Alright, let's go back to the
book of Leviticus chapter 16. Leviticus chapter 16. This is
a special, special portion of Scripture. We know all of the Word of God
is inspired. And it's all beneficial to us.
We're certainly confident of that. But there are some Scriptures
that especially speak to us. And I know you agree. When the Lord regenerated you,
when He was pleased to reveal the Savior to you, He used the
Word of God. He used the Scripture, and usually
some specific verse. And it's always been a blessing
to you, and I'm sure that as I speak these words to you this
morning, you think back, now yes, it was such and such a passage
of Scripture, maybe Brother Mahan, Brother Parker, somebody had
preached on that, and the Lord just used that in a special way
for you, and so it's always been, it kind of stands out to you
in the Word of God. This portion of scripture, it
really stands out to the people of God because it's so full of
the gospel. This is my fifth message on it,
and I was on the Day of Atonement from Leviticus chapter 16. The
fifth message, the sixth message will be this evening, and I was
thinking this morning as I was just reading it again, And I've read this chapter several,
several times, just in preparation for the messages, but not only
that, just for my own benefit, and I was reading again this
morning, and I saw something that I hadn't seen before, and
I was thinking, you know, that's one of the unique things about
the Bible, isn't it? Now you can look at a Scripture
lots of times, studying it, preaching from it, teaching from it, in
your devotions you've kind of poured over it quite a bit, and
then you go to it again and say, well, I haven't seen that before,
and the Spirit of God just shows you another golden nugget from
a passage of Scripture. It's the uniqueness of this book,
because this is a living book. It's unlike any other book that
there is. I was reading the other day that
of course the Bible remains the number one selling book in all
of the world. And I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that God has put
the scriptures into our hands. And I'm thankful that when we
read it, when the Lord's people read it, that the Spirit of Grace
uses various passages of Scripture to especially speak to us and
reveal to us and show us again our Savior. And if ever there
was a passage of Scripture full of the Lord Jesus, full of who
He is, full of what He did, full of why he did it, and full of
where he is now, it's Leviticus chapter 16. It's the day of atonement. This was a special day for all
of Israel. It was on this one day during
the year that Israel's high priest would go into the Holy of Holies
as their representative before God, and he never went in there,
as you read for us from the book of Hebrews, he never went in
without blood. Because you see, without the
shedding of blood is no remission of sin. I know today people like
to think of the birth of the Lord Jesus. Well, I'm thankful
He was born. I'm thankful that God was made
flesh and dwelt among us. People talk about the life of
the Lord Jesus. They talk about the exemplary
life of our Savior, and He did set the perfect example, and
Peter addresses that in 1 Peter 2. But what people miss is the
necessity of His death. Now, they speak of His death,
and they do so with words of sympathy and sadness. But most folks don't know who
he is and they don't know why he died. They only know that
he died a death that was very, very painful. It involved dying
on a cross, a death by crucifixion. That's about the extent of it.
Yes, he did die. But what we need to understand
is this, and certainly this is brought out in Leviticus chapter
16, the death of our Savior was a substitutionary death. He died not for His own sins,
because He had none. He died for the sins of His people.
And He died that God might be a just God and a Savior. You see, God is absolutely holy. We can hear the words echoing
in our minds from the book of Isaiah chapter 6 as the voices
in heaven shout, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Well, the issue is how can this
absolutely thrice holy God receive and accept and commune with,
have fellowship with, sinful people like we are? And the answer
is, through the substitutionary sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because our sins deserve, and
the law demands because of our sins, death. Death. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God's prophet said, the
soul that sinneth shall die. It must die. This is God's penalty
against sin. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
died for sin on the cross. He died so that then God's justice
was satisfied. Now understand this, our Lord
Jesus did not die so that God could be merciful to us. It was
in mercy that He died. God in mercy sent His Son to
die for us. God's Son died on the cross so
that God could, with the full agreement of His law and justice,
save us from our sins without lessening all the strictness
of His law. And in the book of Leviticus
chapter 16, we have all of these instructions about the day of
atonement. It involves one man doing the
work on behalf of the people to satisfy God's demands. You see this idea of a day of
atonement. It wasn't Moses that had this
idea to have a day of atonement and blood brought behind the
veil and sprinkled on the mercy seat seven times and before the
mercy seat seven times. It wasn't Moses that concocted
this idea. And it wasn't Aaron the high
priest who said, you know, you know brother, I think we ought
to have a special day of atonement in which I'll go behind the veil
and on that one day of the year, I'll burn incense back there
and I'll present the blood before the Lord. It wasn't Aaron's idea
either. Because you see, man doesn't know how he can acceptably
appear before God. It's God Himself who purposed this way of one
man, a representative man, one man on behalf of a whole nation
entering into the presence of God with the blood of a sacrifice,
thus satisfying God's demands of death for sin. And so the
sins of Israel were covered for another year. This is God's work
here. This is God's purpose in this
passage of Scripture. Now, Leviticus chapter 16 furnishes
us with an inspired record of all the transactions that happened
on the Day of Atonement in Israel. These events prefigured, they
prefigured the great transaction that actually happened at Calvary. You see, this was just a typical
transaction. Oh, it was done according to
God's specifications. It was done exactly the way that
God laid it out. But nothing of any everlasting
value was accomplished here. And we know that. Because in
the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, it says, the blood of bulls
and goats could never put away sin. And in this passage of Scripture,
Aaron goes into the Holy of Holies, first of all with the blood of
a bullock for his own sins, and then he comes out and he kills
a goat. And then he goes back into the
Holy of Holies with the blood of a goat. That's for the sins
of all of Israel. For all of their transgressions
and for all of their sins. But that blood did not satisfy
God's law so as to put sins away forever. The sin still remained. Therefore, year after year, This
ritual was carried out. Every year. And God said, look
here in Leviticus chapter 16, look at verse 34, the last verse
of the chapter. And this shall be an everlasting
statute unto you to make an atonement for the children of Israel for
all their sins once a year. Every year. Every year. And he did as the Lord commanded
Moses. Every year there is a remembrance
of sin by the offering of these sacrifices and the presentation
of the blood by Aaron and then those high priests who followed
him year by year. As for what happened on the Day
of Atonement, This is when Jehovah's relationship with the nation
of Israel was established and maintained. And all the sins,
and all the failures, and all the infirmities of the people
were atoned for so that God might dwell among them peaceably. and the blood that was shed on
this solemn day, it formed the basis of Jehovah's throne in
the midst of the people. In virtue of that, because of
the blood, a holy God could take up his abode in the midst of
the people, notwithstanding their ungodliness. God could remain
with them, and He did remain with them. In the Holy of Holies,
notwithstanding the fact that they were still a sinful people,
they were still a rebellious people, they were still a murmuring
people, they were still a people that had many transgressions,
but because of the Day of Atonement, and because of the blood, God
could abide with them peaceably. And He did. This 10th day of the seventh
month was a unique day in Israel. There's no other day in the year
like it to Israel. All of the other great and holy
days, they had a feast. Not on this day. No feast. This is a day of solemnness.
This was a day of repentance. This was a day in which God called
them to afflict themselves. This was a day when God said,
you shall do no work. Rest. And you observe the labors
of one man who works for you with God. As we've learned, the Day of
Atonement was to be to Israel a Sabbath day. And the law of
the Sabbath is, thou shalt do no work but rest. They were to
humble themselves before the Lord. And the sacrifices that
were offered on this day formed the very basis of God abiding
with them. And the reason God abides with
us, the reason the Lord dwells with His people today peaceably,
And listen, there is no condemnation to the people of God, and there
is no ire, there is no anger, there is no wrath of God in the
hearts of His people. He abides with us, He dwells
with us peaceably on account of this, the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That has appeased His wrath. and His justice. That has quieted
the anger of God. The vengeance of God has been
satisfied in punishing the Lord Jesus Christ in our stead for
our sins. We read in Hebrews chapter 9
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. God was hidden behind a veil.
Man was at a distance. And it stayed that way. It stayed
that way. Except that one man, on one day
of the year, could go into the very presence of God and live. Now Aaron could go in. And he
did go in. He did go into the Holy of Holies
on one day of the year. But he could not stay there. He could not abide there. He could not remain in the presence
of the majesty of God. He could only appear in there
for a little while. And then he had to come out.
The way was not open. It was not open for man to approach
God and stay there. There was no provision Remember
this, there was no provision in the entire range of the Mosaic
ritual, there was no provision for man to abide continually
in the presence of God. There was no provision in the
entire Levitical law by which Aaron could enter into the Holy
of Holies and stay there. He couldn't do it. he had to
leave. He wasn't fit for God's presence,
and God couldn't put up with his presence, but for just a
little bit on the basis of that blood that was brought. You see,
neither the Levitical priesthood nor the Levitical sacrifices
could ever yield perfection. And we might say insufficiency
was stamped on the sacrifices, and infirmity and sinfulness
was stamped on the priesthood, and imperfection was stamped
on both the sacrifices and the priesthood. The animal sacrifices could never
satisfy the infinite justice of God, and those animal sacrifices
could never give rest to a conscience troubled over guilt. Aaron was not a perfect priest.
He was a sinful man. And before he could do anything
for Israel by way of bringing the blood of the goat before
the Lord, he first of all had to do something about his own
sins and the sins of the other priesthood. He was not a perfect
priest. Therefore, he was not qualified
and he was not entitled to take a seat in the Holy of Holies
and abide with God the rest of the days of his life. He could
only make an appearance and then go back out the way he came in. He was a sinful man. Only one
man could go into the presence of God and sit down. And that's
the God-man. The God-man offered the one sacrifice
for sins forever that reconciled us to God and put away our sins
and brought in everlasting righteousness, and he entered into the very
presence of God in the holy of holies in heaven, and God the
Father said, Sit down! The work is done. The job is
finished. The removal of sin The satisfaction
of my law has taken place. You sit here at my right hand
till I make your enemies your footstool." Now Aaron, before he could enter into the
Holy of Holies as the representative of Israel, and offer for them
the sacrifice that was acceptable to God, he first of all had to
offer a sacrifice for himself. Look with me in verse 11 of Leviticus
16. And Aaron shall bring the bullock,
Leviticus 16, 11. He 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, that is from off the brazen altar, and his hands would
be full of sweet incense, beaten small, bring it within the veil.
He shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that
the very cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is
upon the testimony, that he die not." He burned this incense
in the Holy of Holies, and that cloud of smoke covered the mercy
seat. And that's where God met with
him. Now go back into verse 2. Look at what verse 2 says. 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. Don't overlook this next statement.
For I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat." Upon what
cloud? Within what cloud will God appear
to Aaron? Well, you might say the pillar
of cloud that covered Israel by day. And perhaps that's correct. But I think keeping with the
context, it's in the cloud of the incense. Because the Lord
said that Aaron is to bring the incense upon the fire before
the Lord, that that cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat
where the presence of God was. Aaron, you can enter into the
presence of God, where the cloud of incense is, and you can stay
there for a little while, because that's where God is. to meet
with God. Listen, what is it that we want
to do today? Now really, I mean I'm talking
about the people of God, I'm not talking about people who
are playing religion, I'm not talking about people who are
just going through a ritual, but isn't it this, don't we want
to meet with God? Don't we want to dwell with God,
worship God, abide with God, honor God as He set Himself forth
in the Word? Well, it's only in this cloud
that we can meet with Him. This cloud of incense, which
is the mediatorial work of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God
will only meet with Aaron in this cloud of incense. And He
will only meet with us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I've said
it many, many times and I'll say it many times again. God
will not speak to and he will not be spoken to by any son or
daughter of Adam except through a mediator. And here is Aaron,
the mediator. And he's in the Holy of Holies.
And He brings this censer of incense and it's burning. Here's
this thick cloud of smoke. It covers the mercy seat. There's the very Shekinah glory
of God. And God says, that's where I'll
meet with you. That's where I'll meet with you.
Nowhere else. Nowhere else. Listen, there's
no meeting acceptably with God anywhere else except in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Savior said, I am the way,
I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by Me. Come to the cloudy, the cloudy
presence of God through Christ Jesus. You'll be accepted. You'll be accepted. And He took the blood. Look at
verse 14. 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." Now
what's this for? What's the reason for this? Well,
here's the reason. Aaron's a sinful man. Listen,
he was just as defiled as any other Israelite. Oh, he had the
title? He is the high priest? The Lord
had him anointed to be the high priest. God ordained him to be
the high priest. But he was as sinful as anybody
else in the camp of Israel. He's a sinful man. And before
he can go in on behalf of Israel as their representative, he's
got to go into the presence of God with the presentation of
blood for his own sins. Now this is where our high priest
is infinitely different, because he had no sins of his own. So
when our Lord Jesus went to do business with God in this great
transaction of redemption, and that's what it was, it was a
transaction between God the Father and God the Son, whereby God
the Son presented to the Father that which the Father demanded. It was only one transaction. You
see, with Aaron there were two transactions. First of all, for his own sins,
and then for the sins of the people. But our Lord Jesus, He
had no sin. In Him was no sin. He did no
sin. Neither was guile found in His
mouth. Go to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Look at verse 22. Hebrews 7.22. By so much was
Jesus made surety of a better covenant or a better testament.
And truly, they truly were many priests because they weren't
suffered or allowed to continue by reason of death. But this
man, because he continueth forever hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to
save them to the uttermost, to save them completely, to save
them perfectly that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth
to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became
us, or is suitable for us. This is the high priest we need.
Not a high priest like Aaron, who was a sinful man and who
died. And who is still dead. His body
is still dead. He is in glory, but he is still
dead. His body is. For such a high priest became
us or was suitable for us. He is just the one we needed.
Who is holy and harmless and undefiled. separate from sinners,
made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily, as those
high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then
for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself." There wasn't two transactions. One transaction. For the sins of those he represented. Because it says in verse 28,
for the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity. Infirmity. Written across, as it were, every
high priest throughout the history of Israel, to the day the Lord
Jesus Christ died, and even the high priests that they've had
since then, for that matter, written across all of them is
this, infirmity. weakness, defilement. But the
word of the oath, which was since the law maketh the Son, who is
consecrated forever. We have a perfect high priest. Sinless. Sinless. I love the doctrine of imputation,
don't you? Set forth three ways in Scripture,
Adam's sin imputed to us. We became sinful, we became unrighteous
by reason of what somebody else did. Adam acted as our representative
and what he did drastically affected us. We don't become sinners when
we sin, we sin because we're sinners. Wherefore, as by one
man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, or all sin in
Adam. Then secondly, the sins of all
of God's elect were imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ. The iniquities
of all the sheep were charged to the shepherd. He never committed
any sin, nor was He defiled by sin, and He wasn't defiled by
the sins of His people when He took our indebtedness upon Himself. The sins of his people were laid
to his account. They were indeed charged to him.
And therefore, by imputation, he was guilty. He owed an infinite
debt to the justice of God that only the infinite Son of God
could pay. And yet, all the while, he remained
in himself the spotless Lamb of God. And He made full payment for
our sins. Jesus paid it all. All the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. And
then His righteousness is imputed to us. In the same way that the
sin of Adam was imputed to us, though we did nothing, so the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ has been imputed to us.
We did nothing. The work was His. Old John Bunyan
said, indeed, this is one of the greatest mysteries in the
world. Namely, that a righteousness resides with a person in heaven,
and that righteousness justifies me, a sinner on the earth. Aaron. Sinful man. Guilty of multiplied sins against
God. He had to do something about
his own sins before he could do anything about the sins of
Israel. You know, as you look through the Old Testament, from
the very beginning, the animals that died instead of the guilty,
instead of the guilty sinners, were innocent themselves. Well,
this was inaugurated right there in Genesis chapter 3, when our
Lord killed animals and then clothed our fallen parents with
their skins. It was Adam and Eve who were
guilty. But the animals that died in their stead, they were
innocent of the transgression. And right from there, from Genesis
chapter 3, going all the way through the Old Testament, every
animal sacrifice was the innocent dying for the guilty. And when
we get to the Lord Jesus Christ, He's the innocent dying for the
guilty. He's not the guilty dying for
the guilty. That can't be. Because one sinner
cannot save or redeem or make righteous another sinner. If
he became a sinner on the cross, then there's got to be two transactions. But there was just one transaction.
And we're reminded of that several times in the book of Hebrews,
by one offering. Not two offerings, but by one
offering, He hath perfected forever. Them that are sanctified. He's
the innocent dying for the guilty. Turn with me to Psalm 69. Let me work on this for just
a bit. And of course, we're going to come back to Leviticus 16
this evening. But in Psalm 69, Look at verse 4. And this obviously
is about our Lord. Even though it's a psalm of David,
it's a psalm of David's son and David's Lord. Psalm 69, verse
4. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. David would destroy me,
being mine enemies wrongfully or mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away." He never took anything away from God.
He never sought to steal God's glory as Adam did. But our Lord
Jesus came to this world to die for His people, to restore that
which He didn't take away. And He restored to us more than
we lost in Adam, I'll tell you that. We have in Christ Jesus
far more than we had in Adam. We have all of the mercies of
God in Christ Jesus. Now look at verse 5. O God, Thou
knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Thee. My foolishness and my sins. Well, how could the Savior say
it's my foolishness and my sins? By imputation. by imputation. They were charged to him. This
is not by personal transgression. This was not by him being mysteriously
transformed, transformed into the hideousness of sin itself. Oh no, no, it's by imputation. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians 5. Look at 2 Corinthians 5, verse
18. And all things are of God. All
things in salvation are of God. As far as that goes, all things
that ever happen are of God. But in the context, it's all
things are of God. All things in grace. of God,
who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself, and the Apostle Paul raises the
subject of imputation. Imputing, not imputing their
trespasses unto them. Our trespasses are not imputed
to us. And He's committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. By the way, that's the meaning
of the word atonement. We're then going through this
chapter in Leviticus chapter 16, the day of atonement. Break
it down this way, at one minute. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
has brought us to at-one-ment with God. He reconciled us. He didn't try to reconcile, the
scripture says, He reconciled the world, the world of the elect
unto Himself, and the gospel we preach, what is it? It's the
word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. Well, on this matter
of imputation, if sin is not charged to us, if it's not laid
to our account, then to whose account has it been laid? Who's
charged with sin? To whom was sin imputed? Verse
21 gives the answer. For He hath made Him." God the
Father has made His Son to be sin for us. It was all charged
to Him. That One who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Let me ask you this. If our Savior
had actually become polluted by sin, If he in some way other
than imputation became guilty, wouldn't there have been some
figure, some picture, some typology in the Old Testament of that?
Now I know, before someone, well you wouldn't stand and correct
me, but you might say something at the door. So before you do
that, I'll say this real quickly. We don't base our doctrine upon
typology. But we do see great pictures
of true doctrine in the Old Testament typologies, which prefigured
our Savior. We base our doctrine upon the
simple, clear statements of Scripture. But I would venture to say this,
surely, if our Lord had become actually contaminated by sin,
if he had become personally guilty, If He was transformed into the
hideousness of sin, wouldn't there have been some
indication of that in the Old Testament? I think there would
have been. In fact, I'm quite confident
of it. Like before an animal died, it would have dirt cast
upon it. Or soot. Something of that nature. It would be made right at the
last moment before it died. We'll make it filthy. That's
never seen in the Old Testament. The rule of every animal sacrificed
throughout the Old Testament, without exception, is without
spot and without blemish. Why is God Almighty so insistent
about that? Because His Son, His holy, darling,
only begotten Son, would die on the cross. And when He died,
let it be clearly understood, He was not personally defiled
by the guilt that He bore. And He paid the debt in full.
Let me give you one other passage,
and I know my time is just about gone. It has gone. Proverbs 17. Proverbs chapter 17. Let me give you this. You see, our Lord was the innocent
who died for the guilty to bring the guilty back to God. In fact,
that's what we read in 1 Peter 3. The just died for the unjust. It doesn't say the unjust died
for the unjust. Even when he was dying, he was
the just one, the righteous one dying for the unrighteous ones.
And why did he do that? Peter says, to bring us to God. To bring us to God. Now look
at Proverbs 17.15. 1715 Book of Proverbs, He that justifieth
the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are
abomination to the Lord. Now this is very true with men.
In a court of law, if a man is guilty with the facts to prove
it, with witnesses to attest to his guilt, if the court justifies
him, that is, if the court declares him to be innocent, Solomon says
that's an abomination to God. because it's not according to
justice. There would be a miscarriage of justice. We just had the trial
of the Boston bomber. That case was decided by a jury. Well, if that jury had come back
with a verdict of innocence, wouldn't that have been horrible?
With all the weight of evidence against him showing his guilt,
if the jury had said innocent, had been a miscarriage of justice.
So the Lord says, he that justifieth the wicked is an abomination
to the Lord. Likewise, if a man is just or righteous or innocent,
and that man is condemned to some sort of punishment, that's
also a miscarriage of justice. And yet, now listen to this,
what man cannot do is exactly what God has done. You know what
God has done? He justifies the wicked and He
condemned the just. He justifies the ungodly. That's what it says in Romans
chapter 4 and verse 5. He justifies the ungodly. That's us. He pronounces us to
be righteous. Who can do that but God alone? You can't do it. In fact, God
said it's an abomination if you do it, but He can do it in a
just way. How so? Through the death of
His Son. Through the death of His Son.
And He has condemned the just. It was said of Pontius Pilate,
you condemn the just one. It's said in the book of Acts
concerning the Israelites, the Jews. You condemn the just one. And that's wrong for man to do
that. But God condemned him. God poured out all of His wrath
on him because he was dying in the stead of His people. See
what man can't do? God does. That which is impossible
with man is very possible with God. And He condemned the just
one. And that's our message. That's
our message. Substitution and satisfaction. by the Lord Jesus Christ. Really
simple, isn't it? And a glorious message. We have
an impeccable Savior who is always impeccable, always perfect, even
when He died on the cross charged with our sins. And He paid the
debt in full, and God said, I'm satisfied. He said, it's finished. He bowed His head and gave up
the ghost. Three days later, He arose. Forty days later, the
Father received Him back to heaven and said, sit down here. Job
well done. And I tell you, if God's satisfied
with Christ Jesus and what He did, oh, let us be satisfied
with Him. Let us be thankful for Him, and
let us worship Him. All right, let's sing a song.