A Day Like No Other (Leviticus 16:1-10) with Pastor Ryan Connellan

Morning.

Well, that was exciting.

Go away for a month because you look like you don't even know me anymore.

My goodness.

It's great to be home.

Do appreciate all of the prayers and uh messages and thoughts as my family traveled to the U.S.

for a month.

Uh we have come back refreshed, slightly heavier.

Um, but uh we have uh enjoyed our time away.

But as they say, there is no place like home.

And uh it is such a joy to be back with our church family, and uh trust the Lord has been blessing you and watching over you as we've been away and exciting now to open the Word of God and to bring it to you this morning.

Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, chapter 16.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

Leviticus chapter 16.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

If you're visiting with us, we've been uh going through the book of Hebrews in our morning service.

At least I think we have.

I haven't been here for months, so I'm assuming we're still there.

Uh but no, we've been going through the book of Hebrews, and uh for the next two weeks, we're gonna be going back in time and in the scriptures to uh the Old Testament and looking particularly at Leviticus chapter 16 at the Day of Atonement, which provides for us the pictures of all that is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ in regards to uh his atoning work.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

And so I'll be bringing the first part of this this morning, and Pastor Matt will bring the next part next Sunday.

But our text this morning is going to be verses one to ten as we look at a day like no other.

A day like no other.

Leviticus chapter 16, verse 1 says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the Lord and died.

Leviticus 16:1

And the Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die, for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.

Thus Aaron shall come into the holy place with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering, and he shall put the holy linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body, and he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with a linen turban, and he shall be attired.

These are the holy garments.

Therefore he shall wash his body in water and put them on, and he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering.

Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house.

He shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat.

And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord's lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering.

But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement upon it, and let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.

Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning.

We do thank you.

That, Lord, as we have sung, it is all of Christ that allows us to gather here in your name.

It is all of Christ which unites us together.

It is all of Christ which has provided the once-for-all atonement for sin.

And Lord, we just do thank you that as we look back at this portion of Scripture written so long ago for a people who lived prior to the cross as a means to teach them and to point them and to instruct them and to uh, Lord, minister to them, to show them the way of atonement.

I pray that as we look back, that it would cast our eyes to the cross of Calvary.

May we see Jesus and Him alone in the scriptures, and may He be first in our hearts this day.

In his name we pray.

Amen.

Whether you realize it or not, mankind has a very serious problem.

We have lots of problems, but our greatest problem by far is this that we are born separated and distant from God.

Because we are born in sin, because we are born with Adam's sinful nature inherited to us, we are by nature and by choice separated from God.

And the distance between us and God is so vast and so large and so great that there is nothing that you and I can do to make that gap even slightly shorter.

That is mankind's biggest problem.

And in humanity, in all of humanity's history, whether they realize it or not, because of this problem, people have devised all kinds of strategies, all kinds of religions, all kinds of ideologies, all kinds of experiences, all kinds of uh inventions to try and bridge that gap between them and their creator.

But regardless of how hard we try, regardless of how much we work, regardless of how clever we seem to be, no matter what we come up with, no matter what we experience, we cannot bridge the divide between us and God.

It is unbridgeable.

Somebody asked me this morning already, was I going to bring any illustrations from our trip into this sermon?

And I actually wasn't, but it just popped into my head.

So I'm going to.

One of the things we did on our trip in America is we visited multiple different national parks, and one of them we visited was the Grand Canyon.

I've never been to the Grand Canyon before.

And uh it was a long trip.

We were driving, and we kind of got to the Grand Canyon later in the afternoon, later than I was expecting or hoping, but nevertheless we got there kind of uh in the late afternoon, and I had never seen the Grand Canyon before, and so we park in the uh parking lot area, and it's a bit of a walk to the first viewing point of the Grand Canyon.

And, you know, walking up to this place, which I had seen pictures of, does not do justice to the fact that when you walk to this viewing point, you see uh you can understand why they call it the Grand Canyon.

Because it is massive, it's bigger than you imagine, and the other side of the canyon is further than you could even expect.

And standing there on the edge of the Grand Canyon looking out at the vastness of this gigantic hole in the ground, and all that it is that pales in comparison from the distance that man is between God.

The sin that we have committed separates us farther than the grandest of all the grandest of canyons that exists on the earth.

For most people, this separation, this distance from God is an objective reality.

You actually are separated from God.

And because you are separated from God in your sin, this means that you possess no peace in your soul, no matter how hard you try.

It means that for you there is no joy in your heart because you do not know the sweetness and the joy of being reunited and reconciled to God.

You lack all of that.

And of course, the reality is for those who die separated from God, they will be separated from God for all of eternity.

Because there's nothing that can bridge that gap.

But you know, for many, this distance from God, being distant from God, is a subjective reality.

For the Christian who has been brought near to God by Jesus Christ through faith in him and repentance in him, objectively, we have been reconciled to God, we are united with Christ, we are in union with him, uh, we we know him, we've experienced the joy of forgiveness, but throughout life and throughout our failures, or perhaps the world becomes so attractive to us, we begin to feel like God is distant.

Even though objectively we have been united to him by faith.

And so some people actually are united to God in Christ, but they feel distant from God.

And maybe that's you this morning.

Maybe you've come to church, maybe you are one who is objectively separated from God.

You are not a Christian, you have not been reconciled to him, or you're here this morning and you feel distant from God.

God seems far away from you, even though you have known at times that sweetness and that closeness of being uh near to him and being so close to him.

Well, I want to encourage you that as we look at Leviticus chapter 16, that there is a day that God set aside, that God gave to his old covenant people, a day which would point them, which would bring them.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

It was a day like no other.

It was called the Day of Atonement.

It is said that this is the day that Israel would not only be but feel the closest to God that they ever could, that side of the cross.

It was a day where they would see and witness all of the most specific elements of their worship come together in one place.

It was the day in which the high priest would bring them, bearing them on his chest, into the very holy of holies, so that they could at least believe and know that they were close to God.

This was a day that was set aside in their calendar.

It was the most holiest of days.

It was the most important day.

The Passover was important, the Feast of Unleavened Bread is important, the Feast of Trumpets was important.

But the day of atonement stands above all the rest.

It was a day that they could be objectively reconciled to God, and it was a day that they could be reminded again and again, year after year, that no matter how far they felt from God, that God had provided a way, a gracious way, in which they could all come by faith and be brought near to him.

Leviticus chapter 16 stands out in the book of Leviticus, but of course it stands out in the scriptures, but particularly in the book of Leviticus as the high point of this Old Testament book.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

When we were in the USA, we were driving part of our trip, we drove from Denver, Colorado, all the way back to Los Angeles.

So we drove across the Rocky Mountains.

And at various times when you're driving across mountain passes, you would you would begin to climb an elevation and you'd see signs on the side of the road saying, elevation, this amount of feet, or whatever it was.

They don't do meters over there.

Um and uh, and you know, this, whatever it is.

And then you'd get to a point in the road where you would see a sign, it would say summit, such and such thousand feet.

I had to laugh because there were times where you're like, I don't feel like I'm very high, but the elevation of this small mountain is higher than anything we have in all of Australia.

We don't do mountains uh very well in Australia.

Uh but you would drive across and you would see a sign, and the sign would say summit, which meant that on that particular stretch of road, you had reached the highest point that you were going to reach on that road, and then from that point you were going to be doing uh going to be descending down an elevation to the other side.

But when you would reach that point on that road, you would realize that while I may be at the summit of this particular stretch of road, you would look around and you'd say, Well, there are a lot of mountain peaks that are much higher than where I'm driving, but I just can't get to them on this particular road.

Well, I kind of think that that's the way Leviticus chapter 16 is.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

Leviticus chapter 16 is the summit, is the highest point of the book of Leviticus.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

It is the peak not only in the literary structure of the book, it stands right in the middle, but it is also the peak of the theological structure of the book.

It reaches the highest point here in Leviticus chapter 16 as we look in specific instructions at this day of atonement, because it presents to us the most detailed description of all the various elements that are required in order for God to provide atonement or salvation for his people.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

But as you stand on the summit of Leviticus chapter 16, you do not need to, or you you you you you need not to be tempted to just simply stay there, but you need to look higher because that is what it is doing.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

As great as this day is, this day is going to point us to a greater day, a higher mountain, a summit, not just simply of a particular book or a particular road, but the summit of all of history, to a mountain called Mount Calvary, where there atonement was made once and for all.

But as we look at this chapter of the next two weeks, what we see is that the Day of Atonement, as recorded for us in the Old Testament, a feast or a day that was to be celebrated and observed year after year after year after year by the Old Covenant people, the people of Israel.

We see that this day of atonement provides for us the pattern and the picture of the regulations, the requirements and the results of the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

I'll say it again.

This day provides for us the pattern and the picture of the regulations, the requirements and the results of the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

And so if you are here today and you are objectively, you are really, you are genuinely separated from God, you are distant from Him, you have not come to the foot of the cross, you have not received forgiveness of your sins, or if you just simply feel distant from God, then let this picture once again point you to the substance where you can receive full assurance of your salvation and be given confidence to walk by faith.

So let's look at this chapter, verses 1 to 10, which really is kind of a summary of the entire day's proceedings.

And next week there's a lot more left in this chapter, which goes into a lot more detail about all the specifics, and all those specifics are very important.

But the first thing we notice in Leviticus chapter 16 is it begins by showing us that atonement has regulations.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

It actually begins with a reference point back to another story which took place in Leviticus chapter 16, or sorry, Leviticus chapter 10, which shows what not to do, or how atonement is not made, or how we are not to approach God in worship, or how we are not to come to him.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention Leviticus 10 · chapter mention

It says there in chapter 16, verse 1, he says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the Lord and died.

And the Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die, for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.

Atonement has regulations.

God has requirements.

He regulates what is required for worship and for atonement to be made.

And this chapter begins by contrasting another story, which two people, the two oldest sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, in a couple chapters earlier, believed that they could achieve what only God could, and that they could come to God on their own terms, by their own effort, in their own way, whenever they chose.

Nadab and Nabihu, these two oldest sons of Aaron, and you can go back and we won't read the story, but you can go back to chapter 10, you can read, uh, that they were priests before the Lord.

They weren't the high priest.

Aaron was still the high priest.

And as the priests before the Lord, what they're supposed to do, part of their priestly duties was to take coals of fire that were on the brazen altar outside of the uh of the tabernacle tent in that courtyard, and they were to put them in a censor, and they were to bring them into the holy place, and they were to wave them in the holy place as in indicating or as symbolizing the prayers of the people interceding for them on their behalf.

That was part of their responsibilities.

One of their many responsibilities was to do that.

But Nadab and Abihu failed to understand or failed to accept, because they did know, they were not ignorant, that God had regulated worship and regulated the work of atonement, and that these two offered what men became known as, in the New King James translate, as profane, some have translated it strange, fire unto the Lord.

What did they do?

We're not giving a whole lot of details, but what they did is they took fire that was not from that altar and they put it in a censor, and they tried to go into the most holy of holy places to offer this unto the Lord.

We are not told about their motivations, we're not told why they decided to do this.

We know that they were not ignorant of what they were supposed to do.

We know that they they they knew the regulations that they were upon them as mere priests, they had no authority to go into the holy of holies, but nevertheless, they thought they could go in at any time and do whatever they wanted.

So they were unauthorized servants who put fire from an unauthorized source, brought it into an unauthorized space at an unauthorized season, and the result was God struck them dead.

Instant.

Died on the spot.

Because they, like Cain, in Cain and Abel, thought that they could just worship God and come to God on their own terms.

They presumed, and they failed to understand the holiness of God.

And they thought that they had the license to just waltz in to the very throne room of God, come up with their own form of worship, come up with their own sacrifice, come up with their own ideas, and that this would somehow be acceptable to God.

You know, I'm thankful that we are no longer under the old covenant terms of worship.

So worship in the New Testament looks a whole lot different than it does in the Old Testament, but the principle remains that none of us are free to just worship God, nor are we free to craft a religion or plan a plan of salvation that suits ourselves.

And this is what every religion is: it is a vain attempt by sinful man to circumnavigate the regulations that God has placed in his word to think that we can come to God on our own terms by our own means, and that God is obligated to just somehow accept our worship or accept our sacrifices or accept anything just because of who we are.

Nadab and Abihu forgot who they were.

They were not the high priest.

They had not been authorized to go in.

And they assumed that God just by default had to accept them for who they were.

God is clearly revealed in Scripture that what regulates our worship and what is acceptable to Him, and this has and always will be the case when it comes to the atoning work of salvation and the worship of God's people, we cannot just simply make up our own way.

God has revealed to us through special revelation what the atonement is, what is required to enter into the Holy of Holies, and how we worship God and we dare not trifle with it.

You know, we are reminded of this in case we forget in the New Testament, we're reminded, aren't we, in the book of Acts, when there were two people.

Again, who thought that they could come to church on their own terms deceitfully, uh, and and were reminded of Ananias and Sapphira, who deceitfully sold a piece of property and and and brought only a portion of it, but deceived or tried to deceive the Lord and lied to the Lord or lied to the church that they had actually given everything that they had given.

They thought that it could come to God on their own terms, that they could they could somehow sort of sneak under the radar and do things their own way.

And what was the fate that they suffered?

They suffered the same fate as Nadab and Nabihu.

Kind of a reminder that the God of the Old Testament is still the God of the New Testament.

Now, thankfully, that that was a narrative, not a normative, and that doesn't happen regularly in the worship service.

Otherwise, we'd have to employ a chimney sweep to sweep up all the ashes in the foyer as people walk into church.

But it was a reminder that even though the book of Acts transitions us from life under the old covenant to life under the new covenant, that we understand that God has said there is one way to come to me.

There is only one way to receive forgiveness.

There is only one way to have your sins atoned for, and that God has clearly stated in his word how he is to be worshipped.

And what we see by the example of these two, which he reminds Aaron in Leviticus chapter 1 is chapter 16, verses 1 and 2, is that atonement cannot be made by just anyone at any time and in any way.

Leviticus 1 · chapter mention Isaiah 16:1

That God has clearly described how atonement is to be made for the sins of the people and how he is to be worshipped.

Which brings us to our second point: that not only does atonement have regulations, but atonement has requirements.

This is what is required.

Now, again, this is all in kind of a summary form, and the details are explained in much more explicit nature in the following verses that we'll look at next week, but you'll see that first of all, there are requirements that must be met.

First of all, it has to be the right person.

There's only one person who is able to actually come into the very holy of holies on that particular day, and that person was the high priest.

He is the only person who was beginning who was given the authority and the authorization to perform the works necessary for atonement to be made.

Which is why he says in verse 2, Tell Aaron your brother, who is the high priest, not to come just at any time into the holy place before the mercy seat, which is in the ark, lest he die, for I will appear in the cloud above that mercy seat.

Thus Aaron shall come into the holy place with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering.

And he shall put the holy tunic and the holy linen trousers on his body, and it shall be girded with a linen sash and the linen turban that he shall be attired.

These are the holy garments.

There was only one person who was able to go and perform all of the practices needed to provide atonement for the people, and that was the high priest.

Why?

Because he was the one who solely represented the entire people before the Lord.

This means that the atonement was limited.

It was limited to one person making atonement for one people.

Aaron didn't make atonement for the entire world.

He made atonement for the people of God, for his covenant people.

But he was the only one who could do so.

The other requirement is that there was a place of atonement to be made.

The high priest had to come, but he couldn't make atonement on the brazen altar outside of the tabernacle, outside of the tent.

He couldn't do so in the holy place.

He had to go behind the veil to the very holy of holies, where the Ark of the Covenant stood, uh laid there with the mercy seat that laid on top of it, where the cherubs were overlooking this.

And this is the only place that atonement for sin could be made.

Why?

Because this is where God dwelt.

This was in his presence.

This was representing the very throne room of God on earth.

This is where God would dwell over the Ark of the Covenant.

This reminds us, brothers and sisters, that this shows us that our main problem is sin, but our main problem is that we have sinned before God.

Yes, we have sinned against our brothers and sisters, we've sinned against one another, we've sinned against each other, we've sinned against others, but our primary problem is that we've sinned against God.

That is what needs to be dealt with first and foremost before anything else can be dealt with.

And so, as the high priest would come, he would come, he had to go all the way, he had to go behind that veil there into the very dwelling place of God and sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on that mercy seat where God could see that a substitute had died and taken the place and borne the punishment of the people.

And the priest now was presenting this before God because the wages of sin is death, and the payment had to be made because God's holy law had been violated.

This is why atonement had to be made before the Lord.

It could not just be done in any place.

The whole the high priest couldn't just go out and find an altar somewhere and make a sacrifice for people for atonement on any other place.

It had to be before the very presence of God.

And then, of course, atonement requires preparations.

The high priest, before he could go in, had to undergo various washings and purification ceremonies.

He had to wash himself clean.

He had to put on holy garments.

All of them were symbolic of various elements upon them.

And again, we don't have time to go into all the details.

In other words, he couldn't just wake up in the morning and come and make atonement in his pajamas.

He had to go through a process of purification.

He had to put a turban on his head which said, holiness unto the Lord, unto it.

He had to bear the names of his people upon his chest, on his breast, as he walked into the very holy of holy places.

Why?

All of the preparations to ensure that not only was the right person making the atoning sacrifice, but it was done in the right way.

Interestingly enough, though, before he himself could go into the very holy of holies, he had to offer a sin offering on his behalf, because regardless of how much he washed up the outside, he himself as a high priest was still sinful and needing atonement on the inside.

But what we see in all of these requirements, that atonement must be made by the right person in the right place with the right preparations, is that in verses 10 to follow, we even though we're given these specific instructions, we see that God is revealing to us a picture, that salvation, that atonement, there is only one way by one person in one place at one time that atonement for sin and for sinners can be made.

We see then thirdly, not only does atonement have regulations, not only does it have requirements, but there's also results.

What do we see taking place here?

What is the purpose of all of this?

That the high priest goes through all these rituals and goes into the Holy of Holies and does this year after year after year after year.

What was the purpose of all of this?

Well, the ultimate purpose of all of this was to bring the people who were distant and separated from God near to him.

To bring them as close as they possibly could.

Now we know that the people themselves had to stay on the outside.

They couldn't actually follow the high priest into the Holy of Holies, they couldn't go with him.

He had to bear them symbolically upon his chest.

But this whole procedure, it deals with the reason why men and women are separated from God, and it deals with our biggest and greatest problem.

Because you see, when atonement is made by the right person in the right place, at the right time, in the right way, it provides two things.

And those two things are seen in the two different offerings that the high priest would have to make, or the two different ceremonies the high priest would have to do in order for atonement to be made.

And we see this that there's two elements to the atonement process.

First of all, there's the ransom for sin.

In other words, sin had to be paid for, it had to be dealt with.

But then there's also the removal of sin.

Sin has to actually be done away with.

And they would cast lots to determine which one of them would be the sin offering and which one of them would be the scapegoat.

And whichever one the lot fell would determine who got burnt, sacrificed, and who got sent out in the wilderness.

I always kind of have to have a chuckle because I think if I was, you know, one of those two goats, you'd obviously be hoping that you'd be the one who was just sent out into the wilderness until you realize that you just wander around for the rest of your life aimlessly, dying a slow and painful death.

So I'm not sure which one got the better end of the deal here.

But nevertheless, the priest would take these lots and he would cast them, and one of them would fall upon a goat who would be the sin offering.

This goat would be offered on the brazen altar.

The blood of that sacrifice would be put into a bowl.

And the high priest would take that bowl along with a censer with with uh with uh with incense or an aroma burning in it, and he would make his way with both hands through that thick veil.

And he would come there to the mercy seat, there, that Ark of the Covenant, uh in which that stood the uh the law of God and Aaron's rod and the manna, and over it was the mercy seat, that lid.

And he would take the blood of that sacrifice, he would sprinkle it on the mercy seat, showing before God that an innocent animal had died in place of the people paying for their sin.

And if God accepted this sacrifice, it was done by the right person in the right way, in the right place, at the right time, God would accept his sacrifice, and the high priest would make his way out of that tabernacle, out of that holy of holies, and you would see the people would rejoice because sin had been atoned for, yet for that one more year.

Why does he have to do this?

Because the wages of sin is death?

Because the payment for your sin and my sin is death?

That's what we owe God?

That's the only acceptable thing that God can uh uh receive for our sin.

Death is required to atone for sin.

And so this innocent goat is taking the punishment that is due for the people on himself.

He is substituting himself for the people and for the priest, and he is providing a payment required to satisfy God's demands for sin.

And when God saw that, he was satisfied with the offering that was made.

And the people could rejoice.

One more year, our sins have been covered.

But there's another element to atonement, and that is the removal of sin.

You see, it's it's one thing to have sins forgiven, it's another to have them removed entirely.

And this is significant, this is important.

This is the the other goat that was pronounced as the scapegoat.

And this goat would have all the sins of the people, again, symbolically, uh, but uh laid upon him.

The the priest would, high priest would pronounce all the sins upon this goat and basically place them on him, and so the goat would then be led way, way, way, way out into the wilderness by someone, and then let go.

And that goat would never find his way back into the camp.

He would wander out in the wilderness, representing that those sins which were laid upon him were removed from the very presence of God.

What does the Bible say?

I think it was prayed for this morning.

As far as the east is from the west, God has removed our sins from us.

We understand this is an original with me that thankfully God did not say as far as the north is from the south, because you realize that eventually, once you start going north, you're gonna hit a point, and eventually you're gonna start coming south.

Those two points meet, but the east and the west, they never meet.

You start going east, you will continue going east, you will never meet west.

And this is what God has said he has done for us.

He has removed our sins for us so that we would never be seen again.

And again, this is another very important aspect of the atoning work that the people were not only forgiven of their sin, but they had removed it entirely.

Because sin cannot exist in God's presence.

And the end result of all of this is that at the end of this day, atonement was made for God's people, and they could rejoice because they had been brought as near as they possibly could to their God.

But of course, as important as this day was for Israel, it was a day of days.

Still to this day, sadly, because the Jewish people have rejected Christ and their Messiah, they still hold to and they still observe this day as the most holy of days in all of their calendar.

They've they've missed their Messiah, they've missed their atoning sacrifice, they've missed the one who came and died for them.

They're still chasing shadows, they've missed the substance.

But as important as this day was, this one day a year, that they as a people were brought by their high priest into the very presence of God through the atoning sacrifice, as important as this day was, this was not the final day.

This was not a day to end all days.

The summit that they would stand on year after year, that high point in their calendar that they would stand on, was not the highest peak of redemptive history.

It was just a foothill that they could stand on and see the mountain.

They were supposed to see the mountain that was before them.

You see, the summit that they would stand on was supposed to enable them to see the grandest of all peaks.

A mountain that stood far above all the mountains that ever were around them, a mountain that stood far above the mount of Leviticus, this peak that we see here in this book.

This peak, this mountain is called Mount Calvary, and on that peak is a cross, where the Son of God is both high priest and sin offering and scapegoat, bears the sins of his own people upon himself, offers himself as the once-for-all sacrifice, goes into the very presence of God and before God offers himself and demonstrates that he was an acceptable substitute for us.

And he is the one who has taken our sins into the grave, buried them there, and left them there, never to be seen of or heard of again.

He is the one who has borne all of our sins as far as the east is from the west.

Upon that once for all substitutionary atonement, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, and the way for you and I to be restored and reconciled to God is made available.

And you can come fully and freely into the very throne room of God with boldness and confidence, because the way is being made clear by Christ.

And so I ask you this question this morning Are you distant from God?

Have you come this morning and objectively you know that you have not been reconciled to God?

You are separated from Him.

You are not united in Christ.

You are trying to come to God on your own terms.

You're like Nadab and Nabihu, thinking that you can make your way and you can judge God and you can kind of uh assume your own way of salvation and assume your own way of worship.

I want to say to you that this chapter, chapter 16 of Leviticus, along with everything we've been looking at in the book of Hebrews, reminds us that salvation does not come via our own righteousness or cheap parlor tricks or bribery or even our prayers, but it requires the full offering of Christ on our behalf.

We don't come to God by our own effort.

We don't dare offer strange fire to Him.

We don't come up with our own way, but we come by the way of another.

That great high priest who did all and accomplished all.

The great sin offering, who made that once-for-all sacrifice.

This passage reveals for us the seriousness of our sin.

This is what it took for God to atone you for your sin.

It reminds us of the holiness of God, but it also reminds us of the love of God in Christ Jesus.

It calls us to lay aside all of our self-righteousness, all of our false pretenses, all of our man-made worship, and trust fully upon the finished work of Christ.

And for the Christian, my dear brothers and sisters, for us, the atonement is not just a day in history.

It's not a day in our calendar that we get to experience once a year.

That we have to wait 364 days until another one comes around.

But for the Christian who's been united with Christ, who's in union with Christ, the atonement is a reality, an ongoing reality that we can enjoy as we learn to grow and rest in the finished work of Christ.

And so whether you are truly objectively distant from God, or whether this morning you just feel like God is so far away, look at the picture that was painted for us in Leviticus, but let that picture point you to the substance and see Christ who has gone all the way for you.

And as the writer of Hebrews says, let us therefore come with confidence to the throne of grace, whereby we may receive grace and mercy for help in time of need.

If you feel distant from God, don't think that you can make it closer to him by your own effort, by your own work, by your own self-discipline, by pulling up your bootstraps, by doing more, by trying harder or by anything, come back and look at Christ and rest in him.

This chapter is the summit of Leviticus, but the cross is the summit of all history.

You cannot get any higher of this.

And so all who are weary, all who are worn down by sin, come to Jesus.

All who are stubborn and proud, bend the knee to Jesus.

All who are doubting, look to Jesus.

Find your atonement, your forgiveness, and your peace in him and him alone, for he is our atoning sacrifice.

Let's pray.

Father, we come before you this morning.

And Lord, I pray that you would take your word, imprinted and implanted in our hearts and minds.

And Lord, whether we are distant from you, I pray that you would draw us near by the blood of Christ.

Thank you so much for the once-for-all atoning sacrifice.

Thank you, Lord, for what the picture points us to.

I pray that we would not rest just merely on the summit of Leviticus 16, but that we would come all the way to the summit of Mount Calvary, whereby we see the Lord Jesus in all of his glory and all of his fullness.

Lord, forgive us, we pray, for taking our eyes off of Christ.

Lord, let us rest fully in his finished work, and let us see that he has fulfilled all the requirements of atonement, that he is the one who is the right person, who did all that was required at the appointed time, went right into your throne room, and revealed that he has made that once for all sacrifice for his people, and that, Lord, we can rest in him.

Lord, I pray that we would enjoy fully all the benefits that are ours in Christ Jesus.

Lord, let us not stop short.

Forgive us, Lord, for being so foolish and so frail and so fickle in our faith.

I pray that each Sunday as we gather, that we would again and again be reminded of the glory of our salvation in Christ Jesus.

If there is someone here this morning who is separated from you and their sin, I pray that you would draw them to yourself.

May they see all that Christ has done for them.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.