FBC Daily Devotional – April 6, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Tuesday to you. I hope your week has gotten off to a good start, and as I encouraged you yesterday,

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I hope you were able to stay focused, stay on mission, stay on target.

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And I get to think about that even some more lately. And in my own personal experience, I've realized that when

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I allow myself to get distracted and it eats away at time, well, important things, things

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I really need to get done, they don't end up getting done like they should, and that pushes them off to a later time.

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And then that crams the later time, doesn't it? And when that later time is crammed, then

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I feel more pressure and I feel less available for expressions of compassion.

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I have less margin. So that warning yesterday, that encouragement yesterday to stay on target, stay focused, stay on mission is a good one, and I need to be reminded of it regularly.

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Well, in today's reading, let me ask this. Those of you who are parents, how many times have you heard the excuse, well,

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I forgot, or I didn't know. And did you let the kid off the hook?

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I hope not. I hope you didn't just say, well, okay. But from here on out, now you surely want to do the from here on out thing, but you also want to be sure to hold the child accountable, especially if you as a parent know that you have communicated your wishes or your demands and the child hasn't carried them out.

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I mean, think, for example, you've experienced this, haven't you? Maybe you haven't, and if not, that's great.

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But you've been driving down the highway and tooling along, not really thinking much about anything, just driving, and all of a sudden you look in the rear view mirror and you see this car fast approaching you with the little red and blue lights flashing, and it comes up right on your tail, and you go, uh -oh, and you pull over and the officer comes and he, of course, takes your license and registration, insurance card, and all that good stuff.

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And then he says, do you know how fast you were going? You say, well, no, now that you mentioned it,

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I really don't. And he said, well, you were going 12 miles over the speed limit, 12 miles an hour over the speed limit.

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And you say, oh, wow, I didn't know. I didn't know. And the officer says, sit here, you know, and he goes back to his car and he does a few things, and depending on what he finds out when he does his thing, you know, he gets on the computer and runs your license plate, your driver's license, and all that stuff.

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And if you've got a pretty clean driving record and he doesn't see any violations in the last five years or whatever, he may come back to you and say, all right, now look, this is a warning.

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I'm going to let you go this time, but you need to pay attention to how fast you're going. And you say, yes, officer, yes, officer,

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I will, I will, I will. And he lets you go. And from that point on, you know, for the rest of that journey at least, you're paying very close attention to the speed limit and to your speedometer.

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And maybe if you have cruise control, making sure it's set at the right place. But the point is that just because you didn't know doesn't mean you get off the hook.

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Doesn't mean you're not going to be held accountable. Doesn't mean the cop isn't going to pull you over. Well, what's true in our modern life is actually rooted in the

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Old Testament Scriptures. And if you're reading along in the Bible reading plan, today you were to read Leviticus 4 and 5, and that principle comes out very clearly.

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It's a principle established by God. He gave his law, and if somebody violated that law, trespassed against that law, they didn't have the excuse to say, oh,

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I'm sorry. I didn't know. No, they still needed to be held accountable. And they still needed to deal with that unintentional sin, that unintentional trespass.

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In other words, just because they didn't know or just because they forgot doesn't mean they don't have to deal with the guilt of that sin.

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The guilt has to be dealt with. Now, in the Old Testament economy, that was dealt with by this sacrificial system, as laid out here in Leviticus 4 and 5.

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But those sacrifices, let's remember, pointed forward to the one sacrifice for sin that our

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Lord paid in his own body on the cross. So when we sin unintentionally, we don't have to offer some animal to pay for the, to atone for our unintentional sin.

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Jesus bore that sin in his body on the cross. But when we're made aware of it, as soon as we're aware of it, we need to have a tender enough conscience to go before the

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Lord, confess that sin to the Lord, and to forsake it. And of course, therefore, to be careful in the future from committing that sin.

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Now, as you read through this passage, there are a few things I want you to note. One of them is that the guilt of that sin needed to be addressed as soon as it was realized.

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So in chapter 4, Leviticus 4, verse 14, he says,

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When the sin which they have committed becomes known, then the assembly shall offer a young bull for the sin.

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So as soon as the guilt is realized, it needs to be addressed, just as I mentioned a minute ago.

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As soon as the Holy Spirit convicts us and makes us aware of our guilt, then we need to get before the

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Lord and confess it and deal with it. The second thing I observed in this passage is that the greater a person's responsibility, the greater the sacrifice was required.

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So a priest, for example, if he sinned even unintentionally, he needed to offer a bull without blemish.

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If it was the whole congregation, if the whole nation, as a majority, sinned in some unintentional way, likewise, a bull was required.

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If it was a leader of the people, one of the elders, for example, of the people, if he sinned, he was to bring a male goat.

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If it was just an individual, an individual could bring a female goat or a lamb, or if he was poor, a couple of turtle doves.

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So the principle there is the greater the area of responsibility, the greater the position of responsibility, the greater the accountability, and he will be held accountable in a greater way.

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And then another thing I want us to notice in chapter 5 is that the unintentional sin was even more serious, it was all the more serious, if it involved the holy things, things related to the tabernacle or to worship.

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So in chapter 5, verse 14, the Lord said, "...commits a trespass and sins unintentionally in regard to the holy things of the

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Lord, then he shall bring to the Lord his trespass offering of a ram without blemish from the flocks."

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And some shekels to go along with it. So any unintentional trespass related to the worship of the

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Lord or the tabernacle or eventually the temple, that needed to be addressed as well.

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So when you get right down to it, just because a person sins unintentionally doesn't mean he's not guilty.

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In fact, this section ends, chapter 5, in this way, in verse 17 and following, it says, "...if

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a person sins and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the

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Lord, though he does not know it, yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity, and he shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish from the flock with your valuation as a trespass offering and so on.

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The priest shall offer this as an atonement for him regarding his ignorance in which he erred and did not know it, and it shall be forgiven him.

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It is a trespass offering. He has certainly trespassed against the

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Lord." So don't take it lightly if you come to realize, oh,

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I didn't know that was sin. Man, okay, all right, I guess

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I won't do that anymore. And go on, no, if the Lord brings that to your mind, brings that to your attention, maybe through the scripture that you never saw before or didn't remember seeing before, then go before the

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Lord, confess that sin, and he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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Whatever you do, don't just take it lightly. All right, well, let's ask the Lord to bless these thoughts to our hearts today.

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Our Father and our God, we pray today that you would help us to be sensitive to sin, even to sin that we commit unintentionally, without consciously engaging in it.

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And Lord, I pray that we would deal with it quickly, deal with it right away, and not treat it lightly.

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This we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your