Leviticus chapter 5, and I want
us to go ahead and read our text in verse 14. Leviticus chapter
5, and let's go ahead and begin there in verse 14 and read down
a few verses in chapter 6. Leviticus. I don't think anybody
has a pew Bible, but if you do, why, it's on page 123. Leviticus
chapter 5, and let's begin reading in verse 14. And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, If a soul commit a trespass and sin through
ignorance in the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring
for his trespass unto the Lord a ram without blemish out of
the flocks, with thy estimation by shackles of silver, after
the shackle of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering. And
he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the
holy things, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give
it unto the priest, and the priest shall make an atonement for him
with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven
him. And if a soul sin and commit
any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments
of the Lord, though he wished it not, though he don't even
know it, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. And
he shall bring him without blemish out of the flock with thy estimation
for a trespass offering unto the priest, and the priest shall
make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred
and wished it not, and it shall be forgiven him. It is a trespass
offering. He hath certainly trespassed
against the Lord. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, If a soul sin and commit a trespass against the Lord,
and lie unto his neighbor in that which was delivered him
to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence,
or hath deceived his neighbor, or hath found that which was
lost, and lieth concerning it, and swareth falsely, in any of
all these that a man doeth, sin in their hand, then it shall
be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore
that which he took violently away, or the thing which he had
deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or
the lost thing which he found. Or all that about which he hath
sworn falsely, he shall even restore it in the principle,
and add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom
it appertaineth in the day of his trespass offering. And he
shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, a ram without
blemish out of the flock, without estimation for a trespass offering
unto the Lord. And the priest shall make an
atonement for him before the Lord, and it shall be forgiven
him for any thing of all that he hath done. in trespassing
therein. Our study tonight is on the trespass
offering. All these offerings, they have
things that was common to them. Then they have things that distinguished
them from the other offerings. Let me just reiterate just for
a second, because I know some of these are difficult to remember,
but the thing that we said about the burnt offering, The thing
that distinguished it from all the other offerings, the peace
offering and the sin offering, the burn offering, God got it
all. And we look at that burn offering
from the aspect of Jesus Christ gave Himself to God. There was something that took
place on the cross between God and our Savior that only those
two could enter into. I think that's what that darkness
taught us. Jesus Christ gave Himself without spot to God. And then we had the sin offering. Now, in the sin offering, we
looked at that from another aspect, and it was from this. In the sin offering, it taught
us that Christ gave Himself for us. We looked at that in a different
aspect. Remember in the sin offering,
they took the animal outside the camp, and everybody watched
the animal as it burnt. And in Hebrews chapter 13, we
are told there that Jesus Christ suffered without the gate. People
saw Him there. That sin offering was for us. Christ gave Himself for us. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. He bore
our sins in his own body on the tree." He gave himself for us.
And then in the peace offering, we looked at the sacrifice from
another perspective. It had to do with making peace. Making peace. There was enmity
between us and God. Reconciliation had to be made,
and that's what the cross is about. Ye who sometimes were
far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for He is our
peace. He's our peace. He slain the
enmity, the thing that caused the enmity. What caused the enmity?
Our sins. He slew them. Having made peace. So He made peace between us and
God. And then, of course, the grain
offering, that showed Christ in His two natures, pure God
and pure man, in one glorious person, the harmony of Him. And
then we come here now to the trespass offering, and we want
to look at this sacrifice, and it has a couple of things in
it that the other sacrifices didn't have. And what this is
going to deal with tonight is the sins of a believer. When we sinned against God, when
we sinned against our brethren, what do we do then? That's what
this trespass offering is about. Trespassing against God. Trespassing
against the Lord. We have it here in verse 15.
Look at it again, chapter 5 and verse 15. The first aspect in
chapter 5 is sinning against the Lord. And look how he says
it here in verse 15. If a soul committed trespass
and sin through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord. This has to do in particular
to public worship, to the public service of God. These people's
lives evolved around public worship. Around here, the tabernacle. If you just get a picture of
where they camped, they were camped on every side of this
tabernacle. The tabernacle was right in the
middle of their camps. Later on, when they went to Canaan,
Sodom built the temple. Their daily lives evolved around
this temple. That's what they did. The feast
days, the sacrifices, supporting the temple, the priest. They
had a whole priesthood, a whole tribe that was given to nothing
but maintaining this temple and maintaining the sacrifices and
keeping the place clean and the place holy. And what Moses is
saying here, if the priest or anyone sins, in these holy things. If the priest is offering a sacrifice
and he doesn't do it properly, then he's guilty and he has to
have an atonement made for him. If the Jewish people, if they
didn't support the priesthood as the Lord told them to, they
didn't come to the temple to worship, they weren't there at
the holy days and the feast days, then they had sinned. There were
so many ways that they could sin in these holy things. And
I want us to think just a minute, how many ways can you and I sin
in the holy things of the Lord? My goodness, there's more than
you and I can number, isn't there? Sin in the holy things. You know, our lives, just like
the lives of these Jews, if the Lord has saved us, Really, our
lives should evolve around our public worship and our service
to the Lord. That's what we're doing here
tonight, isn't it? Worship Him. We're here to serve God in the
gospel of His Son. And there are so many ways that
you and I can sin. We think of public worship our
obligation, our blessing to support the worship and service of God,
the holy thing, we do it with our presence, that's what we're
doing here tonight, we do it with our prayers, we do it with
our finances, we do it with our affections, we do it with our
thoughts, our preaching, our teaching, and if we fail in any
aspect to to meet our obligation as it was, live up to our duties
to these holy things, even in our thoughts, even in our affection,
then we trust Christ, don't we? We trust Christ. And let a man
say what he will. Well, we do it, don't we? We
do it. We can't deny it. We're like
these fellows, you know. Sometimes we're ignorant of it.
But I tell you, it comes to our conscience, and that's when we
realize. Boy, I have trespassed. I should have given better attention
to these holy things. I should have prayed. I should
have asked the Lord to prepare my heart. Now here I am in the
midst of the service, and I've sinned in these holy things.
And we all can be guilty of that, can't we? So that's the first
thing, sinning against the holy things. Trespassing in the holy
things. And I tell you, I'll be honest
with you, I wouldn't want to have been a priest under the
ceremonial law. I just wouldn't want to have
been a priest. There was one time when they lost the Ark,
the Philistines had it, and David and his men went to get it, and
they said, boy, we're going to make something big out of this.
They'd line in the roads and going to hoop and holler, and
David made a new ox cart, and they put the Ark of the Covenant
on it, and coming back, and Uzzah, David's friend, the ox stumbled,
He grabbed it to hold it up, and the Lord killed him just
like that. And it scared David to death. David said, what in
the world is happening? The Lord said, you're not even supposed
to be carrying this. This is the Levite's job. You're not
supposed to touch it. It's the Levite's job. I tell
you, you can trespass. But my goodness, when you and
I come together, when we do the service of God and the worship
of God, boy, we can trespass in that too, Cable. The holy
thing. The holy thing. Here in chapter
6 right quick in verse 2, look at this right quick, not only
in the holy things of God, but right quickly in verse 2. If
a soul sinned and commit a trespass against the Lord, and look at
this, and lie unto his neighbor. Could we possibly do that? In that which was delivered him
to keep. Or in sharing. Or in a thing
taken by violence. Or he has deceived his neighbor.
They shared a lot back then. They shared things together.
They would go in and buy things together. And what would happen
sometimes is one fellow said, no that's mine. That's mine. But I paid for half of that.
No you didn't. I paid for it myself. And boy,
he would take it and keep it for himself. Sometimes when he
would loan an animal to their neighbor, they did a lot of that.
Loaned an animal to plow with or to milk, and something would
happen to the animal, and he wouldn't replace it. Well, it
was sitting where I got it. He would find his neighbor's
ox, that would be lost and take it and hide it in his own barn?
And he'd say, have you seen my oxen? Oh, I haven't seen it.
I haven't seen it. You sure? I haven't seen it.
I haven't seen it. So there was all kinds of sins
that one neighbor could sin against another neighbor. And when they
found out about it, when it came to their understanding, they
were to confess it as sin. Sin against one another. And look here what he says in
verse 2 again. Here's what makes sin so bad.
Two things that make sin bad. If a soul sins and commits a
trespass against the Lord and lies unto His name. Here's one
of the things that makes sinning against somebody else so bad.
It's against the Lord. See, sin is sin, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ counts
it sin against Him. Now, I sin against Shaman, and
it can do Shaman a lot of harm. It can hurt him. It can discourage
him. And keep him up for the night.
He'll say, I can't believe Bruce, the pastor, did me this way.
I can't believe he said that to me. Him, of all people, did
this to me. And that could throw Shaman for
a loop. Sometimes when we sin against each other, we hurt each
other. Hurt our hearts. And a brother
offended is harder to be won than a walled city. That's bad
when we sin against the brother, isn't it? And you know what Paul
the Apostle said about sinning against the brother. He said,
when you sin against the brother, especially if you wound their
weak conscience, you sin against Christ. It's not only what we
do to one another when we sin, but we sin against the Lord.
And Paul, therefore, said, be careful that you don't defraud
your brother in any matter, because God is
the avenger of all such. We just don't sin against one
another and go on and count it nothing doing. Well, sometimes
the Lord's rod falls upon us when we do that. So when we sin
against one another, We've sinned against the Lord.
We've sinned against the Lord. You remember when he struck Saul
of Tarsus down on the Damascus road? And he said, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? Now, was Saul persecuting him
personally? Well, he wasn't persecuting him
literally because Christ was in heaven, wasn't he? But Christ
kept what's done against his people done against him. If you
do good to his children, he counts it good done to him. For as much
as you've done it unto the least of these my brethren, you've
done it unto me. But he said, Paul, you're persecuting
me. Lord, how am I persecuting you?
Because you're persecuting my people. That's how close him
and his people are. They're in union one with another.
And that's why when you can, when you have opportunity, do
good to the household of faith. I mean, if he's thirsty, give
him a glass of water. If he's hungry, feed him. If
he needs a bed, get him yours to sleep in. Because when you
do it to him, you do it to Christ. You do it to Christ. Now, there
was the trespass. There was the trespass. It was
against the holy things, sinning in the holy things of God, or
sinning against one another. And now let's look at it. The
atonement. There were three things. There were three things about
this trespass that was required. First of all, we saw there in
chapter 6, verse 6 and 7, that atonement had to be made. Look
here in chapter 6, verse 6 and 7. When a man sinned in the holy
things, when he sinned against the children of God, in verse
6, he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, a ram
without blemish, out of the flock. with our estimation for a trespass
offering to the priest, and the priest shall make an atonement
for him before the Lord, and it shall be forgiven him." Now,
the first thing we see in this trespass offering, when we've
sinned in the holy things, we've sinned against one another, there
isn't an atonement. Isn't that wonderful? That's
wonderful, isn't it? Aren't you glad for that? Because
there's not a one of us, brothers and sisters, But what sin? If we say we have no sin, if
we say we have not sinned, then we are a liar, aren't we? His
Word is truth about us, not in us. But thank God when we have
sinned, we have an advocate with the Father. If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us. There is the atonement. to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Little children, I write unto
you that ye sin not, but if any man sin, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the
propitiation for our sins. I tell you, I don't like guilt
upon my conscience, and I'm sure you don't either, but thank God
when it's there, we've got an atonement that's been made. That
someone that bore that sin and there's blood to cleanse. But
here, the second thing about these, there's two more aspects
about this sacrifice here, this trespass offering, that we've
not seen in the other offerings that we've looked at. And this
is what makes this peculiar. And we look at it here in chapter
5 and verse 16 and chapter 6 and verse 4. And it's this. Look
in chapter 5 and verse 16. If we've sinned in the holy things,
we have to have an atonement made. And thank God there is.
But here in verse 16, And he shall make amends for the harm
that he hath done in the holy things. Making amends. And look
in chapter 6 and look in verse 4. And it shall be because he
hath sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he
took violently away." So if we sin in the holy things, if they
sinned in the holy things, it wasn't enough to confess their
sins and bring a sacrifice. That was necessary. That was
essential, and thank God He not only required one, but he told
them what to offer. But that wasn't enough in this
sacrifice. There's another aspect of this
sacrifice, and that was amends had to be made. If the priest
had done something wrong in offering of the sacrifice, in eating of
certain foods that he shouldn't have eaten, then he not only
had to confess that and atone for it, he had to forsake it. He had to put it away. He that
confesseth and forsaketh his sins, he shall have mercy. My experience has been that sometimes
I have been wrong. I have been wrong in not properly
preparing to come here and teach or preach to you folks. I have
been wrong in my attitude. Sometimes I've even been wrong
in what I've said. And I've had to confess it and
thank God it's been forgiven. But that's not enough, is it?
I need to mend my attitude. If I've done something wrong
in the holy things, then I need to mend that. As God gives me
grace not to let that happen again. I used to have a preacher
friend of mine, I don't know if he's still living or not,
down in Tennessee, and he said when the Lord first saved him
and called him to preach, he said, I actually preached against
the perseverance of the saints. He said, been misrepresented
to me, and he said, I actually preached that a believer could
fall away. And he said, when I saw that
I was wrong in that, he said, I went to the Lord and I asked
His mercy and forgiveness, but he said, I didn't stop there.
He said, I told everybody I knew that I'd ever preached to how
wrong I was, and said, God help me, I'll never preach that lie
again. That's amends, isn't it? Making amends. It's not enough
just to confess it and to be cleansed from it. But if there's
opportunity, then make amends for it. And then here in chapter
6 and verse 4, it's not enough to confess that you've done this
against your brother, but restore that which he took away. If we've done something to one
another, it's not enough for me to go to the Lord and confess
it and get forgiveness. If I've done something to you,
and I've caused you harm and I've hurt you and caused you
to fall or offended you, then I need to come and restore the
wrong that I've done to you. Our Lord said, if you come to
the altar and you bring your gift, will you to offer it to
the Lord? And you remember that your brother has ought against
you? He's got something against you? You've done something to
him and reconciliation needs to be made? Leave your gift at
the altar and go be reconciled to your brother. And then come
and offer your gift to me. So what's important is a brother
offended needs to be reconciled. If I've lied to a brother, did
something to the brother, And what I need to do is confess
it to the Lord, obtain mercy from it, and then go and be reconciled
to my brother. The apostle even said this in
Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1, if a brother be overtaken
in a fault, if he's failed through his own fault, you've caused
him to fall, the devil caused him to fall, whatever his problem
is, he's been overtaken in a fault. You which are spiritual. restore
such a life. If someone has fallen, someone
has been hurt, someone has been offended, and you have the opportunity
to do it, and especially if you're responsible for the hurt, then
go to that person and confess to him and restore to him whatever
that you've done to him. So that's the first aspect of
this offering that we didn't have in all the others. Making
amends. Making amends. If you've been
doing something and come to the worship service and it's causing
you to sin, then stop doing it. Make amends for it. If you've
done something to your brother or sister, then restore it. Restore them. And here, thirdly,
is something else. We have the atonement required.
We have amends and restoration. And then, addition,
addition. He tells us here in chapter 5
and verse 16, in chapter 6 and verse 5, not only will he have
to restore in principle, and he shall add the fifth part more
narrative. Not only did he restore that
which he took away, not only did he restore whatever the priest
had done in his sinning against the holy things, or they hadn't
maintained the service of the Lord in some way, not only were
they to restore that, but they were to add the fifth part with
it. Go beyond restoring. I'll give you a couple of examples
of this. I remember Henry Mahan was telling when his son Robbie
was killed there in Vietnam. Boy, it's been a long time, late
60s, 68. But Henry said when his son was
killed, son Robbie was killed, he took it hard. He said, it's
almost like the Lord spoke to me and said, are you ready to
get serious now? And Henry said, I was being slothful
about things. I've been negligent in some things.
And he said, it's almost like the Lord spoke to my conscience
and said, are you ready to get serious now? And boy, he did
get serious. He got serious. I mean, he not
only made amends, boy, he went beyond that. He not only preached
in his own pulpit three times a week, and led his Bible class. He started a preacher school.
He started going other places. He got on TV. He got on radio.
He did his commentaries. He added the fifth part. Not
only did he make amends and repent of what he did, he went over
and above that. And when we did something against
the brother, when we sinned against them or they sinned against us,
I'll give you an example of this. I really deceived. Ain't no sense of cleaning it
up too much. See, I didn't mean to or this
and that, but I really deceived a fellow, one of my dear brothers.
And it started to bother me. And I hated just a little bit
to call him because you know how we are. Boy! And I called
him and I said, Buddy, this is what I've done. And I've called
you to apologize. And you know what he said? He
didn't say, I forgive you, I forgive you. You know what He said? Oh,
brother. Oh, dear brother, don't worry
about that. My goodness, I forgive you with
all my heart. Don't even think anything else
about it. He could have just forgiven me. He could have just
restored me. But He showed me mercy with cheerfulness. He added the fifth part to it.
He not only restored me, but He did it in the spirit of meekness. And boy, I needed that. I needed
that. And when I called him, I was
so down about it and hurt him. But man, he restored me. And
he put the fifth part to it, too. Addition with the restoration. Okay, one more way I want to
look at this right quickly. This is the way I love to look
at it. This way we just finished is true. But let's look at it
another way. as it concerns the Lord Jesus Christ. You know,
He made amends to God for everything that we had done. All the harm
that you and I did to God in the holy things, Jesus Christ
made amends for it all. All that we lost there in the
fall, He has restored it all. Has He not? Everything that we
lost, He's restored it all. I want you to look right quick
in Psalms. You can let Leviticus go if you want to. And look in
Psalms chapter 69, right quickly. We know this Psalm is speaking
of our Savior. Psalm 69. He said there in verse 4, "...they
hated Me without a cause, You find that in John 15. Verse 9,
The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up. You find that in John
chapter 2. Verse 21, They gave me gall for
my meat, and my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. That was
quoted on the cross. But look here what he said in
Psalms chapter 69. And look in verse 4. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away." He's restored it. He took nothing
away, did he? But he restored everything. You
and I took everything away, our sin, back there in the garden.
What did we take away? I'll tell you one thing we took
away. We took away our fellowship with God. We took away our communion
with God. When Adam sinned, this enmity
come in, the judgment of God come in, the frown of God upon
our sins, and there was this sin, this chism, this gulf between
us and God. Jesus Christ didn't take that
away. We did by our sin in Adam. But I tell you what, He restored
it, didn't He? He reconciled us to the Father. He's restored
fellowship. He's brought us back to our Father
in sweet, sweet spiritual communion. I'll tell you something else
that we lost that He didn't take away. We lost our life. in the day that you sin, you
shall die. Ain't that what he said? As by
one man's sin entered in death by sin. We lost our life. That was taken away from us.
We were murdered, the Scripture says. But Jesus Christ has restored
life to us. Life. We have life again. You have He quickened. who were
dead in trespasses and sin. I'll tell you something else
that was taken away. Righteousness. We lost that. We had a righteousness. Old man was created upright. He had a righteousness that God
could look upon and say, Very good. Very good. But we lost it. By one man's
disobedience, one man was made sin. He was made a sinner. And
all of us was made sin in Him. Now our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. But Jesus Christ has restored
our righteousness. Now we have righteousness again. Righteousness in Him. He restored
that which He took not away. Look in Matthew chapter 12 right
quickly. Matthew chapter 12 and look in
verse 10. I think this is a perfect illustration
of what it means when he says, I restored that which I took
not away. And behold, there was a man which
had his hand withered, and they asked him, saying, Is it lawful
to heal on the sabbath days, that they might accuse him? And
he said unto them, What man shall there be among you that shall
have one sheep, and if it fall into a fit on the sabbath day,
will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is
a man better than a sheep? Wherefore, it is lawful to do
well on the Sabbath day. Then said he to the man, Stretch
forth your withered hand. And he stretched it forth, and
look at this, it was restored whole as hither." That's what
Jesus Christ came to do. Restore that which was withered
and dried up and lost. He came to restore everything
that you and I had lost in the fall of Athens. And you know
what the Scriptures teach us about Him today? That heaven
has received Him, and He is reigning there in heaven, and He is going
to reign there until He has restored all things. He is going to restore
everything that we lost, and He is going to put down all the
evil and sin that has entered. Everything is going to be restored. He's going to do that Himself. Isn't that a wonderful thought?
And that's what He's doing there now. That's what He's doing there
now. And when He's finished, when
He's finished, we're going to be whole. We're going to be completely
restored. Everything we lost. But He doesn't
stop there, does He? He's got this divine fifth part
that He's going to add. Listen to this. He not only gave us life for
the life that we lost, but He gave us a life that will never,
never, never die. God gave us life in the garden,
but we lost it. We died. But now He's given us
the very life of His Son. And that life can never die because
that life is in heaven, safe and secure. If we have the life
of Christ, we can never die. And the Scripture says that Christ,
who is our life, you kill Him, you kill the Christian. But until
you kill Him, you'll never kill the Christian. You'll never die
again, will you? I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. Why? Because I am their light.
Oh, I am come that you might have light and have it more abundantly. And the righteousness that we
lost in Adam, that righteousness has been restored, but what kind
of righteousness is it? In Adam we have the righteousness
of a creature, and you can lose the righteousness of a creature.
But Christ has given us His own righteousness, and you know what
He says about that righteousness? Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting righteousness. And it's called the righteousness
of God. We don't have the righteousness
of a creature. We have the righteousness of
the God-man, our Creator and our blessed Redeemer. Never die, life, righteousness,
holiness. And I tell you this, He's brought
us back to the Father. He's removed everything that
interrupted the fellowship and communion. And He's brought us
back to the Father in such a way that that fellowship and that
communion will never be broken again. He's reconciled us. And that enmity will never end
to separate us again. Ain't that wonderful? This is
a reconciliation. A permanent reconciliation. He
said, I'll put my fear in your heart, and you won't depart from
me. And I'll never turn away from
you to do you good. My Father which gave you to me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck you out of my
Father's hand. That sounds like security doesn't
it? Oh my, a permanent reconciliation. Life, and life more abundantly. We're not just sons of God by
creation, but we're sons of God by redemption, by adoption, and
by regeneration. Of His own will begot He us. And you know something, Adam
was the son of God, he's called the son of God, but you know
he lost that. But you here tonight, that God
has begotten you of his own will, as wonderful as that may seem,
you'll never cease to be the son of God. He'll never lose
you. You'll never lose the spirit
of adoption. That's how perfectly Jesus Christ has restored us.
And brothers and sisters, we can't begin to comprehend it.
We go around, we feel so low, we feel so unworthy, we feel
so ashamed of ourselves. We just can't realize how perfectly
Jesus Christ has restored us to the Father. And you know something?
He's not finished yet. When He's finished, we will be
perfectly restored in body, and this universe, this world that
you and I live upon, It will be perfectly restored. And it
will be more wonderful than it was even before the fall. No sin will enter there. A new
heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. No sorrow,
no pain, no tears, no death. Everything will be absolutely
and eternally and gloriously perfect. Jesus Christ is going
to restore all. And I tell you when He does,
when He does, It's going to be much better than any of us could
ever believe or realize, because it's not only going to be restored,
it's going to be gloriously restored. He's going to add this fifth
part, this divine part. What a day that will be. What
a day. Any questions?