The Power of Repentance

Prayer for Illumination and Questions from the Sermon

Let us pray and then we'll get into our study of Leviticus again and see what we can dig out. We'll also ask if there were any questions from the sermon and things like that. Let's pray. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, we again thank you that everything we have comes from your hand, our life, our breath, our being, our soul, our salvation and we recognize our complete need for you to recognize and understand your word properly.

We pray that in studying your word that you would show us what to believe, convict us of our own sin and shortcoming, affirm us and build our confidence and faith in you for the forgiveness of our sins so that you may be glorified in all that we do.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Any questions regarding the sermon? Yes. Yes, ma 'am. Yeah. No. Here's the funny thing is that Saul himself, not only was he anointed, he received the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit came upon him and yet he grieved the Holy Spirit horribly and would not, he didn't, he's not a man of faith is the best way I can put it and punishment for his lack of faith, willful disobedience to God is that God punished him with a tormenting spirit.

I mean, when you read the details of it, I mean, it sounds like this is a guy who like completely lost his mind. He displays tendencies of, you know, being a narcissistic sociopath who also has some kind of schizophrenic delusions, constant suspicions and things like this.

And what we learn in scripture is that sometimes, and you can't say this always, sometimes though that type of outcome is a result as a punishment of sin. And in his case, it kind of reads out like that.

So you sit there and go, well, did the Holy Spirit really fall on him? Yes. No, he grieved the Holy Spirit continually through his persistent lack of faith and disobedience to God. And so I think in Saul's life, we see an example of a person who, like any Christian, starts off, you know, forgiven, graced by God with the Holy Spirit, and then through wanton, willful disobedience and a focus on himself ends up grieving the spirit and God withdraws his hands.

I think we see in Saul some example of somebody who has lost his salvation. So I think he's of that stripe. So, Maryland, Maryland. So do we need the recipe for that anointing oil? The recipe is Minnesota tap water, and it was applied to you here in, you know, at the font how many years ago, right?

Yeah, yeah. So God has, the best way I could put it is he simplified the recipe. So, and I got to admit that baptizing people with water is a lot easier to clean up than if I were to anoint them with oil.

You know, the times when I have had the opportunity to anoint the sick with oil, it's here. You're going to need this. Cleaning up is going to be a little tricky. So, all right. Any other questions as a result of the, hopefully you saw the type and shadow connection.

Motor oil. Synthetic, yes. Right, yeah. So it can ionically bond to my forehead, right? Oh man. All right. So we've been working our way through the book of Leviticus, and what I find fascinating about this book, and we noted this last week, that each time around the track we seem to learn a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more as it relates to these sacrifices, which we already showed from the book of Hebrews has their, you know, their fulfillment in Christ, and they are the types and shadows pointing to the sacrifice of Christ.

Sacrifices in Leviticus as Types and Shadows of Christ

And so as we worked our way around, we noted that with each pass, we get a little bit more information regarding some of these, to the point where we even learned last week that all sacrifices, all offerings ended up being salted, you know, which was a weird theme, but you know, you sit there, you go, I had no idea that every sacrifice had to be salted.

Yeah, so Leviticus, as we noted last week, is a book that requires you to be in it, and kind of work yourself through it. There are portions of it that, as a pastor, as I read in Leviticus, and I think we're in Leviticus 4 today, that when we get in, oh yeah, we talked about unintentional sins last week.

When we, there's certain portions of the book of Leviticus that will tell you that what is required of the Levitical priesthood, that I'm so thankful are not part of the pastorate. We'll see this in the in the days ahead as we work our way through this, that one of the ones that would just, I am so thankful I don't have to do, is we're going to see that Levite priests were required, so if somebody has a skin rash, a disease, or leprosy, or something like that, they had to show that to the priest, and the priest had to make a decision regarding their cleanness, and there were certain procedures for that, and I'm just sitting there going, you know, there's a reason why my dad, my stepdad, he's a medical doctor, and when I was a young kid, he really wanted to inspire me to become a physician, to become a doctor like he was, and so he got these medical journals, and he was an emergency room physician, so ER doctor work is like, you know, somebody's coming in, they're bleeding, their arm is hanging off their body, you know, their legs are mangled, or, you know, just horrible things happen to people, that's why they end up in the emergency room, and so he would sit me down and say, take a look at this month's emergency medical journal, what do you think of this, and what do you think of that, and I'm, and so I was traumatized as a child, so I may be overly sensitive when we get to some of the parts ahead, but you kind of see how this all plays out.

So last week we talked about unintentional sins, and the fact that when somebody even sins unintentionally, even unknowingly, it still requires a really expensive, full-blown sacrifice that is costly.

In Leviticus 4 .5, we noted that the priest shall take some of the blood of the bull, a bull is sacrificed for an unintentional sin, you know, you're thinking, they're going, well, that was just an oopsie, I had no idea, I didn't really intend to do that, why do I have to sacrifice a bull?

Well, all of our sins are, they have, there's a magnitude to it that we have to, you know, take into consideration. So Leviticus 4 .13, if the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally, how do you as a nation, whoops, how do you do that as a whole nation?

Not purposely setting out to defy God, but you sit there and you go, I had no idea. You think of that time in the Old Testament when, in Israel, they weren't reading the Word of God, and it got lost, and so what they ended up doing was they decided to have a fundraiser to refurbish Solomon's Temple, to repristinate it, you know, put some new paint on it and gussy up the place, and while they were doing the renovation, they found a copy of the Torah, and they brought it to the king, and the king, upon reading it, tore his clothes, and he realized, oh my goodness, I had no idea.

And at that time, there were false idols, there were idols inside the temple itself, within the holy place, to the starry host, and to Asherah, and to Baal, there were literal images to false gods inside of the temple at that time, and so you think of that fellow, that king, who didn't know God's Word, he didn't realize that all of that stuff that he'd grown up in, that was part of his everyday life, that was sinning against God.

So he was, the whole nation of Israel was sinning against God, some people knowingly, but as a nation, you know, the Word of God had fallen so far into the background, they were not informed by it, that they were sinning against God, and didn't even recognize they were doing it, it was totally unintentional.

And so when the king hears this, he tears his clothes, and it results in a reform, it results in a reform at his time, where he takes the idols out of the temple, he tears down the altars in the high places, set up to the false gods, but it was, for lack of a better way of putting it, almost too little too late.

So the subsequent generation, he did not experience the wrath of God in being brought into exile in Babylon, but his son did. So, you know, all that did was kind of push back the inevitable. But that would be an example, I think, of somebody who didn't sin intentionally, but yikes.

Unintentional Sin and the Need for Repentance

So, you know, think of it this way, there are places that call themselves churches today, and there are children being raised in these churches today, and they're being taught all kinds of false doctrine.

One of the things I was really disturbed by last summer was the ELCA's youth event. In the ELCA's youth event, you had these small children being indoctrinated and catechized into the belief that homosexuality is something that God embraces, something that God blesses, and so these children were being fed a complete lie.

So they're going to grow up thinking that it's Christian to affirm homosexuality, transgenderism, the LGBTQ community, and all this kind of stuff. And in the case of the people who are indoctrinating them into this, those people should know better.

But those kids are going to be embracing this, thinking that they're on the side of God, and the Archangel Michael, and the host of heaven, and they're actually directly in defiance of what His Word says.

Yes, yeah, yeah. That's the other piece of this, is that when you point out what Scripture says, you are automatically branded a bigot. Just a quick response for that kind of tactic when we experience that, you know.

So we have to recognize that for what it is in the moment. It's a slanderous breaking of the Eighth Commandment. So Don says, and I'm going to pick on Don. Don says, you know, Scripture says homosexuality is a sin.

Somebody comes at him and says, Don, you're a bigot. All right. Don goes, you know, and they come on really strong. This is how they, you know, they're very, very emotional when they charge. You just sit there and say, yeah, you just broke the Eighth Commandment.

What do you mean I broke the Eighth Commandment? I'm not a bigot. You're lying about me. I'm just affirming what Scripture says. You're slandering me and tearing down my character. Now in the Christian church, that works.

It should work. Okay. It should work because the rules of engagement that we're all called to play by, the rules of engagement are what? The Ten Commandments. So when somebody says, well, the reason why you do that is because you think that you're better than I am.

They just broke the Eighth Commandment. They just slandered you. And you don't have to defend yourself in that situation. You don't have to sit there and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't think I'm better than you.

And because wouldn't you do that? You're actually playing by their rules. You just stop and you say, no, you just broke the Eighth Commandment. You need to repent. What you said is a lie. Push it back on them.

Firmly, lovingly, calling it out for what it is. Sin. By the way, there's only one solution for sin. Only one. Christ and his death on the cross and the forgiveness of our sins. That's the only solution.

So as Christians then, we want to lovingly and firmly admonish one another when we see that they are falling short and sinning and push them back, point them back to Christ and the forgiveness of their sins.

All right. So the whole congregation of Israel now is unintentionally sinning. 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 then they realize their guilt. And they realize their guilt. How does one come to realize one's guilt? The word of God. The law of God. And when the sin which they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall offer a bull from the herd for a sin offering.

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 Yahweh. And the bull shall be killed before Yahweh. Then the anointed priest, the Mashiach.

I love pointing that out. The anointed priest. I think it's fascinating that it makes the point. Anointed priest. Anointed. The anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting.

The priest shall dip his finger in the blood, sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil. He shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is in the tent of meeting before Yahweh.

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 its fat 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. Yeah, that's the other part of it. How important it is to hear from God that you are forgiven. So the whole nation sins against God unintentionally.

They realize their guilt. The law of God has confronted them regarding their collective sin. Not individual, but collective. They've repented. They've offered the sacrifice. And the priest can say the sacrifice has been made.

Y 'all are forgiven. Is that not what we do every Sunday here? Every single Sunday. We confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. Well, I can point you to the cross now. I can point to the fact that Christ has bled and died.

He's not a bull. That bull that is mentioned here in Leviticus. That bull is for all of our sins. That's Christ. He's bled and died. And he's gone behind the veil we heard in Hebrews. And he has taken his own blood.

He's our prophet, our priest, our king. He's taken his own blood and poured it out on the real mercy seat. And so I can declare to the community here, y 'all's sins are forgiven. So he should carry the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull and does the sin offering for the assembly.

Corporate Confession, Atonement, and Forgiveness

When a leader sins, doing unintentionally any one of all the things that by the commandments of Yahweh his God ought not to be done. And then he 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. Now a little bit of a note here. I can think of a fellow who was a leader in Israel who sinned and it had to be made known to him. Now let's talk about marriage dynamics for a second here.

Okay maybe it's just me. But I've noticed that marriages sometimes there's a dynamic. And the dynamic goes something like this. And it works both ways from either the husband or the wife. One of the members of the marriage sins.

One of the members of the marriage does something boneheaded, stupid, hurts the other person. Right? And here's what happens. Here's what happens. The person who is hurt is hurt. And they stew on it. And they're waiting.

They're waiting and they're waiting and they're waiting. And they're waiting. What are they waiting for? For the light bulb to go on in their spouse. For them to realize that what they did hurt them. And what they did was wrong.

But the other spouse just goes along their merry way. Right? The silent treatment. Okay now. So it has a name. Okay. The silent treatment. Going about their business. Right? Doing their thing. Right? And they're getting angrier and angrier and angrier.

And it's like it's like putting a pot on the stove. Right? It starts off cool and it starts to get warmer. Some steam starts to come off it. And finally gets to a rolling boil. And you know you're right about at the rolling boil.

When you say to your spouse, hey honey I love you. How you doing? Fine. That word. It sends ice through my veins. Yeah. What's the matter? Nothing. Nothing. Oh no. I'm in trouble. And then you say, what did I do?

Why are you angry? If I have to tell you, if I have to tell you why I'm angry, then your apology means nothing. And so you start running through the Rolodex of like the day the past couple days the last week.

It's like I'm not seeing it. Okay. I don't get it. Right? And so they finally after some collisions emotionally end up saying okay you did this out of the other thing. And you go oh my goodness I didn't even realize that.

I'm so sorry. Well I'm not accepting your apology because if you were really sorry I wouldn't have had to tell you. That doesn't work biblically. It doesn't work biblically. Consider King David. King David.

He's getting old enough where heading out to war isn't the thing he ought to do. I mean he's gone from being a player on the field to being a coach. Right? And so the armies head out you know in that in the season for fighting wars.

And he stays back. He's up on his balcony and whoa who's that? And we all know how the story goes. Right? And you're gonna know along the way King David had ample opportunity to recognize his sin, confess it, and be forgiven, and turn away from it.

But our sinful nature has this really amazing ability to justify the unjustifiable. And so he sleeps with Bathsheba. He should have felt remorse and confessed to sin at that point and he doesn't. She sends word that she's pregnant and he doesn't sit there and go oh my goodness I need to repent this is horrible.

He decides he's going to cover all of this up. And in the moment the thing that's totally escaping his mind that his behavior is utterly sinful. So cover-up involves sending Uriah, her husband, back to Jerusalem thinking he's going to spend time with his wife and well that didn't work.

And when that plot was foiled he had the ability to repent. Did he? Nope. You think he would kind of get the hint? This isn't working out for him. It's as if maybe God's opposed to him here. So his solution I know.

I'll come up with a way of murdering Uriah the Hittite and make it look like you know he died in war. Guys die in war all the time. You know sword takes one guy takes another. So he has him murdered. He gets word back from Joab.

The deed is done. Did he repent? No. Not at all. He's compounded his sins now. Sin upon sin upon sin upon sin. And then he marries Bathsheba. It was one of those quickie marriages you know. And it makes you wonder.

I mean does he look like some kind of a hero? Oh this poor this poor beautiful hot widow. I'll take her because she's got nobody. But I will grace her by taking her to be my wife. So he does that. So God says all right.

Calls up Nathan the prophet. Hey Nathan need you to go talk with David. So Nathan goes and confronts him. Only when he was confronted did he repent. God works through means. And the word of the prophet Nathan was the word of God.

He confronted with him with his sin. And what does David do? Immediately I've sinned against God. And he receives an absolution from Nathan. God has put away your sin. There were consequences that followed.

But he had true repentance true reconciliation. And he didn't come up with this by himself. He needed a little bit of assistance from God. And the reality is this. Is that each of us needs assistance from God.

And there may be sins that you're struggling with. Sins that you've committed. That are completely blind to you. And God is going to work through means. So you're reading your bible one day. And you realize oh wow man I really dropped the ball there.

Oh lord have mercy on me what have I done. Now that might look like you came up with the idea. But you didn't. God's word confronted you in the moment. The spirit working through the word confronted you with your sin.

But then again you might need somebody to assist you. Who lovingly desires your repentance and to be reconciled. And for you to be reconciled to God and those whom you've hurt. And so you have to lovingly say hey listen brother sister don't know if you know this but you've sinned.

I know it's so non-norwegian right. It's very uncomfortable. But this is the mechanism for reconciliation. The mechanism of telling the people the truth about themselves. So when a leader sins doing unintentionally any one of all the things by the commandments of the Lord his God ought not to be done.

And he realizes his guilt or the sin which he has committed is made known to him. True repentance oftentimes will require the assist. He shall bring as his offering a goat a male without blemish and shall lay his hand on the head of the goat kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before Yahweh.

It is a sin offering. And then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger 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 that the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin and he shall be forgiven. Full stop. That's the best part.

And he shall be forgiven. So 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 you notice we're going to round this track a few times.

We're going to cover everybody. Or the sin which he has committed is made known to him. He shall bring for his offering a goat or a female without blemish for his sin which he has committed. And he shall lay his hand on the sin offering and kill the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.

And the priest shall take some of the blood with his finger put it on the horns of the altar of the 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 is removed from the peace offerings.

And the priest shall burn it on the altar for a pleasing aroma to Yahweh. And the priest shall make atonement for him and he shall be forgiven. Full stop. He shall be forgiven. Now this is the other part that is talking about interpersonal relationships.

Oftentimes we like to sit there and go I'll believe he's really sorry or she's really sorry if she cleans up her act. Only then will I believe it. There's a difference between an absolution and bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.

And so the idea here is that when somebody apologizes to you confesses their sin we forgive them. Full stop. No buts. But eliminates the absolution. Full stop. No buts. I forgive you. And don't sit there and go and I'll really believe that you are truly sorry if you yeah yeah all right all right.

So find a way then to discuss what bearing fruit in keeping with repentance looks like without the conjunction but. Yes yes we we as human beings have a natural proclivity towards this concept of penance.

And and I think penance is is a bad concept because it's somehow I'm I now need to demonstrate that I was truly sorry. You see that now we're we're we're muddying up the biblical definition of what repentance is.

True repentance will lead to a change in behavior and a modification of our lives an amendment of our lives. That in fact true repentance cannot help but do that. That's just the reality of the situation.

Now that being the case some behaviors sinful behaviors are so ingrained turning them around is going to look just miserably awfully feeble from day to day. You think about the fellow who struggles with alcohol addiction.

An alcoholic. And so they come to realize oh lord I've sinned against you. Your word is so clear that drunkenness is a sin. Have mercy on me. I have sinned against you. And then they receive an absolution.

And then two and a half hours later their hands are shaken because they need that next drink. And in the moment they might give in to their body's craving and need. Are we to say that they weren't forgiven and they weren't sorry if they fall off the wagon?

No because here's what ends up happening. They fall off the wagon and the cycle repeats. And they realize I'm not going to be able to stop this until I get some help. And so they might have to spend some time in a hospital and detox and get assistance.

They after that might have to join a recovery group. And the recovery group guys they count their sobriety one day at a time. One day at a time. And the one thing I think is fascinating about that approach is that they recognize today I could fall back into this.

I could easily fall back into this. And so it is a grace for them if when they make it through a day sober. And so that's the reality of the situation is that our sanctification worked by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace.

We must recognize we're not going to have perfection this side of the return of Christ. And that our progress in that sanctification at any given moment may look completely feeble or weak or even going backwards.

That's how difficult this is. And the reason why it's difficult is because we still have a sinful nature. I cannot wait until the day when I do not have a sinful old Adam clinging to the new man that Christ has made me.

And have to have this battle internal. Where on the one hand the new man in Christ sits there and goes I want to do these great things and worship and praise God and serve my neighbor. And my old Adam sits there and goes I don't even want to get out of bed.

What are you talking about? Let's go downstairs and pop a movie in and just veg. Come on. But it's a work day. So? Right? You know and we know the struggle. Our sinful nature has appetites that it requires that to be filled.

But again note the wonderful full stop. He shall be forgiven full stop. Now if he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering he shall bring a female without blemish. Lay his hand on the head of the sin offering.

Kill it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering. And the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger. 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 and for the sin which he has committed.

And he shall be forgiven. Notice here though it says the priest is the one who makes atonement. He's not making atonement for himself. The priest is making atonement for him and then declaring him that he is forgiven full stop.

Atonement, Absolution, and Bearing Fruit in Keeping with Repentance

Now if anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify and though he is a witness whether he has seen or come to know the matter yet he does not speak he shall bear his iniquity. Now an adjuration has to do with legal proceedings.

So think about it this way remember when Jesus was on trial and granted that the whole court case shouldn't have been happening the way it happened yet the high priest was there in his office and he says to Jesus I adjure you to tell us whether you are the Christ.

So an adjuration is a call to testify. So you've seen a crime. Y 'all remember you know the final episode of Seinfeld? All right I thought it was brilliant by the way. The show that was about nothing ends with them going to prison for doing nothing.

So yeah huh you haven't seen it? You had time. You had time plenty of time. Yeah we will not hold this against you but the idea was is that they witness a crime and they should have done something about it.

In a similar way if you were a witness and you know that a has been committed your witness to it and you remain silent and refuse to go to court you refuse to actually bring your testimony for the purpose so that somebody can receive justice yikes that's a bad thing.

So you're going to note then that the word of God in looking out for your neighbor also requires you to bear witness in court proceedings if your witness testimony is going to be vital in making sure that justice is attained or if anyone touches an unclean thing whether a carcass of an unclean wild animal or carcass of an unclean livestock or the carcass of an unclean swarming things and it's hidden from him and he has become unclean and then he realizes his guilt or if he touches human uncleanness of whatever sort of uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean and it is hidden from him when he becomes known to him and realizes it you notice that this is a very long sentence or lots of conjunctions here or if anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good any sort of rash oath that people swear and it is hidden from him when he comes to know it and realizes his guilt in any of these.

When he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin with which he has committed he shall bring to the lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed a female from the flock a lamb a goat or a goat for a sin offering and the priest shall make atonement for him and for his sin.

Now a little bit of a note here there's a lot going on here. So we have sins of omission. Now we've got sin of coming in contact with an animal carcass or an unclean thing. I want you to think about this as part of remember the story of samson.

Remember the story of samson in the book of judges. Samson is just a troubling character. This guy is so messed up and yet he's he's one of the judges of israel and he saves israel. And so you look at samson and there's a piece of his story that is that is that comes into play here.

Let me duplicate the tab here. Samson a book of judges. All right. We talked about the theophany regarding his parents when um the angel of the lord appears to his parents and um then the the angel of the lord goes up in their sacrifice.

Um but um we'll continue with the story for a little bit. Judges chapter 14. I want you to consider the details of this text. So this is after samson's born samson went down to timnah. At timnah he saw one of the daughters of the philistines which no jewish boy is supposed to be marrying a philistine girl.

That's just not allowed. So the story is screwed up on so many levels. So he came up and told his father and mother i saw one of the daughters of the philistines at timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.

But his father and mother said to him is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all of your people that you must go and take a wife from the uncircumcised philistines. But samson said to his father get her for me for she's right in my eyes.

Wait what. You're not supposed to do this. So his father and mother did not know that it was from yahweh for he was seeking an opportunity against the philistines. At that time the philistines ruled over israel.

So then samson went down with his father and mother to timnah. They came to the vineyards of timnah and behold a young lion came toward him roaring. Then the spirit of yahweh rushed upon him and although he had nothing in his hand he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat.

Now i don't know how one tears a young goat but i'm pretty sure i'd have difficulty along those lines too. You know maybe we could add this to our festivus rituals you know as part of the feats of strength.

You know the tearing of the young goat ritual. But i mean so he tore this young goat like he tore a lion like the way you tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

Then he went down and he talked with the woman and she was right in samson's eyes. And some days after some days he returned to take her and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. Behold there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion and honey and he scraped out into his hands and went on eating as he went and he came to his father and mother and gave that some to them and they ate.