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Chapter 16. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the 2 sons of Aaron, who died when they approached the lord. The lord said to Moses, tell your brother, Aaron, that he is not to come whatever he chooses into the most holy place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. This is how Aaron is to enter the most holy place He must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

He is to put on the sacred linen tunic with linen undergarments next to his body. He is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban These are sacred garments. He must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. From the Israelite community, he is to take 2 male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household.

Then he is to take the 2 goats and present them before the lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the 2 goats. 1 lot for the lord, and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the lord, and sacrifice it for the sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the lord.

To be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the ball for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. He is to take a sensor full of burning coals from the altar before the lord, and 2 handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense in the fire before the lords, and the smoke of the incense will see all the atonement cover above the tablets of the covenant law so that he will not die. Here is to take some of the bull's blood and with a finger, sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover.

Then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger 7 times before the atonement cover. He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the ball's blood. He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it In this way, he will make atonement for the most holy place because of the uncleanliness and rebellion of the Israelites. Whatever their sin has been. He is to do the same thing for the tent of meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleendliness.

No 1 is to be in a tent of meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the most holy place. Until he comes out. Having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel. Then he shall come out of the altar that is before the lord and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and put it on all the horns of the altar.

He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger 7 times to cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanliness of the israelites. When Aaron had finished making atonement for the most holy place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall make forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites. All their sins and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task.

The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place and the man shall release it into the wilderness. Then Aaron is to go into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments he put on before he entered the most holy place. He is to leave them there. He shall bathe himself with the water in the sanctuary area and put on his ordinary garments. Then he shall come out and sacrifice the burnt offerings for himself.

And the burnt offerings for the people to make atonement for himself and for the people. He shall also burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar. The man who releases the goat as a scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. Afterwards, he may come into the camp. The bull and the goat for the sin offering whose blood was brought into the most holy place to make atonement must be taken outside the camp.

Their hides, flesh, and intestines are to be burned. The man who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water afterwards he may come into the camp. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you. On the tenth day of the seventh month, you must deny yourselves and not do any work. Whether native born or a foreigner residing among you because on this day, atonement will be made for you to cleanse you.

Then before the lords, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a day of Sabbath rest and you must deny yourselves. It is a lasting ordinance. The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest is to make atonement. He is to put on the sacred linen garments and make atonement for the most holy place.

For the tent of meeting and the altar and for the priests and for the members of the community. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you. Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites, and it was done as the lord commanded Moses. Latham. Well, a warm welcome, to you all.

It's lovely to be here. My name is Nathan, and I'm very glad to, Taras, who's reminded me that the first thing I should say is I'm married to B, and so we can tick that off. Thank you, brother. Yes. I, my name is Nathan White, and I am 1 of the pastors at Stockwell Baptist Church, which is a church that is just in between, Vauxhall and brixton, a church that is about 160 years old, and spurgeon preached the first sermon there, which is, amazing, for us to remember, we always repeat It's you've gotta get that in, haven't you?

I love this church. I deeply, deeply love this church, I grew up in Chesington, and so there are some links there. And we're meeting many other people, but I love this church deeply. I pray for you often. I listen to your sermons, almost close to weekly, and it's a joy to be here, be be here with you.

It's a joy to see you Tara as well. I wanted you to keep going, brother. I was like, I could just sit down. That is so, so, so encouraging. But it's a joy for us to be here together.

And, it doesn't really matter about me because actually what we're about to do is we're about to look god's word. And so let's pray, as we start our time together, and then let's look at what god has to say for us in leviticus 16. Let's pray together. Heaveney Father, thank you for bringing us here tonight. Thank you that that is part of your sovereign will.

Lord, thank you for your word for everything. It teaches us about you. Lori, thank you for the whole of the Bible points to the lord Jesus Christ. Lord help us to, to see that especially tonight. Lord would pray that we would be encouraged.

Lord would pray that we would be challenged and pray that we would be pointed to a deeper love for your son. In Jesus' name, amen, And well, you may have, have had the experience that many people have had in their life, if you're a Christian here tonight, and And what's happened is is you've started to decide to read through the bible. And and you're really passionate about it. This is the year. Maybe you find 1 of those kind of bible reading like, right, let's go.

And so you start with Genesis and you've got god creating the the entirety of the world, it's incredible. And then you have the fall and it's so interesting to see how sin comes in the world. You you get to Noah, and you're thinking, wow, god god flooded the entire world. Later, you you read about the lives of of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob. You later follow Joseph to Egypt and see what happens there.

Then there's the the terrifying plagues as god raises up Moses, but he brings his people out of slavery. It's so interesting. Every single day, you're almost looking to just open your Bible and you're reading your chapter and you're ticking again. And then you get to leviticus. Louisiscus is weird.

It is so weird if you've ever got there. It's a confusing and and a strange book in many ways. There's sacrifices and strange topics, of which I won't even say here. And the temptation could be to just jump a couple of books forward, maybe just to skip if you're in about February, just to skip through to, you know, April. Or even stop reading together.

There's 1 commentator, I think, who says that leviticus is the place that bible reading plans goes to die. Now it was all the way back in 2009, I think that actually this church looked at leviticus. And and if you were here at that point, you would have been just astounded to see how incredible this book is. And hopefully tonight, you'll be reminded of that. If you didn't have the privilege of being here when you lasted this series, a church, my prayer is that you will see as we read through this, just how central it is to the whole of God's word.

And if you are not a believer here tonight, then this chapter, which might have been very strange as we read through it, actually it holds the key. It will show you how you can have your deepest desire fulfilled. And so we're gonna get into this. This chapter is probably my favorite in the entire Bible. It is so, so central, and it's so interesting in that It comes at the center of the book.

It comes at the very center of leviticus, but then also leviticus comes at the very center of the Pentarchuch, the first 5 books of the Bible. And funnily enough, I think that points to how important this chapter is. And then actually through seeing it, when we understand it, we can see how central it is to the whole of the Bible and how it opens up so much to us. So so how does this strange chapter make sense? And how does it actually apply to us today?

Well, the first thing we see from this chapter is in verse 1 and 2, and that is that god cannot dwell with sinful people. God cannot dwell with sinful people. You see, this chapter, it it it lays out this foundation, which we have to get if we're gonna understand this chapter and and hold the Bible, really. God cannot dwell with sinful people. You see, the theme of of the book of leviticus is essentially this.

How can a perfect Holy God dwell with an imperfect people? You see, from the beginning of the Bible, we see that that that humans that mankind rejects god, the fall that we we turn away from him. And so because of that, the relationship is broken, But even then, god god separates, he sets apart a people for himself, a a people to love, And yet, they repeatedly do the same thing. They they turn away from him. Despite all that he does, even releasing them from slavery, that they grumble and they moan, and at points, they even wish that they could go back into slavery.

But god is patient and he's loving. He raises up a representative for the people, a representative who can stand between god and the people, who who can take the people's concerns to god but also can communicate what god wants to say to the people. But even then, the people turn not only against god's representative, But even the representatives themselves don't follow god as they should. Even Moses, the representative that god puts in place of the Israelites in in the early parts of the bible, he he doesn't actually he doesn't live up to how he should be living. And so in the first few verses of leviticus, we see the theme that have we seen through the entirety of the Bible, and that is that people have sinned, that they've fallen short of, of what god requires of them.

And that they've turned from him. From these very first kind of verses we see in chapter 16, we see that there's a problem. There's a big, big problem. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the 2 sons of Aaron, who died when they approached the Lord. The Lord said to Moses tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the most holy place.

Behind the curtain, in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die for I would appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. You see, the problem that that we see immediately from this is that even the representatives that god has put in place have not lived up to how they should live. These 2 people, the the 2 sons that we hear about, they they were supposed to represent the people to god and god to the people, and yet they had sinned, and they had paid with their lives. And so even the people's representatives, those people that should should stand at the top of them and should be an example to them. They've not met how they should be living.

And so there's this problem in the relationship between god and his people. You see god tells the father of these 2 men that had died Aaron, that he can't just walk into the presence of god. He he can't just go and and talk to god. He can't just even be in front of god because of his sin. Now, this might seem a little bit intense and unfair.

Right? Why would god kill these 2 sons? Why can't god just look at the wrong things that humans do and just kind of, you know, put it under the carpet? Just maybe forget about it. Why does god have to make such a big deal out of sin?

We see leviticus keeps talking about these sacrifices, if you read the start of leviticus, about what people are to do. And 1 of the questions can be there, well, why do the people have to keep making sacrifices? Why is it such a big deal that people have sinned? Surely if god is a loving god, he he should just kind of get over it. He he should just forget about it.

Well, why why can't he just chill out? We see, god is utterly holy. There's no sin in him. There's nothing imperfect. And because of that, he can't be in the presence of sin.

His holiness is just like the sun. If anything gets close to it that's impure, it will just burn it away. He he's so pure and so holy that actually sin just can't be in his presence. And he also just can't let sin go. He can't let wrongdoing go because he also is a perfect judge.

He's a god of justice. And true justice doesn't mean just letting it go. Imagine for a second, a judge. Who sits day by day hearing case by case by case. And every single time a case comes to them, they listen intently on what has happened.

And they slam their gavel down and just say forgiven. And the person that is there who is guilty as all the evidence has come in, all the wrongdoing that has happened, just walks out the door free. What kind of judge would that be? You see there's a problem, a problem that the Bible speaks about from the very start between humans and god. In that we have sinned and we have turned away from god, we have rejected him.

And because of that, there is a penalty that should be paid. God has given us life. God is holy. For us to sin essentially to spit in his face and to turn against him, there should be a punishment for that. And so the question of this and of leviticus and of the whole bible, really, is how can the wrong that humans have done be made right?

How how can it be dealt with? How can the relationship between god and between humans be healed? And the rest of the chapter seeks to answer that very question. And then we see verses 3 to 28 that god can provide atonement. God can provide atonement.

These verses, they they show god's response to to the problem. You see god, he he he longs to be with his people. At this point in the bible, he's brought them out of slavery, of Egypt into the promised land where he can be with them. He he's he's That's that's sorry. That's the plan of what he's looking to do.

And and he's given the instructions to them to build a tabernacle where he was gonna dwell in their midst. This tabernacle essentially was, I guess, in the center of all of the community. And the reason it was in the center was because it was central to the community. The the Tabanaka itself, it was probably just larger than a football pitch, and there were curtains that went all the way around the edge. And within this was was the holy place, which was a tent.

And inside that tent separated by a curtain was the most holy place. And that was where god's presence was in a special, special way. You see, remember what I said, god, god cannot be in the presence of sin. And so in a special way god's presence was in the most holy place, but there was a problem. Because although god was in the center of the community, the community around god's presence was full of people who were sinning.

People who were turning against him, who weren't giving him the the honor that was due his name. See, think of a great king, Would they just be content to let wrongdoing go on around them? Would a great king be be content? Imagine maybe them knowing that their chief presentative between them and the people, at the weekends, we're committing horrible, horrible acts. And then as soon as it gets to Monday morning, we're walking in, and trying to have a relationship with the king.

No no good king would be happy with knowing that, right? No good king would be happy with the people that are supposed to be worshiping them, turning against them. No good king would be happy if their representatives were not living up to the way that they should. How much more is god the greatest king? And so he cannot, even in his nature as being holy, He cannot allow himself to be in the presence of sin.

And so we have this problem that he loves his people, that he's in the center of the community. His presence is there in a special way and yet there is sin going on all around him. How are these things going to be forgiven? When people aren't paying the respect that he's due or giving him the glory that he is due or obeying the commands he has set out. How is that actually going to be forgiven?

How can the relationship between god and people be healed? Well, this passage tells us, and it tells us through this keyword that we see repeated all through this and that is atonement. Now, now some of you might have seen the film atonement, In it, 1 of the characters, it essentially tells a horrendous lie, an absolutely horrendous lie that actually ruins the lie of both her sister and the man that her sister loves. And she spends the rest of her life wondering how possibly she could ever cover over this wrong. How she could make things right, how she could restore the relationship that has been broken.

And and as you watch the film, towards the end, it finally gets this point. But it seems like it's finally happened. It seems that atonement has finally happened, that this relationship has been healed, that wrong has been made right, that the price has been paid. And I'm so so sorry if you haven't watched it yet, but I'm gonna ruin it. Because the ending hits you like a sledgehammer.

Because although you've watched, as you think that atonement has been made, and it is played out before your eyes, when it gets right to the end to 1 of the very final scenes, you see that this atonement part of the story is all part of this woman's imagination. That actually the atonement that she she hopes for, that she longs for has never happened because too much time went past and she wasn't able to make things riot. She lives with regrets. She's written a story in which she's written herself into a story, a real life story, and she's written in atonement, but that's not her reality. And I wonder have you ever felt like that?

Like your only hope of real atonement is in your imagination, that the hope of forgiveness would be real if you could write the script to your own film. But the reality is, is that you can't put that wrong rights, that you can't restore that relationship. That atonement can't be made. You see, god is a god of love, which is an amazing truth. And because of that, he offers forgiveness, for all the wrong things that we do against him, but god is also a god of justice.

And justice cannot be served if there is not a punishment for the crime. And so, atonement is where love and justice meets. Atonement doesn't mean that wrong is just covered up. It doesn't actually even just mean that you can be at 1 with someone. So often, the the word is used kind of at 1 meant, but it's actually more than that.

It means that the price of of the wrong is also paid so that there can be atonement. There can be at 1 moment between the parties. You see, we know this in our world today when we think about this. That I think it's 17 50 people who recently in the UK have been living with undiagnosed, undiagnosed hepatitis c infect that has come out because they have been given a transfusion of contaminated blood. For them, is is it just okay that somebody says Oh, well, that is wrong.

And, yeah, we're forgiving the people that did it. How do you think the families feel of the real people who have actually died because this has happened? If the judge is going to say, yeah, that really sucked. We're just forgiving the people that did and off you go living your life. None of us would be content with that, would we?

None of us would be content with because we understand that when wrong is done, that there should be some kind of punishment. There should be some kind of price that needs to be paid. We long for forgiveness, that there must be a price that is paid. It can't just be swept under the carpet. You see, the Israelites, they sinned against god, and they rightly deserve punishment.

In love god offers forgiveness, but in his perfect justice, there must be punishment for sin. And god provides that in a way that shows his love and justice. You see, the way the atonement would be made is through sacrifice. First, free reads this. This is how Aaron is to enter the most hyper holy place.

He must first bring a young ball for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. The burnt offering and sin offering are animal sacrifices that that were described at the beginning of leviticus, both of them represent how the relationship between god and his people can be healed with through sacrifice. And through and through kind of verses 3 to 6, you you see how the high priests god's representative to the people Aaron is to prepare himself. The first thing he has to do is he has to deal with his own sin. You see, he can't just come into the presence of god.

He is a sinful man, even as god's representative. And so before he enters into god's presence, he has to deal with his sin. And then after he's done that, he can represent the people. And when we look at what happens here, we find these 2 goats, 2 perfect animals about blemish. But they're used in very different ways.

Look at verses 7 to 10. You you'll see the way that 1 animal was sacrificed for the sin of the people, and 1 is chosen as scapegoats, to carry the sins of the of Israel or the Israelites into the wilderness. You see, from verse 11 onwards, Aaron's given instructions on making sleeve sacrifices. On sacrifices for himself and then sacrifice for the people. But there is a specific way that these sacrifices are also to be presented.

Look down with me at verse 13, and he shall put the incense on the fire before the lord. The cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony lest he die. The mercy seat on the testimony was in the Holy Place. If you remember, the Holy Place was was kind of sectioned off with this curtain. And so Aaron was to make this cloud of incense as he entered into there because of the facts that he was a simple man and that god was holy.

You see, the very curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place was there to represent the divide between man and god. The divide that was there because of man sin. And the cloud of incense was that so Aaron might not view god's holiness and that god might not view Aaron's sin, symbolically speaking. Because a simple man cannot stand in the presence of a Holy God. And so as this incense went up, and as Aaron went in to make this sacrifice and to pour this blood upon the altar and all parts around it, He was able to do that, because god allowed him to do that, but because the cloud of incense symbolically was separating God from viewing his sin as a sinful man.

That the sin offering that was to be made it is is to be made, and then the blood was to be taken and to spread literally everywhere. It must have been pretty messy work. Blood spread around the whole of the most holy place, the holy place and the altar. And it seems weird. What why on earth is there's all this blood stuff in leviticus?

But it's because the blood represented the life of the animal. The life of the animal, which had been sacrificed to pay the penalty for Israel sin. Cause sin against god is no small thing. The penalty refer ejecting the god that gave you life is death, but the life of the animal here symbolically is given to pay the punishment that god's people deserve. They deserve death for walking away from the lord, and yet this animal's blood was taken to pay that penalty, that punishment that they deserve And after this had happened, after this initial sacrifice had happened, we then get this second goat.

In verses 20 to 22, the scapegoat is then sent out. Aaron confesses the people sin over the goat as if it takes a sin on itself, and then verse 30, and then verse 22, let down with me, the goat will carry on itself. All their sins to a remote place, and the man shall release it into the wilderness. It's this picture of sin of sin being taken away from where god is in the community. The sinners is put on this goat and it is taken away to a faraway place so that god and man, god and his people can then be at 1 again together.

And then at the end of all of this, the high priest is to show that all of this is being complete, by by coming out, by keeping the garments that they had, just inside the tent, and representing themselves to the people and showing that the work has been finished. There's so much detail in these verses that we could go through for hours on end. Don't worry, we won't. I know it's a hot night. But all of this is done to bring atonement for the sins of Israel, And at the end, we see what all of this achieves: verse 29 to 34.

God can provide suburb rest. God can provide suburb rest. You see, the Israelites were to celebrate the day of retirement once a year. And they were to rest for a day because as we see in verse 30, from this day, shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you? You shall be clean before the lord for all your sins.

The sabbath day was a day of rest as the people celebrated, they could have their sins atoned for. They could be clean before god. Do you long to be clean? But it was only 1 day. And so we might long to be clean, and they might celebrate being clean.

They might have been resting in the fact that they were made clean. But there was that 1 day that that happened. But what about tomorrow? Because the next day, Israel would be faced with their sin. Right?

They might last a few minutes, maybe even in a few hours, but then the argument would come, or the lust. Or the deception, or they touch something unclean. And you see the problem remains for them. As soon as tomorrow comes. And the problem remains for us as well, right?

Because even if I could offer to have all the wrong things you've done, Right now extinguished, you would still face the problem of tomorrow. I'd like to say, to be honest, you'd still face the problem of tonight. If you're anything like me, I don't think I could I can't get to the end of this day without sinning. And so even if we have forgiveness for everything in the past, well, what does that mean for our future. For the Israelites, there was that 1 day a year that this happened, that their sin was cast off as they saw the goat go into the distance.

As the blood was put on all of the holy things within the tabernacle, and yet tomorrow would always come. But the wonder of the day of atonement is this, is that it was a picture of what is to come. That's the true day of atonement. You see, the day of atonement, it screams at the top of its voice, 1 name. Let me read from Hebrews 10.

For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, Can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

You see, these verses in Hebrews, when we get to the new testament, they're saying that the day of the time didn't truly take people's sins away because it had to be repeated year after year. Surely if it could take people's sins away, then it would have only needed to happen once. But it pointed to the 1 that was to come. 1 who would be the sacrificial animal, perfect having lived a life without sin. Without any stain attached to them, 1 that would feel the pain of death as their blood was shed, and yet it wasn't that they would just have a knife put across their throats.

But instead they would be whipped by whips with pieces of bone on the end into their back and had a crown of forms pushed down onto their head and beatings and being spat upon and mocked, of carrying the heavy weight that would then be used to kill them, of nails driven through their hands and feet, of the suffocation that would lead to their death. There'd be 1 who would be like the scapegoats, who would silently take on all the sins of god's people on their head. Who would take on the horrible anger, the adultery, the lust, the lying, the cheating, the stealing, the beatings, the disrespect, They would bear the anguish that we feel when we have sinned. They would have known and felt the weight of the guilt that we feel. They became sin despite never knowing sin themselves, and they made that long walk outside of the camp to take that sin off to a place where god's people could not go, to a place that none of god's people could carry their guilt to, to take it to a place that is out of sight, to feel the angling who didn't need to bathe themselves in water because they they were pure already without sin.

There was 1 who didn't need to make a sacrifice for themselves because they'd never sinned before. There was 1 who didn't need to take incense into the most holy place that they could be covered because they wouldn't die when they stood in the presence of god because they were perfect. God could look upon them, But 1 who did leave the linen garments behind when they finished their work, 1 who did represent the people perfectly and ensure that their sin would be that their sin would be, taken away from them. 1 who gave not the blood of bulls, rams and goats to pray for people's sins. But they gave their own.

1 who didn't have to place their hand over the head of a goat to take the sin of their people, but instead had a hand almost placed on them as they took the sin of their people themselves, 1 who truly entered into the Prince of God on our behalf to represent us. 1 who caused the curtain in front of the most holy place to tear from top to bottom so that we could finally hope to be in the presence of god. 1 who which when the people saw him come back to life, when his people saw him raised from the dead, had the same relief that those Israelites would have had when the high priest came out of the most holy place, and they saw that he wasn't dead. And the sacrifices that he had made were pleasing to god. The work was done.

It was finished. You see, Jesus is the sacrificial goat, the scapegoat, the great high priest. By his perfect life, he was qualified. By his death, he took on our sin. By his sacrifice, he atoned for us.

His death tore down that curtain that separates us between god. We can dwell in god's presence because of him. You see the true day of atonement took place once and for all when Jesus died for our sins. Hebrews 10 puts it this way. Hebrews 10 verse 12.

But when this priest had offered for all time 1 sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of god. No more yearly day of atonement anymore, no more sacrifices, no more worrying about impurity. This time when blood was shed on the alter, it was the last time This time when the scapegoat went off and they watched it in the distance, it was the last time that a scapegoat needed to go. This time when the high priest came out, wasn't the high priest was gonna have to do it again next year because it was done. It was finished.

And Jesus is now at god's right hand. Representing us to god so that when god looks upon us, he sees us as if we've lived the life that his precious holy son had lived. He sees us as lows who have been atoned, and so we truly can have at 1 ment with God. And so we can look forward to what the Israelites enjoyed once a year. The thing that we see in this passage, right at the end, the Sabbath But you see, we don't just have 1 day of sabbath.

We can look forward to it forever. Because of Jesus, 1 day we can dwell with God forever in his presence. Free from sin, and enjoying perfection, enjoying relationship with God. Do you want to experience that? If you're not a believer, you can experience that tonight.

I spoke earlier about that film atonement. The the the film, it it keeps going through and through and through. And the woman who has done wrong waits and waits and waits for the chance to atone. And 1 day it's too late. And so she has to write her own story to to kind of bring about this feeling of somehow atoning for what she has done, but she never can truly do it.

Don't let that be you. Bring your sin to him and have it wander off into the wilderness. Bring your sin to him and see it paid at the cross. Maybe you've never confessed your sins before. Maybe you've never yet had your sins forgiven by Jesus, where you can take that opportunity now and the quiet of your heart to bring them to Jesus and to watch them be carried off.

Come and speak to myself, or Ben or 1 of the leaders here, if if you want to speak more about that, because you can have that true longing that you desire. You can finally have it in sins forgiven, in being perfectly at 1 with God. But for us who are believers, this should both cause us to praise God, praise Jesus for who he is, and it should fill us with assurance that our sins have been paid for. I think so often we we can so often feel we struggle with our sin and we feel weighed down by it. The regret of things that are past, the struggle of the present as we we do that thing again that we didn't want to do again.

Of that wondering has god truly forgiven me? Of wondering whether there's actually something still unresolved between you and god. And of course, we need to we need to remember and appreciate how horrendous our sin is, and there are times in the Christian life that there are things that need to be dealt with. But we can have assurance that we have atonement. We don't need to earn it.

The price has been paid. Again to Hebrew's 10, it says this, as it speaks of the reaction to Jesus' work on the cross. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful You see, we can know that as far as the east is from the west, so far he has removed our transgressions from us. Maybe you're struggling with your sin, or you're struggling with regret, or you're just living the Christian life.

This chapter provides these beautiful, beautiful pictures for us to reflect on. As you meditate on these pictures, and as you think of what it meant to the Israelites, you can write yourself into the story. You can see you can see that goat. You can see that goat as as it is it has its throat slashed. And the blood comes out, and you can know that that blood is paying the price of my sin.

That actually that that death that is happening is praying the price of my sin, but not because of that goat, but because of the true sacrifice Jesus Christ. Who shed his blood for me on the cross. You can you can think of how that goat had the sins of all the people and your sin symbolically placed on its head, as it wandered off into the distance. Think about those things that as I speak right now, come straight into your head of the biggest regrets that you have in your life, are the things that you would love to change. They can be placed, and they have been placed if you're a Christian on Jesus' head.

Imagine for the Israelites, just standing there and watching that goat go into the distance. Just praying that it doesn't turn back and come back, and you have to deal with your sin again. But seeing no, actually, it continues to go. Until it becomes just a speck in the distance, and until it disappears. That is what Jesus has done with our sin.

It's gone as far as the east is from the west so far as he removed our transgressions from us. And imagine being an israelite, and seeing the great high priest go in to to to the the presence of god. The great high priest Jesus going into the presence God and being an acceptable sacrifice for us. You see the Israelites would have watched Aaron go in, and they had just hoped they had just prayed that he would come out. And when he came out, that feeling of joy, of knowing that the sacrifice had been taken in, and it was acceptable to god.

Would have filled them with such hope that their sin had been forgiven. How much more are we able to have a joy that Jesus Christ has truly taken our sin, and that his resurrection proves that his sacrifice was pleasing to god. There's no more that we have to do if we have turned to Jesus and he has forgiven our sins. But the words of the song that we'll sing next will remind us of this in a wonderful, wonderful way. And we'll end with this, guilty vile and helpless we, spotless lamb of god, was he?

Full retirement, can it be hallelujah, what a savior? Let's pray. How many father? Thank you for atonement. That comes not by us living a perfect life or by us doing things that prove our worth to you, but instead comes from your perfect son.

We thank you so much for the precious lord Jesus We thank you that he is the true sacrifice for our sins. We thank you that he is a true scapegoat. We thank you that he is the great high priest Lord we thank you that the work is finished. Lord help us if we're not yet believers here to, even tonight, turn to you and have our sin, just cast off into the distance forever, see it as a spot, and then see it disappear because Jesus has dealt with it on the cross. And lord, for those of us who are believers here, help us to continue to look at these wonderful pictures we see in leviticus 16.

And help those pictures to point us to the lord Jesus Christ, and what he did, might we have full assurance? Might we have a life of joy of knowing that our sins are forgiven by the 1 who took our sins on the cross, who raised her life to prove that his precise was worthy and acceptable, and who now is at the right hand of god interceding for us, representing us forever.