Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin.
And let's all stand together, we'll sing that hymn that you'll
find on the back of the bulletin. We have thy promise, gracious
Lord. Oh, then fulfill thy precious
word. Thou wilt be where thy people
meet to make our joyfulness complete. We ask thy gracious presence
here, From worldly thoughts, O keep us clear, And set our
hearts on things above, With sweet enjoyment of thy love. We ask from our great living
head, give us thy Holy Spirit's aid, while we engage in prayer
and praise, to be supplied with every grace. "'Tis Thine alone, Almighty Lord,
to speak the soul-reviving Word. "'Tis Thine to give the hearing
ear. "'Tis Thine to drive away all
fear.'" Please be seated. If the Lord answers that prayer,
we will have worshiped. That's a wonderful hymn. Good
morning. We're going to be in Leviticus
chapter 16, the first hour this morning. If you'd like to turn
with me there in your Bibles, Leviticus chapter 16. It's good to have Tricia's mom
with us this week from Pensacola, Maxine. I want us to pray together before
we begin. And Mary Ann Salzberg has some
broken ribs, cracked ribs, and she's having some pain and not
able to be here. So let's pray for Mary Ann. Ask the Lord's blessings on our
time together. Let's let's bow together. Our gracious and glorious Heavenly
Father. We are thankful. That we can
call you our father come before thy throne of grace as thy children.
No Lord that you. You pity those. As a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Lord, we. We would fear coming into thy
presence. Apart from having thy dear son
as our substitute. Our advocate. Our sin bearer. All our righteousness before
the. The Lord, what hope and what encouragement we have in
knowing that. With Christ as our Savior. That as he is, so
are we. And as you loved him, so you
love us. Lord, we do pray as we just saying
that you would send your Holy Spirit in power. We pray that
you would. Open the eyes of our understanding.
We pray that you would. Give to us the gift of faith.
Enable us to set our affections on things above to rest our hope.
And I dear son, Pray that you would reveal him to us and cause
us to rejoice and rest in him and in his finished work of redemption. We pray for Mary Ann. We ask,
Lord, for your hand of healing to be upon her and to strengthen
her as she recovers and bring her back to fellowship and worship
with us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. All right, you have your Bibles
open to Leviticus chapter 16. Leviticus chapter 16. And if
you'd like to find Hebrews chapter 9 and mark that as well, because
Hebrews chapter 9 is the New Testament passage that gives
us the full meaning of Leviticus chapter 16. Christ, our scapegoat. Christ our scapegoat. The Old Testament is full of
types and pictures of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what
it is that he accomplished on Calvary's cross. No picture is
more glorious or more clear than that one we find here in Leviticus
chapter 16 where Aaron is instructed to lay his hands on the head
of the scapegoat and transfer the sins of Israel to this animal
and then take that animal out into the wilderness by a, the
scripture says, a fit man and to release him and what a What
a picture of God, our Heavenly Father, laying his hands on the
head of his son, transferring the sins of his people to Christ,
and then taking Christ, the fit man, out into the wilderness,
and putting our sins into the wilderness of forgetfulness.
The scripture says in Psalm 103, he has separated our sins from
us as far as the East is from the West and he remembers them
no more. He's buried them in the depths of the sea. He's covered
them by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's our hope. There's our hope and it's all
in Christ. It's all in Christ. I got a text this morning from
a man who said, He said, have you reflected back on the past
year to determine who it is you've been helpful to? And I just sent him back a text from
Luke chapter 7, 17. I can't remember now which, the
one about the unprofitable servant. But I have reflected on the fit
man and what a prophet he has been. both P-R-O-P-H-E-T and
P-R-O-F-I-T. He has been a prophet to his
people by being the prophet sent of God, bringing himself as the
word of God. And Leviticus chapter 16 gives
us a glorious picture of that. We'll begin in verse one, and
the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of
Aaron when they offered before the Lord and died. Now that's all Leviticus 16 tells
us, so turn back with me a few pages to Leviticus chapter 10,
and let's find out what happened to the two sons of Aaron. Leviticus chapter 10 at verse
1, and Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron took either of them
his censer and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered
strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from
the Lord and devoured them And they died before the Lord. Now Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's
sons, were serving in the tabernacle as priests. And they came to the conclusion
that they could approach God any way they wanted. They did
not have to subscribe to the very particular instructions
that God gave to Moses as to how One was to enter into the
presence of the Holy God. And all it says that they offered
strange fire, which just simply means that it was an offering
that was not prescribed by God. Now, there's still plenty of
folks that are attempting to come into the presence of God
with strange fire. They think that their faith will
recommend them to God. They think that their good works
will recommend them to God. They come to the conclusion that
somehow their knowledge will recommend them to God and it's
all strange fire. For in fact, and in truth, there's
only one thing that recommends us to God. There's only one ground
on which we can stand in the presence of a holy God, and that's
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man can come to the Father but by me. The fire
of God's wrath that fell from heaven on Calvary's cross is
the only fire that God approves. Everything else is a strange
fire. And anything else that we attempt to offer God for our
access into his presence will result in the same thing that
happened to Nadab and Abihu. So back with me to Leviticus
chapter 16. Any, any, any attempt to come
into the presence of God on any grounds other than the shed blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ is strange fire. And the Lord spake unto Moses
after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they offered before
the Lord and died. And the Lord said unto Moses,
speak unto Aaron thy brother that he come not at all times
into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which
is upon the ark, that he die not. For I will appear in the
cloud upon the mercy seat. Moses, you make sure that Aaron
knows that he can't come into this holy place just anytime
he wants to. He can only come. He can only
come at a prescribed time in a very specifically prescribed
way. And if he refuses or fails, what
happened to his sons will happen to him. Thus shall Aaron come into the
holy place. This is how he will come in.
Now you know where that holy place is. That was the holy of
holies. That was where the Ark of the
Covenant was. That's where the mercy seat,
that hammered out plate of gold on top of the Ark of the Covenant
where Aaron was to put the blood of the sacrificial lamb once
a year on the Day of Atonement. And God said to Moses, here,
here I will meet with you. Nowhere else. This is the only
place that you can meet God is at the mercy seat where the blood
is placed for the atonement of our sins. Now that English word
atonement is a conjunction, you can just take the word apart,
at-one-ment. That's what that word means,
at-one-ment. And it means to have a covering
We have union with the Lord Jesus Christ, so that as he is, so
are we. Everything that he did, we did
in him. So that we have our righteousness,
not in our works, but in his. It was his life, it was his death,
it was his resurrection. We look to Christ for everything. for our acceptance before God.
Anything else is strange fire. Anything else will be strange
fire. So Lord tells Aaron, same thing's gonna happen to you.
You know, people, God, our God's a just God. It's a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of an angry God. We're not to, this
is serious stuff. This is, This is eternal life,
eternal death. The Lord's not playing games
with us. He's saying to Aaron, you come
exactly like I tell you to come, and the way I tell you to come,
and when I tell you to come, or I'll kill you. Now that's God's word. And the Lord's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He hasn't changed. Lord, I want
to know. I want to know what your prescription
is for coming into thy presence, lest I attempt to approach you
with some sort of strange fire. And this passage tells us, God
tells us, look, look what he says. Look at the verse four.
All right. Verse three, thus shall Aaron
come into the holy place with a young Bullock for a sin offering
and a ram for a burn offering. And he shall put on the holy
linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh,
and shall be girded with linen girdle, and with a linen miter
shall he be attired. These are holy garments, therefore
shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. Now Aaron
was a man who had to atone for his own sins, but here he represents
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And all this linen is the robe
of righteousness. It's the perfection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so he comes in as our high
priest. You see, when God said to Abraham,
or when Abraham said to Isaac, remember when they were going
up on the mountain to make the sacrifice? And Isaac said to his father,
father, here's fire and here is wood, but where is the sacrifice
for the burnt offering? And what did the Lord say? I
mean, what did Abraham say to his son? I'm sorry. What did
Abraham say to him? God will provide himself a sacrifice. Now, three things are to be understood
by that. God will do the providing. God will provide himself and
God will provide himself to himself. The sacrifice will be provided.
And so here's what we've had Aaron as the priest and we have
Aaron as the blood. We have, we have the blood sacrifice,
Aaron as Christ, as our high priest on the blood sacrifice,
as a picture of the atoning work of Christ on Calvary's cross. Verse five. And he shall take
of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats
for a sin offering and one ram for a burn offering. And Aaron
shall offer his bullock for the sin offering which is for himself
and make an atonement for himself and for his house. And he shall
take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon
the two goats And one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for
the scapegoat. And Aaron, in other words, he
was to cast lots. And God would determine the outcome
of the lots, which goats would be sacrificed and killed, and
which goat would become the scapegoat. Now, in case you're concerned,
all of these animals represent Christ. The scapegoat represents
Christ. The goat that's put to death
represents Christ. The bullock represents Christ.
Aaron represents Christ. The blood sacrifice is Christ.
The mercy seat is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is all and in
all. And what the Lord is saying to
us is don't come into my presence on any other basis than my son. He's the one in whom I am well
pleased. And outside of him, I'm not pleased
with you. I'm not pleased with you. In Him, in Him, I'm as pleased
with you as I am with Him. I see Him and I accept you just
as I do Him. But outside of Him, you see,
Christ is everything. You're either in Christ or you're
not in Christ. You're either in Christ or you're out of Christ.
You're either trusting Christ for all of your righteousness
before God Or you're looking to something outside of Christ
and you're offering strange fire. Where were we? Verse 9, verse
9, and Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot
fell and offer him for a sin offering. So he's to kill the
goat as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot
fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the
Lord to make an atonement with him and to let him go for a scapegoat
in the wilderness. And Aaron shall bring the bullock
of the sin offering, which is for himself. And he shall make
an atonement for himself and for his house and shall kill
the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself. Now here's
where Aaron differs from the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord didn't
have to offer a sacrifice for himself. He offered himself as
a sacrifice for his people. But Aaron is a sinner. Aaron
can't come into the presence of God without a blood sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. God's requiring a blood sacrifice. So in order for Aaron to serve
as the priest of Israel, he had to atone first for his own sins. And he shall take a censer full
of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord.
and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small and bring it within
the veil. Now in another place, the Lord
gives to Moses very specific instructions as to what was to
be in this incense. And it had to be put together
by that formula. Couldn't be changed. And what
does this incense represent? What does the smoke represent?
It's prayers. It's the prayers of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's interceding for us as God. Yeah. People think, well, you
know, if I pray, if I pray hard enough and long enough and sincere
enough, God will bless me. True prayer done in the spirit
is the blessing. It is the blessing. Otherwise,
you're bringing strange fire. If you think God's going to bless
you because of your prayers, because of the sincerity of your
prayers, or the fervency of your prayers, or the length of your
prayers, then you're bringing strange fire. It's the prayers of the Lord
Jesus Christ that save us. What was the difference between
Peter and Judas on the night before the crucifixion? Judas
was the son of perdition. He was ordained of God to be judged by God. Peter did the
same thing Judas did. Matter of fact, Peter's denial
of Christ was so heinous and blatant. And the Lord told him,
he said, before the cock crows, you're gonna deny me three times.
With cursing, he denied it. But Peter, be of good cheer. I have prayed for you. I have
prayed for you. And when you are converted, teach
your brethren. Now that word converted doesn't
mean when you get saved. When was Peter converted? When was he changed in the regard
that the Lord was speaking? I'll tell you when it was. Right
after he denied the Lord. The scripture says the Lord came
out of Pilate's praetorium, having been scourged with the crown
of thorns and blood on his face. Well, can only imagine. And the
scripture says he looked at Peter. That's when he was converted.
That's when his heart was changed. He went out and wept bitterly. Did the Lord look at him with,
I told you so. Did the Lord look at him with
disgust or with disappointment? No, the Lord looked at him with
compassion and Peter's heart was broken. And that's the only thing that's
going to break your heart, my heart. God looks at us with compassion.
Outside of me, your prayers are not acceptable. Outside of me,
your works are not worthy. Outside of me, every fire you,
you offer to God is a strange fire. I'm the one that saves. So that was the censor. And Aaron
was to take this incense. the prayers of the Lord Jesus
Christ and put them on the fire, the altar of fire, the picture
of the wrath of God upon the sacrifice, upon Christ, and the
smoke went up. And when God saw the smoke, God
came down and met with him. And so it is. Father, I pray
not for the world. John chapter 17, I pray for them,
which thou has given me out of the world. Reach on chapter 17.
What a glorious priestly prayer the Lord Jesus offers to the
father for his people. That was not a strange. That's
the only fire. That's not strange fire before God. Everything else
is strange fire. Verse 14, and he shall take the
blood of the bullock and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy
seat eastward before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle the blood
with his finger seven times. Now what's the number for man
in the scriptures? Six. Man was created on the sixth
day. And, uh, we're, we're, we see
the symbol of man in the book of revelation as six, six, six.
What's the number for God? Seven. What happened on the seventh
day? We're to cease Hebrew chapter
four. We're to cease from our labors as he ceased from his. And he rested on the seventh
day because the work was finished. And there's the seven of Aaron
wants to take the blood of the sacrifice and dip his fingers
in it and put it on the mercy seat seven times. This is not man's work. This
is God's work. This is perfect. This is complete.
This is finished work. Then shall he kill the goat of
the sin offering. that is for the people, and bring
his blood within the veil, and do with the blood as he did with
the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat,
and before the mercy seat. Verse 16, and he shall make an
atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of
the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all
their sins, and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation
that remaineth among them in the midst of the uncleanness.
In other words, Aaron had to put blood on all the instruments
in the tabernacle in order to make them clean. Hebrews chapter
9 explains that. Now what does that mean? Well, on the miter, Aaron's headset,
which was made of linen, it said, holiness unto the Lord. For Aaron,
the scripture says, had to bear the iniquity of the holy things. You've heard me say this before.
I'm just going to say it again. It's so profound. It's what scripture
teaches. If God judges me for what I'm
doing right now, I'll go to hell for it. And if God judges you
for what you're doing right now, in other words, there's enough
sin in what you're doing and what I'm doing right now for
us to go to hell for it and our worship, our preaching, our worship,
our singing, our hearing, our prayers have to be sprinkled
with the blood of Christ. I love what Jonathan Edwards
said, the tears of repentance have to be washed in the blood
of Christ to be acceptable to God. Is that clear enough? You see, we can't do anything
to make ourselves acceptable to God. That's strange fire. And that's the picture here. Aaron had to take the blood and
put it on the altar. We're going to see he's going
to put it on the horns. Verse 17, and there shall be
no man in the tabernacle of the congregation where he goeth in
to make an atonement in the holy place until he come out and have
made an atonement for himself and for his household and for
all the congregation of Israel. And he shall go out unto the
altar that is before the Lord and make an atonement for it
And shall take of the blood of the bullock and of the blood
of the goat and put it upon the horns of the altar roundabout
the horns of the altar. They were a picture of the power
of God, the strength of Christ. They had to have blood put on
it. Everything had to be sprinkled with the blood of this atoning
sacrifice. And so it is with you and I,
everything we do has to be washed in the blood of Christ. Otherwise,
it's strange fire and we'll end up like Nadab and Abihu. Verse 19, and he shall sprinkle
of the blood upon it with his fingers seven times and cleanse
it and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. It's
the only thing that's going to make it holy. The only thing
that's going to make this worship holy is the blood of the sacrifice. And when he had made an end of
the reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation
and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. In other words,
after everything's covered with blood, everything's covered with
blood, now it's time to take the scapegoat. And Aaron shall lay both his
hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him all
the iniquity of the children of Israel. Now, how's Aaron gonna
do that? How's Aaron gonna possibly be
conscious of all the sins that have been committed in all of
Israel? Well, the answer to that question
is the same as for you and me. There's not enough time in eternity
for us to be able to list all of our sins and we don't know
what they are anyway. So what do we do? What do we
do? Lord, everything that I am outside
of Christ is sin. Everything that falls short of
the glory of God. What doesn't fall short of the
glory of God? Christ. Christ, Jesus, the Lord, is the
only one that measures up to the glory of God. Everything
else falls short of his glory. Which means everything I have
to offer is nothing but sin. So to confess all of our iniquity
before the Lord is just to take sides with God against ourselves
and say, Lord, everything about me is sinful. I don't have any
righteousness. I don't have anything to offer
you. I'm completely dependent upon Christ for all my righteousness
before thee." And that's what Aaron did. Aaron puts his hands
on the head of the scapegoat and Aaron confesses to God that
everything about Israel is sinful. And he transfers. the sins, symbolically
he transfers the sins of Israel to this scapegoat. Halfway through verse 21, and
all their transgressions in all their sins putting them upon
the head of the goat and shall send him away by the hand of
a fit man onto the wilderness. The fit man's Christ too. The
scapegoat's Christ too. The altar's Christ too. It's
all Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, the only
man fit. He's the only man fit before
God. The only one able to carry our sins out into the wilderness
of forgetfulness and separate them from the sight of God is
the Lord Jesus Christ as our scapegoat, as our fit man. No
other way. Everything else is strange fire.
Verse 22, and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities
unto the land not inhabited and shall let go the goat in the
wilderness. Scripture says the Lord Jesus
Christ bore all the sins of all of God's people in his body upon
the tree and he put them away. away, completely away by the
sacrifice of himself once and for all. Well, time restraints keep us
from going too deeply into Hebrews 9, but turn with me quickly to
Hebrews 9. And we'll skip down to verse
9. The Lord brings up this very Old Testament picture and he
says, verse 9, which was a figure for the time then present in
which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not
make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to conscience.
In other words, all the blood of bulls and goats and all these
sacrifices in and of themselves did not make us perfect. The only way you and I are going
to stand in the presence of a holy God is to be perfect. That's
right. God requires absolute perfection. And not perfection according
to our standard, perfection according to God's standard. Pure holiness. How can it be? Well, I'm going
to have to be found in Christ. I'm going to have to cast my
care upon Him. I'm going to have to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and rest my hope in Him. For these
things stood only, verse 10, in meats and drinks and divers
washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time
of reformation. That's the only time you're going
to find the word reformation in the Bible. And to call what
happened in the 15th, 16th century reformation is just a misnomer.
It wasn't nothing. You don't reform error. God's
talking about reforming that old covenant to the new. The
Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling all those pictures and types
that were made. But Christ, until the time of
Reformation, when was the time of Reformation? It was the time
that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. God, who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake unto our fathers by the prophets
in times past, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the
Reformation. But Christ, being come a high
priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of bulls and goats, but by his own blood
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
enter into the holy play. What happened when he bowed his
mighty head on Calvary's cross and said it is finished? That
veil was rent from top to bottom. Before that, God said, you come
into this tabernacle without the prescribed means and at the
prescribed time and you'll die. And now he opens it up. Come, the means have been paid. Eternal redemption has been secured. The sacrifice has been made. Please take notice of the verb
tense in the last part of verse 12. Having obtained. Eternal redemption. Eternal redemption. Again, when
God speaks of eternal, he's not speaking of something that starts
now and lasts forever. He's talking about something that never had
a beginning, never had an end. So this redemptive work accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross was ordained of God in
eternity. He's the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. God never had a new thought.
He never changed his mind. He never learned anything. Everything
happened exactly as he purposed it. Christ accomplished. He's our scapegoat. He's our
blood sacrifice. He's our fit man. He's the mercy
seat. He's our only means of acceptance
before God. Christ is all, amen, amen. All right, let's take a break.