. And the reason they scare us even worse is because these are sins you're not even thinking about. You just naturally do them.
[26:36] The grand problem of man is man does not have to think about sinning. Man does not have to try to sin. Man can be living his life really not trying to sin.
[26:46] Think of the high priest being anointed. Having the covering. Having on his shoulders the effing the breastplate and all these things and the plate on his forehead that says holy to the Lord walking around trying his best to live a perfect spotless life.
[27:03] God says guess what he's going to have an unintentional sin. He's going to fail in some of these things. So since he's going to fail let me give him a way of being restored. The leader who's trying to be a diligent leader among the people he's going to fail.
[27:16] The entire assembly of people trying to dedicate themselves to God they're going to fail. The common man he's going to fail. The grand problem of man is is man doesn't have to try to sin or think about sinning or even work at sinning.
[27:30] Man just sins. Even unintentionally. And that's a problem. Especially when you're dealing with a holy God who cannot be in the presence of sin.
[27:47] Let me think about this. The odds are we'll leave here tonight. Not many of us are going to stay up very much later. Some of us might have drank a good cup of coffee and we'll be up longer than we want to be.
[28:01] But we're not going to stay up very much longer. And we're going to have a pretty relaxing evening and we're going to go home and some of us peacefully and some of us among some chaos trying to get people in bed and everything's going to be what it is and plan on starting our day.
[28:19] The reality is is that just about every one of us are at risk of unintentionally sinning even the remainder of this day.
[28:33] Because if you read the law all that God expects is perfection. And we're not going to be perfect.
[28:44] there's the problem of man. As much as you want to, I don't have a doubt in my mind that every one of us want to be pleasing to God.
[28:56] I don't have a doubt in my mind that every one of us here have a desire to bring glory to God. I don't have a doubt in my mind that all of us because that's why you're here on a Sunday night when you can be at home just taking it easy and relaxing and not listening to the pastor preach from the book of Leviticus for all you know sakes.
[29:13] You desire to please Him. The reality is none of us are perfect. The grand problem is we're all going to sin. The intentions of our heart are desperately wicked at times.
[29:25] The thoughts of our mind are not what they ought to be and all it takes is one thing to set us off and the next thing you know we fall into it. That's unintentional. God I wasn't trying to do that. God I wasn't trying to go there.
[29:36] Guess what He says? It's okay. I've got a gracious plan for that. That plan's Jesus. Aren't you glad that by the time you get home if you mess up between here and home you don't have to go find a bull or a goat or a lamb and come back here with that animal going I'm sorry Billy Joe here we go I know I mean that's how cumbersome you know like I didn't make it very far thankfully there was a farmer's field beside me and it had a bull so I brought it to you and we gotta take care of this thing now.
[30:08] Worship impurity the grand problem of man is addressed we can worship impurity through Jesus Christ third and finally we don't only see the gracious plan of God the grand problem of man third and finally it's something Leviticus does really good for us we see the great price of sin we're almost working in reverse here but it's okay we see the great price of sin one thing that we cannot do when reading the Old Testament is we cannot deny how bad sin is that's why I like the Old Testament I love the New Testament I love grace I love mercy I love forgiveness who doesn't right I love the price being paid the debt is paid in full the danger is so many times if all we do is major on the New Testament I've seen this in my life I've seen it in lives of other individuals if all we know is the New Testament and we separate it from that other thing that God put it in connection with that is the
[31:12] Old Testament if we just want to deal with half of the Bible and we see all this grace and mercy and we come across pages like do not judge God is love and all these other things I know I'm taking them out of context and they are taken out of context and most people quote them right and we see all these things and we look at that sin doesn't become that big of a deal anymore because Jesus did it all right I mean Jesus did it he took care of that sin's not that big of a deal but here's the reality sin's a very big deal even for the believer because in Leviticus who are we dealing with well if we had to give them a title that corresponded to the New Testament we would say this is believers they have been redeemed they have been let out of captivity God has sent them through the blood that is the Passover lamb he has initiated the covenant relationship with them he has given them his law he has came and dwelled in their presence
[32:16] I mean that is in New Testament terms that's Christianity right I've been saved baptized and now I have the Holy Spirit with me I have fellowship I have all these things that's what and then God says and when you mess up that's a big deal when you mess up unintentionally that's a big deal look at the high price of sin each one of these offerings what is it all that was used was the blood the fat the kidney and the liver did you notice that you had this bull probably a thousand pound bull all that was used the blood the fat the kidney liver why the fat best part right the kidney liver referred to life the rest of the animal it wasn't even going on the altar the hide the meat the head outside the camp something in your mind on a click the book of hebrews said since the sin sacrifice was offered outside the camp so too did Jesus Christ have to suffer outside the camp why because you had to take the sin offering outside the camp
[33:20] God said don't even put that on my altar don't put that bull on my altar don't put that goat on my altar don't put that lamb on my altar don't put that ram on my altar all I want is the blood because I don't want the animal all I want is the blood because it doesn't please me it has to do with your sin it's not pleasing to me it appeases me but it does not please me the high price of sin is seen in this that the only thing!
[33:56] was the blood because when man has a problem and the problem is sin and that problem separates him from a holy God the only thing that will restore him to a worship of purity before a holy God is the shedding and pouring out of blood either his blood or blood of a substitute blood had to be spilled and blood was everywhere did you see this if it's anointed priest or if it's the congregation they're sprinkling blood seven times each one of them they wiped the blood on the altar of incense right remember there was the you walked into the tabernacle and went from that gate that was on the eastern side right so it would come from the east and you walked in boom there's the there's the altar the burnt offering right after the altar there was the bronze laver and you had this bronze laver so that you could wash off after offering that bull on the altar right so you had to get clean to go into the presence of God and then you came up after the bronze altar there was this altar of incense right and this altar of incense was right before the holy of holies and it was here that
[35:03] Zechariah was standing when the angel Gabriel spoke to him and you were offering on the incense the altar of incense this incense and the smoke would arise and that smoke was to represent what prayers the prayers of God's people ascending to the presence of God what is it saying here is if you're at that altar you better put some blood on that altar or I'm not even listening to your prayers if your sin is separating you because what does the word of God say consistency throughout scripture God does not regard the prayers of a sinful man there are two things in a man's life only one that I found in scripture for a woman but there are two things in a!
[35:43] man's! life very scary hinder a man's prayers from being heard one is sin holding on to sin not confessing it not letting go not having an atone for two the way he treats his wife blew me away when I saw that in first Peter that the way a man treats his wife dictates how God hears his prayers wow for a lady holding on to sin holding on to sin so what does God say before I listen to your prayers all over the place you offer sin has a price and then you take the rest of that blood and you pour it down at the altar I don't want the animal I just want the blood why because it's life friend listen to me sin costs a lot even for the believer either our blood or the blood of another so when we fall when we stumble when we mess up and we unintentionally sin and we get caught and we get ensnared in something that God doesn't
[36:56] God clearly tells us not to get involved in and we mess up let's just lay the reality out here we are restored and we worship him in purity and he has provided a way graciously for us to come back to him but he did not provide it to us for nothing he provided it to us because somebody else already paid the high price and it is the blood of Christ sin costs dearly the high price of sin we cannot read the Old Testament and take sin lightly which is good because that makes us run to the New Testament and praise him highly for the way he dealt with that price we could not pay God in his grace has given us a way that we may worship him in purity even though we have this great problem let's pray Lord thank you so much for this night
[37:58] God I thank you for your word God realizing your word speaks to each one of us in a different manner different way but God I thank you for the way that it pricks our hearts and minds and draws us closer to you Lord I pray as we have seen it that the truth of it grips us that we will not let us go that we would leave standing amazed at your grace and mercy the price you paid Lord that the problem you addressed the freedom you have granted Lord that you had the foresight to know I would fail you but yet you provided a way for me to run back to you and for that oh God I say thank you and I do praise you and worship you it's in Christ's name I say all of this amen God
[39:11] God God God God Thank you.
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