“ATONEMENT WILL BE MADE FOR YOU” (Outline)

April 7, 2019 - Lent 5 - LEVITICUS 16:29-34

INTRO.: Leviticus is seldom used as a text for preaching. In an eight year collection of sermon
texts Leviticus is mentioned only 4 times. Leviticus may not be the most interesting reading. But it
is still the inspired, living, and active word of God worth our study. The Lord God gave his people
directions for living and worship. The Lord God gave his law from his love for mankind. Before
God gave his ten commandments he spoke these words. "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out
of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (DEUTERONOMY 5:6 NIV). The Lord God had delivered his
people from slavery and bondage. God’s love is echoed today in our text. “ATONEMENT WILL
BE MADE FOR YOU”. I. It is the Lord’s cleansing. II. This is a lasting ordinance.

I. ATONEMENT IS THE LORD’S CLEANSING.

A. The Lord God was speaking to Moses in order to establish the practice of setting apart priests.
1. Aaron and his priest descendants needed to make atonement in order to serve the Lord.
2. This meant sacrificing an animal and sprinkling the blood for God’s cleansing.
B. Verse 29. Our text begins reminding God’s people that atonement day was special.
1. Israel and those with them were to observe the atonement the Lord commanded.
2. The people were not to forget God’s commands. Or his atonement.
C. Verse 30. The Lord defined the meaning of atonement for Israel (and us).
1. “…this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you.” Atonement means cleansing.
2. “The LORD…will…clean from all your sins.” Atonement was spiritual cleansing, forgiveness.
(3. When reading difficult words look for the meaning in that verse or verse before or after.)

D. Israel needed divine intervention to pay for their sins. We also need the same cleansing. Only
our loving, heavenly Father can provide it. We are sinful. There is no escaping that fact. We have
inherited sin from our first parents, Adam and Eve. This is called original sin. We also are guilty for
our own sins. When we break God’s law we sin. A sin of commission. The good that we ought to
do and do not do is also sin. A sin of omission. Our entire earthly lives are infected with sin. "Every
single one has turned back. Altogether they have become rotten. There is no one who does good. There is not
even one" (PSALM 53:3). We are guilty. We need help. Atonement will be made for you.

E. God created a perfect world. Adam and Eve ruined the Lord’s perfection with their willing diso-
bedience. In their pride they sinned against God. Everything changed. Perfection was lost forever.
The effect of sin resulted in a curse upon earth. Life would never be as pleasant as it once had been.
We life in the aftermath of the first sin. "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return
to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return" (GENESIS 3:19
NIV). Work would bring sweat. Sin would bring death. Our bodies return to the dust from which
we were created. Remember the Lord’s miracle of creation in making us out of dust. Into that dust
which God had formed he breathed the breath of life. Our body is 60% water. We are mostly water
mixed with dust. The complex workings of our created bodies still amazes many doctors.

F. We are sinners. We live imperfect lives. Our bodies will return to dust. We also are sinners for-
given. Christ lived a perfect live to atone for our imperfect lives. His innocent sufferings and death
paid the price in full. The blood of Jesus purifies us from all unrighteousness. "But we look to Jesus
(the one who was made lower than the angels for a little while, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for
everyone), now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death” (HEBREWS 2:9). We will die.
We will not taste the bitter pain of death. Jesus did that for us. This mortal will become immortal.

“ATONEMENT WILL BE MADE FOR YOU”. Atonement is the Lord’s cleansing of our sins..
II. ATONEMENT IS A LASTING ORDINANCE.
A. Verse 31. The Day of Atonement was “a day of Sabbath rest”. Sabbath means rest.
1. The priest would place his hands on the goat. Israel’s sins were symbolically transferred.
2. The goat was sent into the wilderness. The sins of the people were sent away from them.
B. Verses 32, 33. The priest and his successors needed to be anointed and ordained.
1. They also had to make atonement first for their sins and then for the sins of the people.
2. The priests would sprinkle the blood on the meeting place, tent, altar, selves, and Israel.
C. Verse 34. The Day of Atonement was to be a lasting ordinance. Always remember cleansing.
1. “And it was done, as the LORD commanded Moses.” Israel remembered for a while.
2. Israel forgot this special day for decades. King Josiah was the sixteenth king of Judah.
3. Cleaning the temple he rediscovered the book of the law. He restarted Day of Atonement.
4. Sadly his son, the next king, did not remember atonement. Israel had rejected the Lord.

D. The lasting ordinance of the Lord did not last very long for God’s chosen people. They chose to
worship false gods instead. They forgot the Lord’s decree. Such is the wickedness of our sinful na-
ture. We would rather follow our desires. Our own wills rather than God’s will. Natural man on
his own will forget the Lord God of Creation. We look to our own wisdom. Our own plans. We
forget. “’The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, ‘when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD’” (AMOS 8:11 NIV).
How easy it is to spend an hour with the Lord in worship. Satan makes it seem difficult. The world
distracts us from the one thing needful. Our sinful nature makes many excuses. Dear friends do not
starve your soul. Or let your spirit die of thirst. May God give you a hunger and thirst for his Word!

E. Thankfully believers the Lord God does not forget his promises. He does not forsake his chil-
dren. Our loving, heavenly Father is not a man that he should lie. Or change his mind. The forgiv-
ing atonement of the Lord God is an everlasting covenant for his people. It is a permanent promise
of the Lord. “If we endure, we will also reign with him; If we deny him, he will also deny us; If we are faith-
less, he remains faithful, because he cannot deny himself." (2 TIMOTHY 2:12, 13). The Lord promised
Adam and Eve a Savior. Atonement came through the Son of Mary and Joseph, Christ Jesus. We
do sin. The Lord does forgive. This is his enduring promise. God remains faithful. Always.

F. Our sins condemn us. Our loving, heavenly Father forgives us. Israel celebrated the symbolic
removal of their sins once a year. Jesus made perfect the Day of Atonement once and for all on
Good Friday. The perfect Lamb of God paid the perfect price for imperfect people. Jesus died and
was buried. Jesus arose again from the dead. The sins of the world remain buried in the tomb. The
devil and death were defeated. "You know that he appeared in order to take away our sins and in him there
is no sin" (1 JOHN 3:5). The sinless saved the sinful. Holy the unholy. We know we are forgiven.

CONC.: The Lord God promised Israel that atonement will be made for them. We live in the
blessed fulfillment of the Lord’s promise. The Lord has freely cleansed us from all sin by the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior. The promises of the Lord are made and always
kept in all ways for the good of those who love him. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God publicly dis-
played as the atonement seat through faith in his blood” (ROMANS 3:23-25a). The Lord places all the
responsibility for our eternal salvation on his shoulders. “ATONEMENT WILL BE MADE FOR
YOU!” Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer

LENT 5 rdgs.: ISAIAH 43:16-21; PHILIPPANS 3:8-14; LUKE 20:9--19; (PSALM 37)
SERVICES: NCF 1:00 Min. (Sat) & 12:00 Med. (Sun) / 10:00am @ Redeemer (Sun) / 5:00pm @ McCook (Sat)
BIBLE STUDIES: 11:15am @ Redeemer (SUN) / 5:45pm (Med) + 7:30pm (Min) @ NCF (TUES.)
/ Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:00am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM