Let's go back to Leviticus chapter
16 this evening. Leviticus chapter number 16. Moses has received the instructions
that he then gave to Aaron. Aaron, on the day of atonement,
was to bring a bullock for his own sins, and as we noted
this morning, that bullock Aaron would kill. He shed the blood. He took the blood, some of the
blood, in a basin, took it into the Holy of Holies, Seven times
he sprinkled the mercy seat, and seven times he sprinkled
the blood in front of the mercy seat. What's the significance
of the seven times? Seven is the number of perfection.
Our Lord Jesus, by His blood of sprinkling, He has rendered
absolute satisfaction to God's law. And He has made us to be
the very righteousness of God in Himself. And the work that
He did, He did it to perfection. To perfection. Bless the name
of God we have a perfect Redeemer. Who accomplished a perfect salvation
for an imperfect people. That we might be perfect. in
the Lord's righteousness. And so Aaron, he's brought a
sacrifice for himself. He had to be brought into a state
of reconciliation himself before he could do anything for Israel. Now this evening, I want us to
focus on the two goats that Aaron was instructed to bring. Look
at verse 5. of Leviticus chapter 16. And he shall take of the congregation
of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering,
and one ram for a burnt offering. Two kids of the goats, that's
two males. And Aaron shall offer his bullock
of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement
And I told you this morning, that's at one minute. Reconciliation
shall make an atonement for himself and for his house. And he shall
take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation. In other words, he's to bring
these two goats at the door at the very entrance into the tabernacle
and present them to the Lord in full sight of all of Israel. As we focus on these goats, several
things need to be noted. Number one, these goats certainly
prefigured our Savior. and therefore they had to qualify. They had to be perfect to be
the offerings to the Lord. Go back in Leviticus chapter
1. In Leviticus chapter 1, the Lord gives Israel, gives to Moses
to give to Israel the instructions regarding the burnt offering.
And he has something to say here about the goats, if the goat
was brought. Because the A burnt offering
could be a bullock, or it could be a sheep, or it could be a
goat, or it could be a bird. It could be from the fowls. Look at verse 10 of Leviticus
chapter 1. And if his offering be of the
flocks, namely of the sheep or of the goats, for a burnt sacrifice,
he shall bring it a male without blemish. The goat was to be without
blemish. And we know this goat prefigured
our Lord even as these two goats over here in Leviticus chapter
16, they prefigure our Lord Jesus as well. Now, as I read this,
I got to thinking that isn't it unusual that our Lord would
use a goat to be a picture of himself. Because after all, most
of the time in the Bible, whenever a goat is mentioned, it's a reference
to the non-elect. It's a reference to those who
are wicked and vile and those who dine their sins, their vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction. As the Lord said to the Jews,
you remember in John chapter 10, that's the great chapter
about the shepherd and the sheep. And it says deeper into John
chapter 10, about verse 23, 24, something like that. The Lord
said, you believe not because you're not of my sheep. In fact,
I believe it's verse 26. He said, you believe not because
you're not of my sheep. Well, if you're not of his sheep,
then you've got to be a goat. Because that's the only two groups
there are, the sheep and the goats. He said, you believe not
because you're not of my sheep as I said to you. In other words,
the reason you don't believe is because you are a goat. You're
born a goat, you live as a goat, you'll die as a goat, you'll
spend eternity as a goat. You're not one of my sheep. Early
in the chapter, he said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
giveth his life, layeth his life down for the sheep, not for the
goats. There's no provision made for
the goats. There's no redemption for the
goats. There's no reconciliation for the goats. There's no righteousness
for the goats. There's no forgiveness for the
goats. There's only death and judgment and hell for the goats. In Matthew chapter 25, we read
Matthew telling us that the Lord will someday in the end gather
all nations before Him and He will divide them as a shepherd
divides the sheep from the goats. The sheep on the right hand.
The right hand is the position of acceptance. The right hand
is the position of favor and blessing. Whereas the left hand
is the position of rejection. Goats on the left, sheep on the
right. So most of the occurrences of
the Bible, when they speak of goats, set forth somebody who's
opposed to the gospel. And when we think of and we read
of our Savior, most often He is set forth as being the Lamb. He's the Lamb of God. The Lamb
stands out in the Scriptures as the imminent sacrifice of
the Old Testament age. And so we read in Isaiah chapter
53, He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter. All of the priests
of Israel, they declared exactly the same thing that all the prophets
proclaimed. They all pointed to the Lamb
of God in every sacrifice that they offered, every ceremony,
every offering in the morning and every offering in the evening
was a lamb. A lamb. And they all were saying this,
Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. This
was a message of John the Baptist, and it's a message of all of
God's preachers. We're directing sinners to the
Lamb of God. We say, Behold, look, see, focus
on Him. He's the Lamb of God, who by
His death, He took away the sins of a world of sinners, that is,
the world of His elect. And now we come to Leviticus
chapter 16, and we have Aaron taking two goats, and these goats
obviously they picture our Lord Jesus. So why is he pictured
or portrayed as a goat? Well, number one, because the
goat is stronger than a sheep. The goat is stronger than the
sheep. We've got to have somebody far more powerful than we are. We need somebody that is almighty
to save our souls from sin. The one who must save us must
be the mighty God. No one less than the mighty God
could take on this great task of removing the sins of all of
his people and honoring the very law and justice of God. Nobody
but almighty God could save us. Our Lord is pictured as the goat
because he's strong. And he's mighty. In Psalm 89,
the Lord said, I have laid a help upon one who is mighty. One who is mighty. And indeed
his name is, one of his names is, the mighty God. So the goat
is stronger than the sheep. Here's another reason I think.
Secondly, because the goat was generally looked upon as a dirty
animal. Although our Lord had no sin
in Him, nevertheless, the Pharisees, they thought Him to be a sinner.
And I want you to remember who it is in the Scriptures who accused
our Lord Jesus of being a sinner. It was the self-righteous Pharisees,
and I think that's worth remembering. The self-righteous Pharisees,
they were the ones who said, he's a wine-bibber, he's a gluttonous
man, they accused him of blasphemy, they accused him of being a sinner. The goat was a dirty, unclean
animal. Though our Lord had no uncleanness
of His own, no filth of His own, He was accused of being filthy. and defiled and a blasphemer. And then consider this. Both of these goats, which Aaron
was to bring, both of these goats were to be males of the first
year. That is, in their very strength. And they had to be without spot
and without blemish. in the fullness of their strength,
because the Lord Jesus, who else but God Almighty could endure
the fullness of the wrath of God? Who else but God Almighty,
who else but one who is mighty to save could take on Satan and
defeat him? Who else but God Almighty could
take the great burden of the sin debt of all of His people
and cast that sin debt into the depths of the deepest sea? Nobody
but the mighty God. Who else could defeat death and
the grave but one who is mighty? Even though they accused Him
of being a sinner. He is the Savior. And here is
something else. The goat was an animal that God
approved to be eaten by the people. Even so, we must feed on Christ
Jesus by faith. The Savior said, my flesh is
meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. In John chapter 6, He
said, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have
no life in you. Whosoever eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up
at the last day." What is it to eat Christ, to feed on Christ
Jesus, and to drink His blood? Well, that's faith. That illustrates
faith. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the one that we believe in
is fit and worthy to be trusted. Because He is almighty and notwithstanding
the vile accusations made against Him, He is the perfect One and
the Holy Son of God and our Savior who is without spot and without
blemish. And He is worthy to be trusted.
You can trust Him. You can trust Him. You can trust
Him with your soul. Oh, listen to me tonight. Trust
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is an able Savior. He is mighty
to save even vile sinners like you and me. He's able to save. The scripture says it's better
to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Why? Because the Lord is perfect.
The Lord is sinless. The Lord is mighty and strong
to save. One writer said that our Lord
was likened to a goat because some find the meat of a goat
unsavory and offensive. Unsavory and offensive. And many people find our Lord
Jesus Christ to be unsavory and offensive. His gospel offends
them. Does the gospel offend you? The
gospel of salvation by grace alone offends people. The gospel
of salvation, redemption by the blood alone offends some people. Does this offend you? In John
chapter 6, so many of our Lord's disciples, after He had set forth
great, sound doctrine, They left and followed him no more. And
he looked at his disciples, he said, will you also go away?
Does this offend you? Peter said, to whom shall we
go? You've got the words of life. We believe and are sure you're
the Son of God. But some people find this gospel
unsavory. It doesn't suit their taste.
They want a message that requires something of them. That they
must make some contribution to their salvation. Well, we don't
have that kind of message. Because that's not the message
of the Bible. The message of the Word of God is salvation
by grace alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, received by God-given
faith alone. And He gets all the glory. If
that's unsavory to you, It'll just have to continue to be unsavory
to you. But I find it very tasteful,
don't you? I say, oh, taste and see that
the Lord is good. He's good and His doctrine is
good. His teaching is good. His salvation
is good. His righteousness is good. His
forgiveness is good. Oh, it's tasteful to this poor
sinner. But some find the gospel of Christ
Jesus to be unsavory. Oh, that God would give new taste
buds. That's what's got to happen,
isn't it? God's got to give you a taste for the gospel. And when
you find out who Christ is in all of His glory, you find out
something about God's absolute strict holiness, and you find
out something about your sinfulness, you'll rejoice in your soul that
Christ Jesus did all the work. And you'll bow to God's way of
saving sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ alone. I tell you, to me, this gospel
is fine dining. It's fine dining. I love this
gospel. You'll notice that the Lord tells
Moses to tell Aaron, you bring these two goats, present them
before the Lord. They're for the Lord. They're
for the Lord. The sacrifices of the Old Testament
They were on the behalf of men and women. But they were for
the Lord. As you read through the book
of Leviticus, and especially the first five chapters deal
with the offerings. There are always the offerings
before the Lord. The blood before the Lord. The blood was presented to the
Lord. These two goats, they were presented to the Lord. They are
for God. Because before God can do anything
for us as far as forgiving us in a righteous way, He's got
to do something for Himself. He has to honor His own law and
His own justice. That's the reason it's always
the blood before the Lord. It's for God. It's to Godward. And we are thankful and we love
the truth that this salvation, this gospel is for us. We reap
the benefits of it, but most people don't realize that first
and foremost, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was for God. That God might be a just God
and a Savior. It's for God. So, Moses says,
Aaron, you'll present these two goats before the Lord at the
door of the tabernacle. In other words, in a very public
way. Because our Lord Jesus, He will
die in a very public manner. His body will be viewed by thousands
of people. It's like the Apostle Paul said
in the book of Acts. This thing wasn't done in a corner.
It was done before the Lord and done before lots of people. done very publicly, on behalf
of the congregation, against whom, it's for God, on behalf
of the congregation, and the congregation had sinned against
God, it's for their sins. Satisfaction had to be made for
God. I want you to notice this too.
These goats were for a specific kind of offering. The sin offering. As you read through Leviticus
chapter 16, you'll notice two different kinds of offerings.
There's the burnt offering and the sin offering. Both of these
offerings are mentioned. Let me give you some of these
verses. Look at verse 3. And there's a difference. These
are not synonymous. They're not the same offerings.
Look at Leviticus 16 verse 3. Thus shall Aaron come into the
holy place with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram
for a burnt offering. Verse 5. He shall take of the
congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats
for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Verse 6. And Aaron shall offer his bullock
of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement
for himself and for his house. Verse 9. And Aaron shall bring
the goat, upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a
sin offering. Verse 11. And Aaron shall bring
the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall
make an atonement for himself and for his house, and shall
kill the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself. Verse 15. Then shall he kill the goat of
the sin offering that is for the people, and bring his blood
within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the
blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat and before
the mercy seat, And he shall make an atonement for the holy
place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and
because of their transgressions and all their sins. And so shall
he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, which remaineth
among them in the midst of their uncleanness." Now, it may be
in a message in the future, and I hope that we'll be able to
do this, we'll deal with the different kind of offerings.
But suffice to say for now, let me say some things about the
burnt offering. The burnt offering is dealt with in Leviticus chapter
1. And what the burnt offering instructs
us about, what it taught Israel, was this. The only way to come
to God so as to be received, so as to be accepted, was for
a suitable substitute to die in your stead. It was the burnt
offering. It was the offering offered to
the Lord on the brazen altar, which was the very first piece
of furniture you would encounter as you walked into the tabernacle. The very basis of their worship
was the burnt offering. And the very basis of our worship
is the burnt offering. That is, nobody comes to God
for anything so as to be received except on the basis of the bloody
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. God won't accept you, He won't
receive you if you come any other way than the way of Christ and
Him crucified. That's the burnt offering. And
it's the very basis of all their worship. And we've noted this,
that when they brought the incense, when Aaron burned the incense,
he was to take those hot coals from off the brazen altar. where
the burnt offering had been offered and burnt to God. That went up,
the burnt offering, the offering that goes up, the smoke went
up to God. It's for God. And God smelled
in that smoke a sweet savor that honored Him and satisfied Him,
but only on a temporary basis, if I could say it that way. Whereas
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, that was the sacrifice
that gave to God everlasting satisfaction. And it was a sweet
smell, a sweet savor to God. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse
2 says that. That's the burnt offering. The
second offering that's mentioned here in our text is the sin offering. Now that's dealt with at length
in Leviticus chapter 4, if you want to read that later and study
it. The sin offering. Now the sin offering was different
from what's called the trespass offering, which is dealt with
in Leviticus chapter 5. Because when you study the trespass
offerings, they were for different sins. And different specific
sins are mentioned in Leviticus chapter 5. The trespass offering
was for different specific sins. But in Leviticus chapter 4, the
sin offering, no specific sins are mentioned. Because it's not
about an offering for specific sins which we commit. It's an
offering for the sin that we are. We are sin. That's the difference
between the sin offering and the trespass offering. The trespass
offering, that's the wrongs that we do listed, itemized. Some of those are listed there
in Leviticus chapter 5, but in Leviticus chapter 4, no sin,
no specific sins are mentioned, but rather different people are
mentioned as being full of sin. The guilt of sin. You see, sin
isn't merely what we do. Sin is what we are. It's what
we are. We came to the world, we're born
in sin. That's what David said, I was
born in sin. It's what we are. Now, true,
we do commit trespasses against God's law. That's the things
that we do. And that's why there's the trespass
offering in Leviticus chapter 5. But sin, that's what we are.
That's just part and parcel of us. See, that's why you can't
perform a perfect deed. You can't pray a perfect prayer.
You can't speak a perfect word. I can't preach a perfect sermon.
Nobody can do anything perfectly. Why not? Because you're sin.
You're sin. And anybody who says, hey, I'm
living about sin, they don't have a clue what they're talking
about. They don't know what sin is. Sin is that inward defilement
that ruins everything that comes out of us. You see, that's why
the Lord said, you know, the disciples said to the Lord, you
know, you've offended the Pharisees. He said, it's not what you put
into your body that defiles you, it's what's coming out. You're
defiled from the inside. And we need a sin offering. Christ is our sin offering. And
He's our trespass offering. He's the offering for what we
are, and He's the offering for what we do. Same offering. Christ Jesus the Lord. But here
in this passage of Scripture, these two goats, you notice this? Look in verse 5, He shall take
of the congregation, and I know I've read it before, I'm going
to read it again. Chapter 16 verse 5, He shall
take of the congregation of the children of Israel, two kids
of goats, of the goats, for a sin offering. Now let me ask you,
how many goats? Two. How many sin offerings? One. Because both of the goats
are considered to be the sin offering. The one speaks of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's His death. That's His
blood. That's His agony. That's Him
expiring on the tree. That's Him hanging His head and
saying, Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit. And He gave
up the goats willingly. The other one speaks of the result
of his death, which is the removal of sin, the taking away of sin. It takes two goats to set this
forth, you see. So both goats are considered
to be the one sin offering. Now notice this. The goats were
provided, that is, they were paid for by the congregation. Again in verse 5, and he shall
take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of
the goats. Now, when he brought a bullock,
in verse 3, he brought his own bullock at his own expense. That's
for him. That's not for Israel. That's
for him. But when he brings the goats,
the money for the goats was provided for, it was paid out of the public
treasury. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
26. Matthew chapter 26. Look at verse 14. Now remember, the congregation, they
paid for the goat. They footed the bill. Matthew 26, verse 14, Then one
of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,
and said unto them, What will ye give me? And I will deliver
him unto you. And they coveted with him for
thirty pieces of silver that came out of the public treasury. The people paid for it. They
paid to have the Savior, Jesus of Nazareth betrayed. And from
that time, he sought opportunity to betray him. Turn to chapter
27, verse 3. Chapter 27, verse 3. Then Judas, which had betrayed
him, when he saw that he was condemned,
repented himself, brought again the 30 pieces of silver that
had come out of the public treasury, he brought it to the chief priests
and to the elders, he brought it to the Sanhedrin, which is
the highest judicial court in all of Israel, saying, I have
sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. And they said,
well, what is that to us? See thou to that. And he cast
down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went
and hanged himself. And the chief priest took the
silver pieces and said, it's not lawful for to put them into
the treasury out of which it came. because it's the price
of blood. They took counsel, they bought
with them the potter's field to bury strangers in, wherefore
that field was called the field of blood unto this day. This
then was fulfilled, that which was spoken by Jeremy, or Jeremiah
the prophet saying, and they took the thirty pieces of silver,
the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of
Israel did value, and gave them for the potter's field as the
Lord appointed me. Where did the money come from
to buy the goats that are sacrificed? One of them is going to die and
the other one is going to be released, but for the sin offering,
where did the money come from? Out of the public treasury. And
these goats picture our Lord Jesus both in dying and in rising
again, having taken our sins away. And where did the money
come from that our Lord was Our Lord has betrayed the money that
was paid to Judas. It came out of the public treasury. But note this. Though the goats
were bought by the people, yet the Lord alone determined which
goat would die and which goat would live. It's vital we understand this.
Look at this. Verse 8. Verse 7 says, he shall
take the two goats, back in Leviticus 16, he shall take the two goats,
present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and Aaron shall cast lots upon the two
goats, one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat.
And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell
and offer him for a sin offering. Proverbs 16, 33, let me read
it to you. Proverbs 16.33, you know this verse. The lot is cast
into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Yeah,
man paid for the goats, but man's not going to determine when the
goat is to die. God will determine that. You
see, everything about the death of our Lord Jesus Christ was
ordained by God. I know man was active in killing
the Savior, but they only did that which God had before ordained
to be done. And our Savior died right on
schedule. Just like this goat. It was the
goat that God chose. It died in the manner that God
chose. It died for a people, for a nation
that God chose. It died on the day that God chose. Everything was according to the
sovereign will and purpose of God. So it was in the death of
our Savior. Men thought they were doing their
will and indeed they were carrying out their wills and their wishes.
But unknowingly they were fulfilling God's sovereign purpose. Because
God had marked out the way and the manner and those for whom
His Son would die on the cross. Then there's the death of the
first goat. Verses 15 through 19 speaks of this. Then shall He kill the goat of
the sin offering. That's for the people. We've
already talked about the fact that Aaron, on this day, he had
laid aside his glorious garments, the golden garments. He put on
white garments. And he kills, as we said last
week, about 15 animals on this day. Already, by this time, his
garments are bloody. He kills the goat of the sin
offering. That's for the people. He brings
the blood within the veil. He can't go in there without
the blood. You can't go to God without the blood. That's impossible. Oh, the blood. Where is the blood? You've listened to messages before
that had no gospel, and at the end you find yourself asking
this question, where is the blood? Where is substitution? Somebody
told me they listened to a religious radio program while they were
in their automobile not too long ago, and they said they listened
to it and said several good things, but no gospel. Where is the blood? Listen, if we don't speak of
the blood, if we don't speak of this great substitutionary
work of our Lord Jesus Christ, if we don't speak of His sacrifice,
if we don't exalt Him in His offices, in His deity, as the
God-man who died for us and put away the sins of all of His people
successfully, if we don't speak of the blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ in our services, we have wasted our time. That's exactly
right. We may go through the motions
of religion, But religion without the Lord Jesus Christ and His
substitutionary dead, religion without Him and His work is dead
religion. And that is the plague of the
country. Dead religion. He brought the
blood within the veil. That goat sacrificed as the sin
offering for Israel. Christ sacrificed for His people. And then, that blood is sprinkled. And you get to verse 20. When
He had made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle
of the congregation and the altar, He shall bring the live goat
I look at verse 21. Here's the imputation. And Aaron
shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and
confess over him. Notice the word all. And I would
challenge you to do this. Of course, I've read through
this chapter several times, and I like to take a highlighter,
one that won't bleed through the page. And you can buy highlighters
that won't bleed through the page. But I went through this
entire chapter just underlining a little three-letter word, all. You'd be amazed how many times
it's used. Aaron shall lay both his hands
on the head of the live goat and confess over him all the
iniquities of the children of Israel. Now, not all of the iniquities
of the Egyptians. Not all the iniquities of the
Assyrians. No, this atonement is for a specific
people. even as the death of our Lord
Jesus was only for a specific people, His Israel, His church,
His elect. For 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, and the
goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land
not inhabited, and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
Aaron puts his hands on the head of the scapegoat. Literally,
the removal goat. You look up the word scape, and
like Strong's Concordance, it'll say removal. Because that's what
this goat did symbolically. It removed the sin out of the
camp of Israel. Out into the wilderness. Aaron
shall choose a fit man. Who do you think the fit man
represents? In other words, fit has a two-fold
meaning. Number one, it means somebody
who's worthy. He's worthy to do this. And number
two, somebody who's anxious to do it. Look up the word. Worthy
and anxious. Boy, is that our Savior? He's
worthy. He's worthy to do this. He's
worthy to be the sin offering. He's worthy before God to be
the sacrifice for our sin. And He's anxious to do it. He said to His disciples concerning... He observed four Passovers with
His disciples. Or four Passovers our Lord observed
during His public ministry, if that's a better way to say it.
And He said to His disciples on that last one, He said, I've
been so anxious to eat this Passover with you. Why? Because it's the
one when you die. He was anxious to do it. There
was no holding the Savior back. Isaiah says He set His face like
a flint to go to Jerusalem. The disciples said, you can't
go to Jerusalem, they'll kill you. He said, get out of my way.
I've got to go to Jerusalem. It must be that the Son of Man
be crucified and rise again. He's fit, He's worthy. And he
was anxious to do the work. All these sins imputed to the
goat. And you know what? The goat didn't
become defiled. The goat didn't become a sinner. The goat didn't become guilty.
Except by imputation. But as far as this goat was concerned,
God didn't say, take it out in the wilderness and kill it. He
said, you take it out in the wilderness and let it go. Let
it go. Because what this live goat,
this removal goat, this scapegoat, what he represents is the result
of the death of Jesus Christ. He took our sins away into a
land uninhabited. And we'll never see them again.
They're gone. In fact, it says in Jeremiah,
in that day, the great day of the judgment, shall the sins
and the iniquities of Israel and Judah be sought for and shall
not be found. Because they don't exist. Oh,
I grew up in religion, you know. I remember our preacher used to
say, I'll tell you at the judgment. The Lord is going to pull down
a big screen and your life is going to be shown on a projector
film and you are going to be embarrassed. So you better live
for Jesus so you won't be embarrassed in that day. Listen, I want to
live for the Lord Jesus Christ. I do want to walk and you do
too. I know you do. But we have already established
we can't do anything perfectly. But our perfect Savior's righteousness
has been imputed to us. We don't have anything to answer
for in that day. Because He's already answered
for all of our sins at the cross. At the cross. The issue is settled. There's the great transaction
right there. So when we stand before the Lord,
there's not going to be any embarrassment. We're not going to have any shame.
It can't be. We shall stand there beaming
with thanksgiving, clothed in the righteousness of God's own
Son. Perfect in Him. And we'll say,
worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who has redeemed us to God by
your blood. And you've made us kings and
priests. And we'll praise Him forever.
He's the sin offering. He's the sin offering. He died,
took our sins away, and He came back without them. That fit man
came back into the camp, the goat was gone, and our sins are
gone. Gone, gone, gone, gone. Yes, my sins are gone. Now my
soul is free, and in my heart is a song. Buried in the deepest
sea. Yes, that's good enough for me.
But more importantly, it's good enough for God. And I shall live
eternally. Praise God. My sins are gone. Gone forever. We weep over our
sins and we're right to do that. But then remember this. God's satisfied and your sins
are no more. Rejoice in forgiveness. See,
it's one thing, we do preach that we're all sinners. That's
right. And you know, we open up the wounds. Sin's what we
are. Then we pour in the oil and the
wine of the gospel and hear what God says. Your sins, which are
many, are all forgiven. God doesn't hold anything against
you. He sees you in the beauties of His Son. That's just glorious,
isn't it? Absolutely glorious.