The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-10)

God’s Word tells us that even the high priest will die if he does not follow the Word. This Word is given to us even now. God is telling us to atone for yourself and your household and then atone for the entire Israelite community. Then after you have given this offering, you are going to give the burnt offering.

You know what the burnt offering is, right? It is to completely burn yourself. What does this mean? It means that if we have given worship to God, then we have to completely devote our lives to Him. That is worship. It is to give the entirety of myself, to give all of my sins. This is the worship of devoting to the Lord. But if you are worshiping to receive something from the Lord, that is incorrect. Why? Because you do not know who you are.

We are creatures who cannot live without being renewed by God’s grace and God’s Word. So He is talking about this complete devotion. To give 100% devotion means that I am going to go completely into God’s Word. Through worship, if you have been given the Word, then you must see, within worship, the devotion that you must make. This is the method of the Day of Atonement that they did every year.

The things that we see in Leviticus are explained in the New Testament. You can see this in Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10 explains to us the meaning and significance of Leviticus 16 for us today. All of those things are explained starting in verse 18. 

Hebrews 10:1 “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves.” For this reason, “it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.” So he is saying that even if you give this worship, year after year, it will not make you perfect.

Hebrews 10:2 “If it could, would they have not stopped being offered?” Then in verse 3, “But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sin.” Hebrews 10:4 “Because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” So he is saying that the offerings made in the Old Testament are not enough to make us perfect.

In verse 5, it says, “Therefore when Christ came into the world, he said: sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.” So on the Day of Atonement, they gave the burnt and sin offerings. Hebrews 10:6

Hebrews 10:7 “Then I said, ‘Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll – I have come to do your will, my God.’” Hebrews 10:8 “First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” – although the law required them to be made.”So in the Old Testament, the offerings of the Old Testament were just a shadow of the perfection of Christ. It was not perfection itself, but they were doing this so that they could obey the law.

Hebrews 10:9 “Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He set aside the first to establish the second.” To get rid of this Day of Atonement, the sin offering and the burnt offering, God must do something else.

So it is written in verse 10, “And by that will, we have been made holy by the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.” Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, we have once and for all been made clean.

Because in verse 11, it says that the duties of the priest cannot take away sin.

Hebrews 10:12 “But when this priest has offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” Hebrews 10:13. “Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.”

So, instead of doing it every day and every year, we don’t have to do the sin and burnt offering anymore because of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. We have been forgiven completely and eternally, so what do we have to do? Now there is a different method.

The Holy Spirit also testifies about this. First, He says, “This is the covenant I will make with them, and after that time,” says the Lord, “I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds.” Now the Word of God’s covenant is completely ingrained in us by the Holy Spirit. So there is no need for us to do this sin and burnt offering anymore. Now, there has come this time where we worship in Spirit and in Truth. John 4:24. It is not this mountain or that mountain, but worship is done in Spirit and in Truth. After Jesus Christ comes, what do we do? We worship in Spirit and in Truth. So, when we come in worship on Sundays, what are we doing? We are worshiping in Spirit and in Truth.

The Holy Spirit inside of us is going to remind us and teach us of the Word. When you receive the Word from the pulpit, the Holy Spirit, inside of you, is teaching you those words. So what do you do when you worship in Spirit and in Truth? If you just sit there, that is not worship. The Holy Spirit inside of us is going to help us to worship through the Word and through the Spirit.

So now, when you go home every day, you are able to worship before the Lord. What are you worshiping and how do you worship? In Spirit and in Truth. With the Spirit, and with the Word. Then what will happen? God will guide you towards atonement and holiness. 

But there are things that are imprinted in us, things like self-centeredness and being centered on success and the things of this world. The Spirit inside of us is complete. However, the experiences that come from my heart and my thoughts are disturbing the things of the Spirit.

So what do we have to do? Every day and always, we must go into the guidance of the Holy Spirit. To be guided by the Holy Spirit means that you must give up on yourself. The act of me dying is true devotion. Why? Because it is not good enough. So, that is why we stake our lives on worship.

Look at the elder’s testimony. Every morning, he wakes up at 3AM and stakes his life on it. What is the characteristic of someone whom God uses? It is about where you are standing. What is your devotion?

People who cannot receive grace are trying to stake their lives on the world. That is a non believer, but even believers can live like non believers. Why? Because they cannot stake their lives on the things that they need to stake their lives on, which is worship.

This elder rode a plane from Busan to Seoul twice a week. This is not something that just anybody could do, but why did he do it? Because that was the command God had given to him. But if you are not trained in this, then what is going to happen? When you look at your circumstances, you would say things like, “Pastor, it is so difficult. I’m so busy, I cannot go to Seoul twice a week.” But this point determines whether you will be blessed or not.

What happens is that the people who are holding on to the Word and being guided by the Word will make the correct decisions when the time comes. They are going to really receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their fields of business. So where am I going to stay in my life?

The people who can do this correctly will absolutely have victory. If you have victory without this, then later on down the road you will crumble. Why? Because God is going to fulfill His Word. Even right now, God exists with his Eternal Word. So every day, you have to give this worship before the Lord. The elder did scheduled prayer, but that was actually worship. He calls it scheduled prayer, but starting from the hymns, everything he does is worship. 

Think about how intimidating your business fields are. The president of a company donated a lot of money, but that person actually contracted cancer twice. The President said that if you want to do business well then you are bound to get cancer. And because she was such a good business person, she got cancer twice. She was telling people that if they want to do business they must prepare themselves. She said to prepare yourself to have cancer. 

Right now she has liver cancer, but it seems that she is recovering quite well. She gave all of this donation to this one engineering company rather than Seoul National University, her alma mater, because she realized that that company needed to live for Korea to live. Business is not something you just joke around about, but every day you are anxious. It’s the same thing for athletes. Every time there’s a competition, they will become so nervous.

Most people will work just for a salary so they won’t be anxious, but the athletes work every day. Whether you die in the business field or not, everything involves this. Let’s look at the pro athletes. If they lose one game, their money gets cut and their reputation gets cut. So their lives revolve around this game.

Just working at a store, doesn’t matter that much, but to win in business, you really have to compete. Whether or not you are going up against Samsung or Hyundai, it doesn’t matter. Simply put, your mental state has to be good. Because, first and foremost, your mental state must be good. If your mental state is weak, then everyone will crumble. 

But if your spiritual state is not strong, then ultimately you will be seized by Satan. If you cast your heart towards the first thing that you see, you will die. That is why you have to go into your work field already having one every morning. Even this elder testified that he finished his business, and then he would go.

There is an analogy that everyone is kind of chasing this bus. They’re late, so they keep running after this bus, and eventually they die. But the people who really compete at the Olympic level will not live like this every day. They devote. You have to stake your life on really raising the spiritual state. If you have spiritual strength, then God is going to guide you.

The fact that God has sent the Holy Spirit to be with us for 24 hours means that God is with us for 24 hours. But when a hardship comes upon a person, whether that person is going to live or not, can be determined by how they react. Everyone as they live will run into problems. There is no way for humans to just live normally because God has to give them these things to help them realize that they must come before God. What kind of person would God help? I cannot even help myself, so how could somebody help me. I cannot even help myself and I love myself, so how could somebody else help me? 

If you realize this when you are 80 years old, then all of it is in vain. You have to realize this when you are young. That is why when you are young, you have some time. The remnants, who are able to prepare this, will be able to see the future. It is not about whether you study or not. That does not matter. Stand before the Lord and receive strength from God, and God will use you. So, every day, this early morning worship. That’s what I’m talking about. Without this, it will be very difficult because mankind has no choice.

As soon as you wake up, if you just get up and start moving, your life will be one of chasing buses. You will get dragged around starting in the morning. But you have to go with the spiritual strength of God being with you, starting from in the morning. It is the same when you go out into the field and when you finish your day.

You must go before the Lord. If you do well without being able to do this, then that is a problem. Because if you cannot do this, then you should fail, even more. Why? Because it has to be the answer that you receive from God’s guidance and Word. Within the working of the Holy Spirit, there are works that have no choice but to be fulfilled, but your nature makes this so difficult and your nature gives you hardship. God is asking you if you are stronger or if God is stronger.

I hope that you are quickly able to give up yourself and to go before the Lord. So of course there is the elder’s testimony, but as a pastor my testimony applies as well how powerfully has God worked. But when a pastor speaks the words, he does not just say these words. The pastor talks about how God has guided him, his entire life. And so this is why I tell the young adults that without the summit time, everything that they do is in vain. Even if I meet people who are pastors, it doesn’t matter what they do. Without God’s guidance, everything is in vain.

Don’t be foolish. There is only God’s work because God works through those pastors. However, people cannot help them. Especially in America, there’s nobody to help you out. Who is going to help you out? It is only the Triune God who can help you. The more you resolve and conclude in this, the more you can stand before God. Until you come to this conclusion, God is going to keep circling around you. When you have made this conclusion, that is when we can say that our life is matured. But if you cannot come to this conclusion, then no matter how old you get, you have not matured before the Lord. It’s like the same thing as kids growing up without maturing because they have these interior motives. 

Nobody taught me this because nobody in my household were believers. There was not a time where I properly went to church as a kid. When I was older, I started going to church. In the grand scheme of things, I was still pretty young, but what did I learn in the midst of that? Everything that happened to me in those times were all included in this Word so you have to mature, and realize that I am not somebody who can do it. If you have not come to this realization, then you have not matured and your head is going to break a lot. Right now I am talking about my own story. But before the Lord, I really had this moment. There was a moment where I really realized what kind of creation I was before the Lord. 

So, there was nothing for me to look to or to rely on. Why do we not come before the Lord?. It is because we rely on something else. What does it mean for us to come to God with a broken and contrite heart? God will make you go to a new place with only $300 to be poor in hearts.

But even without doing that God could work. Because we as humans cannot do it, we suffer. That is what it means for a poor heart to be a blessing. That is what it means for us to kneel before God. Without doing that, it means I have faith in something else. 

Then what will happen? To the extent that you continue to hold on to yourself and your experiences, you will break. Being able to kneel before the Lord every day means you let go of yourself. That is how you are supposed to gain strength from God.

If you live your life every day like this, that is everything. Even if you cannot do this, you have to know it even if things do not work out. Even for non-believers, things don’t work out, but this is something you must understand that God, according to His Word, will lead us with His Holy Spirit. Why?

Where did the Israelites have to go? They had to go into Canaan. Why is God giving the Israelites these words during the wilderness? Because if they do not hold on to the Word before going into Canaan, they would not survive. There was no point for us to try to achieve atonement and holiness by ourselves. If we could do that, then it would be better for us to just go to heaven early. But if you go into Canaan, all the idol worshipping nations are really going to seize you, and that is why the Lord gave them this Word to “Go and conquer Canaan.”

With this, you will go into the world and conquer. That is why you have to have worship every day. You must receive the strength from Word and Prayer. Even if you don’t have anything then within God’s covenant, God will do it. Because God does not need our power. By God’s power, God says He will use us to save people.The temple construction that will save people; the Remnants and the future generations who will save other people; the missions and evangelism who will save other people. 

The elder was testifying about how his wife had bad hips, and she didn’t even have money for surgery. But this woman devoted to saving non-believers, and the Holy Spirit worked to heal her. It is not like we are trying to do this for the kids, so we make people pay $300. But because this person really held on to the grace of missions and evangelism, she devoted entirely to that, and God knows that. So God allowed her to go around and testify about how God healed her hips.They did this in America, and that is what happens when you receive strength. 

When you receive strength, you will have the heart to go. Otherwise, you will be very tired. Who does not want to do their own thing? This is the culture of the world where everyone is just calculating.  Everyone draws a picture of God and says that if they do something then God will reward them, but this is the extent of their faith. This lady was able to really devote for the Remnants because that was the strength that God gave her. 

Through everyday worship, I hope that you are able to receive this strength. The time of the pandemic is a very good time for you to be doing this. For the people, who have really prepared themselves through the time of the pandemic, can really look forward into the future. I hope you’re able to experience this every day. 

Prayer. Let’s pray holding on to the Word we have received.