Well, I invite you to turn with me tonight to the book of Leviticus chapter 5. Leviticus chapter 5. If you're following along in the Pew Bible, Leviticus chapter 5 is found on page 114. Page 114 in the Pew Bible. Leviticus chapter 5. Leviticus chapter 5. And this evening, we're going to read the first 13 verses. Leviticus chapter 5, verses 1 to 13. And I know you've just sat down, but you might end up sitting for a while since I'm a long-winded preacher. So why don't you stand with me for the reading of God's Word. Leviticus chapter 5, verses 1 to 13, page 114 in the Pew Bible. And this is what Holy Scripture says. If a person sins in hearing the utterance of an oath, and is a witness, whether he has seen or known of the matter, if he does not tell it, he bears guilt. Or if a person touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and he is unaware of it, he also shall be unclean and guilty. Or if he touches a human uncleanness, whatever uncleanness with which a man may be defiled, and he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty. Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters. And it shall be when he is guilty in any of these matters that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. And he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord for his sin, which he has committed. A female from the flock, a lamb or kid of the goats, is a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin. If he is not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring to the Lord for his trespass which he has committed, two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. And he shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, and wring off its head from its neck, but shall not divide it completely. Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar, and the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar." It is a sin offering. And he shall offer the second as a burnt offering according to the prescribed manner. So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf for his sin which he has committed, and it shall be forgiven him. But if he is not able to bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons, then he who sinned shall bring for his offering one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a sin offering. He shall put no oil on it, nor shall he put frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering. Then he shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take his handful of it as a memorial portion, and burn it on the altar according to the offerings made by fire to the Lord. It is a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for him for his sin that he has committed in any of these matters, and it shall be forgiven him. The rest shall be the priest's as a grain offering." And this is the Word of the Lord. Thank you, you may be seated. As we come to chapter 5, I just want to orient you to where we are in the book of Leviticus. Chapter 1 began speaking of the burnt offering. And the big point, the big lesson of the burnt offering is that sinful man can enter into fellowship with God only on the basis of a bloody substitute sacrifice. Chapter 2 spoke of the grain offering. And that taught us that those who have been graciously accepted by God must show their grateful dedication to God. Leviticus chapter 3 speaks of the peace offering, and it reminds us that peace with God is a blessing worth celebrating. Chapter 4, which we looked at a couple of weeks ago, speaks of the sin or the purification offering. And it makes this main point that sin's defilement can only be cleansed by blood. We come now to chapter 5, verse 1, and in many ways it is a subset of that sin or purification offering. But it is a particular set of sins and circumstances that are addressed in this passage. I've titled this message, Remission for Omission. Remission for Omission. And the big point of this passage is that there is remission or there is forgiveness for all who recognize and confess their sins of omission. There is remission for all who recognize and confess their sins of omission. I want to tell you a story. I'm changing some of the details only slightly because it's based on a true story. One of the details I'm changing is the name. Bob was a preacher who had served faithfully in a church for many years. In fact, Bob was the pastor that planted that church. It had grown in strength, and God had blessed it in many ways, making it financially stable, giving that church a beautiful building. And this pastor, Bob, who had planted the church, thought that as God had brought numerous men into the church who were qualified as elders, he felt that it was time for the church to transition from being a single solo pastor-led church to being an elder-led congregation. And so Bob, for several weeks, taught the congregation the biblical basis for an elder-led church. He took them to passages in scripture where, for example, Paul said that elders were to be ordained in every city. He took them to passages which spoke of a multiplicity of elders. And he believed that he had the congregation on his side. And so what Bob did was he said, on such and such a night, we're gonna have a vote on this. It will, of course, as all of our votes are, it will be a secret ballot. And on the basis of that vote, we will decide whether to transition into becoming an elder-led church. And so that night, they voted. And there was a quorum of voters, enough people to vote and to make it right. And Bob and others, scrutineers, took those ballots back, and they looked at those ballots, and it looked as though that motion had passed with exactly the right number of votes, percentage-wise, that they needed to go forward with that. And so Bob happily announced to the church that they were going to seek to begin moving toward an elder-led ministry. And it seemed like the people were happy to do so. Of course, not everyone was on board, but the majority was. Later that week, Bob went back to his office and he noticed something on the floor. It was a ballot that had been missed. He looked at that ballot, and the vote was cast not in favor of the elder-led transition, but rather against it, which meant that rather than having just enough to vote in favor, they now had just enough to deny that motion. Bob was in a quandary because he had taught the church. He had pointed them in that direction. he had already announced to the church that they were going to seek to begin that transition into what he felt was a biblical model of leadership. And so what Bob did was he thought, well, it's biblically right to do, and he set that ballot aside and began to proceed with moving toward an elder-led ministry. Well, as the weeks went by, his conscience began to smite him. And eventually, he came to the church and confessed that rather than having just enough to pass the motion to begin an elder-led process, it actually was just enough to deny that motion. The fact that Bob had sat on that ballot for several weeks before bringing it forward broke the church's confidence in the honesty and faithfulness of that pastor. And as a result, the church began to contemplate whether they could continue with Bob as their pastor. Though Bob was the one that had planted the church. And though Bob was the one that had led many of them to Christ, the fact that he had not been honest and forthcoming when he discovered the error had broken their trust in him. And so, to make a long story short, after about a month or two, the church voted to remove Bob. not only from the pastoral role, but also from membership in that church. Now, in this situation, I think the second one was a step too far, but that's a whole story for another day. And so Bob went, in just a couple of months, from seemingly riding high teaching his people about this transition and thinking it's time to green light this thing to being out of the ministry. Initially, it was something that was innocent. But as Bob knew what the reality of the vote was and didn't bring it forward, he bore that guilt and thus faced its consequences. The passage before us speaks of things left undone. It speaks of omission. The first four verses give us four scenarios, all involving things left undone. And the point that is made, and I'll make my first point, the first main point I call guilt of omission. guilt of omission. It makes this point. Sins of omission are important to God and hinder one's relationship with Him and with others. They bring us into a condition of guilt before God. There are four scenarios here that are very different. all involving things left undone, all involving omissions. There are two scenarios regarding oaths, and then there are two scenarios regarding ceremonial uncleanness. The ceremonial uncleanness is packed in between those two. So it begins with withholding evidence. In verse 1, the individual hears an oath, or as it may also be legitimately translated, he hears the summons to bear testimony under oath, which seems to fit what is being said here. And he does not come forward to bear witness in the matter that they're calling for testimony. The implication is that time comes and goes. And the person does not come forward with what he knows concerning that crime. Because of that, he bears guilt. It's not what he did, it's what he didn't do. He left something undone. The second that is mentioned is the first situation regarding ceremonial uncleanness. And in this, verse 2, if a person touches any unclean thing, whether it is a carcass of an unclean beast, carcass of unclean livestock, carcass of unclean creeping things, and he is unaware of it, he shall be unclean and guilty. Now, that unclean and guilty is to be paired with verse 3, which speaks about a person becoming aware that they're unclean, and thus bearing guilt. This first scenario has to do with an individual touching animal uncleanness, but he doesn't immediately realize his unclean status. The second scenario regards, again, ceremonial uncleanness, regarding ceremonial uncleanness, has to do with touching some human uncleanness. And again, it seems that he is, at that moment, unaware of it. Verse three, if he touches human uncleanness, whatever uncleanness with which a man may be defiled, and he is unaware of it. Initially unaware that he is ceremonially guilty. However, at some point, this individual, is made aware of the fact that they have become ceremonially unclean. And from that moment, until that person deals with it, they are guilty. And then you have, finally, another vow issue. The issue of a thoughtless oath, or a thoughtless vow. The individual in verse four swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good. Whether it is that a man pronounced by an oath and he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters. And that is a summary statement that refers to all four of these scenarios. This last one, individually, foolishly vows to do something, whether good or bad. but later comes to realize that that actually was a foolish vow. And I have to say that maybe Brother Ryan might know what I'm talking about, even though I maybe grew up in a more extreme context. When I was growing up, there were quite a few preachers that would come in that would try to get you to make vows. I even remember one, preacher that came through. And this guy was pretty extreme. And this guy tried to get the congregation to vow to win one person to the Lord every day. How do you vow that? You could be faithful to witness, but to vow that you can win one person every day? And those would have been foolish vows. But often, even as people were young and teenagers and impressionable, people would be encouraged to vow to God. Vow that you're gonna do this. Vow that you're gonna do that. And then when that person began to get older and started to think maybe that was a foolish vow, that would be part two. And you'd hear a message on, you know, if you vow a vow to God, don't defer to pay. God has no pleasure in fools. And it really was kind of a catch-22 situation. God's word does warn us against foolish vows. And by the way, it also gives provision for those who do not have full capacity and make vows, which seem to have been forgotten by some of those that put pressure on us when I was a child. But there is such a thing as a foolish vow, a foolish oath. Whether it be to swearing to do something good or swearing to do something bad, that is a foolish oath. And once again, in this situation, initially he's not aware of just how foolish his vow is, but then he realizes it. And when he realizes it, he shall be guilty in any of these matters. The point is, each of these involves omission. And when a person realizes that there is something that they are supposed to do and they do not do it, they're in a condition of guilt. They're in a condition of wrong. And to continue in delay is to continue with the sin of omission. There is a guilt of omission. God is concerned with our sins of commission and omission. And these sins hinder our relationship with God and with others. And in many years gone by, when in more liturgical churches, this was actually a point of intentional remembrance by the congregation. I have here the Book of Common Prayer, the old one from the 1600s, 1662. And the Morning and Evening Prayer in the Old Anglican Book of Prayer. Both the Morning and Evening Prayer went like this, at least in part. Almighty and Most Merciful Father, We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done. And we have done those things which we ought not to have done. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults. Restore thou them that are penitent according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord, and grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy name. Amen. That was morning and evening prayer of the Anglican Church for many, many years, but notice We have left undone those things which we ought to have done. Sins of omission. So, sins of omission can hurt our relationship with God and with others. And these sins must be dealt with promptly. As soon as we recognize our wrongdoing. The longer that we continue life without dealing with these sins, the longer we persist in a condition of guilt before God. And oh, the misery of such a condition. The accusing voice of conscience. The chastening hand of God. This is the way that David described that condition. After his sin with Bathsheba, he said this, when I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Sins of omission are important to God. They hinder our relationship with God and with others. And as soon as we are made aware of these sins of omission, we must deal with them. So let's move to point two. That's guilt and omission, point one. Point two, guilt and confession. How do we deal with them then? How do we deal with the sins of omission when we are made aware of them by the work of the Spirit and the circumstances of our life? Well, there are some ways that people do that are all wrong. Don't deflect. Don't be like Adam in the garden and claim that it's somebody else's fault. Don't diminish the grave nature of that sin. And pretend like it's no big deal. Well, I didn't really do anything. I just didn't do something. I saw recently a clip. I don't know how I get recommended the clips in YouTube that I do. I think YouTube has a hard time with me because Joel watches YouTube, and it's super simple songs and Thomas the Tank Engine, and then I watch sermons and jujitsu and look at Bible reviews, and it's not quite sure what to do with me. But one of the things that it showed me the other day was this youngster, and when I say youngster, I actually mean a youngster. He probably was a middle school aged kid. And he was actually being arrested in the school. And they pulled a loaded handgun out of his pocket. And all the while, this kid is saying, well, I didn't really do anything. No one got hurt. Why am I in trouble? And they're trying to explain to this young man how serious this is. While he was a youngster, and perhaps his youth might explain some of his ignorance, but the reality is that before God, as we come to realize our sin, don't diminish it. Don't pretend like it's nothing. It is a sin against a holy God. And it will harm your relationship with Him and with others. And brothers and sisters, don't deflect it, don't diminish it, don't deny it. That's where a lot of people go, is they simply deny their sin. The accusing voice of conscience reminds them of what they have done or not done, and they deny it. And the sad thing is that you deny your sin long enough and you start to believe your own denials. Because the heart, far from being an innocent and perfect and pure determiner of which way you should go, is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. This is not the message of Disney princesses I know, which always say follow your heart. But don't follow your heart. Your heart is a horrible guide. You lie to yourself long enough and your heart will make you believe it right down to your heart. Don't deny. John had words to say about that in 1 John 1 verses 8-10. If we say we have no sin, if we say we have not sinned, this is actually the mark of an unbeliever. So if we shouldn't deflect it, or diminish it, or deny it, what should we do with it? Well, look at verse five with me. And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. And there it is. How do we deal with our sins of omission? When we're made aware of them by the Spirit, through the circumstances of life, through the preaching, We must make confession. Recognition brings guilt and guilt must bring confession. Notice the words of that verse. It shall be when he is guilty in any of these matters that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. The word here for confess I found very fascinating because the word in the original language is a word that's often translated give thanks. I was like, that is weird. How is the word here translated confess and elsewhere translated give thanks? What does giving thanks have to do with confession? Well here is where they overlap. Both thanksgiving and confession of sin are recognitions and declarations of reality. When we confess our sins, we are agreeing with God about our sins. When we give thanks, we are agreeing that God is good and publicly declaring that. The New Testament word for confession is, of course, a word that means something along the lines of saying the same thing, which is to say, we say the same thing as God. We agree with God about our sin. We agree with His view of us and of our transgression. I mentioned earlier 1 John 1 verses 8-10. Let me read that for you. It says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. Confession. Agreeing with God. Saying the same thing. Laying it bare before the Lord. I mentioned also Psalm 32. Let me read for you David's experience of this. Psalm 32 verses 1-5. He says, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, does not put it on his account, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long, for day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer, Selah. And then verse 5. I acknowledged my sin to you. and my iniquity I have not hidden, I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin, Selah. Guilt and omission, sins of omission bring guilt upon us, but when we recognize that, we must deal with it with confession. David says that when he confessed, God forgave his iniquity. Which moves us then to our third point, guilt and remission. So the guilt of omission, omission brings guilt. Guilt and confession. Confession is the way that we deal with guilt of omission. Guilt now and remission or forgiveness. We see that in verses six to 13, I won't read all of them now. But these verses show us that forgiveness of sin and remission of guilt is available to all who will come to God on his terms. The way this is laid out, I love it because it's pointing out that this remission is available to everyone. If you have sinned in this way, bring a lamb or a goat. If you can't bring a lamb or a goat, bring two turtle doves. If you can't bring two turtledoves, bring some grain, bring the meal offering. Bring that fine flour instead. In other words, God is making a way so that anyone can come to Him. These accommodations will, these accommodate the different economic levels that would have been represented there. Forgiveness is not just for the rich and the privileged. It's not just for one class of people, is the point that God is making here. It's available for anyone who will recognize their guilt and come repentantly to God. This is the wideness of God's mercy. And that is a concept that resonates through the New Testament to this day. For example, Romans 10, 12 and 13. There is no difference or there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever, or the old King James, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We see it in Acts chapter 20, verse 21, where Paul speaks about how he testified to Jews and also to Greeks. That means everyone. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. We keep reading the Bible, we get to the last chapter, Revelation 22. The spirit and the bride say, come. And let him who hears say, Come. And let him who thirsts, Come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." Listen to that wideness of God's mercy. It's available to anyone who will come to God on God's terms. So remission is available to all. But there's another point that runs through these verses, verses 6-13, and that is, remission is accomplished through sacrifice. Remission is accomplished through sacrifice. Though not all the options here involve blood, they all involve sacrifice. And we look, then, from the New Covenant perspective back on this, and we are reminded that it is the sacrifice of Jesus that covers our sins. As 1 John 1, verse 7 would tell us, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sins. So, remission is available to all, but ultimately, remission is accomplished through sacrifice. What sacrifice actually accomplished it? The sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus. So again, we find ourselves in Leviticus, long before the birth of Jesus, looking from Leviticus to Jesus. Even here in the Old Testament, you have just yet another type and shadow of Jesus. You see, these sacrifices couldn't actually cleanse a person from sin. Because a person could go through the motions. They could do the outward ritual and not have the inward reality of the heart. They needed to have the right heart, and they needed to have the perfect sacrifice. That actually would be accomplished in Jesus. Hebrews 9, 13 and 14. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, That refers to what we looked at earlier in the purification offering of chapter 4, and this is a continuation of that. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Notice here, This is not only speaking about that cleansing that we experience at conversion. This is a cleansing that is an ongoing cleansing of conscience and dead works so that we are enabled to serve the living God. The blood of Jesus cleansed us. And the blood of Jesus cleanses us. The same Savior, the same powerful sacrifice. And so friends, we all need to remember this. We need to remember that God is concerned about sins of omission, and we need to deal with them when we recognize that we have sinned. The way that we deal with that is confession. Agreeing with God about what we have done. And as we do that, our hope is not in how well we put the words together. And there are some people that almost think that way. As long as I have all the words of my prayer of confession in the right order, that's what's gonna merit me favor with God. That's not the case. Your hope is ultimately and always in Jesus. It's his blood that cleansed you, and it's his blood that cleanses you. I want to tell you the rest of the story about Bob. Bob was out of the ministry for a while. And as time went on, and his repentance was apparent, and his church recognized their need for a faithful shepherd, they reached back out to Bob. And Bob has been restored to that church, not only as a member, but again as its pastor. And he is now reaching, we might say, those twilight years of his own ministry. And he pastors now a church in which there are three other elders serving along with him. A church that by God's grace, when he moves on, will be ready to continue. What is it that helped, what is it that restored them to fellowship with one another? that same cleansing blood of Christ. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. It would have never happened if He hadn't confessed. It would have never happened if, as the time went on, His confession had proven to be ingenuous. His confession had proven to be just words. But Christ, in His mighty way, has reunited that flock and its shepherd and has built that church back stronger than it was before. That's amazing grace. I wonder today what would have happened if Bob had never confessed. If Bob had just kept on going with that sin gnawing at his conscience. Would he have kept on serving and for a while had all kinds of ability and power from outward appearance? Maybe. Would he have kept on going so long that he was able to deaden his conscience? Maybe. But I suspect that had he continued without confessing, that church wouldn't even be here today. It was only through that painful time of confession and being apart from that ministry that that church was able to truly, spiritually heal and grow. Friends, there's nothing that darkness hates more than the light. As we sin, bring that to God. And if we've sinned against others, confess that to others. and be willing to show true repentance by acts of retribution. But we'll get back to that next week. May God give us the grace of obedience. Amen.