Sins Of Ignorance

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 25, 1877,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And if a soul sins and commits any of these things which are forbidden
to be done by the commandments of the Lord; though he knew it not, yet
is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. And he shall bring a ram
without blemish out of the flock, with your estimation, for a trespass
offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for
him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and knew it not, and it
shall be forgiven him." Leviticus 5:17,18.

IT is supposed in our text that men might commit forbidden things
without knowing it. No, it is not merely supposed, but it is taken for
granted and provided for. The Levitical law had special statutes for
sins of ignorance and one of its sections begins with these words, "If
a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of
the Lord." If you will, at your leisure, read the 4th and 5th chapters
of Leviticus, you will find, first of all, it is supposed that a priest
may sin. They knew nothing of infallible priests and infallible popes
under the Mosaic Law! It was known and recognized that priests might
sin and sin through ignorance, too.

"The priest's lips should keep knowledge," but as they were compassed
with infirmities, they learned to have compassion on the ignorant by
being made, themselves, conscious that they were not perfect in
understanding. In the 4th chapter a sacrifice is prescribed for "the
priest that is anointed, if he sins according to the sin of the
people." The highest in office, who ought to be best read in the things
of God, might, nevertheless, err through misunderstanding,
forgetfulness, or ignorance. The priests were teachers, but they
needed, also, to be taught. As Trapp says, "The sins of teachers are
teachers of sins" and, therefore, they were not overlooked but had to
be expiated by trespass offerings.

Further on in the chapter it is supposed that a ruler may sin (see
verse 22). A ruler should be thoroughly acquainted with the Law which
he has to dispense, but yet he might not know every point and,
therefore, might err. Therefore it is written, "When a ruler has
sinned, and done somewhat through ignorance against any of the
commandments of the Lord his God concerning things which should not be
done, and is guilty. Or if his sin, wherein he has sinned, comes to his
knowledge; he shall bring his offering." There existed no fiction among
the Jews that the king can do no wrong– however excellent his
intentions, he might be misinformed upon the Divine Law and so fall
into error. Errors in leaders are apt to breed mischief and, therefore,
they were to be repented of and put away by an expiatory sacrifice.

It was, also, according to the Law, regarded as very likely that any
man might fall into sins of ignorance, for in chapter four, verse 27,
we read, "And if any one of the common people sins through ignorance,
while he does somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord."
The sin even of the most common person was not to be winked at and
passed over as a mere trifle, even though he could plead ignorance of
the Law! It was not to be said, "Oh, he is quite an insignificant
person and he did it in ignorance and, therefore, there is no need to
take any note of it." No, on the contrary, he was, also, to bring his
trespass offering that the priest might make an atonement for him.
Ignorance was common enough among the common people, but it did not
constitute a license for them, nor screen them from guilt.

But we need not, dear Friends, go to these Scripture references, for we
are well assured by our own observation and the verdict of our own
experience that sins of ignorance are possible, for we have often,
ourselves, sinned in this fashion, and we have had to mourn deeply over
the fact when we have been convinced of it. Very much in which we once
allowed ourselves we would not do again, for we see the evil of it,
though once we judged it to be right enough. An enlightened conscience
mourns over sins of ignorance which it would never do if they were
innocent mistakes.

The word rendered, "ignorance," may, also, bear the translation of
inadvertence. Inadvertence is a kind of acted ignorance–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. There is very much sin of this kind
committed every day. There is no intent to do wrong and yet wrong is
done. Culpable neglect creates a thousand faults. "Evil is worked by
lack of thought as well as lack of heart." Sins of inadvertence,
therefore, are undoubtedly abundant among us and in these busy,
thoughtless, railway days they are apt to increase.

We do not take time enough to examine our actions! We do not take good
heed to our steps. Life should be a careful work of art in which every
single line and tint should be the fruit of study and thought, like the
paintings of the great master who was apt to say, "I paint for
eternity." But, alas, life is often slurred over like those hasty
productions of the scene painter in which present effect, alone, is
studied, and the canvas becomes a mere daub of colors hastily laid on.
We seem intent to do much rather than to do well–we want to cover
space rather than to reach perfection. This is not wise. O that every
single thought were conformed to the will of God!

Now, seeing that there are sins of ignorance and sins of inadvertence,
what about them? Is there any actual guilt in them? In our text we have
the Lord's mind and judgment–not that of the Church or of some eminent
Divine–but of the Lord God Himself and, therefore, let me read it to
you once again. "If a soul sins and commits any of these things which
are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord; though he
knew it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity." Sins of
ignorance, then, are really sins needing atonement because they involve
us in guilt! Yet let us clearly understand that they greatly differ in
degree of guilt from known and willful sins.

Our Lord teaches us this in the Gospels and our own conscience tells us
that it must be so. The Savior puts it, "That servant, which knew his
lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his
will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did
commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." He
who knew not his lord's will was less punished than the intentional
offender, but he was still beaten–and beaten with stripes, of which a
few will be far more than you and I may wish to bear! The fewest
stripes that will come from the hand of justice will be enough to
grievously afflict us!

One stroke has made good men lie in the dust and moan in sorrow. Sins
caused by ignorance are punished, for the Prophet says (Isaiah 5:13),
"My people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge." And
again in Hosea, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Paul,
also, tells us, "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His
mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not
God." These are to be punished, it seems, though their sinful ignorance
is mentioned in the threat. Yes, and according to my text there is sin
in ignorance, itself, for the 18th verse declares, "the priest shall
make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred."

Ignorance of the Law among those who dwelt in the camp of Israel was
essentially sinful. The Israelite had no business to be ignorant. The
Law was plain and within his reach. If he neglected to study the
statute, his breach of the statute could not be excused by his neglect,
seeing the neglect was, in itself, an act of omission of a censurable
kind. Willful ignorance of the Lord's will is, in itself, sin, and the
sin which comes of it is grievous in the sight of the Lord our God.
Blessed be God, the solemn declaration of the text concerning the guilt
of sins of ignorance needs not drive us to despair, for a sacrifice is
permitted for it!

The offender, on discovering his error, might bring his offering and
pay the trespass money for any damage which he had caused by his
action. And there was a promise given in connection with the atoning
sacrifice which was, no doubt, often realized by the contrite in
heart– "It shall be forgiven him." Be it ours, this morning not to
attempt excuses but to seek forgiveness! May the Spirit of God work in
us a tender-hearted confession of that sin which we did not, before,
know to be sin. And while we are confessing it, may the Divine Spirit
apply the precious blood that we may have a sweet sense of pardon. May
the Lord make us rejoice in the Truth of God that, "the blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."

The teaching of my text does three things, of which I shall speak.
First, by it the commandment is honored. Secondly, by it the conscience
is enlightened. And thirdly, by it the Sacrifice is endeared.

I. By the Divine declaration that sins of ignorance are really sins,
THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD IS HONORED. I need not multiply words to prove
it so. The Law of God is, by this solemn sentence, lifted into a place
of dignity. If it is really so, that to break one of its precepts
involves us in guilt, even if we did not know that we were offending,
then is the Law, indeed, enthroned upon a terrible eminence and girt
around with fire. Enlarging upon this

thought I would observe, first, dear Friends, that hereby the Law is
declared to be the supreme authority over men. The Law is supreme, not
conscience.

Conscience is differently enlightened in different men and the ultimate
appeal as to right and wrong cannot be to your half-blinded conscience
or to mine. I might condemn what you allow and you would scarcely
tolerate what I approve–we are, neither of us, judges, but both
culprits upon trial when we come under the Law. The ultimate appeal
will be to, "Thus says the Lord"–to the Law itself, which is the only
perfect standard by which the deeds and actions of men can be measured.
The Law of God, from the supremacy into which this text lifts it, says
to us, "You will not be excused because your conscience was
unenlightened, nor because it was so perverse as to put bitter for
sweet and sweet for bitter. My demands are the same in every jot and
tittle, whatever your conscience may condemn or allow."

Conscience has lost much of its sensitiveness through the Fall and
through our actual sins, but the Law is not lowered to suit our
perverted understanding. If we break the Law, although our conscience
may not blame us, or even inform us of the wrong, the deed is still
recorded against us–we must bear our iniquity. The Law is, also, set
above human opinion, for this man says, "You may do that," and a second
claims that he may do the other, but the Law changes not according to
man's judgment and does not bend itself to the spirit of the age or the
tastes of the period. It is the supreme judge, from whose Infallible
decision there is no appeal. Right is right though all condemn, and
wrong is wrong though all approve. The Law is the balance of the
sanctuary, accurate to a hair, sensitive, even to the small dust of the
balance.

Opinions continually differ, but the Law of God is one and invariable.
According to the moral sensitiveness of a man will be his estimate of
the act which he performs, but would you have the Law of God vary
according to man's fickle judgment? If you would desire such a thing,
God's infinite wisdom forbids it. The Law is a fixed quantity, a
settled standard and if we fall short of it, though we know it not, yet
are we guilty and must bear our iniquity unless an atonement is made.
This exalts the Law above the custom of nations and periods, for men
are very apt to say, "It is true I did so-and-so, which I could not
have defended in itself–but then, it is the way of the trade–other
houses do so, general opinion and public consent have endorsed the
custom. I do not, therefore, see how I can act differently from others,
for if I did so, I should be very singular and should probably be a
loser through my scruples."

Yes, but the customs of men are not the standard of right! Where they
have been, at first, correct through strong Christian influence, the
tendency is for them to deteriorate and sink below the proper standard.
Habit, perpetuity and universality of wrong at last enable men to call
the false by the same name as the true–but there is no real change
worked thereby–the customary wrong is still a wrong, the universal lie
is still a falsehood. God's Law is not changed! Our Lord Jesus said,
"It is easier for Heaven and earth to pass away than one tittle of the
Law to fail." The Divine Law overrides custom, tradition and
opinion–these have no more effect upon the eternal standard than the
fall of a leaf upon the stars of Heaven.

"If a man does any of these things which are forbidden to be done by
the commandments of the Lord; though he knew it not, yet is he guilty."
All the customs in the world cannot make wrong right! if everybody that
ever lived from Adam down to this hour had done a wrong thing and
declared it to be righteous, yet would it make no moral difference in
the evil deed. A thousand ages of whitewashing cannot make a vice a
virtue. God's commands stand fast forever and he who breaks it must
bear his punishment. Thus you see that by the declaration of my text,
the Law of God is enshrined in the place of reverence.

Note again, if a sin of ignorance renders us guilty, what must a
willful sin do? Do you not perceive at once how the Law is, again, set
on high by this? For if an inadvertent transgression covers the soul
with guilt which cannot be put away without a sacrifice, then what
shall we say of those who knowingly and advisedly, with malice
aforethought, break the commands of God? What shall we say of those
who, again and again and again, being often reproved, harden their
necks and go on in their iniquities? Surely their sin is exceedingly
sinful! If I may become a transgressor by breaking a Law of God which I
did not know, by what name shall I be called if, when I do know, I
presumptuously lift up my hand to defy the Lawgiver and violate His
statutes?

Thus again, dear Friends, by the teaching of our text, men were driven
to study the Law, for if they were at all right-hearted they said, "Let
us know what God would have us do. We do not wish to be leaving His
commands undone, or committing transgressions against His precepts
through not knowing better." They would, therefore, run to the

Prophets and other teachers and ask them, "Tell us, what are the
statutes of the Law of God? What has Jehovah ordained?" And
right-minded men would be led by a desire to obey, to become earnest
students of the will of God, as I trust, beloved Friends, we, also,
shall be moved to be. Lest we should break the Law through not knowing
its commands, let us make it our continual study. Let us search it day
and night! Let it be the man of our counsels and the guide of our
lives.

Let this be the prayer of each one of us–"What I know not, O my God,
teach me. Make me to understand the way of Your precepts. Let me not be
as the horse and the mule which have no understanding, but enlighten me
in my inmost heart lest I ignorantly transgress Your commandments."
Thus, you see, the Law was glorified in the midst of Israel and men
were led to search it to know what the Lord required of them. A holy
fear, lest they should inadvertently fall into sin, moved them to
diligent reading of the commands. Thus they were often checked when
about to perform a hasty deed, and were made to ask themselves, "What
would the Lord have us do?"

Without such an ordinance as our text, they might have acted hurriedly
and so have sinned, and sinned again in the blundering haste of a
thoughtless spirit. But by this they were checked in their
heedlessness, called to consideration and made to have the fear of God
always before them. They were thereby warned to look at their actions
and examine their ways lest, through thoughtlessness, they should sin
against the Law of God. And you will see at once, Beloved, that this
would lead every earnest Israelite to teach his children God's Law,
lest his sons should err through ignorance or inadvertence. The pious
Jew carefully taught his children all things concerning the Passover
and the yearly feasts, the daily sacrifice, the worship in the Temple
and what was due to the service of God.

He made him learn the moral Law and endeavored, as far as he could, to
enlighten his conscience, knowing that "for the soul to be without
knowledge is not good." He said to his son, "Take fast hold of
instruction. Let her not go. Keep her, for she is your life." Without
knowledge a man will fall into many pitfalls and snares which the true
light would have enabled him to avoid. Good men, therefore, spent much
of their time in training their families. "Come, children," they said,
"hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord." They were,
also, zealous to make known the Law of God as far as they could, saying
each one to his fellow, "Know the Lord." Fear of committing sins of
ignorance was a spur to national education and tended greatly to make
all Israel honor the Law of the Lord.

I close these thoughts by noting that to me the sin-revealing power of
the Law of God is wonderfully displayed as I read my text. I know the
Law to be exceedingly broad. I know its eye to be like that of an eagle
and I know its hand to be heavy as iron. But when I find that it
accuses me of sins which I knew not, that it searches the secret parts
of my soul and brings to light what my own eyes of self-examination
have never seen, then I am filled with trembling! When I discover that
I may stand before the bar of God charged with iniquities which I shall
be quite unable to deny, but of which, at this moment, I am not at all
conscious, then am I bowed in the dust! What a Law this must be! What a
light is this in which our conduct is placed!

If you set your character side by side with that of your fellow man,
you may begin to compliment yourself. If you look at it by the dim
candlelight of public opinion, you may begin to flatter yourself. If
you go no further than a diligent search by the aid of your own
judgment, you may still be somewhat at ease. But if the light in which
we shall stand at last will be the light of Jehovah's own ineffable
purity! If His Omniscience detects iniquity where we have not perceived
it and if His justice will visit sin even where we were not cognizant
of it, our position is solemn, indeed! What a Law this is by which men
are bound! How severe and searching! How holy and how pure must God,
Himself, be?

O thrice holy Jehovah, we are filled with awe of You! The heavens are
not clear in Your sight and You charged Your angels with folly! How,
then, can we be just with You? After reading this, Your own Word, we
see how justly You will charge us with folly and how impossible it is
for us to hope to be justified in Your sight by any righteousness of
our own! Thus, my Brothers and Sisters, we see that the Law of God is
honored.

II. Secondly, by the teaching of the text, THE CONSCIENCE IS AWAKENED.
I feel, when I read these words, as if a great gulf opens at my feet!
"If a soul sins and commits any of these things which are forbidden to
be done by the commandments of the Lord; though he knew it not, yet is
he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity." You know, dear Friend, that
you are a willful sinner and have broken God's Law consciously. But if
you may be a sinner though you knew it not, how the solid earth rolls
away from under you as in a dreadful earthquake and, almost like Korah,
Dathan and Abiram, you stand in dread as the devouring fire pours forth
from the mysterious abyss!

Nothing which is human can be thought certain after this. Think of the
sins you may have committed–sins of thoughts which have too rapidly
flitted through your mind for you remember them–thoughts which pass
over your mind as mere imaginations, like clouds floating aloft in the
sky which cast a flying shadow over the landscape and are gone. Think
of your evil thoughts, your pleasure in hearing of uncleanness, your
desires, wishes and excuses of evil– these are all iniquities. Then,
too, our words, our hurried words of anger, of falsehood, of petulance
and pride. Our idle words, our murmuring words, our unbelieving words,
our irreverent words–words scarcely meant which fell from us without
thought! What a multitude of these may be laid at our door and all of
them are full of sin!

And actions in which we have excused ourselves very thoroughly because
we have never looked at them in God's light, but have been content to
regard them in the dim ray of custom–are there not many of these which
contain sin? When I think of all the forms of evil, I am compelled to
fear that much of our life may have been a continuous sin and yet we
may have never condemned ourselves, or even thought about it! Remember
that great command, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all
your strength." How far short of that you and I have come!

Mentally we have not served God to perfection, neither have the
affections loved Him with all possible intensity, nor has the soul,
with its desires, gone after Him so eagerly as it should. Truly we are
guilty, guilty much more than we have ever imagined! And as to that
second Commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself"–who
among us has done so? Have we loved our fellow man with a love that
even approximated to our love to ourselves? O God, amid the varied
lights of Your Ten Commandments, all comprehended in the white light of
that one word, "love," we stand convicted and we perceive that our
ignorance affords no covering for us! We hear Your voice and tremble
before it while You say, "Though he knew it not, yet is he guilty, and
shall bear his iniquity."

Our ignorance, dear Friends, is evidently very great. I do not suppose
that the best instructed Christian here will claim to possess much
wisdom. The usual rule is that the more we really know, the more
conscious we are of the littleness of our knowledge. Our ignorance,
therefore, I may take for granted all round, has been very great. What
scope, then, has there been beneath the mantle of that mist of
ignorance for sin to hide and multiply! As the conies swarm in the
holes of the rocks, the bats in the sunless caves of the earth and the
fish in the deep abysses of the sea, so do our sins swarm in the hidden
parts of our nature. "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from
secret faults!"

The ignorance of very many persons is, to a large degree, willful. Many
do not read the Bible at all, or very seldom, and then without desiring
to know its meaning. Even some professing Christians take their
religion from a monthly magazine, or from some standard book written by
a human author and adopted by their sect–few go to the Word of God
itself–they are content to drink of the muddied streams of human
teaching instead of filling their cups at the crystal fountain of
Revelation itself.

Now, Brothers and Sisters, if you are ignorant of anything concerning
God's mind and will, it is not, in the case of any of you, for lack of
the Bible, nor for lack of a willing guide to instruct you in it for,
behold, the Holy Spirit waits to be gracious to you in this respect.
"If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives liberally, and
upbraids not." If we do not know, we may know it. Our ignorance has
been willful if, in this privileged country, we remain ignorant of the
Gospel. Where there is confessedly such a mass of willful ignorance,
who among us can imagine what myriads of evil shapes of sin swarm in
the grim darkness? The Prince of Darkness holds his court in the
blackness of that ignorance which we, ourselves, have willfully created
by refusing to come to the Light of God.

The enemy sows the seed of evil by night and amid Egyptian darkness the
accursed grain grows to an awful ripeness and brings forth a
hundred-fold! Break in, O eternal Light! Break in upon the dimness of
our ignorance, lest it thickens into the eternal midnight of Hell! Now,
it will be vain for any man to say in his mind, as I fear some will do,
"God is harsh in thus dealing with us." If you say thus, O Man, I ask
you to remember God's answer. Christ puts your rebellious speech into
the mouth of the unfaithful one who hid his talent. He said, "I knew
that you were an austere man, gathering where you had not sown."

What did his master say? Instead of excusing him, which is far beneath
the dignity of our great God to do, he took the man at his own
confession and said, "You knew that I was an austere man, taking up
that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow. Why, then, did
you not put my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have
required my own with interest?" If you know God to be harsh, or say you
think so, then remember how earnest you ought to be to

come up to His standard, for, call that standard what you like, it is
the standard! Count it to be severe if you will, it is binding upon you
for all that–and by it you will have to be tried, at the last, so that
there is no escape for any of us by impeaching our Maker!

Wiser, far, is it to submit and beg for mercy. Let us remember, in
order that our doctrine may appear less strange, that it is according
to the analogy of Nature that when God's Laws are broken, ignorance of
those Laws should not prevent the penalty from falling upon the
offenders. The natural law is an instructive type of the moral and
spiritual Laws of God and from it we may gather much teaching. Here is
the law of gravitation, by which objects are attracted to each other.
It is inevitable that heavy matters will fall to the earth. A man
thinks that he can fly–he puts on his wings and climbs to the top of a
tower. He is fully persuaded that he is about to fly like a bird.
Spectators are invited to behold the wonder and expectations are
excited. The law of gravitation is against the inventor, but he does
not think so. Poor man, he firmly believes in his ability to fly. But
the moment he leaps from the tower he falls to the earth and is
gathered up a mangled corpse.

Why did not God suspend His natural law because the man did not
intentionally violate it? No, the law is stern and changes not, and he
who offends in ignorance pays the penalty. I have read that the Chinese
at Peking often endure severe winters. They have coal just under them,
but they refuse to dig the coal for fear they should disturb the
equilibrium of the earth and cause the celestial empire, which is now
at the top of the universe, to turn over to the bottom. The celestials
are thoroughly conscientious in this belief, but does the weather alter
to suit their philosophy? Does God make them warm in winter without
coal? By no means! If they refuse the means of warmth, they will be
cold–their ignorance does not raise the temperature so much as half a
degree!

A physician, with the best possible motive, endeavors to discover a new
drug so that he may alleviate pain. In conducting his experiments, he
inhales a deadly gas which he did not know to be fatal. He dies as
surely as if he had willfully taken poison. The law is not suspended to
reward his benevolence and avert the fatal result of his mistake.
Whatever his motives may have been, he has broken a natural law and the
appointed penalty is exacted of him. Truly, as it is in the natural so
will you find it to be in the spiritual world!

But let us go into the question a little, by way of argument. It is
necessary that it should be according to this declaration. It is not
possible that ignorance should be a justification of sin, for, first,
if it did so, it would follow that the more ignorant a man was the more
innocent he would be! It would then assuredly be true that ignorance is
bliss, for perfect ignorance would be under no responsibilities and
free from all sin! All that you and I would have to do, in order to be
perfectly clear from all charges, would be to know nothing. To burn the
Bible, refuse to hear the Gospel and rush away from civilization would
be the nearest way to freedom from all guilt!

Do you not see that if things were so, knowledge might be regarded as a
curse and that the light which Christ comes to bring into the world
would be a man's most solemn affliction if it shone upon him? I
proclaim that, in my unregenerate state, if I had been sure that
ignorance would have rid me of responsibility, I would have closed
every avenue of knowledge and would have labored to abide in darkness!
But such a supposition is not to be borne–it is inconsistent with the
first principles of common sense! If, again, the guilt of an action
depended entirely upon a man's knowledge, we should have no fixed
standard at all by which to judge right and wrong! It would be variable
according to the enlightenment of each man and there would be no
ultimate and infallible court of appeal.

Suppose the statute book of our own country should be constructed on
the principle that in proportion only to a man's knowing the law should
be his guilt in breaking it? We should have numbers of persons
truthfully pleading ignorance and a great many more endeavoring to do
so–and such a simple and easy method of obtaining acquittal would
become popular at once! The art of forgetting would be diligently
studied and ignorance would become an enviable inheritance. We would
have gentlemen brought up for being drunk and disorderly who had paid
40 shillings and costs a score of times, who would still say that they
did not know that they could be punished again since they had paid the
fine so often! Ignorance would be so continually pleaded that there
would be practically an end of all law and the very foundations of the
State would be undermined! The thing cannot be endured–it is absurd
upon its very face.

Moreover, ignorance of the Law of God is, itself a breach of the Law,
since we are bid to know and remember it. Thus spoke the Lord by His
servant Moses–"You shall lay up these, My Words, in your heart and in
your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand that they may be as
frontlets between your eyes. And you shall teach them to your

children, speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk
by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall
write them upon the doorposts of your house, and upon your gates."
Knowledge of the Law was a duty and ignorance a crime.

Can it be possible, then, that one sin is to be an excuse for another?
It is a sin, on a man's part, to refuse to search into the Word of God.
Can it be that because he commits this sin, he is to be excused for the
faults into which his willful ignorance leads him? It is out of the
question! If sins of ignorance are not sins, then Christ's intercession
was altogether a superfluity. You remember that our text, last Sunday
morning was, "He made intercession for the transgressors," and we
illustrated it by the text, "Father, forgive them; for they know not
what they do." But if there is no sin when a man does not know what he
does, why did our Lord pray for pardon for ignorant transgressors? Why
ask forgiveness, if there is no wrong? The correct way of putting it
would have been, "Father, I do not ask You to forgive, for there is no
offense, seeing that they know not what they do." But by the fact of
His having pleaded for forgiveness, it is clearly proved that there is
guilt in the sin of ignorance.

The work of the Holy Spirit, too, would be an evil instead of a good
work in the hearts of men if ignorance were an excuse for sin, for He
has come to convict the world of sin. But if unconvicted of sin they
are innocent of sin, why convict them of it? Of what use is it to
quicken a conscience and to enlighten it and make it bleed over a
transgression if it would be no transgression, provided that conscience
had never been made cognizant of it? Who is he that shall so blaspheme
the Holy Spirit as to say that His work is needless and even idle? Sins
of ignorance, therefore, must be sinful! Look at one other consequence
which would follow from the contrary doctrine.

The more wicked a man is, the more hardened he becomes and the more
ignorant he grows as to the beauty of holiness. Everybody knows that. A
sin which troubles a child when at home with his godly father will not
trouble him at all when he gets to be 50 years of age, provided he has
indulged in a course of vice. From one sin to another the man descends,
and, as he descends, his mental and moral eyes grow dim and he
perceives less and less the sinfulness of sin. If a man who has arrived
at the utmost pitch of infamy can commit any atrocity without the
smallest idea of its being wrong–if he can cheat, lie, swear and I
know not what and yet call it all nothing and wipe his mouth–if that
man is guilty of less sin because of the growing deadness of his
conscience and the limited degree of his spiritual knowledge, then,
truly, things are turned upside down!

But it is not so. The test of the guilt of an action is not a man's
conscience, nor his perception of evil, nor his knowledge, but the Law
itself! Sin is a transgression of the Law of God, whether that Law is
known or unknown. The statute stands immovable and immutable–and the
sinner, blind though he may be–if he falls upon it shall be broken.
Once again, I am sure that many of us now present must have felt the
truth of this in our own hearts. You who love the Lord and hate
unrighteousness, must, in your lives have come to a point of greater
illumination where you have said, "I see a certain action to be wrong.
I have been doing it for years, but God knows I would not have done it
if I had thought it wrong. Even now I see that other people are doing
it and thinking it right, but I cannot do so any more. My conscience
has, at last, received new light and I must make a change at once."

In such circumstances, did it ever come to your mind to say, "What I
have done was not wrong because I did not know it to be wrong"? Far
from it! You have justly said to yourself, "My sin in this matter is
not so great as if I had transgressed willfully with my eyes open,
knowing it to be sin." But yet you have accused yourself of the fault
and mourned over it. At least I know I have. A man like John Newton,
who in his early years had been connected with the slave trade and
thought it right, as most Christian men did in those times, did not
excuse himself in his later years when his conscience was awakened to
the iniquity of slavery.

Do you think that the good man would say, "I was quite right in doing
as I did because everybody else did it and I knew no better"? Ah, no!
It was right or wrong whether he knew it or not and his conscience,
when it became enlightened, told him so. My conscience and your
conscience may need to be enlightened about several matters which now
we are doing complacently enough, without any notion that we are
sinning–but the action bears its own character of right or
wrong–whatever our judgment may be. Does not this show us the utter
impossibility of salvation by works? If you expect to be saved by
keeping the Law of God, you must be a bolder man than I dare to be! I
know that I cannot keep the Law of God and the doctrine of my text
makes it impossible beyond all other impossibility, because the Law
accuses me of doing wrong even when I do not intend it and am not
conscious of it!

you who hope to be saved by works, how can you ever enjoy a moment's
peace? If you think your righteousness will save you if it is perfect,
how can you ever be sure that it is perfect? You may have sinned
ignorantly and that will spoil it all! Think of this and be dismayed! I
beseech you, believe our testimony when we assure you that the road to
Heaven by your own righteousness is blocked! Ten great Krupp guns which
fling, each one of them, a bolt huge enough to dash your soul to Hell,
stand pointed against you if you attempt to make your way to Heaven by
that steep ascent!

There is another path! Yonder Cross directs you to it, for it is the
signpost of the King's highway! That royal road to Heaven is paved with
Divine Grace–God freely forgives the guilty because they trust in
Christ! That path is so safe that no lion shall be there, neither shall
any ravenous beast go up on it–but as for the road of Legal
Righteousness, attempt it not, but listen to what we have further to
say to you!

III. By the grand and awful truth of the text, THE SACRIFICE IS
ENDEARED. Just according to our sense of sin must be our value of the
Sacrifice! God's way of delivering those who sinned ignorantly was not
by denying their sin and passing over it, but by accepting an atonement
for it. "The priest shall make an atonement concerning his sin wherein
he has erred, and knew it not, and it shall be forgiven him." The
forgiveness was to come through atonement! How greatly you and I need
an atonement for our sins of ignorance, seeing our ignorance is great!

blood of Christ, how much we need You! Divine Substitute, how greatly
do we require Your cleansing blood! How gracious it is on God's part to
be willing to accept an Atonement, for if His Law had said there shall
be no atonement possible, it would have been just–but infinite Grace
devised the plan by which, through the Sacrifice of Another, pardon is
possible for the ignorant sinner! Behold how generous God is, for He
has Himself provided this Sacrifice! The man who had erred under the
Law had to bring an offering, himself, but ours is brought for us!
Jesus, the Son of God, was not spared by the great Father, but He gave
Him out of His bosom that He might bleed and die!

The Incarnate God is the great Bearer of the sin of ignorance! And
today He can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out
of the way, for He has made an Atonement for them. Under the Law this
atonement was to be a ram without blemish. Our Lord had no sin, nor
shade of sin. He is the spotless Victim which the Law of God requires.
All that Justice, in his most severe mood, could require from man by
way of penalty, our Lord Jesus Christ has rendered, for in addition to
His Sacrifice for the sin, He has presented a recompense for the
damage, as the person who sinned ignorantly was bound to do.

He has recompensed the honor of God and He has recompensed every man
whom we have injured. My Brothers and Sisters, has another injured you?
Well, since Christ has given Himself to you, there is a full recompense
made to you, even as there has been made to God! Blessed be His name,
we may rest in this Sacrifice! How supremely efficacious it is! It
takes away iniquity, transgression and sin. My dear Hearers, you are
bound to confess your sins to God–but if pardon were offered you upon
the condition that you should mention every sin you have committed–not
one of you would ever be saved! We do not know, and if we ever did
know, we cannot remember all our shortcomings and all our
transgressions!

But the mercy is, though we do not know them, HE does and He can blot
them out! Though we cannot weep over them with a distinct knowledge of
them because they are not known to us, yet Jesus bled for them with a
distinct knowledge of them all–and they are all put away by His
unknown sufferings–all cast into the deeps where an angel's eye can
never trace them! By the immense and unsearchable agonies He endured
for us and by His merits, infinite as His Divine Nature, our Redeemer
has taken away that thick darkness of iniquity which we were not
capable of comprehending!

believing Sinner, the debt you know not, your glorious Surety has
nevertheless borne and discharged for you! Blessings on His name. Rest
in Him and then go your way and rejoice! Amen.
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