In that verse of scripture, I
read the last phrase of Romans chapter 5 verse 11, by whom,
by the Lord Jesus Christ, by His grace, we have now received
the atonement or the reconciliation. Now I want to see what the Bible
teaches regarding this atonement or this reconciliation. What
does atonement mean? Now I want you to turn to Exodus
chapter 30. You can't possibly understand
the New Testament without the Old Testament. You can't possibly
understand the Old Testament without the New Testament. Now
look in verse 11. of Exodus chapter 30. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel
after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom
for his soul unto the Lord. when thou number'st them, that
there be no plague among them when thou number'st them. This
they shall give every one that passeth among them that are numbered,
that's talking about a census, everybody included in this census,
half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary or the holy
place. And he tells us exactly what
that shekel is, the exact weight. A shekel is 20 giras. and half
shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Everyone that passeth
among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above,
shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give
more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel,
when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement
for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement
money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the
service of the tabernacle of the congregation, that it may
be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord to
make an atonement for your souls." I've entitled this message, The
Atonement Money. The Atonement Money. Now look at verses 11 and 12
once again. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel
after their number, after the census, then shall they give
every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numbers
them, that there be no plague among them, when thou numbers
them. Now notice it does not say when
you number them. When you take a census, it doesn't
say when you number them. It says when you take the sum
of them, when you number them, the sum is what we really are
when it's all added up. That's what the sum is. The sum
is the whole of the parts. Our sum is what we really are. Now, every man was to give a
ransom when he was numbered. And what that ransom was is stated
exactly in verse 13. They shall give, when they take
the sum of the number of the children of Israel, that tells
what they really are, what they really add up to, this shall
they give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered,
half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary. Not any old
shekel, but the shekel of the sanctuary, the one that is of
divine appointing. a shekel is 20 givers. He tells
exactly how much it would be. And half a shekel shall be the
offering of the Lord to everyone that passeth among them that
are numbered from 20 years old and above shall give an offering
unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall
not give less than half a shekel when they give an offering unto
the Lord to make an atonement for their souls. Now this was
done, did you notice in reading it, so there would be no plague. Obviously our sum, what we are
apart from the atonement, what we are separated from the atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ would necessitate a plague and our
death. If you took a census without
the atonement money, the only thing that could happen would
be a plague. Now, hundreds of years later,
we're going to get back to this. Turn to 2 Samuel 24. This happened
hundreds of years later. Now, God tells them plainly,
when you take a census, make sure you take the atonement money,
and if you don't, there will most assuredly be a plague. Look in chapter 24, verse 1,
and again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel And
he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. Now, God inspired David to take
a census. And it was because his anger
was kindled against Israel. This was a judgment. Turn to
2 Chronicles 21. This is the same story, or 1
Chronicles 21, I'm sorry, 1 Chronicles 21. Notice it says in verse one,
and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number
Israel. Now in the account in Samuel,
it says the Lord provoked David to number Israel. And here it
says Satan provoked David to number Israel. And you know what
I learned from that? The devil is God's devil. He's
on God's chain doing God's will. Now he didn't want to do God's
will. That's not what he thought he was doing. He thought he was
really messing up Israel. But this was all according to
the divine purpose of God. The reason Satan provoked David
to number Israel was because God in his infinite sovereignty
caused him to do it. Now remember this, Satan is a
very powerful being but God is all powerful. And Satan is God's
devil and he can't do anything but what God allows him, permits
him, causes him, use whatever language you want. God is the
first cause behind everything. Aren't you glad it's that way?
I'm so thankful. Well let's go on reading in 1
Chronicles, and Satan stood up against Israel and provoke David
to number Israel. And David said to Joab and to
the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel, take a census
from Beersheba even to Dan, and bring the number of them to me,
that I may know it. And Joab answered, The Lord make
his people an hundred times so many more as they be. But, my
lord the king, are they not all the Lord's servants? Why then
doth my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass
to Israel? You see, Joab knew this was wrong.
He didn't say anything about taking the atonement money, did
he? He just said, go count heads. Go count heads. Let us see how
many folks are here. Nevertheless, the king's word
prevailed against Joab. Wherefore, Joab departed, and
went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. And Joab gave
the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they
of Israel were a thousand, thousand, and a hundred thousand men that
drew the sword. And Judah was four hundred, three score, and
ten thousand men that drew the sword. But Levi and Benjamin
counted he not among them. For the king's word was abominable
to Joab. And God was displeased with this
thing. Therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I've
sinned greatly, because I've done this thing. But now I beseech
thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant, for I've done very
foolishly. Now what was the great sin that
he committed? took a census and counted heads
and he took the sum of the people apart from the atonement of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What's the big deal? Why is that
so bad? Let me ask you, what are you
apart from the atonement, the bloodshedding of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If they took the sum of you,
all your parts were added together, what would you be personally
apart from the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from His
death on the cross? If you have any spiritual light
at all, you'd know that you're nothing but sin. You believe
that about yourself? It's so. And what David did is
he counted these people as children of God, true Israelites, apart
from the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we're going
to get more into what that atonement is in a few moments, but let's
go on reading, verse 9. And the Lord spake unto Gad,
David seer, saying, Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the
Lord, I offer thee three things. Choose thee one of them, that
I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and said
unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee either three years'
famine, or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while
the sword of thine enemies overtakes thee, or else three days the
sword of the Lord, even the pestilence in the land, and the angel of
the Lord, destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now
therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him
that sent me. And David said unto Gad, I am
in a great strait. Let me fall now into the hand
of the Lord, for very great are his mercies. But let me not fall
into the hand of man. So the Lord sent pestilence,
a plague, upon Israel. Remember how the law said, you're
to take the atonement money with this census, or I'll send a plague.
Well, the plague was sent. And God sent, verse 15, well,
verse 14, so the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of
Israel 70,000 men. And God sent an angel into
Jerusalem to destroy it and he was destroying. The Lord beheld
and he repented of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed,
it's enough, stay now by hand, stop. And the angel of the Lord
stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David
lifted up his eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord stand between
the earth and the heaven having a drawn sword in his hand. stretched
out over Jerusalem. Can you imagine how that must
have scared David to death to see that sight? That terrifies
me to even think about it. Then David said unto the elders
of Israel who were clothed in sackcloth, they fell upon their
faces. And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the
people to be numbered? Even I it is that have sinned
and done evil indeed. But as for these sheep, what
have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be
on me and on my father's house, but not on the people that they
should be plagued. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to
say to David that David should go up and set up an altar unto
the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. David
went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of
the Lord, and Ornan turned back and saw the angel and his four
sons with him hid themselves. I reckon they did. Now Ornan
was threshing wheat, and David came to Ornan. Ornan looked and
saw David and went out of the threshing floor and bowed himself
to David in his faith to the ground. Then David said to Ornan,
Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar
therein unto the Lord. Thou shalt grant it me for the
full price, that the plague may be staved from the people. And
Ornam said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the
king do what is good in his own eyes. I give you the oxen also
for the burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for
the wood, and the wheat for the meat offering. I give it all.
And David said to Ornam, No, but I will verily buy it for
the full price. For I will not take that which
is thine for the Lord, nor earth offer burnt offerings without
cost, So David gave to Ornan for the place 600 shekels of
gold by weight. And David built there an altar
unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings, and peace offerings,
and called upon the Lord. And he answered him from heaven
by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. Fire came down from
heaven, and consumed the sacrifice. And the Lord commanded the angel,
and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. Now
what was it that caused him to put his sword back in the sheath,
and the judgment to stop? offering, the altar, the sacrifice. Now incidentally, incidentally
is not the right word, but this is the place where the temple
was built, right here. This is where the temple was
built. Now go back to our text in Exodus chapter 20 or 30. Now let's see what's taught about
the atonement. I want to understand what the
Bible teaches about the, regarding the atonement of Christ, don't
you? I want to know exactly what the Word of God teaches. So I
hope you'll all listen very carefully. Look in verse 12. When thou takest the sum of the
children of Israel after their number, then shall they give
every man a ransom for his soul. And that word ransom is taken
out of the word atonement. Shall every man give an atonement
for his soul unto the Lord, when thou number'st them, that there
be no plague among them when thou number'st them. Now notice
each individual person who was numbered was to give a ransom
for their soul. There was not a lump sum given
for all of Israel, but each individual was to give their sum. You see
the atonement is not general. atonement is particular. Now what do I mean by that? Christ
did not die in such a way as it's for everybody. He didn't
make a mass payment, a lump sum. He died for specific individuals. He died for His elect. He died for those the Father
gave him. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep, and other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them
also I must bring, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Now, I want you to turn back
to a familiar passage of Scripture in Romans chapter 8. Christ died
for particular individuals. Well, doesn't it say Christ died
for the world? Yes, He did. It does say that. He did die
for the world. And he died for particular individuals. And I don't understand the atonement
of Christ if I don't have some understanding of this. Now look
in Romans chapter 8 verse 31. What should we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Now here's
my question. Who is the us? Does the us mean everybody? Does
it mean all men without exception? When it says, if God be for us,
who can be against us? Well, the us is identified in
the context. Look in verse 28, and we know, we know, that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are thee called according to His purpose, for whom He did
foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified. Now what are
we going to say about all this? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now if that means everybody,
if that means all men without exception, that scripture is
meaningless. But thank God it's not meaningless. He that spared
not his own son but delivered him up for us all. Who's that
us? Everybody he's for. Everybody
he's for. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things. Now Paul said concerning the
death of Christ he said he loved me and he gave himself for me
a general Generic atonement is utterly foreign to the scriptures,
and there is no gospel in that message. Christ died for particular
individuals, and here's the sweetness of this. He had my name, Todd Nybert,
not some kind of generic mass hoping somebody'd end up believing.
He had the name of every one of his elect on his heart. When
he was on that cross, he was thinking about me. He intended
to save me. And that's the sweetness of this.
He died for particular individuals. I think this is really glorious. Everybody was to give the same
thing. Look back in our text in Exodus chapter 30, verse 15. The rich shall not
give more And the poor shall not give less than half a shekel
when they give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement
for your souls. Everybody brought the same thing.
The multimillionaire, what did he bring? A half a shekel. The
slave, what did he bring? A half a shekel. You see, all
of God's people are saved the exact same way by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I could do an interview
with all of God's people from the beginning all the way through.
If I'd ask Abel, Abel, how were you saved? The blood of the Lamb. Noah. Noah was said to be righteous
before God. Noah, how did you become to be
righteous? The blood of the Lamb. That's the only way. Not my personal
righteousness, what he did for me. What about Enoch? The scripture
says, Enoch pleased God. Enoch walked with God. Enoch,
how did you please God? Through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His precious blood made me pleasing
to God. What about Abraham? Abraham is
called the friend of God. Abraham, how did you become the
friend of God? How could God actually accept
you and embrace you? Through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You go on down through eternity.
David, David's a man after God's own heart. David, what's your
righteousness before God? The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ask any saint in the New Testament. Ask Peter. Ask Paul. Ask John.
Any of these fellows will tell you the same thing. I'm saved
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you ask any believer,
this is their only plea. This is the only way I can be
accepted. This is the only way when my sum is taken, I can be
accepted by the great God. It's through the blood, the shedding
of the blood, the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody
was to give the exact same thing. And I think this is very interesting.
Look in verse 13. The atonement money was an exact
amount that met the divine demands. Look in verse 13. This they shall
give everyone that passes among them that are numbered half a
shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel is 20 giras. He gives an exact, precise amount. A shekel is 20 giras. The shekel of the sanctuary,
the holy place. Now, the atonement of Christ
must meet the divine demands. You see, for God to do something
for me, He's got to be satisfied. The atonement of Christ is going
to have to actually meet the divine demands. God's law is
going to have to be honored and satisfied. Justice must be satisfied. Sin has to be punished and righteousness
has to be established. And there's only one thing that
can do all that. That's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
answers all of God's divine demands. The blood of Christ, the righteousness
of Christ, nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. The blood of Christ meets the
divine demands. Christ, only Christ, exactly
Christ is what makes somebody to be numbered among the people
of God. And this actually redeemed as
far as the tithe went. Look in verse 14. Everyone that
passeth among them that are numbered. They're accepted, they pass,
and yes, they're true children of God. They're true Israelites.
Everyone that passeth among them that are numbered, from 20 years
old and up, they'll give an offering to the Lord. The rich shall not
give more, the poor shall not give less than a half a shekel
when they're given an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement.
It actually made an atonement for your souls. Now, what is
meant by the word atonement? And this is what I want us to
see from the scriptures. What is meant by the word atonement?
It said this actually made an atonement for your souls. Now
if I would understand the atonement, I would go to Leviticus chapter
16. And I would challenge you to read that this week. Leviticus
chapter 16, it tells us about the great day of atonement. Now
in that chapter, the word atonement is found 16 times. And here's
what took place in Leviticus chapter 16. It's a beautiful,
beautiful picture of the atonement. The great high priest would put
his hands on that goat. There were two goats, the goat
for sacrifice and the scapegoat. The great high priest would put
his hands on that goat and that would signify the transferal
of guilt. He would put his hands on that
goat. And that signified the sins of Israel transferred to
that goat. And that goat was to be put to
death. Now why? The goat was innocent. Why was
it to be put to death? Because it wasn't innocent anymore.
The sins of everybody that that priest represented were placed
upon that goat, typically, which points to the death of Christ.
And that goat became guilty. That goat became obnoxious to
God. And the only thing to do with
that goat was kill it. Sinful it was guilty and that's
exactly what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross
the sins of God's elect became his His righteousness is theirs
their sin became his and he became guilty now He became I don't
understand this, but he became obnoxious to God the Sinless
son of God so truly became sin that he became obnoxious to God. In this sense, now, Christ on
the cross, and this is what the atonement is all about, Christ
on the cross actually became guilty to where he actually bore
the shame and the degradation of our sin. He was made sin to
where he was ashamed before God. He wasn't just taking the punishment
of sin. Because if all he was doing was taking the punishment
of sin, there wouldn't be shame involved. It would be a noble
thing. I mean, we would admire, that'd be very noble. You know,
look what I'm doing. I'm taking somebody's place.
No, Christ became guilty. And just as truly as he became
guilty, his righteousness is given to every believer. Now
remember, there are two goats, not just one. There are two goats.
The other goat was the scapegoat. The great high priest would put
his hands on the horns of that goat, And then it would be taken
by a fit man, the scripture says, and led into the wilderness,
into a land not inhabited. The picture is that our sin is
not merely covered, it's removed. That's what atonement means,
the removal of sin. The covering of sin and the absolute
removal of sin. If Christ bore this punishment,
there is No punishment for me, that sin has been removed. Now this is very interesting.
Turn to Exodus 38. This atonement money, Exodus
38, that was to be taken in the census. Look what it says beginning
in verse 25. And the silver of them, that
half a shekel, that were numbered of the congregation was in a
hundred talents and a thousand seven hundred three score and
fifteen shackles after the shackle the sanctuary. A beaker for every
man that is a half a shackle in the shackle of the sanctuary
for everyone that went to be numbered from twenty years old
and upward for six hundred thousand three thousand and five hundred
and fifty men and of the hundred pounds of silver were cast the
sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the veil The hundred
sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket. Now what
that's telling us, remember we've been looking at this tabernacle
for how many weeks? It had these foundational plates. This is
what held it up. And you would stick the golden
boards in these foundational plates. And the foundation of
the tabernacle was made of the atonement money. Now there's
so much in it. The atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ His death on the cross, His successful, particular, glorious
atonement is the foundation of everything we believe. Everything. You know, you can't
really know who God is apart from the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The blood of Christ makes known every one of His attributes.
I see His holiness, His hatred for sin, When sin is found on
his son, he kills him. I see his wisdom. I see his justice. I see his sovereignty. Every
attribute of God is fully displayed in the atonement of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's the foundation of who God
is. It's the foundation of salvation.
I mean, Christ is called the Lamb slain from when? The foundation
of the world. The blood of Christ is everything. It tells us how God saves. It
tells us where God will meet us in mercy. It tells us how
we can have communion with God through the atonement of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what I want to...
I bet somebody's been thinking about this. Turn back to Exodus
chapter 30. Has anybody been thinking, well, how can the atonement
be money we pay? That almost sounds like we have
something to do with this. It's money we pay. We're giving
the half shekel. Why is that? Why is the atonement
represented as something we give when the atonement is the blood
of Christ and we didn't have anything to do with that? How
could this be represented as money that we give? Notice in
verse 13, this they shall give everyone that passeth among them
that are numbered. Verse 14, Everyone that passes
among them that are numbered from twenty years old and above
shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give
more and the poor shall not give less than a half a shekel when
they give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for
their souls. They shall give this offering
to the Lord. Now, what this represents, this
money that they give as giving an offering to the Lord, what
this represents is faith. Now, what do I mean by that?
How does this represent faith? Every believer intelligently,
and when I'm saying intelligently, I'm not talking about high IQ.
I'm not talking about intellectual, this is not an intellectual thing
I'm talking about. But every believer intelligently offers
up nothing but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They offer
nothing but the atonement. They don't come to God any other
way. I don't come to God because I'm
a preacher. I don't come to God because of anything about me.
The only thing I plea, the only thing I plea at all times as
to why I should be numbered among the people of Israel, that I
should be a believer, that when the sum of me is taken and I'm
I pass currency as a true Israelite indeed, as a true believer, as
someone with a circumcised heart. The only thing I plea, the only
one I plea, is Christ Jesus, His blood, and His righteousness.
I do that intelligently. That doesn't mean intellectually
or because I'm smart. It means I understand. I do understand
that the only way I can come into God's presence is through
the blood of Christ. I understand that right now.
I wouldn't dare come any other way. This represents faith. It's what faith does. This is
what faith is. It offers up nothing but Christ. When you come into God's presence,
what do you offer? What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is that flow. That
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Look at verse 16. And thou shalt take the atonement
money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the
service of the tabernacle of the congregation. that it, the
atonement money, the silver, the atonement, the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before
the Lord to make an atonement for your souls. Obviously, I
need to be reminded over and over again that it is the blood
that makes atonement for the soul. and that the blood indeed
does make atonement for the soul. In other words, I am before God
because of the blood of Christ, holy. When you take the sum of
me and add it all up, what I really am, that's what I really am,
the sum. I really am holy before God. That's how God sees me. And how God sees me is how I
am. Whether I feel it or not, whether
anybody else sees it or not, the way God sees me is how I
really am. That's my sum, the atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The offering up of the atonement
money was not a one-time thing. Every time the census was taken,
there always had to be the atonement money. And if there wasn't, there
would be a play. Now I want to look at one other
scripture. Turn to Romans chapter 3. Romans
chapter 3. Verse 23. for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption, that's talking about the atonement,
the redeeming work that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set
forth to be a propitiation. That word, propitiation, means
an appeasement, the removal of sin. If God is propitious toward
you, that means there's no reason for Him to be mad at you. There's
no reason for Him to be angry with you. You're perfect in His
sight, and that's what the blood of Christ did. God sent Him forth,
He foreordained Him for this purpose, to be a propitiation
through faith in His Do you, do I, have faith in His blood? That means am I relying on His
blood to make me perfect before God. That's what faith is. I
have faith in His blood. You know, I really do. I have
faith in His blood. By the grace of God, He gave
me that faith. But I do have faith in His blood. You'll remember
the Passover. What did God say to put over
the door? The blood of the Lamb. The blood of the Paschal Lamb.
What if somebody would have put something else up? Would God
have passed him by in mercy? No, he wouldn't. Now what is
the one thing God was looking for when he passed through? He said, when I see the blood,
not when you see it, when I see the blood, what will He do? He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. The atonement of Christ, His
work on the cross, makes me add up all my parts add up to this
I pass I am perfect through his precious blood now do you receive
embrace glory rejoice in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ
I know somebody who did Paul the Apostle said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross the atonement of the Lord
Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and I unto
the world. And I glory in the cross just
as much as Paul did, don't you? I don't have anything else to
glory in. I rejoice in the atonement. I receive the atonement of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.