Let's go back to Leviticus this
evening, chapter 16. Leviticus chapter 16. On this day, Israel was made
to rejoice. For the Lord had instructed Aaron
to take the blood of a goat, to go into the Holy of Holies
with that blood, sprinkle the mercy seat seven times, and sprinkle
the blood before the mercy seat seven times. And God had, by
the casting of lots, the Lord showed them the scapegoat, there
were two goats, one for the Lord, one the scapegoat, Israel watched
as all of their transgressions were symbolically transferred
to that goat, and a fit man led him out of town. And oh, what
rejoicing there was when that fit man got back to the camp,
and the goat was gone, which meant the sins were gone. And
they experienced the mercy of God. These are a rebellious people. We know that. All you have to
do is read a little bit of the history of Israel and you know
something about them. They are a rebellious people.
They are a sinful people. But on this day, they are made
to rejoice because all of their sins had been covered for a year. They experienced the mercy of
God. Now they afflicted themselves
on this day. But when they afflicted themselves,
that in no way put away their sins. They did have to come before
the Lord in meekness and in great humility and with repentance
in their hearts. but neither their meekness nor
their humility nor the repentance within their heart removed the
sin or covered the sin. The reason they were made to
rejoice and to rest on this day in the Lord is because of what
one man did on their behalf in the Holy of Holies. I rejoice in the experience of
God's grace, don't you? Grace is real. And grace is operative
within the hearts of God's people. That's regenerating grace. When the Lord takes the very
scriptures, the gospel of redemption, and that becomes to us a life-giving
word, Make no mistake about it, God never quickens anybody apart
from His Word. He uses the Word of the Gospel.
And He mysteriously, miraculously makes us to live for His glory. And we experience that life in
our souls, and the evidence of that is we turn away from our
false gods, from all of our works, and we realize they're dead works,
And we're given the faith to look to the Lord Jesus. And we
see in Him all that God demanded and all that God requires. We
see in Him the absolute perfect Savior. He's the Redeemer. He's the Fulfiller of God's Law. He's the one who bore the curse
of the law in the stead of all of His people and put our sins
away. And we believe Him, we cling
to Him, we hug up to Him, we rest in the Lord Jesus, we look
to Him for everything our poor souls require and everything
that God demands. Thank God for the experience
of grace. However, It is not the experience
of grace that removed our sins. There is the reality of the work
of the Spirit within our hearts, but it's not the work of the
Spirit that removes the guilt, the sin, the transgressions,
and the iniquities. The Spirit of God deals with
us within our very souls to convince us that the work of the removal
of our sins has already been accomplished by the Lord Jesus
Christ. On this day of atonement, Aaron
did the work. Nobody else was with him. when
he labored on the behalf of Israel. Notice again verse 17, Leviticus
16, 17. There shall be no man in the
tabernacle, 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 atonement for himself, for his household, and for all
the congregation of Israel. The work is finished, my friends,
and we're relieved that it is. And our faith, and our belief
in the Lord Jesus, our feeding on Him. We're going to eat the
bread tonight that pictures the body of our Lord. Our feeding
on Him who is the man from heaven. And our drinking of the wine.
The wine is the gospel that makes the heart merry. Our receiving
of this is, I would say, because of, the reason is because of
the work that the Lord Jesus has already accomplished on the
cross. I would say on Calvary, that
day when the Lord Jesus died, here's what happened. Mercy and
truth were met together. Righteousness and peace, they
kissed each other. Our Lord Jesus, because He died
and rose again, the Father says He shall see of the travail of
His soul and shall be satisfied. You see, sovereign mercy, it
ordained our salvation and satisfied justice now demands our salvation
because it has been accomplished by our Lord. Notice that Aaron
goes about this work by himself. He has no competitor and he has
no companion. We know that his sons Nadab and
Abihu, they're dead. He has two other sons, Eleazar
and Ithamar. And they are, they're the priesthood. But They are not in there with
him. Listen, we are the priesthood
of God. We are made kings and priests
unto God through the Lord Jesus. But we had no part in the removal
of our guilt and in the satisfaction of divine justice. Our great
high priest did all the work and we are observers. We are
observers. And we are the recipients of
what he did. Our Lord labored by Himself. Look at Isaiah chapter 63. Isaiah chapter 63. And verse 1. Isaiah 63 verse
1. Who is this that cometh from
Edom? With dyed garments from Basra. Isaiah 63 verse 1. Who is this? This that is glorious
in His apparel. This one who's traveling in the
greatness of His strength. Who is this? That's the question. Who is this? And the Lord of
glory answers the question, I that speak in righteousness mighty
to save. Everything He speaks, He speaks
in righteousness, and He's the only one who can save, because
He's the Almighty One. Now the question is raised in
the second verse, Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and
thy garments like him that treadeth the wine-fat? And listen to what
the Savior says. Listen to what the one who speaks
in righteousness, who is mighty to save, listen to what he has
to say. I have trodden the winepress
alone. And of the people, there was
none with me. For I will tread them in mine
anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be
sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment with
their blood." Now this prophecy by Isaiah speaks of both our
Lord's first coming and His second coming. When He comes the second
time, Isaiah sets Him forth, the Spirit of God sets Him forth
as being that great victor, that mighty warrior, whose garments
are going to be stained with the blood of all of His enemies. Make sure you understand this.
Every knee is going to bow to Him. Now every tongue is going
to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. Those who are brought by the
Spirit of God to bow in this lifetime, that's a great blessing. That's called salvation. But
those who are not brought to bow during this life will be
forced to bow at the judgment. Then the Savior, our Savior,
the Judge, is going to cast them into hell. And he speaks here,
he says, I will tread them in my fury. This is not sweet little
Jesus. This is the Lord of glory. This
is the judge. This is the one who judges according
to the standard of righteousness. That's the standard, isn't it?
Righteousness. It doesn't matter how you compare
with me or how I compare with you. It's how do we compare with
Him who is the Lord our righteousness. And in order to be accepted by
God in the day of judgment, in order to be accepted of God right
now, we must be as righteous as the Lord is. And we are in
the Savior. He's the Lord our righteousness.
Now that's the standard. That's the standard. He's speaking
of His second coming when all of His garments are stained with
the blood of His enemies. But He's also speaking about
His first coming, His first advent. And His garments are red. Red
with blood. And this speaks of the vicious,
awful, horrendous death that he died, that awful sacrifice
for sins. Now when we speak and when the
Bible speaks about the blood of our Lord Jesus, and we talk
about, we sing about being washed in the blood, we sing about that
sometimes. It isn't a bath in His literal
blood. Do you understand that? You know
that. We're talking about His vicious,
sacrificial death. The entirety of it. We're not
talking about literal blood. I mean, when our Lord Jesus had
been removed from the cross, And when that cross still stood
there and then they maybe took it down or whatever, if those
soldiers had got some of our Lord's blood on them, would that
blood have redeemed them? Why, of course not. That blood
had no power. It's just real blood. It's a
man's blood. The blood signifies that bloody
death, his sacrificial death on the cross. When we sing, are
you washed in the blood of the Lamb? We don't mean you dip yourself
down in a baptistry full of blood. We mean that the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ washes us from all sin, once and for all. That's what we mean. And so the question is, are you
washed in the blood of the Lamb? Whose blood is it? It's the blood
of the Savior. One man. One man. One Savior. One Mediator. One Redeemer. And he did the
work by himself. And he will have no competitor. And he will have no companion
in this redemption. Anyone who tries to vie for his
glory shall be sent to everlasting condemnation. He is not going
to have a competitor. I am the Lord. That is my name
and my glory. Will I not give to another? That's
what he said. And when he died for our sins
and did the work of redemption, satisfying divine justice, removing
our guilt, bringing in everlasting righteousness for us, it was
a work that the Savior did all by himself. Nobody could help
him. And lest there be any accusation,
and I was thinking about this this week as I prepared this
message, lest there be any accusation that maybe one of his apostles
helped him. He didn't die between two apostles. He didn't die between James and
John. He died between two thieves.
Two men who were his enemies by nature. Not men who had followed
him. The word is, He saved us and
He saved us by Himself. By Himself. No one else on this Day of Atonement
was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies. Aaron, no assistant. Our Lord Jesus had no assistants. Who could help Him? Who could
help with the work of redemption? Could you? Could anybody? This stupendous
work of all of the sins, all of the indebtedness, of all of
God's people, of all ages laid upon this one man. Who else could
help him? This is a work for God alone. But it's God in human flesh.
That's who we say. That's who did the work. That's
why we come to honor him tonight in the Lord's Supper. We're not
honoring anybody else. We're not honoring the church.
We're not honoring a preacher. We honor the one who finished
the work to God's satisfaction. Like Aaron did the work of reconciliation
on the Day of Atonement all by himself. Now, go back to Leviticus 16.
I'll give you a few more thoughts
here. Whenever Aaron went back behind
the veil, that veil that has been rent open, right? Bless
the name of our Savior. He rent the veil from top to
bottom. The way is open for us. Come
on, sinner! If I could find a guilty sinner,
a sinner who is burdened with their sins, with their transgressions,
and say, I need forgiveness, I need righteousness, I need
the Lord, here is what I tell them, the veil is rent. Come
on. Come on. If you are hungry, come and dine.
If you are thirsty, come and drink. If you thirst for righteousness,
come on, there is righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ. That veil, though, on the Day
of Atonement, it wasn't rent. It was solid. And Aaron went
back there. What did he see? What would Aaron
have seen in that Holy of Holies? Well, he would have seen the
mercy seat. That's a solid gold lid for the
Ark of the Covenant. That's what he sprinkled with
blood. Look at Psalm 99. Psalm 99. That mercy seat represented
the very throne of God. Psalm 99, verse 1. The Lord reigneth. The Lord, Jehovah reigneth. Let
the people tremble. He sitteth, where? Between the cherubims. That's His seat. You know, we
say there's no seat in the tabernacle. There was the mercy seat, but
it wasn't for any man. That's for the Lord. That's the
Lord's seat. And bless His name, His seat,
is identified as being a mercy seat. A mercy seat. That gives my poor soul hope.
It's a mercy seat. And in the New Testament, we
see it's a throne of grace. That's why we can come boldly.
The Lord sits between the chairmen. The mercy seat. That's God's
seat. That's the seat of Jehovah. No wonder the psalmist says,
let the earth be moved. Let the earth be moved. Let the
inhabitants of the earth be moved to worship and adore the Lord. He sits there in regal splendor. He sits there as the universal
monarch. Therefore, let us be moved to
reverent adoration and sorrowful contrition. The mercy seat. Now the mercy seat speaks to
us of substitution, sacrifice, and satisfaction. It speaks to us of sacrifice.
The goat had died. The blood was sprinkled on the
mercy seat. The offering for the transgression
of Israel had been offered to God. The sacrifice. Satisfaction, because that goat
was what God demanded, and God was satisfied with it. You see,
God will accept what He has provided. And that's all He'll accept.
Isn't that right? God will accept what He provides. He won't accept what you provide.
But what He provides, you can just be assured of this, He will
accept it. And He provided the Lord Jesus
Christ. And His substitutionary death
is satisfaction, satisfying death upon the cross of Calvary. What
God provided, you can just be sure of this, He accepted. And
we're accepted in Him. This is the mercy seat. In the
New Testament, the word mercy seat is propitiation. Remember the parable of the publican
and the Pharisee? You get right down to the end,
of course, the Pharisee, he's filled with self-righteousness
and he's got a haughty spirit. But the publican, he stood afar
off, smote upon his breast, wouldn't lift his eyes to heaven, and
he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Or literally, be propitious to
me. Be a mercy seat for me. I'm the sinner." That man, that
publican, he understood what was portrayed on the Day of Atonement. When Aaron entered into the Holy
of Holies and sprinkled the mercy seat seven times and the ground
in front of it seven times signifying the perfect and complete redemption
that Christ would accomplish for His people. He said, be a
mercy seat for me. Be a mercy seat. Mercy seat covered
with blood. That's the place of sacrifice,
substitution, and satisfaction. What did Aaron see in the Holy
of Holies? He saw the Ark of the Covenant.
That was the central piece of furniture in the tabernacle after
all. A small wooden box. covered within and without with
gold. Made of Shetum wood, or Acacia wood. I was watching one
of those television programs, the channel, QVC, is that what
it's called? Something like that. And I get QVF, CVF. Why the F puts me in letters
thing? I'm confused. Anyway, what is it, QVC? C, thank you. QV said, I know
who the shops are now. QV said, I was watching and they
were selling spatulas of some sort. And they said, this is
made of acacia wood. That got my attention. They said,
it is virtually indestructible. That's why cashew wood was used
to make the Ark of the Covenant. And so many other things in the
tabernacle as well. Because it pictures our Lord's
incorruptible humanity that is indestructible. Indestructible. Covered with gold. That's his
deity. That's his deity. Aaron saw the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark speaks to us of Christ Jesus the Lord. The Ark was the
assurance of God's presence among the people. Even so, our Lord
Jesus, He is our assurance that God is with us. He said, Lo,
I'm with you always, even at the end of the age. The Ark had
a crown of gold around it. That signified the majesty of
our Lord's kingdom and His regal authority as the King of kings
and the Lord of lords. The Ark of the Covenant, you
remember when it was taken from Israel, they set the Philistine
set it in the Temple of Dagon. An interesting story, Dagon was
their fish god. It was not unusual back then
when a nation captured the image of another god, they would bring
it into the temple of their main god, who for these folks, for
the Philistines, was Dagon. And so they captured the Ark
of the Covenant, and they put it in the temple of Dagon. And
the next morning, some of the worshipers go in to worship Dagon,
and they find that Dagon has fallen down before the Ark of
the Covenant, as if worshiping the Ark of the Covenant, as if
in submission to the Ark of the Covenant. And I don't know why
they didn't say, how come our God's fallen, but they propped
Him back up, set Him back up, brushed the dust off of Him,
probably polished Him up and stuff. They left him, and then
the next morning they go in, and Dagon has lost his head,
he's been knocked over upon the threshold, his head is gone and
his hands are gone. And there's the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark of the Covenant signified the presence of God Almighty,
who will not put up with a competitor. And I'll tell you, when our Lord
Jesus comes to us, When He comes to a sinner, and our hearts are
filled with idolatry, all the idols bow down, as it were, to
Christ Jesus. Really, He just drives them out.
He breaks their neck, and they're gone in the presence of the King. And I'll tell you this, where
the ark was, that's where the glory of the Lord was. The Philistines had defeated
the Israelites. They captured the ark. They killed
the sons of Eli in battle. A messenger came to Eli. Eli
the old high priest. Ninety-eight years old he was.
And he was a big man. And he was a waiting word. And
a messenger came and said, there's been a great slaughter. Israel has been defeated by the
Philistines and your two sons are dead. And the Ark of the
Covenant has been taken. And when Eli heard those words
that the Ark of the Covenant had been taken, he fell back
and broke his neck. One of his daughters-in-law,
she went into labor. She delivered a son. And when
He was born, she said His name is to be Ichabod. Why is that? The glory of the Lord has departed
this place. The glory is gone. Our Lord Jesus,
listen, He's the glory of God. We see the glory of God in His
face. That's what it says in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. The ark of the covenant. Well, what's in the ark? Well,
the law of God. preserved, kept intact. That law is written on tables
of stone, which gives us an indication of the hardness of our hearts,
but also the strictness of the law. It's unbending. It's unyielding. It's inflexible. Oh, how strict
and demanding the law is. It doesn't demand that you do
the best that you can do. It demands that you do the best
that God can do. That's what the law demands.
Be ye perfect. That's what the law requires.
And the law will settle for nothing less than perfection. And it
got it in the Lord Jesus Christ, our representative and our Savior. See, the law makes no allowances
for ignorance or inability. It's strict. It's unbending. And the law cannot show any mercy. The law never shows any mercy.
The law just gives you what you deserve. That's what the law
does. The law punishes transgressors. But if you're not a transgressor,
if you're righteous, then the law says, well, I don't have
anything to do with you. And the law doesn't have anything
to do with us. because the law's been fulfilled
by our Savior, the Lord Jesus. What's in the ark? That golden
pot of manna. It was a golden pot. That's the
deity of our Savior. It was a large pot. It contained
an omer of manna. That was the daily amount an
Israelite was allowed. As God provided abundantly for
them, so God, He provides abundantly through us or for us through
our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our manna from heaven. Every
spiritual need, He supplies. Every eternal need, He supplies. Our physical needs, He supplies
those as well. And then there's Aaron's rod
that budded. Aaron's robbed it, buddied. You
remember in Numbers chapter 16, I'm sure you will, some of the
Levites, three of them, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and along
with them, 250 famous men, they rose up against Moses and Aaron.
They said, you take too much on yourself. After all, we're
all holy. We're all the Lord's people here.
So why do you lift up yourselves above the congregation? And Moses was angry. The Lord
told him, said, you tell each one of those guys to bring their
censors in the morning. And the Lord will show who it
is that he intends to lead the congregation. The next morning,
these three and the other ones, they said, we're not even going
to come. We're not going to show up. You can't tell us what to
do. And as you know, The story goes
like this. Moses said to everybody else,
he said, you better separate yourselves from these folks,
these rebels, because they're going to die an unusual death. And God opened up the earth and
swallowed them and everything that appertaineth to them is
what the scripture says. What could be more decisive in
showing that these men were not They're not fit nor qualified
to be like Aaron and Moses. They want to take the place of
the Lord Jesus Christ. See, that's what that's all about.
Taking the place of the Savior. Well, then the next day Moses
went to the people on God's instruction, and Moses said to each of the
heads of the tribes, he said, now each of you bring your rod
and represent your tribe. And whoever the representative
is, I want you to write his name on it. And on the tribe of Levi,
they rode Aaron. And then he took them all in before
the Lord into the presence of the Lord in the tabernacle. And
the next morning, he went to get them. And there's one rod
that budded and blossomed and actually bore almond fruit, ripe
almonds, and it was Aaron's. And he took them out, and each
man took his rod. Then the Lord said to Moses,
Aaron's rod that budded, take it back into the Holy of Holies. And we read in Hebrews chapter
9 and verse 4, in the Holy of Holies, it's Aaron's rod that
budded. When he put it in there, it was
just a dead stick. Why, who would think any life
could come from that? Well, that's an impossibility.
But overnight, it budded, but that's not all. It broke forth
into full blossoms, but that's not all. It bore almonds, and
that's not all. They were ripe almonds. Behold
our Savior. Behold our Savior, a root out
of dry ground. People looked at Him and said,
He's nobody. Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth? And they killed him. He died
on a cross. But he came back, and I'll tell
you what, under his authority and by virtue of his work of
redemption, God's eternal purpose not only budded and blossomed,
but bore wondrous fruit to the praise of the glory of His grace. And here's some of the fruit
in here tonight. We came forth from Christ Jesus, our blessed
Savior. He who was rich became poor,
and ye through his poverty might be rich. Aaron would have seen
the mercy seat, the ark of the covenant. But he would have seen
something else, and I'll quit with this. He would have seen
the cherubims. Can't forget the cherubims. They faced each other. I believe
these cherubims represent preachers of the gospel. We see them again
in Revelation chapter 4 and Revelation chapter 5. We see them and we
hear them singing the song of redemption. That's why I don't
think they're just angels. They represent preachers of the
gospel redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus. And what are these cherubims
doing? They're looking at the mercy
seat. As though to say to you and me, look at the blood. Look at the blood. Listen. God has ordained that it pleased
Him by the foolishness of preaching to save them to believe. God
uses preachers. And I know there's some people
say, I don't need a preacher. Well, according to God's Word
you do. Isn't that right? According to
God's Word you do. You read in Romans chapter 10,
how shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach except
they be sent? I therefore come to this conclusion. It is not possible for an individual
to know or learn of the Lord Jesus Christ apart from the means
of a gospel preacher. That's what God uses. And hear these preachers, as
it were, on the mercy seat. Their eyes are always on the
mercy seat. They always direct us to the
mercy seat. Never, never are those cherubim
ever set forth as gazing upon one another. They're always gazing
at the mercy seat. Because God's preachers always
direct you to Christ Jesus in Him crucified. And I'll tell
you this. Look at this verse. Let me give
you this one. In Isaiah 52 and verse 8. Isaiah 52 verse 8, concerning
preachers, their watchmen. Isaiah 52 verse 8, Thy watchmen
shall lift up the voice. Preachers. With the voice together
they shall sing. For they shall see eye to eye
when the Lord shall bring again Zion. All of God's preachers
lift up their voices. And we all see eye to eye. All
of God's preachers see eye to eye. It means we are all in agreement. Now there are minor things we
may disagree on, but every preacher of the gospel, every God sent
servant of the Lord sees eye to eye on how the God of the
Bible saves sinners. They may have different deliveries,
different styles, and they all do. And I heard some people say,
I like that preacher, this is my favorite preacher. I'm listening
to what they say. I want to hear the message. And
I tell you, all of God's preachers see eye to eye on how God saves
sinners. And their message is the message
of sins forgiven by the blood. And God's glory is revealed in
the message that they set forth. Who did this work on the Day
of Atonement? One man. One man. Everybody else watched. And 2,000 years ago, one man
did the work. And oh, what a work it was to
reconcile his people to a holy God. But he did it. He did it. It's done. And He
said, it is finished. And if He says it's finished,
it is finished. The work is done as God would
have Him to do it. And He arose again and He ever
lives to make intercession for His people. And now we've come
this evening to remember Him, to remember His death until He
comes again. Now we're going to sing a song
before we have the Lord's Supper. I think it's number 191.