Leviticus. Thank you, Robin.
You can rest now. Relax. Leviticus 16. Difficult song to sing. You can
imagine trying to play it. Thank you for doing so. Leviticus
16. Leviticus. Leviticus. This is to the Levites. It's
of the Levites. That's what this means. This
is to the sons of Levi who were the priests. Well, Revelation
1, 6 says we're priests. That He's made us kings and priests. So this interests us, doesn't
it? It concerns us. Christ, the scapegoat. Sin offering. Burnt offering. Like the lamb
in Exodus 12. He said it's your lamb. Your
lamb. And I want each of us to say, this is my scapegoat, my
sin offering, my burnt offering. Do you need a scapegoat? You
know, that term is still used today, although all of this is
passed off as just old Jewish traditions and rituals and religion
and all that. Yet they still use terms like
scapegoat. By that, what they mean is passing
the blame, putting the blame on somebody else. Well, this
scapegoat is not putting the blame on. It's people confessing
their blame, confessing their sins on the head of a scapegoat,
and him willingly, lovingly, mercifully taking that blame,
taking those sins. Do you need a scapegoat, a burnt
offering? Now this begins, we've looked
at this before, but look how it begins. In verse 1, Lord spake
unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they
offered before the Lord and died. The Lord killed them. And the
Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron, tell Aaron. And he's talking
that the Lord always spoke to Moses, who in turn spoke to Aaron
and the people. Speak to your brother that he
come not all the time into the holy place within the veil before
the mercy seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not. I will
appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. And thus shall Aaron
come into this holy place with a young bullock for a sin offering,
for a burn offering. The Lord killed Aaron's two sons. This was a while back in chapter
10. They were playing with fire. Which so many people today do,
and they pass it off. In modern religion you hear things
like this, in modern religion, Pentecostal religion, acquire
the fire, things like that. And they make their children
pass through the fire, and men and women and people are playing,
messing with fire. Our gods are consuming fire. And it says when they offered
this fire, strange fire, the fire of God fell and slew them. Aaron's sons. Aaron's sons who grew up hearing
the truth, who were under the truth. Abraham
had two sons. One of them was lost. Isaac had two sons. One of them
was lost. Jacob had two sons, God hated
one of them. Jacob, I'm sorry, Isaac had two
sons, but Jacob had 12 sons, about 10 of them were rotten. Job, seven sons. Eli, two sons, both of them evil,
Lord kill them. Samuel, two sons, Lord kill them
both. David, Solomon, and on and on it goes. What are we learning here? God
told us. Psalm 89 says the Lord is to
be had in reverence of all them that are about him. He is to
be feared by all and had in reverence of all them that are around about
him. Holy, holy, holy. Psalm 99, holy is the Lord. His name is holy. His throne
is holy. His kingdom is holy. Holy, holy,
holy. That's not just a doctrine. That's
who our God really is. Not to be played with. Religion's
not to be played with. It's a serious, serious thing. You play with these things of
God, you play them with fire. What are we learning here? God
is sovereign. He saved whom He will. Every
one of us in here have loved ones we care about that are lost.
Now, God will save whom He will. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. Whom I will. Whom He will, He
pardoned. And God is no respecter of persons.
Aaron's sons, Samuel's sons, David's sons, Eli's sons. He's
no respecter of persons. We don't enter the kingdom of
blood. It's not of blood. It's the will of the flesh, the
will of man. It's of God, born of God. What are we learning here? The same old truth, that there's
one way to approach God. One truth. One life. One way to live before God. Otherwise,
we die. What's that? Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, in these
old types, it shows us clearly over and over and over and over
again. You've got to have a person. You've got to have a place. And
you've got to have a thing to come before God. And these three
are one. Christ. He's the High Priest.
There's one mediator between God and man. One. One. How many millions of people all
over the world pray to whomever, you know? I don't know. They're lost. Whoever prays to
anybody but Jesus Christ is lost. I don't care how sincere they
are. Right? That's what God showed us. He
doesn't accept our prayers on the basis of the virtue of our
sincerity. He accepts our prayers by the
blood of Jesus Christ. One way, one truth, one person,
one place. You've read with me in Deuteronomy
12 all the way through chapter 17. I forget how many times,
17 or 18 times. where the Lord says there's a
place that I've chosen to put my name there. He says there
shall you and your children and your family go and offer the
burnt offering and the sin offering and worship before the Lord.
There's a plan. One place. Go there. And it was literally a place,
was it? It's where the tabernacle was.
And that tabernacle was at different places in that history, you know,
like Shiloh, where Samuel was. And then it moved here and there.
One time it was in the house of Obed-Edom, the ark. The Lord
blessed that place. There's a church. God has a church. And it's not every place. It's not everywhere. Where his
name is, you need to go there. Whoever's listening to this,
you need to pack up and go there. And there's a thing, a sacrifice,
a lamb, a burnt offering, a sin offering. You cannot worship
God. You cannot come before God in a worship service without
this. Ever. Right? And how do you know the
place where God has put His name there? How do you know the people
of God and the place of God? How do you know? Because they're
bringing up this sin offering, and this burnt offering, and
this atonement, and this scapegoat, and this lamb. That's all they
do. That's all Aaron did. That's all the priest did. Somebody
come by and say, is that all you do? Yes! Why? Because we're sinners and God
is holy. Oh, there you go again. Yes. Throughout the book of Leviticus,
you know, it's 27 chapters, the atonement is mentioned 43 times. I quit counting sin offering
and burnt offering. It begins that way. Come with
a sin offering. It talks about offering a burnt
offering with fire, and it says, a sweet-smelling savor to God. You see, we're going to look
at the scapegoat, which is wonderful news, good news, but it begins
with a warning. Like Hebrews, it began talking
about who Christ is, better than Aaron, better than the tyrant,
better, better, better, better. And in chapter 3, he says, today
if you'll hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation.
You need to listen to this man. And it goes on, and in the end,
the end of Hebrews, he picks it up again and says, don't forsake
the assembly of ourselves together, one offering. One sacrifice,
better come. And he goes on to say he's going
to shake this whole place, and only things that can't be shaken
won't be shaken. So they said, let's worship God
with fear, because our God is consuming fire. That's Hebrews,
the whole book of Hebrews. So it begins with a warning.
These two young men were playing with fire. And God killed them. He's a no respecter of persons.
It's serious. Then it talks about the sin offering,
the burnt offering, the atonement. Oh my, wait till we get into
this. These are the things of God.
You see, this is the word of truth. These are the things of
God, the things of Christ. It's foolishness unto the world.
1 Corinthians 2 says that a natural man receiveth not the things
of God, but foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them.
They're foolish. Right? Not foolishness to us,
are we? They're the wisdom of God and
the power of God. And you which believe, unto you
which are saved, the wisdom of God and the power of God. Are
you interested? Do you need a sin offering? Are you a sinner? Who needs a
sin offering? We say this all the time. The
gospel is the only percentage. Well, who needs this? The world
must not because they don't want to hear about sin too much. Not
that bad, God's not that holy and I'm not that bad. And this
is old, that's old stuff, you know, tell us about what good
husbands and wives we need to be and, you know, political issues
and all that. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. And this is what this whole book's
about. And that's why we meet. We need saving and our children
need saving. Amen. From sin. Yes, here we go again. Sin offering, sin offering. I
quoted it. We quote it all the time. This
is a faithful sinner. Wonderful sinner. True sinner.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Even the chief. Doesn't matter what you've done,
who you are, where you've been. It doesn't matter. Come to Christ. It'll all be put away. Hebrews 9 says, Now once in the
end of the world hath he appeared to do one thing, put away sin. How? By the sacrifice of his
hand. The sin offering, the burnt offering,
the scapegoat. Now only sinners need to hear
this. Sin is what we are, you see? Sin is what the world is
full of. Sin is the problem. Everybody
has troubles, everybody has things, you know, life's troubles and
all that, but only God's people have trouble with sin. The world
loves sin. They go after sin. They play
with sin. They make a mockery of sin. They love sin. They go
for it. No, not God's people. They want
done with it. This is our problem. This is
what plagues us. This is what we need. We want
to be holy. The world don't want to be holy. They like being sinful. God's
people don't. They want done with it. Genesis 6, and I remind you one
more time, the Lord said it's going to be just like the days
of Noah. God looked down and He said the
imagination of man's heart is only evil continually every day. He said it repented him, it grieved
him in his heart. He said the whole world, the
whole earth is corrupted my way and the whole earth is full of
violence, Isn't that today? Blood sports are just that sport. It's just recreation. This world is... Psalm 14 says this, and let me
just quote it. I was going to have you turn.
You know it. It says, The Lord looked down from heaven upon
the sons of men to see if there were any of it they could understand.
Any of it to seek God. Any of it. He said they're all
together. Verse 3 says they're all together.
become filthy. And the word in the margin is
stinking. Stinking. Have you ever smelled
rotting flesh? Is there anything worse? There's
nothing worse than stinking flesh. There's nothing. And human is
the worst, as bad as animals are. Some of you have smelled
some decayed corpses, I'm sure, you nurses and all that. It's
nothing worse. And that's what flesh is to God. He sees it all, He hears it all,
okay? And that's why Peter said in the end, 2 Peter 3, he said
this whole earth and the works therein, everybody is going to
be burnt up. There's one way to get rid of
stinking flesh. You know that? One way. Burn
it. Okay. In my flesh dwelleth no
good thing. I've got this old man in me that
stinks. David said that in Psalm 38,
didn't he? My wounds stink. I abhor myself. There's this old man I can't
get rid of. There's only one way to get rid
of the smell. A burnt offering. Are you with me? Christ was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin. He had the dew
of youth on Him. He smelled like a newborn baby
as a grown man. You know, flesh, it says their
throats are like an open sepulcher. Listen to this word of the day. Their throats are like an open
sepulcher. Pride is so ugly, isn't it? Mankind
is just ugly and stinking and nauseating to God, but God was
manifested to play. The Son of God came, altogether
lovely. Grace poured from His lips. Mercy. Eyes like doves. Oh, he didn't have body odor.
To the contrary, sweet smelling spices. Everything he touched
smelled like myrrh. I want to look like that. I want
to smell like that. Don't you? Christ became flesh. It did on Calvary's tree. This
is what happened. He was made sin. And all that
that is. Now this is a mystery. God laid
on him, like this scapegoat, the iniquity of all of God. He
bore our sins in his body on the tree, Scripture said. Made
sin, and God put him to hell, through hell. Burnt on the ground. And thus, the smell of our sin
is gone. Said it's a sweet smelling savor. You know, back years ago when
settlers were going out west, there was a wagon train going
through the prairies of Kansas, all those big prairie grasses,
you know. And often wildfires would start,
and this wagon train was heading west, and they saw a wildfire
coming at them. The wind in their face was coming
toward them. They had to come blow it eastward.
And the wise wagon master, judging the wind in their face, he set
fire to the grass behind him. And it burned half an acre, an
acre, it kept burning. And then he had the whole wagon
train to pull the wagons in that burnt area, okay? And there they
are, all huddled together. And one young boy says to his
daddy, he saw that fire, he could smell the smoke, he could feel
the heat coming at him. And that young boy said to his
daddy, Daddy, I'm scared. I'm scared we're going to die.
The fire's going to burn us up. He said, Son, it can't. You're
standing on burnt ground. Where are you standing? Huh? Who are you standing on?
What's your hope? I'm scared. I'm a sinner. I ought to go to hell. Not if
you're on burnt ground. Burnt off praying. That's what
that means. See? Not just a ritual. It's
not just a type. It's not just a symbol. Christ
literally went to help us. The wrath of God fell on Him.
And He can't fall on us now. He can't. But what? Burn offering. Then there's atonement. Atonement.
Mentioned, as I said, 43 times I think it is. Atonement means
covering, is what it means. You know the first time it's
used? Well, in the garden, Adam and
Eve were naked, without sin. Didn't need a cover. Not ashamed. No sin. Didn't need a cover. They were naked. As soon as they
sinned, what happened? They felt naked. Why? Who? Who were they naked before? It's
just them. God. All things are naked and
open for the eyes of human. We have to do it. They suddenly
felt exposed, revealed, naked. They needed covering. They were
cold. They were afraid. Right? What God do? He killed
a lamb right before their eyes, shed the blood, and then took
the skin of that innocent animal. And it could have been one of,
we've looked at that, it could have been Eve's pet lamb, beautiful
lamb, spotless lamb that she loved dearly, that innocent lamb.
Sweet eyes, you know, and the Lord Jesus Christ, right before
her eyes, took that innocent lamb, that beautiful lamb, that
hadn't done any wrong. and cut its throat right before
her eyes. They'd never seen blood before. Life of the flesh is
in the blood. They didn't know that. They saw
blood poured out. They saw that lamb suffer because
of them. Before this, they were passing
the blame, weren't they? They saw that lamb die. He died. He's not coming back. And then God stripped that lamb
of its covering and took that covering and wrapped it around
those two shivering naked centers and covered them. And for the
first time they were warm again. The first time the word atonement
is used is in Genesis 6. Now what's in Genesis 6? The
ark. Okay, the Lord warned, Noah being
warned of God, moved with fear and prepared an ark for the saving
of his house. And God said, Noah, build an ark. And he said, atone
it, within and without. Pitch, same word. It's the exact
same word. Copper. Cover it inside and out
with pitch. What's pitch? Arc was made of
a tree. When a tree died, that those
people inside might live. That tree was covered in its
own blood. Christ hanging on the tree. Christ
is the tree. You know, in Hebrews, here Aaron,
we're supposed to be in Leviticus 16. I'm just telling you all
of it for you, okay? But look at verse 6. It says,
Aaron shall offer a bullet of the sin offering for himself.
Now Hebrews 5 says the same thing. The high priest went in, offered
a sacrifice for himself. Look, Christ had no sin. He did
it on the cross. He was made sin. Who's going
to put away his sin? He did. He's covered in his own blood. Like that ark. That ark died. Everybody in it lived. Pitched
within, without. Atonement. That's the atonement.
Let's see, Tom. Now, now, the scapegoat. Look
at verse 7. The scapegoat. Aaron shall take
two goats. Christ, these three are one.
Christ is the high priest. Christ is the scapegoat that
lived, the scapegoat that died. Aaron shall take two goats and
present them before the Lord at the door. He's always doing
things at the door. Because there's one way in to
where God is. The door. You got to go that
way, every time. And don't go in without blood,
ever. Christ said, I am the door, and
the tabernacle, and the high priest, and the goats, and the
bullocks, and the turd, and the lamb. And Aaron, verse 8, shall
cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord, one goat
for the Lord, another goat for the people. Cast lots. Psalm 69 says to reproach
it. And we'll look at verse 9. It says, Aaron shall bring the
goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin
offering. It fell. The lot fell on one
of these goats for the Lord, and he had to die. It was for
the Lord, without the shedding of blood. Chapter 17, verse 11.
That shed of blood is no remission of sin. Exodus 12, 13, when I
see the blood, I'll pass it on to you. The blood of a lamb,
the blood of this goat is of a bullet, all of which represent
different aspects of our Lord's person and work. But the lot
fell on this one goat, and he offered him for a sin offering
versus 15 and 16, He took them into the holy place and put the
blood on the mercy seat. See that? Always. See that? All right? The lot was cast.
The lot is cast, but the whole disposal thereof is up to the
Lord. And one lot fell on this goat,
and it was sacrificed unto the Lord. And Psalm 69 says it, the
reproaches of them that reproach thee, Fell on me. Fell on me. And the lot is falling
under us. It's not going to fall on us,
gentlemen. Because God said, let it fall on him. Christ, your
substitute. And he had to die. Christ had
to die. That's what he kept saying. Did
he preach this? Probably. Christ had to suffer. Either he had to or we'll have
to. Christ suffered for us. The just
for the unjust. To bring us to God, he said.
All right, and then the other goat. The scapegoat. It says, Aaron, the other lot
will fall for the scapegoat. Verse 10. The goat on which the
lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before
the Lord and make an atonement with him. Let him go. Turn him
loose for a scapegoat into the wilderness. Oh, scapegoat. Scape means departure. Scape
means to disappear. This goat's going to be taken
somewhere, disappear. Now, we'll see it again. We'll go down to verse 21 now.
Let me conclude this. It says in verse 21, Now 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 their transgressions, and all their sins. Here it is now.
These sorry, sinful Israelites. Sons of Jacob, they're all gathered
around. And if you knew something about
your sin, you'd be gathered around, knowing that this is serious.
And there's one way, God said, to worship Him. And there's one
man that can offer up this atonement. And you're hopeful. You're sinful
now. And you're hopeful that God will
accept this sacrifice on your behalf. And so they're watching
as this high priest took this goat into the holy place, and
the gates open there to the outer court, and they can see him cut
that goat's throat and then burn its body on that altar and then
take that blood and abase it and go into the holiest of all,
and the door closed behind him. And they're listening to those
bells on the hem of his garment, you know. He's in there and he's
going to get that incense, that censer of the incense out. And
he's going to go within that veil. He has to. It's the only
way, God said. Go within that veil. He's going
to take the blood of that goat and pour it out on that altar. And hopefully he'll come out
with a smile on his face, telling everybody he's accepted. Right
then they had another goat. And Aaron with people who was
empty, everybody who needed forgiveness of sin, everybody who was full
of iniquity, Aaron for them. They'd come and they'd confess
their sin. I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, I'm a sinner, etc.
So Aaron placed both his hands on that one goat. and confess
the sins of all everybody that came to him. Everybody came to
him. He confessed their sins. All
right? And then he called for a fit
man. Who was it? It doesn't say. It doesn't say. I know who he represents. Christ. A fit man, a mysterious man with
no name. And this man came and said, now
you take this goat with our sins and our iniquities on his head,
and you take him as far as from the east here to the west. You go as far as you can in the
wilderness, and you let that goat loose, and you come back
without him, without our sins, you come back. A fit man. Had to be somebody who was able
to go to the uttermost. It says in verse 21, a fit man
in the wilderness. And it says in verse 23, or verse
22, a land not inhabited. No man's land. Let go, let go. Christ said this. He said, I'm leaving to his disciples. Didn't he? John 14, I go to prepare
a place for you. I said, don't go, Lord. He said,
I've got to go. It's expedient that I go. But first he's going to die. Isn't it? He's going to die like
that first goat. The lock fell on Him. Our sins
are laid on Him. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. He's the head. I was going to
go with Colossians 1. He's the head of everything.
And we confess our sins on the head. The only person that Christ
died for is those who confess their sins. We confess our sins.
He's faithful and just to forgive our sins. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all our sins. Who confesses
Christ in believer's baptism? Those that need Him. Those that
are not ashamed of Him. That's who. Somebody doesn't,
they are. They're ashamed of Him. They
must not be a sinner. That's why you confess Christ
in baptism. That's why you confess your sins
to Him. He got sin. He's the only one
who can put it away. Well, he said he's going to go
to a place uninhabited. He's going to go into the holy
place, not made with hand, with his own precious blood, and offer
it up unto God for our sins. And he's going to turn with me
to Hebrews 9, and I'll go to Psalm 103 in closing. Hebrews 9, we just read it. But he's going to go, and for
three days, you know, we don't know where our Lord was, do we? We know he went to the presence
of God Himself. But Psalm 103 says this. Psalm 103 says this. That God has not dealt with us
after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
But He did deal with Christ according to our sin. He put on Christ
our iniquity. Okay? But God didn't do that
to us because as the heaven is high above the earth, so great
is His mercy toward them that fear Him. And then it says, as
far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions
from us. See, he's able to put it away,
and he did, by the sacrifice of Jesus, which no man can do,
but he's a fit man, fit man. All right, now that fit man took
that goat with the sins of God's people on its head into no man's
land, uninhabited, as far as the uttermost, and the people
don't want to see that goat again. Why did they use the goat? Why
did the Lord use a goat? Because God can't forsake a sheep. Right? He's a goat. There's goat hair in the first,
in the tabernacle one. That, right? A goat left, a man
came back. That fit man came back. Somebody
says, here he comes. The camels are coming. That's
what they said to Isaac. The camels are coming. Here he
comes. That fit man comes back. Did
you put him away? Are they coming back? No. And
Hebrews 9 says this. It talks about being appointed
unto men once to die and after that to judgment. Are we going
to be judged for our sins? The book is going to be opened.
Once again, let me ask you, do you have a burnt offering? Do
you have a burnt offering? Do you have a sin offering? What about a scapegoat? It says
Christ was once offered, verse 28, to bear the sins of many
unto them that look for Him, He's coming back without sin. Without sin. And we're going
to be sinners. We're going to be just like Him.
Changed. No more sin. No more spell. No
more problem. All because of Jesus Christ. Okay, stand with me.