So, open with me to Leviticus chapter 4. I should ask for a show of hands of who groaned when they looked at the text for tonight. I won't say who in my family groaned when I told them what I was preaching on. But, give ear to God's Word here. Leviticus chapter 4. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about things not to be done, and does any of them, if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed, a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering. He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the Lord. And the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting. And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle parts of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense before the Lord, that is, in the tent of meeting, and all the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, that is, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And all the fat of the bull, of the sin offering, he shall remove from it, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys, just as these are taken from the ox of the sacrifice of the peace offering. And the priests shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering. But the skin of the bull and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung, all the rest of the bull he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and shall burn it up on a fire of wood. On the ash heap it shall be burned up. If the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally, and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and they realize their guilt, when the sin which they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall offer a bull from the herd for a sin offering and bring it in front of the tent of meeting. And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be killed before the Lord. Then the anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting, and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil, and he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is in the tent of meeting before the Lord, and the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And all of its fat he shall take from it and burn on the altar. Thus shall he do with the bull. As he did with the bull of the sin offering, so shall he 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 burned the first bull. It is the sin offering for the assembly. When a leader sins, doing unintentionally any one of all the things that by the commandments of the Lord his God ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without blemish, and shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord. It is a sin offering. Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. And all its fat he shall burn on the altar like the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. So the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin and he shall be forgiven. If any one of the common people sins, unintentionally, in doing any one of the commandments, the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat a female without blemish for his sin which he has committed. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering in the place of burnt offering. and the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all of the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. And all its fat he shall remove, as the fat is removed from the peace offerings, and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a pleasing aroma to the Lord, and the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. If he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring a female without blemish and lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering. Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar and all its fat he shall remove as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings and the priest shall burn it on the altar on top of the Lord's food offerings. And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed and he shall be forgiven. Dr. Clark this morning told us about the moral, civil, and ceremonial law and rightly said the ceremonial law is it has expired as it's fulfilled in Christ, and that's very important. And after reading this, you might hope, well, we hope maybe it would have been expunged too, taken out of our Bibles. Do we need to go back and look at it, to think about it? But just because it has expired doesn't mean we should ignore it. Instead, we miss much if we don't get to know it a little bit. And that's what we're going to try to do tonight. We need to get to know it because it was a daily or weekly or however often part of an average Israelite's life. This was an important thing that structured how they thought and how they acted. And so we need to look at it, study it, so we don't misunderstand it. And so we can also then look elsewhere and see where it's important. And what we'll see is that too often we don't see the variety in sacrifice that the Old Testament has. And we'll look at that, that there are various reasons for sacrifices. And as we look at these sacrifices and the individual ones, we see how they point forward to Christ, but we also see their limits, how they very much showed that you couldn't stop with what was in the Old Testament. Something better was needed. Jesus is better, as the book of Hebrews tells us. And so when we look at these, we'll see that really they emphasize to us the extent of our need, highlighting God's holiness to us, and also showing how God provides. And as we do that, it will make us better readers of the rest of the biblical text. And so for our sermon tonight, I was able to get three points. Dr. Clark had three, so I had to get three. And we'll do context, confusion, and comfort. context is first thinking of how this this one sacrifice right we read chapter 4 really the sacrifices are described in chapters 1 through 7 and so we need some context about sacrifice in israel in general a little bit of an overview and then confusion there may be some confusion as you read this, that it doesn't seem to cover the sins that we think would need to be covered. We saw unintentional, unintentional, unintentional in there. And so we'll think about that. There's confusion with that. And then comfort, finally, as what does this sin offering do? It shows us that God can provide a way to reconcile his people. So those will be our three points. Context, confusion, and comfort. And context will probably be the longest one right up front. Now, as we think of context, part of it that I think is important is just our daily lives now. I could ask for a show of hands of how many people have killed and butchered a large animal. I won't do that, but probably here in this congregation, It's higher than the average American population. But for many of us, that's not a part of our daily life. We think of animals mainly as pets. We think of meat as what we get from the grocery store. And those two don't go together. We don't know how it got to the grocery store and we don't care. As long as it tastes good. Well, for Israelites, animals were their livelihood. Animals were their bank account walking around. Animals were dinner waiting to be served. And so every Israelite would have known how to kill, would have known how to butcher. That was part of their regular life. And so as we think of sacrifice, the procedure for the various sacrifices, there's variation, but there's stuff that they all share right at the beginning. Somebody's got to bring an animal. There's the offerer. He presents the animal. And then he lays his hand on it, and we'll talk more about that later. But then he kills the animal. From the text, it seems clear that it's probably the guy who brought the animal. He's the one who's killing the animal. Maybe somebody could help him with that. But he would be the one killing it. And then he's also the one who's skinning it and butchering it and doing all of that. The priests, their job is to move the blood, to move the parts that get burned on the altar. And so for us, when we think of that, that's probably the most traumatic part, the killing, the skinning, butchering. But for an Israelite, that was normal, everyday activity. And so we have to get over that. The second thing that I think with sacrifice is we hear it as New Testament Christians, and I think we right away think sin. Sacrifice, what does it do when it addresses sin? And we need to nuance that, because I don't think it had such a strong connotation for your average Israelite in the Old Testament. They did bring sacrifices for sins, but they brought sacrifices for a lot of other reasons. They brought sacrifices when they were happy. They brought sacrifices when they wanted to consecrate themselves. They brought sacrifices when they wanted to eat goat chops. When you wanted to eat, you needed to bring a sacrifice because that was the proper place for the animal to be killed. And so as we look at that, we need to see that these sacrifices, they probably, we don't know for certain, but most of them probably were not given for sin, at least not specific sins. There were many given for impurity. We've looked at that before for a new mother. She needed to bring a sacrifice to be purified at the end. But sacrifices were often when you had a party. Sacrifices were when the festival was, when everybody gathered together, and then you brought these before the Lord, And you sacrificed them, you ate them, and you rejoiced. And that's what we find in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 5, God says to his people, he says, But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all the tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contributions that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd, your flock. This is my favorite part. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and all your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you. They're commanded to eat and rejoice. That's what it was when they gathered and brought these sacrifices before the Lord. It was this festival. And as we think of the New Testament, we see also there that sacrifice isn't always connected with sin. We see especially with consecration. And so the book of Hebrews, as it's looking back at this Old Testament system, it categorizes it in two ways. In Hebrews chapter 5, it says, for every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. Both of those are these offerings that we'll speak more about. And the New Testament elsewhere can appeal and call sacrifice what we do as consecration. So Romans chapter 12 verse 1 says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. We're not presenting our bodies for sin, but as consecration, as thanksgiving to God. And we can see that in a number of other passages. So, as we think of the Old Testament, it's helpful to remember that there are four main sacrifices. And there'll be a quiz afterwards as you're all leaving, I'll ask, to see if you remember. But four main sacrifices, and we see them described in chapters 1 through 7 here. And the first is the burnt offering. The whole burnt offering described in Leviticus chapter 1. The second is the peace offering, or the fellowship offering. The third is the one we're looking at, the sin offering, that maybe sometimes is translated purification offering. And the fourth is described then in chapter 5 and 6 as the guilt or the reparation offering. So we have these four, the burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, and guilt offering. And with them would then be grain mixed with oil and other things made into bread or just brought his grain, and also drink. So there would be a grain offering and a drink offering of wine to go along with these. And so as we think of these four, the last two, the sin offering and the guilt offering, they're the ones that are brought for sin. That sin is specifically in focus. And as we saw in our text, with this one, we see various places it says, and he shall atone for him, and he shall be forgiven. There was sin, there was atonement needed, there was forgiveness as the end result. And so we see that with the sin offering and this guilt offering. Though they can have a wider use too, they can be used for impurity. And we see them like with the new mother and what she needed to bring. The peace offering, that second one we listed, is the sacrifice that's not for sin. It's a sacrifice that's either characterized as thanksgiving or a vow, consecration, that idea. And it is the one sacrifice that you could eat from. You bring your goat, you bring your lamb, you bring your bull, and most of the meat comes back to you. Only the fat portions are burned up. And so this is the one that probably was most common, especially at those festivals, as they're commanded to eat and rejoice. These were these peace offerings. And then the last one is that burnt offering. And it was the one sacrifice where everything was burned up. Maybe what you think of a sacrifice. No, actually, it was everything but the hide and some of the other cut-out parts. But all of the meat, all of the fat, all of that was burned up with this burnt offering. And its function was a little bit split. It could be for thanksgiving, or maybe a vow, but it's also sometimes tied with those that are for sin. It's tied together with a sin offering or a guilt offering. And so it's the only one where everything's burned up. With both the peace offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, with all three of those, as we read in our text, It talks just about the fat, and it's just the internal organ fat, and around the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver, those parts. I didn't bring pictures. But those parts, those are the only things that are offered up. All the rest of the meat, with a peace offering, the people ate it. With the others, the priests ate it. All right, so we have those four, and we have these sacrifices. And as we think of them, they need to be connected in our mind with the ceremonial system as a whole. The ceremonial with its washings and all that went along with it, they're both tied together and they're connected with God's presence at the temple or the tabernacle as it was first there. God was holy. God came to his people and said, I want to dwell with you. He took his people to him and he made his dwelling amongst them. But that's the problem. God is holy and the people are not. God is perfectly righteous and the people are not. God is perfectly just and the people are not. How could this holy, righteous God dwell in the midst of a sinful people? And that's where this whole system of ceremonies and sacrifices comes in. It's this lived-out system that Israel was to partake in to constantly remind them, God was here, God is in our presence, God is holy and must be approached in such a way. And so as we think of that, we can think of this sacrificial system as having a positive and negative aspect. It's positive in that it's giving thanks to God. And so it's called this sweet-smelling aroma, this food gift. We get these various names, and they're drawing, we could say, God's presence in. But it also deals with the negative. As it deals with expiation, these various ways for sin or uncleanness, these hindrances to God's presence being there. Those hindrances need to be removed or God will leave. Like we find in Ezekiel. They go in, they look at the temple, and they find it filled with idolatry, uncleanness. And God, his presence, up and leaves and goes into exile with his people. And so sacrifice is part of that. Part of that system to remind Israel that God was there, to remind them of what it meant. And we can look at various parts of it. There was always a sacrifice burning. morning and evening. They had a morning and evening sacrifice. There was this sweet-smelling aroma always going up before the Lord. The fire was never to go out on the altar. It was always burning. And so it's drawing God in and it's dealing with the problems of a sinful people round about. How can a holy God be there with a sinful people? And so as we think of that, Think of all of these rules that an Israelite would need to remember. All of the rules of what to eat, all of the rules of uncleanness, how to deal with his family, how to deal with his flocks, his herds, what to do with his flocks and herds. Some belong to the Lord, some did not. And how to bring them. We have all of these various rules that he needed to know. Well, God emphasized his holiness by showing the consequences for breaking all those rules. We can read in the law that eating from a sacrifice, you needed to be clean. What if you came unclean in aid of the sacrifice? You were to be cut off. It was a death penalty. And as we think of the various stories we have, we can think of Nadab and Abihu who come and they offer incense before the Lord, but it's not as he required. It was strange fire. And fire came out from the Lord and consumed him. And we can think of Uzzah who's standing there next to the ark as it's going up towards Jerusalem on this ox cart and it's almost falling off and he reaches out to touch it and God strikes him down because you were not to touch the ark. That's why it had poles to be carried on by the Levites. The consequences for breaking these laws were death. And so we can understand why the people, as they're in the wilderness and they're seeing this, as God is striking those who are in rebellion and such against them. In Numbers 17, verse 12, they cry out to Moses. They say, the people of Israel said to Moses, behold, we perish. We are undone. We are all undone. Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord shall die. Are we all to perish? They were despairing of this. Well, let's now turn to our second point. As we look at this sin offering, we might have a little confusion. We've emphasized all this problem with sin and other such things. We think we need this robust sin offering. And it's offered at various times. We could look at other contexts. We've mentioned the new mother for her impurity needs to bring it. It's part of major festivals. But here it's for these specific sins. And the reason might surprise you. We see there verse 2. Speak to the people of Israel saying, if anyone sins unintentionally. Unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about things not to be done and does any one of them. What does that mean? What was this offering for, this unintentional sin that it's talking about? Well, we could, it's helpful to turn up and maybe look at 27 and 28. There we get it said again now of the common person. It says, if any one of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done and realizes his guilt. So there has to be some realization that comes or, notice the other side, the sin which he has committed is made known to him. So whatever he did, this unintentional, he needs to later realize on his own or somebody else tells him that this was a sin. And that's why most rightly, I think, talk about what are these unintentional sins. Well, they are sins done either through negligence or ignorance. So one commentator puts it this way. He says, either the offender knows the law, but involuntarily violates it. He doesn't mean to violate it, he involuntarily does. Or he acts knowingly, but is unaware that what he is doing is wrong. So those two things, that he knows the law and that something's wrong, but he breaks it, but not intentionally. He breaks it unintentionally and involuntarily. That, or he may not know the law and not know what he's doing is wrong. And so either of those qualify as that unintentional. And so if he realizes it later, or someone else tells him something round about, then he needs to bring this sin offering. But there's a second part to it. It's what commandments are covered for this? All right, we can see the unintentional part, breaking this unintentionally. What commandments are part of it? Israel was commanded not to steal. And so what if you unintentionally steal from somebody? Do you need to bring a sin offering? Or if we use another example, the same word unintentional is used for murder. There's a distinction in Israel between intentional murder and when you weren't meaning to kill anybody, unintentional murder. Today, you need to bring a sin offering. Well, turn with me to Numbers chapter 15. It helps us to think of this. And in Numbers chapter 15, verse 22, we'll start out there and then we'll jump up to a little further on, verse 30. And so here is a similar law to what we get in Leviticus 4. So Numbers 15, verse 22. But if you sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses, all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses from the day that the Lord gave commandments and onward through your generations. If you do that, and then it talks about what you're supposed to bring as an offering. But then jump up with me to verse 30. So that's all on the unintentional side. But the person who does anything with a high hand does it defiantly. But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner reviles the Lord and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off, his iniquity shall be on him. And so we see here a distinction. There's unintentional and then there's with a high hand. Unintentional you can bring this sin offering. But if it's with a high hand, if it's defiantly, you are to be cut off. Now, as we think of that, this punishment of being cut off, we see that thereby it must not include these commandments that were being talked about. It must not include some laws that don't end with the death penalty. Stealing doesn't end with being cut off. It instead means you have to pay back multiple of what you stole. Instead, this being cut off is used almost exclusively of what we could say are sins against God's person more directly, or his tabernacle. They're sins that are not so much between you and another Israelite, but they're sins between you and God. Now, we would say all sins are ultimately an affront to God. But here, there seems to be this distinction that they're making. And so, as we see that, we're helped out because right after what we read, we're given an example. And he would take this as an example. There's a man who was gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And they inquired of the Lord what was to be done with this person. And the Lord says to Moses, the man shall be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stone. So this is an example. This person was not doing it unintentionally. He was breaking the Sabbath commandment, this thing against the Lord, his holy day, and he was doing it with a high hand defiantly, and so he was to be killed. There was not the option of a sin offering for him, because it was not unintentional. And so I would argue that that's what we need to see as we think of this sin offering. These are these crimes that were condemned by God that are against his person or his sanctuary or his day. In many ways, we could say there are many ceremonial laws. There are many of the cultic laws, religious laws in that sense. And so, using that example, if you went out and gathered wood, and all of a sudden you realized it's the Sabbath. You didn't go out to do that and desecrate the Sabbath, but you realized as an Israelite, after you started, that would qualify you for the sin offering. The sin offering. And if we turn back to Leviticus, chapter 4 gives us the general. The beginning of chapter 5 gives us some specifics. And it lists a number of cases there that are probably, we could say, somewhat unclear or debated, and so they were listed out. And we'll look, maybe most helpful is starting with verse 2 there. If anyone touches an unclean thing, whether a carcass of an unclean wild animal or a carcass of an unclean livestock or a carcass of unclean swarming things and it's hidden from him and he has become unclean and he realizes his guilt. And so then we could jump down to verse 5. When he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses his sin, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed. A female from the flock, a lamb or a goat for a sin offering. And so, see, there was a violation of some of the ceremonial law. Somebody became unclean and they didn't realize it. And so they didn't do anything about it. But later on, either they're told about it or it comes to their knowledge, They realize it, and so then they have to bring this sin offering. They have to bring it to the Lord. And so the other ones are similar in that. And I think this also helps us as we think of this section, chapter 4. We notice there's four different people we read about, the high priest, then the congregation, then the leader, and then the common Israelite. How could the high priest, as it says in verse 3, sin this unintentional sin and bring guilt on the people? Well, the high priest is the one who's leading them in all of these ceremonies. And so if he unintentionally goes against those, it will cause not only grief upon him, but all of the rest of Israel. And so he needs to bring his sin offering for that. And so as we think about this, this confusing maybe at the beginning, we need to realize, as we think of the sacrifices as a whole, that in Israel there's many things you can't bring a sacrifice for. David, when he committed murder and adultery, couldn't look up in Leviticus and find the sacrifice for murder, the sacrifice for adultery. There was none. It was a death penalty. There was not a sacrifice for that. And like we said, if you did all these other things, ceremonial things also, with a high hand, there was not a sacrifice for that. You were cut off. But there was also many things that we would call a sin that didn't require a sacrifice. The things between you and another Israelite. I steal your goat, I need to pay you back for goats. But we never have anywhere where it says that I need to bring a sacrifice. And so as we think on that, in many ways we're struck with the limits of the system. The limits of what was covered. There weren't sacrifices for most of the things that we think there needs to be sacrifices for. The things we commonly think of as sins. And here in chapter 4 is a whole chapter developing a sacrifice for something that we would hardly qualify as a sin. These unintentional breakings of God's ceremonial laws. God is here dealing with what we might think is unimportant. And I think by that demonstrating the extent of his perfections, that our need is so much greater than what we usually dwell on. As his presence there in the tabernacle forces Israel to see how much, how sinful they are. And so I think it really helps us see this seriousness of sin. We say to err is human, but that doesn't make it right in God's eyes. God made man perfect. That is what is needed to be in his presence. But then we get the comfort as we dwell on this. The sin offering, it shows us that God can provide a way. And so as we think of this ceremonial sacrificial system, what it's teaching Israel, they're living out, the tabernacle's there, God is holy, what is needed to be in his presence. We see Leviticus 4 as part of the way God is providing a way for his people to be there. And as we saw, there's these four different groups listed. There is some slight differences in what happens with these four groups. dealing with their responsibilities in Israel, the high priest having more responsibilities. His sacrifice is greater, and where the blood is brought is greater. It goes inside the tabernacle, not to the outside altar, as we'll mention here. But we see these differences in that. But quickly we can run through what needs to happen. A person needs to bring that animal, as we said, And then they lean their hand on it. And we might think that that's moving the sin to the animal. We need to be a little careful because they do that with all those sacrifices, including that peace offering that we mentioned wasn't for sin. But it's more, this is a sign of ownership. I'm the one bringing this, and whatever this sacrifice is about, this is what this animal is doing. This animal is here for me in that. And so then he kills, and then the priests take that blood. And for all the other sacrifices, the blood is just dashed against the altar. But here the blood, something unique, happens with it. For those first two groups, that high priest and the people, it's brought inside the tabernacle. There is an incense altar there inside the tabernacle. And he sprinkles it seven times before the veil that separates from the Holy of Holies. and then he puts it on the four horns of that altar. And if it's a leader or a common Israelite, then he brings it, and just on that outer altar, where all of the burnt offerings go up, the priest will bring, and he will put it on those four horns of the altar. And as we think of that, I think it's helpful to remember that this sin offering was also brought for impurity. And so it's right to connect that there is this connection or metaphor that's going on that it's dealing with that impurity of sin. It has stained the person and the tabernacle, and here this offering is able to deal with that. But many also say there's this connection being made. That blood, the guy who brought it, showing his ownership, that blood has now touched this most sacred place of God's temple or his tabernacle. And so it's forming, reforming that bond. There's reconciliation that is coming about. And so then the rest of the blood is poured out at the base of the altar. And then, as we mentioned, the fat parts with those internal organs, they're offered up. And for the high priest and for the congregation, their blood that's brought inside, then the rest of the animal is brought outside of the camp to a clean place, and it's burned up. For the leader or for the common Israelite, the rest of the meat is then given to the priest. And the priests are to eat of it. And many take that to see a disposal of that impurity, either by burning or by consuming. But what I think we need to see here is the person who's bringing this is under a death penalty. They've broken a law that the penalty is cutting off. And so here they're bringing an animal and its blood is being brought in and paying for that, expiating, making atonement, making a ransom. And that's exactly what Leviticus tells us this blood is about. Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11, as it discusses blood and how you're to use it in verse 11, it says, for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Death, by the law, was required for breaking these commandments and here God had provided a way that death did not result. Instead, reconciliation, atonement, resulted. There was payment for sin. And so I think we need to see in that, we said that we're somewhat shocked at what sins are covered here, but we need to see how this system, it shows us that problem of sin, that perfection that's needed, but it also shows us God can provide a way, even though it doesn't show us the full way that he will reveal in his Son. The way that will be a way to bring about reconciliation, not just for unintentional sin, but for all of those sins that we do intentionally each and every day. And the apostle who wrote the book of Hebrews for us, he dwells on that. And so we'll end with that. As we see this provision in the Old Testament, God's willingness, his desire to have his people with us and provide a way for that, highlighting that, we need to also see that the mosaic was inadequate. The mosaic, the author to the Hebrews tells us, really showed us the extent of sin as they offered sacrifices again and again and again and again. Instead, Jesus comes once for all. And so we read Hebrews chapter 9, 10 and following. He says of the priest when he's going in for the Day of Atonement. These preparations having been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties. But into the second section, only the high priest goes, and only once a year. And this is the Day of Atonement, and not without taking blood. Listen to this. which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy place is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, Regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when Christ, right, the greater. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places. Not by means of the blood of bulls and goats and calves, but by means of his own blood. thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of bulls and goats and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh. What God could do there in the Old Testament, if he could bring that reconciliation there, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, Purify our consciences from dead works to serve the living God. And that's the joy that we have. That's the freedom that we have. Jesus is the better sin offering. And because of that, because he's come, because all of that ceremonial law has gone away, we can approach without fear, without trembling. As the author to the Hebrews goes on, he says, you haven't come to that blazing mountain where anybody who crossed the line was shot down. Instead, he says, you've come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable angels and festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we are in awe of your mercy to us. As we think of the extent of our sin, as we think and dwell and cannot comprehend your holiness and righteousness, we rejoice that you have loved us even when we were enemies and you chose to reconcile to us. And you showed Israel your desire in various ways and yet we rejoice being on this side of the cross that we have now seen it in all of its wonder and all its glory and we rejoice and take our confidence only in Christ alone. And so we pray this in his name. Amen.