Leviticus 5-7 - 2012 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] welcome to expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God as we explore the Word of God in a way that is interactive enjoyable and congregational and now with all the hood spike and muster up would you turn into your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 5 Leviticus chapter 5 you will need a Bible this won't be the kind of thing you can just sit and listen to you'll probably need to read along because we'll cover some ground tonight in chapters 5 6 & 7 Lord willing let's pray our Father we are so grateful that we have an opportunity afforded to us to go back before the New Testament was scripted to the times when the Covenant of the law was given to Moses and through him to your people and to the nation that would follow after them and as we study Lord so much comes clearer as we are able to then understand parts of the New Testament and even the Old Testament that we couldn't understand without the foundation in this Book of Leviticus give us ears to hear we prepare our hearts by this prayer as well as others that have been uttered before it asking that you would clearly speak to us in Jesus name Amen I have a problem I'm a Midianite I live at the foot of Mount Sinai my people have lived there for generations we're a simple people we live in tents you might say we're intense people but it's the way of life that my fathers have always known and they passed it down to us we like this simple life we love each other we love the fellowship and the camaraderie of our tribes as a Midianite I'm a son of Abraham I trace my genealogy my lineage back to him but the problem that I have is that another group of people have shown up around the mountain that I inhabit Mount Sinai a lot of people a couple million upwards of two and a half million of them they are also sons and daughters of Abraham but they're different as I look at them my people and I we notice that their tent dwellers as well they have a simple life as well however all of their tent community is revolved around another tent all of their tribes are gathered around a central tent with a white courtyard and colorful draping 'he's badger skins and all of that is for the worship of their God they kill animals and they sacrifice the blood and the animal upon an altar in that courtyard where that tent is and all of the tents all of those tribes revolve around that central sanctuary of worship what makes it very different and unique from our worship system is that this cloud hovers over it every day and a pillar of fire every night it's miraculous I've never seen anything like it it never happened at our Midianite church ever but my problem is deeper than that it's not with those people but they seem to have a relationship with their God we're by their sins their shortcomings are all forgiven because of their sacrifices I so long in my heart to know the God who made me I so would love in my heart to have a relationship with my Creator like they say they do but the problem is for me to have one they tell me I have to be circumcised if I'm a male I have to keep those animal sacrifices that they prescribed and the set of laws that their God has given them so there's a barrier between me as a Midianite and the God that the children of Israel serve and they tell me it's because of this thing called sin now that indeed was the problem fourteen hundred and fifty years ago when God gave the Covenant of the law through Moses to the people of Israel and anyone who was different than them who wanted to approach God had to go through the one and only religious system God ever gave to humanity and that is Judaism to Jared what I said Judaism is the only religious system God ever gave to mankind you say oh wait wait wait that's not true Christianity no it's not a religion it's the fulfillment of the ancient religion through one perfect person the lamb in the form of a person the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who came out of heaven and fulfilled in his own life and body and death and resurrection the law that God gave to those people that religion was pointing to the fulfillment in that one person several years ago on a Sunday night after a Bible study that I taught up in Santa Fe I was there pretty late and none of the restaurants after church were open and I just wanted a meal before I headed back down here and the only thing that was open was a 24-hour convenience store I won't tell you the name of which one I walked over to the refrigerator and got one of those microwavable burritos paid for it heated it up whooped one or two or more down and headed back home I had a buddy with me a staff member my stomach soon after felt a little queasy uneasy started cramping and I started moving around and my friend said you okay and I said oh I'm fine no problem not admitting what I was really experiencing about 2:30 in the morning when I was now in the emergency room of the local hospital and they told me that I had an infection or at least they suspected that I had an infection and they wanted to run several tests on me and I said no problem they gave me a test I was familiar with familiar with it because I had training with this test in my own college medical background it was a diagnostic test for the lower abdomen the bowels the colon called a barium anima don't need to describe it I think you get the picture I got the picture and as they were giving me that test now maybe four in the morning I thought of the words of job that which I have feared has come upon me when the doctor after the tests blood tests that test other tests came in and she said you have an infection I may have to do exploratory surgery now I had to admit I wasn't fine and I couldn't say no problem I had to say big problem I have an infection in my gut that denial of problems I come by honestly my dad was like that he would often say even if things were bothering Emery at pain or he cut himself all I'm fine not not a problem I distinctly remember as a boy my father working on a car and he got his hand too close as the car was running to the fan belt and he chopped the top of one of his fingers completely off and blood splattered all over in the inside of the engine block and he went inside and I thought we were gonna rush him to the hospital he was in the bathroom shaving putting Cologne on combing his hair put a different shirt on all the while the handkerchief is filling with blood and we said dad we got to get you to a hospital well I'm fine I just got a look right and then I'll go to the hospital what Heitzig men do with physical maladies is what most people do with spiritual infections most people deny they have a problem deny that they have a sin nature deny that they practice sin they don't call it what God calls it it's all about denying it an old Latin proverb that he who denies his sin will never have it forgiven he has not cleansed from sin who denies it the proverb says almost verbatim God wanted to deal with the most important issue of humanity and in the Old Covenant under Moses he did it through a series of sacrifices most of which we have looked at last time we were in the Book of Leviticus a key concept a key word in this book is offering or sacrifice the term offering or sacrifice appears about 90 91 times depending on what translation you read from it's a sacrificial system now I have to I have to answer an issue that is brought up when some people read the Old Testament they read and they look at the sacrifices and they notice there is a similarity between the sacrifices of God's people the Israelites in the Old Testament with the ancient sacrificial system of many other pagan religions around them of that day Mesopotamia Shinar etc and it is true other ancient religions had animal sacrifices bloodletting but for very different reasons they would take food and they would take animal sacrifice them cook them and offer them to the gods but here's the reason why and I'm telling you this because a lot of times well-meaning but ignorant pseudo-intellectuals try to bunch all of the ancient sacrificial systems with the ancient sacrificial system of Israel and say Israel was primitive like those other nations and they had to work their way through to enlightenment not so these sacrifices were given by direct revelation of God and here's the difference the pagan systems of the past in that area of the world let's take mesopotamia as that general region where much of it started had a pantheon of deities a hierarchy of gods they taught that the gods just like humans need to be taken care of gods need to eat God's need to drink just like you need to eat and you need to drink so the gods in that pantheon the greater gods were weary of maintaining their own physical sustenance so they forced lesser gods to do the job for them to get them food the lesser gods also eventually got tired of feeding the greater gods so the lesser gods created people human beings so that human beings would take on a religious system of feeding and caring for their gods if you go to India today if you go to Hawaii today and you still see in some of these areas some of the ancient practices of placing food drink bottles of milk cooked animals in front of statues because they believe that the God is deriving strength and nutrition from that sacrifice why is that different from the sacrifices we're reading about because these sacrifices in the Bible weren't for nutrition they were for expiation and inter relation I'll explain to take away sin number one expiation so that you can approach God having your sin taken care of number one and number two for inter relation once your sin has been taken care of now you can have a relationship with that God based upon sacrifice all of that pointing to the day when the ultimate once-for-all sacrifice could take away the sin of all people and these sacrifices would no longer be needed so God is dealing with sin and why does God need to deal with sin because sin is a big deal it's such a big deal and this is where most people go astray they go what's the big deal I mean yeah we all blow it I'm a human here a human but most people and I would say a majority of Christians don't realize how offensive sin is to a holy perfect God that from God's view that has to be dealt with first and foremost before anything else can get done and so the Bible says without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins and Leviticus is based upon all of that this is where we lose a lot of people in the conversation Oh sacrifice oh the cross oh you Christians saying that Jesus died for my sins on the cross why would Jesus need to do that why would a God perfect loving God allow his son to go through that and why would that even be necessary can't we just believe in anything and be very sincere and that sincerity would be enough to do the trick No well can't I just do my best no because here's here's why your best ain't good enough it is the height of arrogance to think I can work my way and earn my way and be sincere enough because in effect you're saying I'm as good as God I've earned it I deserve it God is saying you're not and you can never earn it or deserve it something else has to happen and that is death the wages of sin is death it's either gonna be your death or the death of a substitute and here the substitutes are given in these chapters now there's five offerings we've covered for at this rate we might not even be able to cover five tonight but there are five offerings do you remember what they are the first the burnt offering the second is the green offering the third is the peace offering the fourth is the sin offering and the fifth that we're going to discuss God willing is the trespass offering also known as the guilt offering and I'll try to show you some of the differences the burnt offering what does that speak of speaks of consecration of myself holy given over to God Romans chapter 12 verse 1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service so the first offering the burnt offering speaks of the consecration of self the second offering the grain offering speaks of the dedication of service to God I'm going to serve the Lord with the work of my hands that I present to him I present this little grain offering this little that I have thanking God that I can be part and partner with him in his work consecration of self dedication of service the third the peace offering speaks of the celebration of salvation I love the peace offering it was like a holy barbeque it's where you get your friends together at your house and a portion of the sacrifice is burnt a portion of the sacrifice is given to the priests and the rest you take home and have a barbeque with your buddies your family and it's a hoo-hoo party time thanking God for His goodness celebration of salvation the fourth is the sin offering and that speaks of the propitiation for your sin or the atonement for your sin and the fifth is the trespass offering and the trespass or the guilt offering speaks of the restitution for the sinner the restitution for the sinner chapter 5 verse 1 and let me just kind of mention something about the first few verses you're gonna read the first 13 verses of this chapter seem to deal with the trespass offering because the word trespass is used in verse 6 however since the trespass offering I try to follow me here the trespass offering is where you have to not just bring a sacrifice and confess your sin but you have to restore what has been taken or mismanaged plus 20 percent you have to pay extra for it that's the trespass offering it would it would be best perhaps as some scholars do to take the first 13 verses and see it as two more levels of the sin offering whereas beginning in verse 14 we deal with the trespass offering if you don't want to do that that's fine you can put it all as the trespass offering but it seems best to see it that way verse 1 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 he bears guilt so if someone has witnessed something or heard something and he refuses to tell he refuses to give information to add any of his witness any of this testimony after he's been put under the oath by a priest he's guilty the priest puts you under oath you better tell it all do we see this in the New Testament we actually do and we see it with the Lord Jesus Christ you may remember in Matthew chapter 26 when Jesus has been arrested and he's standing before the Sanhedrin the Jewish Council and the high priest says I adjure you by the Living God or literally I put you under oath by the Living God are you the Christ the Son of God and jesus answered plainly it is as you say it is as you say he was put under the oath I had jury or I put you under the oath by the Living God the high priests said placing him under the oath Jesus had to be forthright and say yep I am it is as you say and from now on you will see the Son of Man at the right hand of glory coming in the clouds of glory fulfilling this verse 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 these these unclean animals that would render a person ceremonially unclean is what it's speaking about or if anyone 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 so if you were to touch the limb of somebody who had leprosy or the pus of somebody who was oozing a sword that's unclean man you're going to yeah I wouldn't do it but if you did inadvertently you would be guilty and it shall be when he is guilty in any of these matters that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing in our own language we have a little saying we spout around when we're kids kid will say something and the other kid will say swear to God or the person will just say I swear to God and he may say something rash with his lips he thinks that if he uses that phrase it's going to be more powerful when in effect it can actually be a problem if a person makes a rash oh the NLT says in anything good or in anything bad he speaks something rashly with his mouth now James chapter 3 says something see if you can relate to this I can't if anyone does not sin with his tongue the same is a perfect man able to keep the whole body in check can any of you relate to that I can't I can't I've I'm not one who is perfectly attentive with my speech and I slip and I say things that that are wrong might be injurious toward someone if anyone is perfect or is perfect with regard to his speech the same as a perfect man so that's the idea verse 4 and and the following verses proverbs 18 says death and life are in the power of the tongue with your speech you have the power to enlighten someone bless someone encourage someone lift a person up damaged someone hurt their reputation through your gossip through your stories that aren't validated there's a tombstone in England that says beneath this stone a lump of clay lies arabela young who on the 24th of May began to hold her tongue sad isn't it it took her death to shut her up she was such a gossip and everybody knew it that on her tombstone they said it took May 24th the day she died for her to hold her tongue so the law the injunction is hold your tongue and it can be a sin if you speak rashly with your mouth no you'll notice verse 5 there's something added to the sacrifice it shall be when he is guilty in any of these matters he shall confess that he has sinned in the thing not only do you bring a sacrifice you confess with your mouth this is the outward expression of repentance you need a sacrifice and you need to confess that you've sinned one of our favorite verses is 1st John chapter 1 verse 9 if you confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive your sin and cleanse you of all unrighteousness we call it the Christians bar of soap because we acknowledge our sin we confess it and the Lord is ready to forgive us and to receive us but it takes confession no what does confession mean now you might say well to confess your sin is to admit that you've sinned no it means more than that it actually means to say the same thing about your sin that God says about it this is why a lot of people don't confess their sins because they're unwilling to say about their sin they won't even call it sin first of all but if you get them beyond that they identify it differently than God might what God calls lust they might say love God we'll call it adultery they say we had an affair usually when uh people say I've committed adultery but to confess is to say the same thing about it that God says about it and your heart won't be cleansed and lightened until you say the same thing about it that God says about it I've always loved the story about Frederick the Great the Prussian King who went to visit a prison in Berlin and as he walked by every cell prisoner after prisoner saying I'm innocent I shouldn't be here get me out of here all of them except there was one guy in a Cell who was strangely silent and the King paused and said I suppose you're gonna tell me that you're innocent as well he said no I'm guilty and I deserve punishment and the King smiled and said to the guard come quickly release this rascal before he corrupts all these fine innocent people hear his confession got him out and he shall bring his trespass offering verse six 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 if he's not able to bring a lamb then he shall bring to the Lord for his trespass which he has committed two turtledoves or two young pigeons one is the sin offering the other is a burnt offering he so bring them to the priests who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first ring off its head from its neck but shall not divide it completely then he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the site of the altar and the rest of the blood shall be drained at the base of the altar it is a sin offering and he shall offer the second as a burnt offering according to the prescribed manner and so the priest shall make atonement for his behalf for his sin which he has committed and it shall be forgiven him there were three types of offering that could be brought number one you could bring a lamb or a goat female number two you could bring two pigeons or two turtledoves number three you could bring if you did have those or access to those flower 1/10 of an ephah of flour about three liters of flour you could bring the idea behind the staging was no matter who you are no matter what status of wealth you have you might be rich and you can afford lambs you can afford animals you have a big flock you might not have any so you can get birds if you can't get Birds you're poorer you can get flour so that every person had access to forgiveness rich poor everyone could approach God and everyone could be forgiven that was typify dwenjang to thieves but he was buried in a rich man's tomb he died with the poor he was buried in a rich man's tomb John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son all of the world Jesus by that one act made God approachable whoever believes and so with these offerings but if he's not able verse 11 to bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons then he who ascends shall bring for his offering one tenth of an ephah and he falls but several gallons of fine flour one tenth of an ephah is about a little over three liters of fine flour as a sin offering he shall put no oil on it nor shall he put 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 the memorial portion of it as a memorial portion burn it on the altar according to the offerings made by fire it is a sin offering we looked at that last time 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 priests as a grain offering now if you're a very astute Bible student in reading that you're thinking by now no wait a minute here how is that possible how can a grain offering be offered and God says I'll forgive you of your sin if you just bring a grain offering when the Bible explicitly says without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin if that principle is true then how can this principle be enacted because the grain was offered upon the fire of the altar with blood on it and so God valued it as an animal sacrifice because it was on that sacrificial altar where blood was shed and blood was part of that great in that system and that a fire of sacrifices upon that altar that God prescribed or you might say imputed that value so that the very poor with whatever blood was left on that altar God would count it as a blood sacrifice now once again I realized that we're dealing with a sacrificial system that is dated to almost 1500 BC thousands of years ago and these laws don't apply to us and so the humanistic thinker would say well so it is with sin I mean yes sin appears here and it appears in the New Testament but the New Testament is 2,000 years old the whole idea of sin against God is so unpopular you hardly find it talked about these days even in many churches what has taken its place is a purely mechanistic view of the world rather than a personal God who superintends his universe there are impersonal laws within that universe from the behavioral psychology of BF Skinner to the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin a purely mechanistic view without the idea of sinning against a holy God is popular if you're to look at other religious systems besides that secular view you see things very differently in Eastern religions like in Hinduism good and evil are relative terms everybody makes mistakes everybody fumbles and falls on their way in the journey of self-realization you can't help but if you stumble and if you stumble so what in your next life when you're reincarnated as a gnat or a squirrel or an ox maybe in that reincarnation you'll be able to be self actualized but good and evil sin and righteousness are are relative terms relative ideas then if you look at a group of people called Unitarians which there's a few around still the Unitarian Church will say that man is basically good and salvation is simply self-improvement you pull yourself up you read self-help books and you can save yourself because you are basically good there is no such thing as sin then if you look at the religion of Christian science by Mary Baker Eddy Patterson Glover Frey she had a problem with men they teach that sin is non-existent it's not a reality it's an illusion and life is in the illusion so the way they deal with sin is to just simply deny that it exists and it's illusory it's interesting that it's called Christian Science I call it the grape-nuts religion if you ever looked at the serial grape-nuts there's no grapes in there and there's no nuts in there there's just a bunch of flakes in there Christian science is not Christian and it is not scientific it is just a massive denial of the obvious God calls it's in verse 14 the trespass offering really takes off the Lord spoke to Moses saying now there's three sections of this trespass or guilt offering a why is it called a trespass or guilt and because in this offering when a person sins he must not just confess with his mouth but he has to bring restitution besides the sacrifice he has to pay back and so there's three sections three sections that are given here first of all sins against holy things sins against the commandments of God and sins against your neighbor first of all sins against the holy things verse 15 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 with your valuation in shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary as a trespass offering and he shall make restitution for the harm that he has done in regard to the holy things and he shall add one-fifth to it and give it to the priests so that the priests shall make atonement for him with the RAM of the trespass offering and it shall be forgiven him now we're unsure what the text means when it says if a person sins in regard to the holy things of the Lord but apparently it means that a person could sin in regards to worship whether it meant that you would eat something that should have been given to the priests or the priests were to eat something that should have been burnt on the altar it seems to refer to something like that or you fail in the bringing of tithes and offerings or you make holy vows that you don't keep it doesn't say it's not the details aren't given just if you sin with regard to the holy things the idea that God would have provision for someone who sinned in regards to worship I wonder how how careful we are as believers when it comes to our preparation for worship do you ever prepare for worship now I know that you prepare to come here and and I know that on Sundays and now on Wednesdays you you'll look in the mirror and you comb your hair and you'll put makeup on and you'll say does this look good what do you think does it look better with this and you kind of choose the right outfit so you prepare yourself physically but do you prepare yourself spiritually listen to this I'm going to read you a text out of the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 5 just a little section Solomon says walk prudently when you go to the house of God and draw near to here rather than to give the sacrifice of fools for they do not know that they do evil do not be rash with your mouth and let not your heart under anything hastily before God for God is in heaven you are on earth therefore let your words be few for a dream comes through much activity in a fools voice is known by as many words when you make a vow to God do not delay to pay it for he has no pleasure in fools better or pay what you have vowed better not to vow than to vow and not pay watch yourself when you approach God and come prepared and how should we come prepared well what if you were to spend just a little bit of time before you come to church before you get in the car and say Lord I'm dedicating this time to you tonight you know what I need I know what I want but you know what I need so speak like Samuel said speak Lord your servant hears and we prepare our hearts before him verse 17 and I know the you in the middle can't see it so you're gonna have to take my word for it if a person sins and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be let there be light if a person sins and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord though he does not know it yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity and he shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish from the flock with your valuation as a trespass offering and so the priest shall make atonement for him regarding his ignorance in which he has erred and did not know it and it shall be forgiven him it is a trespass offering and a certainly trespassed he has certainly trespassed against the Lord somebody sins doesn't know it at the time later he knows it feelings of guilt arise his conscience is bothered by it it's in things that deal not just with the holy things of the Lord but against the commandments that God has given I didn't do what the Lord told me to do or I sinned against something he told me not to do and now I feel guilty about it my conscience is stirred and he comes with a sacrifice and that's a part of the trespass offering in the New Testament the Bible says in Romans 14 whatever is not a faith is sin that God has given us a conscience not that your conscience should be your guide and everything but there are certain gray areas that aren't black and white and you're just not sure but you just don't have the faith that if you were to do it the Lord would be pleased with it now somebody else could do it you think okay they have the freedom to listen to that song or go to that place I don't my conscience is pricked because of that I remember years ago when I was single and I was living in San Bernadino going to college a buddy of mine gave me the best deal I ever found on a goose down sleeping bag I loved to camp I told you that a few weeks ago on a Sunday $75 and I was able to buy an almost brand-new rated to a low temperature goose down sleeping bag for camping and I said you got a deal I brought it home laid on the couch that night sleeping bag over me not I did I had a bed but I just thought I got a sleeping bag I'm gonna I want to use it even though it was warm inside it opened the windows and slept with it thought it was super super cool but the next morning I felt guilty and it was simply because $75 was to me at that time an enormous amount of money it took a lot of time to save that up and the thing that bothered me the most is I hadn't asked the Lord first I was at a tender spot in my walk and I asked him about everything and I just felt guilt the next day like there's a cheque in my spirit that I didn't clear it with heaven I didn't get the go-ahead to get that sleeping bag and I thought it could be used now for the money for something else so I felt I needed to be obedient to the Lord and I brought a trespass offering no I'm just kidding I called up my buddy and I said I've got to ask for the money back here's her sleeping bag and he didn't quite understand I said not expecting you understand I just need to follow my conscience probing me in this area to obey the Lord that seems in an Old Testament awe 'king about now we get to chapter 6 and I have to say once again I see a mistake that is here I got to clear that up because you're thinking he just said there's a mistake in the Bible Harriet did you heard what he said no when it comes to chapter divisions and verse enumerations I believe there are lots of mistakes those are not inspired by the Holy Spirit they came hundreds of years later and those who gave us the chapter divisions and the verse divisions I don't think always served well I think that's the case in Chapter five as I mentioned with the first part being about the sin offering rather than the trespass offering and also in chapter six verse one it is a continuation of the trespass offering all the way down to verse well 14 it ends with 13 it so chapter 6 verse 1 should be chapter 6 verse 14 in my opinion so that therein lies the mistake and so it's a little bit confusing as you go through it we're dealing with the trespass offering it's continuing the Lord spoke to Moses saying if a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by lying to his neighbor see that's the third category sinning against holy things sinning against commandments of God now sinning against your neighbor and notice how he could sin against his neighbor by lying to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping hey here's my car would you watch it for the weekend no problem weekend over dude I don't know what happened to your car when you do know what happened to the car you sold the car to your other buddy and you pocketed the money to pay off the debt and now you're lying about it a pledge or about a robbery or if he has extorted from his neighbor or if he has 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 then it shall be because he ascended as guilty that he shall restore what he has stolen or the thing which he has extorted or what was delivered to him for safekeeping or the lost thing which he has found or all that about which he has sworn falsely he shall restore it to its full value 1/5 more 20% more so you have to pay it back you 120 percent the thing that was stolen or broken or lost or you lied about plus 20 percent and give it to whomever it belongs on the day of his trespass offering do we realize how gravest sin lying is one of the commandments thou shalt not bear false witness in proverbs 6 there's a list says 7 things God hates now I don't know about you but when I read something that God hates something I want to find the list look at it over very carefully and say don't want to do that God hates them and on that list twice twice is mentioned a lying tongue or one who swears falsely and lies God takes it very seriously that would include gossip and it's not substantiated and you spread it around and you are discrediting somebody's reputation bearing false witness when you don't have the facts God takes it very very seriously your tongue is three inches long it can kill a man 6 feet tall now beginning in verse 8 we have the law of the offerings let me just tell you what we have because we're gonna go through it very rapidly beginning here all the way to chapter 7 is a repetition of what we've already covered last time we were in Leviticus first four chapters speak about those five first five chapters speak about those five offerings that we've been talking about this is a repetition of that and so you're asking I hope why would God do that if he already said it why would he say it again here's the reason chapters 1 through 5 speak about the offering from the perspective of the one bringing the offering here in chapter 6 and on into chapter 7 it's from the perspective of the priest who receives the offering especially what portion of the offering he's able to eat for himself forgive to his family burn offering he would take the hide the peace offering he would take the right thigh and the breast etc etcetera there be portions out so it's like an in-office memo for the priesthood that's what chapter 6 and 7 is so we're just gonna briefly look at a few verses at some notable things and quickly move through it verse 8 the Lord spoke to Moses saying command Aaron and his son saying this is the law of the burnt offering the burnt offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night until morning and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it okay because of this the burnt offering which was voluntary not compulsory you did it if you wanted to do it eventually became almost compulsory in that the children of Israel by the time of the New Testament temple will do a morning sacrifice in an evening sacrifice every day morning sacrifice evening sacrifice morning sacrifice you every single day in perpetuity and the offering that they will burn will be the burnt offering in the morning and in the evening go down a few verses verse 12 and the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it it shall not be put out and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt offering in order on it and he shall burn on it the fat of the piece offerings a fire shall always be burning on the altar it will never go out God wanted the fire on the altar in the courtyard that altar of sacrifice the bronze altar to always be burning why God was saying I am always perpetually ongoingly willing to receive you and forgive you there always is access no matter who you are day or night the fire is always burning on my altar you are welcome to approach by sacrifice by confession but I am here to receive and to forgive let me press it a little differently in your own worship of the Lord in your own heart you have an altar it's the core of who you are do you keep the fires burning on the altar of your heart I dare say for many of us the fire wanes fire gets bright some days wanes a lot of the days we hear something we have something happened to us gets brighter and brighter then it goes out for a long long time we need to rekindle the fire how do you rekindle the fire how do you rekindle any fire what do you put on the fire you need to rekindle it but would you put fuel on it so put the right kind of wood the right kind of fuel in your own life and it might mean that you change the way you do devotions change the time if you need a you say I do it every night but I fall asleep after like 30 seconds okay go to bed a little earlier wake up a little earlier or have devotions with the spouse or call a friend or get involved with the Evolve with a Bible study group or as part of your devotion include singing try that at your mealtime some time is setting let's bow our heads lord thank you for this meal that you've given why don't you sing a song now in a restaurant it could be a little goofy but at home it could be really wonderful it might include going out on on a mission trip maybe a local mission as part of your service to the Lord Lord I'm just gonna dedicate this day to serve you at this local mission here in town you're rekindling the fire on the altar of your heart verse 14 is the grain offering this is the law of the grain offering the sons of Aaron shall offer it on the altar before the Lord verse 18 all the males among the children of Aaron may eat it it shall be a statute forever in your generations concerning the offerings made by fire to the Lord everyone who touches them must be holy the priests could eat it and the boys in the family could eat it because they are the future priests so because it's dealing with the priesthood this is holy it's given to those people and and God keeps underscoring through these sacrifices it's Holi its Holi its Holi its Holi you can't approach God thoughtlessly or carelessly and if you're a priest you have to be very very careful keep that in mind because by the time we get to chapter 10 of Leviticus a couple of Aaron's sons bring strange fire before the Lord and God strikes them dead on the spot because they approached him thoughtlessly and carelessly verse 25 is the law of the sin offering speak to Aaron and his son saying this is the law of the sin offering in the place where the burnt offering is killed the sin offering shall be killed before the Lord it is most holy the law of the trespass offering is in Chapter 7 and verse 7 the trespass offering is like the sin offering there is one law for them both the priest who makes atonement with it shall have it the priest who offers anyone's burnt offering that priest shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering which he has offered every grain offering that is baked in the oven and all that is prepared in the covered pan or in a pan shall be the priests who offers it every grain offering whether mixed with oil or dry shall be long to all the sons of Aaron to one as much as the other so a brief discussion of what the priest can eat verse 11 the law of the peace offering this is the law of the sacrifice of the peace offerings which he shall offer to the Lord if he offers it for Thanksgiving then he shall offer with the sacrifice of Thanksgiving unleavened cakes mixed with oil unleavened wafers anointed with oil or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil look down to verse 15 the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for Thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered he shall not leave any of it until morning why I'm guessing for health reasons they didn't have refrigeration and the only way to preserve meat as we've told you before was to rub salt into that stop the decay and that's the background behind Jesus saying by the way you are the salt of the earth you are meant to stop corruption in your culture in your society by your values you the natural corruption of your environment that's what salt does so when you offer a sacrifice it's going to go bad eat the meat the same day but look at verse 18 there's a stipulation verse 17 the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned with fire and if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering is eaten at all on the third day it shall not be accepted nor shall it be imputed to him it shall be an abomination to him who offers it the person who eats it shall bear his guilt so a priest was to eat it the first day if not the first day he was allowed though not optimal to do it on the second day he might have an abundance of meat has to be spread out so he's not a glutton but the third day he'd be punished go down to verse 31 and the priest shall burn the fat on the altar the breasts shall be Aaron and his sons also the right thigh you shall give to the priests as a heave offering from the sacrifices of your peace offering he is among the sons of Aaron who offers blood of the peace offering and the fat and shall have the right thigh for his part for the breasts of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering I have taken from the children of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings I have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons from the children of Israel by a statute forever now what is this business of the heave and the wave according to Jewish tradition the wave offering was when the priest would take a piece of the meat and raise it up it means the word in its root means to lift up and it would be waved horizontally that's the wave offering the offering is where the piece is taken and moved vertically one is horizontal one is vertical it's probably symbolic that this is a special provision of God to me and I'm lifting it up and I'm waving it or heaving it to say I have given it to you and this person has given it to you and sacrifice and now you're giving it back to me as a priest that this is part of what I eat this is part of my provision so it's simply a ceremonial notation that this is something special that God has given verse 35 we'll finish it up very quickly this is the consecrated portion for Aaron and his sons from the offerings made by fire to the Lord on the day when Moses presented them to minister to the Lord as priests the LORD commanded this to be given to them by the children of Israel on the day that he anointed them by a statute forever throughout their generations this is the law of the burnt offering the grain offering the sin offering the trespass offering the consecrations the sacrifice of the peace offering which the LORD commanded Moses on Mount Sinai on the day when she commanded the children of Israel to offer their offerings to the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai wow that Midianite looking down at the children of Israel looking at that tabernacle you know what it must have looked like to him a slaughterhouse blood spurting blood being poured blood being sprinkled some taken outside the camp the animal placed upon the altar offering sacrifice as I said 91 times 91 times offering and sacrifice mentioned in this book Jesus said something very interesting to the religious leaders of his day said if you would have believed Moses than you to believe me because Moses wrote about me now you're asking well when did Moses write about him it's not all Jesus said in Luke chapter 24 he's walking with two disciples who didn't recognize him they're on their way to Emmaus and it says beginning at Moses as Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy beginning in Moses Jesus began to expound through Moses and all of the prophets the thing in the scriptures the things that pertained to him what were those things exactly that Jesus was speaking of that'll have to wait till our next study father were so grateful that we have a congregation that would let out a verbal aah when when we're over time longing for the time when we gather together to have a further expounding of your word and how it relates to us thank you Lord that we can we can sort of see the undercarriage the undergirding of the scripture as we look at the laws and how they pertain to the priests and to the people and what the great principles beyond them are and what they mean to us in terms of forgiveness propitiation the use of our tongue the use of confession of our sins to you bless now father these your people the rest of the week in the name of Jesus amen [Music]

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 7,120

Rating: 4.8720002 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Jesus, Leviticus, Sermon

Id: vJnEGZfpTCA

Length: 63min 19sec (3799 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018