We're happy to have Fred and
Cheryl and the saints from Louisville here with us tonight. Greet you.
Glad you're here with us. In verse seven of Hebrews chapter
nine, we read into the second, went the high priest alone once
every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself.
and for the errors of the people. Now this is a reference to what
took place in Leviticus chapter 16, the great day of atonement. And I've entitled this message,
Atonement. Atonement. I the man speaking with you,
the preacher up here preaching, I am a sinful man. I'm not saying that in a generic
way. I'm not saying that in a theologically
correct way. I'm saying I am a sinful man,
committing oftentimes the same sins over and over and over. I am a sinful man. I know a little bit about how
Peter felt when he said to the Lord, depart from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. He really felt that in his soul.
I find so much that I can identify with, with that man whose name
was Legion. Turn for a moment to Mark chapter
5. Mark chapter 5. Verse 1, And they came out over
unto the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes.
And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him
out of the tombs, the place of death, a man with an unclean
spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man could bind
him. No, not with chains. because
that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, the
fetters and chains of human religion, and the chains had been plucked
asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Neither could
any man tame him, and always, night and day, he was in the
mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones.
But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran. and worshipped him and
cried with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with thee,
Jesus, thou son of the most high God? What do we have in common?
You're light, I'm darkness. You're good, I'm bad. You're holy, I'm unclean. What connection do we have together? What do I have to do with thee? I adjure thee by God that thou
torment me not. All he could think was that the
Lord would torment him. He couldn't think of his mercy
toward somebody like him. That's how he saw himself. For
he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
And he asked him, What's thy name? And he answered, saying,
My name is Legion. For we are many. How can a holy God have anything
to do with the likes of me? How can He accept me? How can
He embrace me? How can He love me? How can He
have communion with me? How can He have fellowship with
me? It is only as my sins are atoned
for. Atonement. Would you turn with
me to Leviticus chapter 16? Verse 30. For on that day, shall the priest make an atonement
for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your
sins before the Lord." Don't you find that attractive? The
thought of being clean from all your sins before the Lord Himself,
Oh, what a glorious thought, the atonement. Now, Leviticus
chapter 16 is one of the most instructive chapters in the Bible,
and it teaches us how our sins and our iniquities. I'm not talking
about a generic sense of sin, but I mean my sin, the sins that
I commit. This passage of scripture tells
me how these sins that I commit can actually be atoned for and
have God can embrace me. Now, the great day of atonement
took place once a year. Look back in verses one and two
of chapter 16. And the Lord spake unto Moses
after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they offered before
the Lord and died. Do you remember what took place?
In Leviticus chapter 10, Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's boys, they
ran out of the right kind of incense and they thought, well,
this will do. This will do. I mean, after all, we're sincere.
It doesn't matter if we give the, it doesn't have to be exact.
This will do. So they offered up this strange
fire before the Lord. Incense that he never commanded.
And the scripture says fire came down from heaven and devoured
him. Killed him on the spot. And the Lord Spoke through Moses
and he said, Aaron, don't even mourn for him. Don't weep for
him. Now with that in mind, I'm sure. Scared everybody to death. Hey,
we're scared. And with that atmosphere, the
holiness of God, the unapproachableness of God. were given the great
day of atonement. Verse two, and the Lord said
unto Moses, speak unto thy brother Aaron, that he come not at all
times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat,
which is upon the ark, that he die not. For I will appear in
the cloud upon the mercy seat. Now the work of Aaron The high
priest coming into the Lord's presence this one day a year
for this great day of atonement represents the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The true great high priest. And
the first thing he did We went through the tabernacle recently,
I guess it was this summer, and the high priest had these beautiful,
glorious, gorgeous clothes on. I mean, the miter and the breastplate
made of blue and purple and gold and white and all these different
colors that represented the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
when he was to make atonement, he set aside those garments and
put on plain white linen. representing the incarnation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he then had to have a young
bull and a ram for an offering and a burnt offering for himself.
He was not qualified to offer up for somebody else until he
first had to offer up for himself. And what this represents is the
sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, if a priest
has any sin on him, he can't represent somebody else. He has
to be perfect. He has to be holy. So Aaron was
just like you and I, he was a sinful man. So he had to offer a sacrifice
for himself first before he was qualified to offer up a sacrifice
for the children of Israel. This represents the sinlessness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then after he offered this
sacrifice for himself, there were two goats for the children
of Israel. One for a sin offering, and one was called a scape goat. That's where that term comes
from, a scape goat, Leviticus chapter 16. It means one who
brings away. It's made of two words. One means
to go away, I like that, my sins going away. Remember when the
high priest put his hands on the head of the scapegoat and
the sins were transferred to him and he was led by a fit man
into the wilderness, my sins going away. I sure like the thought
of that. So he offers the bull and ram for himself. He sprinkles
the blood on the altar because the altar had been defiled by
him touching it. He then offers up the, um, goat for the sin
offering for the children of Israel and sprinkles the blood
on the altar and in the holy of holies. And then he comes
back out looking verse 21 of Leviticus chapter 16. 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 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." Aaron, after this, takes another bath, puts
back on his regular clothing, the great high priest's beautiful
attire, and he offers another sacrifice for himself and the
people, and then the bull that he offered for himself and the
goat that was given as a sin offering are taken outside the
camp and burnt, just as our Lord suffered without the gate, and
hence we have a figure of the atonement. Here is how a holy
God can actually embrace somebody like me. Atonement. Now the word atonement
is found 16 times in this chapter. It means to cover, to placate,
to appease, to cancel, to cleanse, to disannul, to forgive, to pardon,
to purge away, to put off, to make reconciliation for sin. Now, I have four very simple
questions regarding this 16th chapter of Leviticus and the
great day of atonement. One, who made this atonement? Second, what did he actually
do? What did he accomplish in this
atonement? Three, how was it done? And four, how were the people
to respond for whom this atonement was made? Very simple, but only
God enabled me to preach the gospel in the power of the Holy
spirit. Who made this atonement? Verse 30, 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. Now that
priest represents the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only
he can make atonement. There's not a thing in the world
that you and I can do to atone for our sins. It's all together
out of our hands. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can
make atonement. Look what verse 17 says of Leviticus
16, 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 has made an atonement for himself and for his household
and for all the congregation of Israel. No man's with him.
He did this all together by himself. He was to do this alone. I think
of Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 when it says he by himself. No help
from me, no help from you, no help from anybody. He by himself
purged. Our sins. Now, why did he have
to do this by himself? Let me give you two real good
reasons. First, because he's the only one who can do it. You couldn't do this. He's the
only one who could do it. And second, he's going to get
all the glory this way. Those are two good reasons, aren't
they? You couldn't atone for your sins. There's not a thing
you could do. As a matter of fact, in this thing of atonement, we're
passive, absolutely passive. This is the work of Christ with
no help from us. He by himself, by himself, he
purged our sins. It was holy what he did for us. Look at verse 34. And this shall
be an everlasting statute unto you to make an atonement for
the children of Israel and for all their sins once a year. And he did as the Lord commanded
Moses. Now The priest put on his humble
garments for this great work. He did have all these decked
out in gold and precious stones and so on. How impressive he
must have looked. But when he does the work of
atonement, he puts on his humble garments. He puts on the white
linen. This represents the Lord Jesus Christ incarnation. It represents the Lord Jesus
Christ becoming flesh. And oh, how he humbled himself. Now you think of God. becoming
a man. How he humbled himself. He took upon him all the same
limitations physically that you and I have got. He humbled himself. And he humbled himself even more
than that. He had two stoops. First the stoop of becoming a
man, and then the stoop when he was made to cry out in Psalm
22, 6, I am a worm and not even fit to be called a man. He was made sin. What a stoop. And you'll notice how Aaron was to offer sacrifice
first for his own sins before he could offer up a sacrifice
for others. This speaks of the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, it also says there in
Hebrews 9, I think I'm going to try to deal with this next
week. It says this didn't satisfy their conscience. Just seeing
Aaron do it. They never had a real satisfaction
of conscience because the only thing that can satisfy your conscience
is if the sacrifice is sinless. If it's just a sinner doing it,
what could he do for anybody? He couldn't do anything for anybody.
The only thing that I'm satisfied with is that our Lord Jesus Christ,
before he was made sin, lived a perfectly sinless life. It was the Lord Jesus alone who
made atonement. We were passive in this. Now,
second question, what did this atonement actually do? Verse 30, once again, I've read
it twice, but it's such a great verse, I'd like to read it again.
For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you to
cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before
the Lord. Oh, how attractive that is, to
be clean before the Lord from all my sins. And let me give
you the Hebrew dictionary definition of this word, that you may be
cleansed. You see, we were defiled, dirty,
filthy, dark in our sins, and to be cleansed is to be bright. That's the first definition,
bright, pure, clear, unadulterated, uncontaminated, innocent, holy. clean, purged, purified. Now here's a word I like in this
30th verse. On that day shall the priest
make an atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be clean
from, what's the next word? A double L all. From all your
sins. Sins of imagination, sins of
deeds, all sins. Now that's a lot of sin. The
sin that makes us so dirty, we are cleansed from. The blood
of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from all sin. Look in verse 16 of Leviticus
chapter 16. And he shall make an atonement
for the holy place. because of the uncleanness of
the children of Israel and because of their transgressions in all
their sins. And so shall he do for the tabernacle
of the congregation that remaineth among them in the midst of their
uncleanness. Look in verse 20. And with he has made an end of
reconciling, and that word is the word that's generally translated
atoning, atoning the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation,
the altar, he shall bring the live goat. Now, he made atonement
for the holy things. If I touch it, it's unclean.
It had to be purged. My faith has to be washed in
the blood of Christ. My repentance has to be washed
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. My love to the Lord has
to be washed in the blood. I can't bring anything to Him
apart from the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He made reconciliation. He made atonement for the holy
things of the children of Israel. Full atonement was made. For
who? For who? Now this is an issue. A lot of times when I think of
the atonement, I think of the extent of the atonement. What
is the extent of it? And that's very important because
the scripture makes an issue out of it. But first I need to
understand why atonement? Why do I need atonement? But
after that, let's talk about the extent of atonement. He says
he'll make an atonement for you. Who is the you? Who are the folks
that he made this atonement for? Was he making atonement for everybody?
No, the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. It was an atonement
for a specific people. It's talking about God's elect. Christ Jesus died for the elect
and he accomplished their salvation. Now, here's why this is such
an issue. Because I know some people say, well, why make an
issue of this? Well, like I said this morning,
for one reason, because the Bible does. But here's the big issue
to me. When I'm talking about my sinfulness,
The only hope that I have is that Jesus Christ died for me.
That's it. No other hope. Nothing. Now if you tell me that he can
die for somebody and they wind up in hell anyway, that's going
to happen to me. I know it will. My only hope is that when he
said it is finished, my salvation was accomplished. That's the
only hope I've got. And what a good hope it is. What
a sufficient hope it is. Who is this atonement for? It
was for his elect, his people. And what did his atonement actually
do? It made everybody that he represented clean and pure before
God. Hebrews 10, 14 says, for by one
offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. I am
clean before God. I have no sin before God. I'm
pure. I'm holy. My sin's been purged
away. Now, the only way I get ahold
of that's by faith. But what else is needed? I believe
what God says. And before the Lord, my sins
have been purged away and I am clean before him." Now, here's
the third question. How did he do this? Now, the priest changed into
plain linen. That's Christ's incarnation.
The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And then there was
a sacrifice. First, the sacrifice of the bull,
which was for his own sins, which once again represents, for someone
to represent me, he can't have any sin. He's got to be perfect,
like the perfect high priest. Our Lord lived a perfect life,
and that's what made Aaron fit to represent the children of
Israel. And then the goat had to be sacrificed. Christ Himself
died. He who is life. This is the most
mysterious thing. I don't understand how it can
be. The God-man, How did that happen? I don't
understand it, but I know He did. He died. And there's only
one reason for death. Sin. God didn't look at His Son
and say, Son, I know you didn't do this. You're doing it for
somebody else. But I'm going to punish you for somebody else.
Christ was guilty. Christ was sin before God. It
would be unjust of God to punish Him for something He didn't do.
Now my sin so literally and truly became his that the wrath of
God came down upon him. He was guilty. And here's how
that is. Look in verse 21. 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 shall send him away by the hand of
a fit man into the wilderness, and the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquities. The scripture says, who his own
self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. and he bore
them away to a land not inhabited, and he shall let the goat go
into the wilderness." Now, the sin of all of the elect was removed
from them. You know, God's got the authority
to do this. We can't. I never will forget hearing a
preacher say, it hit me like a ton of bricks, he said, he'd
been caught in some kind of scandal, and they said, well, what about
what you did? He said, well, I put that sin under the blood. I thought,
you can't do that. You don't have the authority to put your
sin under the blood. What makes you think you can do it? Only
God has the authority to do that. Now God in his absolute authority
has taken the sins of his people and placed them upon his son
so that his son bore the sin. His son became guilty, and the
wrath of God came down upon his son, and the perfect righteousness
of his son is given to every believer. And don't you love
the imagery here? That scapegoat who bore the iniquities,
he's brought into a land not inhabited. Now, I don't know
where that is, but I like it. A land not inhabited. I mean,
nobody knows where it is. It's gone. But here's the point. Jeremiah chapter 50 verse 20
says, In those days and at that time saith the LORD, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. Now you think of that. God coming
and looking for your sin. And there shall be none. Where are our sins? They're not. And that is how a holy God can
embrace me. I'm embraceable. I don't have
any sin. Literally? Literally. You got some confidence in that?
I can see why God loves me. You know, we sang that song,
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder
how he can love me, a sinner condemned unclean. I wonder that
too. But I also see through the glorious
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, I see how God can love me and
embrace me and accept me. Why not? I'm perfect. I'm without
sin. And that's what the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ does. It actually removes sin. I'm holy. I'm unblameable. And I am unreprovable in the
very sight of God. And that is not presumption.
That's not arrogance. That's just believing what God
says in his word, because God says he's made us holy, unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. Aren't you thankful for the atonement?
Oh, the glorious atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. We draw
an eye through the blood of Christ. Now here's the last question.
How were the people to respond to this atonement? We see they
were passive in it. I mean, they were passive. The priest made
an atonement. And I'm so thankful for that.
I'm so thankful I don't have anything to do with it, because
if I had anything to do with it, I'd mess it up. But the Lord, the glorious
God-man, He made atonement for all His people. Now, what was
the response of the people? Well, look in verse 29. And this shall be a statute forever
unto you, That in the seventh month on the 10th day of the
month, you shall afflict your souls. And do no work at all, whether
it be one of your own country or a stranger that sojourns among
you. For on that day, the priest shall make an atonement for you
to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before
the Lord. It shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you. and you shall
afflict your souls by statute forever. Now he gives three things
the people were to do in response. Number one, afflict your souls. Now what's that mean? It doesn't
sound very good. I mean, as far as I'm not really
into afflicting my soul. Well, what does that mean to
afflict your souls? Well, other times in the scripture, it is
translated, humble yourself. That's what it means to afflict
your soul. You humble yourself before the Lord. Remember when
Pharaoh refused to humble himself, same Hebrew word the Lord uses.
If I afflict my soul, that means I humble myself before the Lord.
Now, what does it mean to humble yourself before the Lord? What
is humility? Humility is so beautiful. It's
a grace of the Holy Spirit. And what it is more than anything
else, it's a just estimate of yourself. You can be in a good
mood and everything be happy and still be afflicting your
souls because you have a just estimate of yourself. Here's
what humility is, that publican in the temple. He stood in the
back. He beat on his breast knowing
his heart was the problem. And he cried out, God be merciful. God be propitious is the actual
word. God be propitious. Be appeased through the blood
of your son. View me in him. God be propitious
to me, the sinner, the worst man to ever live. You know what the Lord said about
that fellow? He said, I say unto you that
he went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalts himself, he's going to be abased, but whosoever humbles
himself shall be exalted. That's what it is to humble yourself.
You take your place before God as you really are. You know,
he sees you as you really are, doesn't he? No point in trying
to hide anything. You come before Him and humble
yourself. And it's easy to do when you
see who He is and who you are. Now, here's the second thing
they were to do. First, they were to humble themselves.
Secondly, they were to do no work at all. That's simple enough,
isn't it? No work at all. Don't do a thing. Believe that
He did it all. Don't bring your works. Don't
bring your religious experience. Don't bring your sincerity. Don't
bring your faith. Don't bring anything that has
anything to do with you. Do no work at all. You know what the hardest thing
to do is? Nothing. Nothing. Do no work at all. If we attempt to do, to atone
for our sins, we say we don't really believe that he did at
all. And the only way we prove that we really believe that what
he did is sufficient is by not doing anything. Doing is a deadly
thing. Doing ends in death. Do no work at all. And then he says in verse 31,
it shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you. Rest. Rest. There remaineth therefore a rest
for the people of God. For he that's entered into his
rest hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Now, I love to think of the Lord
ceasing from his own works. He created the world. He said,
behold, it's very good. And he rested. Why? He couldn't be improved. What he did was God-like. It was perfect. He looked at
it and said, behold, it's very good. Nothing else to do. And
he rested. Rest is the response of the believer
to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest. Now, while you're not doing anything,
while you're resting, keep afflicting your souls. He said that again. Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God, that He might exalt you in due time. Peter said that. And you know what he said next?
He said, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. You know what you do when you
humble yourself? You cast all your care upon Him. And you know what happens when
you cast all your care upon Him? You're carefree. The Lord Jesus actually made
atonement. For real sins. And everybody
he died for is literally clean before the Lord without sin. Now, humble yourself. Don't do
any work. And rest. Let's pray.