It certainly is an honor to be
here, and I'm very thankful to have the opportunity to be with you again.
It's a wonderful blessing to be with God's people. I'm thankful, as I've said before,
I'm thankful this place. I'm thankful for your pastor.
The Lord has taught for all of you, but especially my children
that are here. It's good to be with you again. Take your Bibles and let's turn
to the 16th chapter of the book of Leviticus. Isaiah 40, while you're turning
to Leviticus 16. This is the instruction that
our Lord has given to the Lord's pastors, preachers. Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people. God's people are all going to
be comforted. That's what they need. They need some comfort. In Isaiah
16, I cannot think of a passage that's
more comforting than this particular passage, I will. began in the
20th verse, and it's dealing with the great
day of atonement, the day of atonement. This is good news
for God's people, and they long to hear Tell me one more time what I've
said before. Tell me one more time what the
Lord has done for me in putting away my guilt and in so doing
bringing honor to Himself. The scripture says, beginning
in Leviticus 16, 20, And when he hath made an end of reconciling
the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar,
he shall bring the live goat. And 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
in all their sins putting them upon the head of the goat, and
shall send him away by the hand of a fifth 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 into 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. And 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 afterward 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 they shall burn in the fire
their skins and 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 into the camp." Now, the opening line of this
text reveals all that had taken place. In the preceding verses
of Leviticus chapter 16, there was, on the great day of atonement
when it came to the offering, there was two goats. And these
two goats were set by the high priest in a lot. was to be given
task. The priest would take and preach
and take hold of a lot, one of them said, for the Lord. That goat was to be sacrificed. The other lot was for the scapegoat. And the goat upon whom whose
lot it was to be sacrificed before the Lord. That goat, a picture,
a type of our blessed Lord whose lot it was before the foundation
of the world, chosen of God, set apart. for the satisfaction
of his justice for all of his people. He was made to be sin. What does that mean? He was made
to be sin for them. He who knew no sin, that they
might be made the righteousness of God in him. a sacrifice had
been offered. The Lord Jesus Christ set forth
in the sacrifice of that goat. Justice must be satisfied. God is just the way that men,
the religion of this world—of not the world, what is the religion
of this world, sets forth that God is trying to do something. He's a just God, all for whom he has set his love
and affection on. Their guilt must be dealt with. Their sin must be paid for. His glory, that is, God Almighty's
glory, is first, primary. John 13, verse 31 and 32 says,
Therefore, when he was gone out, that is, Judas, Jesus says, Now
is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God
shall glorify him instead, and shall straightway glorify him.
What we're talking about this morning in the salvation of God's
people is the glory of God. That's what we're talking about,
His honor, His glory, His worthiness. So we realize in the atonement
and in the salvation of God's people that the object of that
which we consider this morning is God's honor, God's glory. Is it not a blessed thought to
realize that in the salvation of God's people that God's been
glorified? It's His honor that we speak
of. By the substitutionary death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has been honored. We cannot consider
that enough. We speak of man's salvation,
the salvation of God's sheep. What a glorious thought. We're
going to consider something in just a moment concerning the
guilt of God's people put away. That there is therefore now,
right now, you want some good news? Here's some good news. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that be in Christ Jesus. None. On this day, Aaron went
into the holy place. Atonement had to be made for
the holy place. Atonement had to be made for
Aaron. Blood was sprinkled on all of
the furniture, the holy place itself. I know your pastor has
been dealing with the altar, the tabernacle. You know why. These things, blood, without
the shedding of blood, no remission. After that goat was slain, blood
was shed. Aaron went in. There was something
that took place that the people did not personally witness. The high priest went in there
to that place alone, one day a year. The high priest only
could enter in to the Holy of Holies. No one saw him but God. Something took place, wonderfully,
glorious, and they knew that there was in that place, in that
holy place, blood was being sprinkled. They knew the high priest was
there. But also something else took place. on that day, that
great day of atonement that bore witness to the conscience of
the people. The Scripture says, we just read,
verse 20, when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place,
the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, he shall take
the live goat After Aaron had gone in, the high priest had
gone in to that holy place, where that mercy seat was, the altar. The blood was sprinkled. He then
came out, and there was another goat, the scapegoat. And the scapegoat was taken,
and Aaron, the Scripture says in verse 21, laid both his on
the head of the live goat, and confessed over him all the iniquities
of the children of Israel, 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."
Now, just keep your finger right there, Brother Gabe Reddose,
his scripture. whether Paul referred to it.
Just turn back while you hold your finger in Leviticus 16,
back to Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13, verse 15. In that 15th verse, there's a
precious truth that we behold in this 15th verse. It says,
Hebrews 13, 15, Therefore, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips."
You see that? Giving thanks. But they're giving
thanks to His name. Look in the margin there. Giving
thanks. Confessing to. Confessing. Giving thanks. The Scripture
says back in Leviticus 16, Aaron shall lay his hands Upon the
live goat, here we behold the transferring, the charging to,
him made to be sin. Oh, the thankfulness when we
behold him who was made a curse for us, made, charged to become
before the law of Almighty God. Aaron, it says back in chapter
16, he confessed all the iniquities. Iniquity. That word means the
unequalness or the lack of righteousness. I've got a problem. You've got
a problem in yourselves. He confessed all of the unequalness,
all of my lack, placed his hand on that goat and began to confess
all. I think to myself, when we behold
the type of Aaron, the high priest, the type of picture of our blessed
Lord and Savior. all of the iniquity, all of the
transgressions, the overstepping of the bound. That's what it
means, all of them. Whenever you studied, I know
you have, the sin offering, there was an offering that was made
that was given for the offering for the sin of ignorance. Man's
a sinner whether he knows it or not. And I don't know the
depth of my rebellion and sin against Almighty God. And here,
after Aaron had come out, after he had entered in and the blood
had been sprinkled, shed upon that mercy seat, and he would
come and the people would behold on that great day of atonement.
And he'd take, and he'd place his hands on the top of that
goat's head, and the scripture says, all of them, all of them,
picturing the true Israel, as your pastor brought out, the
Israel of God, God's elect, God's people, all of their sins. sins, how much transgression
of God's people was charged to the Lord Jesus Christ? How many
of their sins did he pay for? All of them. Is that not good news to God's
people? What did he pay for? For me,
if I be his, if I be in Christ, How much did he pay? All of it,
all of it. And the Scripture says, he laid
his hands, and verse 22, And the goat shall bear upon him
all their iniquity unto a land not inhabited, and he shall let
go the goat into the wilderness. Here's the picture, here's the
type, here's the message of what our blessed Lord and Savior accomplished
as our substitute, as our sin-bearer. This is what He did. He put away
our sin in His own blood. God's glory was maintained. and his substitutionary death
and sacrifices and sacrifice, one just as just as the other. The death of that goat is the
sin offering, the scapegoat, the day of atonement, and the
believer is forgiven. He that believes and trusts the
Lord Jesus Christ, all of the sins, all of the iniquity, all
their transgressions, all. Boy, that's a word. All. How many? All of them. When that
thief was on the cross, you read in one of the accounts in the
gospel, He talks about that there were two thieves, one on each
side of our Lord, and for a while there, both of them were railing
for him. And then there was a time at
which one of them began to say to the other one, he said, You
and I are here because we deserve to be here. This man has done
nothing. And he said then to the Lord,
he said, Lord, when you enter into your kingdom, would you
remember me? When the Lord Jesus Christ bore
the guilt, paid the penalty, paid the curse, how many of his
people do you think he knew and remembered at that time. How
many of them? All of them. When he entered into his kingdom,
what do you think the possibility was that he would not remember
that that cast himself upon his mercy? Do you think there was
a part of him who said, today you'll be with me in paradise? Aaron having laid his hands and confessed. Israel watched and they saw Aaron
place this and they knew. They knew at least in type of
what was being completed on that day. And the scripture says that
after that the goat had Aaron's hands placed on it. It says that
in the last part of verse 21, it said, He shall send him, that
is, the goat, away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. In the margin there, it says
a man of opportunity, or that is to say, one appointed to that
task. That goat was confessed over and a man of opportunity
took him away and led him away. That goat was brought by and
those people watched. There was a time when Aaron went
in and inside and nobody saw. They didn't see what he was doing.
He was in that tabernacle inside that holy place. But here now
is a man of opportunity, one appointed to take and lead that
goat that had had Aaron's hands placed on his head, confessed
over all the iniquities, all the transgressions, all the sins
of the people. And they watched that goat, that
scapegoat, being led away by this man. Surely we can behold When John
in John 129 says, The next day John seeth Jesus come unto him,
and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world. Here was this goat, this scapegoat,
being led away with the sins of all the people, confessed
on him. And there they go. There he goes. Isaiah 38, 17 says, For thou
hast cast all my sins behind thy back. Where was that goat
going? Scripture says he was going to
a land not inhabited, wilderness, taken
away, a land of separation. I don't know exactly what happened,
but I can tell you this. When the Lord Jesus Christ laid
down His life, bore the guilt of all of God's
elect, all of God's people, our sins were put away. Jeremiah 31, 34 says, I will
forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. What does God remember concerning
judgment toward His people? What does He remember? Nothing. Nothing. I will remember their sin no
more. Oh, I'm very aware of the presence
of sin. Paul says, in me, that is, in
my flesh, there dwells no good thing. The will is present with me,
but how to accomplish that which I would, I find not. But I will tell you this, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus.
Being justified, we have peace. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Scripture
says in verse 23 and 24, And Aaron, after that goat had been
taken away, by one who was appointed a fit man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone could say, well, wait
a minute, how can the goat be a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the fit man be a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
let me ask you this. How can the altar be a picture
of Christ and the priest be a picture of Christ and the sacrifice be
a picture of Christ? salvations of the Lord, He has
borne our sins. He took them. He bore them. And
the Scripture says there in verse 23, "...shall come into the tabernacle
of the congregation, shall put off the linen garments," the
garments that set forth the holiness of His humanity and humility,
"...which He put on when He went into the holy place." What he's
saying was, you know all of the garments. I know your pastor's
dealing with them, and I won't belabor that. You know what I'm
talking about. That breastplate, that ephod, that mitre, those
stones on his shoulders, those twelve stones on that breastplate,
the urim and the thummim, all of those pictures of the Lord
Jesus Christ in all of that glorious garments that He would wear,
the robe with the pomegranates and the veils. He took all of
that off. put on the linen garments, the
holy linen garments, the garments of his humility, made, as Paul
said, in the likeness of sinful flesh. He humbled himself. That's something that no one
could do but Christ himself, humble himself. If we tried to
say that we humbled ourselves, we'd be proud of it. that we
humbled ourselves. He humbled himself and made himself
of no reputation. And Aaron put on those holy linen
garments, the garments of the humility and humanity of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he went in and offered that sacrifice. He's now come out. The scapegoat
is gone. And the Scripture says he shall
come into the tabernacle of the congregation, right outside of
the Holy of Holies, and shall put off the linen garments which
he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them
there, and shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place,
put on his garments, those royal, glorious garments, It belonged
to the high priest only, and he shall come forth and offer
his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the people, and make
an atonement for himself and for the people." Can we not see,
after Aaron had put on the garments, the holy garments, the linen
garments, and did business, holy business, glorious work with
God Himself? picturing the Lord Jesus Christ
in His holiness. And Aaron comes out and puts
on those royal garments, glorious stones. Do we not see when the
Lord Jesus Christ cried from the cross, ìItís finished, done,
over.î And he put on those glorious garments. Let me just read Philippians
2, verse 8 and 9. The scripture says, In 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,
of 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." Here we behold the
great high priest arrayed in glory, his honor, before the
people. And the Scripture says he came
out after he put those holy garments on, washed his flesh with water
in the holy place, came forth and offered his burnt offering,
the burnt offering of the people, to make an atonement for himself
and for the people. When the burnt offering was offered,
there were five major offerings. The burnt offering was a sweet
savor offering. The burnt offering set forth
in the death of the Lord. Acceptance of it, the smell of
it, It was the love of Christ to lay down my meat, he said,
my food, that which I eat of is to do the will of Him that
sent me. And Aaron came out and took those
linen garments off and put on the glorious garments of the
high priest, and he offered a burnt offering. In offering that burnt
offering, this is what he said. The Lord Jesus Christ willingly
laid down, willingly laid down himself, willingly bore those
sins away. And God was satisfied, the favor
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took those, verse 25 says,
he took the fat of the sin offering shall burn them upon the altar,
the best of." When we speak of the fat of the land, it's the
best of, the perfection of. And He took the fat of the sin
offering and burnt that upon the altar. And He that let go
the goat, or the scapegoat, shall wash his clothes and bathe his
flesh in the water and afterward come into the camp. Now, the people watched. They saw that scapegoat being
led away, and they knew in the confessing of this is what was
taking place, my guilt was paid for in the sacrifice of that
goat Blood was shed and sprinkled upon the altar, upon the mercy
seat. That blood put away the sin. Not, I know the type of it. The blood of bulls and goats
would never put away sin. But the picture, what was set
forth of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that scapegoat Isaiah 53, 4 and 6 says, Surely
he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities,
and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes
we were healed, and all we, like sheep gone astray, we turned
every one to his own way. And the Lord laid on him the
omnipotence of us all for God's people, for God's elect, for
all that Christ died. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. That's who I died for. Not for
all the world. In John 17, he didn't pray for
the world, but he said, I pray not for the world. I pray for
those you've given me out of the world. Thine they were. Thou
gavest them me, he said. Their guilt of sin is gone. Punishment is gone. And the scripture
says, Aaron came out, offered the fat, a burnt offering. And that one that had taken that
scapegoat out came back. Came back. Goat's gone. But the one that took him away,
came back and shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in
water, and afterward come into the camp." There was a testimony that was
given to the people by the one who was a fit man, a man of opportunity. There were priests that were
appointed. to have certain jobs that they
had to perform in the giving of these sacrifices. There was
so much that had to be done. And there was a man, a fit man,
a man of opportunity, and this was what he was to do. He was
to take that scapegoat away, and then he'd come back. And
in him coming back, He gave a testimony. When the people saw him come
back and they didn't see the scapegoat that had borne away
the sins, they knew this, that all those sins had been taken
away. They're gone. We have one who gives us a testimony.
We have a testimony. Here's our testimony. is the
record, and it bears record of what? Of the Lord Jesus Christ. He told those that he spoke to
on the road to Emmaus, beginning with Moses, in all the scriptures,
he preached to them, told them, in all the scriptures, those
things concerning himself. This is who we see today. The scripture says in John 16,
the Lord said, He said, I go away. But He promised that He
would send the Comforter. In John chapter 16, speaking, the Lord says, when
He, that is, the Spirit of God, the Comforter, when He has come,
He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment, of sins because they believe not of me, of righteousness
because I go to my Father and you see me no more, of judgment
because the prince of this world is judged. The one that gives the testimony,
of that which the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished, the
Spirit of God who speaks of Christ, speaks of Him. And the Spirit
of God, just like this man, this fit man that came back and bore
witness, the scapegoat's gone. The sins
are gone. They're gone into a land that's
not inhabited. The Spirit of God, He who quickens
God's people when it pleases God, who blows like the wind
when it pleases the Lord through the preaching and the setting
forth of the Lord Jesus Christ, God Himself, the Spirit of God,
the Lord God Himself, calls his people out of darkness, quickens
them by his grace, and tells them by his witness, just like
this fifth man of opportunity, the sin of God. He sins God.
Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. What do I say? You tell them
their warfare is over. Your warfare is over. The Lord
Jesus Christ has borne your guilt, the penalty for that which you
are by nature. The Lord told his people he will
reprove the world of sin, that is, to tell them this is what
you are by nature of righteousness, that is, them that in themselves
they have none, but only the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and of judgment." That is to say, there is none for
all that Christ has done. Judgment. They watched that scapegoat
born away, and here was the man of opportunity to fit man. And the bullock for the sin offering
and the goat for the sin offering, verse 27, whose blood was brought
in to make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth
without the camp. they shall burn in the fire their
skins and their flesh and their gong. And he that burneth them
shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water. And afterward
he shall come into the camp." Again, in closing, that last
passage that we looked at in Hebrews chapter 13, The scripture says in verse 11,
Hebrews 13, 11, For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is
brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned
without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate. May the Lord be pleased to teach
us fresh of these things concerning himself and the glory of our
blessed Lord, our altar, our hope, our peace. Turn to hymn number 212 and let's
sing. 212. I want to remind everybody that we have
services Tuesday instead of Wednesday, 7.30pm. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fountain I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Last verse. This is all my hope
and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. So precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other spouse I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus.