16th. Let's ask the Lord to bless his word.
Our Father, we come into your presence in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We pray for thy help this morning
and worship in rightly dividing the word of truth. We have gathered here this morning
to give unto you the glory and the honor due unto your name.
Our Father, we pray and give thanks for your many, many, many
mercies to us throughout our lives. We thank you most of all
for the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Lord. Help us this
morning, Lord, be with us. Make thy presence known here
this morning. And our Father, we pray. We pray
that you would bless the congregation there in Missouri
as they preach Joe's funeral. Pray for Bonnie and her family. All those involved, Father, we
pray for them. Pray you would bless them and
make them to know thy grace is sufficient. Let thy presence
among them be known abundantly. And what we pray for ourselves
here this morning, we pray for all thy servants and all thy
children throughout the world who are meeting together today.
Lord, let it truly be a worship service. In Christ's name we
pray, amen. I'm going to read the whole chapter.
I think it's. Important that I read the whole
chapter and then I may make a few comments as I go, but then I'll
come back and. And start to deal with it, and
I may have to break this up into two lessons, but we'll see. And
the Lord spake unto Moses. After the death of the two sons
of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord and died, You know,
God is very serious when it comes to that which glorifies his son. We don't play with the gospel.
Here, Nadab in a bayou, God burn them up. They offered strange
fire before the Lord. They went in as the holies and
offered strange fire. God didn't recommend, God didn't
command that. And God killed the two sons of
Aaron. And when Moses told Aaron about it, Aaron, he said, you
know what it says, Aaron did held his peace. They knew not
to do that. And, and the Lord did it and
Aaron held his peace, but God killed him, you know, with me. And I thought about this as I
was reading this, I stand here week after week and I handle. The gospel of God's glory. This is a it's a privilege to
be able to stand here and brag on the Lord Jesus Christ, but
what a responsibility. God shows us in the Old Testament
that you don't you don't mess with the gospel. You don't mess
with his glory. You don't mess with the gospel
of his son. You know, that's that's serious
business. 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. You know, if he goes in there
at a time when he's not supposed to, God will kill him right there.
He'll kill him right there, just like he did his sons. For I will
appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Thus shall Aaron
come into the holy place. This is how he's to come. With
a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
He shall put on the holy linen coat and he shall have the linen
britches upon his flesh. You see, he's got to take off
all the priest, you know, we read here not too long ago, all
the priest garments. He's got to take all that off.
He's got to take all that off. He's got to humble himself and
be dressed in this common priest robe. And, um, the reason by
why is because this represents Christ who laid his, he left
glory and robed himself in flesh and did the work of a priest.
But I'll deal with that in a little while. And, uh, and he shall
be girded with a linen girdle and with the linen miter. shall
he be attired, these are the holy garments. Therefore shall
he wash his flesh and water, and so put them on. 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
of 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, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the
scapegoat. 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. 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.
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. And he shall put the
incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the
incense may cover the mercy seat, that is upon the testimony that
he die not. And he shall take of the blood
of the bullock and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy
seat eastward. And before the mercy seat shall
he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. 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 that blood
as he did with the blood of the bullock and sprinkle it upon
the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. And he shall make
an atonement And this is what this is all about, the atonement. It's all about the atonement.
This is not your everyday sacrifices. This is one time a year. 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. And so shall he do for the tabernacle
of the congregation that remains among them in the midst of their
uncleanness. And there shall be no man in
the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement
in the holy place. I circled that and underlined
that. This has got to be done by the high priest by himself.
The other priest can't help him. It's like everybody step aside.
This is Aaron's work this day. This is the work of the high
priest on this day of atonement. And you know how that pictures
the Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest. But and there shall be
no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in
to make an atonement in the holy place until he come out and have
made an atonement for himself, for his household, and for all
the congregation of Israel. He shall go out unto the altar
HE SHALL GO OUT UNTO THE ALTAR THAT IS BEFORE THE LORD, AND
MAKE AN ATONEMENT FOR IT." You'll notice as we go through here,
an atonement has to be made for everything that's involved in
this day. Everything, the tabernacle, the
altar, the people, the holy place, everything. Everything's got
to be made because God cannot and will not deal with anything
that is sin and hasn't been taken care of, hasn't been atoned for.
He 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 and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleanness
of the children of Israel. And when he had made an end of
reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation
and the altar, he shall bring the live goat Aaron shall lay
both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all
It jumped out to me. I've read this several times
this morning But if you'll notice here That this high priest Aaron
He's confessing the sins of all the children of Israel of all
God's elect. He's doing it and They're not
coming up one by one doing it. And we do confess our sins, but
when it comes to the atonement, our Lord took our sins and put
them away. He did that. He put them away
and only he could do that. It wasn't asking if you want
to be saved, come up here and put your hand on the head of
the goat. He's doing it all. He's doing it all. and all their
transgressions and all their sins, putting them upon the head
of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man
into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and he
shall let go the goat in the wilderness. And Aaron shall come
into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments
which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall
leave them there. he shall wash his flesh with
water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come
forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the
people, and make an atonement for himself and for the people,
and the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar. And he that let go the goat for
the scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh
in water, and afterwards come into the camp. And the bullock
for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose
blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place,
shall one carry forth without the camp. and they shall burn
in the fire their skins, their flesh, and their dung. And he
that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh
in water, and afterward he shall come unto the camp. And this
shall be a statute for ever unto you, that in the seventh month,
on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls,
and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country
or a stranger that sojourneth among you. For on that day shall
the High Priest, appointed of God, make an atonement for you,
to cleanse you, that you may be cleaned from all your sins
before the Lord." This is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did
for us. If you noticed in reading, the
High Priest did it all. He did it all. He confessed their
sins. He put them up on the head of
that. Typically, he confessed them and their sins laid on that
goat. One was killed and one was released into a wilderness
where nobody inhabited it. And on that day, shall the priest
make an atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be cleaned
from all your sins before the Lord. It shall be a Sabbath of
rest unto you. And this is Christ, our rest.
And ye shall afflict your souls by a statute for ever. And the
priest whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate
to minister in the priest's office in his father's stead, shall
make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even
the holy garments. And you can circle verse 33. And he shall make an atonement
for the holy sanctuary, He shall make an atonement for the tabernacle
of the congregation and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement
for the priest and for all the people of the congregation. Our
Lord has atoned for everything. And this shall be an everlasting
statute unto you to make an atonement for the children of Israel, not
the Canaanites, not the Philistines, not the Egyptians, for Israel. The atonement is for God's Israel. And that's for everyone who believes
the gospel. And everyone of God's Israel,
spiritual Israel, shall in time believe the gospel. Because their
sins have been atoned for. Their sins have been atoned for.
And he did as the Lord commanded Moses. Now why, this is the title of
the lesson, why the Day of Atonement? Why? Well, you have to go back
to the Garden of Eden. When God created Adam, God created
Adam 6,000 years ago. I realize now that's not that
long ago. It really isn't. When you think
of eternity, six thousand years to god is what six days not even
a complete week which is seven but god created adam and he created
him in righteousness adam was innocent he knew no sin and god
gave him one command one command to keep that's it Do not eat
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the
day you eat thereof, you shall die. You shall die. And as you know, you well know,
Adam willfully, Adam wasn't deceived. Eve was deceived. Adam knew exactly
what he was doing. He knew what he was doing. And
he willfully rebelled against God. And from that time forth,
from that very time forth, Adam and everyone since cannot
come before God as Adam did before he fell. What did God do to Adam and Eve
after they had fallen? God killed an animal. and said he clothed them with
their skin. God shed blood. God killed those
animals, and he clothed Adam and Eve with the skin of those
animals. And he gave them the promise
of the seed of the woman. And from that time forth, every
time God was approached, he was approached by the blood. He was
approached through the sacrifice. You know, when Cain, you know
the story well, when Cain came to God, he brought the works
of his hands. He brought the fruit of the cursed
ground. That's what he brought. And God rejected it. He received
Abel's offering because it was a blood offering. It represented
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what God gave. I have
no doubt he gave that to Adam and Adam taught his sons this.
His family, he taught his family this. But Cain, and you can see
this, in one family, you can see one family going to a false
gospel and you can see one family sitting under the true gospel.
I know families like that. You know families like that.
We have it in our own families, don't we? We have it in our own
families. Some do. But they go to sit under
a false gospel like Cain. And then there are the ables
who sit under the gospel of God's sovereign mercy in Christ. Christ, their only hope, their
only way to God. And they believe, they believe. But ever since Adam fell, there's
no There is no approaching God apart from a blood sacrifice.
And that blood sacrifice is the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
I read you here in this chapter is a picture. It's like a flash
card. If you know Christ, it's easy
to understand, isn't it? I have no doubt that when some
of those heathens, they saw this going on, the ones that lived
around about them, To them, it was just a religious
service like they would do. You know, you look back at ancient
history and the heathens, they offered up their children. Some
of them offered up their children to their gods. They offered up
sacrifices. But we know that these sacrifices
never put away sin. These sacrifices were representative. They represented the Lord Jesus
Christ. They were a picture of Him who's
to come. It was God drawing a picture,
a very clear picture, that His people will see when God saves
one of His children. When He saves them, they begin
to see, like the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul, when he looked
back at the Old Testament, he did not see. At one time, he
did not see this Atonement here connected with Jesus Christ. He didn't see that. And when
God saved him, it all cleared up. He could see that these things
were just pictures and types and no sin has ever been put
away by the blood of a bull and a goat. The blood of the bull
and goats here are just types until he comes and fulfills the
type. And so, After Adam fell, there's
no approaching God apart from a blood sacrifice. And that blood
sacrifice is Jesus Christ. We know that our Lord is the
high priest. He's the one who represents us.
He's the one whose blood was offered. He's the one whose blood
is laid on the altar. He's the one whose blood he went
into the Holy of Holies. Hebrews, Hebrews really sheds
a whole lot of light on this. He entered into the Holy of Holies,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. And he did it by himself. You
see, Aaron was to do this by himself. Nobody, none of the
other priests that helped during the week and, you know, the months
and throughout the year, they helped Aaron with these sacrifices.
But not this one. Not this one. This is the high
priest. THAT GOD APPOINTED TO MAKE ATONEMENT
FOR THE SINS OF HIS PEOPLE. THIS IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
BY HIMSELF PURGING US OF OUR SINS. HE DID THAT BY HIMSELF. HE TREAD THE WINEPRESS OF GOD'S
WRATH ALONE. NOBODY WITH HIM. YOU KNOW, WE
SEE THAT IN THE GOSPELS WHEN ALL HIS DISCIPLES SCATTERED They
all scattered. Peter denied him three times.
They all just left him. There he is alone. And he goes
into the hall, and they judge him, and then they whip him,
and then they nail him to a cross, and that's our high priest. He's buried, and what's he do?
He rises and he ascends on high back to the Father, back to the
Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption for us. I tell you, this, when I was
a younger believer, when I was a young believer, there was so
much as a young believer that I went on my feelings. You know,
I feel good this day. One day you feel lost, one day
you feel safe, one day you feel, boy, I have learned as the years
have gone by, just take God at his word. Get into God's word
and boy, there's where you really find the comfort. Because my
sins were laid on him, and he put them away. He made atonement
for my sins without me, before I was ever born. You know, the
Lord put away all my sins before I was ever born. And that does
not lead to sin. Someone told, who was it? August
M. James, Henry was telling this
story. A man jumped on him after he'd said that in a pulpit, and
then he said, if you preach like that, that Christ put away all
your sins, even before you were born, the ones you haven't even
committed yet, that'll give people a license to sin. Do you feel,
you who believe, do you want to sin? Does that give you a
license to sin? You know what it gives you a
license to do? To worship God, to praise Him from whom all blessings
flow, to praise Him who put away your sins. Your sins, there's
a real sense in which your sins, all your sins, you might, I might
live to be a hundred. Those sins are already gone.
Those sins are gone. And you know what that does for
me? I'm telling you what it does for me, and it's what it does
for everyone who believes. It gives you a spirit of thanksgiving. It gives you a spirit of praise.
And it gives you a spirit of humility. The Lord put away my
sins, mine. I didn't ask him to. I wasn't
even around to ask him to. I wasn't even around. He did it before I was ever born. And here's a thought that comforts
me as I have gotten older, is that he put my sins away without any effort on my part,
without even a request on my part. You know, I ask the Lord
to forgive me daily of my sins, I do. Since I have believed,
I ask him, Lord, forgive me of my sins. I do. Forgive us our
debts as we forgive others, don't we? And yet I know, I know that
he has put them away. He has put them away, and they're
gone. And they're gone. He put that
on that scapegoat, that one goat died. And then the other one,
he took it and put it out there in a wilderness that's uninhabited. showing that our Lord put our
sins away. They are no more. They are no
more. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
high priest represented here making the atonement. He's the
high priest. He's the Bullock. He's the ram. He's the he-goat. He's the goat. His blood is the blood of atonement.
Every picture here is him. It's him. And I thank God I can see that.
I thank God I can see that. And I thank God some of you can
see it. I also see here that the only
way that God can be just and justify the ungodly is through
the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the scripture says we have
now received the atonement. That's what the scripture tells
us. This chapter here in chapter
16 of Leviticus is all about Jesus Christ. Someone said to
me back years ago, said that they were saved by these sacrifices
and these blood offerings. We are now saved by Christ, by
Jesus Christ. No, we're not. No, they're not. We are, and they are, the ones
who are saved, are saved by Christ and Christ alone. The blood of
bulls and goats can't put away the sin of a man. That'd be easy,
wouldn't it? Well, you just go commit a crime and you go kill
a goat. That's easy. No, the same nature that sinned
has to be the same nature that gives satisfaction to the law
that it broke. It's gotta be the same nature. Our Lord is all these types. And we also see in this chapter,
and I've already pointed this out, but I'm gonna point it out
again, but the high priest was alone. And here's the reason
why, Hebrews 1, 3, who being the brightness of his glory and
the express image of his person and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, purged
them. completely put them away he sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high and now in verse
2 we meet with the holy of holies Nobody was to come into this
place, but one time a year, once. And only the high priest could
come in there one time a year, and he could only come in there
with the blood, the blood that God had required. He could only
come in there with the blood. This is the place where the presence
of God was made known in the cloud, over the mercy seat, right
here, in this Holy of Holies. What a picture. It's like looking
at a painting and you can just see each step of it. No one was to appear there except
Aaron once a year and only as the way God designated. And Aaron
was to come into that holy place and nobody else but Aaron himself.
Nobody else, no other priest, because our Lord is the only
high priest. He's the only mediator between God and men and no one
else. Now, you and I are made kings and priests under God.
We are, we are made kings and priests under God, whether we
realize it or not, but we are. That's what it says over in,
you read that in Revelations 5, chapter 5, verse 9 and 10.
He has made us kings and priests under God, but none of us are
made a high priest. You know, we go about the service
of God. What I'm doing this morning. But not one of us is a high priest.
Jesus Christ is the only high priest. He's the only mediator. You see how evil Catholicism
is? with all their priesthood they've got and all that's going
around doing what they're doing and putting Mary on the same
equal footing as our Lord, as a mediator. She's not a mediator,
she's a sinner saved by grace. And that's all she is and all
she'll ever be, a sinner saved by grace. Just like you and I,
sinners saved by grace. There's only one mediator and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one high priest
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. now in chapter or verse four
on this day of atonement you'll notice the you'll notice the
uh linen white linen he was to wear white linen he was to take
off that golden miter he had and that outfit he had on with
all those different colors and it had gold on it had the ephod
on it it had those stones it was in it he laid all that aside
what this represents is that he humbled himself The high priest
humbled himself, took all that off, and he had the same garment
on, but the other priest had on, and he did the service in
that humble outfit. Our Lord, think about our Lord
in all His glory, the Son of God. He said, the glory I had
with you before the world was. Think of that. I think of the
Mount of Transfiguration. When they saw Him, it says He
glistened. He glistened, but he laid that aside, so to speak,
or at least it was veiled in his flesh. And he came into this
world, took upon him flesh and performed the work of the high
priest. What a beautiful picture, beautiful
picture. And then in verse four, you'll
notice this kept coming up, wash his flesh in water. You notice
how many times that came up in this chapter? I think five times
on this day there was washing, washing, washing. Because what
this does, this represents the spotless, the purity of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who knew no sin. He knew no sin. Though he was
robed in flesh, he knew no sin. There was no sin in that flesh.
His body, it was created of God. He said, a body hast thou prepared
me. God created that body. God, the
human nature of Christ was created by God Almighty. There's no sin
in it. Perfect, pure, spotless, spotless,
Lamb of God, that's who He is. Christ is said to be holy, harmless,
and undefiled there in Hebrews 7.26. And then five and eight, Aaron
was to select two goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burn
offering. The ram was to be offered as
an atonement, a sacrifice for himself and for his house. As
I said in verse 33, he shall make an atonement for the holy
sanctuary. Why? The holy sanctuary, why? Because of sinners. Because of
sinners like me and you. Everything had to be atoned for
that God had anything to do with. HE SHALL MAKE AN ATONEMENT FOR
THE HOLY SANCTUARY, HE SHALL MAKE AN ATONEMENT FOR THE TABERNACLE
OF THE CONGREGATION, AND FOR THE ALTAR, AND HE SHALL MAKE
AN ATONEMENT FOR THE PRIEST AND ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGREGATION.
NOTHING UNHOLY IS GOING TO ENTER INTO GOD'S PRESENCE. NOTHING. IT'S CALLED THE HOLY OF HOLIES.
AND SINNERS LIKE YOU AND I ARE ALLOWED IN THERE. Do you realize
when you, and I'm gonna stop here and I'll finish the rest
of this next week, Lord willing. Do you realize that when we go
to the throne of grace in prayer, in our worship this morning,
this is so, this is what I understand as I've gotten older. These things
are real. These things are real. When we go to prayer, when I
prayed a while ago, I entered into the Holy of Holies. My prayer didn't, I hope not,
did not remain in these four walls. It went into the presence
of God. It went before the throne of
grace. I entered by spirit, you know
spiritually, we live in a spiritual world, the believer lives in
a spiritual world, it's a spiritual kingdom, and we enter the Holy
of Holies, and it's the blood of Christ, now listen, listen, it's the blood of Christ that
made my prayer accepted this morning, it was atoned for, this
worship service this morning, is atoned for. We cannot worship God without
sin, but it's been atoned for. Our singing of praises this morning,
I would to God we could sing praises to Him like they do in
heaven, like they do right there. Those departed saints are doing
this morning. I wish we could sing like that.
You know what? It's just as accepted this morning. Our prayer, our singing is just
as accepted this morning and just as pure as theirs is, because
it's been atoned for by the blood of Christ. Isn't that something? Now that puts, to me, it puts
the reality in worship. It's not just in this building.
We've entered into the presence of God. All right.