Lord willing, I'm hoping next
week to bring a message from Leviticus
chapter 16, and if you have the opportunity to read that this
week and passages around it, have a glorious glorious description
of the work of the High Priest and the High Priest of course
is the Lord Jesus Christ and all of the other High Priests
and all of the other priests in one way or another pictured
him. But my prayer is that just as
Aaron laid his hands on the scapegoat which carried the sins of all
of God's people away to a place where they'll never be remembered
again, that we might find ourselves laying our hands on the scapegoat,
the real scapegoat, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we might just
acknowledge that we are sinners, and nothing more than sinners.
But sinners who have a savior. The religion of Christ is a sinner's
religion. A sinner's religion. It's not a
religion for the righteous. He didn't even come for the righteous.
He came for sinners. You'll call his name Jesus before
his birth. Why? because he shall save his
people from their sins. Did he do it? In almost all of my discussions
with people from the religious world, they say he didn't. And they have various ways of
saying he didn't and they have various ways of taking it he's
finished and making it still that they have to do something.
I pray that the Lord, as we looked at in Romans 5.11 a couple of
weeks ago, he will, by him we receive the atonement. I want
the atonement to be received in my heart. So turn with me,
if we want to look at these verses, we need to see not just from
the Old Testament what the Scriptures say, but the New Testament is
saying exactly the same thing. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
13, and as we look at the Lord Jesus Christ being led away,
let's see one of the Holy Spirit's multitudes of commentaries on
it. And he explains it, but also
He speaks so wonderfully to us here today. He says in verse
9, Be not carried away with diverse
and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the
heart be established with grace, and not with meat. You can read
about that in Romans chapter 14. The kingdom of God is not
meat and drink. It's not dos and don'ts. It's righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Which have not profited them
that have been occupied therein. We, I love this verse, we have
an altar. We have, all of God's children
have an altar. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
altar. The Lord Jesus Christ is the sacrifice upon the altar.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the priest who offers the sacrifice.
Everything about this, the tabernacle and the temple, everything speaks
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The light of the world, the bread
from heaven, the altar, the washing, the mercy seat, the blood. But listen to this in terms of
these people casting the Lord Jesus Christ out of their city,
their place of religion and worship. We have an order whereof they
have no right to eat which serves the tabernacle. They have no
right. We have an order. They have no right. What a shocking
thing to think that you have no right to have this altar. Then he says, 4. The bodies of
those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also,
that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered
without the gate. Therefore, let us go forth unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we
no continuing Sydney, but we seek one to come by him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate,
forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. What's that word communicate
mean? It's fellowship. That's what the word means. It's
fellowship. We have fellowship. And our fellowship
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And our fellowship is a fellowship
according to 1 Corinthians 10. He speaks of the cup of blessing
which we bless. Is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is
it not the communion of the body of Christ? The fellowship. We
have fellowship in his blood. We have fellowship in his sacrificed
flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews
13.12, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the gate. This is exactly what we're reading
about in John chapter 9. He suffered without the gate.
And if anyone might think that the people in Hebrews 13 is all
of mankind, he makes it abundantly clear through all of the rest
of Hebrews. that there is a particular people that he came for. There's
a particular people that he sanctified. There is a particular people
that he was representing on the cross of Calvary. There was a
particular people for whom his blood was shed. There was a particular
people. that the Lord God the Father
gave him before the foundation of the world and he now takes
full responsibility for all of their sins on the cross of Calvary. It is just glorious to contemplate
the fact that the scriptures cannot be broken and our Lord
Jesus Christ walked this path Let's go back to our text in
John 19. Then delivered he, verse 16,
then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led him
away. And he bearing his cross went
forth into a place called the place of the skull, which is
called in Hebrew Golgotha. where they crucified him. Isn't
it extraordinary that each of the bible, the gospel writers,
speaks of him being led away and they speak of the cross,
they crucified him. They crucified him. Just three
words. And all of this book is about
this event. All of history is about this
momentous event. Three words, they crucified him. He went along this rugged path,
bearing his cross, that he might pave a road of mercy for those
who crucified him. A road of mercy. Three men went
on that road that morning. We keep thinking and we read
often to think that it was just he alone, but with him was an
entourage of two other men bearing their crosses. You can read about
it in Luke's Gospel. And so there were three crosses.
He was numbered with the transgressors. It's a particular... They wanted
there, these Jews, they wanted there to be as much ignominy
and as much shame come upon the Lord Jesus Christ as they could
possibly muster. They wanted him to have a curse
of death. They had planned all along for
him to have a cursed death, which is why I think, even though the
scriptures don't say it, that when he looked as if he might
have died on the way to Calvary, they immediately got Simon of
Cyrene and got him to carry the cross. They were absolutely determined
they're going to get him up under that cross outside of the camp
of Jerusalem. They're going to get him outside
of their camp. And they're going to have him crucified so they
can read in the scriptures to all those that'll listen to them,
that cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. They'll say,
we've got him cursed. God's cursed him now. And we're
right. And we're right in our religion.
They took Jesus and led him away. He wasn't driven away. He gave
his back to the smiters. He gave his face to those that
plucked out the beard. He was driven away. He was driven
away from their religion. He was driven away from their
place and their nation. That's what Caiaphas prophesied,
wasn't he? If he stays and continues to
do what he's doing, he'll take away our place and our nation. He'll take away our power. He'll
take away all of what we have confidence in. He was driven
away from what they thought was the place of God's presence and
the blessing from God's priests. This was Passover. You read about
it in Leviticus chapter 16. This was the time when they were
remembering how that by the blood of a substitute lamb, Israel,
was set free from the bondage of the Egyptians. Think about
what they were celebrating and they were saying, you're not
going to have any part in any of this, you're not having any part
in our Passover, you're not having any part in the blessings that
we have. How wicked, how wicked is sin? And I want you to be reminded
again that as this is a picture of human depravity, laid bare. It's a picture of our depravity
laid bare. I beg of us not to think that
if I was there, some pastor years ago said if I'd been there I
would have stopped it. If you'd been there you would have been
crying out crucify him, crucify him. Our religion, as I said,
our salvation is the salvation of sinners, not the righteous
people. They drove him away. They drove
him away to a place where they judged him worthy of death. They drove him away to a curse
of death. He was led away from Pilate and
his weak hypocrisy, from Herod and his arrogance. He was led
away from these Jews with them crying to Pilate as he went,
we have no king but Caesar. It's extraordinary what lies
at the heart of self-righteous religious people. And once again,
it's only ever exposed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Man's religion
will never expose what's in the heart of man. The one thing that
exposes what's in the heart of man is the Lord Jesus Christ. They led him away, but he was
the one leading all of these events. He was the one that was
in absolute sovereign control. This is the great and glorious
transaction between God the Father and God the Son. I love how when
God talks about His purposes and His decrees and His determinate
counsel and foreknowledge and His will and His good pleasure,
it's always singular. God is of one mind, Job 23. Who can turn him? And what his
soul desireth, even that he doeth. He performeth the thing that
is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. This is the decree of God Almighty.
This is the promise of God the Father. We've read about it in
Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 50. Where is your God? We say that
ourselves all the time, but they said it to David. Where is your
God? Where is your God when this is happening? Our God, Psalm 115 verse 3, our
God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. You can write that over every
event in all of the lives of all people, all the time. Verse
17, he was led away, they led him away. And bearing his cross,
he went forth into a place called the Place of the Skull, which
is called in Hebrew Golgotha. It was a monument to death outside
the camp of Israel. It was a place where horrid crimes
met their due reward. It was there, this place, that
added to the shame of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was numbered
with the transgressors. He walked up those paths with
those other two men bearing their crosses. And he was numbered
with the transgressors. He was exiled from the friendship
of anyone. Don't you love the fact that
he did this alone? No man dare call him a friend
now. No one dare whisper a word of
comfort to him. He's banished, our Lord Jesus
Christ. Banished as if he were a leper. His very presence was a stench
in the nostrils of that religious crowd. They wanted to be rid
of his obnoxious presence. What an extraordinary thing sin
is. What an extraordinary saviour
we have. He bearing his cross went forth. Three men, as I said earlier,
travelled that road that morning. One man was dying for sin. a mountain, a monumental mountain
of sin was laid on him. One man was dying to sin, and
one man was dying in sin. There is all humanity laid bare
with the Lord Jesus Christ, the one on the middle cross, who
separates them all. He, bearing his cross, went forth. He went alone to Golgotha. I
know all these other people with him, but he went alone to the
battle to vanquish sin. He went alone in perfect righteousness. He went alone in perfect submission
to his father's will. He went alone in perfect faithfulness. We rest our salvation in who
He is and what He's done, and the perfection of His righteousness,
and the perfection of His faithfulness, alone bearing sin. As we will see in Leviticus chapter
16, the great scapegoat is led away and he bears on his back
all the sins of all of his people. The offering to God goes without
the camp. As I said at the very beginning
of this, I pray that in these times we have together, considering
the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, that we will
find ourselves like that priest of old, laying our head upon
the scapegoat and confessing our sins and resting all of the
hope of our eternal salvation in what he's done and what he's
done alone. What a place to go. What terrible
ignominy in the garden. and blood, great drops of blood
poured out through his skin. In the halls of Pilate and the
Jews he gave his body to be punished with stripes. With his stripes
we are healed. And on the cross of Calvary his
soul was made an offering for sin. to be just. A God who winks at
sin, the God who allows it to be a little slip up, the God
who will not deal with sin has no right to claim to be a holy
God or a just God. All of the attributes of God
are on display here. All of the attributes. Sins deserve
real punishment. They deserve physical punishment. They deserve heart punishment. They deserve soul punishment. Infinite punishment because they
offend infinite holiness. That's why hell never finishes. Ever. They have no way to pay. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
to those Pharisees, if you don't believe that I am who I say I
am, if you don't believe that I am God Almighty, the Christ
of God Almighty, you will die in your sins. What a horrible
thought when you think that people, a cascade of people, are going
to hell right now, dying in their sins. And they will, on that great
day of judgment, have their mouths stopped and they will declare
that God is righteous and God is just and God is holy. As I said, our faith is the faith
of sinners. and it looks to the one saviour
of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, saving
his people. Much we talk of Jesus' blood,
oh how little's understood. Of his sufferings so intense,
angels have no perfect sense. who can rightly comprehend their
beginning or their end. Tis to God and God alone that
their weight is fully known. See the suffering, Son of God,
panting, groaning, sweating blood, boundless depths of love divine. Jesus, what a love divine. He says to those women on that
way up in Luke's gospel, up to the cross of Calvary, he says,
don't weep for me. Don't weep for me. They ought to weep for him. But he says, you weep for yourselves.
We don't weep for him, and we ought to. But we weep because
our sins have made him bleed. It was the sins of his people
laid on him. Lord willing we'll go back and
look at this again, but I just want to go through these verses
just one more time. In verse 18, And they crucified
him and two other with him, one on either side, and Jesus in
the midst. We've looked at this in the past,
but I just love I love how God so sovereignly super intends
all of these things and even moves the heart of someone who's
as wicked and cowardly as Pilate. And Pilate wrote the title and
put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of
Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Jesus, his name of humanity,
his name of humility. And this title read, many of
the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was near
to the city. This was as public a place as
they could possibly put it. It was a place which in their
very thoughts was horrifying. The Romans had to invent a word
for the pain of the cross. In polite Roman society, the
cross was so horrible to their thoughts and they were tough
people who saw a lot of suffering. They had to invent a new word
for the pain of the cross. It's called excruciating. Excruciating. Jesus was crucified near the
city. They wanted this to be as public
as possible. And don't forget this is Passover
time. There are a million possible
visitors in the population of Jerusalem at that time. And it
was written in Hebrew. It was written in Hebrew, Greek,
and Latin. It was written in Hebrew, the
language of religion. It was written in Greek, the
language at that time of the common man, and it was written
in Latin, the language of the scholarly and others. Three languages
covering all mankind. And this title then read many
of the Jews for the place where Jesus Christ was nigh to the
city. And it was written in Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin. Then said the chief priest of
the Jews to Pilate, write not the king of the Jews, but that
he said, I am king of the Jews. Pilate's answer is a glorious
answer, isn't it? What I have written, I have written. what I have written, I have written. God can say, what I have written,
I have written. I'm praying as we go through
this that once again the Lord would send the blessed Holy Spirit
and that would flow upon this garden of his gathered people
and we might rejoice with those verses that I read in Hebrews
chapter 13, that we might find ourselves having an altar. There is a camp. There is a camp from which the
Lord was excluded. There is a camp from which he
takes all of his people. And it's the camp that's epitomised
by the religion of Israel with its denominations
and its Bible colleges and its missionary activities, all of
which left men with a righteousness of their own. A righteousness
in what they are, a righteousness in what they do, a righteousness
in their heritage. We go outside the camp. Where is he? He's still outside
the camp of man-made religion. If you wanted to hear from God
in those days, where did you go? Never in Jerusalem. If you wanted to hear from God,
you went to John the Baptist in the wilderness. If you wanted
to hear from God, you went to the Lord Jesus Christ in the
wilderness. We just love other people to
be with us, but we go unto him. He's outside the camp. The issue
is going to him. We're continually going to him. We're continually going to him,
and he will cause his people to bear his reproach. We're like Abraham, the children
of the faithful. He looked around that nation
that God gave him, and Abraham was looking that had foundations, whose builder
and maker was God. There were bucketloads of cities
there with amazing foundations. Abraham was looking beyond all
that to this glorious foundation of all of our faith, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have no continuing city. We
seek one to come, but by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his names. May the Lord cause that to be
our portion as we lay our hands on the scapegoat. Amen. Let's
have a break and a cup of coffee. Thank you.