In the passage that Brother Ron
just read in Leviticus chapter 16, I'm going to finish up this chapter
with an emphasis on the scapegoat. Now, you know, whenever we're
plagued and troubled, and that's about all the time when you say
whenever, but when we're plagued and troubled with the remaining
sin that still resides with us and within us, These passages
like this are especially comforting to God's people because it's
passages such as this passage here that we see on the Day of
Atonement, the pictures and the types of Christ, that we're reminded
that even though sin still plagues us and troubles us and brings
us to sorrow and sometimes even gets the best of us in this life,
that it cannot condemn us. and that God views us in Christ,
and that's our assurance. If God views us in Christ, now
listen to this, if God views me in Christ, in the eyes of
His law and justice, then where else would I find peace and comfort
and assurance but in viewing Christ myself? You see what I'm
saying? People look everywhere in religion
for peace and comfort, the solutions. But if God truly views me in
Christ, where else would I go to find those things but viewing
Christ myself? And that's what this Day of Atonement
was all about. I've entitled this message, Christ,
Our Scapegoat, because this is one of the most precious pictures
of Christ and what he's accomplished for his people. in his work on
the cross. Now look back at verse 5 of chapter
16. Now remember this is the blessed
day of atonement. This is the one day of the year
under the old covenant that the children of Israel, that they
through the work of the high priest who went alone into the
holiest of all with the blood, the blood of the bullock, the
blood of a slain goat, And he went in and out three times,
but he went in to the holiest of all and sprinkled the mercy
seat with the blood. This was called the Day of Atonement. It's what the Jews today call
Yom Kippur, which that's what it means, Day of Atonement. And
as I said last week, the modern-day Jew does not keep that feast
as it is prescribed out here in Leviticus 16 at all. No animal
blood, no shedding of blood, no high priest. But it says here
in the instructions that God gave to Moses to give to Aaron,
that he was to bring two goats. Now look at verse 5 of chapter
16. It says, And he shall take of
the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats
for a sin offering, and then one ram for a burn offering.
There were several different sacrifices here, all in some
way representing some aspect of the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But now these two kids of the
goats, they were to be without blemish, just like every sacrifice
that's given in the book of Leviticus, every one of them was to be without
blemish. And they were to be young goats,
all picturing Christ, our sacrifice, who was without spot and without
blemish, who was cut down in the prime of life. And they were
to be taken from among the congregation, from among the people. Now Christ
himself was taken among the congregation in his humanity. He was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh. He identified with
us in our name, in our nature of humanity without sin. So he
was taken from among men, for every high priest must be taken
from among men. The offerings must be taken from
among men. So here's these two goats for
a sin offering. And then look down, it says in
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. Now that was for Aaron himself
because Aaron himself was a sinner and needed to be cleansed too. And it says, and he shall take
the two goats. and 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 lot for the scapegoat." And what he's talking about here,
now, if you look in your concordance there, that term, azazel, is
a scapegoat, that means departure. I believe that's what that means.
You know, you'd be surprised at some of the weird things that
people come up with to translate that word. But I believe it means
departure or removal. And that's the scapegoat. So
one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat.
Now here's what's happening here. It is the Lord's choice here.
It's the Lord's doing. It's the Lord's work. It's not
man's choice. And that's why he cast lots,
because it was the Lord who was going to decide which goat would
go where. And it says, look at verse 9,
it says, And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's
lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. Now that goat was for
the sin offering to make satisfaction. That goat was for an atonement
as an offering. And it was a sin offering that
pictures Christ, our sin offering. It pictures Christ, our propitiation. who by his bloody death on the
cross brought satisfaction to God's law and justice." Now,
that's what the goat for the Lord was. God had to be satisfied. God had to be appeased. His justice
had to be satisfied. And then it says the other lot
on the scapegoat. Now, this scapegoat was set up
to bear the sins symbolically and ceremonially now. to bear
the sins of the children of Israel away into a place where they
can never be seen again, never be brought up again, and never
could return. Look at verse 9, it says, And Aaron shall bring
the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a
sin offering. Verse 10, But the goat on which the lot fell to
be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make
an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into
the wilderness. So that scapegoat was to be led
off into the wilderness. Now look over at verse 15 of
chapter 16. Now here's what the priest would
do. It says, 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. Now you notice the only thing that was to touch that
mercy seat was the blood. The priest's hands did not touch
the mercy seat, it was the blood that touched that mercy seat
during this ceremony. Sprinkle upon the mercy seat
and before the mercy seat, and verse 16 says, 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 sin, and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation
that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness. Now, what are we seeing here?
Here's what we're seeing, that God's people, their sins were
to be borne away, but never forget and never lose sight of this
fact. There can be no bearing away of sins until satisfaction
is made, until atonement is made, until the propitiation is complete,
until God is satisfied in his holy law and justice. And that's
what happened with the goat that was slain. Now, here we come
to the scapegoat. Look over at verse 20. The scapegoat
represents the complete removal of all our sins by Christ. That's what the scapegoat pictures
and typifies. The complete removal of all our
sins by Christ. That first goat, the Lord's goat,
the slain victim, gave us a picture of Christ's substitutionary death
on the cross. The scapegoat is the result,
the effect, the fruit of that. In other words, all our sins
were put away. All our sins. You remember when
John the Baptist stood before his congregation and he said,
Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. That's literally, he beareth
them away. He bore them away. Now, what
does this picture? Look at verse 20. It says, And
when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle
of the congregation, and the altar, after all of that which
was pictured in that atoning sacrifice was done, then he shall
bring the live goat, a living goat. You see, out of the death
in ceremony comes a picture of life in ceremony. And that picture
is out of the death of Christ comes what? Life. Life everlasting. Now listen to me. You've always
heard it. The wages of sin is death. The
soul that sinneth must surely die. What does that tell you?
It tells you sin demands death. If it weren't for sin, there'd
be no death. Therefore, if sin is removed,
what's left? Life. Where there's no sin, there's
life. Sin demands death. Righteousness
demands life. So if sins are removed, there
must be life. Now, that's what's pictured here.
So the live goat is brought forth. And look at verse 21. 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. How
much of the iniquity? All. 100%. and all their transgressions,
and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat." Now,
what does that mean? How are you going to put sins
and transgressions upon the head of a goat? Well, you've got to
understand, this is not literal. This is a ceremony here. This
is a picture. This is a ceremonial command
that God gave them so that they would see beyond. the picture. They were to look at this just
like the death of the animals, the blood shedding of animals.
Israel was never instructed by God to look to the blood of an
animal to remove their sins. They were always instructed,
as we're instructed today, that the blood of bulls and goats
can never take away sin. I'm going to show you that in
just a moment, how God showed them that. They were always instructed
by the priest always instructed by the prophets to look beyond
the type to someone better to come. So he talks about here
laying his hands on the head of the goat, confessing all the
sins of the children of Israel, and putting all putting them
upon the head of the goat, and it says, and shall send him away
by the hand of a fit man." Now, that fit man means a man who's
ready to go. That's what that literally means.
If you've got a concordance there in your Bible, it may say a man
of opportunity. What that means is he's ready
to go. He doesn't delay. There's no delay here. There's
no time factor here, you see. In other words, when this is
done, it's done. He's ready. It's to be done without
delay. So the fit man is a ready man,
and it says, into the wilderness. The wilderness representing the
place of no return. The place where no man can or
would go. That's what the wilderness represents. So what does this mean? Putting
all the sins upon the head of the goat. Well, it's a picture
of the imputation of our sins to Christ. That's exactly what
it is. It's teaching the old, old story. of the gospel message, how God
is just to justify the ungodly based on sin imputed to the substitute
and righteousness imputed to the redeemed. Now that is the
old, old story. And that's what I'm going to
tell you again tonight, the old, old story. To some people it's
new because they've never heard it. And sometimes when we hear
it, hopefully all the time when we hear it, it seems new to us
because it's just as fresh and just as rejoicing as the first
time we heard it. But that's what he's talking
about. That's what it pictures. The complete removal of our sins
laid upon Christ, who died for those sins, satisfied law and
justice, brought in righteousness, and bore those sins away. Isaiah
chapter 53 speaks of it. Let me just read you these verses,
beginning of verse 4. You're familiar with this passage,
so familiar. Isaiah 53, verse 4. Listen to
it. It says, "...surely he hath,"
what? "...born our griefs." He bore them. "...and carried our
sorrows." You see the picture, how it carries through. Just
like this scapegoat bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Christ, our scapegoat, our substitute,
bore our grief and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Now, you know what
that means? That means that unregenerate
man views him as someone who's a sinner, who deserves what he
got because of his sins. Stricken, smitten of God. That's
the way we looked at him as unregenerate people. We called him a malefactor. That's a criminal. He deserves
what he's getting. Do you remember when God opened
the eyes of the thief on the right hand of Christ? One of
the first things he told the other thief is, this man didn't
do anything to deserve what he's getting, but we deserve everything
we're getting. You see that? And that's what
he's saying here. He bore our griefs. He carried
our sorrows. Yet how did we see it? We looked
upon him as a sinner. smitten, stricken of God, afflicted. Verse 5 says, but he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. What that means is that the punishment
that was required to bring about peace was upon him so that it
wouldn't be upon us. You see that? And that's the
picture here of the scapegoat, and it's the picture of both
goats, the one who took the punishment and the one who bore the sins
away so that the children of Israel ceremonially, civilly,
could last another year as a nation until the next year when the
Day of Atonement would come back around. And yet we have such
a greater, more perfect sacrifice, don't we? You see, he only did
all this one time. He didn't have to come back and
do it year after year. He goes on. He says, with his stripes
we are healed. Now that's the imputation of
righteousness to us. The Lord laid to his charge our
sins and he bore them. The Lord laid to our charge his
righteousness and with his stripes we are healed. He says, all we
like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord, listen to it, hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. Can it get any clearer? The Lord
hath laid upon him." Now this is what the Bible teaches in
2 Corinthians 5.21 and other passages when it says, For God
hath made him to be sin. What does the picture and the
type teach us? It teaches that our sins were
laid upon him. He was made sin for us. Christ
who knew no sin, who had no intimate knowledge within his very being,
the thoughts and the degradations and the depravity of sin that
you and I are so over-familiar with. Is that correct? Christ never became a God-hater.
He never became an unbeliever. But He bore our iniquities that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So all of this
pictures that old, old story. And then look back at verse 22.
of Leviticus 16. Now, the fifth man was to lead
the goat out into the wilderness. And it says in verse 22, And
the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land
not inhabited. Literally, a land of separation. That's complete separation. And
he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. Did you hear what
Jesus said to me? They're all taken away, away. Your sins are pardoned and you're
free. They're all taken away. That's
what this is teaching. That's that old, old story. You
see, that's the removal of our sins pictured right there. Pictured in this goat who's a
picture of Christ. Let me show you this. Turn to
Hebrews chapter 10. I'm going to be turning back
to Hebrews a couple of times before I get finished because
I want to show you some things. passages of Scripture that we've
read quite a bit, going through Exodus and Leviticus. But here's
something to consider. First of all, the guilt of sin
is gone. Look at Hebrews chapter 10 and
look at verse 14. It says, "...for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Speaking
of the work of Christ, the guilt of sin is gone. Do you know what
the guilt of sin is? Sometimes we'll talk about feeling
guilty. Let's say we feel guilty. Or
we speak of guilt in the realm of just that we're the perpetrators
of the sin, and we are. But technically speaking, the
guilt of sin is this. The guilt of sin is God's sentence
of condemnation against you and against me." Now, we were condemned
in Adam when he fell. Adam sinned, and his sin was
imputed to the whole human race, all whom he represented. And
the whole human race were condemned in the one. That's what Romans
5 teaches. Now, how is that guilt, that
condemnation, going to be? We were in Adam under the sentence
of death. That's what that means. Like
death row. Now, how was that guilt removed?
It was removed by Christ, our atoning goat, Christ our scapegoat. He brought in the ground of justification. He removed the guilt. He took
the punishment that I deserved and bore it away. So therefore,
we can say without fear and without hesitation, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elation? It's God that justified me. Who can condemn me? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather it's risen again.
That's what the story of the scapegoat is all about. Nobody
can condemn you if you're in Christ. For there is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ. And then secondly,
the punishment of sin is gone. We read it in Isaiah chapter
53, the chastisement of our peace was upon him. That punishment
that we deserved, that we earned, that punishment that we merited. If you want to talk about what
a sinner can earn and what he can merit, that's death. Punishment
and death. But he, Christ, in his own body
on the tree, suffering the just for the unjust, bore the complete
punishment. for all our sins. I say it this
way quite often, he drank damnation dry. The full punishment of the
wrath of God that we deserve was laid upon him and he took
it, he felt it, he experienced it, and yet in his own body,
in his own person there was no sin, yet he felt all of the travail
that it would take someone to go through for all the sins of
his people. And then I want you to see something else. Turn to
Jeremiah chapter 50. And keep your finger there in
Hebrews 10, because I want to go back there. Look at Jeremiah
chapter 50. I want you to see this. This
is good. The memory of sin is gone. The memory of it. You say, well, I sure remember
it. I'm not talking about you. I want you to look at this. Jeremiah
here, you know what he's speaking of here in the historical context? He's talking about the destruction
of Babylon, I mean literal Babylon on earth at that time that had
brought Israel into captivity, you remember when Nebuchadnezzar
destroyed the temple. What Jeremiah is talking about
is the future destruction of Babylon and the future deliverance
of the nation Israel. Now what that is, that's a type
and a picture of our eternal deliverance from the bondage
of spiritual Babylon, spiritual Egypt, that kind of thing. When
Christ died on the cross, he conquered sin and Satan and the
curse of the law, everything that held us in bondage and captivity,
and he set us free. We were redeemed and delivered.
And that's what this is pictured. But look at how Jeremiah puts
it in verse 20 of Jeremiah chapter 50. He says, "...in those days,
and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for, and there shall be none." Do you hear that? Somebody said, well, don't go
looking for it or you'll find it. Not here. Not in God's eyes. The iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for. and there shall be none, and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found. For I will pardon
them whom I reserve." Now, where is the memory of sin gone? In God. He said, I will pardon
them. I'm the one who brought them
and reserved them. And then look over at Hebrews
10 again. Now, this whole chapter here, Hebrews 10, is about the
saving work of Christ on the cross by his one offering. He said back up in chapter 10
that the blood of bulls and goats will not take away sin. Therefore,
he said, a body hast thou prepared me, quoting from the Psalms.
In other words, God prepared a human body for the Son of God.
to take into union with himself in order that he could shed blood,
because the blood-shedding of animals won't do it. It was only
a picture. It was only a time. Therefore,
God made him a body, and he united with that body, and he walked
this earth, and he, by his one sacrifice, did what all the rivers
of blood under the Old Covenant for 1,500 years could not accomplish
in any degree. By his one offering. Now, he
says in verse 17, because of that one offering for sin, he
says, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now,
what does that mean? That means God will not charge
you with sin. The memory of sin in the way
of wrath and defilement and condemnation is totally gone. Now, that's
language that's used to accommodate our puny minds. You know that.
God never learns anything. He never forgets anything. He's
perfect omniscience. He's perfect in every way and
perfect wisdom. But He stoops down to use such
language to help us to understand something about this old, old
story that our sins are all taken away. God views us in Christ. Go back to Leviticus 16. What
a great, great picture of Christ. Let me read you a passage here
in Psalm 103 before I go back to Leviticus. I wrote this down
and I didn't write out the verse, so I want to read it to you.
But I want you to look at this in Psalm 103, verse 10. Then we'll go back to Leviticus.
Psalm 103 and verse 10. Listen to this. Talking about
God. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins. Now, I want you to note something
in that verse. It does not say, he hath not dealt with our sins,
does it? It says, he hath not dealt with
us after our sins. Now, you know why he didn't deal
with us after our sins? Because he dealt with someone
else for our sins. He dealt with his son. So that
when Satan and the world accuses us, our great advocate, the Lord
Jesus Christ, steps in and he says, in essence, you've got
to deal with me. That's what his intercession is all about.
That's what his propitiation, his advocacy is all about. You've
got to deal with me, Satan. You throw an accusation at one
of my sheep, you've got to deal with me. Now, I'll tell you,
that's comforting to me. I hope it is to you. I pray it
is. You've got to deal with it. That's who Satan's got to deal
with. Well, Christ put that old devil away. Now, when he said,
when he went to the cross, he says, now is the prince of this
world cast out. I know he's still alive and well
on planet earth, and he's still running around here trying to
do his business, but his destiny is sealed, my friend. in the
mind and purpose of God, and on the cross of Christ it was
taken care of. He dealt with it. Put it away,
but go on. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. How
far is the east from the west? It can't be measured. That's
what this scapegoat picture is. Look back at Leviticus 16. Now, look here at verse 23. Now,
here's the response based on the atonement that's been made.
When the atonement was finished, Here's what happened. The priest
emerged from the tabernacle in glory. The work's done. You see,
when that priest emerged from the tabernacle, the people were
assured that God had accepted the sacrifice. You see that?
If the priest didn't emerge from there, there's something wrong,
isn't there? But when he emerged from the tabernacle, That was
the sure sign to the nation Israel that the work was done, God had
accepted it, and we're good for another year, civilly, ceremonially,
nationally. And that's a great picture of
Christ, the resurrected Savior. He died on that cross, and he
was buried in that tomb. But God would not suffer His
Holy One to see corruption. The grave could not hold Him.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
He was raised again the third day, just like the high priest
emerged from the tabernacle in life and victory. Christ came
forth from the dead. And that was God's signification,
declaring Him to be the Son of God before His people and saying,
I've accepted this sacrifice. Sin was put away. Righteousness
was imputed. Look at it, verse 23. And Aaron
shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation and put off
the linen garments which he put on when he went into the holy
place, and leave them there. And he shall wash his flesh with
water in the holy place. See, these ceremonial washings
continually took place now. That blood had to be washed off.
The dust had to, all of it, had to be cleaned. And it was all
based on the sacrifice now. And he put on his garments, and
he came forth and offered his burnt offering, and the burnt
offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself and
for the people." And it says in verse 25, it says, "...the
fat of the sin offering shall be burned upon the altar." Remember,
the fat represents the best parts of the sacrifice which were offered
unto God on the altar. You see, God always gets the
best. And then he says in verse 26,
and he that let go the goat, the fit man, he says, for the
scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water,
and after come into the camp. And then verse 27, the bullock
for the sin offering, the goat for the sin offering, whose blood
was brought in to make atonement in the holy place shall one carry
forth without the camp, and they shall burn in the fire their
skins, their flesh, and their dung, the refuse. You see, representing
sin being burned up in the fire of God's wrath. Verse 28, and
he that burneth them shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh
in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. So after
releasing the scapegoat, the high priest and the one who released
the scapegoat washed and the sin offering and burnt offering
would be completed. And you know, there's three things
about the high priest that speak of our Savior. Number one, on
the day of the atonement, the high priest was humbled. Do you
remember back over there, you can read it in verse 4, where
the priest was taken and he was stripped naked before the whole
congregation and washed? Could you imagine what a humbling
experience that was? Well, it's no more humbling than
what our Lord went through in his humiliation when he humbled
himself and became obedient even unto the death of the cross.
What a humiliation he went through. I tell you, we don't even know
what real humility is in that realm, do we, when we compare
it to him. Secondly, he was spotless. He
had to wash, he had to wash, he had to wash. Now you know,
and I know, that all the soap and water that the world has
to offer cannot wash away one sin. But you see, this was a
picture. This was a ceremony. And all
through his duties on the Day of Atonement, he had to portray
a clean, spotless high priest. And then he could put on the
robe, which represented the person of Christ. And therefore we see
him as a holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, the spotless
Lamb of God. And even in the sacrifices, the
innocent victim was the one who suffered the death. It was the
just for the unjust. Thirdly, he was alone. You remember
he said over in verse 17, there shall no man come into there
but the high priest. Well, Christ suffered and bled
and died alone. He walked the winepress alone.
And then fourthly, he emerged victorious. He came out of that
tabernacle in all his glory because atonement had been made, the
covering of sin that pictured the future reconciliation between
God and sinners in the person of Christ. Just like Christ.
was in accomplishing his work of reconciling sinners to God. Now, these last verses, beginning
at verse 29, is a summary. They are a summary of this Day
of Atonement, and it is given for this purpose. It is given
to show that these things, these ceremonies, this human high priest,
the blood of animals, could never take away sin. that they were
inadequate. And what he says here, you see,
this is a perpetual statute. Look at verse 29. He says, and
this shall be a statute forever unto you. Now, when he says forever
there, the context must give us the meaning. And later on,
he says, he doesn't say forever, but he says an everlasting statute. And you know, the Jews today,
they take that and they say, well, see, those things were
to be forever and ever and ever and ever. And that's not what
he means at all. What he's talking about is in the context of that
covenant. And here's what he means. As
long as that old covenant law was in force, as long as the
law of Moses was binding upon that nation, this is what was
to be done. And it's interesting to me. that
the Jews today who would claim that the old covenant is still
in force because of the use of the word perpetual, the use of
the word everlasting and forever, that they will not abide by the
strict covenantal rules and regulations of that covenant. So if it's forever, if we're
to be keeping it today, then we need to find a tabernacle,
we need to build an altar, and we need to be sacrificing animals.
But it's not so. It was only to be perpetual,
continual, everlasting, as long as that covenant was to be in
force. And when was that time? Well,
the book of Hebrews chapter 9 tells us that that was until the time
of Reformation. And that's the word it uses.
The word Reformation is in the Bible. I think most of you knew
that. But that's not talking about anything about John Knox
or John Huss or John Calvin or Martin Luther. That time of reformation
was the time when Christ would come into the world and he would
take away the first and bring in the second, the new, the new
covenant. He would abolish the old covenant.
That's one of the things that was finished when he said it's
finished. And that veil was written too.
So look at this in verse 29. This shall be a statute forever
anew that in the seventh month, on the 10th day of the month,
you shall afflict your souls. Now, whenever you see that term,
To afflict your souls is talking about repentance. Repentance. That means sorrow. Sorrow over
sin. Sorrow over our own depravity. Afflict your souls. In other
words, what he's saying here when he says afflict your souls,
you're to see your need of the grace and mercy of God as pictured
in the Day of Atonement. That without this, there's no
hope. There's no hope. My friend, that's how we see
it in Christ. Without Christ, we have no hope.
Without his blood and his righteousness, we have no, we have no salvation. And we see that continually.
And he says, and do no work at all. Whether it be one of your
own country or a stranger that sojourneth among you, for on
that day shall the priest make an atonement for you to cleanse
you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord."
That's a summary of the whole thing. Ron said that's the most
precious. That's right. That's a summary of the whole
thing right there. Read it again. For on that day
shall the priest make an atonement for you to cleanse you, that
you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. Now, when
is the day for us? It was the fullness of the time
when God sent forth His Son to die on the cross of Calvary and
put away our sins. That's the day for us, isn't
it? And He says, it shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you, and
you shall afflict your souls by statute forever. In other
words, not only are you to afflict your souls in repentance and
sorrow, but you're to rest in what God has provided, a Sabbath. So in other words, when we look
to Christ, we're not just looking within ourselves and seeing our
depravity and our sin and our sorrows. If you go no further
than that, you're not resting. We're to look to Christ, for
he is our... What'd he say? Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you what? Rest. When we
come to Christ, what does the Bible say in Hebrews chapter
4? We enter into what? His rest. Do we keep a Sabbath? Yes, we do. How? We look to Christ
and rest in Him. Not a day. Not a day. But we rest in Him. That's what
he's saying here. And he says in verse 32, "...the
priest whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate
to minister in the priest's office." Verse 32. In his father's stead
shall make the atonement, shall put on linen clothes, even the
holy garments. He shall make an atonement for
the holy sanctuary." This is a summary of the whole thing.
Make an atonement for the tabernacle, the congregation, for the altar.
He shall make an atonement for the priest and for all the people
in the congregation. 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. And he did as the Lord commanded
Moses. Now, turn to Hebrews 10, and
I'll close with this passage. Hebrews chapter 10. This is the fulfillment of everything
that we just read in Leviticus 16, right here. Verse 1, I'm
not going to read the whole chapter, but look at verse 1. Hebrews
10. We've read it many times. He says, having a shadow of good
things to come." Now, we just read the shadow, didn't we? Looked
at the shadow. "...and not the very image of
the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they not cease to be offered, because that the
worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of
sin." Now, that means no more condemnation for sin, no more
guilt. You say, blood of bulls and goats
couldn't do that. Blood of Christ could and did.
And he says, but in those sacrifices there's a remembrance again made
of sins every year. They had to do it again. It's
got to be done again. This is the only civil ceremonial
way that it was to be done. Now look over at verse 11. Or verse 10. By the which will, that is the
will of God, we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all, and every priest standeth daily
ministering, offering oftentimes the same sacrifice which can
never take away sin. But this man, this person, this
Lord Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down on the right hand of God. Now, he sat down,
something that no priest in the tabernacle could do, because
his work was never done. But this man sat down, from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had
said before, This is the covenant I will make with them after those
days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them. And their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Now listen to this,
verse 18. Now where remission of these is, there is no more
offering for sin. It's done. It's done. We don't have to bring our offerings
in order to be saved. Our sins are put away. Our sins
have been led out into a wilderness that we can't even imagine. By Christ our scapegoat. who
atone, who reconcile God to us and us to God. And we have no
more, we have no more guilt of sin to deal with, no more condemnation,
for we have Christ.