Leviticus chapter 16, we're going
to look at the offerings now, picturing Christ Jesus the Lord,
the offerings made on the Day of Atonement. We're still dealing
with the Day of Atonement. Verse 5 says, And he, that is
the high priest, shall take of the congregation of the children
of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering and one ram
for a burnt offering. These represent the one offering
of Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, the first thing we see is
the offering was chosen and ordained by God. Look at verse 7. And
he shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. He's bringing
them before the Lord. And Aaron shall cast lots upon
the two goats, one lot for the Lord, the other lot for the scapegoat."
He took two things, one lot said for the Lord, one lot said for
the scapegoat. And he threw those into a bowl
and they reached in and pulled them out to see which one of
these goats would be the scapegoat and which one would be the live
goat. Verse 9, And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the
Lord's lot fell, and offer him for 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 into the wilderness. Now, how is this
chosen of God and ordained of God? Because Scripture tells
us the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof
is of the Lord." In other words, Christ Jesus, just like these
lambs were each chosen, Christ Jesus was chosen of God and everything
that was ordained to be done concerning Christ, just as everything
was ordained by God to be done with those goats and that burnt
offering, was all ordained of God, and it all came to pass
exactly as God purposed for it to come to pass. The Scripture
says Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. The Scriptures tell us that all
those men that raised up against God's anointed, the one that
He anointed, the one that he ordained to bring forth life
for his people. They did exactly what God determined
before to be done. Everything that was determined
before to be done. That comforts me Because when
I see the sovereign will of God in the crucifixion of His own
Son, the laying down of His own life for the sin of His people,
when I see how it was all, He was chosen, everything was ordained,
everything came to pass exactly according to God's purpose, that
lets me know that in every other thing, in God's providence, He'll
work it for my good. That accomplished my redemption.
What Christ did accomplished my salvation. He'll work every
other providence for my good. That's what Paul meant in Romans
when he said, If He spared not His only begotten Son, but delivered
Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us
all things? Now, here's the second thing.
The goat which was slain. Let's look at this goat. First
of all, this goat was slain and he died as a substitute in the
place of these guilty sinners. Verse 15, Leviticus 16, verse
15. It says, Then he shall kill the
goat of the sin offering that is for the people. The people
had sinned and they deserve to die. The wages of sin, you know
what you do when you work? You earn a wage. All our working,
all our striving, everything we accomplish, the wages of sin
is death. The gift, the free gift of God,
the gift is eternal life by Jesus Christ. What we earn by our wages
is death. That's what the law demands,
death. The soul that sinneth, it must
die. But instead of the people dying,
this sin offering died in their place. It died in their room
instead. That is substitution. You hear me quote this, I can't
preach a message without quoting this, and it's Galatians 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. The curse of the law was the
wages of sin is death. You send in Adam, you gotta die.
You were born in this world a sinner and must die under the wrath
of God. But Christ hath redeemed his
people from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. He was made a curse for us. For it's written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on the tree. Now, Christ died for the people. This lamb died in the place for
the people. Now, you'll hear men say this.
You'll hear men say, well, there is some sense in which Christ
died for all men. There is absolutely no sense
in which this lamb, there that Aaron was commanded to bring,
there is no sense whatsoever in which that lamb was slain
for Cain, or for Amalek, or for any of the heathens in the nations
round about. There would be strangers, God
would say, there would be strangers brought in. That's saying God
had to elect people from among those heathen nations as well.
But right here we see this lamb was slain for a particular people. It died in their room instead.
So if he died in their room instead, they don't owe those wages anymore.
They've been paid. That death's been paid by Christ.
And those for whom he died don't owe that debt anymore. They might
not know it yet, but they will. God will bring them into the
understanding of what Christ accomplished. But they don't
owe it. They're freed from it. Alright,
then here's the second thing we see in the same verse. and
he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the
people and bring his blood within the veil. Now you remember the
holiest of holies, that's where he was going within that veil,
where he went there alone by himself. That holiest of holies
represents heaven itself, the presence of God Almighty. The
blood of that slain goat was taken there and he said this,
look, bring his blood within the veil and do with that blood
as he did with the blood of the bullock and sprinkle it upon
the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. Look back up at verse
14. This is what he did with the blood of the bullock. He
shall take of the blood of the bullock and sprinkle it with
his finger upon the mercy seat eastward. There may be some significance
to that. You remember when Adam and Eve
were cast out of the garden? They were cast out eastward out
of the garden. Reconciliations being made for
God's people to bring them back into God's presence. And this
blood is sprinkled eastward in that direction in which they
were cast out. And it should be before the mercy
seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. That's the number of perfection. Christ satisfied. His blood, He entered into the
holiest of holies, into heaven itself, into the presence of
God, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with His own blood.
And He has obtained eternal redemption for us. It is a perfect sacrifice. God is perfectly satisfied toward
everyone for whom Christ died. If he did die in some sense for
all men, then in every sense all men must be saved because
God will by no means punish the innocent. And those for whom
Christ died are innocent. They've been justified. So we
know that this was for that people, but it was a perfect sacrifice. He hath redeemed His people from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us. He hath redeemed
us. He hath redeemed us. He entered
in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption. He victoriously accomplished
it. and His blood made effectual
atonement in the presence of God. But it did something else.
He also purges our conscience in this sinful body that we dwell
in. He purges the conscience, creates
us anew, purges the conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. Now watch this, 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 and all their sins. That was in the holiest
of holies, in the presence of God. Your sin and my sin comes
up to God. He knows it. It comes up to him
and God purged his people in the very presence of God. But
now look what also he did. And so shall he do for the tabernacle
of the congregation that remaineth among them in the midst of their
uncleanness. The holy place represented heaven
itself. It represented God's presence.
But the tabernacle of the congregation represents the tabernacle in
which God's priests serve God. This is the place they would
come in to offer offerings and sacrifices unto God. The priests,
every sinner born of the Spirit of God is made a priest unto
God to offer up spiritual sacrifices accepted by God through Christ. That tabernacle, this tabernacle
had to be cleansed in order for us to come into an understanding
of this Gospel, in order for us to be granted repentance and
faith so that we can lay hold of these precious promises of
our Lord, in order for us to be grown in grace, in order for
God to receive us and accept us in all that we do. These tabernacles
had to be purged. Scripture says, Know ye not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? which is in you,
which you have of God, and you're not your own. He says, you are
the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be My people. Now let me show you Hebrews 9.12.
We've looked at this a lot in studying this, but here we see
both of these things. Entered into the presence of
God purging and entered into the sinner through the Spirit
and purging the tabernacle, purging the sinner himself. We see both
of these right here in Hebrews 9.12-14. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood. Christ Jesus, by His own blood,
He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. There's that picture of the high
priest going into the holiest of holies, sprinkling that blood
seven times, and making full, complete satisfaction with God. But now watch this. For if the
blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling
the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, now we've
turned to the sinner for whom this was done. How much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God? You see, that blood was carried
into the Holy of Holies in the presence of God, and that blood
is brought into the center for whom He died and the tabernacle,
the temple of the Lord in whom the Spirit of God dwells. These
bodies of death are sprinkled. This body is sprinkled from an
evil conscience. Our minds are so that we serve
Him. And then look here at the next thing. Christ's blood cleanses
even the worship and prayers and thanksgiving of His people.
What we're doing right here, right now, has to be cleansed
by Christ. Look at verse 18. And He shall
go out unto the altar that is before the Lord. This is the
altar where Thank offerings were offered, where incense was offered.
This out into the altar 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 round about. And he shall sprinkle
of the blood upon it with his finger seven times. That number
of perfection. And cleanse it. And look at that
next word. And hallow it. You know what
that means? Make it holy. Make it holy. It's got to be holy to be accepted
of God. All the work that Christ did
is the work. We call this worshipping God.
He worshipped God. He's the perfection of our worship.
We're given faith to believe Him. He faithfully trusted His
Father. Our faith lays hold of His fidelity,
His faithfulness. We are sanctified, separated,
made holy for God's use, and yet in these bodies we're full
of sin. Christ knew no sin. He is the
holy, perfect will of God, fully fulfilled in a person, in a man,
Christ Jesus the Lord. So everything that we do here,
as imperfect as it is, and as unholy as it may be, because
it's mixed with sin in everything that we do, It's accepted of
God because the blood of Christ has made it absolutely, perfectly
holy. The same as we are in the presence
of God in the holiest of holies, we are in the tabernacle that
He's made holy, and everything that we do in the worship of
our God is holy. And it's all by Christ Jesus
the altar, Christ Jesus the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus through
whose blood we're washed. Every bit of it. Alright? That's what, you know the scripture
that's hit me, where the scripture that says, he that sanctifies,
that's what this hallow means, to be sanctified. It means to
be sanctified. You've got to be made a saint,
or you can't come into God's presence. And every believer
is a saint. Perfectly holy and God will hear
him receive him accept him his prayers come up through the blood
of Christ He'll receive him. Holy and perfect and accepted
and The scripture says he that sanctified which is Christ Hebrews
2 says is he that sanctified and they that are sanctified
Are all of one for which cause he's not ashamed to call them
his brethren That's exactly what Romans 12 is teaching us. The
oneness that the believer is in Christ and with one another
in Christ. That's how you and you and you
and you can present your bodies, all these bodies, one living
sacrifice unto God. It's by all of us coming in that
one offering, in Christ Jesus, that one offering that sanctifies
and makes holy His people. Do you understand that? If you
start to understand something of how one Christ makes, God
has made His people with Him in Christ, then you start to
understand how one you are with your brethren. This is what the
love of God is all about. Art, you love Cheryl because
you and her are one. You're one flesh. You left your
father and your mother and you cleaved with her and you two
became one flesh. And you're one flesh. That's
why you love her. When you learn that when the
love of God is imparted into the heart of a believer, we begin
to understand how that I'm one with her, I'm one with Him, I'm
one with her, I'm one with Him, just as much as I'm one with
God, and it's all in Christ Jesus. This is how we're made one, holy,
perfect union. All right. Let's stop right there. We'll
come back here and we'll pick up with the scapegoat next time
and look at him. I want to take our time through
this. So, that's the sin offering. That's what we saw about the
sin offering. He made full, perfect, complete
atonement through His blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. All right.