Well, we've come to our last
lesson in the tabernacle. I hope it's been as much of a
blessing to you as it has been to me. I hope that one of the
things that strikes you after we've looked at all the details,
every stitch, as it were, of this whole tabernacle, that it
takes all of those different details put together just to
give us a picture of Christ. And you know that we'll look
at this morning, the Day of Atonement, there are lots of details and
different ceremonies that they went through on this Day of Atonement.
And our Lord is so great that it takes all of them put together
just to give us a picture of his person and his work. Now,
the Day of Atonement was in this day, and even today, is still
the most holy day of days of the year to the Jews. The old
Jews didn't really call it the Day of Atonement, they called
it the Day of Covering. And that's good, it gives us,
this whole day put together gives us a picture of how the sins
of God's people are covered in the blood of Christ. So in Leviticus
chapter 16, that's where we begin, in Leviticus 16, in verse 1. 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. Thus shall Aaron come into the
holy place, with a young bullet for a sin offering, and a ram
for a burnt offering. Now right off we see that coming
into the presence of God is serious business, very serious. This
is not a common thing to come into the presence of God. Aaron's
two sons, God killed them because they brought strange fire and
strange incense into his presence, and God killed them for it. We're
not playing games. I say this over and over and
over again. We study God's Word. We are not playing games. This is serious business. You
cannot expect to live if you trifle with God's Son. If you
trifle with the sacrifice of God's Son. This is a matter of
life and death. Aaron's two sons learned that
and all of Israel learned it. I'm certain they had a great
deal of respect and love for those boys and God killed them
because they came into his presence the wrong way. And so God gives
Aaron the instructions of how he is to come into the Holy of
Holies. There is a way that you can come and not die. And God
gives him the way. And the way to come into God's
presence and live is with the blood of the appointed sacrifice. It can't just be any sacrifice.
It's got to be the blood of the appointed sacrifice. And the
lesson for us here today, the tabernacle doesn't stand anymore.
But sinners can still come into the presence of God. And the
way to come into the presence of God and have life is by coming
through the appointed sacrifice. God's appointed sacrifice. It's
through the blood and sacrifice of His Son. And we'll see this
in a minute as we get to the sacrifice of the bullock and
the ram. Both that bullock and the ram are both pictures of
Christ and His sacrifice. So verse 4, he says, when He
comes, He's going to bring the appointed sacrifice, and He shall
put on the holy linen coat, and He shall have the linen breeches
upon His flesh. and shall be girded with the
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 you remember last week we
studied all those glorious garments of the high priest, all the gold
and the precious jewels and this glorious garments. And he wore
those garments every day as he went about the sacrifices, he
went about doing fulfilling the ceremonies. that God gave him
to do to represent Israel to God. But on the Day of Atonement,
the most holy day of the year, he laid aside those glorious
garments. Set them aside and he put on
just the plain garments of the regular priests. He had on the
linen breeches and the coat and the mitre and the girdle. And
the reason God told him to do that is as a picture of Christ.
who laid aside all of his glory as the Son of God and clothed
himself in human flesh. He stripped himself of his glory
and appeared to men in human flesh, yet without sin. It was sinless flesh. The priest,
he just wore those plain garments, but they were all made of white
linen. And you see that all through our study of the tabernacle,
the white linen is a picture of holiness. And he had to put
on those holy garments so he could be a picture of Christ
our High Priest. And the man, Christ Jesus, appeared
in the presence of God, representing his people. And he appeared in
his perfect, spotless righteousness. And that's how we're accepted,
in the presence of the Father, in the Beloved, in his righteousness,
the righteousness that he worked out as a man. But before Aaron
could put on those holy garments, God told him, you've got to wash.
You've got to wash. And he had to wash to be a picture
of Christ. At least five times on this day
of atonement, Aaron washed his body over and over and over again
to give us a picture of Christ. Because remember, Aaron is a
sinful man. He's a sinful man. So he had
to wash over and over and over again to give us a picture of
Christ, our high priest who knew no sin. So he put on those garments
of the priest and verse five, and he shall take of the congregation
of the children of Israel, two kids of the goats for sin offering
and one ram for a burnt offering. Now the sacrifices come from
the congregation of the children of Israel. And that's a picture
of Christ. He is our sacrifice. And where
did he come from? He came first to the Jews. He
was a Jew. Our sacrifice came from the congregation
of the children of Israel. And the high priest took those
animals that came from the congregation of the children of Israel and
he offered them for a sacrifice. Now who was that sacrifice for?
It was for Israel. That's where he took that sacrifice
from. So that sacrifice was for Israel.
It wasn't for the Philistines or the Amalekites or all the
otherites that lived around that area. The sacrifice is for the
children of Israel. And that's a picture of Christ.
He is our sacrifice. And Christ our Lord did not die
for the sins of the whole wide world, of all the sons of Adam,
hoping that someone would accept Him. He died for specific people. Those people that were on His
breastplate, just like the high priest wore that breastplate
every other day of the year. That's who Christ died for. for
his elect, the congregation of spiritual Israel. And they took
two goats, one of them for a sin offering and one of them for
a scapegoat. We'll see those here in a minute. And the other
offering he took from the children of Israel was a ram. A ram with
those horns, the horns of his power, for a burnt offering. And they took a ram with those
great horns as a picture of Christ, who is mighty to save Christ
was chosen to be our sacrifice because of his ability to save.
You have to have a Savior with the ability and power to save.
So God chose his Son with the power to save, and that's what
that ram is a picture of. Now 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 this bullock
was purchased by Aaron. Somebody didn't give it to him.
He didn't go choose it from among the congregation of Israel. He
bought it at his own expense. That bullet could not be given
to him. He had to buy it at his own expense. And when he bought it, he laid
his hands on that bullet and confessed his own sins and the
sins of his family and transferred his sins and the sins of his
family to that bullet. And then he slew that bullet.
as a sacrifice for his sins and for the sins of his family. Now
look over Hebrews chapter 7. Most of everything that Aaron
does on this day is in the picture of Christ. But when he confesses
his sins and slays that boy, he's an anti-Titanic Christ.
And I'll show you that in verse 26 of Hebrews chapter 7. For such a high priest became
us who is holy harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and 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." Christ our Lord had no sin. He knew no sin. None of his sacrifice
was for sins of his own commission. He was holy and perfect. harmless,
undefiled, and his sacrifice was all for the sins of his people,
unlike Aaron who had to offer a sacrifice for his own sins.
So Aaron here is an anti-type of Christ, right? But there's
also a picture of Christ here. Christ did make a sacrifice for
sin at his own expense. At the expense of being the Son
of God, at his own expense, he stripped himself of his He humiliated
himself to become a man at his own expense. It cost him his
glory as the Son of God. And as a man, it cost him his
life. It cost him unspeakable suffering
in his death as a man. It cost him it. Our salvation
came wholly at the expense of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when
Christ made himself a sacrifice, who did he make himself a sacrifice
for? for his family. What different words does he
use to describe his elect? He calls them my brethren. He
calls them my bride. He calls them my children. He
calls them my wife. All those are family terms. He
made his offering at his own expense for the sins of his family. So even while Aaron is an anti-type
of Christ, he's also a type of Christ. Now look back in Leviticus
16 verse 7. 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 Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's
lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. 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. Now these two goats are a picture
of the two natures of Christ. One is going to die. One of those
goats is going to die. That's Christ who died in his
humanity. The second goat lived. That's
a picture of Christ and his deity who ever lived. These two goats,
the two natures of Christ, give us a picture of the complete
salvation that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. One goat died. That's God's justice against
sin. He died. The second goat is a picture
of the remission of sins that we have in Christ. That goat
lived. Why is it that you can expect
to have eternal life? Why is it you have eternal life
right now? Because of the remission of sins
that you have in Christ. These two goats are the complete
salvation that we have in Christ. And both of them were presented
before the Lord. Now everything Christ Jesus did
as a man, he lived as a man. He lived his life before men
so that even men could say, there's no sin in him, even men could
say that. But everything our Lord did, he did before the Father. He did fulfilling the purpose
and will of the Father. He was presented before the Lord.
And they brought these two goats, presented before the Lord, and
they cast lots for them. And nobody really knows how they
cast lots. The writers say different things.
They put two rocks in a box and threw them down, whichever one
landed in front of which goat, that's what they were. Maybe
the priest made a blind draw out of the box. Who knows? But
they cast lots for them. And you know, you think, well,
that sounds kind of strange. Is this, you know, by chance
that one goat is the scapegoat, one goat is the sin offering?
Does it really matter? In Proverbs chapter 16, There's a verse that gives us
some insight on this. I answer the question by telling
you, no, it was not by chance. Even the picking, the choosing
of the scapegoat and the sin offering was not by chance. In
Leviticus, or I'm sorry, Proverbs 16, verse 33, the lot is passed
into the lap. We just roll the dice and it's
passed into the lap. It's what it looks like to us,
doesn't it? But the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Those lots, when they were cast,
was not by chance. The disposing of it was of the
Lord. The Lord chose which one to be the scapegoat and which
goat to be the sin offering. And I'll tell you why he did
that. The death of Christ did not happen by chance. Nothing
that those wicked men did to him from the time they took him
in the garden, till they took him to the judgment hall, till
they nailed him to the cross, till even after he was dead and
they thrust a sphere in his side to the tomb that they laid him
in, nothing happened to him by chance. It all happened, Peter
said, according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Those wicked men did what their
wicked hearts desired. They read the scriptures, those
Old Testament scriptures, every single day. They read through
the scriptures at least once per year. They've read those
scriptures many times, and never one time had it entered their
minds, yet they fulfilled every one of them. They fulfilled every
scripture concerning the death and sacrifice of the Messiah. The disposal thereof was of the
Lord. That's according to His determinate
counsel and foreknowledge. And the other thing I want you
to notice here, they didn't bring sheep for the offering, did they?
God told them bring a goat. Now all the rest of the year,
how many times do you read about sacrificing a lamb, a lamb, a
lamb, a lamb, a lamb, all these lambs. Why on this day did they
bring two goats? Goats are associated in scripture
with sin. That's what they're associated
with. When the Lord comes and he gave his disciples this description,
he comes, what's he going to do? He's going to divide the
sheep and the goats. The sheep on his right hand and
the goats on his left. Goats. How is it that a goat,
the picture of sin, can be a picture, a type of Christ? Because the
sinless Son of God was made to be sin for his people. And God
killed him in justice. He imputed the sins of his elect
to his son, and God killed him in justice, just like these goats
have died in justice. And you see that death happening
in justice in verse 11. Get back to the right place here.
And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is
for himself. And that's a sin offering. And shall make an atonement
for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of
the sin offering, which is for himself. You don't have to read
very far in Scripture, can you know this? Sin demands death. It's the necessary outcome of
sin is death. As Ezekiel said, the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. I mean, that's pretty simple,
isn't it? The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Sin demands death. And this strong, young bullock,
in the prime of his life, is slain in front of the altar as
a type of Christ. who died in the prime of his
human life. And when he died, unlike you
and me, we're going to die in weakness. He died in strength. No man took his life from him,
did they? He laid down his life for his sheep. They nailed him
to a cross. They tortured him. They did everything
to him. And in the end, what did he do?
He gave up the goat. He didn't just die, the spirit
wasn't ripped from his body, he gave up the ghost. He died in strength. And when
did he give up the ghost? When the sin offering was complete.
Sin was paid for, the transactions complete, and he gave up the
ghost. He died in strength. Now look
at verse 12. After he kills the bullet, which
is for himself and for his house, he shall take a censer full of
burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and
his hands full of sweet incense, big and small, and bring it within
the veil. And he shall put the incense
upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense
may cover the mercy seat, which is upon the testimony that he
die not." Now Aaron took coals from off this brazen altar. Remember
we studied this is where the sin offering, the burnt offering
was offered. He took those coals from off
that altar was sacrificed for sins made. He took the coals
from the bloody, bloody place of judgment, and he took those
coals, and he took incense, beating small, and he went into the Holy
of Holies. And the old timers say he crawled in sideways with
those coals and that incense, kind of going in first so he
wouldn't see the mercy seat, so he wouldn't see the Shekinah
glory of God above the mercy seat. And he put that incense
on the coals, and that caused smoke. fill the Holy of Holies,
so that that smoke covered the mercy sink, covered the Shekinah
glory of God, so he didn't see the glory of God and die. Now we saw earlier in our study
how that smoke is a picture of the intercession of Christ. And
the intercession is always accepted by the Father. because Christ
is pleading his sacrifice, pleading the coals that came from where
the burnt offering, the sin offering was burned. And that smoke, the
intercession, covering the glory of God, let the high priest live. Here is the blessing for you
and me. Now hang on to this. The intercession of Christ for
you is not false. The intercession of Christ for
you is enough to give you life. The smoke covered the mercy seat.
The only way a sinful man can approach God and live is through
the sacrifice and through the intercession of our Lord Jesus
Christ, our mediator. The intercession of Christ for
you is enough. Now, verse 14. After they killed
the bullock, And the priest went in with the incense and everything
and the coals. They caught that bullock, they
caught his blood in a basin. And the high priest gave it to
one of the other priests. And he's standing there the whole
time the priest is taking that offering of incense before the
Lord. He's stirring the blood of the bullock so that that blood
doesn't congeal and it can be used when it's time. So the priest
comes back out and he gets that blood. That's what first happens
in verse 14. He shall take the blood of the
bullock that that priest had been stirring this whole time,
and he'll sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward
and before the mercy seat. So he sprinkled the blood with
his finger seven times. Now in these next verses, this
is what we're going to see. It's the blood, it's the blood,
it's the blood, it's the blood. The Day of Atonement is a bloody,
bloody day. If you count the normal sacrifices
that the priest made on the Day of Atonement, other didn't come
up for sacrifices. They didn't trim the lambs. They
didn't do all the other things that had to be done daily. The
high priest did them alone. And if you count up all the normal
sacrifices, plus the sacrifices for the Day of Atonement, fifteen
animals were slain and their blood shed before the altar on
the Day of Atonement. Fifteen animals. So the high
priest took the blood of the bully that was for the sins of
himself, for his people. He crawled back under the into
the Holy of Holies, and he sprinkled that blood on the mercy seat,
and before the mercy seat seven times. It's the blood on the
mercy seat that makes atonement for sin. And now that the high
priest has made atonement for his sins, now he can be a type
of Christ who had no sin. Now he can make an offering for
the sins of the people, for the sins of the children of Israel.
And that's what we see in verse 15. He came back out of the Holy
of Holies. 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 for the
blood of the bullet, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat and before
the mercy seat. Now this goat is a picture of
Christ who was slain as a sacrifice for the sins of his people. This
was an offering for sin that was made to the Father. made
to God, and he took that blood into the presence of God and
sprinkled that blood on the mercy seat. And the blood on the mercy
seat shows us how mercy from God is obtained. Mercy from God
is obtained through justice. Justice. God cannot and will
not save a sinner with mercy alone. You know, we have mercy
on someone, and what we mean by that is we're going to overlook
the fact that you're guilty. God cannot and will not do that. That would be saving someone
with mercy alone. God must save someone with mercy
and truth. Righteousness and peace must
kiss each other if God is going to save a sinner. And the blood
is shed to satisfy the justice of God. And the blood is sprinkled
on the mercy seat to satisfy the character of God, both His
holiness and His mercy, which are both attributes of God. Mercy
and justice, which are two polar opposites, meet together in harmony,
and it's in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now God
can be merciful, justified, and save His people through the sacrifice
of His Son. God can be merciful to His people
because He punished Christ our Savior for all of our sins. The blood sprinkled on the mercy
seat shows us propitiation has been made for our sins to the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he comes back out from the
mercy seat, from the Holy of Holies in verse 16, and we're
going to skip verse 17 and come back to this in a second. And
he shall make an atonement for the holy place because of the
uncleanness of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions
and all their sin. And so shall he do for the tabernacle
of the congregation that remaineth among them in the midst of their
uncleanness. And he shall go out unto the
altar that is before the Lord, and make an atonement for it.
And shall take up the blood of the bullock and the blood of
the goat, and he put them together, and he put it on the horns of
the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle up the
blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it,
and howl it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel." Now
these verses show us how horrible sin is. He calls it an uncleanness. It's a transgression and an uncleanness. It's like the leper going about
crying, unclean, unclean. Don't come near me or you'll
be infected. Now the people of Israel, they
never entered the holy place. They never entered the Holy of
Holies. Then why did Aaron have to make an atonement for it?
How is it defiled? Because of the pollution. of
their uncleanness. This tabernacle dwelt in the
midst of the camp of an unclean people. And their sin, even though
they never entered in that place, their sin polluted that place
in the sight of a holy God. So atonement had to be made for
it. And we won't take the time to
turn over there, but you can read about this in Hebrews 9.
The only way to make an atonement for sin is through the blood. And Aaron went through and sprinkled
blood on everything in this tabernacle, all the instruments, everything,
to make an atonement. Because the only way atonement
can be made, the only way it can be cleansed, is through the
blood of the sacrifices. In verse 17, now all this activity
of the priest, there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the
congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy
place. until he come out, until he's made an atonement for himself
and for his household and for all the congregation of Israel.
The high priest did all this work alone. Nobody was there
telling him what to do next. Nobody was helping him. He did
it alone. And that was done as a picture of Christ our Lord,
who suffered alone. The shepherd was smitten and
the sheep were scattered. Our Lord was taken to judgment
alone. He was beaten by those Roman
soldiers alone. He was nailed to that cross and
he died alone. More alone than any man has been
before or since. He suffered alone. There was
none to help him. But remember that ram? He was
mighty to save. There was none to help him. He
didn't need any help. He could put away the sins of
his people with the sacrifice of himself, by himself. This
transaction happened between the Father and the Son alone. And Christ put those sins away. Paul said in Hebrews, when he
had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand
of the majesty of God. The work was finished, complete,
by himself. Now verse 20. And when he had
made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle
of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live
goat. 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, putting them
upon the head of the goat. And he shall send him away by
the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall
bear upon him all their iniquities, unto a land not inhabited. And
he shall let go of the goat in the wilderness. Now the high
priest laid his hands on the head of that goat and he confessed
the sins of the people. He transferred the sins of the
people to the goat. I've heard and read where they
were so serious about putting their sins into the head of that
goat that they pressed that goat down. They pressed his head down.
Jerry Fane told me this week, they pressed it down to that
goat's nose, touched the ground. So serious were they, it was
so necessary that their sins be transferred into the head
of that goat. And they pressed that goat's
head down as a picture of the weight of the sin that was laid
on our Lord. The Lord had laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. A burden that none of us could
bear. The Lord pressed it into him.
And they confessed their sins upon that goat. And the Lord
forgave them. You can read this this afternoon
if you want, 1 John 1 verse 9. The Lord is faithful and just
to forgive our sins when confession is made. Why is he faithful and
just to forgive our sins? Because our sins were transferred
to Christ. Just like the sins of the people
were transferred to the head of this goat. And the goat was
led by a fit man into the wilderness. And this man was considered a
fit man because he was fit for the job. He knew what had to
be done. He wasn't just some newcomer.
He knew what had to be done. He had some understanding about
goats. You know, I probably couldn't
lead a goat out into the wilderness and make it stay out there. He
had some understanding of goats. He had the right personality
for the job. He had a little bit of patience
and the ability to walk along. He walked over 10 miles one way
to take that goat out into the wilderness. And he knew his way
around the wilderness. He'd go out into the wilderness
and come back. Well, that's all picture of Christ.
He knew what had to be done, and he did it. He understood
sinners, came to save them. He knew his way around the wilderness.
He knew how to come and how to go back to his father. He understood
the wilderness. He knew his way around it. He's
a creator. He created it. And Christ had the personality
for the job. He had the patience with sinners
and the love for sinners that made him fit for the job. He's
a fit man. And that goat bore the sins of
the people away, never to be seen again. It says here, he
took it to a land not inhabited. And actually translated, that
means a place of separation. And they left that goat there,
never to be seen again, where no one is. Well, that's a picture
of Christ. He bore the sin of His elect
away. Scripture says, as far from us
as the East is from the West. Now, East and West never touch. So He bore our sins away to a
place where it is impossible to find them again, because Christ
went to a place of separation. He went to a place where he was
separated from his father for the sins that were charged to
him. And he took them away so that we'll never see them again. And when this fit man returned,
when he came back to Israel, the people were waiting for him. They rejoiced and blew trumpets
when he came back because they knew their sin is forgiven, taken
away for another year. Well, how much more rejoicing
do we have in our Lord Jesus Christ? He didn't take our sins
away symbolically for another year. He took them away eternally
to a place not inhabited so that we can rejoice in Him. Now, verse
23. I know I'm going a little long. I warned Janice. I should have
warned Tara. But I want to cover all this
because I can't come back to it. And Aaron shall take you
to the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments
which he put on when he went in unto the holy place, and leave
them there. And he shall wash his flesh with
water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come
forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering for the
people, and make an atonement for himself and for the people."
Now, after the sacrifices were complete, the ceremonies were
complete, He took off those plain linen clothes that he put on
at the beginning of the day and he left them there. They were
never used again. The next day, time came for the
Day of Atonement, they made new linen garments. Those he wore
on this day were never used again. That's a picture of Christ. The
Father prepared a human body for His Son. A body of humiliation. A body to be made sin. A body
to suffer and to die. And men laid that dead body in
a tomb and rolled the stone in front of him. He's dead. But
he rose again, didn't he? He rolled the stone away. He
rose again, he rolled the stone away, and he left the grave clothes
there, folded up neatly, just like I'm sure the high priest
folded up those clothes neatly. He left the grave clothes there,
and he appeared in glorified flesh. He is the exalted Savior at the
Father's right hand, not in a body of humiliation, but in glorified
flesh. And when He appears again, He's
not going to appear like He did the first time. That body of
humiliation will never be seen again. When He appears the second
time, it will be in glory as King. That's how He's going to
appear the second time. In verse 27, And the bullet for
the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood
is brought in to make an atonement in the holy place, shall one
carry forth without the camp, and they shall burn in the fire
their skins, and their flesh, and their dung." That's a picture
of Christ suffering outside the camp. The whole body is consumed
and burned up to make a sacrifice for sins. Now I want you to look
at verse 31, and I'll quit. I noticed this yesterday, and
I thought this was such a blessing. And this shall be a Sabbath of
rest unto you. This Day of Atonement shall be
a Sabbath of rest unto you. and ye shall equip your souls
by statute forever." Now this tells you all you need to know
about human nature. God's given them a Sabbath, the breast, and
it's an affliction to us. That's what that was, the children
of Israel. All this ceremony was just a reminder, a remembrance
again made of sin every year, and it was this Sabbath, this
rest, this picture of Christ was an affliction to them. It
was an affliction by statute. It was an affliction because
of the law. It was an affliction. The most
holy day of the year was an affliction to me. You cannot say it enough. Christ is better. The gospel of Christ is not an
affliction to us. Grace that we live under is not... the law is an affliction. Grace
is not given to afflict the souls of God's people. We come into
His courts with thanksgiving and joy. What's the difference
between this ceremony that the people went through and preaching
the gospel? What's the difference? It's Christ. This was a picture. We have the
fulfillment. We are not afflicted by grace
for this reason. He was stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted. for our sins, and that's why
we're not afflicted. And the believer lives so much
better than the life of Aaron. Aaron was commanded to come not
at all times into the Holy of Holies. We're commanded to come,
and to come boldly to the presence of Christ our Savior. The commandment
of the law afflicted souls and told Aaron, you come not at all
times, that you die not. The command of the gospel. This
is not just a good idea. This is a command of the gospel.
You come to Christ that you may live. You come to Christ that
you have life in Him. I'm going to quit. I'm in trouble
when I get home, but I hope that's been a blessing to you.