Unintentional
Numbers 15:17-31
Everyone is familiar with the statement of Steve Urkle, “Did I do that?” after unintentionally creating havoc. We have all heard someone say, "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it" or "Forgive me, I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to..." We like to excuse many of our actions as “only mistakes” and “no big deal”. But God sees things differently as He speaks to us about our unintentional sins.
I. What is Unintentional Sin?
A. Unintentional Sin is a Sin of Ignorance
1. 1 John 3:4 “Sin is the transgression (or breaking) of the law.”
2. Modern day example: You get caught speeding in a 25 mile per hour zone, when you didn't realize that the speed limit had changed. Or going through a stop sign that you didn't see.
Just because you weren’t aware that you broke the law at the time you broke the law, you’re still guilty of breaking the law.
3. Paul is another example of having committed unintentional sin.
a. Acts 8:3 “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.”
b. 1 Timothy 1:13 “Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”
4. A man frequently does wrong for lack of thought, through not considering the outcome of his actions—or even thinking at all. He carelessly and hastily blunders into the course which first suggests itself and errs because he did not think about whether or not it was right.
5. Proverbs 7:22-23 “Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, He did not know it would cost his life
6. A sin of ignorance is committed quite often when there is no intent to do wrong and yet wrong is done. Many of the worst sins are committed with the best of intentions
7. Psalms 19:12 “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.”
B. Unintentional Sin is a Sin of Neglect
1. Numbers 15:22-24 (NLT) ““But suppose you unintentionally fail to carry out all these commands that the Lord has given you through Moses. And suppose your descendants in the future fail to do everything the Lord has commanded through Moses. If the mistake was made unintentionally, and the community was unaware of it, the whole community must present a young bull for a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It must be offered along with its prescribed grain offering and liquid offering and with one male goat for a sin offering.”
C. A sin requiring a guilt offering was the unintentional breaking of special commands regarding religious duties. Examples given to Israel were neglecting to tithe, or eating the priest’s portion of a sacrifice.
D. James 4:17 “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
E. Failing to do what we know to do is sin.
II. Unintentional sin is still sin.
A. 1 John 5:17 “All unrighteousness is sin”
B. Unintentional sins of ignorance or neglect are really sins.
C. Someone has said, “"If ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise,"
D. But we must realize as much as God loves the sinner He hates, abhors, detests the sin and cannot in His infinite holiness let sin go undelt with.
E. Even though one might have sinned unintentionally, the Lord still considers their action to be sinful, and thus holds them accountable for their actions.
F. Luke 12:42-48 “And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”
G. Sin is a serious matter -- whether we sin intentionally or unintentionally..
III. Unintentional sin undelt with carries consequences.
A. Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations that went before—consequences that are hardly ever confined to ourselves.—George Eliot.
B. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
C. Romans 2:11-12 “ For there is no partiality with God. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law.”
D. Sin separates us from God.
E. Romans 6:23 “The wage of sin is death”
F. In the life of the believer sin depletes our spiritual power
G. Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He WILL NOT HEAR.”
H. Illustration – In MILWAUKEE a four-year-old boy who was taken to the hospital after eating cocaine. What's tragic is that the boy found the drug in his family refrigerator. The child was taken to hospital by his mother with a high fever and a fast heart rate, and a drug screen determined he had indeed ingested cocaine. "I'm not hurting anybody but myself." Have you ever heard that line offered as a justification for sin? This story reminds us of how flawed that logic really is. Whenever we act in sinful or irresponsible ways, some type of "ripple effect" nearly always occurs, and our actions end up having consequences which we never expected. - my.excite.com, 8/29/97
I. Proverbs 22:3 “A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.”
IV. Unintentional sin must be repented of when we understand we have sinned.
A. Numbers 15:27-28 “‘And if a person sins unintentionally, then he shall bring a female goat in its first year as a sin offering. 28 So the priest shall make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally, when he sins unintentionally before the LORD, to make atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him.”
B. We need to ask God to forgive us of those sins we do not realize we have committed and to reveal them to us that we might acknowledge them and forsake them and seek His cleansing.
C. Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
D. Bill Bright once said, “Just as the omission of ONE INGREDIENT in a recipe can result in failure, so also can the omission of confessing ONE KNOWN SIN result in the failure of our prayers.”
E. Psalm 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear" ().
F. There is nothing that so takes the joy out of life like unconfessed sin on the conscience.
G. 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
H. If I am not aware of a sin, I can’t confess it; God forgives both intentional and unintentional sins. But if I am aware, if God has somehow brought it to my attention, then I need to confess it, not to earn God’s forgiveness, but to gratefully receive it.
