in the Old Testament by divine
requirement, one day a year, and only on one day, God's high
priest was to take a lamb, a lamb without spot and blemish. And as he took that lamb, he
would lay his hands upon the head of that innocent victim
and thereby ceremonially impute all the sins of all the people
of Israel to that one victim. He would slit his throat, catch his blood in a basin, And he'd go into the holy place
and on with a censer in his hand and then sense fragrance and
smoke going before him behind the veil into the holy of holies
where was God's broken law in the ark. covered with that
golden mercy seat, cherubs looking down upon the mercy seat. And he would take a bunch of
hyssop and seven times sprinkle the
blood on the mercy seat. He'd come back out, take off
his white linen breeches and white garments, put back on his
gorgeous priestly array. And he would take another goat
called the scapegoat. Upon that goat also he had laid
his hands. ceremonially imputing the sins
of the people to the goat. And he would put him in the hands
of a fit man whom he had appointed and send him out. Off he'd go. All Israel watching as he goes
away, the goat and the man. They go through the ceremonies
of the day. And after the day was over, that man would come
back without the goat. Now, this is what all that pictures.
The Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, who is also our
sacrificing lamb, who is also the scapegoat. has with his own
blood entered in once into the holy place, into the very presence
of God. And by the sacrifice of himself,
he has forever satisfied all the justice of God for the sins
of all his people. And like that scapegoat, he's
carried them away. forever go. Oh, my soul, rejoice. The Lamb of God has put away
your sins. And now, on the basis of that
sacrifice by which justice is satisfied, God Almighty smiles
upon our souls. And through his great priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ, he blesses his people with all the blessings
of his grace. Now that's what was pictured
and described in Leviticus chapter 16 as transpiring on the day
of atonement. Turn with me, if you will, today
to Leviticus chapter 23. Here the Lord gives us specific
instructions about the Feast of Atonement. Not just the Day
of Atonement, but the Feast of Atonement. Let's begin reading
in verse 26. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be
a day of atonement, It shall be in holy convocation unto you,
and you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by
fire unto the Lord, and you shall do no work in that same day,
for it is a day of atonement to make atonement. Let me say
this now to make atonements. It's quite literally plural.
It's I'm sorry. It should be a day of atonements
or expiations to make atonement for you before the Lord, your
God. For whatsoever soul, it shall
be or it be that shall be not be afflicted. In that same day,
he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul
it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul
will I destroy from among the people. You shall do no manner
of work. It shall be a statute forever
throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall
be unto you a Sabbath of rest. and you shall afflict your souls
in the ninth day of the month. At evening, from evening unto
evening, shall you celebrate your Sabbath. Now listen carefully. Listen very carefully. This is
so very important. It is a very great mistake in
reading scripture to do as many do, to presume that whenever
The Lord God addresses a specific thing as he did the Day of Atonement
in Leviticus 16. And then he comes to address
that same thing again in another passage of scripture as he does
here in Leviticus 23. It is a great mistake to assume
that he is merely repeating the same instructions. That is not
the case. That is not the case. When he
repeats the matter, he is repeating it for further instruction. He
is repeating it to give us something else in the line of divine revelation. And we clearly have that here
before us comparing Leviticus 16 and this passage in Leviticus
23. Leviticus 16 describes the Day of Atonement for the purpose
of showing us in type, symbol, and ceremony what the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished when He died in our room and stayed at Calvary. Leviticus 23, however, sets before
us the Feast of Atonement, the Feast of Expiation, as one of
Israel's annual holy convocations. But now notice this, as it's
given here in Leviticus 23, this feast of atonement, this feast
of expiation, follows the feast of Passover, the feast of unleavened
bread, the feast of first fruits, the feast of Pentecost, and the
feast of trumpets. All of those things are representative
of the experience of grace in the believer. And yet this feast
of atonement, this feast of expiation follows that. Why? because he is revealing here
something to us about the experience of grace. When God, the Holy
Spirit, comes in saving power and gives the chosen redeemed
sinner life and faith in Jesus Christ, revealing in us what
Christ accomplished at Calvary, then he brings us to repentance
and faith, and we are made to worship God. Leviticus 23 verses
26 through 32, which we have read is not talking about what
Christ did So much as it is talking about the revelation of what
Christ did in us and this is the response We now worship God
turn to Romans chapter 5. Let me show you this Romans 5
And it's so very very important that
we understand this that Our redemption, our justification, our acceptance
with God, our hope before God is altogether found in something
outside our experience. Our justification is not in any
way found in what we experience. Our sanctification is not found
in what we experience. Our hope is not found in what
we experience. Our confidence before God is
not in our experience. All that is out yonder in the
accomplished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary, who now sits upon
the throne of glory by the merit and power of His blood, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. That was done 2,000 years
ago. Look here in Romans chapter 5,
verse 6. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Now watch this. Much more then, being now justified
by his blood, We were justified when He, with His own blood,
obtained eternal redemption for us. Being now justified by His
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
when did He reconcile us? When He died. When we were enemies. And much more, being reconciled. We shall be saved by his life. Now verse 11, not only so, but
we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we
have now, what does it say? Received the atonement. Now that's what happened when
God came to you in his grace, Bobby. He called you to see. to understand, to perceive, and
to receive the atonement. The light of the gospel shined
in your heart and gives the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now, our believing it, our seeing
it, our experiencing it, our receiving it had nothing to do
with its accomplishment. Rather, we received what Christ
had done. Now, this is what's dealt with
here in Leviticus 23. You see, when God the Holy Spirit
comes to chose and redeem sinners in the saving experience of grace,
when he sprinkles the heart with the blood of Christ, when he
gives us faith in Christ, he convinces us of that which Christ
has done as our representative and substitute, causing us to
see clearly that sin has been put away, that righteousness
has been brought in, that judgment is over, that God has no quarrel
with us anymore and no reason because Christ has satisfied
justice for us. The Feast of Atonement was Israel's
annual day of repentance, portraying God's gift of repentance wrought
in the souls of his people by his almighty grace. I've read
countless sermons and articles on repentance over the past 35
years. I've read a good many books on
the subject. But I will tell you something, I have never read
anything that explains and pictures repentance so clearly as Leviticus
23, verses 26 and 32. Let's look at it together. The
Feast of Atonement was intended to show us the character of true
repentance. It was, in fact, a call from
God Almighty to the whole congregation of Israel to repentance. You read this and there are numbers
that stand out, specific numbers or numerals. In this passage,
the numbers 7, 9, and 10. Now, I don't place a great deal
of weight on the importance of numbers in scripture. They're
certainly overstressed with those who have fanciful views of prophecy
and fanciful imaginations that God's word was written in code
and we have to decipher the code. That just isn't the case. And
yet I am convinced that I haven't yet begun to grasp the significance
of the way God uses specific numbers in this book portraying
his work of grace. I've laid little stress on them
because the word of God doesn't give us, very often doesn't give
us any specific interpretation of the numbers. But there are
a few things that seem to be obvious. Let me see if I can
show you a couple when you read the scriptures. The number one
seems always to represent unity and thus to represent our God.
I and the Father are one. There is one Lord, one faith,
one baptism. The number two, of course, division.
The Lord on the second day divided the firmament and so on. The number three is used frequently,
almost constantly, to represent God, the Trinity, and the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The number four speaks of creation. There are four corners of the
earth, four winds, and so on. The number five seems almost
always to represent grace, five burnt offerings. The number six
is the number of man. Man was created on the sixth
day. The number of man is six, six, six, frustration, failure,
incompletion. Seven seems always to represent
completeness, perfection. The number eight speaks of new
beginnings, new birth, the new creation. The number nine, seems
to represent the fruitfulness of the Spirit. The gifts of the
Spirit are nine in number. The fruit of the Spirit is described
by nine different things. And then the number 10 speaks
of bounty, riches, fullness, wealth. What are you getting
at, Pastor? This Feast of Atonement began
on the 10th day of the 7th month and was a feast that involved
the observance on the ninth day of a Sabbath, a Sabbath unto
the Lord. The number seven speaks of completion. When the atonement was made,
when Jesus Christ died in our room instead, we were made to
be complete in Him, accepted. Merle Hart, there wasn't anything
left needed for us to stand before God forever with his smile on
us. Done. Done. The number nine represents
fruitfulness. Because Christ has made complete
atonement and brought in perfect righteousness, he pours out his
spirit upon us and gives us love and faith and peace and so on. And then the number 10 speaks about that. As a matter
of fact, the word, the Hebrew word for 10, is also the word
used for riches. When God the Holy Spirit gives
chosen redeemed sinners life and faith in Christ, when God
reveals Christ in you, then the Lord God bestows upon you consciously
all the super abundant riches of his free grace in Jesus Christ
and declares all things are yours. For you are Christ and Christ
is God. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Now, let's look back here at
Leviticus 23. And I want to show you very briefly
six things in this passage of scripture. Six things involved
in true repentance and faith. Six characteristics of true repentance
and faith. Now, folks commonly try to divide
the two, and I recognize there is division and understanding,
but wherever there is repentance, there is faith, and wherever
there's faith, there's repentance. The two can't be divided. Here's
the first thing, verse 27. The Lord speaks of this Feast
of Atonement and says it shall be an holy convocation unto you. The Feast of Atonement was a
convocation, a holy convocation, a holy assembly of all the children
of Israel for divine worship. We've assembled here today to
worship our God. That's what it's all about. Only
this was a national thing. It was required under the law.
Men were required to come to this place to worship God on
this feast day. But in the experience of grace,
the very first characteristic, the very first characteristic
of repentance and faith is worship. Saved sinners worship God. Men call upon the name of the
Lord. The word means worship. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That doesn't
mean if you'll say Jesus often enough, you'll get saved. That
doesn't mean if you're Out here in the car wreck, you bend under
the car and you smell the gas and somebody has just flipped
a match on you, you say, Oh, God saved me. Everything's all
right. That's not what it means at all. To call upon the name
of the Lord is to worship him. It is an act of desperation,
yes, to call on him, but it is an act of deliberate desperation. We have come to the utter end
of ourselves and now Christ reveals in our souls the Lord God causing
us to see who Christ is and what He's done for sinners. He causes
His people to worship. Faith is nothing less and nothing
more in its essence than worshiping God as he is revealed in this
book in his true character through Jesus Christ the Lord. Faith
and repentance is turning from your idols to the living God
to worship him. This is what Paul says. We are
the circumcision. That is, we are God's people. We are the people of God's choice. We are God's Israel. We are the
people of God's covenant. We are the people blessed of
God who worship God in spirit. Believers worship Him. They worship
Him. They don't fight Him. They worship
Him. They don't despise His character. They worship Him. They don't
hate His word. They worship Him. Believers worship
Him. Folks ask me all the time, what
about these folks who don't believe the gospel of God's grace, who
hate God's doctrine, who hate the character of God as sovereign
and righteous and holy and true? Believers worship Him. Is that
clear enough? Believers worship Him. Well,
I know believers who don't worship God sitting on His throne. No,
you don't. No, you don't. You know, religious folks, believers
worship him. We worship God in the spirit,
rejoicing in Christ Jesus, trusting Jesus Christ alone with no confidence
in the flesh. All right, here's the second
thing. Look at verse 27 again. You shall afflict your soul. The Feast of Atonement was a
time of soul affliction. I'll say more about this in a
minute, but understand this. As soon as a sinner has Christ
revealed in him, he is a broken, contrite, afflicted soul. You ever meet up with the Son
of God, and you're not going to have much starch left in you. You ever see God revealed in
Jesus Christ, and your pride's gonna wither before Him? You
ever see God revealed in the face of His crucified Son, and
your righteousness will be consumed like a snowball in a blast furnace?
This is what Job said, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the
ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself. I was thinking about this this
morning early, preparing to preach to you and the article that I
wrote concerning why don't you answer them. When you get home,
read it again. We don't have any reason to demand
anything of any human being, much less of God. I've seen myself
in the mirror of God's holy law, and that terrified me. And I've seen myself in the light
of my crucified Redeemer. And that broke me. Broke me. Broke me. Turn to Zechariah for a minute. God never uses anything He doesn't
break. He never feels anything he doesn't
need to. I mean never. Ron, it just doesn't
happen. It just doesn't happen. I realize
around here, I remember Brother Bob Lips telling
me how they used to train their horses. Those thoroughbred show
horses. Had one world champion. He said,
you gentle them. That means you gradually persuade
that fellow with much coddling, let you put a saddle on him,
and then after a while to get on his back. He's still as wild
as he can be inside. Don't want to break his spirit.
Don't want to break his spirit. After you hear that said with
regard to children and horses too, don't want to break his
spirit. God Almighty. It doesn't save
sinners by gentling them. God Almighty throws the saddle
of His grace on your back, and He's going to ride you till you're
broke. He's going to break your spirit.
He's going to break your spirit for you. He says to this man,
Even to him that is torn of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word.
Like Isaiah, when he saw the Lord, he cried, Oh, woe is me.
What a contrast. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, Isaiah
said, Woe is you. Woe is you. Woe is you. Then
he saw God. Something happened. He said,
Woe is me. Look here in Zechariah 12, verse
10. The Lord God describes his work
of grace and says, I'll pour out, I'll pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and supplications. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for him. As one mourneth
for his only son, it shall be in bitterness for him. As one
is in bitterness for his firstborn. When God saves a sinner, when grace comes, when life and
faith is given, it is not just that God comes
to a man who's terrified of going to hell. He's been caught, and now he's
scared to death. And so he cries out to God, that's
not repentance. That's fear. That's legal fear. Oh, but if God is pleased to
pour out His Spirit on you and calls you to look away to Jesus
Christ, when you see Him, you're not just scared of going to hell. You mourn for Him because He who knew no sin was
made to be sin for you. And you're in bitterness for
Him as one is in bitterness for the dearest object of His love
because He endured the horrid wrath of God's hell for me. But that's not the end of it.
Beholding Him, we're told in verse 13, in that day, in that
day just as soon as you look to Him and your heart's broken
before Him, in that day there shall be a fountain open
to the house of David, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. For
what? Me and all my sin. For sin and
uncleanness. All right, here's the third thing.
Verse 27. You shall afflict your souls
and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. The Feast of Atonement involved
free will burnt offerings, offerings of consecration to God. And the
believer born of God's Spirit, the man, the woman, to whom God
gives repentance and faith by the revelation and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ is one who is compelled by the sweet constraint of God's
almighty grace to consecrate himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. How often have you heard folks
refer to men and women And say, well, now there's a consecrated
Christian. There's a consecrated Christian. Well, I ain't exactly consecrated,
but I'm a Christian. There ain't no such thing. There ain't no such thing as
a Christian who's not consecrated. There's no such thing as a saved
sinner who's not consecrated to Christ. There's no such animal. Those things are hatched in the
minds of men to try to make folks feel good while they go to hell
so the preachers don't dare disturb anybody too much. But believers
are men and women sweetly constrained by the grace of God continually
to give themselves in the totality of our being to Jesus Christ
the Lord. What does the book say? The love
of Christ constrains us. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price. David Burge, you don't have any
right to have any will or any possession or any time or any
thought or any family or any emotion of your own. That kind
of takes in everything, doesn't it? What? But me and thine! You've been bought. You've been bought with the precious
blood of Jesus Christ. So a preacher... I don't ever intend for that
to happen with me. I know. I never intended it to happen
with me either. The one thing we want, the most
stubborn particle of our depraved nature, is we want to be boss
of ourselves and everybody else if we can. The believer It broken in his soul because
of that fact. But he's at the same time consecrated
to God. I've been redeemed. I belong
to Christ. When he asked me, he said, could
you go there? Could you go? New Guinea, Mexico,
Ivory Coast. Yeah. I started to say, I believe I
could. I flat know I could and would. If one thing I need, God
show me. That's it. He talked to me recently. Move
away from Danville, leave those grandbabies, your family, down
here. I not only could, I'd do it tomorrow. God showed me. God showed me. I'm confident this is the place
where God has me. It's the reason I'm here. I'm
confident this is the place He would have me serve Him. The
reason I came here for that reason He showed me. He showed me. And that's the fact with God's
people. We're His. We're His. A pastor friend of mine talked
to me recently, asked me about making a move. He said, you know,
my wife and my daughter, they really like it where we are.
And I said to him, that must never even be a thought. in the equation. Yes. Yes. Well, I have to consult
with her. Well, you do what she wants you
to do then. Well, I got to talk to him. Well, you do what he
wants you to do then. I wonder why we don't start consulting
with God, find out what he'd have us do. David made a mistake
when he consulted with everybody but God. and found God's way
when he consulted with nobody but God. Well, let me move on. I've done enough meddling with
that. Verse 28. It shall be a day of atonements,
a day of expiations. Let me just give it to you quickly. When the Lord God gives a sinner
faith in Christ, He declares that day to be a
day of expiations. Oh, I'm glad he put it in the
plural, expiations. He has removed our sins from
us as far as the east is from the west. He says, I, even I
am he that blotteth out thy transgressions as a thick cloud and will not
remember thy sins, expiations. Folks say, well, I believe that
when Christ died, He got atonement and He put away all our past
sins. Isn't that strange language?
Isn't that strange language? How many sins had you committed
when he died? All our sins were future when
he died, as far as we're concerned, as far as our experience is concerned.
No, he didn't just put away our past sins. That's idiocy. When
the Lord Jesus Christ died and obtained eternal redemption with
his one great sacrifice, he put away all our sins, past, present,
and future completely. without our aid. That's the next
thing. Look at verses 28 through 32.
The Lord says, no work. Commit any work, I'll cut you
off and I'll destroy you. Verse 30, he that doeth any work
on that day, I'll destroy him. Verse 31, you shall do no manner
of work. Verse 32, you shall afflict your
souls in the ninth day. Boy, during the Day of Atonement,
the Feast of Atonement, these men and women who worshiped God
were not allowed to do any kind of work on that great holy day. No work. Not, no servile work,
no light work, no work that involved moving a mile, or no work that
involved moving a half mile. No work. And if you did any work,
if you did any work of any kind, dead. Dead. How can that be? You see, true
repentance and faith in Christ involves a total cessation from
work of any kind for acceptance with God, for justification.
True faith, true repentance involves a keeping of the Sabbath arrest
before the Lord God continually. And that is a continual Affliction
to our souls The hardest thing The hardest
thing for a sinner to overcome And you can't overcome it it
ain't gonna happen you cannot overcome it not unless God Overcomes
it for you the hardest thing for a sinner to overcome in this
business of faith Is to quit working Just quit working. Quit looking in here. Quit looking
at your experience, or your feelings, or your emotions, or your thoughts,
or your deeds, your Bible reading, your church attendance. Boy,
I need to. You need to quit. You need to
quit. Just quit. And rest. And Bob Duff, the toughest thing,
You go through every day, and walking before God with peace
and confidence and assurance, is putting away your works. Me
too. Me too. We love it. We love our
own righteousness. We love our own goodness. We
love to think we can somehow do something to merit something
from God Almighty, and so we constantly look within. And if
you're honest, if you're honest, you'll walk around with a loneliest
face. You'll be driven to utter despair.
But we're not honest. Most of us are not honest at
all. Rather than being driven to despair looking within, we're
driven to utter self-righteousness and haughtiness looking within.
But the believer quits working. I trust Christ alone for my righteousness. my justification, my sanctification,
my acceptance with God, my assurance before God. Sometimes I feel assured, sometimes
I don't. Assurance ain't got a thing to
do with feeling. It's faith. It's faith. Sometimes I feel
right, sometimes I don't. Well, when you feel righteous,
I assure you, you ain't got any. Righteousness is not a feeling,
it's fact. Justification, sanctification
is not something you feel. You may feel it in your soul,
but it's not something that's done by feeling. It's a fact.
I'm accepted of God because Christ is accepted. How do you know
that? I trust him. I trust him. I trust him. Now, one last thing,
verse 32. You shall celebrate your Sabbath. True repentance, true faith in
Christ is a day that begins, how can I say it? with utter
reference. The best party you'll ever come
into. Oh, celebration day. Celebration day. Celebration
day. I'm forgiven. I'm pardoned. God's made me righteous. I'm His and He's mine forever. Come join the celebration. Come join the celebration. Believe on the Son of God.