Let's open our Bibles back to
Leviticus chapter 5. Thank God He took our place. Leviticus chapter 5. I want to
talk to you today about the trespass offering. Of the offerings that God commanded
Israel to present to him. There were several. We're focusing
on the five main ones, but each of them is meant to
set forth our Savior in some aspect of his work. You see, Our Lord in his redemptive accomplishment,
our Lord in his reconciliation of his people, our Lord in the
removal of our guilt, in the bringing in of everlasting righteousness,
everything that he did could never, could never be set forth
in one single picture. Therefore, like with these offerings,
we have several offerings, and each is meant to focus in on
some particular aspect of his work. Each emphasizes something
a little different than the previous one did, but they all direct
us to the Savior. They all point to Christ Jesus.
You see all the pictures and all the types and all the emblems
of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. They could never
set forth Him fully. in all of his majesty and in
all of his glory and in the greatness of his accomplishment of salvation. No one picture, in fact all the
pictures together, they could never adequately set forth our
Savior and his great work of reconciliation as we know that
he accomplished it. So there are lots of them. There
are lots of them. So far in our studies, we've
looked, number one, at the burnt offering. And the burnt offering
mainly was this. And I realize we can't remember
all of the things that pertain to these offerings, and I wouldn't
expect you to because I can't remember them all. But this is
what we want to sort of focus in on concerning the burnt offering. the offering being accepted,
then the offerer was accepted. In other words, a worshiper goes
to worship God. He goes to honor the Lord. If his offering is acceptable
to God, if the Lord receives his offering, then the one who
presented the offering, he himself is accepted. So this is what
we take away from the burnt offering. Our acceptance before God. And oh my soul, I want to be
accepted by the Lord, don't you? I want God to accept me. I want God to receive me. I look
to Christ Jesus. I believe Him. I rest in Him. I'm not resting in any work.
I'm not believing that because I'm a preacher, that'll get me
into heaven. No, not at all. I'm not depending
on my prayers, my faith, my repentance, my anything. I'm not depending
upon anything that I've ever done, anything that I am doing,
or anything that I shall ever do. My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now, believing the Savior, my
acceptance is dependent upon one thing. Is He accepted before
God? Was His sacrifice to the Father
sufficient to answer for my guilt? And bless the name of our Savior,
His sacrifice was accepted. Everything he set out to do,
he did it because he cannot fail. We know that because he's God. And when He died on the cross,
when He hung on that cross in shame as she just sang, when
He took our place, He successfully finished the work of redemption
that the Father gave Him to do before the world began. And we
know that God accepted His sacrifice because He raised Him from the
grave And our Savior ascended forty days later, and the Father
said to Him, Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. The exaltation of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the very coordination of the Savior is full evidence
that His sacrifice was accepted by God. And since the sacrifice
is accepted, all those in whose stead he died, and everybody who believes him,
everybody who rests in him, they're accepted. You're not accepted
because of some you did, you're accepted because of who he is
and what he's done. That's the burnt offering. Secondly,
there's the meat offering, or the food offering, or the meal
offering. That was a bloodless offering,
the only bloodless offering until you get to the trespass offering
if you're very poor. But up to this point, it was
the only bloodless offering, the meat offering. That's the
fine flour. And in the fine flour, we see
our Savior. No imperfections. The best. The best. Fine flour. No lumps. No coarseness. Fine flour. Mingled with all. The oil of
the Spirit. He didn't have the Spirit of
God by measure. He had the fullness of the Spirit.
The Spirit of wisdom. He had the oil of grace. He's
full of grace. He's full of truth. He gives
us grace for grace. He purposed to be gracious to
us and He is gracious to us. He's the meat offering. The fine
flour and the oil, that picture is our Savior, the oil of the
Spirit of Christ Jesus and the oil of His grace. And then there
was sprinkled upon the fine flour and the oil frankincense frankincense,
which was bitter to the taste, but sweet to the smell. Our Lord
Jesus, He drank the bitterness of the cup of God's wrath. Oh,
how awful was the wrath of God for our sins. Our Savior, He
drank the cup. He said, the cup that the Father
has given to me, shall I not drink it? That's why He came
into the world, was to drink the cup of God's wrath. And he
turned up the cup of God's wrath and he drank it as someone said,
down to its last bitter dregs. Therefore, there is no condemnation
to anybody for whom he died. You see, justice has been satisfied
for his people. He drank the frankincense of
our sins. He himself endured the bitterness
of our guilt. As our sins were assigned to
him, they were imputed to him, they were reckoned to him, and
he paid the debt by enduring the wrath of God in our stead.
and His sacrifice to God was sweet. A sweet Savior. Oh, how many times we've read
as we've studied through these offerings about a sweet Savior
to God. And the death of our Lord Jesus,
His substitutionary atonement, His redemptive work to the Father,
and it was a work for the Father, That work to the Father, it was
a sweet fragrance in the nostrils of a holy God and God was well
pleased with what Christ did and with who Christ is. He's
the meat offering. And that which was sweet to the
Father, I'll tell you, God makes sweet to us. There's nothing
sweeter to the taste buds of a child of God than the gospel
of God's grace. He's given us a hunger for this
gospel. And we eat of this gospel. It's
like bread covered with honey to us. It's so delightful to
the soul. And we eat and we eat and we
eat again of this fine flour. Fine flour. Christ Jesus Himself. Then we came to the peace offering.
Our Lord made peace with God by means of his death upon the
cross. Book of Colossians chapter 1,
having made peace through the blood of his cross. By him to
reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. Oh, what joy floods the
soul as we reflect upon our Savior and the accomplishments of His
cross. Just hold your place there in
Leviticus chapter 5. I want you to go to the book
of Nehemiah with me. Let me show you a few verses
here in the book of Nehemiah chapter 8. This is a day of worship. When
Israel was gathered together, the people gathered themselves
together in Nehemiah chapter 8. Look at verse 1. I'm just going to read just a
few verses here. Book of Nehemiah. I still hear a few pages turning. You'll find it. It's in there.
Nehemiah chapter 8. Chapter 8 of Nehemiah, verse
1. And all the people gathered themselves together as one man
into the street that was before the water gate. They all gathered
themselves together as one. One mind, one purpose, one heart,
one voice. You're talking about unity. That's
the way I want us together every time. Isn't that our desire?
That's our prayer. Gathered together as though we
were one. We were one. And they spake unto
Ezra, who is the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses,
which the Lord had commanded to Ezra, said before us the word
of God. Ezra, verse 2, and Ezra the priest
brought the law before the congregation, both of the men and women, and
all that could hear with understanding. I suppose they had a nursery.
All that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh
month. And he read therein before the street, that was before the
water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the
women and those that could understand. And the ears of all the people
were attentive under the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe
stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for that
purpose. And then hear all these who stood with him. Look at verse
5. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people,
for he was above all the people. And when he opened it, all the
people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the
great God. And all the people answered,
Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads
and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. And
these various teachers, Jeshua, and Benai, and Sherabiah, and
Jaman, and Aqab, and Shappiphi, and Hodijah, and Maasai, and
Kealiah, and Azariah, and Josabed, and Hanan, and Peliah, and the
Levites, they caused the people to understand the law. These
were teachers of the word of God. And the people stood in
their place. They still stood there. So they
read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense,
that's what a preacher does, give the sense of it, and caused
them to understand the reading. And then Nehemiah, who is the
Tershethah, and that word means governor, and Nehemiah, which
is the governor, the Tershethah, And Ezra, who is the priest,
the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, they said
unto the people, this day is holy unto the Lord your God.
Mourn not, nor weep. This is a holy day. It's a day
in which we've all come together to worship, to honor God, to
read God's word, to give some understanding of the scriptures
through the preaching of the gospel. And now they say, this
is a holy day. It's a separated day unto the
Lord your God. Don't mourn and don't weep. For all the people wept when
they heard the words of the law. Then He said unto them, Go your
way, eat the fat, eat the best, eat a good meal, drink the sweet,
send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. For this
day is holy unto the Lord, neither be ye sorry. The time for sorrow
is over, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites
stilled all the people saying, hold your peace for the day is
holy. Neither be ye grieved. Don't be grieved. Listen, sin
has been put away. There's a time to grieve over
sin. There's a time to weep and there's
a time to rejoice. There's a time to be happy. This
is a holy day. It's a day of worship. It's a
day of thanksgiving. Look at verse 12. And all the
people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions
and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words
that were declared unto them. And in the peace offering, the
peace offering was a very festive offering in which people were
happy. It was a joyful time. And it
made me think of this passage of Scripture because here people
have been listening to the Word of God for hours. And they listened
to the preaching of the Gospel as the Levites gave understanding
of the Scriptures that were read to the people. And then they're
instructed this. Go your way. Rejoice. This is a happy day. A happy
day. And when you think of the peace
offering, think of happiness. That's the point. Think of happiness. Well, what do I have to be happy
about? I tell you, the world's, the world's in bad shape and
the country's in bad shape and, and, and, and this is happening
and that's happening. Rejoice. Your God rules over
all. Rejoice! Your sins have been
put away. Rejoice! Your Savior is the Sovereign. Rejoice! You have a righteousness
imputed to you that nobody can ever take away from you. Rejoice! In the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
accepted before a holy God. Let come what may. Let what may
happen to the USA happen. Whatever goes on in the world,
let that go on in the world. God reigns over all. You're His
child. He's causing everything to work
together for your good and for His glory. Go your way, put a
smile on your face and be happy. That's the peace offering. That's
the peace offering. In the peace offering it says,
listen, in the burnt offering, God accepted the sacrifice for
your sin. Go your way. The joy of the Lord
is your strength. It's not a false happiness. It's
not a fake happiness. It's a happiness in the soul
that God puts in there. I know you have troubles and
trials in your life. Well, who doesn't? And I know
some are very severe and I wouldn't make light of any trouble because
they can be very heavy. But always remember this, the
one who sends the trials, he sends them for your good and
for his glory. I'll revisit the Sunday School
lesson this morning. In our Bible class this morning,
we talked about the healing of Naaman. And in the things that
God used to bring about the healing of Naaman was a young maiden,
a little servant girl. Those Syrian soldiers, they'd
go out by vans and they would attack villages and usually kill
the men and take whoever they wanted, women and children, if
they wanted them all, take them all and then sell them in slavery.
And some of these Syrian soldiers, they had attacked a Jewish village. And in the course of that attack,
a young maiden got taken captive, and then she was sold into slavery.
And she wound up in the house of Naaman. And I'm sure her mom
and dad, if they survived the attack, why, they were at their
wits' end. What, my daughter, our daughter,
she's gone. Why, oh God, why did this happen? We have lots of questions about
things like that, don't we? Sure we do. Come on, be honest.
Well, I never asked why. Oh, give me a break. You're lying. You're lying. Lord, why does
this happen? Here I'm worshiping, I'm trying to serve you and trying
to do what's right and then this happens. Lord, why does this
happen? Well, it happens I know in general
it always happens for God's glory and happens according to His
purpose and happens for the good of His people. Here are these
two mom and dad and they say, Lord, why does this happen? Our
daughters ripped right from our arms. Yes, but remember this. God's working all things out
together for the good of His people and for His glory. This
young maiden, she's an integral part. in this scheme to bring
about the healing of Naaman, the Syrian general. Because she
says to her master, to her mistress, to Naaman's wife, she says, boy,
I sure wish Naaman could meet the preacher. I wish he could
meet Elisha. And word gets back to the king,
and the king finds out about it, and then all these things
begin to fall into place, just like God ordained. And I'm telling
you, all your troubles and trials, those things that hurt you, and
they bring you real pain. It's not make-believe, it's real
pain. But O child of God, listen, these things are ordained of
God to fulfill His purpose, which you may or may not know in this
life. You may never realize what God's
purpose is. I don't know whether this young
maiden in 2 Kings chapter 5, I don't know whether her parents
ever knew what happened. Till they got to glory, if they
got to glory. And if they did, it was by the
grace of God. But those of us who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ who rests in Him as our life, as our salvation, as our
righteousness, for all of our forgiveness, let us believe that
God knows what He's doing in every situation and give you
some peace. Lord, this may be painful, but
I know your purpose is being fulfilled. And I may never realize
what that purpose is, but oh God, help me to believe that
this is just another thing in the numberless things that you've
ordained that will be involved in bringing to pass that which
you purposed. That'll help you. That'll help
you right there. Peace offering. Peace offering. Be happy in Christ Jesus. And then the last two offerings
are the sin offering and the trespass offering. They're expiatory
offerings. They're offerings which pictured
God's justice in the punishment of sin. Now the sin offering. We talked about that last week.
That was an offering to the Lord which was to be presented or
offered by by a particular people. When I think of the sin offering,
I think of substitution. Because as we studied in chapter
4 last week, it was a sin offering for the anointed priest, it was
a sin offering for the whole congregation presented by the
elders, it was a sin offering for a ruler or a magistrate or
a judge, and then a sin offering for the common man. Now, in the
sin offering, no specific sins are mentioned, only people. And you know what people need?
They need a substitute. That's what we need. We need
somebody to answer to God for our guilt. Christ Jesus did that. He is himself the sin offering
for a particular people, for His people, His people. When the elders offered the sin
offering for all the congregation, it was for all the congregation
of Israel. It didn't have anything to do
with the Egyptians or the Syrians or any other nation. It had only
to do with the people of Israel. In our Lord's substitutionary
death, He died for His people, for Israel. to redeem Israel
from their sins, to save His church. He's the Good Shepherd
who gave His life for the sheep. So in the sin offering, the focus
is on the people for whom the sacrifice was offered. Substitution. Now the trespass offering. When
we look at the trespass offering, you'll notice as our brother
read the scriptures, no specific people were mentioned, only specific
sins. You notice that? See, in chapter
4, the sin offering, it's people. We know it's for sin, but no
specific sins are itemized or listed or described. You get
to the trespass offering, you have specific sins laid out. And I mean they're laid out fully.
Now not every single sin, of course, because all the books
in the world wouldn't handle the information on every specific
sin. But the sins that are mentioned
are detailed. Because that which is in focus
in the trespass offering is satisfaction for sins. So in the sin offering,
think of substitution for people. Thank God Christ died for somebody. So I don't know whether he died
for me or not. Well, are you one of those who believe him?
Are you one of those who build all of your hopes for heaven
and salvation and life and forgiveness and righteousness? You building
all your hopes on Jesus Christ the solid rock? Oh yes I am.
Well you believe on him, that's a result. Your faith is a result. The fact that he died for you.
He put your sins away. He died for a specific people. That's the sin offering. The
sin offering focuses on the people. Substitution. The trespass offering
focuses on the sins of the particular people. That's satisfaction. You see, satisfaction has to
be made to the justice of God. Something's got to be done about
our sins. We're a people corrupted by sin. We have a sin nature, and we
have sins that we commit every day, every day, every hour, every
moment of every day. The things that we do. So in the sin offering, and here's
the basic difference, and there are some other differences as
well between the sin offering and the trespass offering, But
the basic difference is this, the one focuses on substitution. The other one focuses on satisfaction. As we read down through here,
as you read silently, as Ron read the passage aloud to us,
I'm sure you noticed there are some very intricate things about
the trespass offering. In fact, there is some overlapping
between the sin offering and the trespass offering. But there
are a few things that are obvious that we need to focus on. First
of all is this, the reality of our trespasses against God. What is a trespass? This is called
a trespass offering. What is a trespass? It is to
do wrong. Now when you think of the word
sin, S-I-N, here's the definition, to miss the mark of perfection. That's sin. Whereas, when you
think of a trespass, think of this, to violate a rule or a
law. To violate a rule or a law. In fact, if you look this word
up, you'll find that it's very much akin to the word guilt. Guilt. Guilty. So when you think of trespass,
think of guilty. And did you notice as we read
through this how frequently the word guilty is mentioned? Look
at verse 2. For if a soul touch any unclean
thing, Leviticus chapter 5 now, whether it be a carcass of an
unclean beast or a carcass of unclean cattle, or the carcass
of unclean creeping things. If it be hidden from him, he
shall be unclean and guilty, whether he knew it or not. See, ignorance is no excuse here.
This is a trespass. You're guilty. Well, I didn't
know. You're still guilty. You go down
the road, over here in Cole Grove or somewhere, and you go zipping
along down the road 70 miles an hour, and a guy comes behind
you and pulls you over. You go, I didn't know. I didn't
know the speed limit. I thought the speed limit was
80. It's 55? Who knew? Ignorance
is no excuse for breaking the law. That's what this is. Listen, you may be ignorant of
sin. You may not recognize it. But
God does. It's a violation of His law.
Sin is breaking God's law. It's a trespass, doing something
you ought not to do. And in this passage of Scripture,
and we'll get into chapter 6 even more this evening, here sin trespasses
against God and against men. against God and men. You see,
now all sin is against God, but we also trespass God's law. We violate his law in our relationships
with each other. So here are all these sins and
whether we're aware of them or not, whether we recognize sin
or not, Maybe we're ignorant of it. We don't even realize
we have sinned. And how many times during the
day do we sin and we don't even realize we've sinned? But you
know what? You're still guilty. Whether
you recognize it or not, the guilt is still there. Look at verse 3. If he touched
the uncleanness of a man, Whatsoever uncleanness that a man shall
be defiled withal, it shall be hid from him. When he knoweth
of it, he shall be guilty. Look at verse 4. If a soul swear,
pronouncing with his lips to do evil or to do good, you say,
I promise you, I promise you I'm going to do this for you.
You don't carry it out. What you can say, I forgot or
You can say, well, they were extenuating circumstances. Something
came up. Sorry, I couldn't do what I told
you I was going to do. You know what God said? God said,
that's a sin. You've sinned. See, God, He's
itemizing a few of the sins here so that we'll be made to realize
how frequently we do sin. The soul swear, pronouncing with
his lips to do evil or to do good. Whatsoever it be that a
man shall pronounce with an oath, and it shall be hid from him
when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these.
Verse 5. It shall be when he shall be
guilty in one of these, he shall confess that he had sinned in
that thing. Drop down to verse 17. If a soul
sin and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done
by the commandments of the Lord, whether they relate to God or
to men, Though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and he shall
bear his iniquity. Chapter 6 and verse 7. And the
priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord, and
it shall be forgiven him for all that he hath done in trespassing
therein. All of his trespassing, all of
these things in which he's guilty. Which he's guilty. To trespass
is to fail in duty. that duty to both God and man. After all, all the law of God
is summed up this way, to love God with all your heart, mind,
soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And
any failure to do these things is a trespass against God's law. These are listed. Several of
them are listed. But I want to get down to verse
15 because here's the sin in holy things. And here we are
today, endeavoring to worship the Lord. So we're involved in
holy things now. Now look what it says in verse
15. If a soul committed trespass
and sin through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord,
in his service, in his worship of God. Now this brings us to
right where we are right now. Then he shall bring for his trespass
unto the Lord a ram without blemish, out of the flocks, with thy estimation
by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary for a
trespass offering." This is a sin with regard to holy things. Now
here's the offering for trespass in a holy thing. Number one,
you bring a ram. And still, without blemish. Now we've seen in all of these
offerings, with the exception of the meat offering, in all
of these offerings, the animal that they were to bring had to
be without blemish, because they all picture our Lord Jesus Christ. All of them had to be spotless.
They had to be perfect. So you had to bring a ram without
blemish because our Lord Jesus is without spot and without blemish
in himself. And then he shall bring the ram
for his trespass offering unto the priest. And then here's what
happened. When he got there, when he goes
to the priest, he says to the priest, I have sinned against
the Lord and holy things. Then here's what the priest says,
you got your ram, but on top of the ram, You've got to pay
a fine. You've got to pay a price. And whatever the priest estimated
the fine to be, depending upon the severity of your sin, he
just said it. Abraham and Ezekiel, the priest
said, I'm going to set it at, this is your fine. This is what
you've got to pay. You've got to bring a ram. But you've not
only got to bring an offering, you've got to bring a price.
Because see, we are redeemed by price. Now the price of our
redemption is not silver and gold, but the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But when you start talking about
a price, now you think of a price settles a debt. You see, here's
an Israelite who's in debt to God for his sins and holy things. There must be blood and then
there brings into the picture here, there's a debt to be paid. There's a debt assigned for your
sin. The debt or the price or the
estimation or the fine was assigned by the priest. So there had to
be a payment of shekels on top of Listen, we're in debt to God. We're head over heels in debt
to God. We have no idea of how much our
indebtedness is. It's like when an Israelite went
to the priest, he says, this is what I've done, but I don't
know how much I owe. You're going to have to set the
fine for me, because I have no way to estimate it. And who can
estimate how much our fine is to God? Who can estimate how
indebted we are to God for all of our sins? But bless the name
of God, whatever the price was required for our redemption,
Jesus Christ has paid it in full. I have no idea how much my debt
is to God. And you don't either because
I don't have any idea of all my sins. But God does. And God has exacted from the
Lord Jesus Christ all the fines that needed to be paid. And Jesus
paid it all. All the debt I owed. I am before
God debt free. That's what we take away from
this. There's the ram that speaks of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Christ the perfect, the perfect
one, spotless and without blemish. And here's all my indebtedness
to God. I can't even estimate it, but
God's got an exact number. God knows what was required.
And he looked to his son for full payment of my indebtedness. And he paid it all, everything
I owed. Now watch this. Watch verse 16. I'll get into this more tonight.
And he shall make amends. Hey, somebody's got to make amends.
Somebody's got to make things right. It says, He shall make
amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing. So he
shall add the fifth part thereto and give it unto the priest.
The priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass
offering and it shall be forgiven him. In other words, here's the
priest and he assigns a fine. Let's say it's a hundred shekels.
Okay. Let's just say a hundred shekels.
Here's your fine. Then the priest says, now you
got to pay a fifth more. That is you got to pay 20% more. So he comes up with 20 shekels
more. Here's your, here's the fine
that you have to pay a hundred shekels. And he says, now you
got to pay a fifth more, 20% more. to make sure it's fully
paid. Our Lord Jesus has fully paid
the debt. Listen, nothing is left over.
Everything that God demanded, everything that God required
for all of our sins, all of our numerous sins, all of the sins
we can't even possibly count. You have no idea how many times
you've offended, you've broken, you've violated God's law. You
have no idea, I have no idea of the number of our trespasses,
but God has taken from, He has exacted from, and He has received
from the Lord Jesus Christ the full payment for all of our sins,
and they're all gone. All gone. My debts demanded Restitution. See, compensation's got to be
made. That's what this is about. Got
to be compensation to the law of God. And our Lord Jesus, he's
compensated the law of God. It's happy. The law of God is
satisfied. So here's the trespass offering.
It's all about satisfaction. What's the sin offering about?
Substitution. What's the trespass offering
about? Satisfaction. The price that God demanded has
got to be paid, and bless His name, it has been paid in full
for all of the Lord's people. Can you rejoice in that? I can. And I do. And I'll go my way
rejoicing today in Christ Jesus the Lord. Let's sing. What's
the number, 477? Number 477. Let's sing At Calvary. Is that right? At Calvary. Let's stand together and sing
this. Mercy there was great and grace
was