Let's go back to Leviticus chapter
4, the passage that our brother read to us. With or without your
permission, I'm going to take this jacket off. I am quite warm. That's better. If I could just
loosen my tie and roll up my sleeves, but I won't do that. I guess it's the lights here,
but last Sunday my suit was wet after I finished preaching. And
so I told Nancy, I said, I think I'm going to take my jacket off
next Sunday, get a little bit more comfortable. Nobody objects,
I presume. And you may leave. Or you can come stand up here
with me. Alright, let's go back to Leviticus chapter 4. Let me
get a sip of water here. Okay, let's go to work. Leviticus
chapter 4. Now, the subject we're going
to be dealing with today is the sin offering. And we'll look
at this both this morning and again this evening. But I want
to go back and revisit what we've studied so far to make sure there's
some things that you've picked up on and you've learned as we've
studied the first three offerings. First offering back in the first
chapter is the burnt offering. And that was the basic offering
in Israel. It was absolutely central to
their worship. That offering, it showed this,
how a sinner can be accepted by God and only, a sinner is
only accepted by God on the basis of a God appointed, a God approved,
innocent animal dying instead of the guilty. That's what we
learn from the burnt offering. And my brothers and my sisters
in the Lord, those of you who rely on Christ Jesus for all
of your salvation, those who've been washed in his blood, and
robed in His righteousness, those of you who lean on the Savior
for all of your salvation, those of you in whose stead He died,
those of you who have been brought by the Spirit of grace to cast
aside every hope of salvation by your works, by your will,
And by your worth, you've been brought to believe the Son of
God. I'm thankful to be able to give you this really good
report. We are accepted in the Beloved. That's a good report. God accepts
you and me for Christ's sake. We read in Leviticus chapter
1 in verse 4 concerning the offering of a sacrifice in the stead of
the guilty. It shall be accepted for him
to make an atonement for him. Our acceptance before God is
always based upon the acceptance of our substitute. And that's
what I want you to take away from our studies in the first
chapter. That the reason we are accepted
is because the one who died for us His death has been accepted
by God as full payment for all of our indebtedness. If the sacrifice
is accepted, then all those in whose stead the sacrifice was
offered, they are accepted. That's what we need to remember
concerning the burnt offering. We don't preach a salvation conditioned
upon the sinner. We preach of salvation conditioned
upon the Savior and His righteous obedience to God in our stead. That's the burnt offering. Then in the second chapter, the
meat offering, or the meal offering, or the food offering, that was
an offering brought to God by a grateful, a thankful worshiper. And it was always offered on
the basis of the burnt offering, which was again the very foundation
of their worship. The meat offering always consisted
of fine flour mixed with oil, and then on the top there was
sprinkled frankincense. Now that fine flower speaks of
the beauty, the perfection, the purity of the Son of God, the
consecration of the blessed Savior. It was the only bloodless sacrifice
that was brought. But it wasn't brought to secure
acceptance with God. That's brought out in the burnt
offering. Rather, the meat offering was brought because the worshipper
was accepted, and he was thankful. The meat offering, therefore,
portrays sinners as being accepted and received in Christ Jesus. In the meat offering, some of
it was given to the priests, who fed on it, even as we feed
upon Christ Jesus, who is the bread of life. He's the living
bread that came down from heaven. By His death, we live. We feed upon Him who died for
us and whoever lives for us. In John chapter 12, the Savior
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. And by His death, this blessed
corn of wheat, Christ Jesus, brought forth much fruit unto
God, and by faith we feed on Him. We eat of the bread of life. We are the very priesthood of
God. We are made kings and priests
under the Lord. We are a kingdom of priests,
and we spiritually feed on Christ Jesus, our Savior. We hunger
and we thirst after righteousness. And we come to Christ Jesus,
we believe Him, and we are filled. He is the meat offering. Thirdly,
in the third chapter, we saw the peace offering. Now that
was an offering presented to the Lord, not to make peace,
but rather to acknowledge that peace had already been made by
the burnt offering. And this offering, the peace
offering, it had a much more festive atmosphere to it than
did any of the other offerings. It was more of a celebration.
It was a delightful and happy celebration that peace had been
made with God by means of the burnt offering. In the peace
offering, the animal was divided three ways. God got the fat. God got the best. God got the
choicest part. That was food for the fire of
his wrath. And then one third, another third
of the animal went to the one who offered it, that they may
eat upon that animal. and be filled. And then one third,
the breast and the right shoulder, went to the priests that they
may feed upon it. And so we learn this, in our
Lord Jesus Christ, and in His sacrifice for sin, the justice
of God fed upon Him and was filled, it was satisfied. And the same
One who satisfied God, The same One who met every requirement
of God is the One we also feed upon, for He meets every need
that we have. This is where a gloriously holy
God and a despicable, vile sinner can meet with God in the person
and in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The same One who satisfied
God and His every demand is the One who satisfies me and my every
need. God and the sinner meet peaceably
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we come to the sin offering. I'll divide the chapter for you.
It divides into four portions or parts. It's the sin offering,
and first of all, we have after a couple of verses of introduction,
you have the sin offering for the anointed priest. That's in
verses 3 through 12. And by the way, most of the commentators
that I read, they agree that when it talks about the priest
who is anointed, it's talking about the high priest who is
anointed of God to be the high priest. So the first section
of the chapter, verses 3 through 12, deals with the sin offering
for the anointed priest. The sin offering that he was
to bring is noted in the third verse. If the priest that is
anointed to sin according to the sin of the people, then let
him bring for his sin which he hath sinned a young bullock,
A young bullock and as always without blemish unto the Lord
for a sin offering. The bullock was the most prized,
the most valuable of all of the offerings. And here is the high
priest. and he has sinned against God,
and for his sin offering, he must bring to God the very best,
the most expensive of all of the animals. That animal which
he would regard as the most valuable of his herd, and of the flocks
that he had, this is the most valuable, the bullock. And then
secondly, there's the sin offering for all of the congregation.
This is from verses 13 through 21. And once again, the sin offering
that was to be brought is the exact same kind of offering that
the high priest would bring. Note in verse 14. When the sin
which they have sinned against it is known, then the congregation
shall offer a young bullock for the sin and bring him before
the tabernacle of the congregation." The congregation was to bring
the same offering, the same sin offering, as did the high priest. Thirdly, and we won't read this
until this evening, But the third sin offering was brought for
a ruler, or a judge, or a public official, and that's verses 22
through 26. And the sin offering for this
very public official is noted in verse 23. Or if his sin, wherein
he hath sin, come to his knowledge, he shall bring his offering,
a kid of the goats, a male without blemish." In other words, a young
he-goat. That's what the ruler was to
bring. And then finally, there was the
sin offering for just an average Israelite. Just the common guy. This is verses 27 through the
end of the chapter. And when an average Israelite,
just a common person, when he brought his sin offering, it
was to be one of two animals, verse 28. Or if his sin, which
yet sin, come to his knowledge, then he shall bring his offering,
a kid of the goats, a female, without blemish for his sin,
which is sin, so he could bring a female goat, or, verse 32,
and if he bring a lamb for a sin offering, he shall bring it a
female without blemish. Now what you will notice in each
of these sin offerings, is that the value, the value of the animal
to be sacrificed is not always the same. For the high priest
and the entire congregation, the offering was to be a young
bullock, the most expensive offering that could be brought. For a
ruler or a magistrate, a public official, a young male goat. for the common Israelite, a young
female goat, or a young female lamb, which was the least expensive
of all of the sin offerings. I'll go back and deal for just
a couple of minutes with the high priest and his offering
to make this noteworthy point. The anointed priest or the high
priest was to bring the most expensive offering because he
is such a public individual. He was looked up to by all the
people. He is the spiritual leader of
all of Israel. To whom much is given, much is
required. A more expensive sacrifice was
required for the high priest than for the ruler and for an
average Israelite. Because you see, the sins of
the spiritual teacher, the sins of the spiritual leader were
particularly dangerous. Because he was the man who led
the nation in worship. Therefore, more was expected
of him than was expected of the average Israelite. And as it
was then, so it is today, in a sense. I'm certainly not the
high priest. We have a high priest. We have
a most high priest, the great high priest, who is our Lord
Jesus Christ. But I am a spiritual leader.
I am a teacher of the things of God. And the servant of the
Lord, that one who stands in a public position to preach the
gospel, and lead the people in worship, his sins are particularly
dangerous and serious. Because he represents the Lord,
and he represents the Lord's people. And like it or not, the
servant of the Lord is held to a higher standard, at least before
people, than most other people are. And that is not unfair,
and it is according to the scriptures. Because the requirements of a
bishop are listed in the New Testament. And those requirements
that are listed in the New Testament, specifically by the Apostle Paul
in 1 Timothy, that show us that the man of God, the servant who
ministers in the things of the Lord, he is held to a higher
standard than other people. What is the reason for that?
Because he is the preacher of the gospel. He is the one who
represents the Lord and he represents the congregation to which he
ministers. He serves in a public way. That's why the qualifications
that are given for a pastor or a bishop, that's why the qualifications
are high. Because he's observed by so many
people. Now, he's just a sinner saved
by grace. but the servant of the Lord has
to realize people are always watching him. And I'll tell you
the thing that I, as a minister of the gospel for many years,
the things that I hope I'm always aware of, and the thing that
really sobers me before people is that folks are watching the
preacher. They're watching the preacher's
wife. They're watching the preacher's
children. And I've tried to tell our children
right from the beginning, I said, listen, this is, you know, you
were ordained to be in our family and I'm a preacher of the gospel,
so, you know, you've got to be careful in your life, the things
that you do. And I remind my wife, we're very
public individuals. So we're held to a higher standard. Because people look at us under
a microscope, as it were, with a magnifying glass. Because much
is required of us, because much has been given to us with the
high priest. He is the man to whom all of
Israel looked for leadership and for guidance in the things
of God. Everybody knew who the high priest
was. Everybody knew who Aaron was. And they looked to him and so
when it came to a sin offering, Aaron must bring the very best
offering that can be brought to God, a young bullock. A young bullock. And then the entire congregation,
they also had to bring a young bullock. Now this young bullock,
of course, pictures our Lord Jesus Christ. Because a young
bullock was strong. He's a beast of burden. He's
the one when the family went somewhere, when they traveled,
they would strap on his back heavy burdens to be borne. But
he's able to bear it. Because he's a young bullock.
And our Lord Jesus is pictured, he's typified by the young bullock. He's young, he's strong. In his earthly, tabernacling
days, his public ministry was from
the age of 30 to about 33. He was a strong young man. And he's God Almighty. There
had to be one of utmost strength who would be able to bear the
burden of our guilt and the burden of our sin. This young bullock
had to be without blemish. That's our Lord Jesus. No spot,
no blemish, no disease, no imperfection. And He's mighty to do the work.
The Lord said in Psalm 89, I've laid help upon one who is mighty. He's got to be the mighty God
if He's to save us, because an awful burden is going to be put
upon Him. A burden that has not been gathered
together since the beginning of time, nor to the end of time
will it be gathered together again. All of the sins of all
of the elect of all of God's people are going to meet on one
person. He must be almighty. He must be up to the task. The young Bullock pictures our
Lord Jesus Christ. This is a difficult job, but
God laid help upon one who could do the job. And He put away the
sins of His people. You'll notice concerning the
sin offering for the congregation, that it says in verse 13, if
the whole congregation of Israel sinned through ignorance, The
whole congregation of Israel. Nothing is said about the surrounding
nations. This offering is for one nation
only. Nobody else has anything to do
with this. This is a people that's a nation
that God chose. This is a nation appointed by
God to be His people. For you see, the Lord Jesus died
for a specific people. Here it is, particular redemption. He bought the church. He saved
His people from their sins. For the transgression of my people,
God said, was he smitten. In no sense whatsoever was the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ a universal redemption. In no sense whatsoever. He died for His people. He redeemed
His people. He saved His people from their
sins. He was the sin offering for Israel. And then the ruler or the magistrate,
he was to bring a young goat for his sin offering. The average
Israelite could bring a young female goat or a lamb. But the emphasis is always on
the innocent dying for the guilty. Here is atonement for sin. It's
ever to be kept in view. Now the sin offering is the first
of what is often called, if you do some reading of commentaries
and such, the first of the expiatory offerings. And the word expiatory,
you don't have to remember that word if you don't want to, but
it simply means, expiatory means atonement or purification. or the removal of sin and its
guilt. And there were two expiatory
offerings. The sin offering that we're looking
at today and the next Sunday the trespass offering is what
we're going to look at. An expiatory offering speaks
fundamentally about a solution for the sin problem. the offering
of atonement, the offering of purification, the offering of
the removal of sin and its guilt. It speaks fundamentally of the
sin problem and what to do about it. So this offering, the sin
offering and the trespass offering, has to do with the removal of
sin and the forgiveness of sin. Now in our study in the book
of Leviticus so far, it is noteworthy that there are two great big
Bible words that have not been used until we come to Leviticus
chapter 4. And the first word is sin. And you can read chapters 1,
2, and 3 in Leviticus and you'll find out the word sin hasn't
even been used yet. Because what has been in view
is the acceptance of the sacrifice on behalf of the worshipper.
But now what is in view is this. What is to be done about sin? That's a big issue. What is to
be done about sin? Sin is what we are. Sin is what
we do. Sin is what we think. Sin is
what we imagine. Sin is in the heart. So the big
issue now is, since it has been settled that the sacrifice has
been accepted by God on behalf of His people, now that which
comes into focus, and Moses is led by the Spirit of God to deal
specifically with this is, what is to be done about sin? I said it hasn't been dealt with
in the first three chapters of Leviticus. But when we come to
chapter 4, sin in one form or another is found 31 times. It's found 31 times. Well, what
is sin? Well, 1 John 3 verse 4 says,
Whatsoever committeth sin, or whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Sin is any act, word, thought,
motive, imagination that is against the law of God, the law of God
which is good and just and holy, the law of God which contains
the good and acceptable and perfect revealed will of God, the law
which is agreeable to God's nature and God's perfections. Sin is
any breach, any violation against God's law, and being against
His law, sin therefore is against God. David said in Psalm 51,
the psalm that he wrote by the leadership of the Spirit after
he had been brought to conviction and to repentance over his sin
with Bathsheba and the sin of murder and trying to cover up
what he had done with Bathsheba, his affair with Bathsheba by
having Uriah killed. David said this, against thee,
thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. All sin is against God. The word
sin basically means to miss the mark. To go astray. To deviate from the right course. And the reason we go astray,
the reason we leave the right course, is because we're born
wrong. We're born in sin. Born in sin. We go astray from the womb speaking
lies. And make sure you understand
this, every sin is a serious offense against God. I know there's
a school of thought that says that there are different kinds
of sin. They tell us that there are mortal
sins. Those carry with them the severe
judgments of God. And then others are only venial
sins. That is mere imperfections to
which is attached no real serious guilt. We speak of little sins. You
will never read in the Bible anything about a little sin. Because every sin is an offense
against God. Every sin is an assault on His
sovereignty. Every sin is a violation of His
law. And even the so-called little
sins, even if one little sin is found upon you, you're going
to perish in your sin when you die. So there are no little sins,
because every sin is big enough to sink the soul into everlasting
death unless the sin is cancelled, cancelled by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sin in any form or fashion, it
must be atoned for by the shedding of blood. Here are the sin offerings
here. A bullock, a young goat, a young
male goat, or a young female goat, or a young female lamb. But in every case, the animal
dies. Because that's the penalty for
sin. The wages of sin is death. But, don't you love the second
part of Romans 6.23? But, the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John says in 1 John chapter
2, My little children, these things write I unto you that
you sin not. Don't sin. Oh God, I don't want
to sin. But I do, and you do too. But
thank God, if any man sin, we have an advocate. We have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. What is His qualification? He's the righteous. Jesus Christ
the righteous. In this chapter, sin is the issue
that's addressed. And we find what must be done
about our sins and how God will deal with them. That's the first
big word. We haven't read that so far in
the book of Leviticus, but 31 times in this chapter alone,
the word sin or a form of it is found. Here's the second big
word found in the book of Leviticus, chapter 4. Forgiveness! Oh, what a wonderful word! Forgiveness! Hasn't been found yet, but it's
found here. Look at it. Look at verse 20.
This is concerning the rulers or the elders who represented
the congregation. Here is the high priest. He shall
do with the bullock as he did with the bullock for a sin offering,
that is his own sin offering, so shall he do with this. And
the priest shall make an atonement for them and it shall be forgiven
them. Bless the name of God. This is
what we want. Sin is a real thing. It's an
offense against God. What is it that we want? What
is it that the congregation of God's true Israel wants? Forgiveness. Forgiveness. And through the blood of the
appointed sacrifice, we've got it. Isn't that good news? We've got it. Now watch this. Look at verse 26. Here's the ruler. He shall burn
all his fat upon the altar, and as the fat of the sacrifice of
the peace offerings, the priest shall make an atonement for him
concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him. Look at verse
31. This is when a common Israelite
brings a female goat. He shall take away all the fat
thereof, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of
peace offerings." In other words, the best, remember we studied
then the peace offerings, the best goes to God. And the priest
shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savor unto the Lord,
and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall
be forgiven him. And then verse 35. He shall take
away all the fat thereof as the fat of the lamb is taken away
from the sacrifice of the peace offerings it's given to the Lord.
That's the best. The priest shall burn them upon
the altar according to the offerings made by fire unto the Lord. The
priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath committed
and it shall be forgiven him. Forgiveness. Forgiveness. Now let me quickly, in just a
very few minutes, point out several things from this chapter. We'll
go back to it tonight. But first of all, this sin offering
is for the sins of ignorance. Now look at verses 1 and 2. And
the Lord spake unto Moses, speaking of the children of Israel, saying,
If any shall sin through ignorance. Ignorance. It's one of the key
words in this chapter is ignorance. Look at verse 13. And if the
whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, Look at
verse 22. When a ruler hath sinned and
done somewhat through ignorance. Verse 27. And if one of the common
people sin through ignorance. Through ignorance. Now nothing
can more forcibly express man's inability to deal with the sin
problem than the fact that there is such a thing as ignorance
of sin. Ignorance. In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul
talks about ignorance. Ignorance of spiritual things.
Ignorance of who God is. I know you've all got a high
IQ. High IQ. And I know in the things of the
world you're very intelligent. Much more intelligent most likely
than I am. But in the things of God, we
all have got a common problem. We're ignorant. By nature we're
ignorant. We're ignorant of our sins. We
don't even know what sin is. You have a group of people running
around out here today, and have been doing it for years and years.
They say, hey, you know, sin is going to the picture show,
drinking a glass of wine, smoking a cigarette, that's all those
things, that's what sin is. I'm living above sin. Living
above, because I don't do any of those things. I behave myself. We're ignorant of what sin is.
And we need to sacrifice for our sins of ignorance. Our sins
of ignorance. We are ignorant of who God is. God in His holiness, His justice,
and His purity. When Moses was sent by the Lord
to Pharaoh, he went with this message, the Lord said, let my
people go. You remember what Pharaoh said? Who is the Lord? that I should
fear Him. So you're admitting your ignorance.
You don't know who God is? No wonder Job says, acquaint
now thyself with God. We need to find out who God is.
For it's only in the light of the knowledge of who God is that
we'll have some knowledge of what sin is. You see, all things
start with God. I know in the five points of
grace it starts with T, which is total depravity. I understand
that. It's necessary to have a T to
spell the word, two words, total depravity. And to spell the word
tulip. But I'll tell you what, in the
doctrine of grace, it doesn't start with what we are, it starts
with who God is. And until we have a knowledge
of who God is, we are not going to have any correct knowledge
of what we are or what our problem is. Ignorance. Ignorance. The Lord said of Israel, the
way of peace have they not known? And the way of peace is a way
that people don't know today. Why is it that people say, I
want to get baptized and wash away my sins? I'm going to do
better so I'll be accepted by God. The way of peace is the
way of the cross. The way of peace is the way of
the substitutionary justice satisfying death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The way of peace is the way of grace. The way of peace is the
way of mercy. The way of peace is God's way. The way of peace is the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. And the way of peace, they've
not known. People are ignorant. Don't be
offended. But I'm going to tell you, by
nature, I'm preaching to a bunch of ignorant people. My granddaughter,
you say, you're ignorant. You're ignorant. We're ignorant
people. We just don't know. We don't
know. And how are we going to know
if somebody doesn't tell us? And it's a blessed day when we
learn, we discover, that we don't know. The Ethiopian eunuch had been
to Jerusalem. He is going back home to Ethiopia. And Philip is sent by the Spirit
of God to meet him and to deal with him and to talk with him.
What are you reading? I see you are reading a scroll.
What are you reading? He read some of the words out
of Isaiah chapter 53. He said, do you understand what
you are reading? Do you have a knowledge of what
you are reading? And you know what the Ethiopian eunuch acknowledged? His ignorance. How can I? No! No! I don't understand! But I want somebody to tell me! I want somebody to preach to
me! I want somebody to tell me who is this man talking about? Himself or some other man? And Philip began at the same
place and preached unto Him, Jesus! That's what the Scripture
says. And you know what? The eunuch
wasn't ignorant anymore. He wasn't ignorant anymore. When
the Lord teaches us by His Spirit, teaches us of His Gospel, we
won't be ignorant anymore. And quickly, I'll tell you this,
sin must be made known. Sin must be made known. You know
when it is that we'll Get really interested in the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ the Lord. It's when sin is made known to
us. When God the Spirit brings it
home to our heart. How our condition is one that's
absolutely awful. Absolutely awful. Look at verse 14. when the sin which they have
sinned against, and I highlighted this, is known. When it's known,
that's when the conscience will begin to be troubled. When is
it that a sinner will become interested in how God can be
just and justify the ungodly? When sin is made known to him. Why don't men and women flee
to the blessed Savior for salvation and for forgiveness and for everlasting
righteousness? Because the way hadn't been made
known to them, they're still ignorant. They're ignorant of
what they are. And I'll tell you this, sin must
be acknowledged and confessed. In each of these, you find the
worshiper laying his hands upon the head of the appointed sacrifice. acknowledging I deserve to die, but the substitute is dying in
my stead. And the victim, it had to die. The sacrifice, it had to die. You can read in verses 3, 23,
28, 32, must be without blemish. and being without blemish, being
found to be qualified, then it must die. It must die. Look at verse 4. Let me just
show you this. He shall bring the bullock under
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord,
shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and then kill the bullock. Kill the bullock. And you can
read verses 15, 24, 29, and 33. Kill the animal. Shed its blood. It's not going to die a natural
death. This is going to be an execution. This is going to be
premeditated. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ
was a premeditated death. Ordained in old eternity. He's
the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. and
is in execution. He died voluntarily, but the
justice of God, when the indebtedness of all of God's people was found
charged to our substitute, the justice of God sought him out
and found him and took its aim at his heart and killed him.
He had to die. He had to die. Listen, talk about
the birth of our Savior, I'm thankful He came. You talk about
His reign today, I'm thankful He reigns. But if you want to
give my soul some consolation, you want to give me some peace
within, talk about His death. Kill the bullock! Kill the goat! Kill the female goat! Heal the
female lamb! There must be death. And the result of the atonement? Forgiveness. Sin is dealt with. That's what
this chapter is all about, this God dealing with sin. We can't deal with it. Because
we don't have anything with which to pay. God had the only price
and He gave Him. The price is the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The sin offering. Let's sing
a closing song.