So our souls will always benefit in reflecting on the glory of Christ's atoning work, His cleansing work, His finished work. Our souls need to reflect on this, delight in this good news, and we need to hear it. What if the book of Leviticus could help us treasure Christ more? Maybe that's not been your relationship with Leviticus prior to our weeks together. Maybe you have viewed this book as more an obstacle to get around, especially the book's opening chapters. What if we thought of Leviticus as something that as we ascend, we get a grander view of everything that came beforehand and afterward. What if instead of an obstacle that seems imposing and undesirable, we are ascending into something glorious by beholding the riches of this book? I want us to see it that way. One way to see the glory of the cross in the new covenant is to actually study the sacrificial system in the old covenant. The main message of the sacrifices, I think, is this. If you boil it down, we could say God reconciles sinners to himself through a substitute. That's what we're trying to learn from these opening chapters of the book. God reconciles sinners to himself. through a substitute. Now, the opening chapters of Leviticus help us understand great truths about the gospel and the cross work of Jesus. But these opening chapters are not easy. And this is what Bible readers feel when they leave the various details about the tabernacle and then wipe their brow, head into Leviticus and think, oh no, what now? All these details, all these procedures, it's a bloody mess all over the place. What are we going to do with all of these instructions? So we've been wanting to pace ourselves looking at what are the five major offerings the Israelites offered to the Lord at the tabernacle. So to catch us up, here's what we need to know. The tabernacle was the portable structure, God's dwelling place, built at the end of Exodus. And around that tabernacle was a courtyard. It was a courtyard all the way around it, fenced around this dwelling place that was a tent. This is a bird's eye view of it. In that courtyard was a bronze altar. You see it once you enter from the east. This bronze altar was a place of sacrifice. And then right across from that bronze altar is a laver or basin of water. And so the priest would offer sacrifices, and before entering into the tent, they would wash their hands, they would wash their feet. And inside the tent of meeting was a table of bread, a lamp stand right here, and then an altar of incense in front of a veil. A veil which concealed the most important element of the tabernacle. Inside this most holy place is the Ark of the Covenant, here made out of gold. Now, these realms of access were not to be entered by just anybody. Any Israelite could enter the courtyard. You could enter the courtyard here, but only a priest could go into the tabernacle, and only a high priest behind the veil once a year on the Day of Atonement. So you've got this whole set of vessels and rooms. It's a big tent. You could take it down, you could put it back up, you could travel with it. That was at the end of Exodus. The beginning of Leviticus ties onto the end of Exodus. Exodus ends with the construction of this thing. It's filled with the glory of God. And Leviticus tells us, how can we now approach God who dwells with us? How can we come into his presence? And the short answer is we come through sacrifice. So that's why the book of Exodus ends the way it does and Leviticus begins the way it does through these various offerings. Tonight we're looking at the fourth of the five offerings. It's explained in Leviticus 4 and part of chapter 5. Now the previous three offerings are known as the burnt offering, the grain offering, peace offering. What we learned in Leviticus 1 is that this burnt offering could have several realms of animals you could pull from. You might bring an offering from a herd. This was an ox or a bull. You could bring an offering from a flock, which was like a lamb or goat, and it descended in value all the way to an offering from birds. And so the herd animals were the most expensive and valuable, and then the least valuable, the birds. This would represent the sinner because you are unclean and I am unclean before God apart from His work of the Spirit and so therefore I need something that's unblemished because morally I am defective because of sin and I can't just enter the presence of the Lord. So this animal is offered up entirely burned, this burnt offering. My heart's response to that ought to be gratitude and commitment to God because He's brought me to Himself through sacrifice. And so Leviticus 2 was about a grain offering. You weren't only offering animals. Sometimes you would offer the fruit of the ground. And so grain could be cooked, it could be uncooked, but you would offer it in some sort of form to the Lord as a thanksgiving. And you would only offer part of it. The priest would actually take the rest. And they would be provided for by your offering, your cereal or grain offering. The last one we looked at was last week, the peace offering. This is to recognize that as I've been brought to the Lord, as I have devoted myself to God with thanksgiving, what am I enjoying in this relationship? Peace with God, communion with God, fellowship with God. The whole purpose of the tabernacle being filled with the glory of God is to say to sinners, God has come to dwell with us. There is a way. You are not alienated beyond His way to reach you. You are not unreconciled to the point that He cannot do something about it. And so the Levitical system is actually really good news, even with the complexity of the offerings, because it says, God has come to us. He is bringing about this plan of redemption and rescue and drawing us through substitutionary atonement. And so this peace offering was a great thing to observe, also from a herd, like an ox or a bull. From the flock, perhaps, like a lamb or a goat. This would recognize I'm in communion with God. The fourth offering starts in Leviticus 4 and it's known as the sin offering. Here's what it recognizes. Sin contaminates and defiles. This has always been true. This was true from Adam and Eve forward. As we do what is sinful before God, the Old Testament teaches that sin brings defilement. And they tried to address the real nature of defilement through symbols of clean and unclean animals, clean and unclean procedures. And so this particular offering, known as the sin offering or purification offering, is organized in chapter 4 according to groups. Because you as an Israelite, you would belong to different groups. Let's say you were a priest. Well, there were certain things that you then had to do to purify or be reconciled to God with this atoning, forgiving necessity. Or you might be part of the whole Israelite community that's done something against God. So that part is being addressed. Or you might be a leader among a clan or a tribe. So you might not be a priest, but you are still an important figure. Well, there were instructions if you had that role. Or you might be a common Israelite, which is a way of saying, I'm not a priest or a leader of one of the tribes, but as an Israelite, I have responsibility. It recognizes that sin brings defilement and corruption, and what's defiled needs to be purified. So the way we're approaching Leviticus 4 is by focusing on these four groups. What do we do if you're the priest? What do you do if you're the whole Israelite community? What do you do if you're a leader? What do you do if you're an individual Israelite? And what I'm hoping that will happen tonight is as we look at the purification slash sin offering descriptions here, you will begin to see how this opens up beautiful things about Christ's cross in the Gospels. So I want our ears to be ready to listen to this because the New Testament speaks of Christ's cross and finished work in ways that fulfill the sin offering here. So here we're going to do some climbing, and Levitical offerings are not easy steps. You're not walking on flat surfaces. You're walking on an incline, okay? It requires work from us, thinking about these instructions and procedures. But the view is worth all the work. it's worth all the work. So the patient plodding that we're doing through these sacrifices is getting us to see something worth seeing. So in verses 1 and 2, here the scene is set for us. 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 one of them, then several groups are going to be mentioned. Verse 1, gives this category of unintentional sins, or verses 1 and 2, category of unintentional sins. That immediately ought to catch your interest. Wait a second, isn't sin something we do intentionally, premeditatively? This category of unintentional sins. As a reader, initially, that does strike us as odd. In fact, it talks throughout these groups of the anointed priest and the whole Israelite community and the leader and the common Israelite as if you come to understand that something is wrong that you didn't realize at first. So in verses one and two, unintentional sins are being brought to our minds. This has to do with some kind of defilement or breach of the law that you either weren't aware of the law or you were aware of a law and did not realize you had violated it until realizing it in some way, either through some kind of judgment or consequence or someone pointing it out to you. So verses 1 and 2 introduce the whole category. Now, what happens if a priest commits an unintentional sin? Well, in verse 3, if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on all the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he's committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering. What the priest is doing is offering the most valuable item, the bull, a herd animal, and he's doing it because guilt has come for his sin, not just on himself. He doesn't represent just himself. The priest represents people and this could focus on the high priest in particular who would represent the nation. So here's a grave situation. We have representation principles that work in the book of Leviticus. The high priest or any priestly figure is in a grave situation with their sin because their sins affect other people. Ordinary priests. Anointed by God. They're an anointed priest because oil has been applied to their garments, and for the high priest, oil has been placed upon his head. An anointed priest is a way of talking about a Christ, little c, a Messiah, little m. That's what Messiah means. The word Christ or Messiah means anointed one. And it was a kingly figure, and in the New Testament, we understand that God's anointed one would also be a priestly figure. kingly and priestly. And here you have this priestly figure who's an anointed one set apart for representative work. So just as what the priest will do that brings guilt on all these people, you read the end of Romans 5, you understand that what Jesus will do will bring life and justification and blessing to all who are in him. And so the principle of representation is important, not just because of what can go badly in the Old Testament, but because of what goes really good in the New Testament. with the work of the Messiah. And then you have these foreshadowing figures, these priests. They are offering a bull, and this probably has to do with their position. Their rank among the Israelites is very important, not because they're more valuable inherently as a person. No, they're sinners before God, as other Israelites are sinners. But they've been set apart for a special work. And so that special work carries with it a representation and a valuable sacrifice, the sacrifice of a bull. So here's what it looks like, and it's messy. In verse four, he shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, which means they're bringing it Let me move this way. They're bringing it to this bronze altar. They're bringing this bull and he's going to kill it, which means he's going to slice its throat after leaning his hand on it. So he's guilty and he's going to put his hand on the bull as if to say, I'm guilty and something now in my place. is going to be killed. So there's an animal death, and in verses 5 through 7, the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull, bring it into the tent of meeting. Here's something we've not seen with any other sacrifice. They're going to move beyond the bronze altar, and this priest is going to go inside the tent. And I want you to notice, remarkably, what he's going to do next. In verse 5, he brings blood into the tent of meeting. He dips his finger in the blood and sprinkles part of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. So let's get inside the sanctuary. Here's a side view. He's entering the sanctuary and he's approaching this veil. He doesn't go behind it. You can only do that according to Leviticus 16 on the Day of Atonement. But he's going to go right up to the veil. And he's gonna go up to the veil and he's gonna sprinkle blood there because his access is more than just the courtyard. The priest can enter the tent of meeting. And if he has sinned, and what he represents, and including the work that he conducts, it's tainted by his guilt. So it must be purified. Here's the principle we're gonna see. Purification comes through the shedding and application of blood. And in verses five to seven, the priest puts the blood on his finger, sprinkles seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary, and then the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense. Two altars. There's the bronze altar on the outside. This altar is different. It's this altar. Let's get a close-up. There we are. We have here this altar of incense right in front of the veil. He begins to put blood upon it as well. The horns of the altar are the four corners that are sticking up. And then all the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of the burnt offering at the entrance of the Ten of Meeting. So the first thing he does with the blood is he goes inside. He applies it in front of the veil, sprinkling it. He applies it to the horns and then he goes back out. He goes back out to this altar of burnt offerings, and at the bottom of it, empties out the rest of the blood. That's what happens. The reason the priest has that kind of thorough work is because of his access as priest. He has greater responsibility than any other Israelite. It might remind us of the New Testament principle that in James chapter three, people are told that not many of you should desire to be teachers, For with that responsibility and with that status and important responsibility before the Lord, there is a greater and stricter accountability and judgment. And so with responsibility can come greater accountability and consequence. And the priest's purification because of his guilt gets deep into the very tent of meaning itself. Now look in verse 8. What's he going to do with the body of the sacrifice of the bull? He's going to offer it. It says in verse 8, all the fat of the bull, the sin offering, he shall remove. The fat that covers the entrails, the fat that's on the entrails and the two kidneys. Okay, so you know what he's got to do with this bull is he's got to get inside. Now, if you've ever skinned a deer or tried to do anything like this, getting inside an animal in order to cook parts of it, he's having to get inside this animal, this priest, and he's going to take kidneys and fat, and those were choice parts of the animal, they're going to be given to the Lord. They represent the fact that he needs to offer what is worthy unto the Lord, his obedience and his devotion. And then the priest will burn them on the altar of burnt offering, which means out there, that bronze altar. Then in verse 11, but the skin of the bull and its flesh with its head, legs, entrails, and dung, all the rest of it, he carries outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap. This means he's leaving the tabernacle with the rest of it. Now I don't have it, I guess it would be somewhere over in this direction on the wall. He's gonna take those to a heap and they're gonna be burned there. The remains, the hide, the flesh, the head, the legs, the entrails. So this is, I just want you to think about how gross and messy this is. How involved and engaged the worshiper and the sinner is in the actual procedure of sacrifice. But this opens up multiple places in the New Testament for us. I want you to listen to Hebrews 13, verses 11 and 12. The writer says in the book of Hebrews, the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into holy places by the high priest, that might remind us of the sin offering procedure we've just read, the bodies of those animals are then burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. The priest, the high priest, has shed blood, he has sprinkled it, he has taken things outside the gate, and that animal has died. The Hebrews writer is wanting us to see a connection here. Jesus is the true and greater sin offering. Hebrews 13 doesn't make sense apart from the book of Leviticus. Leviticus explains why in Hebrews 13 bodies of animals are being carried out, why they're being burned, why any priest took blood into the holy places. Why any of that happened is explained by the book of Leviticus, especially chapter 4. Listen to Romans 8. In Romans 8 verse 3, God has done what the law could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and here's one way of rendering this, sending his son as a sin offering, he condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus is both the high priest who offers the sin offering, but the sin offering is himself. This is not a high priest. This is not Jesus going to the cross saying, I've got to bring the bull. No, he himself is the substitute for sinners that they would be reconciled. And he is taken outside the camp as he suffers on the cross for our sins. Now, what if you're not the high priest, but you are with the whole congregation of Israel guilty for something? What would that have even, how would that have even happened? What error? Well, in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, there are a number of feasts things of watching calendars and new moons, and you have to keep track of stuff because at certain times of the year, you as a nation had to be responsible for conducting sacrifices and feasts. And if you got any of that wrong, if you missed a day, if your leaders were off, you as a nation were accountable to what you ought to have been celebrating. That's most likely what would be meant here. But it's not because the Israelites said, I don't think we're gonna do Passover this year. We're just gonna skip that. It might be because something was off and somebody's counting or calendaring of something, and the Lord is displeased because He had told them what to do and the command was not followed, even if it was unintentional sinning. So in verse 13, if the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally, and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not be done, and they realize their guilt, when the sin which they've 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. So you're gonna offer a bull, it's a valuable animal. And in verse 15, the elders of the congregation are gonna represent the nation here. You can't get hundreds and thousands of people to lay their hands on the animal, so you just gotta have a small group of people do that. These are leaders among the congregation. They lay their hands on the head of the bull, and the bull is then killed before the Lord. So the nation is guilty, and now this sacrifice is gonna be offered in their place to purify their defilement. So in verses 16 through 18, it tells us, after the bull is killed before the Lord, the anointed priest shall bring some blood into the tent of meeting. So once again, he's going in. He's going inside the tent of meeting. Why? Because if the Israelite community has sinned, you know who's a part of the Israelite community? Priests. And you know what they have access to? The tent of meeting. So as purification is applied to the defilement, that must include the place of worship. And so in verse 16, the anointed priest takes the blood, and you know what he does? He dips his finger in it and sprinkles it before the Lord in front of the veil, the same thing we just saw. Then he puts some blood on the horns of the altar of incense in the tent of meeting. And then the rest of the blood he takes out to the altar of burnt offering and pours it out. What do you do with the rest of the body? Well, in verses 19 through 21, all the fat he takes and burns on the altar. We've seen that before. Thus he shall do with the bull. As he did with the bull of the sin offering, so he shall do with this. And the priest shall make atonement for them and they shall be forgiven. And he shall carry the bull outside the camp and burn it up as he did the first bull, the sin offering. It is a sin offering for the assembly. So they're carrying that remains outside the camp. So what we've seen so far in these 21 verses is that if you're a priest or you're among the people of God as a nation, you're a priest, you have responsibility that's deep inside the sanctuary or tent of meeting. What about if you're a leader? Look in verse 22. When a leader sins, doing unintentionally any one of all the things that by the commandments of the Lord his God ought not be done, and he realizes his guilt or the sin which he's committed is made known, he shall bring his offering a goat. Male without blemish. What's the switch up here? Earlier there was a bull, offering from the herd. This is an offering from the flock. It's not as valuable, but neither is this person's position as important. The whole nation is not the one sinning, nor the high priest, but a leader among the tribes. And so he brings a less valuable offering in order to recognize his status. Not because sin isn't serious, but the more valuable offering was required with the greater status of the sinner among the Israelites as a nation. So he brings a goat, a male without blemish. He shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and then kill it, where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord. This leader is not a priest. So when he goes to the bird offering altar here, he never goes beyond that. He doesn't go into the tent of meeting. Why doesn't he go into the tent of meeting with the blood before the veil and on the altar? Because he's not a priest. He doesn't get to go in. That would be a whole other kind of defilement and a whole other kind of purification that would be required. You couldn't just go in there no matter who you were. So this is a non-priestly clan or tribe leader. And so in verse 24, he brings that goat in, he kills it in the place where they killed the burnt offering. It's a sin offering. And then what happens is the priests who are there, they take in verse 25 some of the blood of the sin offering with their finger, they put it on the horns of the altar of the burnt offering, and they burn it. So that would be this here. Let's get a close-up. Here's the altar of burnt offering outside. These are the horns, the four corners. that blood is being applied there. And all the fat he shall burn on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. The priest shall make atonement for him and for his sin, he shall be forgiven." What about if you're not a priest, and you're not the whole nation, and you're not a leader, you're an Israelite who's not any of those things. But somehow you've unintentionally sinned. Verses 27 to 35 represent you. In verse 27, if any one of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not be done, and realizes his guilt, or the sin which he's committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he's committed. So an offering from the flock. And in verse 29, he shall lay his hand on the head. Because you've sinned, you see. And so your hand You're the worshiper, so your hand is on that animal, because what happens to that animal is done in your place. The message of the Levitical offerings, with all the details of the procedure, has this banner flying all over all of them. God's bringing you to himself through a substitute. That's what these offerings are preparing us for, and that's why it prepares us for the cross. And so this writer then says, or the Lord then says, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, and lay his head, in verse 29, on the head of that offering and kill the offering. You're very involved here as the worshipper. You're going to slice this animal's throat, this female goat. And here, in verse 29, you're gonna kill the offering in the place of the burnt offering, and the priest is gonna take over with the blood. He's gonna put it on the horns of the burnt offering altar, pour out the rest of the blood at its base, and all the fat he's gonna remove, and the fat that's removed from the peace, like the fat removed from peace offerings, the priest shall burn it on the altar as a pleasing aroma unto the Lord. It's not because burnt organs smell good. It's not because burnt fat smells good. It's because what's being done is bringing the sinner in their need before God, and that's pleasing to God. This whole thing is symbolic. There's nothing magical about a female goat. There's nothing like innately holy about a bull and its kidneys or its hide. I mean, think for a second how symbolic this whole system is. One of my mentors at Southern Seminary said the whole Israelite sacrificial system had to be received by faith. You were trusting that if I took this bull and I killed it and this blood was taken and applied to the altar, that in some way I was being passed over and my guilt was being counted to something else. And I was being forgiven and brought near to God. None of these animals have any magical quality to them or any ability in themselves to bring atonement. It was trusting by faith what God says he will do. And this of course points ultimately to the cross. So in verse 32, let's say you bring a different flock animal. Let's say the time for your atonement and reconciliation to God because of your defilement has come and you look in your field and say, I don't have a goat. but I've got a lamb." Well, you could bring that. That animal from the flock would be accepted. If he brings a lamb in verse 32 as his offering for a sin offering, he'll bring a female without blemish. Then you will lay your hand on the head. That's a way of saying, I deserve judgment before God, but I'm gonna put my hand on the head of this animal. And when this animal is sacrificed on that altar in that courtyard, I am being brought near to God because of what God promises will happen if I undergo what I'm doing by faith. And then they will kill this animal. kill it for the sin offering in the place where they killed the burnt offering, which is the bronze altar. Then the priest shall take some blood of the sin offering with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar burnt offering, pour out the rest of the blood at the base, and all the fat he's gonna remove as the fat of the lamb is removed from the peace offerings. The priest shall burn the fat on the altar on top of the Lord's food offerings. The priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he's committed, and he shall be forgiven." Friends, that's a promise. He shall be forgiven. The priests would frequently pronounce blessings and assurances to the people that the Lord's face would shine upon them and that they have been forgiven of God. Because if they've come by faith, trusting in the sacrifice offered, they can go away trusting in the promise that they are forgiven by God. And that is an amazing thing. Yeah, these offerings are complex. And yes, when Bible readers leave the book of Exodus and they launch into Leviticus, it can be jarring to see all these different offerings. The essence of them is trying to get the sinner to see God is making a way for him to dwell among sinners without us being incinerated. His glory not breaking out with holy wrath among us in the camp. Our guilt is being counted to something else. And that is preparing for the day where Christ himself, the ultimate lamb without blemish, will take upon himself all of our transgressions and defilement that we might be made pure. So here are some instances of sin in chapter five. In chapter five, the last verses that comprise this sin offering section aren't more kinds of groups, but rather kinds of sins. So here are some examples of these unintentional sins that might have been dealt with with this kind of offering. Verses 1 to 4 name these sins, and so we'll spend our last few minutes looking at these. In verse 1, if anyone sins and that he hears a public adjuration to testify, you might not use the word adjuration every day. I don't. And so to adjure someone to something is to put someone under obligation with a legal binding oath where you are calling them to bear witness to something. And though he is a witness, whether he's seen or come to know the matter, yet he doesn't speak. He's going to bear his iniquity. This is someone who is being called forward to bring what they know to be the case. And you depended a lot on eyewitness testimony. and it's someone who doesn't come. So their testimony is kept out or omitted. Well, that is wrong. He shall bear his iniquity. We might think of examples where a crime is committed, some sin or transgression that has harmed neighbor, and you could bring forward the facts. But you think, eh, I don't think it's gonna be me. And so rather than justice being done, justice is actually hindered. Or someone who ought to be prosecuted or face consequences for their action, don't. Because you do not come forward to speak. This is a way of recognizing that someone has looked to their own interests and not to the interests of neighbor or justice. He says, well there is iniquity here then, a defilement that is brought by the lack of or the omitting of testimony. And therefore that needs to be dealt with. Or let's say in verse two, someone touches an unclean thing. Now in the book of Leviticus, there are a number of chapters that address that there can be defilement by touching things that you ought not touch. Certain animals or dead animals or discharges or other kinds of impurities, diseases of the skin. There are various uncleannesses that have to be addressed and that you can't touch without becoming outwardly defiled. So if someone touches an unclean thing, whether a carcass of an unclean wild animal, or a carcass of unclean livestock, or a carcass, I know this is sounding gross, lots of carcasses here, carcass of unclean swarming things, and it's hidden from him and he becomes unclean and realizes his guilt. So this is a kind of person who maybe doesn't realize that he's come in contact with something impure, something unclean. And that defilement has now come upon him. That's gotta be dealt with. But apparently he hasn't dealt with it. Or in verse three, if he touches human uncleanness, this may be human waste or other kinds of uncleanness like blood or diseases or skin maladies. Leviticus covers a number of human uncleannesses, but apparently he's become unclean and has not realized it. And when he comes to know it and he realizes his guilt, he must do something. Here's the fourth example. Let's say in verse four, In order to get out of a situation or to end a conversation, you made a rash promise. I swear I'll do it, I promise, I promise. If anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort of rash oath that people swear and it's hidden from him, when he comes to know it, he realizes his guilt in any of these, that person is going to do something. The defilement comes because you've made a promise in the name of the Lord, you've sworn, you've given your word, but you've either forgotten, Or you never really intended to keep it. So you've used the Lord's name in vain. You've violated the third commandment. You've committed yourself that your word before God, yes, I'll do this. But time has passed, and you haven't. You've either intentionally never wanted to keep the word that you gave, or you have forgotten. and you've now come to realize your guilt. What are these people supposed to do with these kinds of examples? They've either omitted testimony, they've touched something unclean of an animal, or something unclean from a human, or they've violated the name of the Lord. Well, here's what they will do. In verse 5, when he realizes his guilt in any of these, and confesses the sin he has committed. Part of what's helpful with this language is to realize Owning what I have done is expressed with confession of sin before God and even before others. Recognizing the confession of sin here preceding coming before God. It's an acknowledgment of my guilt. It's an acknowledgment that I have done what is wrong before God. So I'm confessing before God that I have violated what would be honoring to Him. In verse six, here's what he's gonna do. He shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he's committed a female from the flock, which includes a lamb or a goat for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin. Now what's that look like? It looks like you bringing that lamb or goat, you're gonna cut its throat, the priest is gonna gather that blood and it's gonna apply it to the altar for your sake. So the fourth category, if you're a common Israelite, that's the procedure for you. And then in verse 7, what if you can't afford a flock animal? Well, there are allowances for the poor of the community of Israel that if they don't own or could offer a lamb or a goat, birds could be offered in their place. So in verse seven, if he cannot afford a lamb, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he's committed, two turtle doves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. The burnt offering was back in Leviticus 1. He, in verse eight, shall bring them to the priest who shall offer the first for the sin offering. He shall wring the bird's neck, but not sever it completely, and sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar. Which means he's bringing that bird to this altar, to this, And after twisting on the neck, the bird has died, but the bird's body has been opened and the blood is being drained, sprinkled. The rest is drained at the base of the altar in verse 9. It is a sin offering. Why would, all of a sudden, a flock animal be substituted with a bird? Because nobody is to be excluded from the worship of the Lord. Somebody can't look at their bank account and say, well, you know, if only we had a herd animal or a flock animal. Too bad we just have turtle doves. But what if someone did not have that? Well, closing off this last moment in verse 10 here, he shall offer the second bird for a burnt offering according to the rule, the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin committed and he shall be forgiven. But if in verse 11 he can't afford two turtle doves or two pigeons, at that point is the sinner is told, too bad, you have nothing to bring before the Lord. he can get something from the ground, grain, and he can grind that grain into flour, and he can bring that. And it's not because flour bleeds. It doesn't bleed. But no worshiper is to be excluded from the sanctuary of the Lord because of their economic status. And so even this flour can substitute for a bird, which could substitute for a lamb, which would substitute for the worshiper. This person, the principle then, right? It's not the fact that the lamb has something magical or that the flower does. It's the principle of bringing something in my place. That's the principle. That's the principle, a substitute. So if he can't afford, in verse 11, two turtledoves or pigeons, he shall bring as his offering for the sin he's committed a tenth of an effa of fine flour. You don't measure things with an effa. An effa is about two quarts of flour. A tenth of an effa, I didn't even do the math on that, but an effa is two quarts, so a tenth of that, which is hardly anything. This is like a minimal kind of offering. You just need a little bit of grain, you could grind that, and if you didn't have any other animal in your flock or herd, you could offer it. God would bring, God would accept this. Because the point is, God wants you to come before him in confession and brokenness over sin. Why would the fact that you don't have a lamb keep you away? If you will come by faith with some grain, God will receive you. He shall put no oil on it, in verse 11. He shall put no frankincense on it. It's a sin offering. Now wait a second, where was that offering in frankincense coming from? Leviticus 2. This isn't a grain offering in the way that other grain offering was. Frankincense and oil, it was being added to those things because this was feast time, this was response and thanksgiving. Leviticus 4.11 is still dealing with grain, but this is a different situation. Or I'm sorry, this is Leviticus 5.11. This is a different situation. This is not so joyful. This is guilt. This is sin before God. This is brokenness. We're coming to God and we're needing this offered in our place. So those elements that would have made it a celebratory offering, like a grain offering, those are excluded. those elements like frankincense or oil. In verse 12, he shall bring it to the priest. And what's that priest going to do? Take a handful as the memorial portion or the portion set aside that the Lord would remember. And he's going to burn that on the altar. Yes, he's going to take that flower, he's going to put it on that same altar, this altar here, and he's going to burn it and then the rest of it. It tells us in verse 13, the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he's committed in any one of these things, and he shall be forgiven. The remainder shall be for the priest as in the grain offering. So the remainder of that flower is gonna be providing something for the priest to eat. You've come then before God. What we've looked at is if you have sinned before God, these unintentional sins, all of a sudden defilement, you realize is in your life, what I need is something in my place to bear the penalty for my defilement. And so the Lord gives instructions depending on the status of the Israelite. If you were a priest, you brought a bull, and the purification and application of blood went deep into the holy place. Same thing if you were the Israelite community that sinned. Maybe you forgot a feast day, or you got the calendar wrong, or you didn't celebrate as long, or you didn't celebrate the right feast on the right day. Either way, because priests were included in the Israelite community, you had to offer a bull and you had to go deep into the holy place. If you were a leader and not a priest, you couldn't go deep into the holy place. You had to stay in the courtyard. And so a lesser offering and only in the courtyard at the bronze altar was given. And the same thing if you were a normal Israelite. But by no means, if you said, I only have some flour, would you be excluded? Or I only have some doves, would you be excluded? The Lord would receive that, because He wants to receive you. The point's not the thing being brought, as much it is the contrite heart of the worshipper. You see, in Genesis 4, Abel brought of the flock and sacrificed of the fat to the Lord. And Cain brought things from the ground, like a grain offering. But only one of those boys was received by the Lord because of the heart behind it. It wasn't the external act itself. It was the worshipper that wanted God. Or the worshipper who only wanted to check boxes on the outside and who didn't really love the Lord. The truth is the Lord knows. The priest can't know. The anointed priest isn't going to be able to x-ray the spiritual heart of this person. What's the heart behind this sacrifice, son? Who knows? The worshiper could say anything they wanted. How's the priest gonna know any differently? But the Lord knows. The Lord knows. And that's the point. According to Hebrews 9, this is verse 22, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. Think about that language, purified with blood. Now, if you get blood on your shirt, you might think, well, this shirt's ruined, or, you know, this is now defiled. This is dirty now. It's weird to think of blood cleansing something. That's what's so surprising about the way the Bible talks. But it wasn't because, again, there was something magical in the properties of blood. It was the symbol of a life being poured out in place of the sinner. That's the point. So the Hebrews 9.22 verse says, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus, thus it was necessary for copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, R-I-T-E-S, these rituals, these procedures. The copies of the heavenly things. What are the copies? This. This is the copy. of the heavenly place. So the dwelling place of God among sinners was a reflection of and a copy of the heavenly dwelling place of God. So here's what this says in Hebrews 9, 24. Christ entered the heavenly holy places. You know, Jesus dies outside the city. He doesn't die inside the temple or go behind the veil and say, I'm going to die in here next to where the Ark of the Covenant used to be. Jesus dies outside because the point was not the physical tabernacle, it was a copy, a reflection of something greater, cosmic, and glorious. Christ, in Hebrews 9.24, the writer tells us, entered the heavenly holy places, appearing in the presence of God on our behalf, and he did not ascend to God with blood of bulls and goats. He didn't have doves, and he didn't need any flour. He said on the cross, it is finished. and he dies offering himself as the substitute. He is both priest and offering. He is both priest and substitute. And so when he ascends to God, when he goes to the right hand of God, Hebrews 1.3 says, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He goes behind the veil, if you will, as our High Priest, in order to welcome sinners in by faith through Him alone. They don't need bulls and lambs and doves and flower. They have, and we have, Christ. Hebrews 9.26 says, He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. This is why we say there is power Power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb. This is why we sing, there is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. How can it be? that blood purifies. These principles and these shadows and these types and these patterns were anchored in the Old Testament, taught and unpacked in books like Leviticus, so that we can see the sin offering was always preparing us for Jesus. Leviticus 4 and 5 were always pointing toward the cross. So in Leviticus 4, we saw that the rank of the person influenced the kind of animal that was offered. The more important the rank, the more valuable the offering. And it's in the cross of Jesus Christ where we see this most beautifully displayed. Who in all the world is of greater rank and prominence than Jesus, the Son of God, by whom and for whom all things exist? And what would be the most valuable offering He could provide for the sins of the world? So the Word becomes flesh in order to lay down His own life. The most valuable person provided the most valuable sacrifice. Jesus Christ was without blemish, and when he said upon the cross, it is finished, he was the final sin offering. Let's pray.