I don't know about you, but one
of the things that I am least patient with, you ask my wife,
there are certain things I'm very impatient with, are things
that are supposed to work, or claim to work, and don't work. It really annoys me, you know? You come across something and
it claims, the advert said, the label said, it does such and
such a thing, and you go to use it, and you find very, very quickly,
it stopped working. It doesn't work. It's useless.
You know? I need to get rid of this thing
before it annoys me even more. It's supposed to work and it
doesn't work. It's the same with religion.
It's the same with how we are made at one at peace with God. All false religion lacks credible
atonement. It lacks effectual atonement. It lacks atonement that works. Most Christianity, most religion
that calls itself Christianity is in that category. The vast
majority of it. It's basically universalism. Universalism says that Christ
died to atone for the sins of everybody that ever lived. And
then what makes the difference is the choice of that individual
person to decide to accept it or to refuse to accept it. And
that's universalism and it's what Don Faulkner calls, and
I agree with him totally, the most hideous doctrine in the
world. And I tell you Be careful. Do not be duped. You know, we
say, oh, yeah, but there are Calvinistic churches. They don't
believe that. You watch it. You listen carefully. Because they have a system of
duty faith. They have a system that they
call the free offer of the gospel. Oh, gosh, doesn't that sound
appealing? Who could possibly argue against
that? Surely we believe in that, don't
we? No, what it comes down to when
you look at it is not God having mercy upon who he will have mercy,
but the sinner who is dead in trespasses and sins doing that
which the sinner by nature cannot do. Go down to the local undertakers
if they would let you. Go in and see the dead body lying
there. Persuade that dead body to sit up. You can't do it. You
can't do it. There's only the power of God
can do that, as we saw with Christ and his miracles. No, it cannot
be done. And those that claim to be Calvinists,
but really they've got a duty-faith free offer, they're appealing
to what they believe is innate in all men, to exercise a duty
and accept the free offer of the gospel. It's universalism. under a very, very subtle disguise. It's universalism and therefore
it's an atonement that doesn't work. It's an atonement that
is ineffectual. It's an atonement that is useless. Now why is this important? What's
the text from Job that I remind you of more than any other? How
can a man be just with God? Is this not your dilemma, my
dilemma? For it's appointed to man to die once, and then the
judgment. It's coming, it's coming, it's
coming, as I showed you last week, like that funeral procession.
We're all basically in our own funeral procession now. It's
coming. How can you be just with God? For it's appointed to man
to die once, and then the judgment. How can you, who are a sinner,
me, a sinner, be reconciled to God who is holy, who cannot look
upon sin, who must punish sin? In the day that you sin, in the
day that you eat thereof, he said to Adam and Eve, you shall
surely die a spiritual death, the second death, eternal separation
from God. How can you reconcile such enemies? What is it that separated us?
What is it? The scripture tells us, Isaiah
59 verse 2, Your iniquities have separated between you and your
God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He shall
not hear. Oh, let's all get together and
have a prayer meeting. We disagree about doctrine, but
let's all get together and have a prayer meeting. This is what
the Word of God says, He will not hear you. You can talk all
you want. You can pray all you want. He
will not hear you. Who says this? This presumptuous
preacher that's preaching to you? No, God's word says it.
He will not hear. There must be atonement. There must be atonement. There
must be at, break the word down, at one meant. Making that which
is separate, that which is divided, that which is at enmity with
itself. Sinners and the Holy God. That
which is separated by sin. There must be an atonement to
bring them together, to unite them, to unify that which was
divided. At the end of this service, We're
going to be sharing the symbols of the communion service. The
bread, the unleavened bread, speaking of the sinless, uncorrupted
body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And wine. Real wine. I know it's
in a juice bottle, but I tell you, honestly, it's real wine.
You'll taste it later. It's proper wine. Symbolizing
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The life is in the blood and
the blood was shed because the life was the price. The soul
that sins it shall die. And Christ, our infinite substitute,
poured out his lifeblood, his precious blood. And we remember
looking back to the atonement that was made at the cross. In
the Old Testament, in the books of Moses, in Leviticus 16, we
see the Day of Atonement described, looking forward in picture and
symbol. And that happened, that Day of
Atonement was kept until Christ made an end of it. I know Jews
celebrate it today, but it's totally ineffectual because the
key elements are missing. In Daniel chapter 9 and verse
24, Daniel prophesied by the Spirit of God that Messiah would
come. And when Messiah came, He specified
the time when He would come. When Messiah would come, then
an end would be made of sacrifice. An end would be made of sins. It would be finished, because
He, in that one act of death on the cross of Calvary, and
His resurrection from the dead, would put an end to all of that.
And God confirmed it in A.D. 70 when the Emperor Titus destroyed
Jerusalem. And do you know what? I know
I've told you it before but I'll underline it. Ever since, the
Jewish rites of temple sacrifice and bloodletting have ceased.
They haven't been able to happen because there's no temple. There
hasn't been a temple in Jerusalem since A.D. 70 when God ordained
the Romans to put an end to it as he prophesied by the prophet
Daniel that it would come to an end. Now what I want to do
this morning in the time we have available is to look at Leviticus
16 at the day of atonement And from it, give us a reminder of
how the atonement that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, according
to the scriptures, according to the gospel of his sovereign
grace, is the most effectual atonement. This one works. All the others are false, sham,
There's no workings in them, they don't deliver, they don't
operate, they don't do anything. This works. This is the true
atonement that God has ordained. All of the components have got
to be there to portray how a particular group of sinners You know, there
were other people in the world, but do you know who it was for?
It was for that nation, Israel, in Jerusalem, gathered there.
It was for particular sinners, and how they are reconciled to
God. And the elements I want to look
at are just four here. The high priest, the slain victim,
the lost scapegoat, and the effect on the people, the people that
were there. And then think about us, and what does it mean for
us? First of all, the high priest. You'll notice in verse 1 of chapter
16 that these events took place after the two sons of Aaron died. God killed them because they
presumptuously tried to do that which God had said shouldn't
be done. They tried to step into the priest's
office and do those things which were not permitted for them to
do. And God killed them. He killed them. They offered
before the Lord and they shouldn't have done. And they died. And
now God is saying, this is what you do. This is how atonement
is made. Aaron, your brother, the high
priest, he who God had said was to be the high priest, the one
of God's choice. Did he stand out because he was
superior morally to all other men in those days? Not at all.
We know that Aaron was very flawed. He had all sorts of weaknesses.
No, he was a sinner just like you and I are. All men are sinful,
but God said he was the one to be the high priest. And what
was a high priest for? What was a priest for? A priest
is for mediation. for being the go-between between
God and man this is what a priest is for a go-between between God
and man specially chosen, verse three thus shall Aaron come into
the holy place, no one else and then it was Aaron's sons after
him, other sons Aaron shall come into the holy place with a young
bullock for a sin offering God chose him, specifically chosen
of God Our Lord Jesus Christ is God's ordained High Priest
for us. We don't have priests today.
The Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, always talking about
them being priests. Absolutely not. On the strength
and authority of the Word of God, there are no human priests
today, other than the priesthood of all believers. There are just
two categories, the priesthood of all believers and our Lord
Jesus Christ in heaven, our great High Priest. There are no special
men who stand between God and the people. There are no Catholic
priests dressed in their robes. There are no Archbishop priests
dressed in their robes in the Church of England. None of it.
None of it. It's a complete fallacy. It is
not supported by the Word of God in any way whatsoever. We have a High Priest. Isaiah
42 verse 1, God says this, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine
elect, my chosen one, in whom my soul delighteth. This is Christ
he's speaking of, who will come. I have put my spirit upon him,
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall bring
forth the justice of God to Gentiles. Isn't that good? Us, who are
Gentiles here this morning, isn't that good? Prophesied there in
Isaiah. Jewish Isaiah in the Old Testament
and this, verse four of that same chapter, he shall not fail. He shall accomplish. This great
high priest. Look at him, verse four. He shall
put on the holy linen coat and shall have linen breeches upon
his flesh and shall be girded with a linen girdle and with
a linen mitre on his head, a hat on his head shall he be attired.
These are the holy garments therefore shall he wash his flesh and so
put them on." These were plain garments. These were just plain
white linen garments. These weren't the ornate embroidered
priestly robes with the pomegranates and the bells and all that sort
of thing that went with them. These were just plain, humble,
clean garments. Our Lord Jesus Christ as our
High Priest came in plain, ordinary, human garments. Philippians 2,
verse 5, Let this mind be in you, which was also in our Lord
Jesus Christ, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation He came
as a servant. He took upon him the form of
a servant. He took upon him human flesh,
yet without sin. Just plain, ordinary, humble
humanity is how he came. Our great high priest came dressed
in these priestly robes of humanity, as these linen garments portrayed. But he was holy. and the priest
must be holy. How is someone like Aaron in
the high priest's office to be holy? Look at verse three. Thus
shall Aaron come with a young bullock for a sin offering. Aaron
was a sinner. He had to come with a young bullock
for a sin offering. He had to wash himself and put
on these clothes. Verse 6, Aaron shall offer his
bullock for a sin offering, which is for himself, to make atonement
for himself and his house. He, to be priest, had to be ceremonially
holy first. He had to be made clean by the
slaying of a bullock for his sins, and that of his family,
that he might represent that which was perfectly holy. Verse
11, Aaron shall bring the bullock for a sin offering, which is
for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself and for
his house, and shall kill the bullock. And verse 12, and shall
take a censer full of burning coals from off the altar before
the Lord, and in his hands sweet incense, big and small, and bring
it in before the veil." Ceremonial cleanness. If he didn't bring
that incense in, he would die. This was the stipulation of God.
He had to be ceremonially holy. The sweet incense, the smoke,
was speaking of the death of Christ, which atoned for sin,
and it was that sweet-smelling savour. We read about it when
Noah sacrificed, there was a sweet-smelling savour. We read about it concerning
our Lord Jesus Christ in Ephesians 5, a sweet-smelling savour, our
Lord Jesus Christ. The intercession for us, the
satisfying aroma in the nostrils of God of salvation accomplished,
satisfaction of God in our substitute. And also Aaron, who was going
to help him in his priestly office? Answer, nobody, on his own, entirely
alone. Verse 17, And 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 and
have made an atonement. All the time he's in there, he
is entirely alone. And all the time this one man,
Aaron, ceremonially holy, and dressed in the garments of humble
simplicity, is in the holy place making an atonement, he is entirely
alone. And yet, the fate of the whole
of the nation outside is depending entirely on that one man. He
does his work entirely alone. I can imagine those people standing
outside in the court of the temple and watching what would happen.
And the high priest goes in. And is he going to come out?
Because if he doesn't come out, there is no atonement made. and
we might as well be struck dead because come the day of judgment
we're going to be the wrong side of God. Is it accepted? We'll know if he comes out it's
accepted and if he doesn't come out he's been consumed. Does
this happen? Yes, Aaron's sons presumptuously
tried to offer to God and God killed them. Uzzah stretched
out his hand in sincerity to steady the ark of God that God
had said only the priests must touch and God struck him dead,
God killed him, terrified David, made David furious and terrified
at the same time. He had to work alone while he
did this and so did our Lord Jesus Christ when he was arrested
All of the disciples, despite Peter's bravado, they all fled
and left him. And he stood alone in the hall
of accusation. And alone he hung on the cross,
just bounded by two thieves. And the Psalms speak of this,
Psalm 69, verse 20. He says this, this is Christ
speaking by the Psalmist. Thy rebuke hath broken his heart. He looked for some to have pity
on him, but there was no man, neither found he any. He walked
this entirely alone. He walked this path of redemption
entirely alone. We need a high priest. The atonement
had to have a high priest in clean garments, ceremonially
holy, and entirely alone. to be an effectual atonement
that's what must be done to have an effectual atonement that makes
you and me sinners at one with an offended God we must have
a high priest who does all that for us and we have in our Lord
Jesus Christ and we remember him in bread and wine we look
back and we see Hebrews 8 verses 1 to 3 now of the things which
we have spoken this is the sum we have such an high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens he is a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle
not a temple or a tent in Israel a true tabernacle which the Lord
pitched you know where it is? it's in the heavens, it's the
heavenly one and not of man, for every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices. That's what they do. Wherefore,
it is of necessity that this man, our Lord Jesus Christ, in
his humble priestly garments, that he have somewhat also to
offer. There is one God and one mediator,
one high priest, between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. Then I want you to look at the
slain goat. There were two young goats. After
the bullock, after the ram for the burnt offering, there were
two young goats. One to be slain, and the other
one to be released. The slain one was representing
Christ as the Lamb of God, was representing Christ as the victim
of God's justice. The soul that sins, it shall
die. That is the penalty pronounced.
And the one goat to be slain represented Christ as that Lamb
of God, the victim of God's justice. It had to be innocent. It was
just a goat. It was just not tainted in any
way with human sin. And so he must not be tainted
in any way with human sin. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
without sin. tempted in all points as we are,
yet without sin. He came in the likeness of sinful
flesh, but not in sinful flesh, for he was without earthly father.
He was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of a virgin. He
was without earthly father. That taint of Adam, which is
in all of us, as David wrote in sin did my mother conceive
me that in all of us is that sin which is within us but he
was innocent like this goat it was completely innocent of human
sin and it had to be provided by the people verse five it was
from the congregation take of the congregation of the children
of Israel two kids of the goats it had to come from among them
it had to be their possession from the people Just like the
children we read in Hebrews 2.14, as the children, that's the people
of God, you and me, if we're in Christ, Just as the children
have partaken of flesh and blood, says Hebrews 2.14, so our high
priest, so our sacrifice also had to partake of flesh that
he might die. A man in the place of man. It was man's sin that he's being
punished, man's blood must be shed. And so he had to be real
man. He had to be a real man to shed
real human blood to pay the price of real human sin. And then he
was chosen by God, because it was the Lord's lot. They took
lots. Which of these two goats? One
of them is going to escape, and the other one is going to be
killed. Which is it to be? And they cast lots, and it says
it was the Lord's lot. It was the Lord's choice. the
one that it fell upon, the Lord's lot. Acts chapter 2 verse 23,
Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost, he says, you by wicked
hands to that congregation took him and crucified the Lord of
glory, but he said it was all by the lot of the Lord, by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. In chapter 4 of Acts
verse 28, Again, another sermon, but you have done these wicked
things and what you did was for to do whatsoever thy hand and
thy counsel, God's hand and God's counsel, God's lot determined
before to be done. The Lord's lot fell on a specific
goat. The Lord's lot fell on the Lord
Jesus Christ to stand in the place of his people. And then
verse 15, Then he shall 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
which is sprinkling it on the mercy seat and before the mercy
seat. It had to be slain as a sacrifice. A sacrifice is a substitutionary
pouring out of the price that justice demanded for the
sin that had been committed, slain as a sacrifice, slain in
the place of those for which he was the substitute. The goat
died that the people might not die. Our Lord Jesus Christ died
that his people might not die. The goat was slain for the sins
of the people. that the people might not suffer
that penalty. He was slain as a sacrifice.
As Zechariah chapter 13 verse 7 says, Awake, O sword, this
is God speaking of his justice. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
who is his son, our Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest,
and against the man that is my fellow. I and my father are one,
said Christ. Wake, O sword, against the shepherd,
against the man who is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite
the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn
mine hand upon the little ones. How the sheep were scattered
when the shepherd was smitten, smitten of God. He was a substitute
of infinite merit because he was holy and without sin. He
was God in human flesh. And he died for a particular
people. Not universally. It was for a
particular people. This is why it's effectual. For
a particular people. Because when he died for a particular
people, he actually put away the sins of those people. Think
about debts at the bank. This concept of the free offer
is absolutely ridiculous. It doesn't apply in finances. Why on earth should it apply
in the justice of God? If you have a debt at the bank,
There isn't a general amnesty that says, right, all debts are
cleared for those who fancy having their debts cleared. Wouldn't
that be an easy thing to do? There are people who are extremely
naive and they wonder why the government doesn't solve all
of the country's financial problems by just saying, oh, well, it
doesn't matter anymore. What you owe doesn't matter.
We'll just write it off and we'll just write some more money. It
makes no difference. It doesn't work like that. It
cannot possibly work like that. He actually put away the sins
of his specific people. If I pay your debt, whether you
like it or not, you don't owe the bank anything. You know?
You can say, I didn't want him to pay my debt. Well, sorry,
it's paid. The bank will say, we cannot
take your money off you, because your debt was paid by somebody
else. But what about that one over there? Oh, he didn't pay
the debt for that one over there. They still owe it. Do you see
how clear it is? Whether it's effectual or not.
Galatians 3. Galatians 3 verse 10, cursed
is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Cursed, that's you, that's
me, cursed before God. But Christ has redeemed us, verse
13, from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For cursed is everyone that hangs
on a tree. And when he hung, shedding his
precious blood on that cross of Calvary, on that wooden tree,
As a curse, bearing the sins of his people, bearing the wrath
of God in the place of his people, he redeemed us, he bought us
back, he paid the price that we owed to the justice of God.
Hebrews 10 verse 11. verses 11 to 14, every priest
standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices over and over and over again. This one, a day of
atonement was once a year, every year, no more than that, once
a year, but a perpetual memory. And they can never take away
sins. Why? Because it's the blood of
goats, it's the blood of animals, it's a picture, it isn't the
reality. But this man, our Lord Jesus Christ, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever not a pattern of a mass that
the Catholics celebrate every time they have the mass which
is a repeated sacrifice every time they sacrifice again unto
themselves the Lord Jesus Christ that's a repeated this isn't
a sacrifice this is a memory the bread and wine is a memory
it isn't the real flesh of Christ and the real blood it's bread
and it's wine but it reminds us that we discern the body of
the Lord, it reminds us of those things. This man, after he had
offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right
hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering he has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Solid truth. solid. You can build on that, can't
you? You can sit down and rest there. That's not going to collapse
underneath you, is it? For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And then The blood of that goat
that was slain was sprinkled on the mercy seat. The word mercy
seat, the term mercy seat is the same as the term propitiation.
It's a turning away of anger. Verses 14 and 15. He shall take
the blood of the bullock and sprinkle it with his finger upon
the mercy seat eastward. And before the mercy seat shall
he sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times. Perfectly
covering it. It's a covering. Hebrews 9. Turn over to Hebrews 9. Hebrews
9 and verse 12. 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. Chapter 10, verse
19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he has consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, let us draw near with
a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled. We've been reading about the
sprinkling of the blood on the mercy seat. Having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water. Washed with pure water. That
speaks of the Holy Spirit, but we'll talk about that another
time. The blood was sprinkled. The veil was rent from top to
bottom, torn that access might be made into the holy of holies.
To have effectual atonement, we must have legal satisfaction
for sin. The satisfaction in terms of
the payment of the debt of our sins. Thirdly, the lost scapegoat. Verses 20 to 22. When he'd 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 in 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. The lost scapegoat. The result
of the atonement is this, the sins of his people are removed.
The sins of that congregation were symbolically removed by
that lost scapegoat. How far? He says, Psalm 103 verse
12, your iniquities are removed from you as far as the east is
from the west. And on the globe, we don't say
the north from the south because if you're north and you go south,
you go past south and you start going back north again. Whereas
east and west, you just keep going. You know, what to us is
East Russia is the West from Japan. It's as far as the East
is from the West. And this was by transfer and
by imputation. He laid those transgressions
on the head of the goat, putting them on the head of the goat.
and our Lord Jesus Christ bore the sins of his people in his
own body on the tree. As Isaiah 53 says, surely he
has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. Why was he afflicted? He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace,
the chastisement to make our peace, to make atonement with
God was upon him. Somebody had to bear the punishment
that the Lord demanded. It was upon him and with his
stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned, all we whom God has chosen to be represented
in Christ have gone astray. We're all sinners and have turned
everyone his own way. And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. It doesn't mean of everybody
that ever lived. It means of those that the Father
gave to him. He made him to be sin, who knew no sin. He bore
the sins of his people, that we, his people, might be made
the righteousness of God in him. And that sin was removed, and
our sin is removed by Christ. The goat shall bear upon him
all their iniquities. That scapegoat symbolically would
carry away those iniquities of that congregation into a land
not inhabited, into a wilderness. Christ, for the sins of his people,
and they were removed. Hebrews 10, 14, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. The guilt
is gone. The judicial accountability is
gone. It's gone. You know, there are
some things that are trivial in the past. and some of the
choruses that we used to sing in Arminian circles, but there's
one that's very, very true. Gone, gone, gone, gone, yes my
sins are gone. Gone, because they're carried
away. Romans 8.1, looking at it a few weeks ago, there is
therefore, why? Wherefore? Because Christ has
done this. There is therefore no condemnation to those who
are in Christ. Why not? Because he's carried
it away. Well, who shall lay any charge to God's elect? Christ
has taken it away. It's dealt with. We have a scapegoat. He's taken our sins away, pictured
in the scapegoat. It's gone. The memory of sin
is gone. Jeremiah 50 and verse 20. In those days, talking about
judgment, in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for. You hear this because, you know,
we've all been afflicted in recent years by people claiming to speak
for God, telling us that we need to be worried about the day of
judgment, that we need to be worried as believers about the
judgment seat of Christ, haven't we? You know what I'm talking
about. In those days, in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, For I will pardon
them whom I reserve. God has taken it away. Christ
has borne it away. How blessed. Psalm 32, 1 and
2. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Romans 4, verse 8. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. If we're to have an atonement,
we must have our sins removed. We must have holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord and we have that in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's carried it away and he's
clothed us with his own righteousness. And fourthly, briefly, the people,
the people, that congregation. We don't read much about them
apart from the fact that they were there and they gave of the
goats. The goats came from the congregation. Did you notice
what the people had to do? Did you notice that, what they
had to do? Just stand there and wait. What
did God say to Moses when they were being chased by the Egyptians?
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. They were passive
throughout. They were outside waiting for
the work to be completed. But what they were told to do,
verse 29, this shall be a statute forever unto you, that in the
seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict
your souls. you shall afflict your souls.
Repentance. There must be repentance. An
outcome of this must be repentance. Verse 29 again, and do no work
at all. There'll be a rest. There'll
be a Sabbath rest based on what has been done. A Sabbath rest. You will rest. Why will you do
no work? Because there is no work of law
to be done to make you righteous with God for, look, the atonement
has been accomplished entirely without you, entirely on the
basis of grace and particular redemption. you will rest. Pictured in Hebrews 4. And then
you will rejoice. There was rejoicing. You have
to look at Leviticus 25 and verse 9. Then shalt thou cause the
trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh
month. In the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound
throughout all your land. There was rejoicing. We are the
circumcision. We are the circumcision who worship
God in spirit who rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. And then fourthly, believe. This is what the people did.
What's the work of God, said the Jews to Jesus? This is the
work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. Believe. Discern the Lord's body. The
hymn that we're going to sing, the third verse, my faith would
lay her hand on that dear head of thine. As Aaron the priest
put his hands on the head of the goat, my faith would lay
her hands on that dear head of thine. While I, like a penitent,
I stand and there confess my sin. We must apprehend this atonement
by faith. We must discern the body of the
Lord. Who is it for? It's only for
the elect of God. But I defy you to show me one
verse of scripture that says to any seeking, searching sinner,
election keeps you out of this, it's not for you. You won't find
it anywhere. Find it when Jesus says to unrepentant,
self-righteous, bigoted Pharisees, you are not of my sheep, but
any who are seeking and searching. He says, come unto me, all you
that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The very
last verses of the Bible, just two or three verses before the
end of Revelation, the Spirit and the bride say, come, come. without money, without price,
Isaiah 55. Ho, everyone that thirsts, come. Come and buy freely. Come and
partake of the waters of life freely. Freely. Believe. Believe. That's what
the people did. They stood there passively, repenting,
resting, rejoicing, and believing. That's a credible atonement. That's an atonement that works.
That's effectual salvation. You want to know why we're so
isolationist? We have the sweetest fellowship
with all who believe that. There may not be many of them
locally, but there are around the world because God has his
people. Amen.