Brother Todd Niber and I go back
a long ways. I first met him preaching at
Ashton. He was in high school. And then
when I came here to pastor, Todd was in school up in Lexington,
and he and all the college kids had lunch at Shelby's table every
Sunday afternoon the whole time, I reckon. And my mother highly
complimented him one day. She was visiting with us. She
said, I never thought I'd see anybody eat more black-eyed peas
than you do. But he was a dear friend to our
daughter when she was in high school. And he was here. And
now he's their pastor. And I'm delighted and thankful.
These men who come here, me having them here tells you I would be
happy to have them for my pastor. And he's another I'd be delighted
happen at my past i'm thankful you're my daughter back to my
grandchildren son-in-law and preach the gospel to us well i've got mixed emotions
about the message we just heard because i loved it and he said
everything i was going to say really i'm not kidding uh...
i uh... I'm going to preach on the atonement. And I was kind of thinking while
he was preaching about people who are four-pointers. Number
one, they're pointless. And number two, they don't understand
the four points they claim to believe. Now, that's so. That's
so. But he already gave my introduction,
but I'm going to have to give it again. Hold your finger in
Leviticus 16 and turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. Paul
says in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel And it's the same gospel which
I preached unto you. It's the gospel that never changes.
It's always the same. Which also you have received
and wherein you stand. It's your only standing. By which
also you're saved. If you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, as long as you persevere in it, unless you've
believed in vain, Verse 3, For I delivered unto you, first of
all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. If I say the gospel is that Christ
died for our sins, three things are true. First, I misquoted
the verse. Second, I failed to give the
meaning of it. And thirdly, I've not preached
the gospel. The gospel is not that Christ
died for our sins. The gospel is how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. according to
the Old Testament scriptures. Look at Leviticus chapter 16
verse 30. And the priest, Leviticus chapter
16 verse 30. And the priest shall offer the
one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and
the priest shall make an atonement for her. I'm in the wrong chapter. I'm sorry. Verse 30 of chapter
16. I was in 15. Verse 30 of chapter
16. For on that day shall the priest
make an atonement for you. On that day, that very day, shall
the priest make an atonement for you to cleanse you, that
you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. And does that sound attractive
to you? To have the priest making an atonement for you? so that
you would be clean from all your sins. I don't know of anything
that seems more attractive to me than that. For the priest
to do everything for me, to make an atonement for me, to cleanse
me from all my sins. I've entitled this message, The
Atonement. The Atonement. Now, this word,
atonement, is a word that's still used much in our day. I don't think people much understand
what it means, but it's used quite a bit. People atone for
the mistakes they've made, or they think they atone for the
sins they've committed. And I've actually heard the word
frequently in sports. Let's say a guy has got up with
men on base three times in a row, struck out with men in scoring
position. But if he gets up the fourth
time and gets a game-winning hit, he's atoned for his mistakes. Well, we get this word over and
over again in this chapter, the atonement. And you know, there's
another interesting word in this chapter, scapegoat, scapegoat. And everybody knows what a scapegoat
is. It's the one who got thrown under the bus. It's the one who
takes the blame. It's the one, even if it's unjust,
it's the one who takes the blame. People don't know what came out
of Leviticus chapter 16, but it's a term people know of. If
you go in any office or business situation, people know who's
the scapegoat, who's the one who took the blame, who's the
one who took the hit. So these are common words in
our vernacular, yet I don't know how much people really understand
what the scriptures has to say about this thing of atonement.
And I want to know, I want to see the I want to know that the
Lord has atoned for my sins, that He's cleansed them, that
they are no more. Now, Leviticus 16, this will
be an illustration of everything Bruce said. Leviticus 16 begins
with these words, and the Lord spake unto Moses after the death
of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord
and died. What happened? Look back in chapter
10. Leviticus chapter 10. And the Lord... Now Nadab and Abihu, Leviticus
chapter 10. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons
of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein,
and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire. before the Lord, which he commanded
them not. Now, this strange fire is not
a weird fire. It's speaking of fire from off
the altar of sacrifice. The only fire that was permitted
to be used was the fire that came off the altar of sacrifice. And Nadab and Abihu thought,
well, I'm sincere. My heart's right. Does it make
any difference what kind of fire I use as long as I use fire?
And so they used strange fire to burn this incense. And what
took place? Verse 2, And there went out fire
from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This
is that which the LORD spake, saying, I'll be sanctified in
them that come nigh me, and before all the people I'll be glorified.
And Aaron held his peace. He held his peace. He didn't
have any objections. He knew what had taken place.
As a matter of fact, you go on reading in this chapter, Moses
says to Aaron, don't even rent your clothes. Don't even rent
your clothes. Now, this lets us know something of the holiness of God. And this is how this chapter
regarding the atonement begins. It has something to do with the
holiness of God. And do you reckon that Aaron
listened very carefully to do exactly what Moses said to do? He was scared to death. He saw
this fire come down and devour his boys. And he, oh, how cautious
he is as Moses gives these instructions. Back to chapter 16. And the Lord spake unto Moses
after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had 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. And you see what the issue
is? He does this wrong. God says,
I'll kill him. That he die not. He can't come
marching in there Any old day. You see, there was only one calendar
day every year that he could come in. No other days. And you
make sure he comes in this way, that he die not. For I will appear in the cloud
upon the mercy seat. Now, the Old Testament tabernacle
had a courtyard with a portable building divided into two rooms,
the holy place and the holy of holies. And Aaron is warned. He says, when you come into that
room, only one day a year, you're allowed to come in. Any other
time, if he would have tried to come in, I imagine he would
have suffered the same fate as his boys. Fire would have come
down from heaven and devoured him. So you can just imagine
how nervous he was at this time, how scared he was. God's giving
these special instructions. He even tells me, he says once
again in verse 13, do it this way, that you die not. That you
die not. So you see what a critical issue
this is. Verse 3, thus shall Aaron come into the
holy place with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram
for a burnt offering. Look down in verse 6, and Aaron
shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself,
and make an atonement for himself and for his house. Now this sin
offering and burnt offering was for Aaron. You see, Aaron was
a sinful man. You know how sinful you are?
He was that sinful. He really was. And in order to
be able to offer up a sacrifice that God could accept, you have
to be sinless. So something has to be done about his sin first. A sin offering and a burnt offering,
two different offerings. The sin offering represents The
putting away of sin, the burnt offering, represents the removal
of sin. The sin offering is the punishment
of sin. The burnt offering is God's satisfaction
with what was done. Now, let's go on reading verse
4. He hadn't offered these offerings
yet. He shall put on the holy linen coat. And he shall have
the linen britches 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. He changed his glorious apparel
to the humble white linen clothing. Now this represents the incarnation
of Christ. He was made flesh. 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 barn offering. Now notice,
not one goat, but two for the sin offering. And this is so
significant. We wouldn't get the picture if we don't see both. Now, two goats will display the
two aspects of Christ's atonement, the payment and the removal of
sin. the payment and the absolute
removal of sin. 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 remember,
for God to do something for me or you, he has to do something
for himself. And this is what is done he's
doing for himself in this sin offering. He's got to be satisfied
in this burnt offering. He's got to smell the smell,
the sweet smell of savor before he can do something for me. Now
this is what is done for Aaron. And Aaron shall offer his bullock
of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an
atonement for himself and for his house, and he shall take
the two goats. and present them before the Lord
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and Aaron
shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and
the other lot for the scapegoat." I think that's interesting. I
love this. The lot is cast into the lap,
the wise man said, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Now what's going on here? The
Lord makes the selection. Human decision or will are not
permitted to even be used in any way in this thing of atonement.
The Lord makes the selection. He's not going to let Aaron make
any kind of selection. Meet or shut out this thing.
This is the atonement of the Lord. Now let's go on reading,
verse 9. 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. And Aaron
shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself,
and shall make an atonement for himself and for his house, and
shall kill the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself."
Now what this represents is Aaron is a sinful man. A sinful man
can't do many good. A sinful priest can't do me any
good. Christ, sinless. Don't you love to think of his
purity? He never sinned, he never thought of sin, he never had
a bad motive, he never did an evil thing. Absolutely sinless. So this is where Aaron's at. He has to have an offering for
himself, first the sin offering, and then the burnt offering,
The sin offering made the payment for the sin, the burnt offering.
I love the first time it's mentioned in Genesis chapter 8 when Noah
got out of the ark and came out and he offered up a burnt offering.
And the scripture says it was a sweet smelling savor to God. He smelled it and he said, I'm
satisfied with what is done. Now Aaron is now able to offer
up Let's go on reading. And 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 beaten 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 that's upon the testimony that he die
not. 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. He even
sprinkled the mercy seat. You see, if there's anything
human that comes into contact with the atonement, it's ruined.
It has to be atoned for. This is the work of Christ alone. Now, verse 15. Let me point this out. Have you
noticed how Aaron does it all? No help. No help. You know, there are other inferior
priests, but none of them were used today. They were used for
other things, but not today. Every one of these sacrifices
Aaron himself has to complete. And he has no help when he had
by himself purged our sins. He sat down at the right hand
of the majesty on high. Now he had no help. Nobody was
in here with him. He did all this by himself. And
I read somewhere where somebody said there were 15 different
sacrifices, including the meal sacrifices and the grain sacrifices. Every single one of them, he
did by himself on that day. No help. You see, the Lord didn't
have any help, did he? Let's go and read verse 15. Then shall he kill the goat of
the sin offering that's for the people, and bring his blood within
the veil. Now he's fit. Remember, the sacrifice
has already been made for him, and now he's doing the sin offering
for the people. Then shall he kill the goat of
the sin offering that's 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. Now he kills the goat as a sin
offering. Now, Christ had to die. He had to die. Why? There's one reason for death.
Sin. And he was dying as the substitute
of his people without the shedding of blood. There is no remission
of sin. And you know the fact that During
the time of his death, there was three hours of darkness.
Darkness that might be felt. And I had covered the whole globe.
That lets me know that there's just a whole lot about the atonement
of Christ that I can't really enter into. You see, this was
a transaction between the Father and the Son. And there's just
a whole lot that we could never get hold of in this. Men were
shut out. He was offering himself to God.
He wasn't offering himself to me or you. He really wasn't. I think of that scripture in
Genesis 22 where Isaac said, well, here's the fire, here's
the wood, where's the lamb? And Abraham replied, God will
provide himself a lamb. You can't provide one. He's providing
himself as the lamb. He is the lamb. Now, Christ wasn't
offered himself to you. He was offered himself to God. Let's go on reading. Verse 15, then shall he kill
the goat of the sin offering that's 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 he shall sprinkle it upon
the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. And he shall make
an atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness, listen
to these words, because of the uncleanness of the children of
Israel and because of their transgressions and all their sins, so shall
he do for the tabernacle of the congregation that remaineth among
them in the midst of their uncleanness. The holy place had to be atoned
for because it had come into contact with sinful men. reminds
me of is how little I understand of God's holiness. How little? Even the tabernacle had to be
atoned for. Almost all things are by the
law purged with blood. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. Verse 17, this is pointed out
again. And there shall no man in the
tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement
for the holy place until he come out. Nobody's going to go in
there with him until he's made an atonement for himself and
for his household and for all the congregation of Israel. He'll
do this all by himself. And he shall go out unto the
altar that's set before the Lord to make an atonement for it and
shall take up the blood of the bullock and of the blood of the
goat and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. He
even had to purge the altar. He even had to purge the altar.
And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his fingers
seven times and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleanness
of the children of Israel. When that altar came into contact
with the sacrifice, it was considered unclean. It had to be purged.
Verse 20. Now this is just as much a part
of the atonement. 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, and note this, the live
goat. This is very important. I'm not
going to understand this if I don't understand that this is, this
is the live goat. Let's go on reading. 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 in all their sins, putting them, the
sins, upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the
hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited And he shall
let go the goat in the wilderness. Now these were all put on the
head of the live goat. And I love what Bruce was saying.
What is being taught here is the transfer of sin. Now sometime when Christ, and
I feel so unqualified and unfit to talk about this. I'll do my
best. Sometime, when Christ was alive,
sin was transferred to Him. While He was alive, He was made
sin. What we're talking about is part
of the first principles of the gospel. Remember in Hebrews chapter
6, verse 2, he said we shouldn't have to lay the foundation again
of the first principles. Repentance of dead works, faith
towards God, the doctrine of baptisms, and laying on of hands. This is one of the first principles
of the gospel. There's no understanding of the
work of Christ on the cross apart from this scapegoat. This scapegoat
gives us some understanding of what was going on This live goat,
bearing sins, is led away by the hand of a fit man who is
able to take it into the wilderness to a land not inhabited." I love
that. Nobody knows what happened to
that goat, that scapegoat. I've even seen a painting once.
I remember looking at this painting. It's got this goat with this
hideous look on its face. And it's in the mire. And it's
falling backwards. And there's this burning sky.
And I guess it's talking about the death of the goat. Nobody
knows what happened to that goat. But I know what that represents. My sins were removed from me. Christ paid for them. He bore
my sins in His own body on the tree. He was made sin. 1 Peter 3.18 says, He suffered
for sins. The just for the unjust. That
my sin, my filth, my guilt, he was made to bear in his own body
on the tree, which is what that scapegoat teaches us. And my
sins were separated from me. They were taken to a land not
inhabited. I love that. A land not inhabited. They're gone. Where are they?
Separated as far from me as the east is from the west infinitely. infinitely. What a blessed thing. Don't you love what that scapegoat
tells us about what our Lord accomplished on Calvary's tree?
The putting away of sin. And you think of this thing of
the transfer of sin. Not the transfer of guilt, but
the transfer of sin. If my sin was transferred to
him, you know what that means? That means I don't bear it. Right
now, I do not bear them. You know the sins that I will
commit tomorrow? I don't bear them. The sins that
I committed yesterday? I don't bear them. Sin can't
be two places at once. He actually, literally, took
upon Him the sins of the elect and bore them. In His death,
He paid the price. In His scapegoat, they're removed. Now, once in the end of the world
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Verse 23, And Aaron shall come
into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments
which he put on when he went into the holy place, and he shall
leave them there, They were no doubt blood spattered. How many
sacrifices had he already gone through? This was his white linen
cloth that he filled all the animals with and sacrifices.
Now he took them off and he put back on his gorgeous apparel,
verse 24, 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 all the people. Now, this
signified God's satisfaction with what was done. God is completely satisfied with
the death of his son. And he's completely satisfied
with me. And everybody for whom Christ
died. Complete satisfaction. That's what that smells good. Smells good. Now, my wife will
tell you I don't have much of a nose. I can't smell anything.
She says a lot about my personality. I can smell Starbucks coffee.
I can smell skunks, and I like the way they smell. I do, I do.
I know that's strange. God smelled the savor of that
burnt offering. And he was satisfied. Now let
me ask you a question. Are you satisfied? Are you satisfied
to be saved by Christ alone? No help? No help. Verse 25, And the fat of the
sin offering shall he burn upon the altar, and he that let go
the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and bathe his
flesh in water, and afterwards come into the camp." Now this
shows the reality of Christ being made sin and made a curse. That fit man who took him into
the wilderness, he was unclean. He couldn't come back into the
camp. He wasn't allowed to because
he had to be washed first. This shows the reality of Christ
actually being made sin, bearing our sin. Even the fifth man had
to be ceremonially washed before he could come back and participate
in worship. Let's go on reading. Verse 26.
And he that let the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his
clothes, and bathe in his flesh, and water, and come afterwards
into the camp. And the bullock for the sin offering, and the
goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make
atonement. Remember, this is not the burn offering. This is
the blood of the sin offering. The two goats and the bullock
that was, one was shed for Aaron, and one for the children of Israel. And the bullock for the sin offering,
and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to
make atonement in the holy place shall one carry forth without
the camp, and they shall burn in the fire their skins and their
flesh and their dung. And we have the New Testament
commentary on this. Remember how it says Jesus, that he might
sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the
gate? Without the camp? Now, outside that camp, there
are three things you'd see. Outside the camp, you'd see a
bunch of lepers. You'd see the sacrifice. And you'd see God's people coming
to him outside of the camp, outside of the Levitical system, outside
of human religion and works. They come to him outside the
camp. God doesn't work in the camp.
It's outside the camp. Verse 28. And he that burneth them shall
wash his clothes. Even the person who burned the
sin offering, he's now unclean, and he has to wash his clothes
and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into
the camp. Now this shall be a statute forever unto you, that in the
seventh day, this one day, on the tenth day of the month, you
shall... Now there's three things there
were to do on this day, and this is so very telling. Three things. Listen to them real carefully. On the tenth day of the month,
you shall, number one, afflict your souls. Number two, and do no work at
all, whether it be of your own country
or a stranger that sojourneth among you. For on that day shall
the priest make an atonement for you to cleanse you, that
you may be cleaned from all your sins before the Lord. It shall
be a Sabbath of rest. unto you, and you shall afflict
your souls by a statute forever." Now there's three things that
we're called upon to do in light of the priest making atonement
for us. Number one, I'm to afflict my
soul. Number two, I'm to do no work at all. And number three,
I'm to rest. Now, what is this thing of afflicting
your soul? I tell you what, as long as I'm
a sinner, I've got an afflicted soul. And I have reason to afflict
my soul. And that's in light of my sin
being put away. That's in light of the priest
making atonement for me. I hate my sin. And I can't feel any different
about that. Not as long as I'm dealing with
the wretched man that I am. Now let me show you how this
is a part of the New Covenant. Turn with me to Ezekiel 36. Hold
your finger there. Ezekiel 36. This is where God talks about all the things
that He's going to do. I'll give you a new heart and
I'll sprinkle you with clean water and you'll be cleansed
and so on. But look what He says in verse 31. Then, when I've
done all these things for you, then shall you remember your
own evil ways and your doings that were not good. And notice
the were is in italics. I don't think it helps the translation
that much. It usually doesn't. I mean, the words in italics,
it's not the stuff I did in the past. It's talking about stuff
going on right now. Stuff going on right now. Then shall you remember your
own evil ways and your doings, not good, and shall loathe yourselves
in your own sight. for your iniquities and for your
abomination. Not for your sakes do I this
sayeth the Lord, be it known unto you, be ashamed and confounded
for your own ways, O house of Israel. My sin is ever before
me. Right now. Right now. My sin is ever before me and
I love that passage of scripture in 1 John chapter 2 verse 1 where
John says, these things write I unto you that you sin not. Sin, and understand this, even
lie of the atonement, sin is never acceptable to a believer.
It's never okay. It's never okay under any circumstance. And you know, It's not okay,
and man, I got plenty of it. And oh, I afflict my soul. And this is the command of the
atonement. In light of the priest, putting
away your sin, afflict your soul. But look what he says next. I
love what he says next. Verse 29, this shall be a statute
forever unto you, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day
of the month, you shall afflict your soul and do no work at all. Now some people think that affliction
of the soul is kind of like, you know, if I feel real bad
and guilty and beat my breast and so on, somehow that's going
to help. No it doesn't. No it doesn't. That doesn't do anything
to put away Satan. I'm called upon to do no work at all. Period. You know why? Because the priest did all the
work for me. He did every bit of it. He did
it all. And there's nothing for me to
do. He did it all. We don't sing, Jesus paid a half
the other half I owe. Jesus paid. What? It all. All the dead isle. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. What could be more insulting
to God? For after what Christ did, for
me or you to come up and present our filthy little works. What
an insult. What an insult. After what Christ
did, and I'm going to present some kind of work to God. No.
Do no work at all. Not the labor of my hands could
fulfill thy law's demands. Do no work at all. Verse 31, It, this glorious day
of atonement, where the sin by the great high priest was paid
for and removed and removed. It shall be a Sabbath of rest
unto you. I love the first mention of the
Sabbath. The Lord created the universe, the heavens, the earth,
and it took him six days And on the seventh day, you know
what the scripture says he did? He rested. How come? Because he looked at the work
and it was very good. It couldn't be improved upon.
It was perfect. And there was nothing left to
do. So he rested. He rested. There remaineth a
rest for the people of God. For he that's entered into his
rest hath ceased from his own works. Just like God did. Why
did God cease? Wasn't anything to do. He's finished. He's finished. He that's entered
into his rest hath ceased from his own works as God did from
his. So how am I to respond to this
perfect, effectual atonement my high priest made for me? that
he entered in to heaven itself with his own blood. That's an
amazing thing to think about. The priest offers the sacrifice
of himself to the Father. And I flicked my soul. I don't do any works. Indeed,
what could I do? What could I do? rest. That is our response to the effectual,
perfect, particular, limited, definite atonement of the Lord
Jesus Christ. May God enable all of us to afflict
our souls, to do no work, and to rest. Thank you.