Knowing what my message was going
to be this morning, I've been humming that song myself today.
Glad Mike chose that to sing. Let's open our Bibles again to
Leviticus chapter 16. I told my class this morning
about this book of Leviticus. It gives us all of the various
laws of the Levitical priesthood. This is the laws that pertain
to the priesthood that would come from the tribe of Levi,
all the sons of Aaron. And this book of Leviticus gives
us all these different various laws. But now the subject of
the book is Christ our high priest. This book is written to give
us a picture of Christ our high priest, the person and the work
of our priest. And this book of Leviticus makes
it clear. God requires perfect holiness. Secondly, it makes clear that
God gives His people what He demands of us in His Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ. There must be a sacrifice for
sin. Not only is Christ a sacrifice,
like we looked at last week in the Passover land, but Christ
is also the priest who offers the sacrifice. I want us to look
at this Day of Atonement and see a picture of how Christ made
atonement for the sin of His people. This Day of Atonement
had many different sacrifices and ceremonies. You know, they
say the high priest would spend a great deal, a week or 10 days
or something, completely alone, studying, carefully going over
all these different ceremonies. So he did them in the right order
at the right time. It's a lot of different ceremonies
we see in this day. And the reason for that is it
takes a lot of different parts just to give us a picture of
the atonement, the perfect atonement that our Lord Jesus Christ has
made for his people. Now here's the reason that we
need this atonement. There was a time, man had fellowship
with God. When Adam was in the garden before
he fell, he had fellowship with God, didn't he? He walked with
God in the cool of the day. God, he talked with God, he had
fellowship with God. But when Adam sinned, all that
changed. When Adam sinned, there became
a great gulf fixed between God and man. A gulf that man cannot
cross. There's not a way man can devise
to get back to God. Well, is there a way that a man
can be brought back to God? Is there a way that a man can
be one with God again? Well, there is one way. And that
way is through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
definition of the word atonement is in the word itself. It's at-one-ment. The way man can be made one with
God again is through the atonement of our sin in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want to give you the definition
of the word atonement so we see how important the atonement for
our sin is. The word, first of all, means
to cover. There is a way our sins can be covered so that they're
not seen. Second, it means to cleanse.
There is a way our sin can be cleansed so that we can come
back to God. Thirdly, it means to forgive. How important it
is our sins be forgiven. Our sins are open rebellion against
God, but there's a way God can forgive sin. It's in the atonement
of Christ. And fourthly, this word, it means
to disannul, to take away the power of. Christ disannuls the
sin of his people. He takes the power of it away
because he puts our sin away. This is what Christ has accomplished
for his people. Now, the old Jews considered
the day of atonement to be the holiest day of the year. They
called it the Day of Covering. This is the day that we receive
a picture of how the sin of God's people is covered in the blood
of Christ. This is a bloody day. There are
at least 15 blood sacrifices offered on this Day of Atonement.
It's a bloody day. And that shows us two things.
Number one, it shows us sin requires death. There must be sin for
death. Either we're gonna die or our
substitute's gonna die for us, but sin requires death. And second,
it shows us this, the importance of the blood. God can only be
worshiped through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's
begin here in chapter 16 of Leviticus, verse one. And the Lord spake
unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they
offered before the Lord and died. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times
into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which
is upon the ark, that he die not. For I will appear in the
cloud upon the mercy seat. Now Aaron's two sons, Nadab and
Abihu, offered strange incense before the Lord. They didn't
take the incense that the Lord told them to bring, they made
up their own recipe and brought it. And when they did, when they
brought that strange incense, God killed him. He sent fire
and devoured him, killed him. That would be like us trying
to come to God outside of Christ in a different way other than
the Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator, and God killed him for it. I
tell you how serious this is. The way we come to God must be
the way that God said. You know how serious this is?
God killed the two sons of Aaron. You know what he told Aaron?
Don't you mourn for him. Don't you mourn for him a second.
This was right. This was just. That shows us
how serious it is to come before God. Now we can come boldly,
can't we? but only in the way that God
prescribed, only in our Lord Jesus Christ. We can't come to
God as we are. We can only come to God in our
high priest. And we can only come at the time
appointed by God, in the priest appointed by God. After this
happened, even Aaron couldn't come into the presence of God,
into the Holy of Holies anytime he wanted to. Even Aaron can
only come once a year. Then he had to bring blood. He
had to come at the time appointed of God, bringing the sacrifice,
the blood of the sacrifice that God appointed. And the reason
Aaron came into the Holy of Holies was to make an atonement. He
came in there to give into the holy place to give us a picture
of the atonement that Christ made for his people. I want us
to look at the atonement that Christ made for the sin of his
elect by looking at a few things. First of all, I want us to look
at who makes the atonement. Only the high priest can make
the atonement. It's the high priest who must bring the sacrifice.
Look at verse three. Thus shall Aaron come into the
holy place with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram
for a burnt offering. Verse five. And he, Aaron, 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.
Aaron's got to bring them. Verse seven, he shall take the
two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation. Moses doesn't do that. Aaron
has to do that because he's a picture of Christ, our great high priest.
It's Christ who offers the sacrifice that makes atonement for sin.
Now we know Christ is the lamb of God and God provided him to
be the sacrifice for sin. God sent His Son, the Lamb of
God, to take away the sin of the world. But now, our Lord
Jesus Christ's not just any old lamb. He's not like all these
animals that just, they sacrificed in the Old Testament as pictures.
Those pictures could never take away sin. But when God sent His
Son, when He sent the Lamb that would take away the sin of the
world, He didn't send a real animal. God sent the best that
He had. He sent his own son, and Christ
is the lamb. But you know, Christ is also
the high priest who brought the lamb. Who brought the Lord Jesus
to Calvary's tree? Well, it wasn't the Roman soldiers.
It wasn't that Jewish mob. They could not take him against
his will. He just stood there and said
his name. He said, I am, and they all fell over backwards.
They couldn't take him against his will. Mike had to bring himself. He brought the lamb for the sacrifice. He willingly brought himself
before the Lord to be the sacrifice for the sin of his people. The
high priest has to bring the sacrifice. And secondly, only
the high priest could kill the sacrifice. Look here in our text,
verse seven. And he should 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 Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's
lot fell and offer him for a sin offering. Only Aaron, the high
priest could kill the sacrifice. Now there were other priests,
you know, his sons that did some service in the, in the tabernacle,
but only Aaron could come and kill this sin offering and offer
it before the Lord. The other priest can have anything
to do with it because Aaron's a picture of Christ. Christ,
our high priest, is the one who killed the sacrifice to make
atonement for the sin of his people. Nobody could take his
life from him. Christ had to kill the sacrifice.
He had to lay down his life, kill the sacrifice so that the
sin of his people could be atoned for. Third, only the high priest
could sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice. Look over at verse
14. And he shall take of the blood
of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy
seat eastward. And before the mercy seat shall
he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. 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. Only Aaron could
sprinkle this blood. If anybody besides Aaron tried
to sprinkle this blood, you know what would have happened to him?
Same thing happened to Nadab and Abihar. God would have killed
them. Because Aaron's the picture of Christ. And only Christ can
apply the blood of his sacrifice to his people. Only Christ could
bring his blood, his precious blood before the father. And
thank God he did. You and I never could have done
that. We never could have provided the blood. We certainly couldn't
come into the presence of the father, but Christ himself took
his own precious blood before the father. He sprinkled it before
the Father for the sins of His people. And only Christ can come
and sprinkle the blood, apply the blood to the hearts of His
people. And thank God He does. We could never do it. You parents, what would you give? What effort? What would you do? to apply the
blood to the hearts of your children. We can't do it. We're not the
great high priest, but I know who is. And the Lord Jesus Christ,
he comes and applies the blood to the hearts of his people.
Only the priest can do that. Fourth, Christ. He is the sacrifice. He brings
the sacrifice. He kills the sacrifice. He applies
the blood of the sacrifice. Fourthly, he's the humble priest.
He came as a man. Look at verse four, Leviticus
chapter 16. And he should put on the holy
linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh,
and should be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre
shall he be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore
shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. Now on the
Day of Atonement, before the high priest began to do all the
ceremonies and the sacrifices and things that he did on this
day, he took off the glorious robes that he wore all the rest
of the year. You remember how those robes, they were a cunning
work. All those various bright colors
and woven with gold in them. You know, sometimes he'd turn
and you'd think his robe was made out of all gold. Glorious,
colorful, beautiful garments. On the Day of Atonement, Aaron
took all those off. And what he wore were the same
clothes all the other priests wore. Some probee just began
that the lowest priest that there was, Aaron, the high priest,
was dressed the same as him. Couldn't tell him apart, dressed
just to like. When Aaron changed his clothes
into those white linen garments that all the priests wore, he
gave us a picture of the humiliation of Christ. You and I cannot grasp the humiliation
that God's own son endured to become a man. I mean, and not
just any man, he became a poor man. He became a homeless man. He became a man for this reason. So he could be the high priest
for his people who are sinful men and women, poor and needy.
When Christ came, he didn't come in the glory of the Son of God.
When Mary brought forth her firstborn child, she held that baby in her hands.
I mean, can you imagine? The angel told her, he's coming.
She knew she didn't know, man. Here's this baby. She held in
her hands Almighty God. She brought that baby on the
eighth day to be circumcised. Simeon saw him. Simeon said,
there's God's salvation. Simeon held in his hand God. How did Simeon know that was
God? How did Mary know this is the Savior? Well, believe me,
there wasn't a glow around his head. He didn't have a little
halo over his head. Mary didn't either. He looked just like any
other Jewish baby because he stripped himself of his glory. to appear in human flesh, to
be our high priest. This is what he had to endure
to be our representative. No one could see his glory as
a son of God because he looked like a real man. And Bob, you
know why he looked like a real man? He was. He was a real man. When they say we know him, his
father and mother, we know he's a carpenter's son. He was a real
man. That's how much the son of God
humbled himself to be the high priest of his people. The high
priest on this day couldn't be a Philistine, could he? He couldn't
be an Egyptian. He had to come from the tribe
of Levi. He had to come from the children
of Israel because he's representing Israel. Christ our Savior humbled
himself to become a man so he could be our representative.
He's the humble priest. And then Christ our high priest
is the spotless priest. Look here at the end of verse
four. These are holy garments. Therefore Aaron shall wash his
flesh in water and so put them on. Aaron, from what I read about
this day, he washed at least five different times. You know
why he did that? To be a picture of Christ. Now
Aaron's just like us. He's a sinful man just like us.
So if he's going to be a type of Christ, he's got to go through
these washings so he can give us a picture of Christ our high
priest who knew no sin, who had no sin. He's the spotless priest. Now look at verse six. 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 11 says
the same thing. Aaron shall bring the bullock
of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement
for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of
the sin offering, which is for himself. Now Aaron offered a
bullock for himself, for the sins of his own sins, for the
sins of his family first. He did this before he offered
a sacrifice for the sins of the children of Israel. Now this
is very different than the atonement that Christ made. But Christ
came to make an atonement for the sin of his people. He didn't
offer a sacrifice for his own sins first, did he? Sins he committed,
because he never committed any. Christ is the perfect priest,
the spotless priest. He's holy, he has no sin. That's
what makes him the sacrifice that actually could put sin away.
But look at Hebrews chapter seven. Aaron's just a picture now. Don't
take all of this picture and make this apply all to Christ. Christ had no sin. But Aaron's
a sinful man. He had to offer a sacrifice for
his sins first so that he could appear as the picture of Christ
our high priest who didn't have any sin of his own. Hebrews 7
verse 26, for such a high priest became
us who's holy. harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher than the heavens, who needeth not
daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for
his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once
when he offered up himself." Now you consider this man. Consider
this man. This man is our high priest.
This man is our hope. And he's perfect. He has no sin. He's spotless. He's the opposite
of everything that we are by nature. He knew no sin. He did no sin. And the perfect righteousness,
the perfect holiness and obedience of Christ makes everything that
he does as our high priest effectual. This is the only priest who did
his job once and sat down. See, Aaron's just a picture of
Christ. He went through this ceremony this year, and if he's
still living next year, guess what he's going to have to do?
He's going to do it again. He's going to do it again, he's
going to do it again, and one day Aaron's going to die. And
his oldest son, I reckon it's his oldest son, is going to take
over. And on this Day of Atonement, he's going to keep making the
same ceremonies, same sacrifices over and over and over again.
And when the Day of Atonement's done, you know what he's got
to do? He's got to offer the evening sacrifice. He can put
on his glorious robes in the morning, guess what he's gonna
do? He's gonna offer the morning sacrifice. I mean, it's just over and over
and over and over and over. Because those sacrifices could
never take away sin. The sacrifice, it's just an animal. The priest offering a sacrifice
is just a man. The best that they can be is
a picture. But Christ, our perfect high
priest, offered one sacrifice for sin. Just one. And you know
what he did after that? He sat down. These priests never
sat down. They're not a chair anywhere
in the whole tabernacle. The whole inside defense, they're
not a chair anywhere because there's always work to be done.
The priest could never do the work effectually because he's
just a man. Christ, our high priest, brought
one sacrifice. He killed one sacrifice. He sprinkled
the blood once and he sat down. Not because he was tired. because
the work was finished. The work was perfect. It's just
like himself. It's perfect. That's Christ,
our spotless high priest who offered the sacrifice that atoned
for the sin of his people. Then look back in our text, Leviticus
16 verse 17. Christ is the priest alone. Christ suffers and dies alone
because Christ does all the work of redemption. He does all the
work of atonement alone. Verse 17, and there should be
no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in
to make atonement in the holy place until he come out and have
made an atonement for himself and for his household and for
all the congregation of Israel. Aaron's got to do this work alone. What were the children of Israel
doing while Aaron was going through all this activity? I'm sure they
were standing, listening, waiting to see if the atonement was accepted,
but they didn't do one thing, not one thing to contribute to
this atonement. They were completely passive
in this day. Aaron did all the work of the
atonement for their sins. The high priest was alone. That's
a picture of Christ, our great high priest. He accomplished
the salvation of his people alone. Alone. Christi didn't need any
help. He's the perfect high priest. He did it alone. When that mob
came to take our Lord, what did he say? It's me you want. Let these go free. At the first
opportunity, they ran away and he suffered alone. He suffered
that humiliation and that mock trial alone. They deserted him. As Christ hung on the cross from
noon to 3 p.m., the middle of the day, the earth was dark. The sun went out, refused to
shine on what was going on here. And in that darkness, our Savior
cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Never was a
man alone like our Savior was alone. And during those hours
of darkness, Christ, our high priest, went alone into the holiest
of all, into the presence of his father, not with the blood
of a bullet, not with the blood of a goat, but with his own precious
blood. And he offered it before the
Lord as payment for the sins of his people. And his father
said, that's enough. That's enough. I'm satisfied. He turned his son on, his son
died, went in the tomb, and the father waited. to that point
in time, three days and raised him from the dead because he
said the blood's enough. It's enough to make atonement
for the sin of his people. And Christ did it alone because
he's the only one that could get the job done. Look at Hebrews
chapter one. I told you the children of Israel
were completely passive in this matter of atonement. Well, the
atonement of our souls, you and I are completely passive. If we try to contribute one crumb
to the atonement of our souls, you and I'll defile it, because
all we can do is sin. Christ, our high priest, must
do the work alone. Hebrews 1, verse 1. God, who
at sundry times and in diverse, different manners, spake in time
passed unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory, and the express image, the exact image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when
he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high." That's Christ, our high priest.
That's who makes atonement for sin. Well, second, The sacrifice. What is the sacrifice that makes
atonement for sin? Back in our text, Leviticus 16
verse 5. 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. 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 there are animals to be sacrificed
on the day of atonement. And those animals, the high priest
took them out of the congregation of the children of Israel. These
were animals that belonged to Israel. They didn't save their
animals and go out and find a wild goat or a wild bullock or something. They didn't send out a raiding
party and go steal goats and bulls from the Philistines or
the Amorites or somebody else. The sacrifice was for the sins
of Israel. So the sacrifice came from animals
that Israel owned. And the high priest took those
animals that belonged to the children of Israel and offered
them for the sins only of Israel, not for the other nations, for
Israel. Now this was done as a picture
of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ was made for a specific people. Now do you have any problem understanding
these animals that Aaron offered on this day, they were for the
sins of Israel. Is that difficult to understand?
It's not for the sins of Philistines, is it? It's for Israel. When
Christ offered himself a sacrifice to God, that sacrifice was for
a specific people. It was for spiritual Israel,
for God's elect. Christ didn't come to make a
sacrifice for angels. This is another thing. Human
beings, we don't have a problem with that, do we? That's fine.
Christ didn't come to make a sacrifice for angels. Those angels that
fell, they're damned. We're fine with that. Christ
took on him human flesh. But when he took on him human
flesh, it wasn't to make a sacrifice for every human now. It was for
spiritual Israel. for his elect. Christ did not
offer his perfect blood offered by the spotless high priest for
somebody that's going to be damned and die in their sin. No, sir. This is the successful high priest,
the successful sacrifice. Christ died only for his elect. And those elect are going to
be saved because their sin is atoned for. Aaron represented
only Israel. Christ represents only his elect. And that ram and the bullet taken
for the sacrifice, taken from the people, had to die. Now they couldn't just select
the animal and let it live. That animal had to die because
they're the sacrifice. They're the sin offering. And
those animals died because the sin of Israel was symbolically
transferred to those animals. And those animals died for sin. They're a sacrifice for sin.
That's a picture of Christ. Christ only died because the
father made him guilty. Like I told you in the class,
the father would have been unjust to kill his son for any other
reason that he was made guilty. And if Christ died for you, your
sin's gone. The father took your sin, put
it on his son. Your sin's gone. The blood of
Christ made atonement for sin. It covered your sin. The blood
forgives your sin. The blood removed the power,
disannulled the power of sin. Your sin's gone if Christ died
for you. Now I told you the day of atonement
is a bloody day. Look at Hebrews chapter nine.
The day of atonement's a bloody day. This is showing us the importance
of the blood. We can't worship God without
the blood. There's no remission of sins without the blood. But
atonement's not made with animal blood. It's made with the blood
of Christ. Hebrews 9, verse 11. But Christ,
being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. If Christ
died for you, your sin's gone. Atoned for, he obtained eternal
redemption for his people. Now we know God is merciful. God's gracious to his people.
But God must be just when he's merciful and gracious. God can
never be merciful to a sinner and not give us what we deserve
unless he already gave Christ what we deserve and Christ shed
his blood to make atonement for our sins. The only way God can
be just and still show mercy is through the blood of Christ.
This is a bloody day, the day of atonement so bloody because
it's a picture of the blood of Christ that puts away the sin
of His people. Now look back in our text, verse
14. Just like the Passover lamb, the blood of this sacrifice must
be applied. Verse 14. And he shall take of
the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon
the mercy seat eastward, and before the mercy seat shall he
sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. Then shall
he kill the goad 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." Look at verse 18. And he shall
go out unto the altar that is before the Lord. That's the brazen
altar where they offered the burnt sacrifice. And he's gonna
make an atonement for it. He shall take the blood of the
bullock and of the blood of the goat and put it upon the horns
of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the
blood upon it with his finger seven times and cleanse it and
hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. This is how sinful we are. This
is a brazen altar. I mean, it's just sitting there.
It's brazen. The sin of the children of Israel so defiled that even
that altar, it had to be sprinkled with the blood. The blood's got
to be applied. The only way atonement can be
made is if the blood's applied. It's got to be sprinkled. That's
the sacrifice that makes atonement. Well, thirdly, what's the result
of the atonement? Now remember those two goats
we read about? Those two goats are a picture of Christ. They're
how Christ accomplished the atonement. They give us the result of the
atonement. Now two goats, both those goats are a picture of
Christ, the God-man, the two natures of Christ. One goat died
as a sin offering. That's the humanity of Christ.
Christ died in his humanity. They took a dead man down from
that cross and put a dead man's body in a tomb. That's the goat
of the sin offering that died for sin. But the second goat
lived. It lived, well, you know, it's
a scapegoat, it lived. It's a picture of the deity of
Christ who lives eternally. And it's the scapegoat that shows
us the result of the atonement of Christ. Look in verse 20.
And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place,
and the tabernacle, the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring
the live goat. 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, and all their transgressions,
and all their sins. That took a while, didn't it?
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, unto a land of separation. And he shall let
go the goat in the wilderness, and it was never to be seen again."
Now when Aaron put his hands on the head of that scapegoat
and he confessed the sins, all the sin, all the iniquity of
the people, the guilt of that sin was symbolically transferred
to that goat. And a fit man, A man who knew
goats. A man who knew the wilderness.
He took that goat out into the wilderness and he let it go.
And he stood there and watched the goat walk until he couldn't
see it anymore. The goat's gone. Then he came back to the camp. And that goat bore the sin of
the people away so that it was never seen again. Now what's
the result of the atonement of Christ? The sin of God's people
is removed. never to be seen again. Look
at Psalm 103. The sins of God's people were not
symbolically transferred to Christ. They were literally transferred
to him, imputed to him. And by his sacrifice, Christ
took the sin that was laid on him away, never to be seen again. God's people, God's never going
to see it again. And his people never see it again.
Psalm 103, verse 10. 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. I
want you to notice the psalmist says, far as the east is from
the west. He didn't say as far as the North
is from the South, as far as the East is from the West. Here's
why he said that. If you start out going North,
and you go North long enough, you know what's going to happen?
You're going to meet South. You're going to start going South.
And if you go South long enough, you know what's going to happen?
You're going to meet North, and you're going to start going North.
North and South meet in two places, don't they? On the two poles.
But if you go east, I don't care how long you go east, you'll
always go east. If you go east, you'll never
start going west, because east and west never meet. That's how
far Christ removed the sin of his people, so that no matter
how long you go, you'll never meet him again, ever. They're
gone. Look at Jeremiah chapter 50. Oh, only the flesh, only the
flesh would even ever think about looking for our sins. What good
news? Christ has taken the sin of his
people away, so you'll never see him again. Why on earth would
you go looking for him? I don't want to see him again.
Let's take him away. Well, what if I would go looking
for him? Jeremiah 50 verse 20. In those days, and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for.
Somebody's gonna look for it. And there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found. For I will pardon them whom I
reserve. Their sin has had an atonement
made, and is never to be seen again. That's the result of the
atonement of Christ. Well, last, what's the effect
of the atonement of Christ? Let me give you three. I'm sure
there's many, but I'm gonna give you three. First, what's the
effect of the atonement of Christ? His humiliations over. Remember
the plain white robes and garments that the high priest wore during
the day of atonement? After all the sacrifices and
all the ceremonies for that day were finished, look at verse
23, what he did. And Aaron shall come into the
tabernacle of the congregation, and he's going to put off the
linen garments which he put on when he went into the holy place,
and he shall leave them there. When all the sacrifices were
finished, the high priest took off those linen garments. He
folded them up, set them down. He put his glorious garments
on. And those garments of his humiliation were never used again. If he lived to the next day of
atonement, they made him a new set of linen garments. But those
that he wore on the day of atonement, that's the only time they ever
wore. Nobody ever wore them again. That's Christ our high priest.
He was made a man for a while. As a man, he died. He was buried. He rose again. He came out of
that tomb. And when he came out, he arose
in glorified flesh. and he ascended back to glory
to sit on his father's right hand. Never again will the Lord
Jesus Christ be clothed in humility. He'll never be clothed in flesh
like ours again. By his grace one day we'll be
clothed like him, but he'll never be clothed in the form of a servant
ever again. If you ever hear a man begging
you to do something for Christ. Oh, this poor little Jesus begging
you to do something. Don't you listen to him. Christ
is not a servant, much less a beggar. He's not a beggar. He's glorified. He'll never be seen in any humiliation
ever again. He took that robe off and set
it down and left it there, never to be used again. Like I asked you in the lesson
this morning, well, all right, what's that got to do with me? Christ is now glorified and all
of his people, not will be glorified, are glorified in him. And now
Paul said in Romans 8 verse 30, whom he hath justified, he hath
glorified. Everyone he's died for is glorified
in him. That's the effect of the atonement.
Here's the second effect of the atonement. This is good news. There's rest. There's rest for the people of
God. Verse 29 in our text of Leviticus chapter 16. And this
shall be a statute forever unto you, that in the seventh month
on the 10th day of the month, you 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. For on that day shall
the priests make an atonement for you, to cleanse you that
you may be clean from all of your sins before the Lord. And
it shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you, and you shall afflict
your souls by statute forever." Now look over in Hebrews chapter
four. There is a Sabbath rest for everyone that Christ made
atonement for. And that rest, you're not going
to find rest in religious ceremonies anymore than they found rest
in the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement. You're not going
to find rest in an animal sacrifice or something. You know, if you
want to give up chocolate for Lent, maybe you'll be healthier,
but you're not going to do anything for your soul. You're not going
to find any rest for your soul in those sacrifices. You want
me to tell you where there's rest for your soul? It's in Christ,
our High Priest. Look at Hebrews 4 verse 8. For
if Jesus, this is referring to Joshua, if Joshua had given them
rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There's
not rest in all these days and ceremonies and all these religious
doings. But look down at verse nine. For there remaineth therefore
rest of the people of God. For he that has entered into
his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did
from his. Let's labor, desire therefore
to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example
of unbelief. A child of God rests from all
of his work of trying to earn salvation. Why do you rest from
trying to earn that salvation? Because the work's finished.
God rested from his work of creation, didn't he? He rested. Why did
he rest? The work's finished. There's
nothing else to do. So he rested. A believer rests
from all of our works of trying to earn our salvation because
everything's already done. Christ did it all. And there
remains a rest. Just rest in Christ. Look in
Hebrews chapter 9. The only reason that you'll ever
rest from trying to get rid of your sin is if your conscience
is clear. And if your conscience is clear,
you rest, right? I have a lot of trouble falling
asleep at night. And my dad and my wife, my loving
wife has picked up his statement about the AC, well, you go to
sleep if you had a clear conscience. How does the believer rest peacefully
in Christ? Because your conscience is clear.
Religious ceremony can't do it, can it? Church membership can't
do it. Getting baptized a thousand times
will not do it. All those animals sacrificed,
they never gave anybody rest. All that did is remind the people
again of their sin. But when the blood of Christ
is sprinkled on the heart of a believer, suddenly your conscience
is clear. Hebrews 9 verse 13. For if the
blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling
the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, How much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works? All those works trying to earn
your salvation, they're just dead works. They'll purge your
conscience from those things to serve the living God. Now
remember that word afflict we read back in our text, afflict
your souls. It doesn't sound like you're
resting, does it, if you're afflicting your soul? Well, that word afflict,
it means to abase or to humble. When God shows us what we are,
a believer will afflict his own soul. He'll humble himself before
God because God showed us we're nothing. We're nothing but sin.
When God shows us what we are, we will abase ourselves because
we see all of our works are iniquity. But when we humble ourselves,
the result of that is we see the glory of Christ. When we
abase ourselves, the effect of that is we are glorified in Christ
because he's made an atonement for our soul. And the last effect
of the atonement of Christ, only the high priest during all this
book of Leviticus, all this Levitical priesthood, only the high priest
could come into the Holy of Holies. That veil hung in the temple
is a great separation. between God and man. This is
where God dwells. Don't you come in here. Out here
is where the people dwell. You got to make atonement for
everything they get around because it's all full of sin. Don't you come
in here where God dwells. And that didn't change, did it?
No matter how many times Aaron made an atonement, that didn't
change. You still better not go in there. What happened after
the death of Christ? What is the effect of the death
of Christ, the atonement that he made? Well, all that changed. The believers now made a priest
unto God, and we come boldly before God. When? Well, one day
a year, just on Easter, just on Sunday, or one day a week
just on Sunday. No. At all times. At all times. Oh, the effect
of the atonement of Christ. We come to God at all times,
pouring out our heart before Him. And God showed us that in
the death of Christ. When our Savior cried, it is
finished. Of all the things that were finished,
the Levitical priesthood was finished. God tore that veil
in the temple from top to bottom. Those priests in the temple suddenly
saw the ark of God and they didn't die. The way to God is now wide
open, not in the laws and the ceremonies, but in Christ. Born from top to bottom now,
big enough for any sinner. If you're as tall as Dan or as
short as me, wide enough for any sinner to come before God
through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. By God's grace, I'm coming. I'm coming again today by his
grace. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
this blessed portion of scripture that we just read. We thank you that you and your
mercy and your grace have given us some understanding of this
picture and the ceremony. Father, I pray by your mercy,
by your power, by your grace, that you'd cause us to leave
here this morning looking to Christ our Savior, the atonement
that he made. Cause us, Father, to rest in
him. Cause us to see how glorious he is, the complete, full, free
atonement of sin in our Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us to come
to him and rest in him Father, we're thankful for the atonement
that you've provided. How we thank you. Pray that you
bless your word to the hearts of your people, to the glory
of your son. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen.