Turn with me if you wish to follow
along to Leviticus chapter 16. This is the context from which
I have my message this morning. Leviticus chapter 16. The context
is the Day of Atonement. These are the beginning words
concerning the Day of Atonement. There are more in other books.
But this is the basics, the foundation of the Day of Atonement. There's
a context here, as is in most different sections, if you divide
them out in the Book of Leviticus, concerning different sacrifices,
there's generally either a beginning summary or an ending summary.
And here is the summary, Leviticus chapter 16, verse 29. This shall be a statute forever
unto you. And it is. And it is. It was fulfilled in and by Jesus
Christ. But it's still a statute forever. Let me just stop there. This
shall be a statute forever unto you, that in the seventh month
on the tenth day of the month, was always to be the case. On the 10th day of the month,
think about this next couple phrases, ye shall afflict your
souls and do no work at all. Now let's throw this out there,
is that not a contradiction? This is what the flesh always
accuses God of. Now I can be contradictory, God
is not contradictory. God's wisdom is far above what
we think our wisdom to be. But he says, ye shall afflict
your souls and do no work at all, whether it be one of your
own country or a stranger that sojourneth among you. But notice,
it's only for the stranger that sojourneth among you. I'll make
a couple statements here. I know some may want to fight
about it later or debate it, but I don't debate. I'm not here
to debate. This wasn't for a Canadian. I'm
talking about an indigenous North American native of that day,
and we're told that they lived over here for hundreds if not
thousands of years, indigenous peoples did in North America.
This was not for a Canadian. unless that Canadian somehow
found himself or herself all the way over in Asia and living
with the people of Israel in that day. Then it could apply
to them. They would still be a stranger,
but only if they were sojourning with the congregation of Israel.
I think some of you already know what this means, but I'll probably
not even deal with that. For on that day shall the priest
make an atonement for you, and the priest is proper because
only the priest, and we could even say the high priest, they
could actually put the high priest, because only the high priest
was going to do this on this day, the day of atonement. And
on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you to
cleanse you. that ye may be clean from all
your sins before the Lord. And yet, they offered sacrifices
daily for sins. Another seeming contradiction
to the flesh. The answer is this. It took all
of these shadows, these types, these figures just to shadow
the one great work of Jesus Christ. For on that day shall the priests
make an atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be cleaned
from all your sins before the Lord. It shall be a Sabbath of
rest unto you. Almost redundant, isn't it? Sabbath
means what? Rest. It shall be a rest of rest. That's what he's saying. It shall
be a Sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls
by a statute forever. In other words, don't ever get
over this. Don't ever get over this. And
the priest whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate
to minister in the priest's office in his father's stead, shall
make the atonement, and he shall put on the linen clothes, even
the holy garments, and he shall make an atonement for the holy
sanctuary, and make an atonement for the tabernacle, the congregation,
the altar, the priest, and all the people of 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. That's the summary of the Day
of Atonement. My title is this, Christ's Atonement, keep my hands
off. Now that's my title. But you
are not off the hook. This is not going to be a testimony
meeting about myself, or as Tim James calls them, bragamony meetings. You ever been in the religion
where they have the testimony meetings? And basically everybody
gets up and basically relives their old days, but then thanks
God that he delivered them from them. Tim calls them braggamony
meetings. I think that's probably a more
befitting title to it. Christ's atonement, keep your
hands off. Don't you touch it. Don't you
touch it. all about the Day of Atonement,
and there's so much here. We could spend months here, but
all about the Day of Atonement, whether it's the holy place,
the veil, the cloud upon the mercy seat that came down on
this one day a year, the bullock and the ram, that is the first
bullock and ram, and the garments that the high priest was to wear,
the two goats, another ram, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
The tabernacle itself, the altar, the Holy of Holies, all of these
things played a part. All of these things, they picture
Jesus Christ. You all know that. I really say
this and give this, Hebrews chapter nine, verses six through nine,
speaks about this specific day and calls it a figure for the
time then present. It proved that the way to God
was not really made yet, other than in God's eternal purpose
in the person of his son. All of these things picture Christ.
But I want to concentrate on just four aspects this morning. One is a default. It's not really
dealt with directly, but it's a default in light of the context
and in light of all the sacrifices, as a matter of fact. But we'll
look at four aspects. I'll give you the default and
three examples. Number one, Again, as I said,
these are pictures, types, shadows, but all this picture detail,
all this, remember, it's a figure detail or shadow, and these things
each are just a shadow, so it only gives us an outline of the
real thing. Christ came along and said, here's
the real thing. Who he was and what he'd done
gave us the whole detail of what all these things shadow or figure
a picture. But all this picture detail does
this. It exposes me. It exposes you. It exposes anybody who ever hears
this in any other venue. All of this detail exposes me. That's the default. Eden's events
were real. Adam fell in the garden. Not a physical fall, but a spiritual
fall. And Adam died spiritually. And it's more than just this,
although it is this, because Adam died spiritually. And because
the order of God is that all things would bring forth after
its own kind, then everything born to Adam after Adam fell
was born into the state into which Adam fell. But it's more
than that. When Adam fell, that day, he
partook of that fruit, you and I were made sinners that day. And we did not even exist then. wherefore as by the disobedience
of one man. His disobedience, many were,
not are being made, many were made sinners. I am corrupt. These things, all of them, and
specifically this Day of Atonement exposes my corruption, my sin,
my need. I am so sinful, God demands here
in the context, keep your hands off. The high priest don't need
any help. And we'll give you the other
two. There's the second point. I'm giving you the default right
now. Here's the next thing. The high priest needs no help.
You just go afflict your souls and rest. A conundrum to some,
I understand, but I understand that. At least I can relate to
it. I may not be able to, God help
me, I may not be able to define it to you in words, but I can
relate to what God's talking about here. Afflict your souls
and rest at the same time. Somebody else is doing all the
work. You see it? So the high priest is doing this
all by himself. The fit man does what he does. all by himself. But there's another man mentioned
here, or a person, I should at least say, to be fully honest.
That is, there is one who carries forth the carcass, the skin,
and the dung, and the guts, and all of that stuff. There's a
fit man. He does it, and it's amazing
when you look at the passage, he does it all by himself. But when he does it all by himself,
everybody's said to do it in him. That's that's an amazing
thing Think about it though. I'm not done with this default
yet. It exposes us People don't know
how hard it is to stand in this place There are times when I
wish when we gathered on Sunday mornings that every one of you
had to do this for about two years I Really do because it
ain't just get up in the morning, I got my notes, oh I've had these
notes prepared for weeks now since we missed last Sunday.
But the psyche is drained. Because I know I gotta stand
here and speak for God. And I know when I do, I have
to do so even if I know it might offend you. Or maybe even thousands
that hear us over the internet or on TV. And I am but a fallen, sinful,
corrupt man. And what I say and the words
I use, my psyche wants to run away from
those things. These, one man's starting to
learn it, another one's been learning it for a while, been
trying to do it for 35 years. When you approach this place
in the proper attitude, your mind's focused on one thing. Why, because I am a sinful, I'm
just a clay pot up here trying to speak for God. And I know
how brash I can be. I was mentioning to my wife this
morning a word I used, and if I put it on there now, it'll
go right on TV. I might as well put it on there. I went and preached
at a place, and I used the word kotex. Ain't been back to preach
since. Now that don't mean I'm not coming
back, because I used that word, but I sit and think all the time,
Joe, I wish to happen to use that word. You know? But what if I'd have said it's
poise? Would that have been softer? But that's what the book talks
about our righteousness as being. Mensis cloths. Now that may be
the more couth way to say it, but at least when people hear
me say it, they know what I'm saying. We had one lady one time
was offended when I talked about menstrual cloths. But folks,
that's what the book of God calls it. Our KGV softens it a little. But that's what it's saying.
You see, the very fact that this one man had to go offer this
sacrifice, and he had to do it, this man, Aaron, or his preceding
sons in procession, as they died, died off. another one was appointed,
they had to offer sin for themselves, and they'd go offer a sacrifice
for their own sin, then a sacrifice for themselves, and they had
to do this every year, over and over and over. Then there were
countless thousands offered throughout the year. That exposes me for
how bad I am. If it took all of that just to
shadow my Lord Jesus Christ, can you imagine what he really
went through? leading up to and on that tree. Mike, we can't
put it in words. What he really went through to
be made sin and at the same time still be the one who was just.
Really just. He's absolutely just and yet
made sin. I can't even put it into words.
But this exposes me. I am commanded to do something
while I do nothing. Am I not? Isn't that what this
says? I'm commanded to afflict your
souls, but then don't do no work at all. And you're to afflict
your soul the whole time this is going. Okay, do this little
work, and then quit working. That's not what he says. Is it? Yet religion will say, well,
you do this little thing first. Oh, God's done all he can do,
now it's up to you. Or, well, if you'll just do this,
then God will do that. That's the way they preach this.
That's not what this teaches. That's not what this teaches.
Hebrews chapter four puts it this way. If you wish to follow
along, turn, but once I get there, I'm gonna move quickly. Hebrews
chapter four. And verse nine reads this way.
There remaineth therefore a Sabbath, a rest to the people of God. There is a rest. Some have, as
it says here, I'm not gonna deal with that, they have entered
into that rest. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people
of God. For he that is entered into his rest has also ceased
from his own works as God did from his. And most people, okay,
you do your work, then you're done, right? That's easy enough
to understand. But then look at this next statement.
Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest. What,
I thought I should just rest! Right? And then religion says,
well, get your work done. If you try, by the labor of your
actions to get this done before you rest. Your actions will never
be accomplished as righteous in God's sight and you will die
trying to labor to enter into that rest by your actions. This
is a labor of attitude, not action. That's what it is. Just like
this affliction wasn't, they're supposed to beat themselves with
some kind of whips. It's afflict, mourn what you
are. Let me just give it to you in a physical, think of all the
animals that's just gonna die on this day just for you. Right? Animals that have nothing
to do with your crimes against God. And they gotta die this
day without reprieve. Not even one year of reprieve. And then there are countless
thousands others. And then Jesus Christ himself,
the fulfillment of all these things came and became us. I know this is a conundrum to
most, but it's a reality to the elect who've been called by God's
grace. You see, My affliction of myself is this,
to mourn my corruption. To mourn my wretchedness. To
be ashamed of my sinfulness. To bemoan what I am in myself. And this is but submission to
God's way. Is it not? You afflict yourself,
you don't do any work at all. I can relate to that. I can relate
to that. First example, second aspect. Our high priest made a one day
atonement. This day of atonement was one
day a year. The scripture says in Galatians 4, 4 and 5, basically
these words. In the fullness, but in the fullness
of the time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law. And he was born the exact same
moment that he was supposed to be born. But it also goes on
and says, born under the law, that he might redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. So his day of redemption, this
day of atonement, happened on the exact same day, at the exact
same moment that God Almighty purposed it would be. As a matter
of fact, it takes a lot of technical study of the scripture in some
respect. One thing the Jews, many Jews,
especially the leaders amongst the Pharisees, they wanted Jesus
of Nazareth dead. But as time got closer to that
time, to the time, they said there's one day we can't kill
him on. But Jesus kept on preaching the
truth. and kept on preaching the truth
more publicly. Then he comes into Jerusalem
on the very week that is to take place and he keeps pressing the
issue of the truth and turns them into such a fevered pitch
of hatred against him that they crucified him on the very same
day that they swore they could not crucify him on. Why? Because
there was a day of atonement for him to die on. Now you think
he did this just as a possibility? You think Jesus Christ did that
just so maybe a good group of people might just let him have
his way and they might believe on him? No, he did it that we
might receive the adoption of sons. Who? Those who were his
children even beforehand. Go back and look at Galatians
chapter four. August Strong, he lived from 1836 to 1921, wrote
these words. We better praise God that he
saves any than charge him with injustice because he saves so
few. If God even saves one, Jesus
Christ had to be and do everything he did. Our high priest secured our submission
to him. I got to read this one, Hebrews
chapter nine. Hebrews is such a just a glorious
companion book to the book of Leviticus But look at just Hebrews
chapter 9 And let me find my spot Hebrews 9 Verse 12 it is
talking about this day of atonement thing neither by the bloats of
blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, this is all
about Christ, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us, not offered it, he didn't make it
so he could offer it, he obtained our eternal redemption. For if
the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling
the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, and it
did, Naturally speaking, in the order of the ceremonies, it did
what it's supposed to do for that year. And of course, the
heifer here is to the red heifer, which was at another time. But
look, how much more religion, free will religion don't deal
with that, do they? How much more, what's that next
word? Shall. How much more shall the
blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God do what? Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. That sacrifice he offered back
yonder, folks, it saved some people. It saved some people. Second example, third aspect. Christ is our fit man. I didn't
read this one, let me read it. I'll try to move. with Christ
as our fit man, chapter 16 of Leviticus 16, verse 21, 22. And Aaron shall lay both his
hands on the head of the live goat. Remember there are two.
One is slaughtered, offered up to God. It's the Lord's goat.
The second one's called the scapegoat. Now it's still the Lord's, but
the one died before the Lord, the other one lives. But look
what happens. And Aaron shall lay both his
hands upon the head of the live goat. And who's Aaron? The high
priest. Who's the high priest? Jesus Christ. Who's the goat? It's still him. But he is identified
with the creation. Christ identified with us. Aaron
shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and
confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and
all their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them
upon the head of the goat, and shall send them away by hand
of a fit man into the wilderness. And he lets that goat go. And
he's a fit man, he knows to take it in a place where that goat
will never find its way back. Now, do that today. If we were
to obey God under the law today, PETA would have us all on TV
with our names and addresses exposed. Would they not? Now,
yes or no? But let me tell you something.
Humanity did far more to God Almighty's goat, the scapegoat. Psalms 103 puts it this way. This is David. A few years, well,
probably a few hundred years later. Psalm 103. And verse eight. The Lord is merciful
and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. That's not us, is it? All it
takes is just somebody just to light our fuse. And we light
both. You light my fuse, I light your
fuse. Don't we? That's all it takes,
psst, spark, fuse lit. But the Lord is merciful and
gracious, slow to anger. We better be glad he's slow to
anger. Plenteous in mercy, he will not
always chide, neither will always, will he keep his anger forever?
He hath not dealt with us after our sins. Somebody said, well
God's punished me for what I did. God ain't touched you yet for
your sins. If God were to punish you right
now for your sins, he'd take your last breath and he'd send
you to hell forever. Now that's punishment for your
sins. In this world, we all reap what we sow, and that's not gonna
change. It didn't change for King David,
did it? God forgave King David of his sin, but blood stayed
in his house from that time on, did it not? And what we reap
we shall sow, period. but God hath not dealt with us
according to our iniquities. Aren't you glad? For as the heaven
is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that
do what? Fear him. And what's that mean?
It means to believe him. Same thing. To trust him, to follow
him, to obey him, to submit to him. All those words mean the
same thing. Because they all have Jesus Christ
as its central looking place. Central. As far as the east is
from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from
us. So if you on this globe start
going east, I know we'd like to divide it up into eastern
hemisphere, western hemisphere, but listen to me, if you on this
globe get right on the equator and start heading east, you will
continue to go east. I don't care if you walk for
the rest of your life. If you start east, you'll always
be walking east. And you'll never start walking
west unless you turn and about face and start walking the other
way. That lets me know that I cannot,
God doesn't put a delineation on east from west. He said it's
a no man's land. Can't find it. Can't find it. Hmm. As far as the east is from
the west, so far have I removed our transgressions from us, like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he
remembers we are nothing but what? He made us out of what? Dust. Dust. Dust. We best keep our hands off that
way. The fit man carried the The fit man took the live goat
out into the wilderness where that thing would just die off
out there by itself. He's the fit man for sure, he's
fit in his humanity. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. Yet he was fully human flesh.
Isn't that amazing? That's Hebrews 26, 28. And in
his divinity, I'm not gonna read it to you, Colossians 1, 15 through
19, he has in his control everything that exists, from the minutest,
most insignificant thing that ever happens in the universe
to the thing that rubs your crawl the most in this life. God Almighty
has it in his sovereign control. Amen, that's exactly right. And
if it's a war or not a war with Iran, it's a war or not a war
with Iran. That's God Almighty's business.
He's ordained politicians to deal with that. If he's pleased
to take us to war, we'll go to war and we won't be able to stop
it. But if he's not, we won't. We won't. I'm telling you, Christ
is the fit man. But what he was fit for is what?
All of that power of Mason was in his hands so that he could
carry our sins off into the wilderness. Lead them out there and drop
them off and let them go. Third example, fourth aspect. God's Christ carried forth our
condemnation. It's chapter 16. Verse 27 and
the bullock for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering
as the second goat The goat is the Lord's called the Lord's
goat to be slaughtered Whose blood was brought in to make
an atonement in the holy place shall one carry forth and somebody
so that ones put in there Yes, it is, but you'll see why in
a minute Oh shall one carry forth without the camp and they shall
burn the fire with their skins and their flesh and their dung
And it says it without putting in a word. And he that burneth
them shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water and
afterward he shall come into the camp. So that lets me know
there's one person doing this. Everybody is said to do it in
him. Isn't that what that just said? This one individual, Mac, takes
the hide, entrails, the dung, and takes it all out. After that
animal's been slaughtered, flayed up, and offered, his blood taken
into the holy of holies, and this one man who carries forth,
takes all of this other stuff without the camp and burns it
up. And the whole camp of Israel said to do that, they. I like
that. It says that when Abraham paid
tithes to Melchizedek, so did Levi. Levi didn't even exist
yet, right? Isn't that what the book says?
Somebody said I don't understand it. You don't have to understand
God, believe God. God said this is the way it is.
And when Abraham gave Melchizedek tenths of all those spoils that
he had, Levi was doing it too. Why? Because Levi was in his
loins. And every one of us that was chosen by God before the
foundation of the world was in the person of Jesus Christ because
we were even chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
And when He offered Himself to God without spot, so did we. When He, He carried our sins
far, far away, so did we. When he is the fit man, took
all, even the flesh, the hide, took it out and burned it, so
did we. What does it say? The book says
this, Romans chapter eight, I don't want to misquote that. Romans
chapter eight. And I'll just give you this one
verse. Let me find it here. Verse three, for what the law
could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, what
did he do? He burned sin up in the flesh. What? His flesh. You see, the
judgment God demands as payment for sins against him has been
meted out on Jesus Christ. He is our man who carries, so
he's a high priest who's fit and can carry forth that which
we don't want left in the camp. Right? Right? In other words,
afflict and rest. Keep your hands off. Mourn your
sin. Bow down to God for what you
are. Be ashamed of what you are. Be ashamed of what I am. But
just rest in Jesus Christ. Note the representation of many
by the one. When I read that, at first it
kind of threw me for a loop, Joe. Wait a minute. I know God's
word is one. But then I read that and it said
one. I thought well that's put in
there. It's a bunch of people that's doing it. No, it says
and he that burneth them. Why? Because when this one individual
took that stuff away, everybody else had that stamped to their
account. Stamped to their account. Paid
in full, it's done. How'd it get done? I'm doing
nothing. I'm afflicting myself and I'm resting. But there's
one man that's carried it all out yonder. You see it? And all
of you, the high priest, the fit man, and one who carries
forth, that's all one individual, Jesus Christ the Lord. You see,
let me give you a quote by Robert Hawker. The salvation of the
church doth not spring from any holiness wrought in us. but by
the work of Christ wrought for us. Not in our brokenness of
heart. Though brokenness of heart will
be there. And a work, this is me now, and
a work will be wrought in us that's a holy work. But our salvation
lies in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Robert Hawker's
my brother. I pray God I really believe the
Christ that he believed in. Hm. What, in other words, just
afflict, rest, keep your hands off. Keep your hands off. Here
it is. Not in any, not of our brokenness
of heart, but in Christ's bruised and broken body on the tree. That's the rest of Robert Hawker's
quote. You see, that's, when you start to feel pretty low
about, and we're, you know, Christ made this one offering, foreseeing
forever, but we're never to get above this afflicting our souls.
Until we awaken His likeness, we don't have the right to do
anything else but afflict our souls, keep your hands off, just
rest. And when you worry about your
salvation, don't look back at your experience. Some experiences
you had, you're gonna say, that's a pretty good one. Others, you're
gonna say, that's not a very good one. Look to Jesus Christ,
the one who died on the tree and accomplished the work. Oh God of heaven and earth, make
me, make me to lie down in green pastures. Because I being a sheep
am prone to what? Wander and not rest. Just lay
down. But God's got a what? Make me. I need God to make me rest. Mm-hmm. I will never afflict,
rest, and keep my hands off at the same time unless God Almighty
makes me do it. What about you? What about you? Mack, would you close us in prayer,
please? Father, we thank you for the time you've given us
to spend together. brothers and sisters in Christ
to study thy word and hear thy word preached. We're so thankful
for the man you sent us to speak the truth. We thank you so much
for Jesus Christ our Lord who died for us and we realize and
know through him he is our God and our Lord. Heavenly Father,
we ask you to bless the ones in our church that's elderly
and sick. comfort their souls and give
us strength to assemble ourselves together at the next meeting,
at the next present time. These things we ask in Jesus'
name, amen.