Dwelling With God (Leviticus 18:11-22) with Pastor Matt Crethar

Well, good morning, Emmanuel Baptist Church.

It is a privilege to bring the Word of God and preach it this morning on our 53rd anniversary as we celebrate the Lord's faithfulness to us, to Emmanuel Baptist Church.

And this text is a real fitting one, actually, for our anniversary.

Our name, Emmanuel, means God with us.

And that is exactly what we see as we unpack our passage.

And so I invite you to take your Bibles and open them to Leviticus chapter 16.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

Leviticus 16.

The Lord has just graciously brought Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, out from under the yoke of their old slave master.

But he didn't rescue Israel just merely to free them from Egypt, but rather that rescue it means something far greater.

The Lord speaks through Moses in Exodus seven, let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.

And Exodus 29, the Lord says, I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God, or that I may dwell among them.

The Lord's great desire was to rescue a people who would serve him and who he would dwell among.

And the Lord, in order to dwell among his people, he instituted the tabernacle, the place in which his glory would dwell most potently among his people.

But there was a problem, and we encountered it last week.

Two of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, walked into the tabernacle and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord.

And of course, fire came down and consumed them, and they died before the presence of the Lord.

And why?

Because they treated the holy God's dwelling presence carelessly.

A carelessness towards dwelling with the most holy God brings death.

We remember all the way back in Genesis, Adam and his wife dwelt in the garden, and the Lord God dwelt among them.

But after they became defiled by their sin, the man and woman were cast out of the garden, out of the dwelling presence of the Lord.

And the cherubim stood with flaming swords to guard access to God's holy presence.

And so the question that Leviticus and really the whole Pentateuch has been building towards is this central question.

How is it that a holy God can dwell with an unholy people?

Because if Adam and Eve were cast out of God's presence for their defilement, and if two ordained priests died for approaching God the wrong way, then how can Aaron or really any of us ever come near to the holy God and live?

This question, this theme, this idea is why Leviticus 16 sits at the center of Leviticus.

And indeed, the literary center point, Leviticus 16 is actually the center point of the entire Pentateuch.

You see, Genesis and Deuteronomy represent the prologue and epilogue of the Pentateuch.

Genesis begins with humanity driven from God's presence because of sin.

And Deuteronomy, it ends with God's covenant people prepared to enter the land where he will dwell among them.

Exodus and Numbers, it focuses on God's dwelling among his redeemed people.

Exodus recording the Lord redeeming Israel, establishing his covenant, and filling the tabernacle with his presence.

And Numbers on the other side recording Israel journeying with the Lord, dwelling in their midst, while their uncleanness and sin continually threatens their fellowship.

And then finally, at the center of the Pentateuch, we have Leviticus teaching how a holy God can dwell among an unholy people, and how an unholy people may draw near to their holy God through priesthood and atonement.

You see, the Lord is serious about how He is to be worshipped.

Without atonement, sinful men cannot dwell with the holy God.

And the Day of Atonement at the center of Leviticus both upholds the holiness of God's name and is a mercy to sinful men.

Men who in the Lord's grace are invited to have the Lord come and dwell among them.

You see, forgiveness of sins isn't the goal of atonement.

Rather, it's the prerequisite.

It is essential, but it is the prerequisite.

The end goal of atonement is restored relationship with God so that he would dwell among his people.

God with us.

That's really the message of our passage.

That's what Leviticus 16, 11 to 22 teaches us.

It teaches us that the holy God dwells among an unclean people because he makes them clean by substitutionary atonement.

And we'll see the shape of this atonement through sit three stages in our passage together.

First of all, we will see preparation.

Preparation as it is made in verse 11 to 14.

Secondly, we'll see propitiation.

Propitiation, and that is in verse 15 to 19.

And third, we will see expiation.

That is verse 20 down to 22.

Three stages that shape the atonement that allows unholy man to dwell in the presence of the most holy God.

Let's pray, commit our time in his word to him, and seek his help.

O gracious Lord God, speak to us through your word.

Help me to be a faithful ambassador of the excellencies of Christ and how all of this truly points to him.

Help each of these that are here to listen carefully, that we may be encouraged, that you, O Lord, can dwell with us through atonement.

Minister to us in Jesus' name and for his glory.

Amen.

Well, we come to the first stage in the day of atonement, and it is a stage of number one preparation.

And so have a read of verse eleven down to fourteen with me, of Leviticus sixteen.

Verse eleven And Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull as the sin offering which is for himself.

Then he shall take a censor full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil, and he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony, lest he die.

He shall take some of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side, and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.

We follow on from our passage last week and now receive more details on how these rituals are to be carried out.

The first of which is for the high priest to prepare himself for the atonement.

The high priest he was a fallen man like anyone else, a sinner by nature and condemned in and of himself before God.

And yet the high priest was to carry out particular sacred duties.

He was the one with greater responsibilities and greater requirements.

You see, the Levites they were held to a high standard, and then the priests they were held to a higher standard, and still the high priest exceeded even these.

And this was because he was the only one permitted to enter into the holy of holies, and so he was especially set apart.

It is as though the Lord's glorious presence in the tabernacle was at its highest concentration in the holiest of holies.

It is as though the closer one got to the presence of God in the tabernacle, sin was more violently exposed and condemned, and so atonement needed to be made.

Therefore, it was necessary for the high priest to go through an atonement ritual for himself and his own sin before he could make atonement for the assembly of God's people.

At verse 11, it repeats it three times.

There was a sin offering for himself.

Now a sin offering was a particular offering for purification because one had become unclean.

In this case, the offering involved the shedding of a bull's blood for atonement.

Now you might be wondering what exactly is atonement?

Well, atonement is a covering or purging to make reconciliation.

In this case, reconciling unholy man to holy God.

You see, since sin and man's sin is an offense to God, man must pay penalty and be cleansed.

And a sacrificial blood both purifies and pays the ransom.

It purifies and it pays the ransom for the guilty party in order to accomplish this reconciliation and make atonement.

And atonement is essential for reconciliation with God.

It's essential because God is holy and we by nature are not.

After all, this is the refrain of Leviticus.

The holy God, he requires his people to be holy.

We hear it time and again.

For I, the Lord your God, am holy.

And the day of atonement is the way under the old covenant to make an unholy people holy and fulfill this command of the Lord.

And so, since we are corrupt through sin, making us unclean and unholy, therefore God has instructed how one can be made clean and holy again, so that once a year the high priest can enter into the holy of holies, and rather than experiencing death under the blazing glory of God's holiness, he will experience communion with God and live.

And we see this atonement that the high priest makes for himself is a sort of shield in verse 12 to 13.

You see, the high priest he takes a censor of of burning coals and he carries it with him through the veil into the most holy place, into the presence of the Lord, that most holy place.

And there before the ark, he puts the incense on the fire.

And these burning coals produce a thick cloud of smoke that functions as incense, and this cloud it covers the mercy seat.

The mercy seat is that great slate that covers the Ark of the Covenant.

And this cloud covering the mercy seat shielded the high priest from the unmediated presence of the Lord, like the seraphim who covered their faces before the holiness of God.

You see a clear view of the presence of God.

It was deadly.

And so this cloud obscured the high priest's vision to protect him, lest he come under the Lord's wrath.

Then the high priest he takes the blood of the spotless bull and he sprinkles it with his finger upon the mercy seat for himself.

Now this was this was a special moment.

Ordinarily a priest's purification offering never went further than the curtain into the tabernacle.

But on the day of atonement, this one day, only once a year, the blood crosses the veil itself unto the mercy seat, atop the Ark of the Covenant.

And with this, the high priest was ceremonially cleansed from his uncleanness, and he was then able to make atonement for the people, as we'll see in our next few verses.

But before we get to these, I just want to note that it's fascinating, isn't it?

This high priest was set apart by God for this special task.

And yet the high priest here is in many ways a sinner like any other, a fallen man in need of God's mercy and grace.

Aaron actually had to make offerings for himself first before he could make offerings for the people.

And that's because he isn't holy, he isn't innocent, he isn't undefiled, and yet in Jesus Christ we have a great high priest who never has to make a sin offering for himself because he is holy, he is innocent, he is undefiled, he is both the pure and spotless Lamb of God and the high priest that makes atonement.

The very necessity of Aaron's preparation for self-atonement is what makes Christ's priesthood exceedingly superior.

And you know, a high priest speaks on the people's behalf before God and offers atonement for their sin.

This is what Aaron did.

He speaks for his people and the people's behalf before God, offering atonement for their sin.

But Jesus Christ, the greater high priest, he is greater because he doesn't need to make atonement for himself, nor does he make atonement for the people year after year as though his sacrifice expires.

He only makes atonement for God's elect, and he makes it once for all time.

And rather than making it for himself, he makes it by giving himself.

Jesus is a far greater high priest.

Now, what does this mean for us?

Well, since we have a high priest who doesn't need to make atonement for himself because he is holy, innocent, and undefiled, then we don't need to look to anyone else to make atonement for us.

No human priest can make a superior atonement to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In fact, in light of Christ's supreme high priestly atonement, anything less that we pursue is simply a mockery of the once for all sufficient high priestly work of Christ.

And so, look to no other for atonement.

Look to Christ, the Lamb of God.

You have a great high priest.

Now that the high priest has prepared himself, he is prepared to make atonement for the people, and he does th so through this second stage of atonement call propitiation.

And so have a read of verse fifteen down to nineteen with me.

Verse fifteen now then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering which is for the people.

Bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.

So he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins, and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for the assembly of Israel, and he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull, and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around.

Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.

We have here what we might call the vertical dimension of atonement, and that is propitiation.

It follows after the pattern of what the priest has already done for himself in verse 14, and now it is carried out with greater detail for the people of God.

And this is how significant propitiation is.

We've already seen how Leviticus 16 is the center point of Leviticus and the center point of the Pentateuch, and here in verse 15 to 19, we have the center point of Leviticus 16.

We have here an elaboration on the process of propitiation in sacrificing the first goat for the sins of the people to make atonement.

Now propitiation is the appeasement of God's holy wrath against sin.

It is the satisfaction of his justice.

It's like Aaron, who in numbers 16 appeased the wrath of God in a plague upon Israel.

In numbers 16, Aaron ran into the midst of the people who were experiencing a plague and judgment from God, and he he he runs into their midst with a censor of incense.

He stood, it says, between the dead and the living.

And it says he made atonement for the people.

God's wrath was appeased.

See propitiation here, it's not some hypothetical or some some abstract.

The wrath of God has already killed in plague.

It had consumed even Nadab and Abihu in flame, and it would consume again if atonement was not made.

And on the day of atonement, God's just wrath is indeed satisfied in propitiation, because the price of sin, which is death, is actually paid to God.

Without a substitute, every man and woman would pay the debt themselves.

But by trusting in God's means for a substitute by faith, their debt is paid, their sin is forgiven, and atonement is made.

And the process for this is explained in verse fifteen.

The priest, having made a sin offering for himself, he now turns to make a sin offering for the people.

It was a sacrifice of a bull for the priests and a goat for the people.

And that blood is again taken into the holy of holies and sprinkled upon the mercy seat.

And then in verse sixteen, he he turns to cleansing the tabernacle itself.

He moved out of the inner section, the most holy place, and back through the vale into the middle section of the tabernacle.

Verse sixteen, a purification offering is made for the tent of meeting.

And this was because sinful man had made the tent unclean.

Man's corruption was so defiling that it had reached into the sanctuary of God, and it too must be cleansed.

The whole tabernacle stained by the sin of the people.

These sins which were so offensive that they forfeited Israel's privilege of accessing God's presence as they pleased.

And so it was cleansed.

And verse 17 tells us that that no one could enter the tabernacle until the high priest had finished making the atonement.

He made atonement for himself, he made atonement for his household, and then he made atonement for the people.

And this pictured the expansive effect of the atonement from the individual out to the family, and then out to the wider community.

And then verse 18 to 19, the high priest having consecrated and purified himself, the people and the tabernacle moves outside to the outer courtyard altar.

And there he takes the blood of the bull and the blood of the goat, as if to say that the uncleanness of both the priests and the people have been cleansed by the Offerings, consecrating the altar where the sacrifices were made.

But why the sacrifice of an animal?

Why is it the bull, the goat?

Why an animal?

Why is this the way that the Lord has commanded his people to make atonement?

Well, the Bible tells us for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And the wages of sin is death.

All sinners have their part in the lake of fire, which burns forever.

Now, if we just left it at that, that's bad news, right?

If you die in your sin, then you will experience eternal death and the just punishment for sin against the holy God.

But the good news is that another can take your place, can pay the death price for you.

You see, without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins.

But with the shedding of blood, there can be remission.

There can be forgiveness.

And under the old covenant, this is what God's people experienced in shadows and types, which truly pointed to the true substance, which is Christ's substitutionary sacrifice.

But in this way, in this particular way, the shadow is like the substance.

The bull, the goat, or the lamb, that spotless animal without blemish, that clean animal is a substitute for unclean man.

And an unclean animal, an unclean man cannot, even in shadow, take the penalty for an unclean man.

The animal must be pure.

A picture of Christ's spotless purity.

We call this penal substitutionary atonement.

There's really three concepts going on there.

You have penal referring to the legal dimension of God's judgment and demands.

Substitutionary, referring to a representative for another party, procuring that party's blessing for them, and atonement, referring to making amends between two or more parties where there has been conflict or disharmony.

And the most vivid picture in the Old Testament of this is here, here in the Day of Atonement.

And although the language of substitution is missing here, the message, the message is clear, the message is the same.

A clean animal was taken and would die on behalf of the people for their sin.

And the transference of sin was pictured by the laying on of hands.

But this isn't the first time in scripture that we've seen penal substitutionary atonement.

Back in Genesis 3.21, following the fall, God in mercy provided a covering for Adam and Eve for their sin against him, by inference, killing an animal for their sake, to cover them.

Then in Genesis 22 13, Abraham ascended the mountain to sacrifice Isaac, his one and only son.

But the Lord provided a substitute, a ram caught in a thicket to take Isaac's place on the altar, just as the Lord God did not spare his own son on that great hill at Calvary.

And then we have Exodus twelve, three to twenty-seven.

The the innocent Passover lamb was slaughtered, and blood was spilled over the doorpost of faithful households as a covering for the people of God.

This, of course, foreshadowed Christ, who was the innocent lamb of God, slain at Passover as a covering for the people of God.

And of course, we have that glorious chapter in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 53.

And probably Isaiah had the Day of Atonement in mind as he penned those very words.

He prophesied about the work of Christ, who will be wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.

Reconciliation with God through the blood of the Lamb.

It is as though, or it is as the Apostle Peter writes in first Peter two, clearly having Isaiah 53 in mind, who says Christ himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.

Atonement through substitution.

Now what are we to make of this?

Oh dear Christian, have you ever tried to atone for your own sins?

Perhaps I need to overcome this particular struggle.

Or I need to make up somehow for these terrible sins.

Now certainly these sins do need to be atoned for.

But the good news is they have.

And so repent of your sins, confess them to the Lord, but remember they are indeed forgiven by the atoning work of the Lamb of God on your behalf.

You have an all sufficient substitute.

We come finally to the third stage of the Day of Atonement.

Propitiation has been made for the priest and for the people by the vic vicarious shedding of blood.

Now we come to the scapegoat.

This third stage pictures number three, expiation.

And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place, the tabernacle of tabernacle of meeting and the altar, he shall bring the live goat.

Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a sub of a suitable man.

The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

We have here what we may consider the horizontal dimension of atonement, and that is expiation.

Expiation simply refers to the removal of sin's guilt from someone.

It is vividly illustrated here in what we call the scapegoat.

This animal receives the transferred sin of the people by the laying on of the high priest's hands, and then it is sent east, out of the land of God's people, into the wilderness, away from the presence of God.

This is what the high priest does once he has finished making atonement at the altar.

A spotless goat chosen by Lot is taken, and both of the high priest's hands are laid upon the animal, signifying a transference of sin and guilt.

All the iniquities of the children of Israel, all their transgressions, all of their sins, a great burden placed upon the head of this goat.

And then it's led out by an appointed man.

It's released into the wilderness, as if to say, Far be our sins from us, O Lord.

This is the picture that David has in mind as he writes Psalm 103, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he, that is the Lord, removed our transgression from us, sent away.

And just as the blood of the bull sacrifice for the priests was brought into the most holy place for the remission of sins, so now the scapegoat for the people was cast out into the wilderness for the removal of sins.

You might be wondering why is this scapegoat sent out into the wilderness?

And not just to some distant inhabited city.

Well, the wilderness often symbolized death and chaos.

Ezekiel 36, 35 paints this picture here in the context of restoring what is desolate.

The Lord says, This land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden, and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.

You see, desolation and wastelands are like death and chaos, the opposite of the Garden of Eden and life.

And so here in Leviticus 16, we have this scapegoat bearing the iniquities of the people of God, and it is being sent out to the place that is marked by death, the place that is furthest from the presence of the Lord of life.

And the prophet Isaiah, he once again picks up this language of expiation again in Isaiah 53.

Just as the high priest laid on the scapegoat with his hands all the iniquities of all of God's children, so Isaiah 53 tells us the Lord has laid on him that is the Lamb of God, the iniquity of us all.

Dear friend, this is good news.

Our sins have not only been forgiven by propitiation, but the guilt of our sin has been cast far away to the furthest reaches by expiation.

The Lord has laid on Christ the iniquity of all his elect.

It is as the Apostle Paul says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

Galatians three.

Christ by substitution, he took that curse for us.

Or 2 Corinthians 5 21, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Christ took our sin like that scapegoat.

He took our sin like that bull and goat, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Christ's spotless righteousness has become ours.

We are declared righteous before God in Christ, and this new standing stirs us then on to righteous living in Him.

And what does this mean for us?

Dear Christian, perhaps there is sin that you have committed, sin that you've confessed before the Lord.

Confessed it even time and again.

You feel that it stains you, it haunts you in the deepest parts of your soul.

But remember, Christ's sacrifice is enough.

It is sufficient, O Christian.

You have not merely been excused, you have been forgiven.

That sin is paid for, that sin has been carried out of the city of your heart, out into the furthest wilderness.

It's been carried away as far as the east is from the west, and it is the Lord who has carried it away for you.

What precious forgiveness there is in Christ that not only is the wages of sin paid for, but the guilt of sin is removed.

You're free, and it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Your sin has been removed.

We climb come to the close of our time together, the close of our passage.

The Lord graciously brought Israel from out of the bondage in Egypt, and he rescued them for this great reason that they would serve him as their God, and that the Lord may dwell among his people.

But the tabernacle which he instituted, the tabernacle was never the end.

It was a shadow pointing to a greater dwelling presence of the Lord among his people.

The Gospel of John tells us two thousand years ago the word that is Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us.

That is literally He He tabernacled, it's that same word, among us.

His name is Emmanuel, which means God with us.

And as he dwelt among us, he made the atonement that was necessary for us to dwell with God for eternity.

You see, Christ is our preparation, he is the holy mediator qualified to represent his people, making no sacrifice for himself, because he is the perfect mediator.

Christ is our propitiation, he is the satisfier of God's wrath for our sins.

Christ, he is our expiation, he is the carrier of our sin and guilt far out of the city of Jerusalem and to that place of the skull at the cross that stood at Golgotha.

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is our greater high priest, who brings a greater atonement, which invites us into a greater dwelling of God's presence among us.

The fire that consumed careless Nadab and Abihu for their unauthorized worship has been fully absorbed for our trespasses by Christ Himself, so that we, unlike them, may come to God, so that we may draw near to the holy presence of God and live.

The Apostle John he looked on in that vision, he saw the consummation of these things at the return of the Lord Jesus at the end of the age, and he recorded these words in his vision in Revelation, that just as the seraphim of Isaiah six covered their faces before the holiness of God and cried out, holy, holy, holy, so he saw at the end of the age every living creature declaring the holiness of God before the throne, crying out, Revelation 4:8, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

Revelation 4:8

John saw the verdict of unholy man rendered finally and permanently upon those who have no substitute in Jesus Christ.

The Lord announces in Revelation 21 27 that nothing unclean will enter only those written in the Lamb's book of life.

Those who, as Revelation seven fourteen says, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

And finally, John saw a great voice from the throne of holy God, declaring to his atoned for holy people.

Revelation 21, 3 announces, Behold, the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God, is with man, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.

God himself will be with them and be their God.

And where the cherubim once guarded the way back into the gardens, tree of life.

John writes of the consummation in Revelation 22 Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

Here is the reversal of the casting out from the presence of the Lord at the fall.

Here is the fulfillment of God's promise of dwelling to Moses in Exodus 29.

Here is the substance of every shadow that is pictured on the Day of Atonement.

But he didn't rescue us from sin merely to forgive us.

Rather, he has rescued us for this great reason that we should serve him as our God and that he would dwell among us, his people.

Even now, dear Christian, you have a foretaste of what Revelation promises.

The Spirit of God dwells in you even now as a down payment.

A guarantee that what God has promised in dwelling among his people, he will indeed see through that promise to the very end.

The sacrifice for your sin is not made once a year, it's finished in Christ.

The dwelling presence of God among his people is not constrained to once a year either, but it is a foretaste now by his spirit who indwells us permanently.

And that foretaste will be a feast when Jesus Christ returns, when we behold him face to face, and God comes to dwell among us in the new creation.

He we will be his people, and he will be our God forever.

How can you, an unholy man, an unholy woman, dwell in the presence of the most holy God by trusting in the atonement of the Son of God who came to dwell among us?

Let's pray.

Almighty holy God, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, his once-for-all perfect atonement, pictured in Leviticus.

And yet, how much greater is Christ, the substance of these things?

And what have we to look forward to when he returns?

When you, our God, will dwell among us, where there will be that final and full reversal of what happened in the garden, that casting out that has affected all of us by nature.

O Lord, you desire and delight to dwell among your people.

Even now you are by your Holy Spirit dwelling in each of us, a foretaste of what is to come.

Help us to walk by the Spirit, to not gratify the deeds of the flesh, to walk in holiness before you, enjoy your dwelling with us, and long for that day when Christ returns, and we receive these things in fullness in his name because of the atonement that he has made.

Thank you, Lord.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.