Leviticus: Good Guilt, Bad Guilt, Freedom from Guilt

This morning we're continuing our study of the ancient book of Leviticus.

Leviticus is the third book of the Old Testament.

And what we have been saying is that the Old Testament gives us picture after picture of God's grace to come in Jesus.

And then the New Testament gives us teaching after teaching or story after story of that grace.

And so we come into Leviticus 5 this morning, the guilt offering, the fifth offering that we've been learning about these different offerings.

The fifth offering is the guilt offering, which it can sound like a real Debbie Downer, right?

Guilt offer, oh great.

Unless you've ever felt guilty.

And then the idea that you could be relieved is amazing.

Because we've all felt like, oh, I can't believe, like, I should not have, I can't believe, I can't believe I said it, did it, looked at it, said it again, did it again, thought it again.

And you can't quite like shake, shake it off, right?

Or shower it off or run it off.

And so we have Leviticus 5, the guilt offering.

I'll reread what Ali read for us.

Leviticus 5, 14 through 16.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of the Lord, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued in silver shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary for a guilt offering.

He shall also make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy thing, and shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest.

And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.

Point number one is this is living in refusal of God's grace is an attempt to outrun our own guilt.

It's a very tiring attempt.

Whether we do it in the world or whether we do it in religion, guilt is a part of our life.

The Holman Bible Dictionary says this about guilt.

Guilt is a sense of shame at personal wrongdoing.

Guilt implies being responsible for an offense or a wrongdoing.

It is a situation that exists because one has done something forbidden or failed to do something that was required.

Guilt's part of our lives, an important part.

Guilt actually connects us to what is right and wrong.

We actually have a psychological term for people who feel no guilt.

Psychopath, right?

Ted Bundy, Bernie Madoff.

Last week in Colorado, there was a pastor who was charged for fraud.

He said that God told him to start a cryptocurrency exchange.

Can't make it up.

I mean, sermon illustrations just that they just like come at you.

God told him to start a cryptocurrency exchange, and he raised$3.2 million out of his church and out of his influence.

All a sham.

He stole$13 million to renovate his house.

And when he was caught, he said God told him to renovate his house.

Which is so convenient.

Isn't it convenient when God is telling you just things that keep so no guilty conscience?

No sense of shame at the wrongdoing.

No sense of responsibility.

This is a big problem.

See, there's bad guilt that keeps us in condemnation, but there is good guilt.

Because good guilt reminds us what is good and that something wrong has happened that we need to deal with, and it leads us to a life under grace.

See, what we do with our guilt is vital.

Just to remember where we've been, these five chapters of Leviticus to catch you back up.

Chapter one, the burnt offering, these five different offerings we've been learning of, the burnt offering, and we learned about God's grace to us through substitutionary atonement.

Chapter two, the grain offering.

This was about our devotion and our worship given to God.

Chapter three, the peace offering.

This is about our thanksgiving for the peace that we have with God because of the substitutionary atonement, because of Christ.

It's all pointing.

Leviticus is pointing us to Jesus.

Chapter 4, last week, sin offering.

There's provision for our unintentional sins.

I mean, there's even God's grace to you for sins you're committing and you're not even aware.

Isn't that amazing?

It's amazing.

So you are forgiven of unintentional sins.

And then chapter 5 bridges us from unintentional sins over into intentional sins, the guilt offering, that there's provision for that.

Over and over again.

There is provision for our mistakes and our sin.

Here's how the chapter breaks down.

First is the sin of sacrilege.

This is Leviticus 5, 14 through 16, which we read.

This is a misuse of something sacred, probably something in the tabernacle, some holy thing.

It was meant for one thing and you used it for another, maybe you took it home, maybe you sold it, who knows?

And the sinner would pay full restitution plus a surcharge, a fifth or 20%, back to pay this back, and then bring a guilt offering, and from the guilt offering there is atonement of their sins and forgiveness.

Second, verses 17 through 19, we have the sin of disobedience.

People who did what was forbidden by the Lord's commands.

God asked you to do one thing, do another.

And the sinner would pay full restitution if it was needed, plus the surcharge, and bring a guilt offering for the atonement for the forgiveness of their sins.

And then lastly, Leviticus 6, 1 through 7, we see the sin toward our neighbor.

So Johnny tricks and steals something from Bobby.

Right?

I went hiking and I left my green Patagonia vest on a rock.

And one of you or somebody stole it.

It's still missing.

I'm looking for restitution plus 20%.

I'm waiting for it.

Or maybe you borrowed a casserole dish.

Right?

And when you are borrowing it from your neighbor, you notice she had three really nice pyrexes.

I mean, she's just not, she's not going to notice if you don't bring this one back.

And so it has conveniently stayed in your cupboard for three years.

And you are fully aware when you use it that it is not yours.

It is hers.

We do this kind of thing.

And again, the same ritual when we sin against our neighbor in this Leviticus passage: full restitution plus a surcharge, bring the guilt offering for the atonement, for the forgiveness of our sins.

And here's what we learn: we learn to minimize sin is to minimize grace.

So grace is not special or lavish unless it is lavish for something.

And there's something about a relational lesson here for us.

That this vertical between us and God and this horizontal us and our neighbor.

In this neighbor sin of Leviticus 6, the restitution between the two people was handled before the sacrifice was brought to God.

Because the God word and the human dimensions of our lives, people of faith, these two things are inseparable.

They're fully connected.

See, God's cultivating in us clarity of right and wrong, not to minimize sin.

Full clarity.

And then as well a tender conscience toward that.

And also a free conscience because of the atonement for the forgiveness of the sin.

And then as well humility toward each other and relationships.

So over and over again, the ram was brought without blemish, taken to the door of the tabernacle and the offer, that sinner would place their hands on that sacrifice, that animal, and there'd be that transfer symbolically the sin over to the animal.

The price that was paid to the sinner is now going to be paid upon the sacrifice.

And an innocent animal would die.

When I was 14 years old, a bird made a nest and the ceiling of our front porch, and I was giving the chore to deal with this.

Go, Russ, go, 14-year-old Russ, go deal with this.

And so I dealt with it like a 14-year-old would.

I went and got my pellet gun and lawn chair and sat in the front yard and waited.

And so there I am, very, very Rambo, very Rambo.

And it's a beautiful spring day.

I remember it clearly, 30 years ago, and I'm sitting there, pellet gun ready, and this beautiful bluebird flies and lands right at the hole that goes up into the porch ceiling.

That's my enemy.

So I take aim, boom, take him down.

I walk up, didn't kill him though, so I have to go get a shovel.

Shovel him up.

I walk over to the woods, chunk them into the woods, and I'm walking back to my house, you know, like I have really accomplished.

I have battled and I have won.

And right as I'm walking up to the front porch, I hear this little noise.

And I look up and the nastiest, ugliest blackbird crawls out of that hole.

I just killed a beautiful bluebird for no reason, is what it comes down to, right?

Like, no reason.

Just killed it.

The blackbird was the thing that had the problem I was with, right?

So I it's been 30 years.

Like I still remember this.

Like that animal didn't have to die, right?

It only died because of me.

So this ram didn't have to die.

Innocent, without blemish.

Did nothing wrong.

It's only dying because the offerer messed up.

Something else paid the price.

Point number two is this our sin is destructive and weighty.

Yet God's grace is lavish and costly.

Listen to this from Hebrews.

Remember, Hebrews is almost like a commentary on Leviticus, the book in the New Testament, Hebrews.

Hebrews 10, 4, 5, and 9.

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.

See, all this Leviticus is pointing us, it's taking us to the need of Jesus.

Verse 5.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he does away with the first in order to establish the second.

The second covenant, the covenant of grace, a new way to live, not by religious rules.

Verse 10, and by that will we have been sanctified.

So through him we're sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, not sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice.

Today our sacrifices look real different.

Often it's just like us sacrificing ourselves.

Like if we're good enough or we punish ourselves or belittle ourselves enough, like then maybe we'll be right or good or holy or pure.

Diedrich Bonhoeffer says this about God's grace.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.

It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.

Above all, it's costly because it costs God the life of his son.

Ye were bought with a price, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.

Above all, it is grace, because God did not reckon his son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.

Because God's grace is so sufficient and so costly, it is not cheap to us.

It's paradoxical and amazing that it's free, and yet in that freedom, it is empowering.

This is what this transfer, when we transfer our sin is put upon the cross and his righteousness given to us, free, but costly for God, lavish to us, and empowers a response.

Jesus brings us a life of not forever guilt and condemnation, but a life under grace, healed and healing, relieved and safe and righteous, but also growing in that.

Point number three is this the cross of Jesus gives us a pure conscience, redeeming us from the guilt trip.

Hebrews 9, 11 through 14.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, I mean, you can hear in Leviticus here, the tent's talking about the tabernacle, that's where this sacrifice in Leviticus would be being made.

A 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 goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the defiled persons with the ashes of heifer sanctified the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Verse 14, purify our conscience.

Your conscience is the innermost part of you, it distinguishes right and wrong, and it feels the weight of wrong.

It feels the guilt.

But this word purify in verse 14 is the image of purging.

A purging.

To purify means to cleanse or consecrate with powerful, sufficient force.

Last summer we purged our garage.

And we're not hoarders, like we can park in our garage.

So we knew it wasn't going to be horrible.

Like our cars fit in, so we backed the cars out and just had to work the perimeter.

You done that?

You work the perimeter as it slowly builds up on the edges.

And so we worked the perimeter and just went through, you know, item by item, space by pace.

Is this good?

Is it useful?

Is this good?

Is it useful?

If it's not good, not useful, purge it.

It's out of here.

To the driveway.

And that pile started to grow.

Two truck beds.

Two truck beds.

This was a good garage.

Like this wasn't like a nasty, it wasn't like a dump, maybe you got a dump truck garage.

You're like, I need a dump truck, you just back it up.

Like that's the kind of purging.

This is a decent, still two truck beds.

That's the word purify.

It's a purging.

All that is not good or useful by Christ's sufficient sacrifice for us.

There is a purifying, a purging of all that is not good and useful.

It's just sufficiently removed, hauled off.

He takes it away.

And in that way, we may still have guilt, but we don't have to live a guilt trip.

You remember the 1980s classic movie Trains, Planes, and Automobiles?

Anybody else old enough?

You remember that?

Here it is.

Neil and Dell.

Neil was that successful control freak on the left, obviously.

He's trying to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving dinner, and there's a snowstorm, he ends up in this like small town in Kansas, and he meets Dell, and Dell is uh amazingly kind and just an absolute mess.

Just a mess.

And so through this mess, like they end up needing to share a hotel room, a motel room, and then they end up, that's how they wake up.

Do you remember those aren't pillows?

Anyone else?

Anyways, side story, you can watch it.

Uh so they they tried to get home by train and then by a bus, and then they rent a car, and then Dell managed to burn up the car there they are trying to get home.

Eventually, get home in the back of a retreat refrigerator truck is how they finally get home.

And when you watch the movie, uh you laugh a lot, like especially the first half.

And then there's somewhere in the middle that this thing happens in you, and you just start feeling really bad for them.

You're like, this is horrible.

Like you feel really bad for them.

Like this just this trip won't end, right?

Like you went to the beach and everybody got coronavirus.

You're like, if we could just go home, like I just like all you want to do is go home.

The trip, the trip just won't end.

And some of you have felt like that because of something.

Right, and it was a long time ago, or it was last week, but it just feels like the guilt trip won't end.

And there can be just this sense of condemnation.

It's not good guilt that reminds you of what's good and takes you to confession and forgiveness and freedom.

It's bad guilt where it keeps you inward and you just live in a condemnation, and you're just stuck.

You're stuck in it.

But Hebrews tells us we don't have to live like that.

That we may have guilt, but it can be good guilt, and it can just send us back to Jesus.

And our consciences, our souls have been purged clean, purified, not by our word, but by his work for us.

Three takeaways, and then we'll pray.

I'll just read these three points.

Moving from guilt, our heart's new resting place is our forever acceptance and forgiveness in Christ.

Number two, moving from guilt, we discover joy, not exhaustion in our walk with Christ.

Number three.

Our guilt propels us more deeply into the fount of God's love for us in Christ.

Pastor Jack Miller, he used to say, you will never shock God, and he will never shame you.

That's pretty good.

God, thank you for your grace to us.

That is sufficient for our forgiveness.

Forgive us for all the ways we're still trying to beat ourselves up enough.

Would you rescue us from the guilt trip?

Would you help us to use guilt to be reminded of what is good and holy and right and noble?

And in our guilt, would we fall more deeply into the fount of your grace for us?

That the blood of Jesus is sufficient to purge our consciences, to purify us as if we have never sinned, and we are fully yours and fully righteous by your gift of grace to us, the once for all sacrifice Christ Jesus.

In his name we pray.

Amen.