Forgiveness for the Ignorant

Q: What does the Bible say about forgiveness for ignorance?

The Bible teaches that God extends forgiveness even to those who sin out of ignorance, as outlined in Leviticus 4. Leviticus 4 addresses the forgiveness of sins committed in ignorance, emphasizing God's mercy towards those who may not fully recognize their offenses. The chapter outlines specific sacrifices prescribed for unintentional sins, indicating that even in our ignorance, we stand guilty before a holy God. Paul highlights this in 1 Timothy 1:13, where he states he obtained mercy because he acted ignorantly in unbelief. This reflects God's compassionate nature, offering forgiveness to those who acknowledge their shortcomings, regardless of whether they were intentional or not. Thus, the importance of recognizing our sinfulness and turning to God in repentance remains central to the Reformed understanding of grace.

Q: How do we know God's forgiveness is real?

God's forgiveness is demonstrated through the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The assurance of God's forgiveness lies in the sacrificial system established in the Old Testament, where the blood of innocent sacrifices was required for atonement (Leviticus 4:14). This system foreshadows the ultimate sacrifice: Jesus Christ, who bore our sins on the cross. The writer of Hebrews confirms this in Hebrews 9:22, stating that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Therefore, Christ's death and resurrection serve as proof of God's merciful nature and His commitment to forgive all who come to Him in faith, as seen in 1 John 1:9, which promises that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to acknowledge their sins?

Acknowledging our sins is crucial for receiving God's forgiveness and understanding our need for grace. For Christians, acknowledging sin is a vital step toward repentance and receiving God's grace. The Bible teaches that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), which emphasizes our need for divine mercy. Embracing our sins allows us to understand the seriousness of our transgressions and drives us to the cross, where our Savior paid the penalty. Furthermore, acknowledging our sins cultivates humility, reminding us that we are entirely dependent on God's grace. As stated in John 1:9, confessing our sins leads to forgiveness and cleansing, reinforcing the importance of maintaining a humble and repentant heart throughout our Christian journey.

Go back with me to Leviticus 4. Leviticus 4, I prepared a message on this years ago and didn't preach it and put it in a notebook. And there you have it. I'm not just grabbing that and preaching it. I read it again, I read this again just the other day, and it was a great blessing to me. Now I cannot make this interesting. It's not by the preacher's might or power or ability to to make this interesting to you or even understandable. It's very difficult to deal with. You read it with me.

I'm sure many of you were lost after a little reading of it. But if the Spirit of God will open our understanding, it'll be a blessing to us, a blessing. This chapter, And the next deals with, well, every chapter in the book. But this specifically deals with forgiveness of the sins of ignorance.

Ignorant. That's not a belittling slur or word. It's biblical. But truth be known, we be little. We are little. Nothing. This is just the fact of what we are, ignorant. Ignorant. Paul said that many times in the scripture. It's written, Paul said of many that were zealous for God, he said that but they're ignorant of God's righteousness. Peter said, men in 2 Peter 3 said, scoffers and mockers, they're willingly ignorant. Remember that?

Creation, flood. Our Lord, it says of our Lord, and this is the whole point of the message, listen to this, this is wonderful. It says, our great high priest Christ can have compassion on the ignorant and then they're out of the way. In this whole chapter or that chapter five comes from Leviticus four.

Ignorant, the word ignorant has a twofold meaning. It means you're willingly Ignorant or don't want to hear it or don't know what or you're unwilling. You're just unaware Okay You with me means, you know But you don't want to hear it Or you don't know you haven't heard it Now here it says you're guilty either way Both ways guilty The root word of ignorant is what?

Ignore. Have you ever been ignored? To ignore someone, ignorant, ignore aunt, an ignorant aunt. If you ignore someone, you act like you don't hear them. Because you don't want to hear them. You act like they don't exist. That's a real slight in it, to ignore someone. You don't believe, you're not interested in them, so you ignore them.

Isn't that, that's evil, isn't it? Well, that's what man does to God. That's what every one of us did or still do to God, right? That's a fact. Romans 1 says, the things of God are clearly seen. His eternal power and Godhead. So they're without excuse, but they don't wanna hear it. Don't wanna hear it, right? And the last verse of Romans one says, knowing the judgment of God, do it anyway. Ain't that right? And such were some of you, but God.

Paul said this, he said, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelieving. He's not saying that the Lord was merciful to me because I just didn't know what I was doing. He knew what he was doing already. What he's saying is he's admitting that he was an ignorant, blind, willingly ignorant fool, but he got mercy from the Lord. He didn't deserve anything, but God showed mercy on an ignorant fool that he was. That's what Paul said. Before that, he thought he was somebody and knew something and could do something and blameless and so on and so forth. Then God showed him, you're nothing but an ignorant fool.

You've ignored me, you've rejected me. Are you with me? That's who this is for. Scripture says all have sinned, willful sins, willful sins. Ignorant, ignore. Do you ever ignore warning signs? Do you? Come on now, be honest with me. Do you ignore the speed limit sign? What about the Word of God, full of warnings, reproof, rebuke? Scripture says of many in the last days, they'll turn away their ears from the truth. I hear it, but I've ignored it.

Oh boy. It was a true story of a man who was in a torrential rainstorm in the hills of West Virginia, a highway. And he ran off, the road had washed out, and he ran off that washed out road into a gully. And by the grace of God, he was spared and came up out of that gully and went up on the highway to warn other cars. that this road was washed out, and he was standing there, and everybody just about ran over him. They wouldn't not heed, and 20 or 30 cars ended up, many died. They would not heed the warning. Well, this is for ignorant fools. Ignorant fools.

There's some things, my pastor, I remember writing Jotting these down years ago, he preached a message, or at least spoke of things that my generation are ignorant of, his generation, and my generation is ignorant of it too. They choose not to believe that God is God.

The ignorant of the God of the Bible, that God is indeed God, sovereign over all, though everything clearly shows his eternal power and Godhead, his sovereignty over all things. The wrath of God, Romans 118, revealed from heaven against every day, all unrighteous, but men ignore it.

Note that. The sovereignty of God, the character of God, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy Lord God. God will punish. Sin. God is just. He says, I will by no means clear the guilty. That's what he said. And we're all guilty. What can we do about it? Nothing. Not anything we can do. It's one way.

God is just. He must be just to be God. Men are ignorant, men and women, my generation is ignorant of the law of God, the demands of the law of God, what God demands. It shall be perfect to be accepted, Leviticus 22, 21. It shall be perfect to be accepted. Yes, God really is that holy. To offend in one point of the law is to be guilty of it all. That's what we just read there, one point. And the law is spiritual, it's not, well I keep, The rich young ruler was ignorant of the law, wasn't he? He said, all these things I've kept from my youth up. No, you haven't. God looks on the heart. And our Lord magnified the law, remember? Sermon on the Mount. He said, if you've heard it said, thou shalt not kill. He said, if you hate somebody in your heart, you killed them.

They're guilty. And on and on it goes. Ignorant of the demands of the law, the spirituality of the law. Many try to keep the law. They're ignorant of it, aren't they? Willingly ignorant. They can keep reading. They can keep reading, but it's a pick and choose, isn't it? You understand? Men and women are guilty or ignorant of the penalty of the law. What the law sayeth, it sayeth then under the law that every mouth may be stopped And all the world become what? And then what? Die. That's all the law says. That's all it says. But, but, no ifs, ands, or buts. That's what the law says.

So to try to approach God by keeping the Ten Commandments, you're an ignorant fool. And I don't care if you say, well, I just don't know. Yes, you do too. Men and women are ignorant of sin. The nature of it. How it came and the effects of it. Sin within. Ignorant of sin. They're ignorant of the man of sin. They're held captive by him at his will. They're ignorant of his devices.

His wiles, his traps, his snares, his pits, he's a master of deception and everybody's deceived by him. Everybody is born deceived by him, captive by him at his will. And men and women in my generation and every other is guilty of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why he came into this world? Why did he come? Let me just go ahead and say it. To put away sin. How? By the sacrifice of himself. There is no other way.

All right, someone told, Sister Janette was talking to a member of her family years ago, and the person at the time did not like what we preached, and they said to you, you all talk too much about sin. You remember you telling me that, Janette? You talk too much about sin. That's what her relative said to her. And that's what most people think, you come and sit and hear this preacher, he's going to talk a lot about sin, isn't he?

Why is that? That's our whole problem. That's why the whole world is under the curse. Sin is the cause. Sin is killing us. It's a disease that's killing us all. If something's not done about it, we'll die from it. We are dead from it, and we will die from it. It's the cause of all evil. It's the cause of all pain. It's the cause of all suffering. It's the cause of death. Why do people die, even babies?

Sin. It's here. It won't go away. It's going to be here till we die. Sin is our greatest problem, our greatest need is to have something done about it. So we talk about sin. It's the reason Jesus Christ came. It's the reason this Bible was written. Something's gotta be done about it. Y'all talk too much about sin.

Let me tell you, let me say this. If you've ever heard you have cancer, if you go to a doctor, And he tells you, you have cancer. And I heard that. He told me, you've got cancer. You will be thinking about it. You will be thinking about it and concerned about it and never quit thinking about it until you think it's gone. I'm telling you, you'll get blood tests, you'll read, you'll listen to the doctor, I need something done about this. It's a fact. Sin.

When COVID, when the Lord, I don't even want to bring that word up again, but I did. But back when God sent the plague, that's all anybody could talk about, wasn't it? People were dying, not from it, but not of it, but, God killed them through that mean, some of them, no more so than the other thing. But it's all people want to talk about.

I got so sick of hearing about it. And nothing else to worry about but that. Well, sin is something we need to worry about. It really is. It's a deadly disease. It's killing us all, killing our children. It's why Christ came to bear the sins of his people, to be a sacrifice for sin, to put away sin one way, one way.

Go to Numbers 21, Numbers 21 with me. Oh my, what a wonderful, wonderful story this is. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers 21, fourth book of the Bible. Old, old story, preached it many times. I'm gonna preach it again right now. Numbers 21, all the people sinned against God, all of them. Look at it, Numbers 21, verse four. They journeyed, you have it, from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to encompass the land of Edom. The soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way people spake against God and against Moses.

Why, why, why? We're gonna die here. Why, why, why? We need this, we need that. Murmuring against God. They couldn't get to God, so they murmured against Moses. It's your fault. Murmured murmured murmur. That's all they did when God in great mercy chose them and pulled them out of Egypt Revealed himself to them showed his word to them showed him them. They ought to kill them like he did the Egyptian, but he didn't Murmur murmur murmur they had a tent, but they murmured in it We don't like this bread you're giving us we don't like that We don't like these rules you're giving. We don't like this man you got over. We don't like, we don't like it, we don't like it. Murmur, murmur, murmur.

So God sent fiery serpents. Look at it. Verse six, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. They bit the people and much people died. A fiery serpent is a snake. which is a very deceptive thing. It's there, oftentimes, you don't know it. It'll bite you before you know it. It's got poison in it. It's full of venomous poison. Inject its poison in you, and before you know it, you're dying.

And that is sin. That's sin. And the Lord told Moses, look at verse 7, therefore the people came to Moses, some of them realized, we've sinned. They confessed, we've sinned, we've spoken against the Lord, we've spoken against you, you're God's man, we've spoken against you.

Pray to the Lord, he'll take away the serpent. This cause of death. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, make a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole, and it come to pass everyone that's bitten, when it looketh upon it, it shall live. Make a serpent of brass, not a real serpent, made in the likeness of a serpent. Not with the poison in it, but looks like it. Flesh, raise it on a pole, And everyone bitten and knows it and dying.

Look, just look, just look. You're guilty as charged, but just, just look. And you'll live. Somebody's smiling. One of the brothers weeping. That's wonderful. You just heard the gospel. That's Jesus Christ in him, crucified on the cross, made in the likeness of sinful flesh without sin, no brazen serpent. but made sin for us who knew no sin. And just, just look, don't do anything. Just, just look, confess your sin and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanse. You're going to live one way.

Now, I just told you, oh man, again, I told it to you again. You get tired of hearing it? These people did, and some of them did not go in the promised land because they got tired of it. You understand? We've still got sin. We're still ignorant sinners. We still do what ought not to do.

Scripture says, where then? Boy, do we need to sacrifice the Christ now more than ever, ever. Boy, do we need to hear this gospel now more than ever. The Lord was more angry with the Israelites than he was the Egyptian. I'm angry at myself, because he said, if any of us, the ruler of the people, ignorantly sin.

Look at it. Go back to our text. Look at this. Brothers, this is such good news, because we're all guilty. Verse 13, you have it? You have it? If the whole congregation sinned through ignorance, that's everybody in here, guilty. Us and our children, guilty. Verse 22, the ruler of the people, who knows better, he does it anyway. Verse 27, anybody, doesn't matter who it is, do anything, that's good news. John, did you hear this? All manner of sin shall be forgiven. Now anybody, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Any man sin, any sin, if he finds it out and confesses, he'll be put away one way.

Brothers and sisters, my purpose as a preacher, my reason for being here, standing behind this pulpit of wood, like that wooden pole, is to set forth the Lord Jesus Christ, in Him crucified. Because we're all dying. And by the grace of God, as long as I'm doing this, as long as I live, I hope to be doing this. When your children grow up, I'm hoping, I'm praying that they'll find out they're sinners, guilty against God, and they'll hear of Christ crucified and see Him, their sin offering, their burnt offering, their only forgiveness of sin, and they'll look to Him and live. That's what I hope. Forever. You're not gonna live here forever. You're gonna die real soon. but not if you look to Christ. You'll never die. You believe that? Why? Because Christ died. That's why.

Verse John one, now look at this. It says in verse, look at verse, verse, let's see, verse, let's go to verse 15. The whole congregation, Verse 14, when the sin which they've sinned against the Lord, against His law is known, then they'll offer, they'll bring this bullock. And on and on it goes if they know it. Down in chapter five, look at chapter five. Real quickly, I promise you I'm not gonna be long. Chapter five, this is the best news you'll ever hear in your life. This is the most needful thing you could possibly hear. This is the best message you will ever hear.

And I mean it, if you're a sinner, if you're guilty, if you're ignorant, fool. It says in verse one, chapter five, if a soul sins, and what soul doesn't? It says down in verse three, if he touch an unclean thing, ha, he's guilty. Verse four, the soul swears to do something with his mouth or lips, and he's guilty. But look at verse four, it says when he knows of it, when he knows he's guilty, verse five, it shall be, when he shall be guilty in any of these things, if he confess it, To who? Who's sin against? God. We confess our sins to God. We don't confess our sins to one another. Because we're all the same. We're just sinners. We can't do anything about it.

You're watching some, you know, Catholicism is so evil, so wicked, it's anti-Christ. Anti-Christ religion. Because there's one mediator between God and men, it's the man Christ Jesus. It's not Mary, it's not a woman, it's the man Christ Jesus. It's not a priest, a fake priest, who's offering up this mass. No, no, that's anti-Christ. There's one anointed Christ to offer up the blood before the Lord, it's Jesus Christ.

We don't confess our sins to a holy father, that is a man sitting in a booth behind there, no telling what he's doing, listen to this. Seriously. He's a rotten, evil, vile, wicked sinner. If God doesn't have mercy on him, he's going to split hell wide open. We don't confess our sins to him.

We confess our sins to the one and the only one who can forgive it and put it away. One minute between God and man. But it's a blessing to know your guilt and confess to the Lord Jesus Christ. And 1 John, I quoted to you, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin. And what? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all unrighteousness. One way. Well, here it is. There is forgiveness. There is forgiveness. One way. One way.

Look at verse, chapter five, or four. Look at chapter four, look at verse 14. When the sin is known, the congregation shall offer a bullet for the sin of the offering or sin of the sin and bring him to the tabernacle of the congregation. What do we do here?

We're preaching the Bullock, a young, strong, able, substitute, sacrifice for sin. That's Jesus Christ. He's able to save a young Bullock. Any tougher than a young Bullock? He's able. That's Christ. They lay their hands, verse 15, on the head of the Bullock before the Lord, and the Bullock shall be killed. And the priest for 16 should bring the blood, a young Bullock able to bear this blame killed before the Lord. Not offered to people, but offered unto the Lord. It's blood taken and applied, put away sin, and all of that blood, all the way through, kept saying, every bit of that blood is not wasted, no, pour it out. That's Jesus Christ. And it went on to talk about a goat. Without blemish, lay your hands on the head of the goat. Oh, you remember that, Leviticus 16? Escape, goat, that's crying.

Then there's a lamb, without spot, without blame, a lamb. Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. That is every confessing sinner, every guilty, every ignorant fool in the world that finds out he's guilty and confesses his or her sin to the Lord Jesus Christ. He put it away by the blood of his sacrifice before the Lord.

That's good news. Keep saying any and all, any and all. Because Christ is all, it'll be forgiven. The end of every single guilty soul that says it shall be forgiven. It shall be forgiven one way. But you come that way. You come through Christ. I don't care what you've done or do. Or shall do.

When you find out your guilt, And bless God, the goodness of God leads us to repent, and we never quit repenting. When we come and confess our sin, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all our sins. But there's something also that needs to be clearly seen.

Every one of those sacrifices were burnt. Are you with me now? I've lost some of you. Every one of them were burnt. Every one of them, the whole sacrifice kept saying, bring it all and burn it, burn it. Our God's a consuming fire. You're not going to hear this in religion today. They think God has changed.

Brother Gabe preached on Malachi 3.6, I am the Lord, I change not. He doesn't change, he's consuming fire.

That means Jesus cried. He said, I'm coming to bring fire on the earth, didn't he? His eyes as a flame of fire, that's what John saw on the Isle of Patmos, Christ's feet like burning brass. Our God, our Lord Jesus Christ is a consuming fire. God will punish sin, God must punish sin. God's going to burn up this whole world and people in it, but not those in Christ.

No, no, no, they're standing on burnt ground. Not those in Christ, because Christ was burnt for them, went through the fire, wrath of God, and held fire on the Calvary's tree. For their sake, he took their judgment, the wrath of God, against their sin. They didn't have anything to do with this. God did it. Christ did it. God didn't offer it to them. No, no, no. Christ offered it for them.

And the Holy Spirit comes and tells him, you're guilty. You're an ignorant fool. You need a sacrifice, a burnt offering. And there's one. And they cry by the mercy and the goodness of God. They cry, Lord, let the Christ and him crucified be my sacrifice. And they confess their sins on the head, the Christ, the head of the body. And there's something here I want you to see very much, and I saw it for the first time just reading it. In chapter four, look at verse one, let's read a little bit.

The Lord spake to Moses and said, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, if a soul sinned through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things that 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. And let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish. It goes on and on to talk about this priest whose sin, he's sinned, and he brings this sacrifice. Listen to this. He brings this sacrifice, the sin of the people, and he's sinned. He brings a sacrifice to the Lord, and there's no mention of forgiveness.

Are you with me? Do you understand where I'm going with this? John, do you understand where I'm going with this? After that, verse 12, he'll bring the whole bullock, shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place where the ashes are, verse 12, where the ashes are, and pour it out, shall be a burnt offering. After every one of these people says they bring a sacrifice, he said it shall be forgiven, but not this priest. He's not forgiven. Is anybody with me?

Christ was made sin for us, guilty, no forgiveness. When God saw Jesus Christ hanging on that cross, though He's the sinless, spotless, anointed Christ, the Son of the Most High God, without sin, without spot, without blemish, He was made in the likeness of sin. He was made sin. This is a mystery of all mysteries. Yet He took in His body the sins of God's people on the tree and God did not spare Him.

No forgiveness. God said, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. If he didn't do that, you will be. If Christ didn't take your sin, you will bear them. If God doesn't hold him accountable for your sin, you will bear them. If Christ doesn't die in our place, you will die.

That's the gospel as clear as I can make it. Isn't that something? Isn't God's word perfect, Sister Helen? No, that priest, no forgiveness for him. But everybody else, doesn't matter what they've done. It doesn't matter who they are, what they've done, no matter how vile they are, yet God took his spotless son and laid on him the blame, the iniquity, the sin of us all. Boy, we ought to be singing Christ's praises at the top of our lungs right now because we're all a bunch of ignorant fools, but not him.

In wisdom. In love, in mercy, in grace, willingly, like Isaac took that wood on his shoulder and willingly offered up himself to the Father as a substitute. That's what Jesus Christ did for you. That's the best I can do. You can't do better than that.

We're guilty, but Christ was made sin. And we're ignorant, and we're gonna do, we're gonna repeat. David said, Lord, keep back thy servant from secret sin. That's sins I'm not aware of, but I'm guilty. He said, keep back thy servant from presumptuous sin. Don't let me presume on your mercy, knowing not to do it, and do it anyway. Lord, keep me back from that. But will we? Yeah, we will. What's our hope? Anybody get any comfort from that? I did. This ruler that's guilty as charged got great comfort from that. Lord, make us wise unto salvation, not ignorant. Okay. Don, you come lead us into closing.

Forgiveness for the Ignorant

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about forgiveness for ignorance?

How do we know God's forgiveness is real?

Why is it important for Christians to acknowledge their sins?

Sermon Transcript

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Forgiveness for the Ignorant

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about forgiveness for ignorance?

How do we know God's forgiveness is real?

Why is it important for Christians to acknowledge their sins?

Sermon Transcript

About Paul Mahan

Comments

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