Now if you'll turn with me to
Leviticus chapter 16, the most important and instructive
of all the typical ceremonies of the Old Testament was the
Day of Atonement. And the Day of Atonement foreshadowed
in type the sin-atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ for
God's true Israel. You'll want to mark Hebrews as
well because we'll be referencing Hebrews back and forth between
Hebrews and Leviticus. We're going to start reading
here in Leviticus 16 and read the first two verses. 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. Now, sinners find acceptance
and forgiveness with God only in the way which God himself
commands and teaches that we come to him. The word here begins,
and the Lord spake unto Moses. In order for sinners to believe
God and obey God and approach God in his way, the Lord must
speak into the heart that he has made new. The scripture says
they shall all be taught of God. All of God's children shall be
taught of God through the Spirit in the heart that he's created
and made new. That's how obedience is created,
by God teaching, by God the Father teaching his children. Aaron's
sons Nadab and Abihu attempted to come to God in their own way. They came with strange fire,
the scripture says. They composed a compound of their
own making and began to burn it and they came in and tried
to approach God with strange fire. And God killed them in
an instant. They died in an instant. God
teaches His children what He taught Moses right here. He said
to Moses, the only way to come to a holy God into His presence
This holiest of holies represents the presence of God. It represents
where God resides. And he said, I will be there
in that place over the mercy seat. The only way to come into
God's presence is to come the way God says you must come. And the way that God says you
must come is in Christ Jesus, His Son, who is the high priest
of His people, who's made atonement for His people. Aaron the high
priest is told here that he can't bring any other man with him
into this holiest of holies. He has to come alone, and he
has to come once in a year, and he has to come with blood. This
is how God appointed it. This is how God determined it.
Before Adam sinned, he actually walked and talked in unbroken
communion with God Almighty. But when he sinned, separation
occurred. God is of two pure eyes to look
upon sin. He can't have fellowship with
a sinner. He's holy. You can't come in
the presence of God as a sinner. And so, all throughout the Scriptures,
the Lord is teaching that this separation, this gulf that is
fixed between God and His people can only be bridged, there can
only be Oneness brought about, you can only be made at one with
God. That's what atonement means.
You can only be made one with God by the person and work of
Christ the Lord. Now, what does that mean for
you and me? What does that mean for us sitting
right here today? That means that we're going to
face a holy God one day. The holy God of heaven and earth.
And the only way He's going to receive sinful men and women
like you and me is in a suitable atonement that has been made. That's the only way. The only
way. God's wrath must be propitiated. He's angry with the wicked every
day. His wrath must be satisfied.
His justice must be satisfied and sin must be punished. God will by no means clear the
guilty, not at all. So faith, brethren, is trusting
that Christ has already fully made atonement for me with God. It's trusting Him and the work
He has accomplished to make me one with God. Now, today what
we're going to look at, this is just too important to try
to go through the whole chapter and cover everything. I just
want to look today at Christ Jesus, the High Priest of God. And we see Him typified in Aaron. So we're going to look at this,
and we may not even get through all of this today, but we'll
come back to it at another time if we don't. But let's begin
here with the first thing we see. Here is the first thing. The high priest was chosen by
God. Verse 3, he says, Thus shall
Aaron come into the holy place. God determined who the high priest
would be. He chose the high priest. Election is a word you need to
learn. It's used throughout this Bible.
And it's a word that you need to learn and you need to understand
what the doctrine of election is. Just like in every other
doctrine, sin and the ruin of mankind being the only exception,
every other doctrine Christ receives the preeminence. It's through
Christ, or by Christ, or in Christ. Christ receives the preeminence.
And it's the same here. The Lord said in Isaiah 42.1,
Behold My servant, whom I have told, Mine elect. My chosen One, in whom my soul
delighteth." And he's talking about Christ the Lord. He says,
I've put my spirit upon Him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He won't cry. He won't lift up
His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall
He not break. The smoking flack shall He not
quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall
not fail. nor be discouraged, till he hath
set judgment in the earth. And the Gentiles shall wait for
his law, for his word." Now turn to Hebrews 5.1, and I'm going
to show you why this is so very, very, very important. Hebrews
chapter 5. Aaron was chosen of God to represent
a particular people. He was chosen to represent the
children of Israel, just as Christ Jesus was chosen of God to represent
God's elect, His spiritual Israel. Now watch this, Hebrews 5.1. This is the New Testament commentary
on what we're looking at right now. Now listen to this. Every
high priest taken from among men, Throughout the Old Testament,
throughout the days of Moses, and throughout the whole, that
old covenant, every high priest was taken from among men, so
was Christ. He was adorned for men in things
pertaining to God, so was Christ. That he may offer both gifts
and sacrifices for sins, that's what Christ did. who can have
compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way,
for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity." Christ is touched
with the feeling of our infirmity. He was a man chosen out of the
fold, a high priest. And by reason hereof he ought
as for the people so also for himself to offer for sins. This
was the case with men. But now here's what I want you
to see, verse 4. Pay very close attention to this. And no man,
no priest, no high priest that was ever chosen but God, no man
taketh this honor unto himself. He didn't decide one day he'd
be a high priest. Uzzah tried to do that. King
Uzziah tried to do that. He got proud and lifted up in
his heart. He decided he'd just go in and
bypass the priest. And while he was standing there
angry and mad at the priest, telling him this was none of
his business, leprosy came up and he died a leper, trying to
come to God another way. No man takes this honor to himself,
but he that is called of God. God said to Moses, you tell Aaron
he's my priest. Now what's the significance of
that? Look at verse five. So also Christ
glorified not himself to be made a high priest. You mean the Lord
Jesus Christ didn't even glorify himself? He didn't put himself
in this high priestly office? No, he didn't. He sure didn't. But he that said unto him, Thou
art my son, today have I begotten thee. God chose for Christ to
be the high priest. How does that apply to me? What
does that mean to me and you as sinners? We turn into 1 Peter
chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. To the right
there. Hold your place in Hebrews. We'll
be back to it a little later. 1 Peter chapter 2. Now let me tell
you, as our Lord, when He was on this earth, He said this,
He said, if I honor myself, no man takes this honor to himself,
but he that's called of God. He said, if I honor myself, my
honor is nothing. If I make myself to be something
I'm not, my honor's nothing. He said, it's the Father that
honoreth me. That's who honored me. That's
who chose him to be the high priest. Now, why is that important
for you to know? Look at 1 Peter 2 verse 9. Everybody
that's chosen of God and called of God is a priest unto God. Not the high priest. There's
one high priest. But his children are made priests unto God. Now,
if Christ glorified not Himself to be made a high priest, if
He didn't take this honor on Himself, then does that mean
you and me are going to take this honor on ourself and make
ourselves priests unto God by something we've done? Or is it
going to be by God's choosing and by God's calling? Look at
1 Peter 2.9. But ye are a chosen generation,
a chosen people. a royal priesthood, God's priesthood,
a holy nation, spiritual Israel, true Israel, a peculiar people,
watch this, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who
hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You
see, I don't take the honor upon myself to make myself a child
of God, God has to choose me and God has to call me out of
darkness into his light. And that honor goes to the first
elect of God, the first chosen of God, his high priest, Christ
Jesus, whom he called and said, this is my son, my only begotten
son. Hear him. He's mine elect whom
I uphold. He's the one in whom my soul
delighteth. And it's important to know because all the glory
belongs to God. Salvation is of God's grace by
God's choosing. He told Moses, I'll be merciful
to whom I'll be merciful. And now it's true. If I made
this statement to you, if I said Christ died for all who shall
believe, that's a true statement because all for whom he died
shall believe. But that's a half true. That's
a half-truth. I'll leave you thinking your
decision, your act, your will, your coming, your doing made
the difference. If I just say Christ died for
all that shall believe on Him and now turn it over into your
hands. But the truth is, the truth is
God the Father chose Christ and He chose a people and put them
in Christ before the world began. God the Son came as the High
Priest of His people and suffered and died and rose again and made
full atonement, full satisfaction, a fully accomplished redemption
for that people and the Spirit of God comes forth and He quickens
whom He will, He calls whom He will irresistibly to Christ and
makes you, teaches you in the heart who Christ is, what Christ
has done and you shall bow to Christ in that day. And that's
how I can say All for whom Christ died shall believe. Shall believe. But now you've got the whole
truth. Now you've got the full statement of truth. And proud
sinners need to know this in no uncertain terms that we're
not coming to God. We're not taking this honor upon
ourselves. That's not going to happen with
God. And as long as the sinner imagines that, we won't give
God the glory. We won't confess what we are. We won't confess that satisfaction
has been made by Christ. We've got to be brought to behold
our nothingness, and we've got to be brought to behold the glory
of God in the face of Christ. Now, we're about to see something
here about the humility of this first-elect high priest. We're going to see something
about his humility. And I can stand up here and tell
you, walk humbly before the Lord, but if I haven't told you the
full truth, that it's not you that takes this honor upon yourself.
I beseech you, come to Christ. I beseech you, lay hold of Christ.
I beseech you, turn from your sin and rebellion and believe
on Christ. But at the same time, I teach you that God does the
choosing, God does the drawing, God does the calling. If you're
coming to Him, it's because He's doing the work in you. And by
saying that, now I'm teaching you what true humility is. But
if I didn't tell you all that, and I said, now walk humbly before
the Lord, I'm promoting pride. I'm being prideful by not telling
you the whole truth, and I'm promoting pride by not telling
you the whole truth. Do you understand that? Do you
understand that? Alright, now look. Here's the
second thing we see in Leviticus 16, verse 4. The high priest was robed in
garments of humility. Garments of humility. Still talking
about Christ. Leviticus 16.4. He shall put
on the holy linen coat. and he shall have the linen britches
upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and
with the linen miter shall he be attired. These are holy garments."
Now Aaron had some high priestly apparel that if you saw him,
you would just stand back and say, you know, in amazement. It was adorned in royal blue
and gold. I mean, ornate, this garment
that he had when he was in front of the people. But on this day,
on the Day of Atonement, when He came to make atonement before
God, He took all those garments off and set them aside. And He
put on these linen, plain linen garments. And that's all He wore
when He went in to make atonement. There's no bells on. All that
robe and that garment had the bells on it, the pomegranates
and all the adornment. None of that. None of that on
this day. Just linen garments, that's all.
Listen to this Scripture. Let me turn to Philippians 2. Philippians 2. Let me read a
Scripture to you while you turn in there. You know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, adorned in
the very glory of God. He is God. Though He was rich,
yet for your sakes He became poor. that through His poverty
you might be made rich. He set aside the glory that's
His from the beginning and He came in His plain, humble garments
of flesh and blood. Look at Philippians 2.5. Let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Now this
is a true, this is the first chosen one of God. This is what,
when you've not taken this honor to yourself, God's called you,
this is the man that'll be in you. Now this is the man that
was in Christ, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. He's God. He's one with God.
He's equal with God. But, because God chose him, called
him to be the high priest of his people. He made himself of
no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made
in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Do you see that word there, wherefore
God also hath exalted him? when Christ took upon Him the
form of a servant. And He came in that humble linen
garment of flesh and blood and took upon Him the form of a servant
and laid down His life even unto death, even the death of the
cross. You know what He was doing? He was exalting God the Father. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted Him. You want to serve God, It's not
in making ourselves a reputation. It's not in taking to ourselves
honor that belongs to God alone. It's not in trying to take the
things of God and use those things to make ourselves different from
everybody else and stand out from everybody else and seem
like we're more pious and more holy than everybody else. And
that's how most people use these words of God. And that's not
what they're saying. They're saying true humility
is submission, is bowing to Him. And I'll tell you this, you might
be thinking, how does this apply to me and my husband and my wife? And how does this apply to me
and the problems I've got in my workplace? How does this apply
to me and the problems I've got with my children and all these
things? The problem you've got is sin. And the problem you've
got is authority. And this is the solution. This
is the cure. the balm of Gilead right here.
When you understand God's an authority, you understand every
relationship He's ever ordained in this earth is to symbolize,
to typify, to glorify the relationship between God in Christ and His
people. Whether it's a pastor in the
church, He's the shepherd of the sheep and we're the sheep
of His pasture. I learned how to lay down my
life for you and pasture you and be merciful to you and to
deal kindly and gently and when to say a word in season because
I look at my Master and I see how He deals with me. And we
all learn how to submit in this place to one another by seeing
how He came and submitted Himself to God and trusted God and served
God. if it's a husband and a wife.
Christ is the husband of the church. I look at how Christ
Jesus, the husband, laid down His life, gave Himself for the
bride, poured out His life's blood unto death for the bride.
I look at this and I see how it is that I'm supposed to love
that woman right there, and how far short I fall of it, so that
I can't get proud and boastful and think I deserve anything,
because I fail in it miserably. And she sees as my bride, she
sees and I see as the bride of Christ as a part of this church.
I see how Christ, when He walked this earth as the faithful one,
I see how He submitted Himself to the Father and trusted the
Father and served His people. Christ gets the glory in all
the relationships, the same with the master and the employee. He's the master, we're the employee.
But he came as a servant one time, and we look at how he served,
and Paul said, let this mind be in you. You see that all our
relationship, the problem is we don't like authority. We don't
want to submit to those we're supposed to submit to, and we
don't want to serve those we're supposed to serve, and the chief
one is God in Christ. God in Christ. So this is where
we've got to start if we're going to know what's going on in the
rest of the world and what the problems are in everyday life.
This is the crucial thing. The crucial thing. Alright, here's
the third thing. And this will be our last thing
for today. The high priest had to be personally clean. He had to be personally completely
clean. Look at verse 4, at the end of
Leviticus 16, verse 4. It says, Therefore shall he wash
his flesh in water, and so put on these garments. He had to
be clean. Verse 6, it says, Aaron shall
offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself,
and make an atonement for himself and for his house. Look at Verse
11, And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering which
is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself and
for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering
which is for himself. Aaron was a man, so Aaron was
sinful. So Aaron had to make this offering
for himself so that he would be ceremonially pure and clean
when he came into God's presence. You there in Hebrews, turn to
Hebrews 7 verse 26. Hebrews 7 verse 26. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. who
needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice
first for his own sins and then for the people's, for this he
did once when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests
which have infirmities, but the word of the oath which was since
the law maketh the son who's consecrated forevermore. Christ
Jesus the Lord knew no sin, had no sin, was without sin, lived
under the law of God, perfect without sin in thought, word,
or deed, and He was Himself completely, totally holy to come into God's
presence and make this sacrifice for His people. He was. He was. And that's what we see here.
Alright, let's see. I'm going to go a little further.
Here's the fourth thing. The high priest could not enter
the presence of God without blood. He had to have blood. Now, we're
going to look at this more in detail next time and just take
a whole section on the sacrifice and the offerings. Look at verse
5. 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 burnt offering. Now verse 7, 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, one lot for the Lord. In other words, one goat
would go to the Lord and the other lot would be what's called
a scapegoat. This is where this term scapegoat
comes from. And Aaron shall bring the goat
upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for a sin offering.
That lamb is going to die. 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. In other words, that goat they
would come up to, and we'll see this next time, and he would
put his hands on the head of that goat, and he would confess
the sins of Isphal upon that goat. And that goat was let go,
and that goat would go into the wilderness and take those sins
totally away, and they're gone into the wilderness. And the
other goat They took it, and it was a sin offering. It was
an offering for the sin of the people, and it died. And its
blood and the blood of the burnt offering was taken in and was
sprinkled on the mercy seat, and it was sprinkled on the altar,
and it was to purify the tabernacle, it was to purify the altar, it
was to purify the people, it was to cleanse the people, it
was to do the whole work of making atonement for the people. And
he couldn't come in there unless he had that blood. Hebrews 9,
look there with me. Christ Jesus is both our scapegoat,
upon whom the sins of His people was laid, who carried them away,
and He's our sin offering. He couldn't make His people one
with God without shedding His own blood. The heart of substitution,
the very doctrine of substitution is a life for a life. The just
for the unjust. He was made a curse for us. Scripture says that He might
free us from the curse. He was made what His people are
that He might free His people and make His people what He is.
We sin. He was made sin. He's righteous
and He makes His people righteous, accepted of God. Hebrews 9 verse
8. The Lord sent a word... I'm sorry,
let me get there myself. Isaiah chapter 9 is not going
to work, is it? Alright, Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9
verse 8. The Holy Ghost, let me start
in verse 7. Into the second, the holiest
of holies, went the high priest alone once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and the errors of the people.
Now the Holy Ghost, this signifying, this was a type, this was a shadow,
signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet
made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.
The holiest of all is God's presence. The way into the holiest of all
is Christ and it wasn't made known yet. Christ hadn't come
forth yet while as yet Moses was being instructed back there
in the days of the tabernacle. But look at verse 9, which was
a figure, it was a type, it 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 the
conscience. It stood only in meats and drinks
and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until
the time of reformation. But Christ, here we go, but Christ,
being come in high priest, of good things to come. He is that
high priest of which those good things to come foreshadowed,
of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
it's in the heavens, it's eternal in the heavens, neither by the
blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. He accomplished the work. He
did the work. He accomplished it. Now brethren,
that's how you come to Him. That's who you come in. You come
in Christ, the high priest. If you're going to come before
God, you lay hold of Him, the high priest of God. We're going
to close there, and then we'll pick up there next time.