WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:00.719 Good morning. 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:02.240 My name is Matt Armstrong. 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:08.960 I'm an associate pastor here at Redeemer, and it's a joy to get to bring the word to you this morning. 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:15.919 We're continuing in a series in the book of Leviticus, everyone's favorite Old Testament passage. 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:20.000 We've done a great job over the last few weeks of making fun of this book. 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:25.280 It's one of the least accessible books to a 21st century context. 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:26.960 And that makes sense. 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:35.280 You know, I've I've read through the Bible a number of times, and for me, this phrase, the long lobe of the liver, like it kind of like sets my teeth on edge. 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:38.640 And it's in Leviticus like 400 times. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:50.240 You know, sacrificing animals, draining blood into bowls, throwing blood onto altars, dipping your finger into blood, animal entrails, right? 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:51.520 It's like another world. 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:52.880 You know, is this sci-fi? 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:54.079 Is this fantasy? 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:55.280 Is this another world? 00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:58.240 No, this was actually done in our world. 00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:04.000 And there are still some cultures and some peoples who do animal sacrifices. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:08.079 Um it's also important to remember that this is the revelation of God. 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:10.560 This isn't some strange pagan ritual. 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:14.719 This is God's word given to God's people. 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:21.760 Uh, and that's something I want us to talk about as we jump into this chapter four and five of Leviticus. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:25.840 We need to understand the law in its context when it was given. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:28.799 That brings us to point one for today. 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:33.680 The law was actually a beautiful gift from God to his people. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:40.799 We don't talk about this much here at this church, and that's for very good reason, as we'll see shortly. 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:48.400 The gospel, the grace of the gospel given through Jesus Christ far surpasses the law. 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:54.159 Jesus is God's greatest gift to us. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:59.200 But at its time, when it was given, the law was revolutionary. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:00.319 It was mind-blowing. 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:03.200 Imagine that you have cancer. 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:08.800 You feel it inside of you, it's growing, it's going to kill you. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:12.879 You're familiar enough with cancer to understand that this has happened. 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:16.560 It's happened to loved ones of yours, others that you know. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:20.560 It will be slow and it will be painful. 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:32.400 But you're living in a time before modern medicine where people don't actually know much about cancer, know what it is, where it comes from, what to do about it. 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:35.599 But then someone comes to town. 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:50.000 His name is Moses, and he has received a revelation from God with all the ins and outs of cancer, the various types of cancer, how they manifest, and how to treat it. 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.639 This would be amazing. 00:02:53.120 --> 00:03:04.400 This is revelation, information about a pressing problem, something affecting your own life that you really and no one really understood fully. 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:06.639 This would be revolutionary. 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:16.560 But beyond that, not just knowing about cancer or more about it, God revealed to Moses how to treat cancer. 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:26.400 There's various types of cancer and there's various types of remedies, but whichever it is that you have, we know how to treat it. 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:38.000 If you bring the right sacrifice, if you bring the right offering, as the passage says, the priest will make atonement for you and you will be forgiven. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:45.680 Can you imagine the revolution that this would have been for the people of God? 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:51.599 This thing that had affected humanity for generations and beyond memory. 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:57.199 God has now revealed what it is and how to deal with it. 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:00.000 This is why Psalm 119 exists. 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:04.240 If you're familiar with this Psalm, it's the longest in the Old Testament, in the Psalter. 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:13.919 It's 176 verses, and it's all about this one subject: the law of God, the Word of God. 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:15.599 This is how the Psalm opens. 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:23.279 Blessed are those whose ways is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:27.839 And then this is how the book closes, 174 verses later. 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:42.399 This is not the way we often talk, right, today. 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:47.600 Ah, I love the law, that light unto our feet. 00:04:47.759 --> 00:05:02.000 But those of us who have come to know and to understand the Word of God, maybe less so the book of Leviticus, but but we have seen that God gave us his revelation, his special revelation, as a great gift. 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:04.720 And this is exactly what the law was. 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:13.759 It uncovered, it shined, it revealed this incredible problem facing humanity and specifically God's people. 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:16.560 And so the law was this incredible gift. 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:20.800 I think it's important for us to keep that in mind as we continue to walk through this book. 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:22.079 All right, let's keep going. 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:24.879 Let's look at verses one and two of chapter four. 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:39.519 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about things not to be done, and does any of them, dot, dot, dot. 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:40.319 He continues. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:41.759 This brings us to point two. 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:46.480 The law teaches us about the reality of sin. 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:49.360 The book of Romans notes this. 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:55.519 He says, There was a time before the law when sin was not counted, when sin wasn't known. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:56.000 Right? 00:05:56.079 --> 00:06:01.920 We knew right from wrong, and God's judgment was still upon sin before the law was given. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:10.319 But the revelation of the law revealed incredibly important information to us about the law. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:11.360 Here's a brief outline. 00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:15.279 We're not going to read all of chapter four and some of chapter five, our passage. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:21.360 But as what we just said here, saw here, it's talking about unintentional sin. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:24.000 And then it breaks it down into four categories. 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:26.639 If the priest sins, what is the priest to do? 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:28.560 The priest was incredibly important, right? 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:31.279 He was the one who could make sacrifice. 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:37.839 If the priest was taken out by sin, there was no one to stand between us and God to make the sacrifice. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.120 That's why the priest comes first in these laws. 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:47.360 Second, what if the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally? 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:55.680 That's another topic we don't think much about, that we can sin as a community, as a culture, as a group, not just individually. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:57.040 That's important. 00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:01.519 Third, what if a leader of the people, a representative of the people, sins? 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:08.160 And then fourth and finally, the laws cover what if just a normal, everyday, common person sins before the Lord? 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:14.879 And each one has a detailed description, just as we saw a moment ago. 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:17.439 And so what does this teach us about sin? 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:22.079 Well, first the law teaches us that there is our sins of omission and sins of commission. 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:24.800 And what that means is sometimes we omit things. 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:32.000 God says there are things we ought to do, like worship him and pay him homage and give him glory. 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:33.439 And sometimes we don't do that. 00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:36.720 Sometimes our heart is in rebellion against God. 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:40.639 But there's also sins of commission, things that we do willfully. 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:43.439 These are often called high-handed sins. 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:48.160 Well, then there's two other categories, one that our passage covers. 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:52.639 There are intentional sins and unintentional sins. 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:58.800 Things we mean to do or things we mean not to do, and then things we stumble upon. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:02.879 This chapter covers the unintentional things. 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:07.439 And this reveals to us that sin is kind of like a state of being, right? 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:09.040 It's almost like getting sick. 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:12.959 And I don't want to traumatize us, but you remember COVID? 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:15.839 Man, what a horrible time to live. 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:16.399 Right? 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:20.480 We had all these new laws and new norms and things to do, right? 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:25.759 And we even had apps on our phone that would like ping and be like, you may have come in contact with someone with COVID. 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:27.279 And you're like, seriously? 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:28.560 What am I supposed to do? 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:31.759 Stay in my house for 14 days and try not to go crazy? 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:32.240 Right? 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:39.039 You would do, you could do everything in your power not to get sick, and you get sick. 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:41.759 Well, you don't say, Well, I didn't mean to get sick. 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:43.919 I worked really hard not to get sick. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:45.759 They would say, You're sick. 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:47.279 You've got a quarantine. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:49.279 And that's how sin is. 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:56.240 And the problem is that sin, the result of sin, is a separation from God. 00:08:57.279 --> 00:08:59.519 It's a quarantine from God. 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:07.200 And as God's people came to know that God was their savior, God was their safety, God was their provider. 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:12.480 To be separated from God was a horrible fate. 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:17.279 But even worse than that quarantine from God, sin was a death sentence. 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:19.600 Because God is holy. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:20.960 And we are not. 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:24.159 Sin separated us from God. 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:26.320 And it had to be dealt with. 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.799 It would not just go away. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:32.720 God couldn't simply turn away from sin. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:38.799 And so the law revealed that there's an underlying moral structure to creation, right? 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:47.440 Whether we mean to or not, there are things we are to do, things we are not to do, and we are constantly falling short. 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:54.799 But here's the thing about the law that Paul will point out in the book of Romans, law didn't create the problem, right? 00:09:55.360 --> 00:10:01.519 The law simply revealed what was true about us already. 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:06.480 Well, this also shows us how pervasive sin is. 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:36.639 I was part of a trial last year, that trial is being appealed to the higher court, and so we are going back through a lot of old documents, emails that have been sent, uh, pieces of evidence and minutes from meetings, because you've got to put together this record of the case. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:40.399 And they even call the process perfecting the record. 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:43.759 And let me tell you, this is a painful process. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:52.159 Not just because you have to go back and find things, but you comb through those documents and you realize, oh man, there are so many typos. 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:56.320 This thing is mislabeled. 00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:59.759 I can't even find this piece of evidence. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:07.200 And the the higher court is asking for those things and asking about things, and you're just like, man, we tried so hard. 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:09.120 We knew this was important. 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:15.919 And yet, look at this laundry list of mistakes and omissions and failures. 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:19.919 And that's we call that being human, right? 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:23.440 No matter how hard we try, we fall short. 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:41.279 And that's exactly what Leviticus chapters 4 and 5 point out to us, that sin is simply pervasive, that it's not, it's it's not just that we fall short some of the time, but that we are constantly walking in this perpetual state of need. 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:44.639 So let's keep going. 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:47.200 Let's look at verses 32 to 35. 00:11:48.159 --> 00:12:04.879 If he brings, if if the the one in offense brings the lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring a female without blemish and lay his hands on the head of the sin offering and kill it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering. 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:37.919 Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his fingers and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar, and all its fat shall be removed from the fat of the lamb, as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings, and the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the table of the Lord's food offerings, and the priest shall make atonement for him, for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven. 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:39.919 This brings us to point three. 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:43.919 That the law actually provided a remedy for sin. 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:55.840 This last phrase from this, what we just read, it says that the priest shall make atonement for him or her and uh for the sin which they have committed, and he shall be forgiven. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:13:00.000 Six times in this one chapter, it says that. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:03.840 And so imagine hearing this chapter read out loud. 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:05.679 This would stand out. 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:15.679 Along with all the long lobes of the liver, there's this phrase the priest shall make atonement, and they shall be forgiven. 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:23.440 This is this is another incredible point of revelation, and something that we, understandably, often take for granted. 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:25.600 That there is atonement. 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:31.679 God could have dealt with sin by simply saying, if you sin, there is death, right? 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:32.879 That is just. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:35.759 And yet that's not what God did. 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:51.279 Out of love and compassion, knowing us in the state that we are in, knowing it before the foundations of the earth, having his plan of grace and salvation in place, he provides a means of atonement from the very beginning. 00:13:51.919 --> 00:14:09.120 For those who wonder why there even needs to be sacrifice or atonement at all, it's important to remember that when uh remember a time when you've truly been wronged, when a real injustice has been committed against you. 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:11.600 What happens in our own hearts? 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:18.480 A desire, uh a need for justice rises up in us. 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:19.919 And that's appropriate. 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:22.720 That is the image of God in us. 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:31.279 Because God is a God of justice, and justice brings equity back, it balances the scales, as it were. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:38.799 And as long as injustice and sin remain, things are not equal, things are not just. 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:44.080 And so God will not rest, and God will not simply pass by or overlook sin. 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:47.759 All sin must be dealt with. 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:56.399 And so, God, this is the other thing that our passage reveals to us, that he provides something called substitutionary atonement. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:03.759 That someone or something else can atone for my sins. 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:16.960 Did you notice it in the passage, a couple passages we've read, it talks about the one who brings the offering, as you're about to offer this animal in your place, you lay your hand on the head of the offering. 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:19.200 And there's an exchange going on there. 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:23.279 Your sin is passing from yourself to this animal. 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:24.720 Can you imagine? 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:34.240 And the text actually says that the person bringing the offering is the one who sacrifices the animal, would cut the throat of the animal. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:47.600 How weighty would your sin feel if you looked into the eyes of another animal and knew that it was about to die for you. 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:52.000 This was the power of the law. 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:53.600 And it was it was real. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:54.320 Right? 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:55.759 What did the passage say? 00:15:55.919 --> 00:16:02.320 The priest will make atonement for the one bringing the offering, and they will be forgiven. 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:06.960 The law really was bringing forgiveness of sins. 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:13.039 It really was bringing healing from that cancer inside the human soul. 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:16.399 But there still remained a problem. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:22.159 Those sacrifices only covered past sins, right? 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:27.519 You come because you have sinned, you offer the sacrifice, and those sins are forgiven. 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:29.200 But what would happen? 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:36.159 You would go out and realize again you have unintentionally or intentionally sinned, and so you would have to come back. 00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:44.559 Imagine a lifetime of coming back to the priest, of making the offerings, at minimum on an annual basis. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:50.240 Would your heart not begin to long for a better solution to the problem? 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:53.679 Well, this is exactly what the book of Hebrews talks about. 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:59.279 Hebrews is like the New Testament commentary on the book of Leviticus, if you're interested in that. 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:07.680 The book of Hebrews says in chapter 10, he says, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:15.039 And that leads us to our final point, that Jesus was the fulfillment of the law, the one to whom the law always pointed. 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:18.559 Again, let's look at a couple passages in Hebrews. 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:37.279 The author says, For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:47.680 Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin. 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:52.799 But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sin every year. 00:17:53.039 --> 00:18:06.079 What the author is saying is that the law was there to deal with the bad fruit of the root of cancer, but the root remained, and the root itself needed to be dealt with. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:08.240 But Jesus was different. 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:18.400 He continues, and every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:26.319 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:35.119 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:42.400 As beautiful a gift as the law was, Jesus far surpassed it. 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:52.319 The law required repeated sacrifices, it needed multiple priests, and the priest himself needed sacrifices to cover his own sins. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:58.960 And yet God sent the Son, Jesus, to become our great high priest who had no sin. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:09.599 And so when he offered himself as that substitute to whom all those Old Testament sacrifices pointed, it was truly the perfect sacrifice. 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:20.160 So not one lamb or one goat or one bull for this sin, this one time in the past, but one sacrifice that would cover all time. 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:23.839 This is why we worship Jesus' name. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:31.759 This is why we revere him above all things, and this is why he was, it was such a bomb on the Jewish community. 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:43.440 That this substitutionary atonement could do away with the temple, the sacrifice, those things that were central to the identity of Israel. 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:47.759 But beloved, this is the freedom that is ours in Christ. 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:53.440 That if you've put your faith in Jesus, it's as if we have laid our hand on Jesus' head. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:56.160 We transferred our sin to him. 00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:02.799 But in a fascinating twist, he also transfers his righteousness to us. 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:10.400 He dies on the cross, takes away our sin, but he rises to new life and gives us eternal life. 00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:14.400 Beloved, this is the beginning of the freedom that is ours. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:24.720 No longer do we need to return again and again to the temple with a new offering, for Jesus is our one and only offering. 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:33.759 Yes, we continue to sin each day, intentionally and unintentionally, and we come back, we confess our sins to Jesus, but not to be forgiven. 00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:36.480 But because we have been forgiven. 00:20:37.119 --> 00:20:39.680 Beloved, that is true freedom. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.960 We are no longer slaves to sin, no longer are we crushed by the burden of sin. 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:50.079 Let us rejoice and celebrate the one who sets us free. 00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:51.519 Let's pray. 00:20:51.839 --> 00:21:00.799 Our Father in heaven, thank you for the gift of Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world. 00:21:01.119 --> 00:21:06.240 May we walk in the joy and the freedom of his sacrifice today and every day. 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:07.200 Amen.