Two Become as One
A Christian husband and wife read the Bible together and compare life experiences in contrast to Scripture. Talking about faith, family, friends, and everyday life.
Two Become as One
Sin and Forgiveness
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Reading in Leviticus 4, we decided to take it to the next level and make an episode.
Hi, this is Pastor Frank. And this is Luce. At Two Become Is One, we just want to welcome you to this podcast in episode 31. That's right. And this one is going to be about sin. Now I know it sounds heavy, but because uh we are taking just a just a little break from Genesis, uh, and I believe that this is still uh relative because uh sin is what brought the flood in the first place. But this is uh a a world now in the in the book of Leviticus where it is absolutely bloomed. Um and things have gone you know a lot further because of the uh the time frame from Genesis to here in Leviticus, which is quite a quite a few years. Now uh we're doing uh this particular one because uh reading it, uh I do another podcast first discipleship Christian talk, and then also I do a discipleship on Zoom. And I come across Leviticus chapter 4, doing Leviticus 1, 2, and 3. This is something that I was talking to my wife about, and she found it very interesting coming from Leviticus and then understanding it through the New Testament. And so I find this to be a very good subject off at the heels of Genesis chapter 8 and the flood, which is like I said, the whole reason why God flooded the earth because of wickedness and evil, basically sin. So we're gonna try to tackle this subject, and we're trying to keep it as condensed and also easy to listen to and understand as well.
SPEAKER_03As Pastor Frank mentioned, yes, I did find this, I do, I should say not did, I do find this uh subject to be very um interesting. And um just to make sure that everyone out there understands, we find the book of Genesis to be very interesting. Every chapter, every book in the Bible is very relevant. Um, but we've just decided to bring this particular subject of sin and redemption uh to the forefront, uh, more so because, you know, there might be those out there that don't quite understand um how it works or what the meaning, you know, they may read Leviticus, for instance, and and it may sound very um archaic and very, you know, and just very hard to understand, and we're just going to try to do our best to uh bring that out for you in terms that um make it easier to understand and how it applies to to us and the entire world.
SPEAKER_00That's right. So I want to start off by saying, if you've been listening to what we've been doing from the very beginning, we have gone from Genesis chapter 1 to Genesis chapter 8. The whole reason why God flooded the earth is because of sin. Now, like I said, here in Leviticus, it's quite a bit of time that has passed by, but it's not hard to understand that sin, okay, we need to be saved from it. Obviously, the Noah of Noah and the Ark from the water was the judgment. So there's still a judgment on sin, and we are sinful beings. So God has set up a system for just a lack of in a nutshell for lack of better uh explanation, and here he gives his children, the children of Israel, a way to deal with their sin. Now, the law, the Ten Commandments, was given prior to this in the book of Exodus. And the law is the schoolmaster, as it says, or tutor, it is to tell us that we are sinful. Prior to the uh the Torah or the Ten Commandments and the 613 laws that God has given throughout the entire uh Torah or the Pentateuch, would without it, we would not know we were uh sinning against God. So these are very important. Now, as this progresses and we go into the New Testament, you will see how it's fulfilled, and you'll see once we get into it what we mean by that. So we're gonna start in Leviticus chapter 4, verses 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_03You know, and as you mentioned about Noah and the flood, and how that God decided to bring about that flood because of the sin. Now, granted, that flood did not wash away the sins of the world because sin was still very much present within although he was a righteous man within Noah, his wife, and you know, his whole family, that flood just washed away the very exceptionally sinful people of that day and age. That's right. Uh, but being that that sin was still resident within Noah and his family, well, it started back up again. Exactly. Yeah. So, okay, and as um Pastor Frank mentioned, we're gonna be reading out of the book of Leviticus, chapter four, and it's verses one through seven, and I'll go ahead and read that. It says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them, if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer to the Lord for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bull without blemish as a sin offering. He shall bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle by meeting before the Lord, lay his hand on the bull's head, and kill the bull before the Lord. Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull's blood and bring it to the tabernacle of meeting. The priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the Lord, in front of the veil of the sanctuary, and the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of meeting, and he shall pour the remaining blood of the bull at the base of the altar of the burnt offering which is at the door of the tabernacle meeting.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Now I know this sounds very, very hard to understand. Okay, but like I said, this is a way that God has given his people. So up until the time after Noah's flood, up until this time here, the atonement for sin just wasn't developed or available. Now there had to be a series of events, as I believe that the Bible is an is a narrative and that it is an organic narrative where people are born, and then this is creating the storyline of what we read here in the first five books of the Bible. Now, mind you, the the people that are in the in the first five books of the Bible are related to Noah and then his sons, and then eventually to Abraham. So this is about one family, okay, here in uh Genesis, Leviticus, Exodus, um, Deuteronomy, and Numbers, it's all one family, and it's talking, but there's a there is a strong reality of why, and I'm not going to get into that. So, what I want to do is to be able to talk about this. Now, this particular uh sin offering, as it's mentioned in Leviticus, prior to that, okay, these things are are commanded by God in Leviticus 1, it is the burnt offering, Leviticus 2 is the grain offering, Leviticus 3 is the peace offering, and here is the sin offering. Now, when I started reading this, I literally started to think, how did this escape me from all the other times I've read the Bible? And reading it, it's giving a sliding scale for every single person in Israel. It doesn't matter if you're a priest, it doesn't matter if you're a ruler or commoner or commoner or leadership, anything. You are a subject to this particular offering based on what the law has told you. And based on your your status in life. Yeah, you're basically this sin basically puts us all on a level playing field. No one's better than the other. And so this is the part that I like about it because we can actually look at this and say, you know, that person's no better than me, and I'm no better than that person. And we all have sinned. And and and this is what makes I think this particular subject beautiful only because what it requires. So let's kind of go into this a little bit. So God had commanded Moses to tell them, you know, that if you break any of these commandments and unintentionally or intentionally, it still requires an offering. And so let's touch on a little bit about unintentional sin.
SPEAKER_03Well, unintentional sin is knowing that something is wrong. Yeah, that's um one point that came out to me in that very those first couple of verses where it says unintentional sin. So what that is, is basically sinning in ignorance. That's right. Not knowing. Um but it also involves once you be you once you come to the knowledge of what you've done wrong, you have a repentant heart. And you know, you you com you're in that knowledge now and you seek forgiveness from God for that. That's right. But again, it's sinning without knowing. So that's it's that's an interesting point. But then there's uh a flip side to that coin. And do you want me to mention it now? I mean, the other flip side of that would be the presumptuous sin. And the difference with the presumptuous sin is that it's premeditated, that's right, it's planned, it's knowing that what you're about to do is wrong, but you have just this deliberate, blatant disregard for God's law, and you do it anyway.
SPEAKER_02That's right.
SPEAKER_03So that's and it's it's done in in pride, in in anger, and there's a catalog of what the reasons why you do that. Exactly. So so there's um that's the major difference there is knowing versus not knowing.
SPEAKER_00That's right. Now, one thing I also want in addition to that is I want to cover also, is an explanation of exactly what sin is. We uh I did a um when I did the zoom uh discipleship meeting, there are about four catalogs in the New Testament, and this is not including the Torah itself. The 613 laws, not not including that, because that's what we're reading, because the it wasn't completely finished here in Leviticus IV. But up until then, what they did know they were accountable to. And forward into the New Testament, there's about four different catalogs. One of them is in Romans chapter 1, and that goes into a variety, and then there's another one, uh I believe it's in the book of, I think it's Hebrews, not sure, but we'll get to it. Anyway, these different catalogs articulate exactly what the Torah already says, and the apostles are articulating this from a perspective of knowing the law. And so sin basically is a cover word, like I said, like the word encyclopedia. Encyclopedia, when you say encyclopedia, you automatically, I know it's an old word because no one uses those no more, it's basically uh from A to Z. And in the encyclopedia, there's a big book of knowledge, yeah. It's just like a bunch of books, separated books from A to Z, you know the alphabet. And in that is the explanations of what those things are. So sin in the catalog is the same exact way. So when you say sin, much like the word encyclopedia, it is a variety, it's a gigantic list of things that people do broken down, uh like um just for instance, um the word malice or the word concupiscence, envy, and other like words, and and that's what how the New Testament breaks it down, the writers of the New Testament break it down, but it's basically coming off the heels of the the Torah. So I want to be able to tell people that this is how we see it as Christians now, but I want to just kind of touch on the meaning of of here in Leviticus chapter four.
SPEAKER_03But if you kind of if you don't mind, I'm just gonna just backtrack what if you actually look up the word sin, it says to miss the mark. That's right. You're missing the mark. So if you think of like a bullseye, if you hit dead center, well, that's perfect. But none of us are ever hitting dead center. We're always a little too high, a little low, a little left or a little right. Or miss it completely. Yes, ex yeah, well, that's what I mean. It's like you're you miss that center completely. So none of us are ever going to be perfect, not in this current this current state that we are in, you know, our the state of imperfection. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So here uh we kind of covered the unintentional and the intentional sin, uh presumptuous. Now, one of the things is that uh in the sin offering, it's depending on your position, it requires a different sacrifice, and but it's also like I said a sliding uh rule uh of how and who this is paid for. Now, the blood of animals obviously is was is a recurring theme throughout all these different sacrifices, but there's one that's a grain offering, and the reason why it goes from bulls to goats to sheep to pigeons or turtle doves, and then the grain offering is because the sliding rule is that not everybody's rich.
SPEAKER_03Right, like like I said earlier, it depends on your station in life and basically what you can afford. That's right. But in all of those things that you are whatever it is that you can offer to God, well, like we said, the it says in the scripture in Leviticus says that for the the priest it's a bull.
SPEAKER_00You know, because for for the whole congregation of Israel, it's also a bull.
SPEAKER_03Yes. So, and then on down the line, and then down to, well, as I said, a commoner or someone who really is poorer, yeah, um, an offering of grain. That's right. But and no matter what it is that you are sacrificing, whether it is that bull, a goat, a bird, or the grain that you're giving, because think of it it's always you're giving of the best of the best.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_03You're not gonna give rotten grain, you're you're not gonna give this uh you know old, broken down old bull. You know, you're going you're going to give the best of what you have. That's right. And in it's reg regardless of what it is that you're you're giving, it's always it's always the the first quality. That's right.
SPEAKER_00So what this is meant to do, okay, it's supposed to bring you to a a level of consciousness, a level of consciousness where you actually deliberate with yourself, being transparent, what did I do to offend God? What did I say? How did I sin against God? And then once the law tells you what you sinned against God, then it brings you into a mode where your heart needs forgiveness, needs its guilty, needs repentance, you know. And this is something that I think that interestingly, it's supposed to shape the heart, becoming by doing. And in that process, we learn here through scripture that it takes the blood of an animal. Now, if you think about it, that blood is supposed to be ours. That dead animal is supposed to be us because that's how sin is paid for. It's through life. Now, I know this sounds contradictory that a one life is given up, is giving up for many, but that's the story of the gospel in a nutshell. They're learning the very ABCs of atonement, of repentance, of salvation, and of deliverance. So there's so many different things going on here, but this is like the very first steps of it. And so, like you said, it requires a blemishless animal, and there's specifics on whether it's a male or a female or how old it is. You know, there's just certain parameters that God uh requires. And you can't go outside of that, it has to stay within, and there's a good reason for that. So, as we read um here, uh, I think that the blood and the way it's spilt, as we read in uh, I believe it is verse 7, it says, And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of a sweet incense before the Lord, which is the tabernacle of meetings. Now that was the okay, at the time when you say when you hear the Bible say tabernacle of meetings, that means before Solomon built the temple, there was a mobile temple where they worshipped and did all of these things and the sacrifices. So it was actually like putting up a concert and taking it down, they're like roadies, and the Levitical priesthood were like roadies, not to reduce them to that, but that's what they were like. And once they set up, this is what they were doing as far as the the priesthood and the and the sacrificial system was uh in place. Now, here it says to do, it says that, and you shall pour the remaining blood of the bull at the base of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of meetings. Now, it's reminiscent of also the Passover, because on the Passover the animal had to die. You take the blood and you put it on the top of the lintel and on the sides of the doorposts. And then the blood that was shed at Calvary, that Jesus died, and he shed his blood, was right there at the foot of the cross. So we see these things, this is this the familiarity that God is trying to embed in their hearts and their minds through sacrifice and atonement. So they relate this to forgiveness of sin, they relate this to atonement, they relate this to salvation and repentance. So this is why this uh is here now when we're moving forward, this is our basis of the scripture, we can move forward into the New Testament.
SPEAKER_03Right. I mean, because God had to bring his people into a frame of mind over a period of time to be able to when when it was time for you know when for Christ's arrival and for his ultimate uh sacrifice and and the shedding of Christ's blood, that through this this current system of animal sacrifice, that they as a people would be able to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. That's right. And it took, of course, hundreds of years and you know, centuries, but this is the way that God chose to do it, which was very wise. Yes. He decided to do it well, basically low and slow. Yeah, you know, and it's so this way it over the long term it sticks in their brain.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and I call that becoming by doing.
SPEAKER_03Right. I mean, and just to kind of backtrack a little bit, and I meant to read this earlier about um uh presumptuous sin in the book of Psalms 19, verses 12 through 14, it says, Who can understand his errors? That's a question. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me, then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. And what's interesting here is not only does it mention the presumptuous sin, which you know we explain what that is, it says, Cleanse me from secret faults. Think about that. What's a secret fault? It's that it may be those, you know, there's people out there, let me put it this way. For example, there might be some out there who live a double life.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_03Where they may go to church on Sundays, they may talk about, you know, the gospel, about Jesus to those around them. And to the outside world they look like they live by what they preach. That's right. But yet behind closed doors, and where they think no one knows well, no human eyes can knows what they're no can know what they're up to. They live they are into uh sinful practices. That's right. Uh what's a big one for you know in in that we hear over and over again, you know, especially for males, pornography. Um or uh or or what if they're they're behind the scenes? What if they're embezzling money? You know, you never know what that person might be up to. But of course, none of us can hide, run and hide from God. He sees everything we do and he knows the enchanting intentions of our heart from the get-go.
SPEAKER_00And in that being said, the secret sins, I think, are more rampant than we think. And the the fact that they're secret, okay, the Bible clearly says that all things done in the dark and all secrets are all be revealed on the day of judgment. So this is something I just want to put out there that you're not gonna we can't escape from this. I'm not gonna escape from it, you're not gonna escape from it. It's gonna be all revealed sooner or later. You feel that you're escaping from it because nobody knows. We're in an age of technology where everything is being monitored. If you think you're getting away with things, actually you're not, because everything is digitalized, everything is being monitored. For maybe under the guise of safety or for whatever it is for. But I can guarantee you there's nothing that if people really want to know about things that you do, they can find out. And in this sense, the world is very cruel. It uses exposure as a way to manipulate and to expose somebody is very embarrassing, it could ruin somebody's reputation in life completely, and this is why we have to be completely so these offerings here in Leviticus are very, very important because it demands transparency, right? It demands a pure heart in which to give. Here in 2026, we deal with a lot of hypocrisy, and in the only way that people will be able to avoid exposure and hypocrisy, they actually allow these things in the church. Right. This is sad, but you can't say they didn't say, well, some of this is okay. Right. And what they allow.
SPEAKER_03Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, it it's unfortunately they so to speak bend the rules just so more people can feel well, I maybe I shouldn't put it this way, but I'm gonna I'm gonna say it. They probably bend the rules in order to have more people in the seats and you know, to to fill the congregation. That's right, to feel like they have a full congregation. But what good is it to have a full congregation of people who are living who are there hearing what the preacher has to say on a Sunday or whatever given day of the week you have a service, but the word does not penetrate their heart and they are not living the the true life. That's right. That's hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_03And in the book of Romans 3 23, it says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00Amen.
SPEAKER_03And so that just touches on the point what you were saying just a minute ago, how all of us on that day of judgment we're gonna stand before God for everything that we were that we're doing, whether that sin is known or not. He's gonna he well, he's gonna call us out on everything that we've done.
SPEAKER_00That's right. And you see, here the other aspect of of approaching the the Holy of Holies, approaching the priest, approaching this with an offering, the heart has to be right. You have to be repentant, you you have to be able to not only be transparent by saying, I have sinned, you bring the offering, spill the blood, but if your heart, if you don't really mean that, an animal is dying for something you didn't mean. And this is the offense, because if you are going to the altar, you're going to church, you're getting prayed for, and there's tears, but true repentance means that you stop doing what the Bible says, what God says, is sin. When you don't do that, and you only are there to show people that you are, you know, following the rules of church protocol of what people want to see, but really God only knows the heart.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03I mean, a person like that, sorry, is no different than the Sadducees and the Pharisees of Jesus' day.
SPEAKER_00That's right. And so God would not take all of this time to articulate here in Leviticus 4 just so that we can bring a half-bake heart to the altar. It has to be because what you're initially doing is you're bringing uh a bull or a sheep or a goat or turtle doves or grain that's either moldy, that has it's blind, or it's you know, one of the it's lame. You're bringing a very, very crude and uh insignificant and an unapproved offering to the altar if you're here. A good priest would say that's not that's not gonna do. A good priest would say, You have to bring this exact exactly what so God sets the precedence of exactly what to bring to the altar.
SPEAKER_03Right, and it shouldn't be anything less than that.
SPEAKER_00That's right, and that's that's the heart. So God provided Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice, which is the perfect lamb. So God got his part right. We in turn need to get our part right, and I think that's what God is building here with his people in Leviticus 4. Now, I've been reading also in Hebrews, uh, the book of Hebrews, and it is chalkful of so many different uh teachings when it comes to sin.
SPEAKER_03I know we've touched a lot on uh the animal sacrifice uh or that that system that that was in place in the uh the Old Testament and the scriptures say that Jesus fulfilled the law. And that doesn't mean that all of a sudden the Ten Commandments about you know not stealing, not committing, you know, adultery, you know, sexual immorality, you know, so on, you know, idolatry, so on and so forth. That doesn't mean that he that that that his that those things are no longer relevant. Those things are very relevant, and that that itself has not changed. What that means is that our method of at of uh being able to approach God, the method of atonement for sin, that's what changed.
SPEAKER_02That's right.
SPEAKER_03He came and he changed the it uh it uh it basically put out of commission the sacrifice of you know the animal sacrificial system because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice offered, you know. He came to balance the scales. He was what Adam lost, Adam and Eve lost in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3. Right. He came to balance the scales, and he brought back what what it what it sorry what we lost. What we lost in the beginning from the original sin. That's right.
SPEAKER_00So, you know, you know, Jesus, now we don't want people to think that the law is now done away with. That's part of the old testament, and now we have the new testament. Well, what I'm saying here, and right in Matthew chapter 5, verse 7 says, Do not think I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. So the law is still in effect. Why? It's because you it says, Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, or lie. And as you go through the commandments, you're gonna see that they're very relevant, not only to society, but also to God. Now, keeping his commandments is one thing that he gave his people to do forever. And that's something that we are grafted on to the olive, as an olive wild olive branch and to the olive tree, which is the source, which is God. We have to understand that these things also apply to us. Now, given the fact that we believe in Jesus Christ has fulfilled, it means that we now can go to him to get to the Father. This is why the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. There was no need for that.
SPEAKER_03Right, and that's why we don't have to take a bull or a goat or a bird or offer grain in order to approach God and ask for the atonement of sin.
SPEAKER_00Uh God seeks for worshipers that worship him in truth and in spirit. What that basically means is that now we are forgiven through Jesus Christ and we accept it, we repent. So he asks us to repent of our sins. John the Baptist's ministry was based on repentance. Jesus said, uh, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Okay, he's saying it's at arm's reach. These are the types of things that we have to understand that works by themselves cannot get your sins forgiven. And this is the reason why I say that, is because that Jesus was talking to a young ruler and he says, uh, Rabbi, what must I do to attain eternal life? For a young ruler in the first century to ask a question like that lets you know that whatever he read and all the studies that he's done did not assure him eternal life, is the reason why he asked Jesus, because Jesus was talking about it.
SPEAKER_03Right. Well, look, it says here in the book of Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
SPEAKER_00That's right. You know, interestingly enough, the young ruler, when he was told by Jesus, you know, well, have you kept all the commandments? And he said, Since since I was a child, I kept all the commandments. He says, Okay. Then I want you to take everything that you own, sell it, and give it to the poor.
SPEAKER_03And he actually asked, Everything?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like you mean, like, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00And he couldn't do it. And so right after Jesus says, See, it is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than a rich man. And see, this is these are the types of things that the law, it was never designed to give us eternal life or uh salvation. What it does is it tells you that you're a sinner. Okay, and it's supposed to lead you to love. The law was meant to lead you to love, and it did. It led them to Jesus Christ. And so God's agape love, he says, John 3.16, the most famous scripture of all time, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever should believe in him shall have everlasting life. So this has a lot, it doesn't mention repentance, but the point is that this is how much God loves the world. He gives everybody an opportunity to know who Jesus is, is the reason why we're making these podcasts, why we're making these episodes so that you understand.
SPEAKER_03Right. I mean, sin is it's not just something that you do. Sin is inherent. Once Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, you know, back in the, you know, from the very beginning, once they sinned, our literally, our genetic code, it changed. Yeah. And every generation after that has sin built in them, like what you called it at one point, resident evil. And it's true. I mean, and we don't mean that, oh, well, the devil it lives in each one of us. No, the devil is a separate being, as we all know. You know, he he's roaming about the earth, always trying to cause chaos, always trying to cause problems, you know, tempting God's people or anyone day after day into doing what is wrong. Um what we mean by resident evil is is that sin. It's that that that um it's just that eternal, we shouldn't say eternal, that constant, it's that constant desire to do what is wrong despite knowing what is right, or again, unintentionally, what is what isn't, right, what isn't right. Um and a really, really good example of this is was written by the apostle Paul, Romans chapter 7, verses 18 through 25. I'm gonna read this if you don't mind. It says, For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. I mean, how much plainer can you get than that, right? It says, For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good I will for the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not do, that I practice. And we struggle against that each and every day. That's right. Now if I do now if I do what I will not what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells that dwells dwells in me. Sorry about that. I find then a law that evil is present with me, that one who wills to do good, for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members warning against the law of the mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So there's the the Apostle Paul acknowledging the fact that that sin is inside of him, that it's resident in him, as I just explained, and that the good that he wishes to do is not what he practices. It's the opposite. It's the sin, the evil thing. But then at the very end of this, he says, Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this? Well, he recognizes in verse 25 that it's Jesus Christ through God, or from God through Jesus Christ, that we have that uh that the forgiveness, the atonement, everything that the Jews were practicing for 1500 years prior to Jesus' coming.
SPEAKER_00Right. And this is the reason why Paul is in so much anguish here. Oh, wretched man that I am. He's saying, not only do I understand the law, he goes, but I'm a teacher of it. He goes, he he was a lawyer of the law, and he knows full well what the law says, what the sin is, what it takes to what coming, going from kosher food all the way to the sacrifices, all to the meaning of it. He knew all of this, he understood it. This is his culture, this is what he grew up in. I mean, children in these yeshivas were copying and reciting the Torah at 12 years old. And it's amazing to know how much time and effort that the Jews of Jesus' time in the first century placed on what they believe into their people. And if they if anybody knows, they know the sin that is committed when it's committed, is the reason why they brought the woman to Jesus to have her stone, and Jesus stood up and says, The one who has no sin cast the first stone. So they they all knew. Yeah, they all knew what they were doing. So my point is that I want to read the scripture here. It says in Matthew chapter 5, verse 18, it says, For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till it is fulfilled. He's speaking about himself here. There is so much about the law that is not fulfilled while Jesus was alive, so much of it was fulfilled when Jesus was crucified, when he was uh stabbed in the side when they uh took him down from the cross, placed him in the tomb, and then he resurrected. When he resurrected on on the the festival or the feast of first fruits, it was the first fruits uh right then is when he raised. And and I'm not going to get into that, but what I'm saying is that on that day in Luke chapter 24, it tells us on the on the road to Emmaus exactly what he meant. And I suggest that you go to read that. This is when the enemy, the devil, had that the dark kingdom had failed miserably, because now Jesus had conquered death and was raised by the Father. And in that we are now able to the law is fulfilled in the sense of what we're reading here in Leviticus 4. The law is fulfilled for sin so that we can now approach the throne boldly. We can approach the the holy of holies, we could approach the priest, we could approach, and and now we don't have to do it in a specific temple in a in a specific geographical location, it could be anywhere on your knees, reaching out to the Lord through Jesus Christ, which is an amazing thing. Amen. You see? Yeah. So uh, and that's that's our you know our point and what we're saying here, and to have the knowledge of sin is actually a good thing, and the only way you have the knowledge of sin is to read your Bible, read, read the first five books of the of the of the of the Hebrew Bible or the uh you know Genesis, Leviticus, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Read the whole thing, and you're gonna see, because that contains the law, and you're gonna see, wow, I didn't know. And one one when I read it, what got me was one of the the mitzvots says, do not leave your brethren under their burden. I was like, wow, that was so profound and deep to me that you don't leave somebody, you know, when they're hurting or when they're down, you don't leave somebody, you know, um, just like you know, I think people will walk past people in need, they'll walk over them. They will we're so used to seeing it now, we just we don't even bother no more. And the the Torah forbids that. And so we have to understand that there are so many things that are relevant for today and some things that are just relevant to the society of Israel at the time. But I would say the Ten Commandments we can never go wrong with is something that will be with us till Jesus comes back for us. But he's definitely fulfilled uh almost every single part of the law, an exception for the eschatological aspect of his second coming. Right. And then the final judgment comes.
SPEAKER_03We're still waiting for that.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_03And you know how, and just touching on what you said about you know the Ten Commandments, how Jesus came to basic, as we've already said, that system that we had in place of animal sacrifice is gone. He Jesus replaced that's right with giving up his life and shedding his blood. And so those Ten Commandments are still very much present and very relevant, and very relevant, very real for our time as they were thousands of years ago, because of it in the New Testament, Galatians 5, 19 through 21, it says, Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like of, which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00There it is. And that's that's one of the catalogs I was speaking about.
SPEAKER_03Right, exactly. But as Jesus gave that perfect story of the prodigal son, basically a young man who took his. His half of his father's fortune went out into the world and basically led a very debauched life. And he ended up with absolutely nothing. And before you know it, he's you know, he has no money, he has nothing left, and he's basically was it working with this guy or like eating the only thing he had to eat was what the pigs were eating. That's right. And but then he's all, wait a minute, what am I doing? If I return home to my father, maybe he'll at least hire me on as you know one of his workers. So in humility, he came back to his father. His father saw him from afar. And instead of doing what, you know, the son had in mind, oh well, maybe he'll just hire me. The father, the father, his father welcomed him home with open arms and with love, put rings on his feet and these beautiful robes on him. Rings on his fingers. And ring, yeah. Oh, did I say feet? Oh my gosh, on his fingers. Well, people do wear the toe rings. Anyway. Maybe it was a toe ring. But anyway, he put rings on his fingers and these beautiful robes and welcomed him home with great joy. And so, in that same sense, when we turn turn away from these things that are mentioned in the book of Galatians, God has great joy. He feels great joy when somebody is has returned home to him in that sense.
SPEAKER_00We are liable for everything in the book of Galatians, what you just read, and there's other uh catalogs as well, where we're liable. Once you heard it, you just heard it. Once you hear it, you're now liable. And this is why Jesus is calling us, saying, Come out of that, come back. God told his own people, come back to me. Right. And this is what he wants. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_03And it says here, um, and these are also the words of the Apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians, uh book uh chapter two, verses one and two, and he says, And he made, and he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to a course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. So when he says he and he that when he says, and he made alive those who were dead in their sins and trespasses, that is referring to us. That's right. Because we once lived this particular sinful lifestyle, but now we return and return home to God, to Christ, and we are now alive because we are new people.
SPEAKER_00He talked to Nicodemus about this about being born from above. And then also we are dead in our sins, but we are alive in Christ. He's what gives us life. I just want to read Matthew chapter nine, and starting in verse one. So he got into the boat, crossed over, and came to his own city. Then behold, they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you. And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say arise and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, then he said to the paralytic, Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house, and he arose and departed in his house. So this tells me that not only does Jesus have the authority to forgive sins, okay, embodying the law, okay, in which he was doing, and able to be rising people up from being paralyzed, he knew that this is what the Pharisees and the Sadducees were going to ask him. And he knew that he said, Then which one's easier then? To say your sins are forgiven, or to say rise and walk. I thought that was a brilliant way to uh illustrate what they had confusion about. And I just also uh we have to know that only in Christ can we find forgiveness. It's not in works, it's not in good works, it's good to do those things, it's the fruit of our of our faith. But when it comes down to it, when you have the two thieves on both sides of Christ while he was being crucified, one basically cursed him, but the other one believed. And these these men are dying on either side of Christ, and one chose not to believe, but one did. And he says, Today you will be with me in paradise. And so it really takes an act of faith to believe who Jesus Christ is. And whether you know anybody didn't get healed because there were there were uh lepers that were in the Bible that never were thankful, that came and thanked Jesus or to say anything, they just were healed and they went on their way. And then there's other places where we find that they just didn't believe who Jesus was. And so these are the things I think we need to understand when it comes to sin, that Jesus is the only way, the truth and the life, and that nobody comes to the Father but through Him.
SPEAKER_03Right. I mean, the other aspect of this that we haven't covered yet is not only is seeking forgiveness from God for our own sin, but we, as you know, as people, forgiving those who sin against us.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_03They are each and every day, you know, and whether it's through words, through action, you name it, people can offend us, they make us angry, we get hurt. And what happens? Well, we can easily, easily hold a grudge. But who are we to withhold forgiveness to another person? When we've been forgiven. Yeah, when we've already been forgiven by God. Look at the things that we ourselves do each and every day that are simple. That's right. So if we expect that forgiveness from God, we need to also forgive those who sin against us. And, you know, I used to think that forgiving somebody meant that you were giving the A-OK for their that person's behavior. Right. That you were just kind of giving it a stamp of approval, like, oh, it's okay that they did that, you know, that they're that way, you know. No, it's not. What it is is that you are making the con you you're not okaying their their sinful behavior. You're not okaying what they did to to hurt you. But you are choosing, you know, uh of your of of your own free will to let go of anger, to let go of that uh, you know, you're you're choosing peace over chaos within. And you are choosing to you're choosing to follow God's commandment of forgiveness. Uh you're choosing to follow Christ's example of forgiving those who have committed the wrong. Because even when Jesus was dying, he said to forgive those who basically put them there. That's right. Because they well, they don't think. They obviously don't understand what they're doing. Absolutely. That they don't know what they're doing. That's right. And so we have to have that Christ-like attitude when it comes to to those in our life that have hurt us.
SPEAKER_00That's right. You know, I think just to in summation, I I would like to, you know, you know, close with this as well, is that when we we read the Bible, and we could read it and understand it, and even quote scriptures, and even, you know, do everything that the Bible says to do, just as the ones that were carrying the law, the Jews for Israelites for 1500 years before Jesus, and another, you know, was it 2,000 more years after Jesus? You have to understand that that the the repetitive nature of doing things can get old and could also become mundane. But the thing is that we have the whole world to preach to, which we haven't done yet. Even in 2,000 years we haven't done. And so there's a lot of sin that's out there. There's a lot of things, work that we need to do is why God had developed the church in Jesus Christ, and the apostles took that to the next level and went out into the world and gave their lives as martyrs. And when I see all these things, the ultimate goal is to be back into the Sabbath rest of God, as we've seen in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 1 and 2. And once the new heavens and new earth come, that's the goal, is what is to be with our creator, is to be with our Lord and Savior. Now, that's where all of this makes more sense to me, because just to do it is religion. But the final goal is to be in the presence of God forever and eternity.
SPEAKER_03Right, exactly. And I want to close on this scripture here. This is an Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
SPEAKER_00Amen. All right, we're gonna bring this to a close, and I hope that you enjoyed a little long, but you know it's definitely worth it. And so we just want to also encourage you to share our content with friends and family. Maybe use it for a Bible study or for your devotions, maybe on a on your commute, maybe in the gym or on when you're on a walk, and just be able to take in the scriptures and listen and try to understand and give it some meditation and ask the Holy Spirit for revelation above all, because we want our goal is for you to know who your Lord and Savior is, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03And I hope this episode has helped uh our listeners to understand a little more about forgiveness and sin, whether it's intentional or on purpose, presumptuous, and how Jesus Christ comes now into play and how the animal sacrificial system is no longer valid, but Jesus is now the ultimate sacrifice, and how that has now taken over, um, and that we are now to go through him to be able to approach God for forgiveness of sins. So we've hoped that we've been able to clarify that if there was any kind of um, you know, uh maybe misunderstanding about it, etc. So, but thank you again for listening. We know it's been a couple of weeks since our last episode, um, late April, I believe. So sorry for about the the break that we've taken. Sometimes life unfortunately gets in the way. But uh thank you always for listening, and please uh share these episodes with those in your life. We would we always appreciate that, and uh we only want to bring glory to God.
SPEAKER_00That's right. All right, this is Pastor Frank. And this is Luce at Two Becomes One. God bless.
SPEAKER_03Thank you, amen.