Peter Barnes: Leviticus 16 : NO AUDIO
(4th August 2019)
SERMON NOTES: THE ONE DAY OF THE YEAR: YOM KIPPUR (Leviticus 16)
The Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur – was the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. The Bible asks: ‘How can a holy God dwell with unholy people?’ Hence Ps. 15:1-2; 24:3-4. Heb.10:1 for the shadow.
1. A sinful high priest points to the sinless High Priest.
– 16:17. The high priest had first to offer up a bull for his own sins (17:6). More detail is found in verses 11-14. The high priest had to be protected from the holiness of God, for no man can see God and live.
– Heb.7:26-28. Christ is our priestly mediator, one who knew no sin in His own life.
2. Repeated sacrifices point to the one perfect sacrifice.
– 16:7-9, 15. This goat was offered for the sins of Israel. The blood of the bull and the goat was sprinkled on the ark – 16:18-19.
– 16:10, 20-22 for the scapegoat. In pictorial, shadowy form, the death penalty was paid, and sins were carried away.
– Heb.9:12, 25-28. The sacrifice is perfect, there is nothing to be added to it, it is once for all. God’s promise is in Ps.103:12; John 1:29. Isaac Watts: Not all the blood of beasts,/ On Jewish altars slain,/ Could give the guilty conscience peace/ Or wash away the stain./ But Christ, the heavenly Lamb/ Takes all our sins away;/ A sacrifice of nobler name,/ And richer blood than they.
3. Access on earth points to much greater access to heaven.
– Heb.9:24; Heb.10:19-23. Christ entered a far better place, and opened the way for far more people. The statute was forever (16:29, 31).
-Isaac Watts: My faith would lay her hand/ On that dear head of Thine,/ While like a penitent I stand,/ And there confess my sin.