Speaker 1: Hello everyone.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Damian.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando.
Speaker 1: At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life.
Speaker 1: For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: Today's scripture reading comes from Leviticus 4, verses 1 through 14.
Speaker 2: 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, if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer, for the sin that he has committed, a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering.
Speaker 2: He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the Lord, and the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part 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 fragrant incense before the Lord that is in the tent of meeting, and all of the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is, at the entrance of the tent of meeting and all of the fat of the bull of the sin offering.
Speaker 2: He shall remove from it the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails and the two kidneys with the fat on it that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys, just as these are taken from the ox of the sacrifice of peace offerings and the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering.
Speaker 2: But the skin of the bull and all of its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails and its dung, all the rest of the bull he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and shall burn it up on a fire of wood On the ash heap.
Speaker 2: It shall be burned up If the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly and they do any this is God's word.
Speaker 1: Well, good morning.
Speaker 1: So at this point, if you've been with us in Leviticus, things start to sound the same.
Speaker 1: You're like a lot of animals, a lot of blood, a lot of entrails, some dung in this chapter.
Speaker 1: That's new, and so there's lots of things going on.
Speaker 1: But one of the reasons I wanna make sure that we read so much of it is primarily because I wanna give you all a chance to see in this series if you can discover a new life verse.
Speaker 1: So I want to give you that opportunity just to read it.
Speaker 1: Now we have been in a series in Leviticus and we've called it Leviticus is for Lovers, and in the first week I told you a little bit about that.
Speaker 1: I just want to revisit that title.
Speaker 1: We called it this because we want to emphasize that Leviticus, no matter what you have tended to think, is really a great display of God's love for his people.
Speaker 1: It's a commitment to loving fellowship with him.
Speaker 1: It is a commitment to the covenant that he has actually made with his people.
Speaker 1: So last week we talked about this.
Speaker 1: Loving covenant is toward the end, not merely of forgiveness, but fellowship.
Speaker 1: Now I don't know if you've ever been around a person who feels so at ease in the world, who experiences life almost as though they're untouchable Not because they are, because you can tell that they've been hurt, they've been wounded, and yet there's this peace, there's this calm about this person.
Speaker 1: Maybe you think about an exemplary person that might fit that.
Speaker 1: My guess and if I were a betting man I would say my bet is on this fact that that man or that woman who you pictured, the reason they can live that way is because they know that they are loved.
Speaker 1: They know that they're known and still loved, and it's from that place that they live.
Speaker 1: It's from a response of the fact that they know that they are loved and accepted, and whatever happens in this day will never change that.
Speaker 1: You see, that's what happens to us.
Speaker 1: Leviticus is for lovers, because God loves his people, and when we rest in his love we become peaceful and loving, we become exemplars of what God is trying to do.
Speaker 1: And so in previous weeks, we've seen God demonstrate his love for his people by giving them a way to deal with their sin and unholiness, and of course, that was through sacrifice, through atonement, bringing God's people, us who are separated, bringing us back into fellowship with him.
Speaker 1: Now, as rich as all of this is all that we've been talking about that God doesn't only want to forgive you so that you may go, but forgive you so that you may go, but pardon you so that you may come and receive his love, all of these things that we've talked about.
Speaker 1: We all know that, as rich as that is, we don't always experience God like that.
Speaker 1: We don't always experience life that way.
Speaker 1: In fact, often, as Jason pointed out, we avoid God, believing that he's waiting for us to get it together before we approach him.
Speaker 1: Think about this mindset, this impulse that you have when you know that you've done something wrong.
Speaker 1: You can see it in someone's face.
Speaker 1: You know it in your conscience.
Speaker 1: You know that impulse that we often have, which is to hide, to pull back, to shrink, to cover our bases right.
Speaker 1: Recently I heard someone who had a moral failing a few years ago talk about what that was like, and he talks about the phone call that he got from a friend who loved him, that had found out information, and he talks about how, leading up to this phone call, he came to the point where he didn't even want to live anymore.
Speaker 1: He felt so trapped in all of the web of lies that he had created.
Speaker 1: And still, when he thought there was no way out, he received this phone call from a friend who said hey, I've received some information about some things that you've been up to.
Speaker 1: We need to talk.
Speaker 1: He said his first impulse was to think how much does he know?
Speaker 1: What is that impulse?
Speaker 1: That impulse is to keep hiding, that impulse is to run, it is to shield, it is to cover up, and this impulse is wrong and it's sinful, but it's also understandable, isn't it?
Speaker 1: From a certain perspective, we understand that the pain of being seen for what we are, which has fallen, is just that it's painful and we cover it up.
Speaker 1: You see, this mindset reveals a misunderstanding of both the depth of God's love and the security of our union with him.
Speaker 1: We often act like a child who avoids their parents after making a mistake.
Speaker 1: You know that right, how they run, and sometimes they even cover their face, they hide.
Speaker 1: You try to pursue them, try to get them to come out from under the bed, but they won't, at least at first.
Speaker 1: You see, oftentimes, when a child is hiding in shame and guilt, what they're really thinking is I won't be loved by my parents until I fix this, until I make this right.
Speaker 1: But in reality we know that in our sin, in our guilt, the only way it can be fixed is first to admit, is to tell the truth.
Speaker 1: You see, all of these dynamics that feel very existential and personal to us, believe it or not.
Speaker 1: Leviticus 4 is actually speaking to that.
Speaker 1: Leviticus 4 speaks directly to this reality.
Speaker 1: It shows us actually how purification is a part of atonement.
Speaker 1: It shows us that God's provision for dealing with our sin, our guilt, and that gross feeling that accompanies it, is accounted for in his work on our behalf.
Speaker 1: So today I want to explore that in two points.
Speaker 1: First, what does sin do?
Speaker 1: What does sin do Now?
Speaker 1: When we look at Leviticus 4, it looks as though we just continue on with the same thing, that it's just repeating over and over.
Speaker 1: Like I said, we got blood, we got animals, we have sin, we have forgiveness, we have atonement, we have guilt, all of this stuff.
Speaker 1: But just to chart our course, over the past three weeks we've actually covered a lot of ground and in chapters 4 through 6, we understand that the Israelites have five standard offerings.
Speaker 1: We've already talked about three of them In chapter one.
Speaker 1: We talked about the whole burnt offering In chapters two and three we talked about the grain offering, and then we talked about the fellowship offering, that God wants fellowship with us and today in our Bibles, oftentimes it says in chapter four, laws for sin offerings.
Speaker 1: But commentators will point out, even if they don't make this direct comment, they'll say really, what we're talking about here is purification offerings, and it's going to introduce us soon to that interesting language that I look forward to actually engaging, which is what does it mean to be pure and impure in Leviticus.
Speaker 1: So this is making that transition, but today we will talk about why do we need purification?
Speaker 1: Well, it has to do with what sin does.
Speaker 1: You see, in order to understand how the purification offering functions, it's important to remember that the Bible often uses the metaphor of impurity to describe sin.
Speaker 1: The psalmist, for example, cries out to the Lord sin.
Speaker 1: The psalmist, for example, cries out to the Lord wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Speaker 1: This is Psalm 51.
Speaker 1: You see, we can identify with these words because sin often makes us feel dirty.
Speaker 1: We understand why, knowing the history of what David is confessing, why he would feel dirty, why he would use this language of cleanse me from my sin.
Speaker 1: The reason is is because sin is more than just moral failure, although that tends to be what we think.
Speaker 1: Sin is more than just moral failure.
Speaker 1: It actually defiles and disrupts our relationship with God.
Speaker 1: Sin defiles us and it disrupts us and our relationship with God, but not just us, right, because we tend to think very individualistically.
Speaker 1: Not just us, but sin defiles and disrupts our community, that is to say, our relationship with God, our relationship with ourself and our relationship with others, and in Leviticus it even disrupts the space of the tent of meeting itself.
Speaker 1: Think about this.
Speaker 1: Think about when you feel that feeling.
Speaker 1: You can't quite shake it.
Speaker 1: When you lose your temper and raise your voice at your child or your spouse, or at a spouse, or at a coworker or the person you don't even know who cuts you off on I-4.
Speaker 1: They can't even hear you and you yell, you say things that you regret.
Speaker 1: You know that feeling when we indulge in a thought or an action that we know is wrong and we debate and we think and we justify, and then we act and then we regret and then we feel dirty.
Speaker 1: You know that feeling, call it to mind, you can feel it almost in your body.
Speaker 1: You know how this feeling is.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting.
Speaker 1: I can remember physical injuries in the past that have happened to me and I can describe them to you in detail.
Speaker 1: But, no matter what, I don't actually feel that pain.
Speaker 1: You ever notice that you can think about that time where you're walking and there's one of those hitches this has happened to me a couple times there's a hitch off the back of a vehicle and you hit your shin on it and I can tell you about how it bled.
Speaker 1: I can tell you about what it looked like, but I can't.
Speaker 1: Even if I flinch.
Speaker 1: I don't feel the pain in my shin, but I can tell you of a time when I lied to someone to their face.
Speaker 1: I can still feel that shame and that dirty.
Speaker 1: I can just feel it right.
Speaker 1: I just almost just come in like that.
Speaker 1: Now that you have it to mind, think about this.
Speaker 1: This is normal.
Speaker 1: This is the experience of guilt and sin.
Speaker 1: But it's not just when you sin, it's also when people sin against you.
Speaker 1: This is why victims of abuse of all types describe when they're sinned against in this way they feel dirty, because sin is radioactive.
Speaker 1: No matter where the source comes from, there's fallout and it doesn't matter if you bury it in the ground and come back thousands and thousands and thousands of years later, it's still there, toxic, destructive, ready to destroy and to make you sick.
Speaker 1: Now, in our passage in Leviticus 4, what we see here is Moses continuing to have instructions from the Lord, and the Lord says 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 one of them In verse 2, we're talking about anyone who sins unintentionally In verse 13, and they do any one of these things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and they realize their guilt when the sin which they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall offer a bull from the herd for a sin offering and bring it in front of the tent of meeting.
Speaker 1: And then the instructions go on.
Speaker 1: So what I'm pointing out here is that, while we understand a sin that we committed intentionally, or even a sin that was committed against us intentionally and we can call that feeling sin is so toxic, sin is so polluting that it doesn't matter if it's intentional or not.
Speaker 1: Even when it's unintentional, the same requirement is demanded, which is death or blood Atonement.
Speaker 1: Now, if it seems strange to you that even unintentional sin brings defilement and pollution, cutting God's people off from his presence?
Speaker 1: In Leviticus 4 if it's not dealt with.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about this like the story I'm about to tell you.
Speaker 1: Have your own version.
Speaker 1: I remember in 2015, I think, because it was before my oldest daughter was born, so it's like 14 and a half 15 years ago Leah and I were driving in Murfreesboro, tennessee she's from near that area and it was Christmas time and we were there for Christmas and we were driving to Murfreesboro to go to the mall to buy something.
Speaker 1: And I remember, as we were going in, we're talking and I had just looked at my speedometer to check my speed and all of a sudden I see lights and I think, oh, that's weird.
Speaker 1: Nobody else is around, clearly thinking that they are not pulling me over because I just checked my speedometer.
Speaker 1: I pull over.
Speaker 1: And then the most confusing thing happened the police officer pulled behind me and stopped.
Speaker 1: So then she gets out and she comes up to the door and she had a one.
Speaker 1: I love southern accents, so this is not mockery.
Speaker 1: She had a very thick southern accent and then I spoke with a very midwestern voice and she knew in that moment.
Speaker 1: Oh, he's not from here.
Speaker 1: So she asked me a question and I just I said she said do you know why you're being pulled over?
Speaker 1: Which?
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 1: I want to talk to some of the police officers about that.
Speaker 1: Like I plead the fifth, like I have the right to remain silent.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to answer that question, but in my anxiousness I said no, I don't.
Speaker 1: You know, pray, tell why.
Speaker 1: Why did you pull me over?
Speaker 1: She said you're speeding and I said no, I'm.
Speaker 1: No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1: And she said well, I have, I have a, this gun that tells me you were going this fast.
Speaker 1: How fast do you think we were going?
Speaker 1: And I said 45.
Speaker 1: That was incriminating and I didn't know it.
Speaker 1: Because she said the speed limit was 30.
Speaker 1: And I said I didn't know, I didn't know the speed limit was 30.
Speaker 1: And it was true, I didn't know.
Speaker 1: Do you think she cared?
Speaker 1: Actually, she was very gracious and she let me off with a verbal warning because she told me and then she said Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1: She really said that, yeah, that's very kind.
Speaker 1: So, but in this instance she would have been completely just to give me a speeding ticket.
Speaker 1: You can think about another thing.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter that, I didn't know.
Speaker 1: You can think about another thing.
Speaker 1: One time I turned down a one-way street and didn't know, and almost killed myself and someone else as we came around a corner and we had to do this.
Speaker 1: Well, guess what?
Speaker 1: I probably should have gotten a ticket.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because I was unsafe.
Speaker 1: It was destructive.
Speaker 1: I could have hurt them, people could have been injured.
Speaker 1: You see, this is why we have laws to protect people.
Speaker 1: So, even here, you may think that driving down a one-way street is an honest mistake, even if it's illegal.
Speaker 1: You may think that speeding is an honest mistake, even if it's illegal.
Speaker 1: But you see, what we're seeing here is sin is so serious.
Speaker 1: We often underestimate how serious sin is and we actually judge God's law and righteousness based on our intentions.
Speaker 1: I didn't intend to do that.
Speaker 1: I didn't intend, I didn't know, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Sin is like a stain or glitter.
Speaker 1: Thank you, jason, for that image.
Speaker 1: You just can't get it off.
Speaker 1: How true is that?
Speaker 1: Think about the stain that you can't get out.
Speaker 1: You ruined your favorite dress or suit or shirt or pants and you work, and you work, and you work and you just can't get it out.
Speaker 1: This is what sin is like.
Speaker 1: Think of also sin like this I mentioned.
Speaker 1: It's like radioactive.
Speaker 1: It's also you think of it like pollution, maybe pollution in a city, right, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we live in all contaminated.
Speaker 1: Even if we're unaware of it, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Even if we're unaware that the water is contaminated, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It still affects us because it's against our design, it's toxic, it hurts us and others.
Speaker 1: Pollution spreads and affects every part of our environment.
Speaker 1: Whether intentional or unintentional, it damages everything that it touches.
Speaker 1: And sin is the same with us in our relationship with God, with ourself and with others.
Speaker 1: You see, we often underestimate the seriousness of sin, we see it only as personal or private.
Speaker 1: But Leviticus teaches that sin has communal and cosmic consequences and we cannot deal with it on our own, because sin not only alienates us from God, it also leaves a stain upon us, and the pollution of sin must be dealt with if fellowship of God is to be restored.
Speaker 1: So what does sin do?
Speaker 1: It pollutes us, it stains us.
Speaker 1: Now, if sin causes so much damage, what is God's response?
Speaker 1: Well, what we see in Exodus I'm sorry, leviticus is four.
Speaker 1: Maybe we wish we were in Exodus four, but in Leviticus four, what we see is that there are some new realities in which now it's not only a whole burnt offering or a fellowship offering, it's a sin offering or what we understand to be a purification offering.
Speaker 1: Now I wanna make the transition to our second and final point today.
Speaker 1: What does sin do?
Speaker 1: It stains us, it makes us impure.
Speaker 1: So how does God purify?
Speaker 1: That's the question, and that was part of it's.
Speaker 1: One of the main realities in Leviticus 4, is that atonement in Leviticus, as I've been saying over the last few weeks, involves two primary ideas.
Speaker 1: We've talked mainly about the first idea, which is ransom, and this is the one we're actually most familiar with.
Speaker 1: A lot of the illustrations of the gospel for you that you find dear in your own heart and say to others is that you owe God a debt that you cannot pay, but God paid it for you, which is totally true.
Speaker 1: This is the idea of ransom, like, if you are, if you owe a debt you cannot pay, you are hopeless until someone who can pay that debt ransoms you from that place.
Speaker 1: This is a big part of sin and atonement, and this happens through sacrifice.
Speaker 1: That's what we have learned so far.
Speaker 1: But there is another side, almost the same side, different side, same coin of atonement.
Speaker 1: It's not just ransom, but it's also purification.
Speaker 1: So these are the two ideas ransom and purification.
Speaker 1: So through sacrifice, god rescues us from the penalty of sin and cleanses us from the defilement of sin, and both of these things are happening in atonement.
Speaker 1: Often we rightly think of sin as debt we cannot repay, as I said.
Speaker 1: But it's also a stain, and the sacrificial blood in Leviticus acts kind of like a spiritual bleach, let's say cleansing everything that it touches.
Speaker 1: This is why blood, it's the most powerful agent that exists in reality that God has made.
Speaker 1: It's because God is the God of all life and when someone deserves death, the only thing that can ransom them or purify them is pure life.
Speaker 1: And this is what the blood of an unblemished substitute represents.
Speaker 1: It represents this magic bleach in a sense.
Speaker 1: In a sense, but really what it means is that God will receive life for death, and that's exactly what we need.
Speaker 1: But not only will he receive life from death, but also he will cleanse through these sacrifices.
Speaker 1: When we think of Leviticus, we see that the Israelites offer sacrifices to God, which is right.
Speaker 1: But it's just again a reminder.
Speaker 1: They did not come up with this idea.
Speaker 1: It's not like they thought, you know, we should probably come up with a way to appease God.
Speaker 1: No, they actually are following in response to his gift.
Speaker 1: To them they're responding.
Speaker 1: It was his idea and this is the exact opposite of our fallen impulse.
Speaker 1: Jason hit on this beautifully earlier.
Speaker 1: We have like a dual impulse.
Speaker 1: One is to hide, which I've really been leaning into.
Speaker 1: The other is, as Jason said, it's to try to clean ourself up, but again, just like the glitter or that stain that you just can't get off, or that stain that you just can't get off, it does no good to keep trying.
Speaker 1: It does no good to try to clean yourself from radioactive material.
Speaker 1: It does not work.
Speaker 1: It won't work.
Speaker 1: As one commentator said, when we understand, leviticus 4, that is, leviticus 1 through 3 has been leaning into the ransoming effect of atonement.
Speaker 1: Now Leviticus 4 and 5 are leaning into the purification element of atonement.
Speaker 1: And this commentator says this is seen with even greater clarity in Jesus' sacrifice.
Speaker 1: For here it is no longer guilty sinners presenting an atoning sacrifice to ransom themselves, right.
Speaker 1: This is why the priests had to do it over and over and over, because they were guilty sinners, but the offended king, who has himself provided the atoning sacrifice to ransom guilty sinners, all because of his love for them.
Speaker 1: But God demonstrates his love for us in this.
Speaker 1: While we were still sinners, christ died for us.
Speaker 1: Sinners do not earn this salvation.
Speaker 1: They receive it from God as a gift of his grace, mercy and love.
Speaker 1: Now what I want to do for the rest of this sermon is, first, summary what Leviticus 4 is teaching us is not only Leviticus 4, it's all throughout the Bible, and that is sin.
Speaker 1: We both need ransomed from sin and purified from sin.
Speaker 1: And the point that I made is, most of the time we primarily think of the ransom reality of sin, that is, we are forgiven.
Speaker 1: That's totally true.
Speaker 1: But what I want to show us now, just from New Testament passages, is that this cleansing reality has been there the whole time and you may have missed it.
Speaker 1: Some of these verses may be new to you.
Speaker 1: Many of these verses.
Speaker 1: They will be familiar to you, but they will become new because you'll recognize, oh, that aspect about being cleansed.
Speaker 1: That was there the whole time.
Speaker 1: So what I'm saying is these verses teach that defilement is something that sin has done to us, that we need remedied, not just ransomed.
Speaker 1: Titus 2.14.
Speaker 1: Jesus.
Speaker 1: He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.
Speaker 1: This is it, we know this.
Speaker 1: To redeem us from all lawlessness that's common to us and to purify for himself a people, for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.
Speaker 1: Ephesians 5, 26 and 27,.
Speaker 1: Well-known passage.
Speaker 1: This is where Paul's talking about Christ and the church.
Speaker 1: He's talking to husbands and wives and he says this that he, jesus, might sanctify her.
Speaker 1: He's talking about the church having cleansed her by the washing of water with the words, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Speaker 1: 2 Peter, 1.9,.
Speaker 1: For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he's blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
Speaker 1: Of course we're forgiven, but we're cleansed from our former sins.
Speaker 1: 1 John, 1.7,.
Speaker 1: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
Speaker 1: And the blood of Jesus, his son, how would you, how would, if you don't have it memorized, just think in your mind what you would think it would say.
Speaker 1: And the blood of Jesus, his son, I don't know forgives us, it says it cleanses us from all sin.
Speaker 1: Jesus' blood cleanses us from our impurity.
Speaker 1: It gets rid of the stain, it gets rid of the glitter, it gets rid of the radioactive toxicity of sin that only his blood can.
Speaker 1: 1 John, 1, 9.
Speaker 1: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes I heard people quote this and they stop there, which I understand.
Speaker 1: But it goes on.
Speaker 1: And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 1 John, 3, 3,.
Speaker 1: And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself, as he is pure.
Speaker 1: So it's not just Leviticus 4, it's not just the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: No, remember, as we said the first week, the New Testament authors, when they're talking about what Jesus has accomplished, they understand it through the lens of the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: That's how they understand Jesus' sacrifice.
Speaker 1: It wasn't new, it was better, it was fulfilled, it was expected.
Speaker 1: In many ways, it was what the writer of the Hebrews says in Hebrews 9.
Speaker 1: This is the last passage I'm going to read Hebrews 9, verses 11 through 14.
Speaker 1: But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then, through the greater and more perfect tent that is not made with hands, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Speaker 1: For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the here it is purification of the flesh how much more will the blood of Christ who, through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Speaker 1: This is beautiful.
Speaker 1: I wanna draw your attention back to where I started.
Speaker 1: When I started, I talked about that feeling that we get when we commit a sin and we know that we did, we know that we're wrong.
Speaker 1: We can't shake this feeling.
Speaker 1: We know when people sin against us, there's a way in which somehow it gets in us and we can't shake that feeling.
Speaker 1: And yet here we see that it's our consciences that have been cleansed by the blood of Christ.
Speaker 1: Now I want to end with this theological concept that if you know it, it changes your life and once you know it, it changes your life.
Speaker 1: And this is this theological concept of union with Christ and communion with Christ Union and communion.
Speaker 1: You see, communion with God, or rather union with God, is a reality that God accomplishes.
Speaker 1: It's a status.
Speaker 1: If you've ever been to a wedding, I'm sure you've been to a wedding this summer.
Speaker 1: When vows are taken, the status of those individuals change.
Speaker 1: That's one of the I mean out of all the weddings I've done.
Speaker 1: When I make the pronouncement after the vows have been taken, as a minister, and I say something like by the power invested in me by the church of Jesus Christ, I now pronounce you, husband and wife, understanding that something invisible just happened, but nevertheless invisible just happen, but nevertheless binding the status of these two individuals, who just moments before came as individual people, now are one flesh.
Speaker 1: Their status is changed.
Speaker 1: This is union, right, we even call it the union of marriage.
Speaker 1: Well, christ and the church, this doctrine of union with Christ.
Speaker 1: Once we are in relationship with him by faith, we are in union with him.
Speaker 1: Our status has changed.
Speaker 1: We're now beloved children and you receive it as a gift.
Speaker 1: You don't earn it, you don't do anything to accomplish it.
Speaker 1: We are receptive to this gift.
Speaker 1: We receive this new status that is union with Christ.
Speaker 1: Now there's a concept of communion with him, and this is distinct from union because it's not a status.
Speaker 1: It's a response to what God has done.
Speaker 1: So our status as in union with Christ does not change, but our experience of our communion with him does.
Speaker 1: It fluctuates.
Speaker 1: Now, if you're married, you know this.
Speaker 1: When you're upset with one another, when you're not talking, when you feel rupture.
Speaker 1: If you're married, you know this.
Speaker 1: When you're upset with one another, when you're not talking, when you feel rupture, are you less married?
Speaker 1: No, of course not.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like saying a person is kind of pregnant.
Speaker 1: You can't be kind of pregnant, you can't be kind of married.
Speaker 1: You're either married or you're pregnant.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 1: It's a yes or no question, it's a status question.
Speaker 1: But your experience of marriage, now that just depends on what day, I ask you right?
Speaker 1: Because the communion, the experience of the relationship, changes.
Speaker 1: It can fluctuate.
Speaker 1: Key word your experience of this relationship can fluctuate.
Speaker 1: Kelly Capik writes an introduction to John Owen's book Communion with the Triune God and it's excellent.
Speaker 1: And if you decide you want to buy that book, I would recommend that version because there's some footnotes and it's an excellent book.
Speaker 1: But John Owen is notoriously difficult to read, especially if you're not used to reading.
Speaker 1: Actually, even if you are, it's difficult to read.
Speaker 1: It's just the way that he wrote.
Speaker 1: And so Kelly Capik has done a great service to us in this edition, with some comments and an introduction, and this is what I want to quote him here.
Speaker 1: In the introduction to John Owen's book, he says this quote when a believer grows comfortable with his sin, whether sins of commission or sins of omission, this invariably affects the level of intimacy this person feels with God.
Speaker 1: Now, if you're hiding something from your spouse, how intimate do you feel like that relationship is Not very intimate.
Speaker 1: This is how relationships work.
Speaker 1: If you're hiding something, you shouldn't feel intimacy.
Speaker 1: If you do, this is I'm not.
Speaker 1: Something is wrong with you.
Speaker 1: Your conscience has been seared and over time you've learned to become so comfortable with sin that you've compartmentalized it in a way that has dehumanized you.
Speaker 1: It is not that the father's love grows and diminishes for his children in accordance with their actions no, no, no, for his love is unflinching.
Speaker 1: It is not that God turns from us, but that we run from him.
Speaker 1: Sin tends to isolate the believer, making him feel distant from God.
Speaker 1: And then come the accusations, both from Satan and self, which can make the believer worry that he or she is under God's wrath.
Speaker 1: In truth, however, saints stand not under wrath, but in the safe shadow of the cross.
Speaker 1: You see, your experience of your sin is determined by really one thing if you're in Christ, and that is do you run from him or do you run to him?
Speaker 1: That's the difference of your experience of this status you have in Christ.
Speaker 1: Do you run from him?
Speaker 1: You will feel distant, not because he's moved away from you but you've run.
Speaker 1: You're running from him.
Speaker 1: Or do you turn to him and run to him and receive again this gift of forgiveness from him?
Speaker 1: Owen, john Owen.
Speaker 1: I want to quote him, john Owen.
Speaker 1: I want to quote him In this section.
Speaker 1: What he's doing is he's giving what he believes are common thoughts among the saints concerning Christ's love.
Speaker 1: This is what he says I fear thou dost not love me.
Speaker 1: He's talking to God I fear that you don't love me, god, and that you have forsaken me, because I know I deserve not to be the beloved.
Speaker 1: These thoughts are hard as hell.
Speaker 1: They give no rest to my soul.
Speaker 1: End quote.
Speaker 1: That was John Owen.
Speaker 1: You see, john Owen is picking up on this thing that we know to be true in and of ourselves we do not deserve to be the beloved of God, and when we start thinking that he chose us because he saw something in us that was lovable.
Speaker 1: That's when, when we sin, we shrink back because we think, oh, now he's gonna find me out.
Speaker 1: Now he's gonna find out that I don't love him like I should.
Speaker 1: Now he's gonna find out that I don't trust him like I should.
Speaker 1: Now he's going to find out that I don't trust him like I should.
Speaker 1: Now he's going to regret it.
Speaker 1: He's going to walk away, he's going to reject me, he's going to leave me.
Speaker 1: And these thoughts are common to Christians.
Speaker 1: And to quote him one more time, these thoughts are hard as hell.
Speaker 1: They give no rest to my soul.
Speaker 1: They are from hell, these thoughts, these thoughts.
Speaker 1: One final quote from him.
Speaker 1: But herein lies the excellency of his love to us.
Speaker 1: I wish we talked more like that.
Speaker 1: Herein lies the excellency of my love for you, dear.
Speaker 1: Herein lies the excellency of his love to us, god's love to us, that he takes care to take away our filth and stains, that he may delight in us.
Speaker 1: This is the truth.
Speaker 1: You haven't just been forgiven from your guilt.
Speaker 1: Your conscience has been cleansed.
Speaker 1: Jesus has paid for your sins, both intentional and unintentional.
Speaker 1: And that union, that status, has been solidified in our faith in him.
Speaker 1: But when we still sin and we feel distant from him and we feel hard thoughts, when we're attacked by satan and self because of something that's true, which is our sin, how do we respond?
Speaker 1: And the invitation this morning that leviticus 4 points to its fulfillment is that because of the blood of Jesus, the sacrifice that God himself provided, we don't have to run from him in our sin, we get to run to him.
Speaker 1: This is the invitation of the goodness of the gospel.
Speaker 1: Let's pray.
Speaker 1: Father, we do confess hard thoughts toward you, we believe the lie of our flesh and the world and the devil, and we think that we have to say the right things, clean ourselves up before we come and receive again from your love.
Speaker 1: But, lord Jesus, we know that your compassion increases when we sin.
Speaker 1: Our sin because of your love for us draws you near to us.
Speaker 1: I think now about Peter, after he denied you three times and you were raised and you come to the shore of the Sea of Galilee they're fishing and you take him for a walk, you pursue him, you speak truth to him, you repair your relationship with him, and so we receive your pursuit of us.
Speaker 1: We receive it.
Speaker 1: It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.