Brother Scott Richardson has
a phrase he's used so often, you've heard him use it, talking
about preaching that has no heart, just empty, lifeless. He says it sounds like a dog
walking through dry leaves in the woods, just making noise.
And I think about that a lot. I keep praying, God, don't let
me just stand here and make a lot of noise. I'm not interested
at all in just giving you correct doctrine. That's vital, but that's
not my interest. I'm not interested at all in
just giving you true facts from the scripture. that what I preach
must be correct doctrine, must be true to the Word of God. Just
giving out facts is not preaching. I want so very much every time
I speak to you in the name of Christ to honor God and to lead you out of yourself
to our Redeemer, to lead you to worship Him. I want to destroy
every false refuge that you can possibly build for yourself.
Knock every prop out from under you and cause you to cast yourself
down entirely on Christ. I want you to know Him. I want
you to be ravished by His love. I want to speak to your heart.
I want, by the grace of God, to comfort, instruct, inspire,
edify, strengthen. I want us to see and hear and
know our Redeemer. And I can't do that. No matter how much preparation
I give, no matter how diligently I study, I can't do that. And so I pray, and I hope you
will pray continually, that God Almighty will speak, as one of
the old writers said, through this worthless empty pipe to
your heart. And if He will, then what I've
got to say will be profitable to your soul. Turn with me, if
you will, to Leviticus 16. I know this for my own soul,
for my own heart, for my own life. Nothing comforts me like
the blessed knowledge that God Almighty has so thoroughly put
away my sins that He will never charge sin to me. Brother Lindsey, nothing inspires
devotion like that. like the blessed knowledge that
he has taken my guilt away forever. Nothing is so powerful a magnet to draw us
to Christ as his finished work as our Redeemer. And perhaps
that's the reason in God's good providence in the order of his
law in the Old Testament The highest day of Israel's holy
days, the highest, the apex, the very epitome of their ceremonial
worship was found on the Day of Atonement. And on that Day
of Atonement, the Lord Jesus Christ is graphically and beautifully,
instructively typified for us in Aaron the high priest, in
the altar, in the mercy seat, and in the sacrifices that were
made. On that day, many victims died. The scripture tells us that Aaron
was required to take of the children of Israel two kids for a burnt
offering and to take one ram, two kids for a sin offering and
one ram for a burnt offering. And he was required to make atonement
for himself. and for his family. He was required
to make atonement for the holy things and for the holy place. He was required to make atonement
then for the children of Israel. And blood ran everywhere. Animals were slain one after
the other. And the blood gave a visible
demonstration of the fact that death is the dread curse due
to our sins. Each sacrifice proclaimed clearly
that the substitutionary offering, the substitutionary sacrifice,
avails with God Almighty. In sounding this truth, these
pictures are heralds of that which Christ came here to accomplish. Year by year, the shadows were
carried out. Year by year, the ceremonies
were executed. The rites recurred one year after
the other. Their note was a constant prediction,
a vivid prediction, so that God constantly kept before the minds
and eyes of those who had ears to hear and eyes to see. There's
one coming by whom indeed justice shall be satisfied and sin shall
be forever put away. Those sacrifices could never
take away sins. They could never make the conscience
clear before God. They could never ease a man of
guilt. But they continually displayed
the fact that one is coming through whom sin shall be put away. And then at last Christ came. and that which the prophets wrote
about, that which the psalmist sang of, that which the apostles
proclaimed, that which Christ did, that which these pictures
all typified has been fulfilled through the sacrifice of our
son. And now the types are dead. A brighter star has risen. The law has been fulfilled. The
need of the tithes and the ceremonies and the rituals of the law are
all passed. When our Lord Jesus cried, it
is finished, the veil in the temple, that veil representing
the law, barring sinners from God in His holiness. That veil
behind which no one could go except the high priest once a
year on the day appointed by God with the blood of a paschal
lamb appointed and chosen by God, only he could go in there. That veil, when Christ cried,
it is finished, was ripped, slapped in two from top to bottom. And
God said, all the rites and the ceremonies and the sacrifices
and all the commandments of the law now have come to their end
for they've come to their fulfillment. Christ Jesus dug their grave
when he died at Calvary and buried them forever. The Lord Jesus,
the full truth of these things, has laid down his life for us. And this one all-sufficient sacrifice
for sins is that which gives delight and joy to our hearts. That once sacrifice fulfills
the cup of divine satisfaction. That once-sacrifice has seeded
all the ransom on the rock of God's salvation and made us to
be seeded together with the Son of God in heavenly places. And
yet there are multitudes who deny and despise the very sacrifice
and trample on the blood of Christ as a needless thing. The old
Puritans constantly hammered away at the foolishness of the
Roman mass, a bloodless sacrifice, reenacting the sacrifice of Christ,
and rightly so. But they missed far too often
another means by which the sacrifice of Christ is declared to be null
and void. For they missed those who willingly, willingly say
that the blood of Christ is not itself sufficient. That one-time
sacrifice is not altogether sufficient. Oh, sufficient for what it did,
but God still demands that we add to it for His favor, that
we add to it to win reward in heaven. And by our works, we
pollute the sacrifice when we add our works to His work and
declare that it's null and void. Now look at Leviticus 16 and
verse 8. On that day when the Lord God
caused Israel's sins to be brought most clearly before them, the
day of atonement. He describes two goats. Aaron
shall cast lots upon the two goats. Now, if you go back and
read the chapter carefully, the Lord required that Aaron take
two goats from the children of Israel for a burnt offering. The day of atonement, the atonement
being accomplished required two goats. One was not sufficient. The sin offering was not done
except by two goats. And now they bring these goats
to Aaron and he cast lots upon the two goats. One for the Lord
and the other lot for the scapegoat. And here Things are brought to a vivid portrayal. Singularly setting forth these
two goats, but why two? Why is it necessary when there's
only one Lamb of God, why is it necessary that these two goats
be brought forth? They're brought forth for a sin
offering, and the priest receives them at the door of the tabernacle,
and he casts lots upon them. Man's mind is not allowed to
select which goat dies and which goat lives, but rather divine
providence. Remember what the wise men said,
the lot is cast into the lamp, but the whole disposing thereof
is of the Lord. Amen. Dare not decide which goat
dies and which goat lives. That's God's work. And by the
unseen hand of divine providence, one goat is selected for death
and the other goat is selected to live before God as the scapegoat. The scene reveals the counsel
of God's eternal love. Before the world began, God Almighty
called Jesus Christ, His darling Son, our Savior, to be the Paschal
Lamb for the saving of our souls. Each portion of the work that
He was to perform and all its results were not only determined
by God, but everything necessary to bring them to pass were determined
by our God. So that Peter says He was delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Each thing
was consigned to him, and he received it. It could be my substitute. The Lord God said, all right,
you volunteered to be surety for Don Fortner. That means you've
got to go become a man. I take that. You've got to live
in perfect righteousness. I'll take that. You've got to
be made everything He is. I'll take that. You've got to
suffer all the wrath that's due Him, for that wrath shall become
due to you when you're made to be sin. I'll take that. Only give me Don Fortner. And the Father put me in his
hands. And the Christ of God came here
to redeem me according to that eternal covenant, that trust
made between the Father and the Son. This established truth is
that which comforts our souls. When a sinner is in desperate
need. When God makes you to know your
sin, so that your soul sinks in deep mire and you can't look
up. When God shows you something
of what you are. It will do you no good to grasp
at straws. Or you'll try, but it won't do
you any good. The only comfort for your soul
will be the solid ground of solid truth revealed in the Word of
God, verified, verified by God Himself in your own soul, so
that when you grasp, that's it! Now, God is justified, and I'm
justified with God by the sacrifice of His Son. Now let's look at
these two goats for a minute. The first is called the Lord's
goat, the Passover sacrifice. And that goat is sentenced to
die by the decree of God. Of course, this goat represents
our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my soul. The blood of this goat. is drawn
from its body violently. Aaron takes the goat and I can
almost picture him as he raises up his head and slits his throat
with a knife and he catches the blood in a basin so that he can
use it for the purposes intended. Not a drop falling to the ground
in vain. He takes the blood. And he takes
a bunch of hyssop. And he takes some incense from
off the altar. And he goes behind the veil with
his holy linen garments on. And he enters into the Holy of
Holies. And he dips hyssop in the blood
and he sprinkles the mercy seed. seven times, and he comes out
and he puts blood on the horns of the altar, north, south, east,
and west, and thereby declares that justice has been symbolically
satisfied, sin has been put away for the people of God scattered
on all the four corners of the earth. You see, the sacrifice implies
that there is a universal need. a great need. I need the need
of all our race. But I'm not talking to all our
race, I'm talking to you. Our need is because of sin. Oh, sin. That despicable thing. Rex You can't move where sin
doesn't move with you. Your posture cannot go where
sin doesn't go. We cannot exist and we cannot
do anything except we exist in sin and we do sin. The very best
things we do. Oh, a man thinks he will somehow
make up with God. He will somehow atone for his
own sin by the works of his hands. But our debts only increase by
our performance of righteousness. For our righteousnesses are but
filthy rags before God. Well, how then can a man be made
just with God? Here is God's holy remedy. the blood of a lamb, a pastoral
lamb. We were not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold from our vain compensation, but
with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb. Slain from the
foundation of the world, a Lamb who verily was foreordained was
now manifest in these last times for you. Manifest so that when
John beheld Him, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. He is the Lamb! identified back
yonder as the Paschal Lamb, the Lamb portrayed as that one whose
blood is put on all four corners of the altar for the people of
God scattered through all the earth. The blood of that Lamb
accepted in the holy place takes away the sins of all for whom
it is offered. This is God's remedy for sin. Bring out my dance. Bring them
out. Hide none of them. Bring them
all out. Oh, I don't want you to see them.
I couldn't stand to see them myself, but let God's holy law
and justice bring forth all my debts, all the enormous load,
and lay them in the balance. And now, put there the blood
of Christ and watch the balance, Tim. The debt's cancelled. It's blotted out. It is no more. For Christ has redeemed thee
with his precious blood. Precious blood. Because this
is the blood of reconciliation. This is the blood of peace. Sin,
sin in its true light. Sin felt in strong power. Sin's misery, its misery manifest
in my soul. And anguish in my heart is worse
than any sting of conscience that any man can imagine over
anything. The broken heart is just a constant abode of woe
and misery. The wounded conscience rise and
cannot rest. But when the Spirit of God brings
the blood and sprinkles your conscience, your conscience gives you peace. God speaks peace to your conscience.
He comes in in mercy, and He signs a truce in your own soul. He weighs an olive branch throughout
your heart. He places pardon in the happy
land of Mansoul. And now we sing, my sins, my
sins, my sins are all taken away. Christ has taken them away. The
blood of this Lamb, His precious blood, Because it disarms sin
and slays it. He has made us to be dead indeed
unto sin. I read a lot, and I try not to
read into things. But what I read, very few people
have stated this accurately. And they talk about us being
dead to sin. They talk about an experience of regeneration. And that just isn't so. That
just isn't so. I'm not dead to sin's temptation. I'm not dead to sin in me. I'm not dead to sin in my experience. Soon I shall be, but I'm not
yet. I'm not yet. But run before God Almighty,
I'm dead to sin. I have been crucified with Christ. That means sin cannot cause me
any more difficulty because of offended justice. That means
sin cannot be brought to my charge. That means sin cannot be brought
before me as an accusation at the bar of God. That means I'm
dead to sin. It has no effect upon me before
God. The blood of Christ has flat
slain sin. And the blood of Christ is that
which binds Satan. He said, I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, will draw all men unto me. How is that? Well first he says, now the prince
of this world is cast out. Satan has been bound by the almighty
angel of the covenant, Jesus Christ the Lord. Bound so that
he no longer deceives the nations. Bound so that the gospel of God's
grace now goes freely where once he reigned. Satan is driven back. There's no place imperious to
his tread. There's no moment free from his
approach. No palace where he doesn't come.
No little harbor where he doesn't invade. He has the key to every
chamber in man's soul until Christ comes with blood and now he has
no power. Christ comes and binds the strong
man and casts him out and sets up his throne in our hearts.
The blood does more than that. The blood having vanquished Satan
is that which causes hell's door to be barred. Now hear me, hear
me and hear me well. Either Jesus Christ has forever
barred the doors of hell for all his people for whom he suffered
and died or he has accomplished nothing. One of the two. One
of the two. But there's not an option. He's
barred hell's doors. No blood-bought soul can ever
enter that prison. No ransom sinner shall ever experience
that place of torment. No blood-redeemed sinner shall
ever know the fires of that cruel abandonment by God. No saved
sinner by the blood shall ever know the gnawing worm and never
be a prey for the gnawing worm where the fires cannot be quenched.
The blood of Christ has barred hell for me because Christ suffered
all the hell of God's wrath in our room and stand. And the blood
robs the grave. One of these days, I'm either
going to bury you or you're going to bury me. These bodies are
going to the dust because we are sinners. And the end of it is death. That's
just what's going to happen. Nobody's going to prevent it.
We're going to die. But we shall not remain in that
pit. But after these bodies have returned
to the dust, the Lord Jesus Christ will come again and raise these
bodies from the dead. And this mortal shall put on
immortality. A few years ago when my mother
died, we were down making arrangements for the funeral. The mortician was kind of turning
on the screws, and I got a little aggravated. No, I got mad. And he was trying to, you know,
you've got to have this, you've got to have that. They wanted
to get us a waterproof vault. He's talking to my sisters. He
said, now this will prevent decay. I said, Bud, let me tell you
something. My mother is dead, and her body's fixing to rot,
and you're not going to prevent it. It just doesn't really matter. The body is going to rot. Well,
that got everybody's attention for just a minute. Not for long,
but for just a minute. But that's just fact. Oh, but
listen. Though after my skin were to
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God with these
eyes. I'll see him for myself. These
eyes. These eyes. You don't want me to believe
that. Oh yes I do too. I've been redeemed. I've been
redeemed. And the blood of Christ has robbed
the grave. Robbed the grave of its spoils.
More than that. The blood of Christ opens the
gates of heaven and brings into glory every ransom sinner. Look at the countless multitudes.
10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. Behold those circling the throne
of glory. Behold the Lamb in the midst
of the throne. Now look at those around the
throne. They all look just like the Lamb. They all look just
like the Lamb. They are one with the Lamb. They
are singing the praises of the Lamb. Well, which came days? They came out of great tribulation.
They've washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. Isn't
it interesting that what John sees there, he states things a little different
than the commonly stated scripture. We would expect him to say, their
robes have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb. And
that's true. The Lord God has taken their
garments and washed them in the blood of the Lamb. But John says,
they, every one of them, have washed their robes white in the
blood of the Lamb. He's talking about faith. You
see, the believer, the sinner, called by grace to life and faith
in Christ, when we believe on the Son of God, trust in Christ,
we take the whole of our lives and plunge ourselves willingly
beneath the fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's
veins, and now our sins are washed. I'm talking about the totality
of our lives made clean before God. And it is the blood that
fills heaven with songs of praise. You, O Lord, blessed Lamb of
God, were slain. You have redeemed us to God by
Your blood out of every nation and kindred and tribe and tongue.
Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Give Him
glory and honor and power. Sing His praise and the angels
join the chorus. That's the way it ought to be.
That's the way it ought to be. Give praise to the Lamb because
He has redeemed. We're here. We're here because of Him. That's all. Just because of Him. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us. Unto Thy Name give glory. But look again at the text. There's
another goat back here. The scene changes. And this other
goat appears. With anxious eye every Man, every
woman, every child, and the multitude intensely gazes upon this goat. Everything now, everything now, hangs on this goat. Now, Thomas is not finished yet.
Something's got to be done with this goat. Everybody watch him. And Averin
comes out. He's taken off his linen garments,
put back on his royal attire, and he lays his hands on the
head of that goat. Now remember, Averin is the priest. He represents two people. Christ,
our High Priest, and all the people of Israel. And as Christ
himself took our sins in his own body on the tree, Aaron the
priest placed his hands on the head of that goat. And as it
were, with a vivid picture. Catch a picture. Has that old
man over there. His conscience heavy. He knows his crimes. As that
young rebel, his heart's broken, he knows his offenses. As that
secret harlot, she knows her guilt. And they're watching intently. And Aaron takes their sin and lays it on the head of that
goat and ceremonially transfers all sin and all guilt from the
old man, the secret harlot, and the young rebel to that goat. And when he does, he finds a
fit man and sends that goat in the hands of this fit man out
into a place uninhabited. And he carries all the sins of
the people represented in that goat. That fit man is none other
than the law and justice of God Almighty. Taking this goat with
all the sins of all the people out into this place uninhabited. And there lets him go. And the
goat wanders around. wanders in the wilderness, wanders
in the desert, wanders until at last among the rocks, in the
bushes, in the shrubs, somewhere he dies and he's never seen again. That's Christ too. He has taken
our sins away. What a picture this is of full
pardon. Absolute pardon. We know the
scapegoat well and daily. We look upon the scapegoat with
relief. The scapegoat hides no sin. Makes no cloak for sin. And faith
hides no sin. Makes no cloak for sin. Oh no,
faith confesses it. Faith lays it on the scapegoat
just as they are in representing the people laying their sins.
Their faith comes and says, Here Lord, I do exactly what you have
done. I lay my sins on the scapegoat. I lay all my guilt on the scapegoat. I confess it all before you. Now the scapegoat has taken it
away. And to go, how does God describe
this? How thoroughly has He taken away
our sins? In Psalm 103 verse 12, as far
as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us. Which way is east? There, just
pretend. You start walking. Now get in
a fast car and have Rex do the driving and start driving east.
And put some skis on that thing so you can go across the water
and just keep driving. And keep driving. And keep driving. And keep driving. And keep driving.
The horizon is always out of sight. You're never going to
reach the other side. It's not going to happen. God
has removed our sins from us by the blood of His darling Son
infinitely. Infinitely. There's no measure. How has He removed our sins from
us? You have cast all our sins, Micah says, into the depths of
the sea. Go find the depths of the sea
of God's forgetfulness. Or the depths of the sea these
days perhaps man has found. But you'll never find the depths
of this sea. I've told you the story of a
man sitting on a train years ago. Always wanted a means by which to minister to
others. And he's just sitting reading
his Bible. Reading Micah chapter 7 verse
19. And he read that and he said,
oh bless God. It's kind of under his voice. He read it again. He said, oh, thank you. And he
read it again. He said, hallelujah. The fellow
sat beside him and said, what are you reading? He said, well,
I just read here in the book of Micah, one of God's prophets,
chapter 7, verse 19, that he's cast all my sins into the depths
of the sea. And I just read earlier in one
of those geological magazines that seven miles deep, where
is anybody going to find my sins? He's cast them into the depths
of the sea. Where has God put our sins? I'll
tell you what you do. I'll tell you what you do. Anybody
here, I'm a fairly good-sized fellow. You come stand right
here and try to tell me what's on my back. Anybody, stand right
here, try to tell me what's here. But you can't see anybody's back
unless you can get behind them. How has God dealt with our sins?
He's cast them behind His back. And you know what? I can't see
what's back there either. But preacher, God doesn't have
a body in her back. No, He's accommodating our foolishness. He's accommodating our puny brains.
He said, I so fixed it that your sins are gold and can never be
caught up again. And I behold no iniquity in Israel. I put them on the scapegoat,
and they're gold. In Isaiah 44, 22, He uses another
piece of imagery. He says, I have blotted out as
a thick cloud your transgressions, as a cloud your sins. Try to picture yourself out on
sea in a small little boat. Suddenly there's a dark, dark,
dark cloud that covers the sky. The wind begins to blow and you're
terror-struck because you're too far to find any safety, too
far out to find any refuge. And here you're stuck with this
terrible dark cloud. Death is before you and you know
it. And then suddenly the wind quits
blowing. A beam of light breaks right
through that cloud. In a little while, the whole
cloud is dissipated, the sky is blue, and there's nothing
but light and sunshine. That's what God says. He's done
with our sins. And when He comes, when the Son of Righteousness
rises in your soul with healing in His wings, He dissipates the
cloud, and there's nothing but light and peace and forgiveness. The Lord God says in Jeremiah
50 that your sins shall not be found. The good shepherd comes
and seeks his stray sheep. He never rests, he never gives
up the search until he finds his sheep and lays it on his
back and carries it home. But though God himself search
for the sins of his people, though God himself with his eye of strict,
severe, unbending, relentless, holy, all-seeing justice looks
for sin in his people. Looks for sin to charge against
his people. Looks for crime against one for
whom Christ has died. He says, it shall not be found. Because there's not any there. Christ, the scapegoat, has carried
away our sins. Any time I go before God, all the time as I go before Him,
this is what faith does. Merle, I rejoice to do what God
did before the world began. And what he did 2,000 years ago, I laid my hands on the head of
his son and there confessed my sin. And if we confess our sin, what
does the book say? He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, listen to this, it's not
accidental, cleanseth us from all sin. Well, I thought while
we've done it, it was. It was. But it's constantly experienced
anew as we confess our sins. Now, come to Christ. Come on. I bid you come. You who have
long ago been born of His Spirit and you who right now for the
first time you can come. Come to Christ right where you
sit. And lay the hand of faith on
the head of that glorious scapegoat. And watch your sin vanish forever. Never to be called up to trouble
you again. Amen. Did you hear what Jesus
said to me? They're all taken away.