Open—Bill Prost
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I hesitate to get up again, but I trust it's of the Lord.
Randy mentioned how that we had had before us numbers 19, which pretty well everyone here knows.
And I very much appreciated the truth that was brought out for my own soul, although I was generally familiar with it. But we all learned something when we go over scripture again.
However.
Last night at supper.
A brother said to me.
Why do you think?
That in some cases.
There is very little restoration.
After serious failure, which of course may well lead to someone's being put away from fellowship and from the Lord's table.
Why are there so few in some cases now? Not all cases? We thank God that.
In many cases people are restored, but in some cases it seems there is very little restoration.
Let's turn over to Leviticus, where I believe we would find at least part of the answer.
Leviticus, chapter 6.
We get the offerings brought before us in the earlier chapters of Leviticus, starting with chapter one and four main offerings, and then perhaps the trespass offering being.
You might say a subset of the sin offering.
But notice then afterward we get some additional additional instructions for those offerings, and notice what it says here concerning the sin offering in Leviticus 6.
And verse 24.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, and to his son, saying, This is the law of the sin offering.
In the place where the burnt offering is killed, shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord it is most holy.
And now notice this which is not mentioned in the 4th chapter where the sin offering is introduced.
The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it.
In the Holy place shall it be eaten in the court of the Tabernacle of the congregation.
We could read the rest of it here, because there were.
Some sin offerings that were burned without the camp and they were not to be eaten, but others were to be eaten by the priest.
What does that bring before us?
It brings before us the fact that when serious sin occurs.
Especially if it is something that comes to the attention.
In transposing it to New Testament truth to the attention of the local assembly.
It's necessary for those in that local assembly.
Especially those who take the leadership whose priestly discernment is valued.
It's necessary.
To eat the sin offering.
Why would that be?
The priest had not sinned.
The priest had not become defiled and in that sense was not guilty of sin. He was in that sense the one administering the remedy for the sin.
But he had to eat that sin offering.
That brings before us the fact that when God allows serious sin.
In an assembly, each one in that assembly, and especially those in a position of responsibility and leadership.
Need to recognize that the Lord is speaking to them.
And I say that applying it most of all to my own soul.
How necessary to recognize?
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That the Lord is speaking to us.
And I would suggest that there are two things that the Lord would say to us.
We don't need to dwell at length on them. The first one that comes to mind is what we have already been reminded of in Galatians 6 and one.
If a man be overtaken in fault.
And don't make One Corinthians 5 directly correlate with that, but the spirit of it is the same.
Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness.
Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted, the first thing is that we have to recognize that our own hearts are no better. We have to recognize that we could have been the one to commit that sin, had the Lord not kept us.
Now, does that take away of the from the responsibility of the individual? No, it does not.
As we said yesterday, for me to commit a sin which has to come to the attention of the assembly, I have morally to run a number of red lights before I hit somebody, before something happens that is serious. And that was brought out I believe, in the last meeting yesterday where Psalm 19 was referred to and we saw there a progression from thoughts.
To actions, to presumptuous sins, to their having dominion over me.
And finally, the great transgression.
Very important.
But I have to recognize that I could have committed that sin.
Secondly, we have to recognize that the Lord is speaking to each one of us.
With some kind of a message.
By allowing that sin in our midst.
If we were to turn to Leviticus 14, we would see where the Lord says.
When I put the plague of leprosy in a house.
The Lord allows sometimes that sin to stir us all up.
And may I go as far as to say that restoration?
Often depends, at least to some extent and probably to a large extent.
On how much I eat that sin offering.
I have been.
In different assemblies during my lifetime.
And more than once, I have had to be.
In the unhappy situation.
Where someone's name had to be announced.
Because of serious sin in his or her life, and that they were no longer considered in fellowship with us and able to partake at the Lord's table.
And as a young brother, I can remember being impressed at least twice and maybe three times.
With how the brother who had the responsibility of standing up and making that announcement.
Pardon me for choking up in the memory of it.
Oh, that brother with tears running down his face.
Announce that fact and others in the assembly had tears running down their faces, too.
As that brother, yes, he was faithful. He spoke the individual's name.
He told the sin of which they were guilty, and that is necessary.
Didn't go into all the details, but he mentioned the sin.
But then, in some cases, and I'm not going to go over the various wording, but they reminded us of how solemnly the Lord was speaking to us, and how our own hearts needed to be stirred up, because there was doubtless that in our own hearts which the Lord was wanting us to deal with.
May be secret sins.
That had not yet become public. But the Lord knew about them, and we knew about. And that we ourselves as individuals who were guilty of those secrets, sins, knew about them. Or maybe it was simply a matter of getting away from the Lord and worldliness, being overly occupied with the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, which is like the good life we enjoy here in North America, whatever it might be, there is a necessity to eat that sin offering.
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And if we are eating that sin offering, what will happen?
First of all.
God is going to.
Make it felt, not only in that assembly, but ultimately by the individual that has to be put away.
An old brother used to remind us more than once that what comes from the heart.
Goes to the heart.
And what breaks a soul down, perhaps more than anything else, is the realization that others are in brokenness and heartache and sorrow because of what has happened.
It has an effect.
It has an effect on us and it has an effect on the one who has had to be dealt with.
How important that is?
Sad to say.
And again I speak to my own heart. There is sometimes the attitude, and I have heard it. I have heard it said. I remember well, many years ago, where a dear brother was put away from the Lord's table, a relatively young brother.
And a sister whom I knew well, older than I, and who ought to have known better, made the statement to me, she said. Well, Bill?
I'm thankful that your mind and mind don't run along those channels, do we?
Do they?
Your mind and mind don't run along those channels referring to the sin of which that young brother was guilty.
I said to her, addressing her by name, because I'd known her pretty much all my life. I said I'm afraid I know my own heart only too well to realize that it is capable of any sin that has ever been committed.
Well, she didn't say anymore.
But I have to. I have to realize that that's true.
And if we take the attitude, when sin occurs, serious sin, and someone has to be put away, that in the manner of speaking it is simply good riddance to bad rubbish, Oh, may the Lord preserve us from that attitude, because the Lord will have to bring down upon your life and mine His government to make us realize.
That our hearts are no better and that more than anything else, that attitude and spirit.
Will hinder.
First of all, our own dealing with what the Lord is saying to us, but secondly it will hinder.
The restoration of that one.
Does that excuse them if they go away? If they say I don't feel welcome here, I don't feel very happy here. I'm going to go down the street where I know they don't meet according to scripture, but at least they'll throw their arms around me and make me feel welcome. Does that excuse someone for taking that attitude? Assuredly not. Oh no. Every one of us shall give account of himself to God and I am responsible before the Lord.
If I deliberately and willfully walk away from that which I know to be the truth of God.
But on the other hand, how many souls have been alienated by a wrong attitude and spirit because of not eating the sin offering?
It was necessary for the priests to do it.
But did he always do it?
Let's go to the 10th chapter to see where the priests failed in this, and I would suggest there is a lesson again for us here in Leviticus 10.
I want to leave room because the scripture says as we read earlier, two or three. So we won't go into all the detail but we notice in the beginning of this chapter Leviticus 10 verse one.
And Nadab, and by you the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer. That was a kind of a silver dish in which they could carry things.
And put fire therein. That is hot coals.
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But in sense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord.
Which he commanded them not, that is, and take instead of taking those coals off the altar, they got them somewhere else.
And verse two says there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Oh how solemn.
Then Moses said unto Aaron. This is it that the Lord speaks, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified.
And Aaron held his peace.
Poor Aaron.
His two oldest sons cut off in a moment.
For offering strange fire before the Lord, the priesthood was scarcely established before there was serious failure.
Unless we pat ourselves on the back and think that in the church we are any better. If we look at the history of the church, we see that very early on.
Serious failure came in.
And so poor Aaron holds his peace.
Why did Aaron have nothing to say? Oh, poor Aaron.
It hadn't been that long before.
When Moses, we remember, went up into the mount to receive what we commonly call the 10 commandments written on those tablets of stone, and he was gone for an extended period of time, 40 days.
And during that time, the people of Israel became restless.
And they said, As for this Moses, we know not what is, we don't know what's become of them.
Aaron, you're now in charge. You up? Make us gods.
And poor Aaron.
Goes and asks for all the golden earrings that they had gotten from the Egyptians and makes a golden calf.
And the people begin to worship it.
And poor Aaron, when Moses comes down from the mount and confronts Aaron with that and says whatever, Aaron, what did this people do to you? What does Aaron do?
Oh, poor Aaron, but our hearts are no better, Aaron says. Well, the people persuaded me, and I collected all their earrings and put them into the fire, and out came this calf.
Even the children here would laugh at that explanation and say, come on, Aaron.
Out came this calf. Is that what happened?
That's just about the way the theory of evolution works.
An explosion in a printing press shop will produce a perfect dictionary.
Utterly ridiculous. Poor Aaron.
And now here his two boys cut off air and held his peace.
But oh, look at the end of the chapter.
Moses told Aaron and the remaining two sons to carry on. He said. Don't go into mourning over this.
You have a responsibility.
And I believe that would speak to our own hearts, because sometimes the awfulness of events in our own lives can cause us to slacken our responsibilities toward the Lord. And Moses reminds Aaron and his sons that they have a responsibility.
And notice what happens here at the end of the chapter and beginning in verse 16.
Offerings had been offered, things had been done, but something had been omitted, and Moses takes note of it.
Verse 16. And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering.
And behold, it was burnt.
And he was angry with Eliezer and Ithemar, the sons of Aaron. That was the they were the remaining two sons, because Aaron had four sons.
And he was angry with Eliezer and Ethamar, the sons of Aaron, which were left alive saying.
Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place?
Seeing it as Most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord.
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Behold, the blood of it was not brought in within the holy Place.
That is, there were some offerings where the blood was brought into the holy place.
Two of the sin offerings that happened. Two, it didn't happen.
And Moses makes that distinction. Now that distinction isn't critical for what we're saying, We just mentioned why Moses puts it in. Here you can read about the sin offering in the 4th of Leviticus and the two first ones. The blood was brought in and sprinkled before the Tabernacle.
The bodies of those beasts had to be totally burnt. The priest didn't eat that sin offering, but the final two. The blood was not sprinkled in the Tabernacle.
The priest was to eat that sin offering.
And so Moses says in the latter half of verse 18 he should indeed have eaten it in the Holy Place, as I command.
Sometimes there's failure.
Sometimes we don't eat the sin offering the way we should. It happens, doesn't it?
Sometimes various and sundry things come into our minds and into our hearts.
Perhaps when an individual has to be put away from the Lord's table.
The sin that has committed, let's be blunt about it, maybe it has affected me and my family.
And a little bit of that good riddance to bad rubbish can get into my mind.
Or perhaps I am away from the Lord.
And even though perhaps I am in that local assembly.
I am scarcely in a fit moral state to eat the sin offering the way I should.
We could go on and on. Various things can affect my state of soul where I fail in my responsibilities before the Lord.
And here we find Eliezer and Itamar failing.
Their two older brothers had just been cut off in a moment like that.
You can imagine from a human point of view, the effect of that.
And instead of eating that sin offering.
They burn it.
They burn it up.
What happens? Is everything lost?
Here is a very important point, and I say it for the benefit of all of us.
When you are reading the Old Testament.
And you read about Aaron and his sons.
When Aaron and his sons are mentioned collectively.
Almost always, in fact, I can't at the moment think of an exception.
They represent the church.
Christ and the Church, but they represent Christ and the Church.
When Aaron is mentioned alone.
He is typical of Christ himself in his character as our great High Priest in our intercessor.
Keep those two things separate and it helps us to understand the types in the Old Testament concerning the priesthood. Aaron and his sons together bring the forest. Christ in the church. Aaron alone Christ is our great High Priest.
And what happens here?
Moses addresses Leather Eliezer and Ethan Mart, but who answers?
Verse 19 And Aaron said unto Moses, Oh, how beautiful. He's a type of Christ.
Christ intercedes for the failure of those who should have been acting in their character as priests, but it failed. He intercedes.
Before Moses.
Who's the type of the Lord himself?
No type is perfect. We can't bring out perfection in types. They all fall short. But who answers? Aaron does.
And he says.
Verse 19 Behold this day have they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord.
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And such things have befallen me.
And if I had eaten that sin offering today, should it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord?
Aaron is of the Great High Priest.
Intercedes for his son Speaking of you and me.
And he points out on the one hand what had happened and how human weakness had responded to it.
And how perhaps those sons were not in a fit state to eat the sin offering.
I don't. Excuse me.
I don't want to read into scripture what isn't there, but is it possible that Eliezer and Ethan are?
Were so overwhelmed by the loss of their two brothers that maybe, just maybe, they felt that this was perhaps unduly severe and unduly harsh that such a thing would have happened. After all, did they deliberately offer that strange fire? Did they make a mistake and?
I don't know. I merely suggest the possibility.
But when human infirmity and weakness comes in, our great High Priest answers the situation.
And what happens?
It said in verse 20 and when Moses heard that, he was content.
Sometimes in your life and mine.
We may be faced with the need to eat the sin offered.
And we can't excuse ourselves for not eating it.
I believe, as we said earlier, that restoration is perhaps.
In the human sense, more dependent on that than anything else.
And that our attitude and spirit.
Is perhaps the reason.
Why more who are set aside and have to be set aside?
Are not happily and brightly restored. The Lord has a controversy with us, and in some cases it may have nothing to do directly with the sin that brought about the discipline. But the Lord knows my heart. He knows your heart, and if He allows that in my local assembly I better bow my head and say Lord.
No, don't look at that brother across the room and say, well, he sure has something to learn from this or that sister over there. Her attitude needs to change or something like that. No, let me look at my own heart.
And Solomon recognized this. You'll remember the prayer, the dedication of the temple. He talked about the Lord allowing a a blight on the land or Caterpillar or famine or anything like that.
And he said.
That, among other things, when every man shall know the plague of his own heart.
Yes, there may have been a need to be humbled collectively and that's always good when that happens. And I have known situations where brethren collectively got together and shed tears and said Lord.
Please show us what we need to learn and restore that one.
Who has had to be set aside to?
We have to be before the Lord as individuals.
But if there is failure, if there is failure, oh how wonderful that our great High Priest up there comes in.
And when, as it were, God says, why didn't you eat the sin offering the Lord Jesus intercedes for us.
Not because of sin, but because of infirmity and human weakness.
But what does then the Lord look for Ohio? He looks.
For that priesthood to be restored. And they were. They were.
Eliezer and Ethamar were outstanding as time went on in the priesthood. I believed they learned from the SAD.
Events of that day when their two brothers were cut off, and they were exemplary priests in the days that followed, and their posterity after them.
Well, may the Lord use all this to exercise our souls.
Numbers 19 does not refer to this, but.
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You will pardon me if I add that thought to what we had before us yesterday and the day before.
Because I believe it is so, so necessary in.
Helping and promoting real repentance and restoration.