Turn back with me to Leviticus
chapter 29. One of the glories of the eternal
covenant in the grace of our great God is that our God says,
I will and they shall. Every time you read God saying,
I will in the scriptures, you can put right next to it, done. Every time he says shall, Every time in the scriptures
man says, I will, you can write next to it, failure, every single
time. But I want us to look. These
Israelites had been gathered there for this one particular
day, this extraordinarily significant day, a day which was to be an
everlasting statute for them. And they had witnessed the high
priest go in to make reconciliation, go into the Holy of Holies to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people. And like the Lord
Jesus Christ, he goes into the Holy of Holies and for them he
appears in the presence of God. For them he is their representative. For them he intercedes. For them
he will finally bless. He saves none but for those for
whom he intercedes. He intercedes for none but those
for whom he died. He died for none but those whom
he stands related as their Kingsman Redeemer. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ who died, yea, rather
that is risen again is even at the right hand of God who also
maketh intercession for us. And yet, after having witnessed
all that and seen that this is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
listen to how this chapter closes. Turn with me to verse 29 of Leviticus
chapter 16. And this shall be a statute forever
unto you, that in the seventh month and on the tenth day of
the month, you shall afflict your souls and do no work, whether
it be one of your own country or a stranger that sojourneth
among you. For on that day shall the priest
make an atonement for you to cleanse you, that you may be
clean from all your sins before the Lord. And it shall be a Sabbath
of rest unto you, and you shall afflict your souls by a statute
forever. It's extraordinary, isn't it?
All of their sins are gone and taken away and the high priest
has come out having shown that the blood has been accepted on
the mercy seat and the incense has been accepted and the sin
offering has been accepted and yet the promise of God is as
a result of all that, you shall afflict your souls. and do no work at all. It's a Sabbath of rest for you,
and it's to be a day of rejoicing. So how do you fit those two things
together? All of this has been a marvelous work where God has
done all of the work alone, and all of the people have sat there
and watched the high priest go in and out, in and out, with
blood, with blood, with more blood, and they've taken the
bodies and burnt them outside the camp, and the scapegoat has
gone, and then you shall afflict your souls. I wanted us to look
at what that was and what it is to rest. The sins of the Lord's
people are removed in one day. The Lord Jesus Christ made a
promise He says, and I'll read some scriptures for you and then
we'll look more closely, I just want us to get a picture of what
it is for us to afflict our souls and how incredibly important
and how extraordinarily significant it is. He says, speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ in Zechariah chapter 12, he says, I will pour out
upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
a spirit of grace and supplications and they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced. When God pours out his spirit,
They then shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they
shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be
in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness at the
firstborn. The Lord began his ministry in
Matthew 5 saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are
they that mourn. See, the blessing is in being
poor in spirit. The blessing is in the mourning.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. The blessing is in the hunger,
the blessing is in the poverty, the blessing is in the mourning,
isn't it? And God fills what he makes empty. Blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure at
heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. The most wonderful
example that comes to mind immediately is in Acts chapter 2. You might
recall that these people had The work of the Lord Jesus Christ
had been done in Jerusalem. The work of the Holy Spirit in
revealing the wondrous works of God had been revealed in Jerusalem
this day. And Peter gets up and preaches
on the Day of Pentecost and it's an extraordinary sermon, isn't
it? Because it's just all Old Testament. It's just pictures
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. It speaks of what
they have done. Their wicked hands, him being
delivered by the, verse 23, him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and full knowledge of God, have you taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. And God has raised him up again
and he speaks of the Old Testament testimony of David, that this
Christ was going to rise from the dead. Verse 31, He seeing
this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither did his flesh seek corruption. This
Jesus hath God raised up, of whom whereof we are all witnesses,
therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. He has shed
forth this. He shed forth the Holy Spirit,
he shed forth the preaching of Christ and him crucified, Christ
and him risen, Christ and him glorified. which you now see
and hear, for David is not ascended into heavens, but he saith himself,
the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I
make thine foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom
you crucified, both Lord and Christ. The scapegoat and the
bulwark and the slain animals represented the sin of all the
people and the punishment due that sin. Now, verse 37, now
when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. What is the result of God sending
His Spirit and sending His Gospel and sending the declaration of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Not hallelujah how wonderful
I am, not hallelujah how wonderful how much God loves me and how
worthy I am. They were pricked in the heart. If you were wounded in the heart,
what's happened to you? You were dead. If you have received a blow from
God to your heart through the preaching of the gospel, you
are dead. And they said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? And Peter said unto them, repent
and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and
your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as
the Lord our God shall call. What's the result of the calling
of God? A wounded heart. They'll look on him whom they
have pierced. One of my favorite passages of
scripture is Ezekiel 36. I love the promises of God. I love the I wills and they shalls
of God Almighty. And I don't have time to look
at it all, but I trust that you will read it and read it with
delight. God says that my holy name, my
holy name, I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned
among the heathen. And then he says, that they shall
know that I, the Lord, And the Lord, saith the Lord God, when
I will be sanctified in you before their eyes, and I will take you
from among the heathen and gather you out of the countries and
bring you into your own land. Verse 25. Then having done this
gathering, this revealing of himself to his people, then I
will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean, a
promise from God. From all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you and a new heart I give you. He must be born again. A new
heart also will I give you. He'll take away that stony heart. Listen to what he goes on to
say. And a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of
flesh. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ was talking to Nicodemus
about. And he didn't have the foggiest
notion. and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them
and you shall dwell in the land that I give to your fathers and
you shall be my people and I will be your God. I will save you
from all your uncleanness and I will call for the corn and
will increase it and lay no famine upon you. I'll multiply the fruit
of the tree and increase of the field and you shall receive no
more reproach of famine among the heathen. What a wonderful
work of God in the hearts of people to remove the heart of
stone that has no feeling and no love and no capacity for responding
to God, and to put in a heart of flesh that feels and loves
and responds to God, to have His Spirit in you. Listen to
what the result of this is in verse 31. Then shall you remember your
evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe
yourselves in your own sight for your iniquity and for your
abominations. Not for your sakes, not for your
sakes do I do this, saith the Lord God. Be it known unto you,
and be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of
Israel. When God works in the hearts
of His people, He brings them to a place where they afflict
their souls, where they are aware of the fact that what they are
is nothing but sin. Only God can create a Romans
7 sinner. Until God creates someone, a
sinner is a precious thing. The Holy Spirit makes sinners
to be sinners. Only the work of God the Holy
Spirit will cause someone who is an apostle and wrote half
the New Testament to say, for the good that I would I do not,
but the evil which I would not that I do. that I do. I find then a law
that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight
in the law of God after him and man, but I see another law in
my members, a powerful force of operation in my members, warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members. What's an afflicted
soul say? a wretched man that I am. And they never get over it. Where
God works in the hearts of his people, when the natural human
pride which lives in all of Adam's children rises up and thinks
that somehow we have a right to be on the throne, Satan says
you shall be his gods. What a mercy from God to bring
us low. What a mercy from God to bring
us down. They're the people he dwells
with, doesn't he? In Isaiah 54, they're the ones
he dwells with. These are the ones he looks to.
But to this man shall I look even to him that is poor and
of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word. Isaiah chapter 66. Again and again. Isaiah 57 verse 15, Thus saith
the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy,
I dwell in a high and holy place with Him, also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit. It's a lovely passage of scripture.
with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive
the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite
ones. You'll afflict your souls, God
says, when you see atonement accomplished. There is, in looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a wonderful, wonderful realization
of who we are and what we are. We'll rejoice in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ when we know ourselves to be
sinners. And if you have one tiny little bit of righteousness,
if you can put one stitch in the robe of righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ of your own doing, all of it, I promise
you, will fall apart on the day when you meet him. God is holy. How do you get into his presence?
by being holy. Holiness is what He is, and holiness
is what He gives and does to His people. How can Christ dwell
in you? How can the Holy Spirit dwell
in you? Only if you are holy. And those
who are made holy, they afflict their souls. They come As the
publican before the temple, and he beats on his heart, Luke 18,
he says, God be merciful to me, the sinner. God be merciful to
me the sinner. I'm not looking at anyone else's
sin. I'm not able to look at any other sinner around the world.
I'm just looking at me. God be merciful to me. God be
propitious. God look upon the sacrifice of
your son on the mercy seat in heaven. And as a result of that,
be merciful to me. The other thing And that's a
cry that never finishes in the child of God. Paul finished his
ministry declaring himself to be the chief of sinners. He didn't
climb up some ladder of holiness so that he could look down on
the rest of humanity. He was the chief of sinners. The other thing is, when the
Spirit has worked and atonement has been revealed, you do no
work at all. All of your acceptance before
God has to be the work of another. The Lord Jesus Christ has to
do all of it. The Lord Jesus Christ has to
be all of my righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ... Turn
with me to 1 Corinthians 1, that verse that Coles saw. wonderfully put on the front
of the pure Bibles that we had. But he said in verse 30, but
of him, 1 Corinthians 1.30, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. When you're doing no work, you're
doing what the next verse says. According as it is written, he
that glorieth, let him in glory in the Lord. You'll afflict your souls. You'll
stop working. All the work of atonement, all
the work of justification, all the work of my righteousness
before God, all of my acceptance before God is his work alone.
And that's why this congregation sat and did nothing. It was a
Sabbath rest for them. They rested in the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll afflict your souls. It's
a promise from God that he will humble his people. He opposes the proud and gives
grace to the humble. That's what Paul could say in
2 Corinthians chapter 12. He says, when I am weak, then
am I strong. I will take pleasure in infirmities,
in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses
for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am
strong. How do we come into the presence
of God? Like a child, a needy child, a sinner needing a saviour
again and again. We do no work at all. And they
rejoiced. This day was the day when the
jubilee trumpet was to be sounded. When the Lord began his ministry
in Luke chapter four in Nazareth, he declared that this is the
acceptable day of the Lord. The acceptable year of the Lord,
it's the year of jubilee. It proclaims liberty to all the
captives. It declares a clearing of all
debt and a complete restoration of all that was lost. And that day, verse 30 of our
text, shall the priest make an atonement from you to cleanse
you that you may be clean from how many of your sins? All of your sins. All, that's
what he says. That's what God says, from all
of your sins. For on that day the priest shall
make atonement from you. And as I said earlier, that word
to cleanse is to be made pure, to be purified, to be clean. All your sins. All your sins. It shall be a Sabbath rest for
you. If you turn with me to Numbers,
Chapter 6, we'll read the High Priest's Declaration. I was reared in religion, and
it was about the only thing that was ever sung at the church that
I was reared in with my family that I ever remembered, and I'm
so thankful I remembered. They used to sing this. when
babies were Christians. So there they were singing the
Word of God and doing something which was completely contrary
to the Word of God. But it sounded really nice and
I've never forgotten. But these are the words of the
High Priest. Verse 23. Speak unto Aaron and
unto his son, saying, On this wise shall ye bless the children
of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon
the children of Israel, and I will bless them. May the Lord allow us to go from
here with his name upon us. To be named Christian is to afflict
your souls. Do no work. Rejoice, rest, and
look to the Lord Jesus Christ and don't take your eyes off
him ever. Fix your eyes upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. Fix them there. And this shall
be an everlasting statute unto you. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, as we come
to take these elements that are For us, a remembrance and a declaration
of the death and the resurrection and the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
we would look upon him who we have pierced, that we would be
enabled by your Spirit, Heavenly Father, to lay, as it were, our
hands upon the scapegoat. and to confess our sins just
to acknowledge what God says we are before you. We praise
you Heavenly Father for the glory of the finished work of your
dear and precious Son. We praise you for his presence
in heaven bearing the wounds which bore our sins away. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
for his promised presence with his people here and wherever
his name is declared in this world. We pray, Heavenly Father,
that you would grant us simply the grace that you must give
that we might eat and drink worthily. by having a simple childlike
faith and rest in the arms of our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ.
Make His blood precious to us, Heavenly Father. You alone must
send the Spirit for us to eat and drink worthily in remembrance
of Him. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
for such a glorious Saviour. We thank you so much for such
a precious Word made flesh. and these amazing promises that
we've read, which are signed and sealed in the blood of your
dear and precious son. Bless us for his sake, our father. We pray in his precious name
and for your glory. Amen.