Sermon Tone Analysis

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Introduction

Leviticus - where new years resolutions go to die

Because when Christians make New Years Resolutions, often one of those would be to read the Bible through again in a year

And thats a good resolution to have - no matter how many times you have read the Bible, every time you open it, God speaks.

It is the bread of life.

We need this bread to live.

What was it that Jesus said… man cannot live by bread alone…

And he was quoting “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

So Christians hunger for the Word of God - we need the Bible to keep growing

When New Year comes around we usually start thinking about how we want to be productive in the new year… and we think about all that we want to achieve… and one of those things is we want to read through the Bible

We start in Genesis and that goes well… there are quite a few interesting stories there

Then we get to Exodus… and that goes OK because there’s a fascinating story of God redeeming Israel from slavery to Egypt and there’s all the powerful miracles that God performs

But then we get to Leviticus...

And there are all these rituals and laws...

Laws for burnt offerings

Laws for grain offerings

Laws for peace offerings

Laws for sin offerings

Laws for guilt offerings

Then there’s the priests and the priesthood and all their offerings

and clean and unclean animals

and purification ceremonies

Before you get to chapter 16, if you even get that far… you are by now reading Leviticus to help fall asleep… if you’re honest

But if you do make it your New Years Resolution for 2019 to read the whole Bible again - and I hope you do…

… then not only do I want you to get to Leviticus ch 16 and beyond…

… but I want you to enjoy it, to understand it… and to see how actually, Leviticus is very relevant to us today

… to see how reading Leviticus can actually deepen our understanding of the gospel and our understanding of God, of His holiness and of His grace…

… and in turn deepen our gratitude and worship of God.

We are going to take a look this evening at - a theologically pivotal point in the book of Leviticus

Its the Day of Atonement… Yom Kippur as the Jews still call it and remember it today - the Day of Atonements

The Need for Atonement

The first verse tells us the context - The two sons of Aaron had just died

Lev 16:1-3

So let’s look at that incident, which will set the context and give us the background to what is being spoken about in chapter 16

The first verse tells us the context - The two sons of Aaron had just died

So let’s look at that incident, which will set the context and give us the background to what is being spoken about in chapter 16

Lev 10

Lev 10:1-

Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, have just died.

Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, have just died.

In chapter 9, we see Aaron the priest, and Moses, carrying out God’s very specific instructions for making a peace offering

… and in the end, when Moses and Aaron come out of the tent of meeting, fire came from God and burned the offering

But now Nadab and Abihu try to make an offering to the Lord, and instead of fire coming from God to burn the offering… fire comes from God and kills both of Aaron’s sons

What had they done?

The text doesn’t say specifically what they had done, but it says they offered “unauthorized” fire, “which the Lord had not commanded them.”

They had become complacent in the worship of God, and attempted to treat the worship of God as something they could do any old how they pleased.

And then Moses’ words to his brother Aaron are not exactly comforting…

He says,

He goes on to say to Aaron and his two other sons Eleazar and Ithamar in verse 6: “Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the congregation; but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the LORD has kindled.

7 And do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

().

Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

When in mourning, the people of Israel would outwardly display their grief by tearing their clothes and letting their hair hang in a mess

But God is telling Aaron and his family… The rest of Israel can mourn the deaths of your sons and brothers.

You may not.

The people of Israel

Coming back to chapter 16 then, God now says 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…

This gives us a hint as to the reason Aaron’s sons died…

The Holy Place inside the veil of the tabernacle was where God would appear to His people…the presence of God was there

And God is saying that nobody - not even Aaron, who as the high priest of Israel you’d assume to be one of the most holy people - not even Aaron, can come in at any time or in any way they feel like it - like Aaron’s sons did

God is holy, and we are not

When we think of God’s holiness, we think of His goodness… the fact that He is perfect and without sin… He is righteous and good in all His ways…

But because there isn’t a lot of preaching on God’s holiness these days, we don’t often think of God’s holiness in the sense that it means God hates sin

That God’s wrath burns with ferocity against all sin and wickedness and evil - precisely because He is good and perfect.

It is precisely because God is holy, that all that is sinful and not holy - like us - cannot be in His presence without being burned up in an instant

As Uzzah found out in … when the oxen were pulling the ark of the covenant and Uzzah thought the ark was about to fall, so he reached out to catch it… and in the instant that he touched the ark - which was forbidden for him to touch, he died

The defiled may not enter the presence of the perfect and Holy God

God takes this very seriously.

As Uzzah also found out in … when the oxen were pulling the ark of the covenant and Uzzah thought the ark was about to fall, so he reached out to catch it… and in the instant that he touched the ark - which was forbidden for him to touch, he died

We don’t like stories like this in the Bible

Because it scares us.

The truth is that God is holy and he commands therefore that we also need to be holy if we are to have communion with Him

If we are to meet with God and have fellowship with God, then we must be holy as He is holy

And to not be holy and to be in the presence of God is death

So the question then… in light of what happened to Aaron’s sons, is how can Aaron Himself -

even as high priest of Israel and the mediator for Israel in terms of the sacrifices - enter beyond the veil in the tabernacle and into the Holy of Holies - the Most Holy Place - into the very presence of God Himself… and not die?

Indeed the question is, how can anybody, including ourselves, enjoy fellowship with God, or be reconciled to God and have communion with God?

Since all of us alike are born in sin and by sin have been defiled?

We were created by God, for God, in order that we would enjoy God and glorify God…

But since the Fall we have all fallen and lie open to His Judgment

We cannot enter into His presence… We cannot dare to presume upon His kindness when we have lived lives of open rebellion against him…

… broken every Law He has given us.. and refused to do the good He has commanded from us

Well did Paul speak of us all, when he says in ...

“as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Rom 3:10-

John Flavel posed the question so well in his written piece called “The Father’s Bargain”

He writes of a conversation between God the Father and God the Son…

And the first verse has the Father speaking first, and he says:

“‘My son, here is a company of

poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone

themselves, and now lie open to my justice!