Well, I can't tell you how... meeting you, and we thank you
for all your hospitality, particularly your pastor and his wife have
been so gracious to us. They've treated us like kings
and queens. And to meet you, you've just
been so... I told Brother Wayne, it's like being home. Just like
being with our own church. Now this morning, out there in
Oregon, it's still early. I had to get up at 4 o'clock
this morning. Still early, but our folks are
not going to be able to have services. We have your snow.
Our parking lot is full. Straits are bad. So the men just
said, stay home and have your own devotions this morning. So
if you'd remember us out in Oregon, we'd appreciate it. I have a
terrible habit. I don't know very many people
that have this bad habit, but I have a terrible habit of driving
along on a road and see a marker ahead. It says, historical marker
ahead. And right up here is a beautiful
big sign that the state has put up. And I drive by it and say,
next time I'll stop. And I drive by it again. I say, well, someday I'm going
to stop and read that sign and see what it says. Well, I was
doing that in a book that we're going through in our church there.
I don't share anything that I haven't tried out on my own people. And
we're going through the book of Leviticus. And we went through
chapter 1 and chapter 2 and got to chapter 3, and I says, uh-oh,
there is a historical sign I keep driving by. I need to go back.
So I needed to go back to chapter 1. It's much like people who
want to go to chapter 2 of the book of Ephesians and pass up
chapter 1. You cannot enjoy grace if you
have not seen election. It's impossible. And people want
to claim those privileges of grace. Ephesians 2, verses 8,
9, and 10, I've heard them all my life, and my pastors never
read chapter 1. Well, it's a thrill to read chapter
1, and then you really understand what grace is. How God, before
the world began, had a people, He chose a people, and He chose
them all at the same time, and all of God's people rejoice in
that, because we know we would have not chosen God. God never
chose anybody on foreseen faith. He chose people on foreseen unbelief. They would not believe, so therefore
He must choose them, or they would never choose, and they
would never choose Him. So, I had to trail back to the
first chapter of the book of Leviticus, and I really appreciated
that reading this morning. Would you turn with me to the
book of Leviticus chapter 1, please? And I would like to read
verse 4 one more time. And I must admit that the book
of Leviticus has not always brought joy in reading. I hate to admit
that, but that's the truth with me. It has not always brought
joy in reading. I would say at times it was even
drudgery. Reading through the book of Leviticus, as he read
that passage of Scripture this morning, I said once again, I
am so thankful that I didn't live in those times. I have butchered beef. I have
butchered hogs. I have butchered wild game. I
have butchered chickens. And you know, enough is enough.
Three beefs, two hogs, and 100 chickens, that's enough. And
maybe a deer or an elk. But these people on a consistent
basis were called on to offer these sacrifices, and I am so
thankful that that era is over. that Jesus Christ fulfills all
of those types and shadows, and we no longer are required to
do that. In fact, if we have a propensity
to do that, we do not know Christ. He is the end of the law for
righteousness. Now in this first chapter, It
shares with us some of the things that I discovered about the book
of Leviticus, and that caused me to share with my people out
in the Dalles. I shared with them, I
feel led to go to the book of Leviticus, and here are the reasons
that I want to go there. Number one, there is no book
in all the Bible that contains more of the very words of God
than the book of Leviticus. Almost every page is the very
Word of God to Moses. Now we find in that, that God
did not speak to the people individually, He spoke through a mediator. And God never speaks to us individually,
He speaks to us through a mediator, and our mediator is Christ Jesus
the Lord. There is one mediator between
God and man, and that's the man Christ Jesus. And God speaks
through him and Jesus Christ reveals the Father to us. And
if we're ever going to see God, we must go that way. Secondly, I read that the book
of Leviticus is for sinners. And you know what? I'm a sinner. Grace people in religion. When I was in religion, you didn't
talk about that. My goodness, I'm getting better and better.
I'm moving along. I'm progressively becoming more
sanctified, which is a lie. My sanctification, I found it,
is holy and totally in Christ Jesus, and I was sanctified in
eternity past and sanctified the day that God gave me grace
and sanctified in the end as I'll always be. We don't get
progressively better. He didn't save the flesh. I'm
thankful. He's like my wife and I had to do with our kids sometimes
when we went to the grocery store. We had to put our hands around
them and constrain them, and I'm thankful for the constraining
power of God. He prevents me from doing some
things that I would do, and I am so thankful He restrains me. His love constraineth me. Thirdly, The rites here detailed
were typical and every type was designed and intended by God
to bear resemblance to some spiritual truth. The likeness between type
and any type is never accidental. There's no accidents in the Word
of God. There's no accidents with God.
There's no accidents in your life. We use that term, but thank
God we can look beyond it most of the time and say, this is
God's providence. I was in a car accident. I found out it was divinely determined
by God before the foundation of the world that this incident
happened and he had a purpose in it. We never get a cold without
a purpose. The pictures are shadows of good
things to come. And that's what we read in the
book of Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 1, for the law having a
shadow of good things to come and not the very image of things
can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually make the comers be there unto perfect. So these
didn't make anybody perfect, but they are a picture of Him
who does. Now, when we get to the book
of Leviticus, chapter 1, we find that a sinner brought this offering. And I am convinced that this
did not happen very often. There were not a lot of these
burnt offerings, because there were very few sinners. I like
what John Hart had to say about it. A sinner is a sacred thing,
for God hath made him thus. Not many sinners in Israel, not
many sinners you find today. Only among grace people do I
find sinners. You go into religion, oh man,
the Lord saved me from that. Brother Henry Mahan was accused
one time by a man in his hometown. He says, all you got in your
church are sinners. You know what Brother Henry's
comment on that was? That man wanted to get a fuss
out of him. Brother Henry says, you got that right. All we got here, all we got in
the dials are sinners. Saved by grace. Sinners saved
by grace. We're the only ones who will
raise our hand. Yep, that's me. That's me. I know what it is.
But I'm thankful for a Savior that saves sinners. Now in this
book, or this first chapter, second chapter, third chapter,
fourth chapter, fifth chapter, sixth chapter, and seventh chapter,
there are five offerings that somebody that's a sinner brings.
And in this first one, the sinner brings an offering, and it can
be three types. And this is to share with us,
it doesn't matter your social or economic position in life,
you still need the same Savior. If you're poor, bring a bird. If you're medium, Bring a lamb
if you're wealthy. Bring an ox. But every one of
these critters that was brought, and forgive me if you don't know
what I'm talking about when I use the word critter. Every one of
these critters that was brought was to be healthy, was to be
strong, and particularly we notice this about the lamb. or the goat
or the ox, they were to be strong and in the prime of health, and
so it was with the bird. Now, this ox that was brought,
it was to be leaned on heavily by the person who brought it.
He did not care. Who observed him when he said
to the people, I'm a sinner? When he said to the priest, I'm
a sinner. I need something else to take my sin. I cannot deal
with it myself. And so he pictured the imputation
to God of our sin. He leaned heavily. Now, he didn't
lean with one hand, because that means that I'm leaning on something
else with the other hand. He had to have both hands on
the head of that beast. He had to say, I'm depending
wholly and completely on the Lord Jesus Christ as my atonement. That's what chapter 1 is about,
is the atonement. In fact, in verse 4, it shares
with us those very words. Leviticus chapter 1 and verse
4, and he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering,
and he shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. The rest of these offerings are
the benefits of the atonement. The next one is the peace offering.
You don't get peace without the atonement. There is no peace. The next one is righteousness,
excuse me, and then the third one is peace. You don't get righteousness
except through the atonement. You don't get peace except through
the atonement. They are the benefits. They are the gifts. They are
the glories to the church as a result of the atonement. Now
this atonement, I'd like to speak a few things about this word
atonement that's found here. This offering declares the only
way a sinner can be right with God is a sufficient sacrifice
for sin be found and that sacrifice be totally consumed. If you read
this, if you heard this, this sacrifice is totally consumed.
Now some of the other sacrifices that are listed here in the first
seven chapters of the book of Leviticus, the bringer got to
take some of it home, the peace offering. The priest took some.
The bringer got to take some. Oh man, peace for everyone in
Christ Jesus. Priest, everybody else. But this particular offering
was totally consumed. The priest didn't get part of
it. The bringer didn't get part of it. It was consumed on the
altar just as we find the Lord Jesus Christ was consumed, if
you please, spiritually on the cross. For three hours he was
put in total darkness, a darkness you could feel. I cannot explain
and in this life I will never understand what exactly happened
to Jesus Christ when He became the atonement for us. I can't
dissect it, I can't draw it out, I can't explain it, I just know
it's true. We believe it. God's people trusted
that it was absolutely and totally and completely sufficient to
take away our sin. We trust Christ with that issue. And so here, this issue, this
offering that is brought, the bearer, the bringer, the sinner
realizes that it is totally a substitute that is able to take care of
his sin. Before we go any further, let
me say this, a few words about this atonement. The atonement
in its simplest meaning is to bring to at-one-ment. To bring at one. Now the word
implies and cannot be used in any other sense than that there
has been a variance A quarrel, a fight, a division. You can't
have an atonement unless, first of all, there's been a fuss. Nowhere will we find the word
atonement used unless there's a variance. Nowhere will we find
that the word atonement is used unless there's a quarrel. And
we know from the Word of God that there was a big quarrel
in the Garden of Eden when Adam said, I can do as I please, and
when he did, he took the entire human race into darkness. There was a serious quarrel with
God there. There was a serious variance
there. There was a problem there. Now
sometimes we have that happen in our own life. Thirty-one,
thirty-two years ago, Nancy and I took our youngest son to see
somebody that someone, a family member, didn't like. And when
he found out that we took our son to see that family that he
didn't like, he didn't like us. He was mad at us. And I spent
about five years trying to get this cleared up, and he still,
is at variance. So there's no atonement made.
No reconciliation made. We're still at variance. We still
have a problem. Now, in Matthew chapter 18, it
shares for us how to deal with this and go through it and do
it. And finally it says, if this
person will not hear the church, let him be as a heathen man and
a republican. Forget about it. Go on. Move. Don't go backwards. Go forwards. If your brother
has offended you, go to him alone. If he will not hear you, take
two or three. If he will not hear them, take it to the church.
If he will not hear them, let him be as a heathen man and a
publican. You know what? We wish at times, like I wish
with this family member, that I could get this straightened
out and be like it used to be. We hunted together, we got wood
together, we ate together, we had Thanksgiving, Christmas,
New Year's together, and now my kids don't even know his kids
because there was such a variance. The issue that we find, I should
say the blessing that we find is that God is able to deal with
the problem because he's sovereign. What does He do with people that
are at variance with Him? He gives them a new heart in
regeneration. And He said, I'll give them a
new heart and they will love Me. God has the ability of going
to people that are variance with Him, that raise the fist and
say, I'll not have you rule over Me. He has the ability of going
to them and giving them a new heart and then they love Him. Oh my, I am so sorry I was at
a variance. I raised my hand against God.
I preached illy of Him. I slied about God in my messages. Oh, it touches our hearts. But
God has the ability, He is powerful enough to go beyond where we
can't go and say, I settle the issue. Jesus Christ is the atonement
and I can make my people love it. I love what Brother Scott
Richardson said one time in a message, God saves us against our will
with our full consent. That's what he does. He saves
us against our will. We raise our hand. We're sinners.
We're invariants. In fact, enmity against God. That's a serious thing that natural
man has. And we never get past the point
that that's where we were. And by God's grace, He's brought
the Atonement Christ to us. This implies that there's a variance,
a quarrel. This man that brings this sacrifice
admits, I've had a quarrel with God. That's a serious charge. A quarrel with God? A quarrel
with God about His sovereignty? I've had people plainly tell
me in reading the scriptures, I don't believe that. And you
know what? That's a quarrel with God. When
Brother Henry Mann came out to Central Point and preached the
gospel, that very next morning at the kitchen table, Nancy and
I were having breakfast, and I says, I hate that man. I hate
him. Well, I found out I didn't hate
him, I hated the God he represented. I hated the God that had said,
there's only one Mediator, and that Mediator is Christ Jesus,
and He will not accept my ability to make atonement. It's out of
my hands. So the Lord God Almighty has
the power to make this. God is not held by these human
frailties. He is all-powerful, He is the
Creator, and He does do what He does do, and He does give
His people a new heart. I used to say, give God your
heart. Golly, He doesn't want our heart. He gives us a new
heart. Our heart is black. Our heart
is hard. Invariance. Our heart is angry.
Our heart is enmity against God. But He alone is able to give
us a new heart. And by that, the atonement. Now there's two elements about
the atonement. One of them is expiation. Now
I have had a dear friend. He was up in his 90s. He was
about 90 when I met him. started coming to our church.
And one time, he said, I had to tell a preacher one time,
don't preach to the giraffes. Preach to the sheep. Don't put
it up here. Put it down to our heart. So
he brought that up. And I said, you know, that's
a really good illustration. It's my responsibility to preach to
the heart of the sheep and not to the giraffes. But once in
a while, we have to use a word. And one of them is expiation. And the other one is propitiation.
Now in the atonement, expiation is, the prefix ex- means out
of or from. So expiation is to do something
removing something or taking something. So in the atonement,
the Lord removes something. The Lord removes our sin. It's
covered. It's paid for. It's taken care
of. When He made atonement for us,
He covered our sin. He paid our sin. And it wasn't
like throwing a rug over it. It is no more. The law has no
more charge against us because the law was poured out on Jesus
Christ on the cross. Holiness was poured out on Jesus
Christ on the cross. It is the Father that is recorded
that He, in the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah, it was
He that poured out His wrath on the Son. And God found it
good. The cover, this word is also
used as the cover or lid of the ark, and is termed in the oldest
manuscripts of the Bible, which covered or shut off the claims
of the law. Now inside of that ark, the covering
is called the mercy seat. They use the word that's similar
to the word atonement. Blood was sprinkled on it too.
Now many people want to lift the corner of that ark. Under
that ark, to begin with, there were three items. In the ark, it was covered, the
mercy seat was placed in the Holy of Holies where there were
three items. And many religious people want
to open this ark up and look at those three items that are
covered in the atonement. One of those was the golden pot
with manna. And it cries, you are not pleased
with my food. I've had people, I was in that
boat. Boy, give me something else besides the Bible. Let me
read something else besides the Bible. The Bible meant very little. It was labor to read it, and
you didn't know much about it. And you tried to say something
about it, but it wasn't true. And after the Lord gives you
a new heart, you say, oh my goodness, this is a new book. This is an
absolute new book. It's about Christ. I remember
a pastor sharing with me, he was visiting with someone, he
says, you know, brother, in the Bible, there's automobiles, and
in the Bible, there's submarines, and in the Bible, there's space
shots, and in the Bible, he went down along this, and he says,
oh, there's one other thing in the Bible too. And the guy says,
what is that? And he says, Christ is in the
Bible. No, people are looking for all
this. My mother took me to automobiles in one of the minor prophets,
and I swallowed a hook, line, and sinker. Oh, they jostled
in the street. Oh, that could only mean cars.
People use that. Obadiah is talking about a much
greater serious thing than automobiles. He's talking about Christ and
His atonement and His love for His people. Well, under that
mercy seat also, under the atonement, God covered for us the rod that
budded, and it cries, You're not pleased with the way I lead
you. When that man brought up that
accusation, he says, Moses, Aaron, you've just taken on too much.
We want a part of it. And God made a choice that day. And that rod of Aaron's was put
in that mercy seat. And Lord, help us never to lift
that up and try to look at it because it simply says, I'm not
satisfied with God's leadership. I'm not satisfied with his food. And the third thing that was
under there was the Ten Commandments. And they cry, you're not pleased
with my righteousness. I won't keep the law. I won't
keep the Ten Commandments. I've had people tell me I've
got them all down but two or three and I'm working on them. If we offend, In one point, we're
guilty of all. And we find out that not one
person has ever kept any part of it. It was never intended
to give any gifts or righteousness or rewards for keeping the law.
It was a schoolmaster to point us to the one who could. He is
the only holy one. So God help us to leave that
atonement, that mercy seat down so we're not doubting or questioning
the authority of God, the word of God, or the holiness of God.
Jesus Christ is the Word of God, Jesus Christ is the Leader of
God, and Jesus Christ is the Righteousness of God. And we
depend upon Him totally and completely. Then, we find the next thing
that is found there, that there is a propitiation. To propitiate
is to restore that friendship. Oh, I've wanted that. You know,
I've almost got to the point I don't care anymore about that
family member. If he came to me and said, Norm, I'm really
sorry, I'd say, OK, let's go on. But I've just got tired of
it. But in the atonement, the propitiation
to restore that friendship which was before the quarrel took place,
and thus make friends again. Isn't it wonderful that God makes
friends with us? That in the atonement, not only
does He take away sin, the offending thing, but He chooses to make
friends with us. Jesus Christ called His disciples,
my friends. It is a pleasure to have a friend. Oh my goodness. I remember in
a movie one time, a guy said something about another guy,
he's my friend, and another guy says, well I have lots of them,
and he says, I don't. I don't have many friends. To have a
friend. To have a friend in this world.
I've got lots of friends. I have some good friends and
I have some really great friends and they're all in the church.
They're my brothers and sisters in Christ. They're my family.
To have a friend. And then to hear God. You're
my friend. You're my friend in Christ. There's
a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. The results of
this atonement, this person brought this ox, or this lamb, or this
turtle dove, and said, I am out of sorts, I've been out of sorts
with God, and He's revealed that to me, and He's saved me by His
grace, and I just want to show you a picture of it. leaned heavily
on the head of this oxen, and oh, all that he had, as we find
with Leviticus 16, on that account of the scapegoat, the priest
confessed the sins of Israel, and then, there had to be two
goats because it's really hard, to raise that goat that's killed
to life. God didn't practice that. He
didn't want to practice that. He could have done that, but
he didn't want us to have that symbol. He wanted us to recognize
that there's only one that is going to raise for the dead on
our purpose. So one goat is slaughtered, another goat confessed over. Now he really didn't get all
those sins. It's a picture. But all the sins of all of God's
people were placed on Jesus Christ. And then it says, by the hands
of a fit man, take him out in the desert. Leave him. Fix it
so he can't get back. You get back into camp, and it
says, wash yourself. All that pictures Christ, the
goat taking out our sin, the fit man coming back. That's Christ. All of that's Christ. Pictures
of Christ. What He did. Took our sins as
far as the east is from the west. Buried them in the deepest sea.
Put them in such a place that nobody can find them because
they're paid for in full. All the problem has been taken
care of. And that's why we can have peace with God. That's why
we trust Him as our righteousness. That's when we sin. We have an
advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. We
have all of these things given to us as a result of the atonement. Jesus Christ is our atonement.
He has fulfilled all that was required, requested, and placed
upon Him, and in so doing, He secured every one of His sheep. They're in a safe place, hung
on a safe nail. The illustrations. The first
place in all the Bible that this word atonement is used, it is
used in such a peculiar way And I would that you turn with me
to the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis. First time
this particular word is used. And you wonder, okay, hmm. Genesis chapter 6, Noah and the
Ark. First time this word atonement
is used, but it's been translated so differently. But the meaning
is so significant. It doesn't say atonement. Notice
with me in Genesis 6 and verse 4. Genesis 6 and verse 14. God said unto Noah, verse 13,
the end of all flesh has come before me. Why? There's a variance. They are at odds. For the earth is filled with
violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the
earth. He did not ever say, oh, the
devil is running the world. We have a problem. The problem
is the heart of man. deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked. That word desperately means incurably
wicked. We cannot cure it. No doctor
can cure it. No psychiatrist can cure it.
No psychologist can cure it. No religious person can cure
it. It takes God to cure it. So there
was a problem. There was a variance. Now, it
says here, verse 14, Make thee an ark of
gopher wood. room shalt thou make in the ark,
and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch." Now, did
you catch the word that means atonement there? The word for
atonement in that verse of Scripture? Boy, I read that many times.
I'm thankful for a man by the name of Strong who wrote a concordance
and I looked up this and found out, oh my goodness, I've been
missing this. The word in this verse of scripture that is the
same word in Leviticus chapter 1 and verse 4 which is translated
atonement is the word pitch. Now I know what pitch is. I've
fallen pine trees before that were old and they had all kinds
of pitch in them and you got it all over your hands before
you know it's all over your elbows and it's all over your clothes
and it's sticky. Well, that's not quite the pitch that is here.
This is kind of an oil material. But what does pitch have to do
with the atonement? And it says to pitch it within
and without. Well, it is atonement that keeps out
the waters of judgment and makes the believer's position in Christ
safe. That pitch faced every bit of
the turmoil of this earth and water when it was out on that
sea. There was no rudder in it. It
was guided by the Lord. There was only one window and
that was up. There was only one door and it was closed by God.
This is a picture of Christ. And this pitch that is on the
outside and on the inside to make it watertight faced all
of the horrificness of that turmoil of that great flood. just like
Christ faced the turmoil of our sin. And we're safe in the ark
because the atonement takes away sin and gives us peace. We don't run to the law, we run
to Christ. We don't run to our righteousness, we run to Christ.
No, it was a picture of those, the church held in the bosom
of Jesus Christ. The ark is a representation of
Him. He is in the very bosom of the
Son when we have had atonement made for us. And He made atonement
only for His people. It is a travesty. It is so wrong. to have preachers say that the
atonement is universal, which means that the issue is settled,
there's no longer any argument, and sin is put away, and then
say that a whole bunch of people that are in that boat are put
in hell. It is so illogical, but did you
know what? Our heart by nature is illogical. It does not logically look at
things. We are so illogical, so skewed,
that we'll say, oh, that sounds good to me. And then once the
Lord saves you, you say, that's not true. Only atonement is made
for those that He saves. Only for those, we just summed
up this, those who believe. And He supplies the belief. Those
who have faith, and He has supplied the faith. So, the atonement. To have sin taken away, the problem
taken away, and to be at friendship with God as a result of it is
only given to the church. And the church says, thank you,
Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Well, let's pray. Gracious Father, We bow in your
divine presence, realizing that we are weak and needy creatures. In fact, as the scriptures share,
we're worms. We're vile. We are at variance
with Almighty God. We are angry with Almighty God. We constantly say by nature,
that's not fair. And yet, once you save us, we
don't want fair. We want grace. We don't want
what we deserve. We want Christ. We're thankful,
Lord, for the great, wonderful blessings of Jesus Christ and
His work on the cross and His presentation of His Holy Blood
on the behalf of the Church so that He could say, You are my
friends. We thank you, Lord, for the privilege
to go to other places and meet people without ever knowing them,
never meeting them before, but in this one thing, rejoice in
Christ and feel like we've known them all our life. We're thankful,
Lord, to be with this body of Christ here, this part of the
vineyard, this church here in Alamont, to fellowship with these
people, to fellowship with their pastor and his wife. to enjoy
the rich blessings of Christ. Lord, we're just thankful for
your providence that allowed us to hear the gospel. We're
thankful that you move us where it will be or you bring a preacher
to where we need. We ask your blessing on our fellowship
to follow, that you would be glorified in all that's said
and done. And it's in Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.