Let's turn in our Bibles this
evening to Leviticus. One more time in the book of
Leviticus, and tonight let's open first to chapter four, and
then we're going to read a couple of verses from chapter five. In chapter four, verses one through
three, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the
children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance
against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things
which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them,
if the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of
the people, then let him bring for his sin, which he has sinned,
a young bullock. without blemish unto the Lord
for a sin offering, a sin offering. And then in chapter five, if
you would turn over a page to verses five and six, and it shall be when he shall
be guilty in one of these things that he shall confess that he
hath sinned in that thing. and he shall bring his trespass
offering unto the Lord for his sin, which he has sinned, a female
from the flock, a lamb, or a kid of the goats for a sin offering,
and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning
his sin. Tonight, we are looking at the
last two of the five offerings that Moses was given from the
Lord for the priest to offer in the tabernacle service. We
look first at the meat offering, or the meal offering, which pictures
the pure and sinless person, the pure and sinless humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we looked at the burnt
offering, which pictures the complete and perfect obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ to God. He offered himself without spot. unto God. And then third, we
looked at the peace offering, which pictures the complete reconciliation
that we have with God. We who come into this world enemies
of God, are reconciled unto Him through the blood of the cross,
through the peace offering, that is, through the offering of Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Now tonight, we're going to look
at the last two of these five offerings, and I'm taking them
together because they both have to do with sin. Now if you notice
in chapter five and verse five, the verse that we read, we see
the word confess. And it shall be when he shall
be guilty in one of these things that he shall confess." That's
the first time that we have the word confess in the book of Leviticus. And this at least allows us to
consider the sin offering and the trespass offerings, though
they both have to do with offerings for sin, as two different offerings. And we look at them, the sin
offering, as respecting the believer's initial washing or cleansing
in the blood of Christ. That is, when a person comes
to Christ by faith, they are washed, as the apostle says in
1 Corinthians chapter 6. Remember, he lists those things,
awful things, sinful things, and then he says, and such were
some of you, but you are washed. That's the very first thing he
said, you are washed. And we know there's only one
thing, one agent that washes sent away, and that is the blood
of Jesus Christ, who loved us and washed us from our sins in
his own blood. So I like to think of the sin
offering as picturing that initial cleansing by the blood of Jesus
Christ when we first come by faith to him. but then the trespass
offering as picturing that ongoing cleansing that we have as believers
in this world. And the verse that I would give
for that is the verse in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 1, which
says, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.
Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he is the propitiation for
our sins. So the sin offering and the trespass
offering, they both have to do with sin. But we look at the
sin offering as that initial washing that we experienced when
we first lay hold upon Christ. When we first come to the fountain,
remember in Zechariah, God said in that day, I shall open a fountain. And we know that he opened that
fountain at Calvary. That's where the blood of Jesus
Christ was shared. That's where he gave his life
as a sacrifice for our sins. But we also know that as we go
through this world, we have the trespass offering. Now, three
parts to the message tonight. First of all, I want us to look
at the sin offering here in chapter 4. There's one way, and only one
way, for sin to be atoned, and that is by the shedding of blood. Now in these offerings for sin,
which pictured the Lord Jesus Christ, it could not be every
animal's blood that could picture our Savior. You know, under the
law, God gave some animals clean. He designated them as clean animals. A clean animal could be eaten.
An unclean animal could not be eaten. To eat an unclean animal
would make a person unclean himself. So, and the same for fowls or
for birds. There were some birds that were
pronounced unclean and they could not eat those birds, the flesh
of those birds. Well, in the sin offering, the
animal itself had to first of all be one of the clean animals. It couldn't be an unclean animal.
But then, even more so, not only had it to be a clean animal,
but it had to be a clean animal which had no blemishes. That's the first thing that we
are reminded of. If you look here in chapter 4
and verse 3, it says, And the priest that is anointed to that
if the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of
the people, then let him bring for his sin, which he has sinned,
a young bullock without blemish." No matter if it was a goat, if
it was a lamb, if it was a bullock, if it was any of these animals
that were clean, but they still had to be without blemish. Why? Because they are pictures
of the holy, harmless, sinless, separate from sinners, Son of
God, our great high priest. They had to be without blemish. You know, when God gave the Passover
there in Exodus chapter 12, He said they would take the animal
and put it up on the 10th day. They would not slay the lamb
until the 14th day. And one reason was, in those
four days, they would examine the lamb to make sure that it
was without blemish, that it had no spots or anything like
that that would cause it not to serve as the Passover lamb. And the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul
tells us, is our Passover. What did John the Baptist say?
Behold, the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.
Alright, here's another thing. The animal had to be killed before
the Lord. Notice that in verse 4. And he
shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation before the Lord. He had to bring this bullock,
or whichever animal he might bring, he had to bring it and
kill it. It had to be slayed before the
Lord. Now what the priest then did,
as he would take some of the blood, no doubt they would catch
the blood in some kind of a vessel, but then he would take, now this
is for the sin offering, he would take that blood into the tabernacle
and he would sprinkle it before the veil. Notice that in verses
five and six. And the priest that is anointed
shall take of the bullock's blood and bring it to the tabernacle
of the congregation. And the priest shall dip his
finger in the blood and sprinkle of the blood seven times before
the Lord." Notice, before the veil of the sanctuary. Now, he
doesn't go behind the veil. He only does that on the great
day of atonement. That's only once a year that
the high priest goes behind the veil and there he sprinkles the
blood before the mercy seat and upon the mercy seat. But for
a sin offering, he comes into the tabernacle and with his finger
he sprinkles that blood before the veil and he does it seven
times. And you know the number seven
is significant, isn't it, in the Word of God. It speaks of
completion. And what this pictures is the
completeness of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the rest of the blood from
the animal is poured out at the altar, the brazen altar, poured
out at the base of the brazen altar. Now here's a third thing
we see about the sin offering, and that is the man who brings
it, he must lay his hand upon the head of the animal. Now,
we've noticed this in these previous offerings, the burn offering
and the peace offerings, but notice again in verse 4, it says,
And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation before the Lord, and shall lay his hand
upon the bullock's head. In doing this, this pictures
several things, obviously. But when a man laid his hand
upon the head of the animal that would be sacrificed, the man
himself acknowledges his guilt. He acknowledges his guilt. The
animal, he lays his hand upon the animal, the animal is going
to die. But in reality, I'm the one who's
guilty. I'm the one who deserves because
the wages of sin is death. So the first thing he does is
by laying his hand upon the animal's head, he acknowledges that he
has sinned, that he's guilty. Now, a person might say, well,
I don't feel guilty. Well, whether you feel guilty
or you don't feel guilty, God says you're guilty. Right? Absolutely. Whether a person
feels guilty, feels like he's a sinner, feels like she's a
sinner, or doesn't, doesn't change the fact that God declares that
all men by nature, we've all sinned and come short of the
glory of God. And when a man laid his hand
upon this animal's head, that's what he's confessing. I'm guilty,
I'm a sinner, I've disobeyed, I've transgressed God's law. And of course, laying his hand
upon the head of the animal, as we've said all along, it speaks
to us of faith, of laying our hand upon Christ. Not our physical hand, but the
hand of faith. When the man put his hand on
the head of the animal, he was in union. The two became one. They were in union. And when
we, by faith, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, believe upon Him,
we are one with Him. We are in union with Him. Then, the next thing that we
see, this is the fourth thing, the priest would burn the fat,
this animal that was slain, he would burn the fat and a few,
just a few inward parts of the animal upon the brazen altar. Notice that in verses 8 and 9. And he shall take off from it
all the fat of the bullet for the sin offering, the fat that
covereth the inwards and all the fat that is upon the inwards
and the two kidneys and the fat that is upon them which is by
the flanks and the call of other liver with the kidneys that shall
he take away as it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice
of peace offerings and the priest shall burn them upon the altar
of the burnt offering." Now just a small part of this animal is
burned upon the altar. You say, what about the rest
of the animal? That's very important, isn't
it? The rest of the animal, because it is a sin offering. The rest of the animal is all
taken. I mean all of it. It's all taken
and it's taken outside the camp. Notice that in verse 12. Even
the whole bullock has taken just a few pieces from the inside
of the bullock But then the whole bullock shall he carry forth
without the camp unto a clean place where the ashes are poured
out, and burn him on the wood with fire, where the ashes are
poured out shall he be burned. Now you know in the letter of
Hebrews, the letter of Hebrews in the New Testament, the apostle
tells us in chapter 13, for the bodies of those priests whose blood
is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin. For the bodies of those animals
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest
for sin are burned without the gate. They're burned without
the gate. Wherefore, the apostle says,
wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with
his own blood, suffered without the gate. It wasn't by accident
that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified outside the walls of
Jerusalem. Just as this sin offering, holy,
the whole offering was burned outside the camp. But as I looked
at this this week, I could not help but think about the fact
that this animal was burned and it was consumed, but it was burned
where the ashes were poured out, where the ashes were poured out.
And I thought to myself, what happens when you pour out ashes? What happens when you pour out
ashes? Well, the wind blows them away. The wind blows the ashes away.
And is this not also a picture, like the scapegoat, that our
sins have been taken away? Just as the ashes of this sin
offering were blown away, taken away, so the scapegoat pictured
our sins being taken away, never to be seen again, so these ashes
are blown away, reminding us as we are told in Psalm 103,
as far as the east is from the west, so far hath God removed
our transgressions from us. You may search for them, but
you cannot find them. They're gone. They're taken away. Now, second, let's look at the
trespass offering in chapter five. And what are some of the
things for us to take away from this trespass offering? Well,
number one, the blood, and I've already mentioned this, the blood
of the trespass offering was not taken into the tabernacle
and sprinkled before the Lord. For the sin offering, yes, the
priest takes that blood in there and he sprinkles it seven times
before the Lord, before that veil that separated the holy
from the most holy place, but not with a trespass offering.
He doesn't take that blood within the tabernacle. He pours it all
out at the base of the brazen altar. Well, what does this teach
us? Well, it tells me, or it reminds
me at least of this. It was by one offering, it was
by one offering that sin has been put away. By one offering,
as the writer of Hebrew tells us, it was by one offering he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And in Hebrews
9, the apostle says, now once in the end of the world, the
end of the age, that old dispensation, once in the end of the age, hath
he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Once,
once. If a person could lose their
salvation, if a person could be saved and then be lost, That
would mean that Christ would need to come once again into
this world and give himself a ransom. That's not going to happen. There's
no need for it. Why? Because by his one sacrifice. I know tonight, I believe I speak
for almost all of us here tonight, what a blessed truth The reality
of this truth, the knowledge of this truth, that because of
who Jesus Christ is, God in flesh, His sacrifice has perfectly,
absolutely accomplished God's purpose in the saving of His
people. Once, He offered Himself, once,
to put away sin. It never needs to be repeated.
Why? He's sat down. The work is finished. It's over. He's accomplished
the work the Father gave him to do. A second thing we see here, the
need for the trespass offering. This is just another way As the
fact that blood of the trespass offering was not taken into the
tabernacle and sprinkled before the Lord reminds us that his
one sacrifice for sins was sufficient and never need to be repeated. Never need to be repeated. Well,
the need for the trespass offering, this reminds us that in the new
birth, when a person is born of the spirit of God, That person
receives a new nature, a new heart, but the old nature remains. There's a new man that's created
in righteousness and true holiness, but there's an old nature that
remains. We look in the scriptures and
we read of such men as Job. You know, Job begins by God testifying
to him, saying that he was a perfect and upright, and one that feared
God and eschewed evil. I don't know of any greater commendation
could be given to any man, any living man in this world. And
yet, before the book is over, before the book is ended, this
is what Job says about himself. I abhor myself and repent in
dust and ashes. Now only a sinner needs to repent. God said he was perfect, upright,
eschewed evil. That's what God said about Job,
but what Job said about himself, I abhor myself and repent in
dust and ashes. Why would he abhor himself? Why
does a believer abhor himself? Because of the fact, as the Apostle
Paul tells us in Romans chapter 7, when I would do good, evil
is present with me. And this trespass offering reminds
us that while we receive a new nature in the new birth, the
old nature is not eradicated. The apostle Paul, who was caught
up to the third heaven, just as soon as he came back down,
said, I find a thorn in my flesh. I've got a problem. And in Romans,
he said, what I would do, when I would
do good, rather evil is present with me. And he wrote to those
believers in Galatia. You know, they were being mistaught
by these false teachers that it's more than Christ. You need
more than Christ. You need Christ, but yes, you
need the law too, your obedience to the law. You need to be circumcised. You need to become a Jew and
go, you need to be a Jew. No, it's Christ and Christ alone. Yet Paul wrote to them, and he
told them, the flesh lusteth against the spirit. Now the flesh
there refers to that old nature, doesn't it? That which is born
of the flesh is flesh, and it's going to die flesh. That which
is born of the spirit is spirit. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit. and the spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary one to the other, so that you cannot,
you cannot do the things that you would. And that applies both
ways, both to the flesh and to the spirit. You cannot do what
you would do. The spirit would live a sinless
life. You can't do it. The flesh would
live a sinful life. You can't do it. The teaching that believers might
reach the point in this world of what some have called sinless
perfection is a lie straight out of hell. If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We need to confess our sins.
That's the reason I pointed out we have the word confess with
this trespass offering. In 1 John chapter 1 we read,
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And
our Lord taught us, taught His disciples in that model prayer,
We pray for our daily bread. We need bread every day. We need
food every day. At the same time, forgive us
our sins. Forgive us our debts as we forgive
our debtors. So every day, as we pray for
our need of food, so we pray for our need of sins forgiven. The Apostle James wrote, in many
things, not a few things, in many things we all offend. And then he said, if any man
offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able to
bridle the whole body. So this trespass offering reminds
us, yes, We've been saved, our sins have been forgiven, we've
been washed in the blood, but as we go through this life, we
still have a sinful nature, a sinful part of us, and we need cleansing
daily. That's the point of our Lord's
washing the disciples' feet, remember. That's the whole point
of that, isn't it? That we, as we walk through this
world, Our Lord told Peter when Peter said, no, you're not going
to wash me. If I don't wash you, you don't have any part with
me. He didn't say you don't have any part in me. You don't have
any part with me. As we walk through the world,
we need to be washed because our feet are soiled. Here's the third thing. The believer's
trespasses are real sins. Now that's the third thing. that
we see here. The believer's trespasses are
real sins. That's not just a different word
for sins and for iniquities, but it still means sin. Trespasses are still sins, and
when a person is a believer and he trespasses, he sins. His trespasses are still sins. Now, most people have the idea
that if a person commits something, he doesn't intend to do wrong,
but he does it, or maybe he just does it out of ignorance, then
it's not sin. Well, that's not so. That's not
so. Look in chapter 5 and verse 3. If a man, if he touched the uncleanness
of a man, whatsoever uncleanness it be, that a man shall be defiled
withal, and it be hid from him. He didn't realize that what he's
touching is unclean. It's hid from him. He doesn't
know it. When he knoweth of it, then he
shall be guilty. He shall be guilty. He doesn't
know it. We recently, on Wednesday night,
I remember preaching a message on our great high priest and
that golden matter. Remember, there were three things
I pointed out to us the priest did when he went into the holy
place. He bore the names of the children of Israel upon his heart.
He bore the judgment of the children of Israel with the human and
the thumb. And also, remember on his mitre
or his turban-like hat that he had, he had that plate of gold
attached and it said, holiness to the Lord. And the scripture
says that he bore our sins in our holy things, in our holy
things. In other words, even in the iniquity
of the holy things, We as believers, we have the Lord Jesus Christ
as our high priest to make intercession for us. He's always there in
the court of heaven. He's our advocate, and he pleads
for the pardon of the sins and trespasses that we commit. Now,
as our advocate, he doesn't deny that our trespasses, that our
sins are real sins, but he pleads. He advocates for us with the
fact that the sins, yes, my people, they're guilty of those sins,
but those sins were laid upon me. Those sins have been paid
for. Therefore, in justice, they should
receive the forgiveness of them. No wonder Paul said, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect, it's God that justifies. Now, let me close with these
three considerations. First, the holiness of God. The
holiness of God. He sees sins which are known. When a person, he knows he's
doing wrong, God sees that. When a person deliberately sins,
God sees that. When a person presumptuously
sins, God sees that. But let me tell you something,
he also sees those that we're guilty of and we're unaware of. And he also sees those that we
commit, that we are ignorant of. There are sins of ignorance. Sins which we never see, which
we never know that we are guilty of. But yet the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanseth us from these sins, the holiness of God. And then secondly, the desire
we need. The desire that we need, all
of us, all of God's children, the desire that we need. Knowing
that we are often guilty, we are, and many times we don't
even know it. We're guilty of trespassing,
sinning against God. The desire that we need, knowing
that we are often guilty, then God give us grace to be humble
and to have a forgiving spirit towards others. How is it possible? that we could not have a forgiving
spirit against any brother that wrongs us, knowing that we constantly
need God's forgiveness. And have it. And have it. God give us grace to seek a humble,
forgiving spirit towards others. And God give us grace and love
and patience with others. In reality, it doesn't matter
how good we may appear to others, you and I know from the Word
of God we are all great offenders. I want to read you something
a Lutheran writer wrote. He said, if we could just see
ourselves as God sees us and estimate our goodness just as
it stands in the eye of His holy law, We should behold a spectacle
which would sicken us perhaps to death. Every day adds but
new vileness to us which calls for new forgiveness. And thank
God we have it, new forgiveness, day by day. We have an advocate
with the Father. And third, the mercy of God. We sin every day. Many times,
many times we pray and our hearts are cold. Our thoughts are wandering. We call it prayer. We hear the
word of God. We're distracted. Our minds are
forgetful. In other words, we are daily,
hourly, guilty of sin and need forgiveness. And yet, thank God
for the trespass offerings and the mercy of God. His mercies
are new every morning. Well, I pray that the Lord would
bless this message to all of us here this evening. What a
picture. The sin offering and the trespass
offering, what a picture and reminder of our blessed Savior
and His work of redemption. We're going to sing a hymn and
then we'll be dismissed.