So turn in your Bibles once again this morning to Leviticus chapter 5. Leviticus chapter 5, our study this morning, picks up at verse 1. Just to set this up, thus far in our Study of the first four chapters of Leviticus, we've looked at God's instructions concerning burnt offerings, either from one's herd or flock, or in the case of those who had neither, we looked at the offering of birds. We've also looked at the variety of options for grain offerings. Unlike burnt offerings, grain offerings had no atoning significance. They were simply representative of one's commitment to keep the covenant that the Lord had made with His people. We also noted that these grain offerings were to be seasoned with salt, and salt, as you'll recall, was representative of preservation, of perpetuity. So when they would add salt into their grain offering, this would signify that they were serious-minded when it came to keeping the covenant, not just today, but from that day forward. We then talked about the peace offering, which, as we learned, was a beautiful foreshadowing of Christ Himself, particularly in the Lord's table. Most recently, in our last study, we looked at the sin offering, and the requirements of the sin offering, you'll recall, varied according to the status of the one bringing the offering. If you were a person who was positioned in a particularly high status, it would cost you a bull. And bulls were very expensive. Bulls were highly treasured for their ability to increase the herd, Other purposes as well, bulls were kind of the top-notch sacrifice that one could offer. If you were of less significance in terms of your position and your influence over people, then the sacrifice requirement would be lowered subsequently. So this brings us this morning to another kind of offering. This time we look at the guilt offering, beginning at verse one of this fifth chapter. We read this, now if a person sins after he hears a public adjuration to testify when he's a witness, whether he has seen or otherwise known, if he does not tell it, then he will bear his guilt. Now let me give you a clearer definition, I believe. from the New Living Translation, if you're called to testify about something you have seen or that you know about, it's sinful to refuse to testify, and you will be punished for your sin. That provides a great deal of clarity. This particular sin falls into the category of both negligence and what might be termed as unintentional in a number of cases. How so? Well, as far as negligence is concerned, if one has any knowledge or insight into something that's to be adjudicated in the courts, that knowledge could play a significant role in either exonerating or condemning the person who was guilty of that particular crime. Now, you might ask yourself, who would be negligent in that regard? Well, a lot of people would. This is especially prominent in places where one might be afraid to testify. You know, if you get into a situation where you've seen the cartel doing something, you might be far more reluctant to testify as to that thing because you know what the cartel does to those who rat them out. As the old saying goes, snitches get stitches, right? And it's true, it's true. What about living on the East Coast? If you get sideways with the mob, chances are you're not gonna be as willing to testify as you might otherwise be in other cases. Now, again, this is a sin in God's eyes. If you know something, say something. If you have seen something, if you have been a witness to something that's not right and you're called to testify, testify. This is God's command. There's also another side to this, which is the unintentional side. be accused of an unintentional sin with regard to testifying when called. Well, that's easy, too. Very often, you might not be as up to speed on what's going on, and you might not really care about what's going on, and so you may inadvertently leave out certain key facts. Rather than giving the whole truth and nothing but the truth, you'll give your version of the truth, but only insofar as you're able to remember that thing. How many of you, as you grow older, are getting more forgetful? Amen. That's no excuse. If you see something, say something and say something that will be accurate in every regard. So there is this case of unintentional sin when it comes to being called before the magistrates to give an account as far as you being a witness. In verses two and three, we have another example. of an unintentional or accidental sin which involves the ceremonial defilement that might result from coming into contact with unclean animals or unclean people. Here we read, if a person touches any unclean thing, whether a carcass of an unclean beast or the carcass of unclean cattle or a carcass of unclean swarming things, though it is hidden from him and he is unclean, then he will be guilty. Or if he touches human uncleanness of whatever sort his uncleanness may be with which he has become unclean And it's hidden from him and then he comes to know it. He will be guilty We'll actually learn more about what constitutes unclean things over in chapter 11 but since we're on the subject go ahead and turn there to chapter 11 and I want to read it together. I realize it's a really lengthy passage, but I want to read it nonetheless because it adds a great deal of detail to what we're talking about here in verses one through three of our text this morning. And as I read this, I want you to think one thought. I want you to appreciate the fact that we are no longer beholden to this kind of ceremonial law. And that's really what this law can be characterized as. It's ceremonial. We no longer have to worry about becoming ceremonially defiled because Christ has washed away all defilement. So when we might come into contact with some of the things mentioned here We don't have to worry about it as they did back then and remember God requires perfect obedience Now as I read this, I want you to think how much how you might Slip up and forget that you had even been in this situation or you might not be aware that you had been in this situation It doesn't matter any of these things would have rendered you ceremonially unclean verse 1 The Lord spoke again to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, these are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth, whatever divides a hoof, thus making split hooves, and choose the cud among the animals that you may eat. Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which chew the cud or among those which divide the hoof. The camel, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof. It is unclean to you. Likewise, the chiffon, for though it chews cud and does not divide the hoof, It is unclean to you, the rabbit also, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof. It's unclean to you. And the pig, for though it divides the hoof, thus making a split hoof, it does not chew cud. It is unclean to you. You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their carcasses, for they are unclean to you. These you may eat, whatever is in the water, all that have fins and scales. Those in the water, in the seas, or in the rivers, you may eat, but whatever is in the seas and in the rivers that does not have fins and scales among all the teeming life of the water and among all the living creatures that are in the water, they are detestable things to you, and they shall be abhorrent to you. You may not eat of their flesh and their carcasses, you shall detest. Whatever in the water does not have fins and scales is abhorrent to you. These, moreover, you shall detest among the birds. They are abhorrent not to be eaten, the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard and the kite and the falcon of its kind, every raven in its kind, and the ostrich and the owl and the seagull and the hawk in its kind, and the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl and the white owl and the pelican and the carrion vulture and the stork, the heron and its kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat. All the winged insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you, yet you may eat among all the winged insects which walk on all fours, those which have above their feet jointed legs with which to jump on the earth. These of them you may eat, the locust in its kind and the devastating locust in its kinds, the cricket in its kinds and the grasshopper in its kinds, but all other winged insects which are four-footed are detestable to you. By these, moreover, you will be made unclean. Whoever touches their carcasses becomes unclean until evening, and whoever picks up any of their carcasses shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. Concerning all the animals which divide the hoof but do not make a split hoof or which do not chew cud, They are unclean to you. Whoever touches them becomes unclean. And whatever walks on its paws among all the creatures that walk on all fours are unclean to you. Whoever touches their carcasses becomes unclean until evening, and the one who picks up their carcasses shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. They are unclean to you. Now these are to you the unclean among the swarming things which swarm on the earth, the mole and the mouse and the great lizard of its kinds and the gecko and the crocodile and the lizard and the sand reptile and the chameleon. These are to you unclean among all the swarming things. Whoever touches them and when they are dead becomes unclean until evening. Also anything on which any of them which one of them may fall when they are dead becomes unclean, including wooden articles or clothing or a skin or sack or any article of which use is made. It shall be put in the water and be unclean until evening. Then it becomes clean. As for any earthenware vessel into which one of them might fall, whatever is in it becomes unclean and you shall break the vessel. Any of the food which may be eaten on which water comes shall be unclean and any liquid which might be drunk in every vessel shall become unclean. Everything moreover, on which part of the carcass may fall becomes unclean, an oven or a stove shall be smashed. They are unclean and shall continue as unclean to you. Nevertheless, a spring or a cistern collecting water shall be clean, though the one who touches the carcass shall be unclean. If a part of their carcass falls on any seed for sowing, which is to be sown, it is clean, though if water is put on the seed and a part of their carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you. Also, if one of the animals dies which you have for food the one who touches its carcass becomes unclean until evening He too who eats some of the carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening and the one who picks up his carcass Shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening now every swarming thing that swarms on the earth is detestable Not to be eaten whatever crawls on its belly and whatever walks on all fours whatever has many feet in respect to every swarming thing that swarms on the earth you shall not eat them for they are detestable do not render yourselves detestable through any of the swarming things that swarm and you shall not make yourselves unclean with them that you may become unclean for i am the lord your god consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy for i am holy and you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God. Thus you shall be holy for I am holy. This is the law regarding the animal and the bird and every living thing that moves in the waters and everything that swarms on the earth to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, between the edible creature and the creature which is not to be eaten. Everybody got that? Can you imagine having to live in such bondage? This is the futility that we often talk about that's built into the law. How do I know if a gecko has fallen into my water pot? How do I not know, or how do I know that a gecko fell into my water pot and then some other unclean animal came and plucked it out of the water pot? Is it clean or is it not clean? The gecko's no longer there. Do I smash the vessel or do I keep the vessel? You know, do I actually get down on my hands and knees and look at the bug that I'm about to eat to make sure that it has jointed legs and not just stiff legs? Do I watch it to make sure it's walking on all fours? What if one of those insects has lost a limb and it's only walking on three? Am I free to eat it? I mean, who knows? But these are all sinful things, according to the Lord. Why? Why would the Lord care about things with such specificity? This again proves that He is a God of incredible detail. This proves that God's righteous standard is in fact a thrice holy standard. This proves that try as you might, you will never be able to comport yourself according to God's righteous standards. This type of thing by itself would have been enough to cause one to cry out, Lord, I can't. I'll try, but I can't. So at every turn, when you find out you've slipped up, at every turn, you wonder, is this the day that I forfeited my relationship with my God? What's gonna be done to rectify this situation? Sure, I can take the required sacrifice and offer that, but pretty soon, if I keep this up at this level of detail, I'm gonna run out of sacrifices. It would be a real problem. Can you imagine the relief? In Acts chapter 10, when Peter saw the sheet being lowered from heaven, containing all of these things, and being told, take and eat. But we see how ingrained Peter himself was in the ceremonial law. Remember what he said, even to the Lord? Lord, I can't eat that. And what did the Lord say? Look, what I've declared clean, don't declare unclean, eat it. would have been a monumental step in freedom for Peter. And think about how free we are today. We don't have to go back to the Levitical law. I remember years ago we had a young man here in the congregation who simply, he was a lot like Peter in that regard. He simply couldn't wrap his brain around the fact that we're no longer beholden to these ceremonial requirements. And he was actually trying to live every day of his life according to what he was reading in Leviticus. Folks, we've been freed from that. We're not talking about the moral law of God. Now we are in total, because to obey these things is to attempt to reach God's standard of morality. But the moral law, this is why Jesus, much to the relief of the lawyers and the scribes and the Pharisees who were among the audience there in his Sermon on the Mount, this is why when he encapsulated the whole of God's moral law into just two commandments, what a relief that would have been. When he said not one jot nor one tittle of the law will pass away, he's talking about the moral law. He's not talking about things that he has declared have passed away. This is why we're told that we have a new and better covenant in Christ. If you need to be more up to speed on that, just read Hebrews again. It's the whole message behind the letter to the Hebrews. You're no longer beholden to this because Christ has offered a new covenant in his blood. And we can live according to that on the basis of his finished work, not our own continual labors trying to keep this. Can you see how becoming ceremonially unclean could happen unintentionally? or inadvertently? I would argue that the vast majority of cases involving this kind of sin were inadvertent. And once again, I want you to note the futility here very carefully. That said, though, we need to make note of the end of verse three because there's an important clause attached here that might be missed if we're not careful. The only sins of this particular kind that required a guilt offering were those that the offender came to realize that he had committed. Now you talk about grace, there's a grace right there. You didn't have to walk around paranoid that you might have inadvertently sinned in this regard. The only time you needed to bring an offering was when it came to your attention that you had actually committed this kind of sin. This is what's conveyed in the phrase, and then he comes to know it. Remember what's been said previously about sin that you're not aware of. If you commit a sin and you didn't know that there was a sin to be committed in that regard, there is no infraction. You have to be aware. Now, there is an infraction in a way, but again, there's no infraction in this system that would have required you to bring a sacrifice. Even then, we're told that God overlooked or winked at certain sins that were being committed in the Old Testament. Why? Because they didn't have the light. They didn't have the revelation of God to point out that these things were in fact sin. And oh, by the way, a lot of the things they were committing, they were committing unknowingly or inadvertently. And there's grace even there. But if you knew about it, and you refuse to bring the requisite sacrifice, your sin was magnified all the more. This is what we're talking about here. The only sins that the Lord is concerned with within this particular system are those which the individual knows that he has committed. As I thought about this, I was struck by the fact that, at least in principle, the same thing applies to us today. We can sin inadvertently, But when those types of sins are brought to our attention, when we sin innocently, just put it that way, we don't really know. Let's say I offend someone, and I don't mean to offend them. It's kind of the story of my life, but. But let's say I offend someone, but it's not me who's out to offend them. It might be something I've just said inadvertently. Maybe they come in on the tail end of a conversation and they hear something that they didn't hear the negation before. I mean, that happens all the time as well. Maybe rumors fly that I've said something about someone or so on and so forth. When those things are brought to my attention, how are they brought to my attention? Matthew 18. We have a remedy for that, Matthew 18, 15 and following. If you perceive that I have sinned against you or anyone has sinned against you, you go to them. I think you've sinned against me. Oh, how so? Well, in this way, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Now, what if I say, well, you're just, you know, just go away. You bother me. Well, then you bring two or three. Hey, I think he's right. I think you did this thing. And then what happens? If I apologize and repent from that sin, then we're restored. Nothing goes any further. What happens if I yet refuse to listen and deny that I've sinned against you? Well, then you tell it to the church if it comes to that. You bring it before the eldership. In the worst cases, we'll make a public announcement and say so-and-so is being reluctant to admit that they've sinned. After really deep inspection into this issue, we've determined that there is a sin and they're refusing to repent. What do you do at that point if they don't hear you? You treat them as a publican and a tax collector. So again, that means you don't ever speak to them again, right? No, it just means you treat them as an object for evangelism as opposed to a brother or sister in Christ. until they repent according to the word of God. The beauty in our case is that we're not required to bring an animal and lay it on the altar because Christ himself served as God's sacrificial lamb. The animal's already been brought and his name is the lamb of God. Aren't you grateful? Aren't you grateful? In verse four of our text, we're presented with a third kind of sin, requiring a guilt offering. And this sin involves inadvertent sins of the tongue. And if you're like me, you're thinking, uh-oh, here we go. And you're right, here we go. If a person swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, in whatever matter a man may speak thoughtlessly with an oath, and it's hidden from him, and then he comes to know it, he will be guilty in one of these. Some of you have no doubt heard at one point or another a warning against making rash oaths, whether those oaths be for evil or for good. And what might be considered an example of an evil rash oath? Well, an evil rash oath would be a commitment or a promise to do harm to someone, even though you really have no intention of doing that thing. Someone cut you off in traffic, for example. What do you yell at them? One of my all-time favorites used to be, I've gotten better by God's grace. But one of my all-time favorites was, do that again and you will rue the day that you were born. Now, that's a rash oath. Why? Because what am I going to do? Really? Do I ever envision myself doing a pit maneuver on them on the highway, forcing them out of their car, and then beating them to a bloody pulp? Now, in my mind, that happens sometimes, right? Come on, don't act like you don't have those days. Everybody's like, Pastor, you shouldn't think. I was like, well, you shouldn't either. Let's all admit that we are feeble and frail and we're prone to all these kinds of things, including making rash oaths. We do it all the time. How about this one, parents? You think yourself, you know, so sanctified. You do that again, I'll ground you till your 18th birthday. That's a rash oath. Are you really? I mean, they're five. Are you going to ground them until their 18th birthday? No, that's a rash oath. I remember in basic training, you know, they had this thing called the recycle. If you messed up, it didn't matter whether you were in week six of basic training. You mess up, you get recycled. It could be a week. It could be two weeks. It could be all the way back to the beginning of basic training, depending on the severity of the infraction. But our TI would tell us routinely, I will recycle you so far back your mother will have birth pangs. Rash oath, right? He couldn't do that. Nobody would tell him he couldn't do that, but he couldn't do that. So those are some examples of rash oaths for evil. What are some examples of rash oaths for good? Well, again, this I think hits closer to home for the majority of us. What about when you tell your kids, okay, if you clean your room up, we'll go and do this? They clean their room up, something comes up, and you're not able to live up to your part of the agreement. That's a rash oath. That's something that you have promised. that you can't make good on or you won't make good on. How about when somebody says, I'm moving this weekend, can you come? I'll be there. And you really have no intention of going. Here's a big one. So-and-so says, would you pray for me? I will pray for you. And you don't even remember what their issue is. You don't remember to pray for them. Those are other types of rash oaths for the good, but because you have no intention of carrying through with those oaths that you have made, they're evil in God's sight. They constitute sin before a thrice holy God. Now, what about minced oaths? These are also part of this rash oath scenario. What is a minced oath? Well, we think ourselves to be really clever, don't we? We say heck instead of hell. You realize that's a minced oath. We say gosh, oh my gosh, instead of God. You realize that's a minced oath. A minced oath is strictly defined as substituting something that sounds more acceptable for something that's less acceptable. or substituting something that is culturally acceptable for that which is not culturally acceptable. How many times have you heard people say cheese and rice instead of Jesus Christ? It's no different. It's no different. How about gosh darn it? You might as well say the real thing. Because what's in your heart is a desire to say that which would be an affront to a thrice holy God. We think we're clever. We dumb it down. We use substitute words and we're like, I'm off the hook. I'm absolved of any wrongdoing. No, you're not. Be careful to avoid making minced oaths. All of these things can be classified as thoughtless uses of the tongue or rash oaths. And what's the remedy for all the inadvertent sins mentioned here thus far? Well, in verses 5 to 13, we read this, so it shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned. He shall also bring his guilt offering to the Lord for his sin, which he has committed, a female of the flock, a lamb or a goat as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf for his sin. But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring it to the Lord. His guilt offering for that in which he has sinned two turtle doves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. He shall bring them to the priest who shall offer first that which is for the sin offering and shall nip its head at the front of its neck, but he shall not sever it." Now, what's that mean? Let's just stop there for just a second. What does it mean to nip the bird in its neck? This is just a reference to breaking the bird's neck. Edible fowl, chickens, doves, pigeons, the most effective way, the most humane way to kill them is to break their necks, right? I remember taking someone dove hunting years ago and we shot a few dove and we had a blue heeler that would go with us and this blue heeler just loved his treats, you know, which were, you know, he would run out with us to get the dove and we would pop the dove's head off and feed it to the dog. And I remember taking a person who had never been hunting before and I looked over and they were as white as a sheet. You know? And I said, well, I mean, with birdshot, you're never really sure if the bird's dead or not anyway. So, and the heads of no use to you. So, just pluck it off. But I remember also when I was really little, I had this science fair project. I saw in some magazine or something where somebody had reconstructed a chicken skeleton. And I thought, man, that would be so cool. And so, my dad bought me a chicken. down at the hardware store, and he brought it home. And that little chicken, I loved that chicken. I raised that little chicken. Yeah, his name was Leo. It's no offense, Leo, but Leo the chicken. Well, it came time to kill Leo the chicken. I'm not killing Leo the chicken. But I remember my neighbor coming over. My dad called my neighbor over. Would you come and kill this chicken? And my neighbor came. I was standing there on the big cable spool, you know, I remember it vividly. My neighbor walked over, picked the chicken up by the head, and went whoosh. Threw it in the yard. Of course, the chicken continued to run around. Don't be alarmed when that happens. You ever heard the expression running like a chicken with his head cut off? It's real. But it was really, I learned, one of the most humane ways to kill a bird of that type. The Lord is advocating the same type of thing here. When they would nip the neck, what they would do is sever the spinal cord in some way. They would either break it, they could take a knife and make a clean cut, whatever the case might be. The thing was, they couldn't take the head off. Why? Because the Lord said not to, right? So it was really just a matter of, unaliving the bird in the most humane way possible. And again, I think it's kind of sad to realize how many birds would have died during this timeframe and how that might have affected the people, especially knowing that they couldn't eat these birds. They were being offered for either the benefit of the priests or as a burnt offering where they would be consumed completely by the fire. Anyway, continuing on, we read, he shall also sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar while the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar. It is a sin offering. The second he shall prepares a burnt offering according to the ordinance. So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf for his sin which he has committed and it will be forgiven him. But if his means are insufficient for two turtle doves or two young pigeons, then for his offering, for that which he has sinned, he shall bring the tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. He shall not put oil on it or place incense on it, for it is a sin offering. He shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take his handful of it as a memorial portion and offer it up in smoke on the altar. with the offerings of the Lord by fire. It is a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin, which he has committed from one of these, and it will be forgiven him. Then the rest shall become the priests, like the grain offering." Now, this is nothing new. We've discussed all of these things in past messages up to this point. And the point is not to get too deep into the woods or belabor this process. but to look at the big picture. And once again, it all points to Christ. It all points to Christ himself being our substitutionary atonement. Now, in verses 14 through 16, we have instructions regarding unintentional sins against the Lord's holy things. Here we read, then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, if a person acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against the Lord's holy things, then he shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord, a ram without defect from the flock, according to your valuation, and silver by shekels, in terms of the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering. He shall make restitution for that which he has sinned against the holy thing, and he shall add to it a fifth part. and give it to the priest. The priest shall then make atonement for him and the ram of the guilt offering and it will be forgiven him." Now, what are the holy things that are being mentioned here? Well, this could include the things that were in and around the tabernacle, the things that had specifically been consecrated by God to be used in service to him. If you were to do something to damage one of these things, you had to pay a price for that. There had to be a sacrificial atonement made for the holy things that had either been defiled or perhaps even destroyed. The furnishings, the offerings, the tithes, the various food items that were there. This would include spoilage of various food items that were to be used in worship. There was a price to be paid for defiling or destroying any of those particular things. One commentator, Deffenbaugh, actually gives us four additional things to consider as the Lord's holy things, which I think give us a lot more food for thought. He said, number one, the Lord's name is holy. And this is another good reminder. You know, the reason we don't use those minced oaths, the reason we don't take the Lord's name in vain, even if it is via a substitute word, is because that's a sin. God says don't do that. Right? And so the Lord's name is holy. We're commanded not to misuse or take it in vain, he says. Swearing falsely by the name of the Lord violates and brings dishonor to the Lord. In the Lord's prayer, we pray for the sanctity of the Lord's name. Have you ever picked up on that in the Lord's prayer? Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. In other words, don't let your name come out of my mouth unless it's in prayer, or unless it's in worship, or unless it's in adoration. Do not let it come out of my mouth unless I'm approaching you as the Lord. That's a healthy reminder for all of us. Hallowed be thy name. Rare and sanctified, set apart, should be your name. You know, the Jews are on to something. The Jews even today will not write G-O-D. You know, the Tetragrammaton, Yahweh, Y-H-W-H, right? Or Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh. It's a way of declaring the name of God without actually saying the name of God. They leave out the vowels. We don't know whether it's Yahweh or Yo-Wo or Yah-Wah or Yee-Wee. We don't know. But they do that because they don't want to run the risk of dishonoring God. Even today, they'll write G underscore D. Because they fear taking his name in vain. Now in their prayers, they'll use every name imaginable for God. But they will not write it down in a haphazard fashion lest they be guilty. of defiling the holy things, which start with God himself. Number two, he says the Sabbath was to be kept holy. An unintentional Sabbath violation would be one of the things that required a guilt offering. Number three, the offerings of the temple and the temple rites were holy. Much of the temple ceremony dealt with maintaining its holy character. An improperly trained priest could violate any part of the ordinance and be guilty. Leviticus 19 directs that any remains of the peace offering was to be burned on the third day. That goes back to what I said about spoilage. Instead of letting it spoil or mold or mildew, what they would do, they would burn it. They would destroy it. Leviticus 19, 7 and 8 says, so if it's eaten at all on the third day, it's an offense. It will not be accepted. Largely because back then with the atmospheric environmental concerns, bread would mold in a day or two, right? I mean, it didn't take long. If you're going to cook it, you're going to eat it. in that same time period. And anyone who eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned the holy thing of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people." Number four, national purity was holy. The Israelites were to be holy just as their Lord God was holy, not maintaining purity in their worship of the one true God, and by their intermarrying, they violated the holy things of God. In other words, doing anything that the Lord had expressly prohibited was to be sinning in this regard. Once again, we can gather from the animal that was to be sacrificed, these particular inadvertent sins were considered very serious in that the prescription was for a ram. Whenever you see a ram prescribed for a particular offering, then you can place seriousness on that infraction that might not be the same with other infractions. Beyond that, the ram in question, we're told, was to be of a certain undisclosed value. And not only that, there was a fifth portion to be added for the benefit of the priests. And if you're not up to speed on your math, a fifth portion just means an extra 20%. Whatever the ram was worth, whatever it was valued at by the priests, an additional 20% was to be paid to support the priesthood. And as long as these requirements were met, the offending party would be forgiven. Well, in verses 17 through 19, the Lord moves on to any sin that one may commit unintentionally or unknowingly in disobedience to the Lord. Once he's aware that he has sinned, he's to bring a ram without defect to the priest following the same procedure as previously described. And once again, I want you to just take it in and see just how detailed the Lord is, just how meticulous He is in His instructions for dealing with different kinds of sin, even those which are committed unintentionally or unknowingly. Let me just ask you, how often do you think about the sins that you commit against the Lord that you might not even be aware of? If you're like me, you have to repent of not repenting for unknown or inadvertent sins. I have a hard enough time keeping up with the sins I have committed. But we ought to be more like David. And we should pray routinely, Lord, reveal to me that which is hidden. Reveal to me my hidden faults. Let me know when I've sinned against you in ways that I'm not even aware of. And only by acknowledging that we have a tendency to forget, only by acknowledging that we do have these particular inadvertent sins in our lives, only then will we really be on the path to the pursuit of real holiness. Take the things to the Lord that you're aware of, yes, but also commit to him those things which you might not be aware of. Not out of a sense of paranoia, but again, out of a sense of gratitude that even for those sins, the Lord has made the only sacrifice that can absolve us from the guilt and the punishment of those things. Well, Lord willing, we're going to look at even more examples of these things in our study next Lord's Day.