Christ is our Trespass Offering for Uncleanness and for Speaking Rashly before God

In Leviticus 5 there are four particular items that require the trespass offering – not being honest or faithful (lying), touching the uncleanness of death, touching the uncleanness of man, and speaking rashly before God.

We may never consider these as being primary sins that we commit. We may think that to sin is to commit gross sins our do outright evil things, but in God’s eyes lying, touching spiritual death, touching uncleanness, and speaking rashly concerning something before Him are sins, and we need to confess these.

We need to come to the Lord and spend time with Him in His word, letting Him shine on us concerning what we are and what we do, and He will expose the fact that we are insincere, unfaithful, dishonest, and we touch spiritual death and hang out with people who spread spiritual death.

If we speak something that is not the truth, no matter how much we sugar-coat it, it is a lie, and our father is the devil, who is a liar and the father of it. We need to come to the Lord and take Him as our trespass offering for our sins.

Furthermore, regarding our contacting people and choosing to be around people, we need to have a proper spiritual diet, because when we contact people, we actually eat of what they are and do. We need to live a holy life separated from death, and for this we need to exercise care concerning our contact with people.

Some people live in the world and have the world in their being, and when they speak, they spread death. Others live in the world but act freely from the world, not being affected by the world with its influence.

Still other people “leap above the world” and live on a different plane, where they are not affected or influenced by the death in the world. We need to be such ones, those who live in the world but actually are above the world, and we take in the supply of life, not letting the death in the world affect us.

We need to be those who chew the cud, that is, take the word of God by means of all prayer and petition, thanking the Lord and musing on His word so that His word would operate in our being.

If we muse on the word, consider and reconsider the word of God with much prayer, the word of God will discern in us what is of God and what is of the devil, what is of the heavens and what is of the earth, and what is of the Spirit and what is of the flesh.

We need to be persons who have much spiritual discernment in our activities and who receive the word of God with much reconsideration, letting the word both supply us and become a sword piercing to divide the soul and the spirit, what is of God and what is of the evil one.

We need to realise that death is more defiling than sin, and we need to stay away from any kind of death, whether wild death, mild death, or creeping death (as typified by the carcasses of the wild beasts, the cattle, or the creeping things).

Furthermore, today we want to see how we need to stay away from the uncleanness coming out of our natural man, and we need to first contact the Lord before speaking anything rashly before Him, otherwise we commit a trespass.

Anything coming out of our Natural Man – whether Good or Bad – is Unclean before God

In Lev 5:3 the third type of trespass that God exposes is the uncleanness coming out of man and touching the uncleanness of man.

What is this uncleanness of man? The uncleanness of man signifies that everything that is discharged from the natural man and the natural life, whether good or bad, is unclean (see Matt. 15:17-20; 16:21-25).

Whenever we live in our natural life, expressing our natural man, we are unclean. Everything that is discharged from the natural man and the natural life is unclean. We may think that we are polite to others, nice to them, and we even love them, but if these come out of our natural man, we live in uncleanness.

In our contact in the church life with other members of the Body, there may be uncleanness – the uncleanness of spiritual death or of the natural being. As we fellowship with the saints, we need to be aware that, whenever we express something or say something out of our natural man, we are unclean; and when others touch us, they become unclean.

We may speak a word of appreciation to someone or a loving word, but if this is our natural man speaking, we are unclean, and if the others receive our word, they become unclean.

Being polite, for example, is different from being nice to others – it is putting on a mask for the sake of pleasing others. We may not care for others, but we want to put on a mask, so we are polite to them. Being polite out of our natural man and not being nice or kind of our living in spirit is a kind of leprosy, and it is unclean.

To be polite is actually to pretend to be something that we are nor, not to be genuine according to the Lord on your spirit.

We may have some saints that we are close with, we are buddy-buddy with them, but such relationships, when in the natural man and not in spirit, they are natural, fleshly, and unclean.

We may naturally like and be drawn to some saints and we may spend much time together, but if this is in our natural man and not with the exercise of our spirit, this is unclean.

The more we touch the Lord and take Him as our burnt offering, the more we see that we need Him as the trespass offering and the sin offering.

We need Christ as our sin offering to deal with the indwelling sin in the flesh, and we need Christ as our trespass offering to deal with the “children” of sin, the trespasses produced by our sinful nature.

The Lord Jesus told us that it is not what comes into us that defiles us (such as food) but what comes out from us, for when our natural man is expressed, we live in uncleanness, and we are unclean (Matt. 15:17-20).

Living in the natural life makes us unclean, and when we come into the church life as a holy community, we may bring our uncleanness with us among the saints.

We really need to contact the Lord, enjoy Him, and live in the mingled spirit, otherwise by default we are in our natural life, and our natural man is freely expressed, thus making us and others unclean. Anything that is discharged out of our natural man, whether good or bad, is unclean.

May we learn to live in spirit, stay in the realm of life, and not live in the natural man. May we also learn to not be unclean by touching others uncleanness in our contact in the church life. Natural affection is also part of the natural man.

We may either dislike someone or we may love him in a natural way, or we may envy him because of something. These natural feelings come out of our natural man, and they make us unclean.

We need to be before the Lord, ask Him to shine on us and expose our uncleanness, make us clear concerning our living in the natural man, and we need to take Christ as our trespass offering, for all our uncleanness is sin in His eyes.

Lord Jesus, we come to You as we are – unclean, full of uncleanness, and sinful. We take You as our trespass offering. May we walk in the light, and may we learn to walk in the mingled spirit more and more. Lord, have mercy on us and expose our living in the natural man, so that we may realize that anything that comes out of our natural man is unclean. Oh Lord, may we stay away from any uncleanness, and may we learn to take You as our trespass offering daily for all our trespasses, sins, and uncleanness!

Speaking Rashly before God Indicates we Don’t Live for God and we Don’t Fear God

Lev. 5:4 deals with someone swearing rashly with his lips with an oath and he doesn’t realize it, but when he comes to know it, he shall be guilty.

What does this mean, and how can this be applied to us? To speak rashly before God is speaking something in a hasty, careless, and reckless way. Sometimes we may hear about a certain thing, and immediately we give our opinion that we like it or we don’t like it, and that we will do this or that concerning it.

We don’t consult the Lord first, we don’t check with Him, and we don’t contact Him in our spirit – we simply speak rashly before Him and before men.

Oh Lord Jesus! We all are guilty of this, for many times we may freely give our opinions and feelings on different matters that arise, without contacting the Lord. To speak in a hasty and careless way concerning something that comes up shows that we don’t live for God and that we don’t fear God.

If we would have a proper and healthy fear of God, we would check with Him first, and we would not speak something rashly or in haste.

Who are we to say that we like something or we don’t? Did we touch the Lord’s feeling concerning something, and were we in oneness with Him when we spoke something? God may like something – but we may hastily say that we don’t, without checking with Him first.

We are not God, and we need to be careful about speaking hastily.

Instead of expressing our opinion about a certain matter, we should first contact the Lord and enjoy Him, and if He has something to say about that matter, we should be one with Him to say it or not say it, as He pleases.

We need to have a healthy fear of God, not being hasty to speak, make decisions, or express our opinions and feelings.

Peter was once asked by some Jews whether Jesus pays the tax, and he said in haste that yes, Jesus does pay the tax; when he got into the Lord’s presence, however, the Lord exposed this matter of speaking hastily, and sent Peter to catch a fish, out of whose mouth he would take a stater to pay for His tax and Peter’s (see Matt. 17:24-27).

Peter may have been right in his reply to the Jews, but he didn’t consult with the Lord first; we always need to fellowship with the Lord, especially when someone asks us a question and requests our opinion about something.

Others may say what they want and go wherever they want, but the Lord’s timing may be different, and His feeling may be different from ours (John 7:3-8). How much we need to be one with the Lord even in the matter of our speaking, so that we don’t transgress before Him!

Lord Jesus, save us from speaking rashly before God or expressing our opinion in a hasty, careless, and reckless way. We want to first contact You and consult with You, enjoy You and be one with You, and then respond if there’s a need to respond. Oh Lord, how much we need You as our trespass offering, for we often sin by expressing our opinion in a careless way, and we speak rashly before You! Cleanse us from our uncleanness, Lord, and grant us to have a healthy fear of God so that we may live for God and be one with God in what we do and say.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 22 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 8, Taking Christ as Our Trespass Offering for God’s Purpose.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # My lips are foul, my heart impure; / I’m a vile failure, utterly; / All my past hopes no more endure; / Lord, hast Thou yet some grace for me? … / In holiness, self’s active yet; / When humble, I on self rely; / E’en the remorseful tears I shed, / These, too, Thy cleansing blood require. (Song on, Unclean Lips, Impure Heart)
  # We see how this age is so dark, / We know that blest hour is near. / Our Lord may return anytime— / Lord, strike in us this holy fear, / That we may each moment redeem / By taking Thy Word in by prayer, / By learning each lesson You give, / And thus for that hour prepare. (Hymns #1303)
  # I have come to the Fountain of Blood / That for guilt and uncleanness doth flow; / I have washed in its sin-cleansing flood / And my garments are whiter than snow. (Hymns #523)