Leviticus chapter 12, these are God's words. Then Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel saying, if a woman has conceived and born a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days as in the days of her customary impurity, she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. She shall then continue in the blood of her purification 33 days She shall not touch any hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days. When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtle dove as a sin offering to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then he shall offer it before Yahweh and make atonement for her, and she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who is born who has born a male or a female. And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean. So far the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word In Leviticus chapter 12, the difficulty that has been brought upon Israel in Leviticus 10, and the difficulty that the fall brought upon woman in Genesis 3.16, Genesis 3 more generally, but 3.16 specifically, come together. They intersect. As we saw in Genesis 10, the danger of worshipping God in a way that does not treat him as holy. And a big part of that would be to come not only with anything uncommanded, as Nehdev and Abaihu did, but to come unclean. The danger was driven home in that dreadful event that took place at the beginning of that chapter. And one of the things that we are going to be discovering is that all that comes out of an unclean man is unclean. We began to hear that last week. But that's one part of what's taking place here. How is the woman made unclean? How long does she remain unclean? When may she return to the tabernacle? And the other part is, as he talks here about conceiving and bearing, reminds us intentionally of Genesis 3.16. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain, you shall bring forth children. And then also your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. And we know by the use of the same verbs in chapter four and verse seven, that's not talking about headship in marriage, but that's talking about a sinful wife always having to deal with that desire of her flesh to control her husband. and the sinful husband having to deal with the desire of his flesh to destroy, dominate his wife the way that Cain was being told by God a few verses later, to destroy his sin. But the pain of conception and the pain of bearing, and here he says, if a woman has conceived and born, A male child. And we find here a great part of that pain, the great part of that pain, is not nausea for 13 weeks and then the calm before the storm and then the heartburn and the waddling and the blood pumping more blood than it feels like was actually meant to ever go through your body and all of those difficult things that I know nothing of experientially and only by sympathy. But the great part of the pain in Genesis 3, 16b and c is the pain of conceiving a sinner and giving birth to a sinner and the knowledge that this is because you and your husband in particular are yourselves sinners. And that is brought into Leviticus chapter 12 where the joy of bringing forth the child that makes the actual physical pain and bearing to dissipate by comparison, the scripture tells us that, actually comes with some of the pain of Psalm 42 and 43, which we have just sung a few minutes ago, and not being able to gather to the tabernacle. Now that's not true for us anymore, praise God, The shadows are gone in the coming of the reality that is Christ, and we'll come to that in a moment. So one of the great things that we find in Leviticus 12, which is before us this afternoon, is that what comes from a sinner is unclean. And of course the great thing then that we are to see in Leviticus chapter 12 by both the circumcision and the ascension and the sin offering which together make atonement for her and purify her is that Christ brings not only forgiveness but also cleansing by his blood for sinners who have been born of sinners and sinners who bear sinners. And so what comes from a sinner is unclean in the first place and Christ cleanses by his blood in the second place. Not a difficult outline and yet a wonderful and real word picture here. You can think of the recovery and the change and the season of life that she would be in and the sleepless nights and getting to dwell upon God's word that touches especially where she is at right now. which if we had completed the morning sermon, we would know that one of the great reasons that the Lord Jesus is really meditating on Deuteronomy 6 and Deuteronomy 8, from which he quotes in his temptations, is because he was in the wilderness. And that was Moses' last great sermon to the people in the wilderness. And so, as she meditates upon Leviticus 12, this spirit by these signs and procedures in which that she is given would be giving to her to meditate upon this portion of scripture. What comes from a sinner is unclean. We already had that lesson to some extent in Leviticus chapter 11 when we were thinking about unclean hands and how the regulations in chapter 11 were meant to expire. because they communicated to us not so much that the death that is on these animals, and these unclean animals in particular, that touches us or touches what we use to prepare our food, that that makes a man unclean so much, but that the holiness of God, the purity of God is much more defiled by what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. And we're grateful that the Spirit has preserved to us the teaching of our Lord Jesus in explaining and applying that chapter. What comes out of a sinner is unclean. That's actually going to become a lot more clear and a lot more gross when we get to chapter 15 and all of the different uncleannesses that proceed from the body. But here, that which comes out or comes from the sinful mother is a sinful child. I hope as you're hearing this, it's helping you to think about the Lord Jesus and what a marvelous thing it is that he was circumcised. What a marvelous thing it is that Mary had to be purified from her blood in connection with him and that these things were done for the Lord Jesus, much like we heard this morning. We need to have our hearts circumcised by Him. We need to have the ascension and the sin offering of His shed blood on the cross make atonement for us and we shall be cleansed. But we have now a creation that is full of sinfulness and a God who is bringing a new creation of righteousness, something that all the way back to Genesis 17, the Lord had been implying to his people by the day on which circumcision was to take place. God, of course, has designed our body and many of you have read and learned The reason biologically, the amount of vitamin K and the coagulating of the blood, it's perfect timing. But it's perfect timing because in the eighth day you have the day of the new creation. In six days God created the earth, the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. The seventh day he created a Sabbath. for man, but there are many of these eighth days that look forward to the new creation, so that we're not surprised then. when the Lord Jesus rises again on an eighth day, and when the Holy Spirit is poured out again on an eighth day, and when the Lord meets with his disciples in between those two things on eighth days, or as it were, first days. And there's something here about the need for new creation. Because we do come into this world dead, dead in our sins. by nature, children of wrath, sons of disobedience, children of the first Adam, belonging to the creation that groans. And we need to receive new hearts that belong to and are like the new heart of the last Adam so that we can become sons of righteousness and children of the living God who belong to a new creation. And all of that is tied to the day on which God commands that circumcision take place. And even in his creation of us has so designed the physiology of the baby boy. And so God is bringing a new creation of righteousness. And then until the cleansing from belonging to the old creation is ceremonially applied to the mother, she is not to come to the new creation place, to the tabernacle where this hybrid of Eden and heaven is signified in a tent. And so you have the whole Bible coming together to remind us how desperately we need the Lord Jesus Christ and how completely God has supplied in Jesus Christ for what we need him, not only for the guilt of our sin, but for its remaining sinfulness. You see, we cannot enter glory justified, but not sanctified. Without holiness, we will not see the Lord. Without purity, we will not see Him who is pure. And so God provides for us not just justification, faithful and just to forgive us all our sins, but he gives us that completed sanctification eventually in Christ Jesus that is in glorification, faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Notice that this particular uncleanness then that comes, especially in connection with being a sinner who bears a sinner, doesn't just need washing. You remember in the last passage, if you had an uncleanness, the ceremonial way to get clean was the washing of your clothes. And the uncleannesses in chapter 11, or actually the worst of the uncleannesses in chapter 11, depending upon what you touched, you wouldn't necessarily need just for touching it, but if you carried it, perhaps even in your garment or soiling yourself more, you had to wash your clothes. And you notice not only that it only needed washing, but it was only until evening. Now we have not just the 7 plus 33 or 14 plus 66, but you also need blood atonement, an ascension and a sin offering in order to be ceremonially cleansed. And again, God is driving home that reality that we and our sinfulness are filthier than the death that is in this world. so that when Uzzah is fearful for the ark because it's tottering because men have been disobedient and it's been put on a cart and he knows the number of Leviticus 11 unclean things that is in every square inch of dirt, cubic inch of dirt. Some of you children have enjoyed that. gone to where a rotting log or a stone or something or you've just been tilling the ground in the garden with mom or with dad or with an older sibling and you pull up that rock or that piece of rotten wood and And there are so many creeping, crawling, disgusting, unclean things, not like, you know, John the baptizer is nicely jointed at the knee so that it leaps that bug, but all the bugs that were unclean. And Uzzah reaches out and he doesn't want the ark to touch it. And God strikes him dead. Why? Because a sinful Uzzah is much more filthy than thousands of unclean, creepy, crawly things that the ark might fall into. And so we see the same comparison, don't we, in comparing Leviticus 11 to Leviticus 12. That our sinfulness doesn't just need washing, but atonement. And so what comes from a sinner is unclean in the first place. And then in the second place, Christ brings forgiveness and cleansing by his blood. Now, I thank God that in his mercy to me, he gave me to outlive the immaturity in which I many times read this passage and thought, huh, God's right. Girls do make you dirtier before God than boys do. I'm thinking that the doubling of the period must be because daughters have a double amount of the sinful nature. That is not true at all. That idea was born of my own sinful nature. The difference in duration is not about the extra impurity of the daughter, but the value of the circumcision. and the Christ to whom it pointed forward, that there was a sign, that was a bloody sign looking forward to the blood of Christ, and a sign of regeneration, the putting away of the very sinfulness that makes us impure before God, and this sign in God's providence was given to them. And so it was cut from 14 and 66 to 7 and 33 for the case of the baby boy. And this helps us, of course, because ours are zero and zero. It gives me great pleasure when I can baptize a covenant child before the eighth day. And to my memory, I think I've done it to two Hakims and one van Nessendelft. You have no idea what a van Nessendelft is. It's a family from a former congregation. But what joy! Not only can every daughter of grace receive the covenant sign of the application of Christ to the believer and of the giving of the new heart by the pouring out of the Spirit. Every single daughter now can, but she can even get it before the eighth day and double stick it to those old covenant boys. But what a great blessing then circumcision was to these baby boys, blood that was shed to forgive and to cleanse, a testimony to father and to son that God, who has been covenant God of the Father by grace through faith, promises himself to the Son in the same way. That the Son who believes God, and the Son unto whom that faith is credited as righteousness, receives it as the gift from the God who gave him the faith in the first place. So that he receives a new nature, not like the one that he got from his earthly father. but that belongs to the living God or is from the promised seed who has to come. So there's this blood shedding in circumcision that is part of the reason why the duration is cut in half. And then there's the indication that circumcision is not about what happens to the flesh. that it is what happens to the heart, that the reality to which circumcision pointed is something that every daughter of grace receives from God that brings her to faith and that has given her then that faith. And she participates in the sign because she was fathered by someone. who belonged, who received the sign even in connection with his father and her, but it was only vicariously and secondarily. And yet what God commands in Deuteronomy 10, verse 16, that we are to circumcise our hearts, he promises in Deuteronomy 30, in verse six, that he will circumcise our hearts. So that when Paul in that section in which he's addressing the Jews at the end of Romans 2, and he says circumcision is not circumcision of the flesh, it's circumcision of the heart. He's not teaching some new thing that just arrived with Jesus. He's reminding them of what they already knew from Deuteronomy. and what they should have remembered and applied in following the procedure in Leviticus 12. So that when we have conceived a child and then when we have born or our wife has born a child, the conception is applied to both parents, the bearing only applied to the one. These are times especially to dwell upon How desperately we needed that new heart to be given us by God and how an almighty power and covenant mercy. He is the one who gave me that new heart. And that drives us to prayer. that he would now give this child that is in my womb if I'm the mother or in my wife's womb if I'm the father or this child that has just been born to us, that he would give our child the new heart that that child needs because their heart came into this world like ours came into this world. And so there is this focus at the time of becoming parents again and again if you have more children, but every time a reminder again and a time to renew your commitment. to dependence upon Christ, dependence upon him for the spirit, dependence upon the spirit whom he gives, devotion to, commitment to, and walking diligently in the means of his grace that his spirit blesses to us, using the word day by day, morning and evening. and then making application when we go out and when we come in of what we worship God through in the word when we lay down and when we rose up week by week in the assembly, making use of all that he has given us to look to him who gives the new heart as we have been thinking about, which is why, of course, circumcision and baptism are tied together in Colossians chapter two. But there are two signs here, not just the circumcision, but especially the ascension, the sin offering. The circumcision really only comes in for cutting the time period in half. The main thing in chapter 12 is actually the bringing of a lamb and a bird, or two birds if you're too poor, or maybe if you live too far away, but it's probably too poor. Lands are available in places. You can get one when you get there. the bringing of an ascension offering, which of course is translated in our English version, as we've been hearing throughout, as a burnt offering, an ascension and a sin offering. And when the time of the purification has passed, you can come with the offerings that have been appointed and the priest shall make atonement for her and she shall be clean. And the priest, verse seven, and then again, verse eight, the priest shall make atonement for her and she shall be clean. Now this is interesting language, isn't it? Because when we heard this language in chapter four and we, in chapter five, and we heard over and over, The priest shall make atonement for him and he, what was it in that case, shall be forgiven. And you remember God divided the two things, the action by which the atonement was made or administered or signified or implied, but the priest did not forgive, did he? He was given the action by which the atonement was made, but then you have that divine passive, it shall be forgiven. And in this case, the priest makes the atonement, but he doesn't cleanse her. What does she know has happened by the shedding of that blood? God has cleansed her. God wants his daughter with her new nature and hoping for the child that she just bore to have a new nature from him as well, to come ceremonially cleansed, hoping in God, knowing that that which he has signified to her by the shedding of the blood of a lamb and of a dove, he will fulfill in time. And we know, of course, how it was fulfilled. by the blood and the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have hope not only for ourselves, but also for our children, not apart from his bringing them to faith, but through his bringing them to faith. And so especially this ascension and sin offering by which the priest makes atonement for her and she is cleansed. And so she knows it wasn't the priest's idea and it wouldn't be by the priest's power. God is the one who made him a priest. God is the one who gave us the procedure. And by God's word affirming what God's sign says, she knows that she is clean. And sometimes, you know, if you're 40 days or 80 days into motherhood all over again or for the first time, and you know the sleepless nights that may involve the different things, it's good to have something solid to grab. when the difficulty of sleeplessness is taken away from your faith and you hold on you say, God says I am cleansed by these offerings and I am clean. And God help me as I suffer not only from the continual neediness, but yes, the continual selfishness of that baby. It's not the mother's imagination. There are communication things I understand. Yeah, the little Lord Jesus, much crying he made, but no selfish crying and no rebellious crying and no dishonoring crying. But she has something to lay hold of in this case. She had to lay hold of the blood of a lamb, and the ringed-off head of a bird, and the application of some blood. But God had commanded it, and God had said it, so it was true. And now you have not just what God has commanded, but God himself having come and fulfilled it. And that's something to lay hold of, and you definitely don't have to be a woman. There's nothing else for a man to lay hold of. There's nothing else for a child to lay hold of. that we lay hold of what God has said and we say, if I confess my sin, he is faithful and just to cleanse me from all my unrighteousness and the blood of his son washes away my sin. We see the value isn't in the sign, It's in the thing signified. If the value is in the lamb or the dove, you couldn't make the substitute two doves if you can't afford a lamb. It's equal opportunity because the value is in Jesus. And yet the original requirement, if two doves is quote unquote good enough since all the value is in Jesus, why not just tell everybody two doves? Well, because he adds some extra costliness to the lamb, doesn't he? so that we will be pointed to the value of Christ and we will feel the worthfulness of Jesus, the worthfulness of the atonement, the value of the atonement that he provides. Does he not, for instance, at the dedication of the temple and they're having to consecrate, you know, a bunch more makeshift apparatus to handle the thousands and thousands of bulls and lambs Animals. Does he not sometimes communicate? Help us press home the infinite value of Jesus by the finite but costly value of those signs that look forward to Jesus. And so he teaches us here to treasure the Christ whom he provides. There's one thing, one thing more to say here. Neither of the signs, whether the circumcision or the sacrifice, sacrifice is, neither of the signs were unavailable to unbelieving parents, were they? They feel all of the reality of their sinful children. And they may or may not admit that it's because they are sinners, but they do experience the reality of their own sin. But they lack hope in Christ for themselves. They lack covenantal holiness for their children. God has not set their children apart to himself in his church. And lacking hope in Christ for themselves and lacking covenantal holiness for their children, they lack the covenant signs for their children. And so they lack hope in Christ for their children. Now one of the dreadful things that a Christian can do is to have the covenantal holiness for their children and deny it. To have the sign for their child and either, as some do, refuse it, or as many others do, have the sign for our child but fail to embrace it. so that we do not live with our children before God in this hope that he gives us in Christ, both for ourselves and for our children. And so yes, that's one of the applications of Leviticus 12, be a Presbyterian. Say about your child what God says. Receive about yourself and about your child the signs that God has appointed. so that as you experience your sinfulness and theirs, you do so by hope in Christ, who has made promises, who has fulfilled those promises, and because of the weakness of our faith, has continued to give us a sign, hasn't he, that is applied to the child that corresponds to circumcision. And he's given us another sign, hasn't he? That shows forth the Lord's death until he comes. Because then we won't need to see and partake of a meal. We see the Lord. And also our children won't be sinners and we won't be sinners. But we should make good use of those signs. People say, well, why don't you bring the non-professing child to the table? Well, if it wasn't obvious enough from 1 Corinthians 11, that we don't want them to eat and bring judgment to themselves. The sign that shows forth the Lord's death to you also shows forth the Lord's death to them. And so all of these sheddings of blood are, aren't they, pressed home to us in the once shed blood of Christ weekly at his table. So even the Lord's Supper where my kid is not partaking yet, as part of an ongoing application of general equity. Well, that's for the civil law, but it's the principle of the shadow in Leviticus 12 applied now in the time of the new covenant. And so, God has given us baptism, he's given us the cross, which he declares to us at the table. He cleanses our conscience, remembering that Jesus is not just our ascension, our burnt offering in which we ascend, but he is also our sin offering in which he cleanses our conscience and gives us hope and certainty that we shall at last be fully clean. And he brings all of these to bear, especially on believing parents, that in the time when we are coming to give birth, in the time when the mother has just born the child, in those particular days and weeks and months, we would have extra help to focus upon Christ and the hope that we have in Him for ourselves and for our children. Amen, let's pray. Our gracious God and our Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you who are from everlasting and to everlasting, that you are merciful to us who live in time and are subject to the different changes in our condition and the various events in our life. and the sorrow that comes from being sinners who must live among other sinners and even who conceive sinners and bear sinners. And so we thank you, Lord, for this particular accommodation that you have made for us. And we pray that you would make us to make full application of it now that we would lay hold of Christ continually by faith, that we would improve our own baptisms and teach our children to improve and make good spiritual use of theirs. And since, O Lord, you have been merciful to continue blessing us, we do pray for those who have recently born or are looking forward to bearing that the hope, the sure hope that we have in you by your son and by your spirit, that you would bring home to their hearts that hope. And we pray for the fathers who have conceived those children or begotten those children, as it were. Lord, that you would make these to be seasons for them of renewed commitment and devotion to depending upon you and leading their homes in joyous confidence in you and attending upon you through the means of grace. We pray, Lord, for those homes in our church in which they are in the midst of that season. Bless to them these truths and realities we ask. In Jesus' name, amen.