The following is a sermon preached at the First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Mississippi. Now if you would take your Bibles in hand and open them with me to the book of Leviticus chapter 16, page 95 if you're using one of our church Bibles. The structure of Leviticus as a whole puts this chapter at the absolute center of the book. The first half of the book, chapters 1 through 15, have dealt with sacrifices and priesthood and ritual purity in ancient Israel. They are all about drawing near to God. The second half of the book, as we're going to see in weeks ahead, chapters 17 through 26, focus mostly on how to live life to the glory of God because of His grace in providing forgiveness through these sacrifices. How shall we then live? That's the second half of Leviticus. They're about being devoted to God. And between these two halves stands chapter 16, our chapter this morning, which tells us about the ritual requirements for the holiest day in the Hebrew calendar, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Here is the supreme example of atoning sacrifice. If you want to understand the Christian gospel, If you want to really grasp the meaning and significance of the cross of Jesus Christ, you need to understand the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. This is the climax of the book, the absolute center and the heart, actually, of the whole Mosaic law. And it's not just about us being able to draw near to God. It's actually about how God draws near to us in the gospel of His redeeming grace. We're going to consider four things as we work through this chapter together. First, the peril that we face. We are in real danger, and you'll see that in verses 1 and 2, and again in verses 12 and 13. The presence of the holy God is a fearful reality for sinners like us, the peril we face. Then secondly, there's the priest that we need in verses 3 through 5, and especially 11 through 14. The high priest alone is permitted to perform this ceremony, and yet the details of the ceremony itself flags up for us the inadequacy of the high priest to actually secure the atonement that we really need. We need a better priest even than Aaron and his successors. We need Jesus. The peril we face, the priest we need. Thirdly, the provision we are given. We'll look at the sacrifices themselves, and we'll try to trace out the heart of their significance. They are outlined for us first in verses 5 through 10, and in more detail in 15 through 22. The peril we face, the priest we need, the provision we're given, and finally, the penitence that we must embrace. In verses 29 and again in verse 31, here's how we respond. Here's how we get a hold of the atonement and the forgiveness that is available through the work of our great High Priest, Jesus Christ. the peril we face, the priest we need, the provision we're given, and the penitence we must embrace. Before we look at each of those, let's pray, and then we'll read a portion of the chapter together. Let us all pray. Our God and Father, we praise you for Jesus, our true and perfect High Priest, who has gone into the holy place made without hands, into the very presence of our God, and there has secured forgiveness for sinners by offering his own blood in our place. As that good news is proclaimed, we ask that you would draw us all back to him or to him for the very first time. that in Him we may find the assurance of our sin forgiven. To the praise and glory of Your name. Amen. Leviticus 16, we'll read the first ten verses. This is the Word of God. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died. And the Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die, for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron shall come into the holy place with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist and wear the linen turban. These are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel." Amen. And we praise God for His holy words. Let's think about the peril we face, first of all. You'll notice that verses 1 and 2 connect the day of atonement described here in chapter 16 back to the events with which chapter 10 began. It reminds us that these instructions were given on the same day as Aaron the high priest's two older sons died. You remember what happened back in chapter 10? Aaron's two sons were consumed by fire from the presence of the Lord, because they sauntered, you know, nonchalantly and carelessly into the holy place with their newfangled fire, confident that God was really going to be impressed by their latest improvements on His sacrificial system. Well, that did not go well. for Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons. And so now God tells Aaron through Moses that he is not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat." And later in verse 12, as God gives instructions to Aaron on how he may come into the holy place, on this one day every year, He says, notice, that Aaron must take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense, beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die." So, the threat, the very real threat of death hangs over this whole ceremony. Did you know you can take tourist trips into the radioactive exclusion zone around Chernobyl? the nuclear power plant in Ukraine that melted down in 1986 during the Soviet era. Did you know you could go and take a tourist trip to Chernobyl? It's not exactly my ideal day trip, but there is no accounting for some people's tastes. And as you might expect, if you decide to take the trip, there's a long list of rules telling tourists about safety protocols for their visit. They are forbidden to eat anything while they are in the zone. They may not set personal items on the ground or on any surface while they're in the zone. Nothing may be taken away with them from the zone. And particularly important, visitors may not stray from the safe paths that have been laid out for them while they are in the zone. Leviticus 16 verses 1 and 2 and verse 12 and following remind us that Nadab and Abihu, they strayed from the safe paths as they walked carelessly into the white-hot presence of divine holiness, and it destroyed them. Sin excludes people, all people, from the presence of God. He is holy, and we're not. I'm not. You're not. That's our fundamental problem. We are shut out from the presence of God and liable to divine judgments. Hebrews 10.26 warns us, if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? You've heard the gospel countless times. You know the safe way. the safe path into the presence of God. It's only by the sacrificial blood of the covenant, that is, only by the blood of Jesus Christ. You know that. But if you refuse Him, resist Him, reject Him, in favor of your own better ideas, if you take your own path, Hebrews says, all that remains is a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Nadab and Abihu were case studies in divine judgment showing us the urgency of our situation. Your sin, my sin, it will kill us. it will destroy us. We must draw near to God, but we cannot do so safely by any means we may contrive or invent for ourselves. There is only one safe path into the holy place, only one way to deal with our sin and guilt in the sight of God, and showing us the safe path is the point of Leviticus And so what is that safe path? How can you and I, how can we draw near to God with full assurance of faith, confident that He's going to welcome us in? Well, think with me now in the second place about the priest that we need, the peril we face, the priest that we need. Look at verses 3 through 5. God describes how Aaron may approach Him. Look at the procedure. He is to gather a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering for Himself and for His family. In verse 5, He is also to bring two goats and a ram. The goats are for a sin offering, the ram for a burnt offering on behalf of the congregation of Israel. But before he can offer any of these sacrifices, you'll notice in verse 4, he's not allowed to wear the usual vestments of the high priest, the ephod and the golden sash and all the finery of the high priestly uniform. They are all forbidden him on this day. No, no, on this day he is to wear plain, unadorned linen. He must bathe and dress in this very simple costume. There's no display of personal glory, no pomp and show, none of the insignia of prestige or privilege as he steps behind the veil into the presence of the glory of God. Verse 17 tells us that all the other priests and the Levites that would ordinarily have made the tabernacle a very busy place, they were all absent on this day. On every other day, the high priest would have gone all over the tabernacle, although behind this one great curtain at the very heart of the tabernacle, he never, ever dared to go. On the Day of Atonement, all alone, this one man, stripped of all his finery, approaches that veil. On the veil, on the curtain, there are embroidered images of cherubim. You will remember the cherubim are the angelic guardians posted at the gates of Eden to prevent Adam's return to the place of fellowship with God. Behind this veil, the Shekinah glory of God shines and burns and blazes, the majesty of God in holy splendor above the mercy seat, this golden platform placed on top of the Ark of the Covenant. No other human being is ever authorized to venture here into the holy place. But on this day, the high priest is allowed to draw back the curtain and to step inside. And as he does so, he is a symbolic second Adam, gaining entrance to the Eden sanctuary of God from which our sin has excluded us, and he goes there to restore fellowship between God and His people. He represents all of us and is acting for us and on our behalf, the congregation of Israel. He's not dressed in majesty as a lofty dignitary. Commanding the respect of others, he's dressed now as a humble supplicant in plain linen, a mere man, one of us. And he is not allowed to go empty-handed. Notice in verse 11, he is to kill the bull as a sin offering to make atonement for himself and for his house. And then in verse 14, along with the incense that he is to burn, he's to take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it in front of the mercy seat on the east side seven times. The east side of the mercy seat is the direction of the altar of burnt offering and the very entrance to the tabernacle. The east is the way back out into the congregation of Israel, and out beyond them, out into the wilderness. The east, you'll remember, was the direction toward which Adam was banished when he was excluded from Eden because he had fallen into sin. He was sent east of Eden. And so that's the direction where atonement is made for this symbolic second Adam, the high priest. Seven times the blood is sprinkled. Seven is a number that signifies completeness. This is a total, perfect, and complete atonement. Full pardon for all of his sin is being provided here. But here's the vital thing I want you to see about this moment in the ceremony. Aaron and every high priest that would follow after him could never secure forgiveness for his own or anyone else's sin by this symbolic action. For the simple reason that they were sinners, the high priest was a sinner himself. Hebrews 9 offers the best commentary on the scene. In Hebrews 9, 9 we're told the high priest's work cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to serve the living God? In one of Charles Schultz's Peanuts cartoons, Snoopy is sitting on the roof of his doghouse, working on his famous typewriter. Snoopy, remember, is a writer. There's three panels. The first panel above Snoopy's head tells us what he's typing so intently. All his life, he tried to be a good person, writes Snoopy. Then, still pounding furiously on his typewriter, the second panel continues. Many times, however, he failed, for after all, he was only human. And then in the final panel, in a flash of inspiration, he explains this persistent failure. Here's why his hero's every effort falls short. He wasn't a dog. All his life, he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed, for after all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog. If he'd read Leviticus 16, in light of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, Snoopy might have said of the high priest that he played the part of the second Adam many times. But every time, he failed, for after all, he was only a sinner. He wasn't Jesus. Israel needed, we need, you and me right now today, we need a high priest who doesn't deal in bulls' and goats' blood in an earthly tabernacle made by human hands. But this in Leviticus 16, this is a stage play, a drama designed to teach us about the One who was to come. We need Jesus Christ. A perfect high priest, someone who doesn't stand himself under the same death sentence for sin as we do. We need a true second Adam who did what the first Adam did not do, and what the high priestly symbol and picture of a second Adam could not do. We need Jesus who, as Hebrews 9.24 puts it, has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Jesus humbled Himself like the high priest here, stripped of His fine high priestly robes, dressed only in lowly linen. Jesus humbled Himself, came as one of us, the Lord of glory, to act on our behalf. Philippians 2.6, though He was in form God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Here is the perfect high priest, the true second Adam, who did what Adam the first did not. and because of their sin Aaron and all his descendants could not do, Jesus obeyed entirely and without sin, offering Himself as a spotless sacrifice to take away the sin of His people forever. The peril we face, the priest we need. Then thirdly, notice the provision we are given. The provision we're given. In verses 5 through 10, Aaron is to take two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering for the sake of the people. Notice the two goats together constitute a single sacrifice, a special kind of sin offering. And look at what Aaron is to do with these two goats. They are both presented before the Lord at the entrance to the tabernacle, and lots are cast for them. And chosen in this way, one of the goats was to be killed and its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat to atone for the sin of the people and for the pollution that Israel's sins had inflicted on the tabernacle and the altar, verses 15 through 19. The other goat, you'll notice in verse 8, And again in verse 10, is for Azazel. Now, a great deal of debate has raged over the meaning of that word, for Azazel. Is it, as some suggest, a proper noun, a name, said in parallel to the Lord, so that we have one goat for the Lord and another goat for Azazel? That's actually become something of a trendy contemporary interpretation, people suggesting Azazel is another name for the devil. Other scholars, older scholars, often suggest that Azazel is actually a place somewhere out in the wilderness to which this live goat is to be dispatched. But in my judgment, the historic interpretation still remains the best one. It uses an expression, an English expression, to translate the word azazel that was first coined by William Tyndale in his English Bible in 1535. And has since entered everyday speech in the English language. The word azazel is not interpreted as a name, but as a compound word meaning something like the goat for sending away. Or as Tyndale famously put it, a scapegoat. A scapegoat. And whatever other virtues Tyndale's translation of this word has going for it, it has this one advantage above all the other proposed interpretations. It actually fits the role that this second goat is to play in the ritual of the Day of Atonement. It is quite literally a scapegoat. It is sent away. Look at verses 20 through 22, and you'll see the procedure. Erin is to lay both of his hands on the head of the second goat. And as verse 21 tells us, he is to confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions and all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area and shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. The symbolism is really clear and simple and straightforward, isn't it? Full of bright gospel hope. These two goats together, remember, constitute a single sacrifice and offering, because together they describe for us the fullness of God's provision made in the person and work of the final High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of the goat that is slain and sprinkled on the mercy seat in the presence of God in the holy place That is a picture of the wrath-satisfying propitiation that Jesus' cross secures. 1 John 2.2, He is the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is a word that means a sacrifice that satisfies the just, holy wrath of God kindled against us for our sin. It is the penalty we deserve, paid in full by another in our place. Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood, sealed my pardon with His blood." Hallelujah. What a Savior. That's propitiation. That's the symbolism of the first goat. the satisfaction of the wrath of God. But the other goat, the scapegoat, he has all Israel's sin. Notice the threefold repetition in verse 21, these three synonyms for sin, iniquities, transgressions, and sin. So all of them, the sum of them, every single sin in all their ugliness and variety and horror, they are confessed and symbolically transferred from Israel onto this goat, onto this scapegoat, and he's released into the wilderness to carry those sins away forever. This isn't propitiation. Now, this is what is sometimes called expiation. Expiation means guilt carried away, taken away from you so that God no longer sees your guilt when He sees you. It is the removal of your guilt. Here's the fullness of the provision of God for sinners in His Son, Jesus Christ. Can you see it? He satisfies the wrath of God that burns against your sin, and He has borne and carried your sin away forever. That's what Aaron's work could never effectually secure for us, but it is what Jesus gives to everyone who trusts in Him. Not a partial salvation, not a half-finished redemption, not most of what we need. It is a total, complete, full atonement. Some of you who are Christians here today, Christians perhaps for many years, and you struggle with assurance, you look at your heart, you have got such clear views of your remaining sin, you feel your guilt weighing you down to the point where sometimes you doubt, you wonder, am I really a Christian? I mean, look at me, look at my heart. Leviticus 16 points us to the remedy. doesn't it? Look up, look up from your sin-stained soul to the sin-bearing sacrifice. That's the remedy. Jesus has made complete provision for your pardon. The wrath of God is satisfied. Your sin carried away You are clean, pardoned, accepted, not because you're not a sinner anymore, but because Jesus is an all-sufficient Savior. Look longer at His perfect work than you do at your own sinful heart. and rest in Him and find your assurance there. Do not dare argue that your remaining sin is like some baked-in stain on a white shirt that no matter how hard you scrub, you can't get it clean. Nothing is going to wash my stain away. Don't say that. It's not true. The promise of God has never failed. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and do what? Cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There's no stain in your heart that Jesus cannot wash clean. He makes every sinner, every sinner, every one, even you, even me, everyone who comes to Him truly clean. But how does that work? How do you get that for yourself? How do you become clean at last and take it for yourself, make Jesus your own? How do you do that? In 29 through 34, we learn about the date on which this Day of Atonement ceremony is to be commemorated going forward, on the tenth day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, We learn that it was to be celebrated by every successive high priest descending from Aaron's line. We learn that the day was to be observed by the congregation of Israel as a special Sabbath day. And in verse 29, and again in verse 31, we're told, after being told what the high priest does in the tabernacle, we're told what Israel is to do as they wait outside. They are to afflict themselves. on this day. You see that language in verse 29 and 31? That is to say they are to repent and to mourn for their sin on that day. How do you get ahold of the atonement that Jesus has provided so that you can be clean? How do you get clean through Jesus? Well, picture the scene, will you, in your mind's eye, Israel? is assembled, left outside the tabernacle in the wilderness. All the priests and the Levites, they are also with Israel outside the tent. And they watch as this one man, this solitary figure, not dressed in his high priestly finery, but in humble linen robes, walks alone into the tabernacle. And all their hopes now rest on him. and on His work on their behalf. Left outside, their only task is to repent and to grieve and to afflict their consciences and their hearts for their sin, and to trust in the work of their representative who goes into the presence of God to make atonement for them. That is what we are to do. That is what we are to do now, today, here. repent, and believe the gospel. Afflict yourself, that is, mourn for your sin. Rend your hearts and not your garments. Plead with God for mercy. Confess. When last did you confess? and then trust in the perfect High Priest, Jesus Christ. He has gone into the holy place, made without hands, where only He can go, all the way into the throne room of heaven itself, to act in your behalf. He satisfies the justice of God. He bears sin away forever for His people. Here's the penitence we must embrace if we are to receive the cleansing Jesus provides. Unless and until you face your guilt and repent of your sin and turn to Jesus Christ, listen, all your religion is a sham. All your pious talk is nothing but hypocrisy. Imagine the amazing moment When, with the memory of Nadab and Abihu's death still fresh in his mind, Aaron draws the temple curtain back, and the light of the Shekinah glory of God, blazing from the mercy seat in the most holy place, strikes his face for the first time. His breath will catch, the hairs on his arms and on the back of his neck. stands on end, his heart is pounding, his palms are sweating, his body is shaking. Is this the end for me? Will what happened to Nadab and Abihu happen to me? Fire from the presence of God consuming me, is that what this light is that now strikes my face? But it wasn't the falling of the fire of judgment, was it, that lit up Aaron's countenance that day as he went into the presence of God? It was the light of God's smile. It was the light of God's smile. He was allowed to come near because of the blood that had been shed and the satisfaction that has been made. And so it's not fire, it's forgiveness that shines upon him. What a moment of joy, the thrill of electricity as he realizes he's allowed into the presence of the glory of God. Welcome. And now listen, friends, when you repent, when you repent and turn from your sin, And you trust in the work of Christ our High Priest in your behalf. That is the same reality you may enjoy. Not the fire of divine fury, but the bright sunshine of the smile of God's forgiveness. You can step into that light today by faith in Jesus Christ. Turn. Turn away from life your way. Your way will lead you off the path into the deadly, irradiated zone of divine judgment. Your way will lead you off the path. Turn in repentance to Jesus Christ. Only He, He is the safe way. the way and the truth and the life into the presence of God. No one comes to the Father but by Me. Come by Jesus. He's the safe path. Come to Christ, and the light of God's smile will shine on you forever. May the Lord make it so. Let's pray together. Our God and Father, we thank You that Jesus has gone into Your presence, satisfied Your wrath, borne our sin away from Your sight, taken all the fury and fire of Your judgment so that we may have the smile of Your welcome. Grant that we may trust Him. rend our hearts and not our garments, mourn and afflict our consciences for our sin, plead and confess and cry for mercy, and may we all, may we all find it, that we may have fellowship with You forever and ever, for Jesus' sake. Amen.