The time your pastor and I were
preaching together, he told me that y'all had put up handrails
for me and some of the other old men. I appreciate it. Turn with me, if you will, to
Leviticus chapter 16. I would not choose at all to
go back to the days of ceremonial Levitical worship. but there's
something about the events of worship recorded in the Old Testament
that I wish we could cultivate. Can you imagine how excited,
how full of anticipation the children of Israel were on that
great day of atonement when they would gather together at the
door of the tabernacle and watch God's high priest sacrifice the
Lamb of Atonement, put on his linen garments and take the blood
of the Lamb and go into the Holy of Holies and wait for him to
come out again and lift his hands to bless the people. Every eye
focused on that ceremony. Every eye full of excitement
because of that ceremony and the things taught in the ceremony. how I pray that God will teach
me and teach you every time we come together in God's house
to come with the anticipation and the excitement of worshiping
God because Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. To focus
our hearts and our minds for just this little while on the
great work of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want this evening to
talk to you about the Day of Atonement, the most significant,
the most instructive, perhaps the very clearest picture and
type of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ given in all the
Old Testament scriptures. Typifying the work of him who
is both our high priest and our Passover sacrifice for us and
God our savior by whom the blessings of God come upon us. Now, realize
this, in order for the holy Lord God to deal with you and me in
mercy and grace, he must sacrifice his son. I chose my words deliberately. In order for the holy Lord God
to deal with you and me in mercy and grace, he must sacrifice
his son. God did not have to have mercy. God did not have to be gracious. But having chosen to be gracious
to sinners, there's no way whereby God in his holiness, justice,
and truth could forgive sin except by the sacrifice of his son. Paul says if righteousness come
by the law, that is if righteousness could come to sinners in any
way other than this, then Christ is dead in vain. Arthur Pink
wrote what I consider to be the most important book to be published
in the 20th century called The Sovereignty of God. And he wrote
a good many other things. He wrote a book on the atonement,
and in his book on the atonement, Pink made the statement that
God could have put away sin by many means. He could have just
declared sin to be put away, or he could have put away sin
by other sacrifices, and Pink was in doing so trying to defend
God's sovereignty. But we dare not defend anything
contrary to the book. God could not save sinners, except
he find a way whereby he could save sinners and be a just God
and a savior as he declares himself to be. He said, the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty. And the only way God can forgive
sin and yet punish sin, the only way God can clear the guilty
and yet cause the guilty to suffer for his sins is through the infinite
meritorious work of his own darling son, the God-man, our mediator,
who came here to suffer and die in our stead, fulfilling that
which is portrayed here in Leviticus chapter 16. The Lord God gave
Moses meticulous, detailed instructions about how the Day of Atonement
was to be observed in this 16th chapter of Leviticus. Let me
make a few statements and then we'll give an overview of these
34 verses. The Day of Atonement was ordained
and initiated by God himself. This was not some human invention. This was not just a religious
day that was concocted in the minds of men whereby they would
serve God. This was a day God himself ordained. himself established because God
would have this day typify the sacrifice of his son whom he
set up from everlasting as our Redeemer. Here's the second thing.
The Day of Atonement was set for a specific time each year. We're told in verse 29, the seventh
month on the tenth day of the month. God's great day of atonement
was set, fixed, ordained, and determined by God himself. And
everything that transpired on the day when the Son of God was
crucified, everything that transpired, transpired according to the will,
the purpose, the decree of God from eternity. Men with their
wicked hands did exactly what they wanted to do in crucifying
the Lord of Glory. And when they did, they did what
God before ordained must be done. I always like to read as I go
through the gospel narratives, where we read about what men
did in crucifying the Redeemer, and take time to look up the
various references in the Old Testament. It looks as though
those Pharisees and the soldiers must have said, now, what are
we supposed to do next? And go back in the scriptures
and just fulfill the scriptures. It looked like they were following
to the letter the Old Testament prophets. because they were following
to the letter the Old Testament prophets. They did whatsoever
God before ordained must be done. All of that and nothing but that,
because this is God's work. The sacrifice of God's son as
our mediator was God's work. He used the hands of wicked men
to do it, but it is God who cried, awake, O sword, against the man
that is my fellow, smite and slay the shepherd. Here's the
third thing. There was only one day of atonement.
Only one day each year. And Christ Jesus was to make
only one offering for sin. Now, once in the end of the world,
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many. There's no more sacrifice for
sin. There's no more atonement to
be made. People keep trying to make up
with God. One of the saddest statements
I ever heard my dad make before he left this world. He was leaving
our home one night and he said to me with great sincerity, I'm
certain, with tears in his eyes, and that didn't often come with
my dad. He said, son, I hope someday before I leave this world,
I can do something to make up with God for all that I've done. And I said, Dad, I pray God will
make you to understand you can't. There's no atonement for sin
to be made by anyone except Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, who was
once sacrificed in our room instead. Fourth, the sacrifices that were
offered on the Day of Atonement were only typical sacrifices,
costly, Precise, divinely ordained, but only typical. The blood of
bulls and goats can never take away sin. The sacrifices that
were ordained by God were only typical of the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and Him putting away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. But those ceremonies, Those rituals,
those sacrifices never made anyone closer to God, never atoned for
any sin, never caused God to smile on anyone. They were only
typical sacrifices. Christ alone puts away sin. And this also must be observed. These typical ceremonial sacrifices. those we read about here in Leviticus
16, and all that are described in the Old Testament scripture,
those typical ceremonial sacrifices and rituals, the law and all
that's commanded in the law, the ceremonies and all the rituals
of the law, the sacrifices and the holy days and the priesthood,
all of those things were fulfilled by Christ terminated by Christ
and finished in Christ. You got that? So that we are
now no longer under the law in any sense of the word, but entirely
free from the law because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Listen to what he says. Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. By the which will, that is by
this will of God fulfilled by Christ, we are sanctified, made
holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified." Now, One more statement in this regard
and we'll look at Leviticus 16. All that was done on the Day
of Atonement was done for a specific chosen people and resulted in
the blessing of God on those people. Everything the high priest
did on that day. Everything that transpired was
just for the children of Israel. When he had on his gorgeous priestly
garments, he had the names of the tribes of children of Israel
on his breastplate. He went in with this golden plate
on his headdress that said, holiness to the Lord, representing the
children of Israel. Everything was done just for
them. The blessings that came as the
result of the atonement that was made came ceremonially and
typically just for Israel. And everything that Jesus Christ
has done, is doing, and shall do, he does just for his people. Everything our great high priest
did at Calvary's tree, he did just for the Israel of God. And
the blessing of God comes just upon the Israel of God, only
upon God's elect. so that Christ Jesus did nothing
in vain. He did nothing without purpose. He did nothing without knowing
for certain what he was doing, for whom he was doing it, and
what the results would be. For these things were foreordained
of God. Pastor, why is it so important
that we stress this matter of election and limited atonement
and predestination? Because to suggest that Jesus
Christ died for folks who perish anyway is to utterly deny the
very Godhead of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. It is to declare
that he's a failure in that which is his most important work by
which God's glory is revealed. and it is written of him, he
shall not fail. You understand that? He shall
not fail. Whatever it is that Christ purposed
from eternity to do, whatever it is he came here to do, whatever
it is he did, he has his intended end in doing so. He shall not
fail. All right, now hold your Bibles
open in Leviticus 16, and I want to call your attention to five
things in these 34 verses, five things about this great day of
atonement. First, we'll look briefly at
the high priest, and then at the slain goat, and then at the
lost scapegoat. And fourth, we'll look briefly
at the response of the people for whom atonement was made.
And finally, we'll conclude by looking at an act of faith performed
by the people. First, the atonement was made
by a specifically appointed man, Aaron, the great high priest
of Israel. Look at verse three. Thus shall
Aaron come into the holy place. with a young bullock for a sin
offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He was a chosen man. Many men in Israel, but God chose
one. And the Lord God chose the Lord
Jesus Christ before the world was. The last Adam set him up
as our covenant surety and said, I have laid help upon one that
is mighty. I've exalted one chosen out of
the people. Christ Jesus came in human flesh
at the appointed time of the incarnation because God from
eternity ordained that our savior be one of us. God from eternity
determined that our savior must himself be a man. like us. Hold
your hands here and turn to Isaiah 42. Isaiah chapter 42. The Lord
God says here in verse 1, Isaiah 42, Behold my servant, whom I
uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my
spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. Verse 2. He shall not cry nor
lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. A bruised
reed shall he not break and a smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment to truth. He shall not fail nor
be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth and the
aisles shall wait for his law. This chosen man, back here in
Leviticus 16 verse four, was robed in garments of humility. The high priest in his normal
functions wore that gorgeous apparel that we commonly picture
him as wearing, all the breastplate with his jewels and the urim
and thummim in the breastplate and the robe with the bells and
pomegranates around the bottom. I remember hearing early on in
my life that the high priest had those bells and pomegranates
so that when he went into the Holy of Holies, as he moved around,
you could hear the bells ringing. And if he didn't hear the bells
ringing, that means he died in the holy place. A couple of things
wrong with that. One is he wasn't wearing the bells and pomegranates.
And the other is there's no possibility God's priest could die offering
God's sacrifice in the holy place that God ordained. That wasn't
a possibility. Aaron took off those gorgeous
priestly robes that made him stand out from the people, and
he puts on garments of humility. Look at verse 4. He shall put
on the holy linen coat and he shall have the linen breeches
upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and
with a linen miter shall he be attired. These are the holy garments. Therefore shall he wash his flesh
in water, and so put them on. On this great day Aaron took
on himself garments of purity and of humility. You know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have it for your sakes, though
he was poor, yet for yours, though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. Israel's great high priest was
a ceremonially holy man. Told in verses three and four
again, Aaron shall come to the holy place. He shall put on the
linen breeches. He shall wash his flesh in pure
water. Look at verse six. And Aaron
shall offer his book of the sin offering, which is for himself
and make an atonement for himself and for his house. Verse 11.
And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is
for himself and shall make an atonement for himself and for
his house and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering,
which is for himself. And he shall take a censer for
the burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord
and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small and bring it within
the veil. Though Aaron was a sinner like
ourselves, He had to be ceremonially a holy man to act as God's high
priest. He who is indeed our mediator,
he who actually does put away sin, is himself holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners. He had no nature of
sin, no corruption of heart, no evil deeds, perfectly holy. And so Aaron is required to be
made ceremonially clean and pure, picturing the Lord Jesus Christ.
In order to approach the Lord God as the high priest of his
people, he had to have in type what Christ is in reality, these
four things. He had to have a personal cleanness.
So he bathed his flesh in water. He had to have these holy garments,
these linen garments woven by the hands of a man. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, in order to offer a sacrifice to God for us, must
fulfill all righteousness. It's not enough, Brandon, that
he put away your sin. Not enough that justice be satisfied
for your sin. God demands that you be holy.
God demands that you be righteous. God demands that you obey his
law in the totality of your life. And the Lord Jesus brought in
everlasting righteousness by his obedience to God all the
days that he walked on this earth, the full age of a man doing the
will of God. In John 17, four, he said, I
have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. But he
didn't die for several hours later, actually nearly a couple
of days later. He hadn't finished the work until he said, it's
finished. But he had finished the work. He had finished the
work of righteousness. And now he goes to finish the
work of atonement, and both are necessary. Because you and I,
to have righteousness before God, must have our sins punished
to the full satisfaction of justice, and we must ourselves be righteous. That righteousness symbolized
by these pure linen garments made by the hands of a man. Our Lord Jesus came into the
world and lived in obedience to God as our substitute, our
mediator, and in him, we lived before God in perfect righteousness. Can you just begin to get a hold
of that just a little bit? If Christ is yours and you are
Christ, if you believe on the son of God, if you're one of
God's elect in Christ, while he walked on this earth, he loved
God with all his heart, soul, mind, and being, not for himself,
but for his people. And Bob, we loved God perfectly
in him. And he loved his neighbor as
himself. I want to love you like that.
But I can't. But I did. Christ my mediator
did. And then he put away my sin,
satisfying the justice of God by his obedience unto death.
So that now we are right at law before God. That's what it is
to be justified. We are everything the law requires,
both in point of satisfaction and in point of obedience. It's
what we call justification. You all get these bulletins every
week. I haven't checked yours recently. I think Todd, or whoever
does the bulletin, types it out for him, does the same thing.
See this right here? See that? That left-hand, yeah,
left-hand side? See that? See the right-hand
side? It's exactly the same measure.
It's called justifying the right-hand margin. Now, you young folks
can't remember this day, but I used to write our bulletins
out. I couldn't type, and I'd write them out, and Shelby would
type them. And then she'd take a ruler and draw a line right
down through here, and she'd count the spaces between the
jagged lines. And then she'd go back and retype
the bulletin and she'd space out the letters so they'd come
out even on this side, justifying the margin manually. And when
we got real fancy and got stencils, get down here and mess up, have
to start all over again. Now, all it takes is just hit
that J button and you're justified. It's justified. This side, God's
holy law. Here I am. Here I am in Christ, exactly
equal to God's holy law in all its righteousness, justice, and
truth. so that with Christ, my substitute,
being one with him, I am as holy as God's own son. And my conscience
is free of guilt before God. My conscience is at peace with
God. Not only did he have these holy
garments and a personal cleanness, this high priest, Aaron, was
a man of divine approval, the incense, Smoking pictures Christ
as a sweet-smelling savor to God, fully meritorious, portrays
our Lord's intercession for us so that we are accepted of God
because God approves of Him. And this priest must have blood
atonement. He could not come into the Holy of Holies without
blood. And the Lord Jesus could not
ascend back into glory except first He put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. When the Spirit of God comes
in conviction, He reproves, He convinces chosen sinners when
they're called by His grace of their sin. And then our Savior
says of righteousness because I go to my Father. He came down
here to bring in everlasting righteousness and He could not
go back as Jehovah's servant except He brought it in. And
so the Lord Jesus, with his own blood, entered in once into the
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Now look at
Leviticus 16 and verse 17. On the day of atonement, Aaron
acted alone. 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 again and have made an atonement
for himself and for his household, and for all the congregation
of Israel. No one else was present. No one
was allowed into the Holy of Holies but Aaron. Aaron was alone
with God to make an atonement for the people. Now understand
this, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, trusted
into the hands of one man, the God-man, our mediator, our covenant
surety, all his people, and all our salvation. The Lord God trusted
his son with us and for us. And he did the work alone so
that there's none to assist him, none to help him. If that man
succeeds, the nation shall live. If that man fails, the nation
must die. And so it is with us. Our Lord
Jesus said, there was none with me. I tread the winepress of
the wrath of God alone, alone. Now, many attempt to do something
to supplement Christ's work. Some of you, I have no doubt,
have great difficulty with peace before God, with assurance, with
confidence of your acceptance with God, precisely because you
keep trying to supplement the work of Christ. You keep trying
to find something in yourself that God will accept. Something
in yourself that will give you peace before God so that when
you really don't feel close to the Lord like you want to, you
don't feel like you're walking with God like you want to, then
you, well, I'll read more, I'll pray more, I'll go to church
more, I'll give more, I'll do more. Now, please, read more,
go to church more, pray more, give more, do more, by all means,
but not to get peace with God. Not to get peace with God. Let
me tell you what happens to folks who supplement the work of Christ.
There was a man by the name of Uzziah, a great king in Judah. For 52 years, he did that which
was right in the eyes of the Lord. Until one day, he decided
he could bypass God's priest and go in and offer incense on
his own merit before God. And God killed him. There was
a man by the name of Uzzah who came with the ark of God as David
was bringing it up to the house of God to build a place of worship
for God. And Uzzah saw the ark of God,
looked like it was gonna fall off the cart. It looked like
it was not steady. So Uzzah, thinking that God's
ark needed somebody's assistance, reached out just to steady the
ark. And when he did, God killed him.
You see, God sends folks to hell. for putting their hand to Christ's
work. God sends folks to hell for assisting
his son or attempting to. Salvation is the work of Jesus
Christ alone. And faith in Christ is to trust
Christ alone. And when you trust Christ alone,
you have no reason to be afraid of anything. When you trust Christ
alone, your conscience finds that which satisfies God. God
says enough when the sunset is finished, and your conscience
says enough when you hear the sun declare it is finished. Now,
look at the slain goat in verses five and then seven through 10.
We'll consider the meaning of the scapegoat in a little bit,
but right here, I want us to look at this slain goat, this
victim for sin offering. the sin offering to God. Look
at verse five. He shall take of the congregation
of the children of Israel, two kids of the goats for a sin offering. Now somewhere, make a note, make
a note that you won't forget. Maybe in the margin of your Bible
or right underneath this word, sin offering. Everywhere in the
Old Testament, You don't have to take my word for it, you can
get your Strong's Concordance and look it up. Everywhere in
the Old Testament, no exceptions, everywhere in the Old Testament
where you see the word sin offering, that's really a, it's a proper
translation because the sacrifice was an offering for sin. But
it's really not a strict translation. The word is sin. Everywhere in
the Old Testament. I'll give you a validation of
that in the inspiration of scriptures. The apostle Paul quotes from
Isaiah chapter 53, where the Lord God says he shall make his
soul an offering for sin. And when Paul refers to that
passage, he says he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin. So everywhere you read this word
sin offering, understand it's talking about Christ Jesus the
Lord and him being made sin to put away sin. and one ram for
a burnt offering. Look at verse seven. And he shall
take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon
the two goats, for one lot for the Lord and the other lot for
the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat
upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for sin. But the
goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented
alive before the Lord to make an atonement with him and to
let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. This goat was
an innocent victim represented by his spotlessness. This goat
was taken from among people. Divine justice must be satisfied
and compensation must be made by a man, for man had sinned. And so the Lord Jesus came in
human flesh. The word was made flesh to suffer
and die for us. This goat was chosen and ordained
by God. But pastor, they just cast lots
for the goat. Lots fell on one goat for the
Lord and one goat for the scapegoat. Yes, the lot is cast into the
lap. but the whole disposing thereof
is of the Lord. So that this sacrifice was chosen
out of the people, brought from the people to be a sacrifice
to God for the sin of the people that was chosen and ordained
by God's own decree so that God determined who would suffer.
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. And then it was slain, slain
by divine order as a sacrifice for sin. Look at verse 15. Then
shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the
people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood
as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon
the mercy seat before the Lord. We're told he had to sprinkle
the blood seven times. Thus, the Lord Jesus, our substitute,
the Lamb of God, was sacrificed for us. He who is God in our nature is
a man of infinite worth and merit. So that he, by his one ordeal
of suffering, taking our sin in his own body on the tree,
took in himself all the fury of God's holy wrath and justice, and pulled the sword of justice
into his own heart and swallowed it up. so that he suffered all
the hell of God's wrath at one time for his people, fully satisfying
justice. The sacrifice was made for a
particular people, and his sacrifice actually made atonement for sin.
His sacrifice actually put away sin. hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law. Being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He did
this that the blessing of Abraham, that is the promise of the spirit,
might come on us by his grace. The blood of this slaying goat
was sprinkled on the mercy seat seven times. I don't know a great
deal about numerology, but the number seven in scripture seems
to always speak about completion and perfection. Aaron slit the
goat's throat and caught the blood in a basin, and he went
in with a piece of hyssop and he sprinkled it on the mercy
seat seven times. And God said, that's where I'll
meet you, right there. That word mercy seat, in the New Testaments
translated both mercy seat and propitiation. Christ is our mercy
seat. Christ is our propitiation. The
Ark of the Covenant was a table, you'll remember. In it, they
had the broken law. And over it was this golden lid
with the cherubs on each end, looking down constantly on the
blood sacrifice facing one another. And there God made atonement
for the people ceremonially. What is that? It's covering so
that the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat completely covers,
hides from view, God's broken law. It's a propitiation. The word means to counsel. to
cancel as a debt is canceled. So the mercy seat sprinkled with
blood. God says, I have blotted out
thy transgressions. The word mercy seat, the propitiation,
the atonement means to reconcile, to unite. The word atonement
means at one with. The Lord Jesus, by the sacrifice
of himself, has fully atoned for our sins, covered them, canceled
our debt, and made us one with God so that God Almighty looks
on us in the perfection of his Son. Having died in our place,
Our Savior entered immediately into heaven itself and offered
God the merits of his own precious blood, obtaining eternal redemption
for us and opened a way of access for sinners into the holy place. I've often thought it would have
been something else to have been watching when the Lord Jesus
cried, it's finished. And suddenly, by a miraculous
act, the veil in that temple was split in two from top to
bottom. And by that, God proclaimed,
welcome home, my sons. He made a way of access for sinners
to come to God freely. With boldness. With boldness. What on earth is that talking
about? Boldness to come to God? Boldness
to call God our father? Boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Christ? It's not talking about this cocky,
demanding attitude that you see these Pentecostal Yehus on television
demanding things from God. That's not it. That's not it.
The boldness is freedom. Freedom. We were down in Crossville
a few weeks ago and Brother Mike Walker was studying. He told
about his granddaughter. They'd been out. She'd been out
with some of the ladies, and swimming, and sister, one of aunts. They came back to the room, and
Mike had a sign on the door that said, do not disturb. And the
little girl, she said, that don't mean me. And she pulled this
thing out, walked on in. And he said, she was right. That
didn't mean her. That didn't mean her. That's my granddaughter. She's free to come anytime. She
doesn't have to get permission to come. She doesn't have to
beg for entrance. She never has to be afraid to
come. That's the freedom with which sinners like you and me
can come to God Almighty and open our hearts to Him. when
we can't open our hearts to anybody with no fear of rejection. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. A young lady I've known all her
life last week committed suicide. Mother's dear friend, I wouldn't put it on for anything. Joe, you've been taking care
of your dear companion for a long time now. And the things you'd
like to say and speak to God and open your heart, we're taught
not to do it. Be free with God. Be free with God. Speak to God
like you want to. He invites you to do so. And
pour out your heart to him with freedom as a son pours out his
heart to a loving father with freedom. That's the boldness
we're talking about. The sacrifice of our dear Savior,
Lord Jesus, is a sacrifice of infinite, perpetual merit and
efficacy before God. So that if any man sin, We have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
By the blood of Jesus Christ, if we confess our sin, 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, perpetually cleanseth us
from all sin. But Brother Don, that was done
once at Calvary, that's right. It was done once from eternity
too. But God continually, cleanses our consciences with the fresh
application of blood, declaring our free access to Him, declaring
we're accepted of Him in Christ Jesus, His Son. Now, look at
verses 20, 21 and 22. The high priest and the slain
victim represent the Lord Jesus. And the lamb, the scapegoat that
was sent into the wilderness does as well. Verse 20, when
he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle
of the congregation and the altar, he shall bring the live goat
and Adrian 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 in 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." Now that's also
a picture of our Redeemer. By Aaron putting his hands on
the head of that goat. pressing hard, he transferred
all the children of Israel, their sins, their iniquities, their
transgressions, all their deeds of evil, all their known sins
and unknown sins, all their inward sins and their outward transgressions.
He transferred at one time all the sins of the people to this
one goat. and he presses hard, transferring
their sins. And when their sins are transferred,
they're imputed. Now understand something about
imputation. There's a lot of yak about imputation. Folks don't know what they're
talking about most of the time. God does not impute sin where
there is none. And God does not impute righteousness
where there is none. He cannot justly lay our sins
to the account of his son until his son is made sin. And he cannot
justly lay his righteousness to our account except we be made
righteous. So the imputation is a declaration
of that which is right. Aaron lays. his hands upon the
goat and sacrifices it and lays his hands upon this goat, thereby
transferring sin and transferring guilt. And the goat takes the
sins of the people by the hands of a fit man out into a land
not inhabited. So that our sins are ceremonially
hereby removed completely by our Lord Jesus. The guilt of
sin, the punishment of sin, the memory of sin. Not mine, not yet. Claire, the day's coming when
the memory will call me no difficulty, but God's memory. He says he does not remember
your transgressions. Is that what it says? That's
what it says. Hold your hands here and turn
to Jeremiah 50. Jeremiah 50. But Brother Doug, God knows everything.
Well, he does, but I'll tell you something he doesn't know.
Brian, God Almighty doesn't know what is not. God Almighty doesn't know what
is not. You got that? And my sins are
no more. Christ didn't pretend to put
them away. He put them away! Look here in
Jeremiah 50, in those days, verse 20. And in that time, saith the
Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for. What's it
say? And there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, And they
shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve. Back to Leviticus 16. How did
these people respond to this? On the basis of the atonement
made, Abraham would put back on his holy, gorgeous priestly
garments. And on the basis of the atonement
made, he would come out and pronounce over the children of Israel the
blessing God commanded him to pronounce, the Lord bless thee
and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee and be gracious to thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. And the children of Israel, when
the atonement was made, Repent it. Look at verse 29 in Leviticus
16. Ye shall afflict your soul. When the atonement was made,
when they saw in the type and ceremony, the Lord's goat slain,
the blood sprinkled in the mercy seat, and the scapegoat carrying
their sins away, then they afflicted their souls before God because
of their sin. And the sinner, when Christ is
revealed in him, repents of his sin. We're told in verse 29,
ye shall do no work at all. They rested. They rested. They kept the Sabbath day. And
then we're told in verse 25, verse 9 of Leviticus 25, they
rejoiced. The jubilee trumpet is blown
when the jubilee atonement was made and liberty was proclaimed,
all debt was cleared, everything was restored. Now look at verses
21 and 22 again and see this act of faith that's symbolized.
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 goats. I call on you to join me now
in this act of faith. Lay your hands of faith on the
head of God's son, and confess your sin. And behold, your sin taken away
by the sacrifice of Christ our Passover, who sacrificed for
us. Amen.