LEVITICUS 4-6 HOW TO BE FORGIVEN2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Leviticus 4-6 How To Be Forgiven

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. This morning as we look at the book of Leviticus, it is definitely a challenging book to work through. We're reading through the book of Leviticus as we work our way through the Bible in three years and

A lot of times when people start out reading the Bible and they start out in Genesis and there's some, you know, some pretty cool accounts that we read about, you know, with the different guys who are there and the things that happen. And then you get into Exodus and it gets exciting with all these miracles that take place. And then towards the end of Exodus, the excitement tends to like die down a little bit because you hit the tabernacle and it's like, okay, cool. The tabernacle is cool. And then like you hear about all the details of the tabernacle again, you're like, okay,

Okay, well, it was interesting the first time. The second time, it's maybe a little bit much. And then you get to the third time. All the details are mentioned of the tabernacle. You're like, okay, I don't know why I'm doing this. Maybe this isn't the best idea. Maybe I should try something else. And if you make it through that, then you hit Leviticus. And then usually that's when people come to just a grinding hall, just like...

Like, what in the world? There's all this blood and sacrifices and all of these details about things that don't seem to relate to us at all. Like, why are we reading these things? And it can be really challenging for people to work through. So if you are sticking along with us in the Bible in three years, I just want to congratulate you and say well done and let you know it's worth it. There is great truths that are found in the Word of God, even in the book of Leviticus. And as we look at these things,

things that we'll be talking about this morning in the subject of sacrifices, the subject this morning is one that is really important to every single one of us, and that is how to be forgiven. That as we look at the book of Leviticus, there's a lot of details here that relate to priests and Levites and, you know, things that are not immediately applicable to us.

but they also at the same time reveal the truths about God, his character, his nature, and his desire to bring forgiveness to all people. From the very beginning, when man sinned in the garden with Adam and Eve as they disobeyed God and partook of the tree,

They sinned, they broke fellowship with God in that. And since then, God was making a way for people to be restored to right relationship with God and be forgiven for their sin against God. And this is a further revelation as we look at these sacrifices this morning here in the book of Leviticus. That it's God saying, look, I want you to be forgiven. I don't want you to walk around under the burden of guilt.

I don't want you to have the condemnation that comes from the judgment that is to come. I want you to have the freedom that comes from my grace and my mercy to know that you are forgiven, that you are cleansed, and that you have right relationship with God. And so that's the Lord's heart for us this morning as we look at these things.

Now the book of Leviticus, the name literally means pertaining to the Levites. And so it helps you understand why there's so much detail in here about these sacrifices and the specific placement and all these details, because it was something that the Lord recorded so that the priests and the Levites could perform their function.

I would maybe think about it like this. It's kind of like reading a car repair manual when you're not a mechanic. It's not that exciting, right? Now a mechanic looks at it like, oh, this is great, you know, awesome. And I look at it, I go, I don't ever want to know these details. I don't want to look at these. I don't care what size wrench it is. Like, it doesn't matter to me. But at the same time, again, there's a lot of details about the things that the priests and the Levites needed. But also at the same time, God is revealing his nature to

He's dealing with the subject of holiness. He's talking about the realities of sin and what it takes to become right with God. Now, for us, as we look at these things today, I would encourage you, as you have opportunity, to also refer to the book of Hebrews, because now as we are in the new covenant, because of what Christ has done, and Jesus is the fulfillment of the law to a greater degree than the law could accomplish itself, Jesus has given us forgiveness and forgiveness.

right relationship with God. And the author of Hebrews goes through great detail to connect these things to Jesus and to show these things very clearly. And so I would encourage you to spend some time in Hebrews as you read through Leviticus to be able to kind of make those connections and see these things fulfilled in Jesus. But the book of Leviticus starts with five different sacrifices. Three of them are voluntary. Two of them were mandatory. And

The three voluntary sacrifices are in chapters one, two, and three. And three years ago, when we were working our way through the Bible in three years at that time, we looked at the first three chapters, the voluntary offerings. And so if you want to dig into those, we have that in the archives and you can go back and listen to that.

But this morning, we want to talk about the two mandatory sacrifices. These were not optional. These were God's commandments. You had to do this with the issue of sin. And God commanded that you perform these sacrifices in relation to sin, again, so that you could enjoy his forgiveness.

The other ones were optional. You know, you want to pursue God in a specific way. You want to fellowship with God in a unique way. There's offerings that you could offer for those kinds of things, but

But God says, it's mandatory. I want you to be forgiven. I want you to have a right relationship with me and to not be burdened by the guilt of sin. And that's what the Lord is dealing with this morning in these sacrifices that we'll see in Leviticus chapters four, five, and six. We're not going to try to hit every verse or anything, but just look at some of the subjects here and understand the forgiveness that God offers. Three points that we'll look at.

Here this morning in how to be forgiven, the first one is found in the passage we read, and that is let a substitute pay for your sin. Here's where we start. If you want to be forgiven, you need to first of all understand and recognize that you are not able to make up for that sin that you have done on your own.

but that someone else, something else is going to have to pay the price. There's going to have to be a substitute for you to receive the penalty of sin in order for you to be forgiven. We're going to start here in verse 27 and 28. Let me read that to you again. It says, if anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done and is guilty,

Or if his sin, which he has committed, comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish for his sin, which he has committed.

Here, God is addressing the situation of the common people. Now, prior to this, in chapter 4, he's talking about, here's what to do if the person who sins is the high priest. Here's what to do if the person who sins is a ruler. Here's what to do if the congregation as a whole sins. But I focused on the common people, because I figure that's probably us, right? We're the common people. That's the situation we're in. And God says, look, so you're just like a normal person, right?

And what is it that you're supposed to do? How are you to handle the issue of sin? And here in verse 27 and 28, God explains the reality is that you and I are guilty when any commandment is broken. This is why forgiveness is such an important topic. This is why it's so necessary for us and why God commands it because forgiveness

When any commandment is broken, what we might categorize commandments as like really bad things or really, you know, not so bad things, you know, we might categorize them in a variety of ways. But what God says is any commandment that is broken results in you and I being in a condition of being guilty. That's our status.

Now, it's not talking about whether or not you feel guilty. There is that aspect of forgiveness and guilt as well. But sometimes you feel guilty even when you're not. And sometimes you are guilty even if you don't feel guilty. So guilt, we're talking about the status, the position where you have violated what God has said. You have broken his command. And in that case, whether you feel it or not,

God is declaring here, you are guilty. Notice at the end of verse 27, he says, if any of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done and is guilty. That's your status. That's your condition. When you've done anything that ought not to be done, when you've done anything that God has said not to do,

And when you do things or don't do things that God has said to do, that there is this position of guilt, the status of guilt. And it's not a good condition to have. It's not a good status to be in because, well, the position of guilt is a position of deserving judgment.

Paul the Apostle dealt with this subject in the book of Romans pretty thoroughly. And just to highlight a couple key verses that hit these subjects, he tells us in Romans 3, verse 23, This relates to what we read there in verse 27. If any of the commandments are broken, if there's anything that ought not to be done and it's done, then, well, there is guilt.

And Paul says, yes, I agree. All have sinned. Every one of us have broken at least one of the commandments. Every one of us has broken the law of God and done things that ought not to be done and didn't do things that ought to be done. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, of the perfection, the standard that is there for us to be able to have fellowship with God.

for us to be able to have the hope of eternity with God, we don't measure up to that. We've all sinned and fall short of that. And that is a terrible position to be in because of what he explains in chapter 6, verse 23 of Romans, the wages of sin is death. Now there's an alternative, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. There's the forgiveness, which is also here in Leviticus, but first we have to understand that

The guilt that comes from a broken commandment, the guilt that comes from falling short of the glory of God, it deserves death. It has us in a position where we deserve death because we have sinned against God. And again, this is a status, a position that we are in, whether or not we feel like it. We may not know that the thing that we did was wrong, but that doesn't change our status. We're still guilty. And so we have all sinned.

We have all broken God's law and we continue to break God's law. Some people wrestle with that a little bit because, well, how can I be judged when I didn't even know that it was wrong? But that is part of the reality of the life that we have. If you think about it this way, if you travel to a foreign place, it's your responsibility to find out ahead of time what are the laws of the land where you are going.

It's your job. It's your responsibility. Because the laws there might be different. And when you're there, you can't just operate on, well, hey, in my hometown, this is how we do things. You just do whatever you want, and you're inexcusable because, well, that's what I do at home. That's what we allow. It doesn't work that way. No, when you're there, you're subject to their laws. In fact, the United States government has a website put together for all of this. Travel.state.gov.

If you want to check it out, you can find that they have country by country a bunch of things that you need to consider as you're going to those countries. And one of the specific things that they highlight, they have a whole section on what are the local laws. Because when you're going there, you need to recognize that you're going to be subject to those laws and the penalties that come with breaking those laws.

They warn on the website, you are subject to local laws, and if you violate local laws, even unknowingly, you may be expelled, arrested, or imprisoned. And it could be really foreign to us. I had no idea that was illegal. I had no idea that, you know, completely different customs, but it's our job visiting in their land to find out ahead of time what is the law of the land. And in a similar way, listen, we're all in God's territory, right?

And whether you like it or not, whether we recognize it or not, we're in his land. He sets the laws. It's our responsibility to know, to find out what does God say? What are the laws that God has set? And whether we find them out or not, if we break them, we are guilty of breaking them. We are in that position, that status of guilty and subject to punishment accordingly. That is the reality of the life that we live.

We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We're his creation on his turf, you know, subject to his law. And the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And so God sets his law and we're all subject to his law, but then he offers to all of us

The opportunity to have forgiveness and to be set free from that guilt that we are in because of our sin. And how does that happen? Well, in Leviticus, here's how it happened. In verse 29, it says this, and he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering.

Then the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar. He shall remove all its fat as fat is removed from the sacrifice of the peace offering and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma to the Lord. So the priest shall make atonement for him and it shall be forgiven him.

Now there's some details here for the priest to be able to do their job. Here's what you do with this part of the animal. Here's what you do with that part of the animal. Here's where you put the blood in these specific places. And I'm not going to get into those details this morning. But where I want to focus is verse 29, the guilty person. This would be you or me under the Levitical system. Jerry shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering.

something interesting to think about. You might picture the offerings and think, well, that's what the priests are for. They do the offerings. They do the sacrifices. But in reality, God said, you know, the person who committed the sin, the person who is the guilty party, that's the person who needs to do the killing of the animal that's being offered on their behalf. He says, he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering. And so just, I don't know how comfortable you are with blood. I'm not going to like show you anything, so you don't got to freak out, okay? But

I don't know how, I don't know, some of you guys, maybe you hunt, you know, maybe you've experienced stuff like that. I can't even scale a fish, like it just, I just, I'm not, I'm not that kind of guy. I can't imagine laying my hand on the head of an animal, being that close, intimate, face to face, and then slicing its throat. I can't picture that. Now, if you grew up on the farm, no big deal. Harvey's like, you big sissy, Jerry, you know, we just do that for fun, you know, like what are you crying about? Like that's just...

But it brings forth a reality of the personal nature. The whole point of this, putting your hand on the head of the animal and you being responsible to bring about the death of this animal is for you to recognize there is a high price to pay for sin. Sin is a serious issue and it's your sin that's resulting in this. And this animal, this one right here that I have my hand upon,

You, lamb, you, goat, you are taking my place and receiving the death that I deserve. God had a powerful picture here, a powerful reminder for the Israelites that they would be understanding the cost of sin and that this animal was the substitution for them.

It really highlights the substitution and identification where you're saying, this animal is taking my place, paying the price for my sin. This animal represents me.

Now, sometimes when we talk about Adam and Eve in the garden and sinning, and we all inherit a sinful nature as a result of them, sometimes it causes people to wrestle with, like, I don't like this whole representation thing. Like, it's like, I'm in trouble because Adam sinned, you know, so long ago. Like, it just, it's not fair. It doesn't seem right that I inherit a sinful nature from him. But, you know, God established these things in that way,

so that we could have forgiveness in this way. Because if Adam represents you in the garden and you have inherited sin because of him, then now something else can represent you in redemption so that you can have right relationship with God. In this case, it was this animal.

It was just a foreshadow. It wasn't the ultimate picture. The ultimate picture, of course, is in Jesus Christ, who later on became the final sacrifice, the full sacrifice, where Jesus, being God himself, offered himself and said, hey, I will pay that price, and you can lay your hand on the head of Jesus and

and say, Jesus, will you take my penalty? Will you take my guilt? Will you take the judgment for my sin? And Jesus says, yes, I take that. And he is our representative. So there on the cross, he represents us and received the full penalty and payment for sin that we could be forever forgiven. That our penalty could be washed and cleansed in the blood of Jesus Christ.

If representation, you know, doesn't work, then Christ can't represent you. Would you rather just pay for your own sin? Remember what the wages of sin are? How do you pay for that? It's death. That is the requirement. And that would mean eternal separation from God. But instead, God offered himself and received that penalty on our behalf. Moving on to verses 32 through 35, it's a repetition.

What if it's a different kind of animal that is brought for the sin offering? Well, here's the procedures. And pretty much it's the same procedure. So I'm not going to get into those details. But I would like to call your attention to the end of verse 35. And I would ask you to notice the guarantee found here in verse 35.

Starting at the beginning of verse 35, he says, Notice, Here's the point. Here's the whole reason for this.

It's not about, you know, God asking for, you know, ridiculous things just to make people jump through hoops. It's not just, you know, for random killings of animals or anything like that. This is for a particular purpose and it comes with a guarantee. You will be forgiven. If you have sinned and you do this, you will be forgiven.

The slate is washed clean. You have right standing with God. If you do this, you will, it's God's promise. He gave a absolutely sure. It's not that you have to do this and then hope, hope, oh man, I hope God's in a good mood today and that he accepts this offering and that it goes okay. And that, you know, I still don't get judged for this sin. You don't have to, that's not the way that God has set up. No, he has provided a way that for sure you can know

And throughout all these sin sacrifices that he'll be talking about in these chapters, he adds on this guarantee. You do this and it will be forgiven. Now, again, as we look at these things, we're not under the Levitical system. This is the old covenant, which is completed in Christ Jesus. And really the limitation of the Levitical system, the Levitical sacrifices is that they weren't complete.

They only dealt with sins that were done up to this point. They couldn't cover future sins. So you couldn't offer a sacrifice for what you're about to do tomorrow. I could offer a sacrifice for sin for today, and I'm forgiven today. But then tomorrow I sin again, and now I'm in this position of guilt. And so I need to offer another sacrifice tomorrow. And then the next day I'm

sinned again, and now I need to offer another sacrifice. And that's why the sacrifices had to continually be offered. But the sacrifice of Jesus stands apart and is different. The author of Hebrews explains this to us in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11 and 12. It says, every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. They were effective in forgiving for that sin for that day, but

But it wasn't complete, and that's why they had to continually be offered. Verse 12, Here's Jesus. He offered himself as a sacrifice for sin, and then he sat down, which indicates his work is done.

He's not continually offering himself and continually sacrificing himself. It's a once and for all thing because he being God became man, lived a sinless life. His sacrifice, his death was significant enough that it was a once and for all deal. It wasn't the blood of an animal. It was the blood of the son of God. And that blood was shed so that our sins could be forgiven.

The same principle still applies in that it's a substitution. Here's how to be forgiven. You need to let a substitute pay for your sin. You need to let Jesus pay for your sin. Jesus offers to pay for your sin. In fact, Jesus has already paid the price for your sin. But we only benefit from that when we receive it, when we accept it, when we lay our hand on the head of Jesus and say, Jesus, you took the judgment for my sin.

And we identify with the sacrifice and we recognize I deserve that, but you took it in my place. This is what the Lord calls us to, to believe in Jesus is to identify with Christ and say, he died on the cross for my sin and his sacrifice is sufficient to pay that penalty that I deserved to pay.

The commentator H.A. Ironside says it this way, it's important to learn that it was not merely the physical suffering of Jesus that made atonement for sin, it was what our Lord suffered in the depths of his inward being that met the claims of divine justice and settled the sin question. The sin question is settled. It's not just because of the physical things, which Jesus went through severe physical trauma with the scourging, with the beatings, with the crucifixion, severe physical trauma, but Jesus

There on the cross, he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because there was a separation. There was a bringing upon the penalty and the judgment of sin. That was the real sacrifice that was going on and the real payment that was taking place. But Jesus received that for us. And if you will let him be your substitute, just like the promise in Leviticus says,

You shall be forgiven. It's a guarantee that there's no sin that's not covered, that there's nothing that you could do that wouldn't be paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. So you can accept the sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf and identify with Jesus and lay your hand on his head and say, you receive this penalty for me and I receive that forgiveness from you.

This is the amazing work that God has done in offering us forgiveness through substitution. He took our place upon the cross.

But that's not the end of the story in regards to sacrifices and forgiveness. This is in regard to the sin referred to in chapter 4, but there's some more details added in chapter 5. And so we need to dig into these things as well. And so here in chapter 5, we get point number 2, and that is confess your sin to God.

In chapter 5, he starts talking about kind of some particular types of sin, and we'll see this as we work our way through. But let me read through the first few verses for you, and we'll jump into that. In verse 1 of Leviticus chapter 5, it says, "...if a person sins in hearing the utterance of an oath and is a witness whether he has seen or known of the matter, if he does not tell it, he bears guilt."

Or if a person touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean beast or the carcass of an unclean livestock or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and he is unaware of it, he also shall be unclean and guilty. Or if he touches human uncleanness, whatever uncleanness with which a man may be defiled, and he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty."

Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is a man may pronounce by an oath and he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters. And it shall be when he is guilty in any of these matters that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. And he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord for his sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats as a sin offering.

So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin. As we transition from chapter 4 into chapter 5, there's similarities but also subtle differences between these offerings that are being described. The sin offering in chapter 4 is slightly different than the trespass offering in chapter 5. And again, there's a lot of details here for the Levites and the priests that we don't necessarily need to get into this morning. And so instead, I would ask you to think about it this way.

It's kind of like if I get in the car and I go driving down the road and I turn on some music and some amazing Toby Mac's song comes on the radio. It's like upbeat. It's like, oh man, it's like, it's got good rhythm and I'm like into it. I'm just like enjoying it. And I get carried away a little bit and I begin to go a couple miles over the speed limit. Now, I've never done that before, but I'm told it's quite exhilarating. No, I'm just kidding. I'm breaking the law by exceeding the speed limit.

But it's not so much like I'm trying to, it's just, I just kind of got carried away. You know, I just, I wasn't trying and I wasn't paying attention. I was enjoying the song or whatever. And I went above the speed limit. That's the kind of idea in Leviticus chapter four. We all fall short of God's glory. And it's not always intentional, deliberate things that we do. Sometimes we're just not paying attention and we mess up and we don't do what we're supposed to do or we do what we're not supposed to do. And it's,

Something that happens as a result of our sinful nature. But you would understand that that is different than, well, if I get in the car, I'm driving down the road, I check my rearview mirror, I check my side mirrors, I look around, no black and whites, pedal to the metal, and I go past the speed limit now, recognizing I can get away with this. You know, there's no cops around, and I can go as fast as I want to. You understand? That's a different. The same thing is happening, right? I'm exceeding the speed limit.

But there's different things involved in my heart and in my mind in that same type of violation. And that's what God is dealing with as we talk about the trespass offering.

It's not just weaknesses of the flesh or things that happen as a result of our sinful nature, but the trespass is more of a, you were involved in this. You made some decisions and you may have known all of the implications. You may not have known all the implications, but you were involved. You took some action. There was some involvement on your part in doing these things. And so he gives a few examples.

Here in verses one through four. And I would encourage you to look at those as examples. This wasn't God trying to say, you know, here's every instance that could ever happen. It was God saying, here's a few examples. Here's what I'm talking about. So if a person sins in verse one in the utterance of an oath and is a witness, whether he has seen or known a matter, it does not, if he does not tell it, then he bears guilt. And the idea here is I was a witness and

to something. And that, you know, Jeff called me and said, hey, you know, can you be a witness to this transaction? And then later on, that transaction is brought into some type of legal proceedings. If I don't bear witness as a witness of that transaction, then it's an issue. He goes on to talk about ceremonial uncleanness in verses two and three. Now, this is going to get further clarified in Leviticus chapter 11 and the following chapters talking about the uncleanness that comes from different kinds of animals and things like that.

But again, the point is you're interacting in some way with these things that God has set certain perimeters about. You're behaving in a certain way. You're acting in a certain way. You're taking action in these ways. In verse 4, he talks about a broken promise. So you swear an oath. You make a promise, whether to do something or to not do something. And when you made the promise, you probably meant it, but you didn't think about how hard it would be to keep that promise. And now you've broken that promise.

So you have now become guilty because you've broken your promise. You've broken that oath that you made. They're just some examples of things that you might do deliberately, actions that you might have taken, decisions that you were involved with that have, well, brought you into this position of guilt, just like we talked about with the sin offering.

But in this case, in verse 5, he gives a little bit of extra instruction. He says, So in this case, when the sin is of a nature where you've deliberately made a decision, you've taken some action,

Maybe it wasn't fully thought out. Maybe you were very well aware of the consequences. Maybe you had no idea, you know, that there's different levels of that. But the point is you were involved and you took the action. Now in your position of guilt, there's this extra requirement. It's not just the sacrifice and you're taking my place. But now God says, you also need to confess that you have done that thing.

The word confess, it speaks of a declaration of fact. Oftentimes we describe confession as agreement with God. And that is appropriate. That is because what God says is the fact. It is the truth. And for us to confess, it's to agree with God. God, you're right. This thing that I have done is sin. It is wrong what I did and I did what was wrong. It's a declaration of fact.

Now, that's important. It's not an opportunity to provide all the reasons why I did what I did, but it's a declaration of fact. It's

Lord, I have done what is wrong. That is the idea of confession. Thomas Nelson puts it this way in his study Bible. He says, confession is the rituals, well, he says, the rituals of sacrifice were not automatic in their effect. The worshiper had to recognize, acknowledge, and repent of the sin. There had to be this acknowledgement. It's not just offer a sacrifice. Okay, I'm not perfect, and so here's a sacrifice. It's not just like a general sweeping ritual.

thing. There is the sinful nature, and Christ has died for that. But also, when there is that specific action that has been taken, it is required that confession be given. Now, please understand, this is not saying that you have to confess everything that you have ever done, or you can't be saved.

That is not at all what is, it's not that you have to track down and figure out and, you know, uncover every sin that you've ever committed and make sure you confess it. And if all those check boxes aren't checked, then you're in trouble. That's not at all what God is saying. Here's what God is saying. When your sin comes to light, when you are aware of it, it's not every sin that you've ever done, that's a long list, but every sin that you're aware of, you are to confess it.

As God shines forth his light and you become aware of conditions of your heart, actions that you've taken, and that's the implication in these examples that he gave, is like you made these things and then later on you realize, oh man, I didn't keep that promise that I made. And as you become aware of that, oh man, I didn't recognize that my heart was this way, that I had, you know, this anger towards that person. And as it comes to your attention, you

Well, then it's appropriate, then it's needed that there be confession, that there would come before the Lord and bring this acknowledgement, this declaration, Lord, I was wrong that you agree with God about that sinful behavior. Here in Leviticus chapter 5, verses 7 through 12, God gives confession.

similar type of instruction for different kinds of animals. And so we're not gonna jump into those details, but there was different types of animals that you could offer. And here's how to handle those. Again, it's very similar to what we looked at already. But I do wanna call your attention to verse 13. And again, I would ask you to notice the guarantee. Verse 13 says, "'The priest shall make atonement for him "'for his sin that he has committed "'in any of these matters, "'and it shall be forgiven him.'"

The rest shall be the priest as a grain offering. Here's what the Lord says. You've sinned. You've made a choice. You've taken some action. You've done something that was wrong. It's your fault. You chose it. You're guilty, but you can bring a sacrifice. You can confess your sin and you can know that it will be forgiven you. Again, God is making a way. God is preparing and providing a way for you and I to have right relationship with God and

Making sure that we have this security, this promise, this guarantee. There is a for sure route of cleanness before God. No like room for, you know, well, I hope I am forgiven. I hope I have right relationship with God. I hope all that's taken care of. But that you for sure can know absolutely without a doubt that you're cleansed.

God provides that. Here we're looking at the Levitical system, but through Jesus Christ, God provides that even further in that we have the blood and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ sticking with point one. We have his substitution as a sacrifice, but we also still are called to and have the opportunity to confess.

The Apostle John puts it this way in 1 John 1, verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The sacrifice has been made. We accept the atonement of Jesus on our behalf. We accept that forgiveness and we bring our confession. As sin comes to light, as the issues of our heart come to light, as the failures on our part come to light,

We come before the Lord and acknowledge that. We don't have to explain it away. We don't have to, you know, it's not about that. It's just about stating the fact. Coming before God and saying, God, this was wrong, but this is what I did. I agree with you. You say it's wrong. I agree with you. It was wrong, but this is what I did. And when you confess...

Now, it's along with the sacrifice. Again, in verse 5, we have the confession. In verse 6, and he shall bring his trespass offering. So if you try to confess without receiving the sacrifice of Christ, there's no forgiveness. But because of the sacrifice of Christ, we can confess our sin before God. And it says that he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. He's faithful. This is the promise, the guarantee.

You will be forgiven. You will be cleansed. If you will come to Jesus by faith, accepting his sacrifice on your behalf and confess to him your sin, you're cleansed. You're washed. That sin, it's cast as far as the east is from the west. You have right relationship with God. If anyone is in Christ, the old things have passed away. Behold, all things become new. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

There's a justice that's involved because Christ has paid the price. He's our substitution. And so he's just in forgiving us our sins because the penalty was paid. Jesus paid it on your behalf. He's your substitute. And so you can be cleansed, completely clean, completely pure before God as you confess your sin to God. Here's how to be forgiven.

Let a substitute pay for your sin. Let Jesus Christ serve that role. He's willingly provided himself as the sacrificial lamb. Let him be that for you. Lay your hand on his head, identify with him and say, Jesus, thank you for taking my place upon the cross. And then bring your confession. Again, you don't have to root out and like, you know, keep an Excel spreadsheet of all your sins and check each one and make sure you've confessed it. But as God brings things to light in your heart,

As he brings things to your attention, come to God in agreement. That can be hard sometimes because we love sin. We love our sin. We love the things that we do and we don't want to repent and turn from those things. But this is how we have access to God and how we can be forgiven. We come to God and agree with God. Lord, I love to do this, but you've called it sin. You say that it's destructive. And so Lord, I agree with you. It was wrong for me to do that. I confess that to you.

And as you confess to God, he is faithful, he is just, and you are cleansed. Well, there's one other piece for us to consider as we talk about forgiveness. Because sin not only affects our relationship with God, sin oftentimes affects the people around us. And God includes that in, well, this need for forgiveness and this opportunity to be clean before him. And so as we go on now in Leviticus chapter 5,

Looking at verse 14 and then on into chapter 6, we see point number 3, and that is make amends with anyone harmed by your sin. Let's begin with verses 14 through 16. It says, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, If a person commits a trespass and sins unintentionally in regard to the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring to the Lord as his trespass offering a ram without blemish from the flocks,

Here, God is now addressing the case where sin has taken place

And it has brought damage upon something. And it could be damage to something that belongs to the Lord. That's what these first few verses are dealing with. The holy things of the Lord. And so, you know, you're hanging out in the tabernacle area. You accidentally step on a shovel that belongs to the Lord and bend it. Now you've broken the Lord's shovel. And so there's...

Some payment to be made in regard to that sin that you committed that affected the things of the Lord. And it's true of something that belongs to other people as well. And that's what he'll go on to explain in chapter six. Now, keeping with the example of driving a car, if I'm listening to my favorite song, Toby Mac comes on and I'm like, get carried away. I'm driving too fast. And I run over your mailbox. Now I've destroyed some of your property in my sin.

And what the Lord is saying is, you need to make that right. You need to pay to have that mailbox restored. But he also goes on to say, and you need to add on top of that one fifth or 20%. Now, I could run over your mailbox because I'm carried away listening to my music, or I could run over your mailbox because I'm

I've checked my mirrors and I've deliberately, you know, broken the speed limit and driven too fast and went out of control and drove over your mailbox. Either way, whether it was a deliberate thing from the get-go or not, I've caused some damage. And that's the idea here of this offering that God is addressing. It's the trespass offering with retribution. That is, in your decision, in your sinful behavior, you've caused damage and, well, it needs to be paid back.

And if it's something that belongs to the Lord, well, it gives them instruction. Here, pay this to the priest. Give him the value of that thing plus 20%. And that will take care of the retribution part of it. But notice, then there's the offering. So it's the combination now of these things that you make things right financially. You confess the sin, if that's appropriate, and you offer the sacrifice, right?

And all three are combined to bring you that promise of forgiveness. Notice again the guarantee in verse 16. And he shall make restitution for the harm that he has done in regard to the holy thing and shall add one-fifth to it and give it to the priest. So the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering and it shall be forgiven. Guarantee, promise, you are cleansed when you do this.

Even if what you've done has caused destruction, caused harm to others, many times that's one of the things of sin that we don't really consider ahead of time. And that is that there's some real consequences. There's some real devastation that's brought not just to ourselves, but to people around us. And in making things right, in making amends, there's some things that need to be restored. Right?

Sometimes there's things that are done, there's damage that's done that's not really payable by finances. You know, I can't just give you 20 bucks because I hurt your feelings. Maybe that'll help, I don't know. But there's some areas where we have to go and ask for forgiveness of people, where we have to make amends with people in our relationship, whether or not that's involving, you know, some physical destruction or some other type of damage. But the point is, you got to make amends with the people that you've hurt, right?

as you seek to get right with God.

In chapter six here in Leviticus, he talks about the person's property. In verse one again, it says, and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, if a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by lying to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping or about a pledge or about a robbery or if he has extorted from his neighbor or if he's found what was lost and lies concerning it and swears falsely in any one of these things that a man may do in which he sins. So he's talking about, here's some examples again. You find Rick Dominguez's phone.

You go, wow, that's a cool phone. I've always wanted this phone. You just kind of put it in your pocket. Rick comes back in the sanctuary. Hey, anybody see my phone? I haven't seen it yet. We can look. I'll help you look. Now you've stolen. You've kept. You've lied about finding his phone. That's sin. There's damage that's brought. So the Lord says, you need to give that back. If you've broken it, you need to provide a new phone. If you pay it back, you need to also make retribution and add one-fifth to it. Not just the restoration of the thing, but

Hey, there's some pain and suffering that was caused. Rick, he's emotionally dependent upon his phone and he can't survive without it. And he's been distraught for the last couple of days that you've had his phone. And so, well, it's appropriate for you to compensate for that, for you to take care of that, for you to pay his medical bills, for seeing a psychiatrist, for missing his phone for those two days. I'm being a little bit silly, but also at the same time,

That's the reality. Hey, I've thrashed your mailbox. Now you have to take a day off work and have that taken care of or do it yourself. It's costing you. It's appropriate for me not to just restore that here's a mailbox, but to give that 20% above and say, I'm very sorry for what I did. It's part of...

Making amends, making things right. And so there was the full repayment of what was damaged or taken. There's that 20% additional, but again, that was in conjunction with the offering that was made. Pastor Dave Guzik puts it this way, "'Restitution and its accompanying penalty "'had to be made the same day of his trespass offering. "'This powerfully demonstrated "'that one could not get right with God "'without also making his wrong right with men.'"

You can't get right with God without also making things right with the people that you've hurt and offended and harmed. Not everybody accepts the forgiveness or accepts the, you know, what's that called? The apology. It can't always be exactly like it was before. But like the apostle Paul said in Romans, as far as it depends on you, be at peace. Do your best to make amends.

And understand that you can't just go, it's just me and God. And you know, hey, I'm sorry for all the devastation I've caused in your life, but hey, God forgives me. There needs to be some effort on our part to make amends, to help restore and recover what it is that we've hurt and harmed of others. Jesus puts it this way in Matthew chapter five, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,

leave your gift there before the altar, go your way, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. These things had to happen the same day in the book of Leviticus. That you can't just, okay, well, I'm going to offer this offering, and then, you know, one day, I hope I remember, I'm going to go talk to Eli and make things right, because I really, you know, destroyed his mailbox. But I'll get to it one day. Eli says, no, no, that's not repentance. You need to make things right. There needs to be an urgency, a fervency that

that you go and take care of these things and make amends and offer your sacrifice and confess your sin to God so that you can be forgiven. Now, it's the guarantee you will be forgiven, but it's with this substitute, with this confession, and with making amends for those that you've hurt. My voice is going out, so I'm going to end in prayer. Lord, as we consider your forgiveness this morning,

Lord, it is amazing that even though we are guilty and deserve penalty and judgment for our sin, that you offer to us the opportunity to be forgiven. Lord, it's amazing to consider that you provided yourself as the sacrifice, that you willingly came and received the penalty and the payment that I deserve so that we could have this opportunity of forgiveness. And Jesus, as we consider these things right now in our minds and in our hearts, we ask

We place our hands upon your head. We look to you in your eye and we say, thank you, Lord, for receiving this penalty on our behalf. Thank you for being our substitute, taking my place upon the cross. And in your own heart, just between you and the Lord right now, you can bring that confession of anything that's on your mind, anything that's on your heart, and that acknowledgement that you have sinned. I have violated God's word.

God's laws. Done what I ought not to do and not done what I ought to do. Lord, thank you that as we accept your sacrifice and confess our sin to you, your promise, your guarantee is that we are cleansed and forgiven. That we can stand before you as those who

who have never sinned, not even once, that's an incredible, amazing thing to consider. Your grace and your mercy, it's unfathomable. Thank you, God, for your goodness towards us. Thank you, God, for setting us free from bondage to sin and death and the burden of guilt. I pray that you would help us to walk in these truths. And Lord, even when we feel guilty, we can come to you with these truths and remember and remind ourselves that

when the enemy wants to bring condemnation into our hearts and lives for what we've done, Lord, we have the guarantee and the promise as we come to you by faith and confess to you our sin, Lord, you cleanse us. And the enemy may accuse us, but it holds no ground any longer because we're washed. We're new in you. And God, I pray for those instances where our sins have affected others. I pray that you would show us

those things that we might do our best to make amends. Help us, God, to be reconciled to one another as we seek to be right with you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.