We're happy to have Fred, Cheryl,
and the saints from Louisville here with us tonight. Glad you're
here with us. In verse 7 of Hebrews, chapter
9, we read, into the second went the high priest alone, once every
year, not without blood, which he offered for himself. and for
the errors of the people." Now, this is a reference to what took
place in Leviticus, chapter 16, the great day of atonement. And I've entitled this message,
Atonement. Atonement. the man speaking with you, the
preacher up here preaching, I am a sinful man. I'm not saying that in a generic
way. I'm not saying that in a theologically
correct way. I'm saying I am a sinful man,
committing oftentimes the same sins over and over and over. I am a sinful man. I know a little bit about how
Peter felt when he said to the Lord, depart from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. You don't want to have anything
to do with me." He really felt that in his soul. I find so much
that I can identify with, with that man whose name was Legion. Turn for a moment to Mark chapter
5. Mark chapter 5. Verse 1, And they came out over
unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him
out of the tombs, the place of death, a man with an unclean
spirit." who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could
bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often
bound with fetters and chains, the fetters and chains of human
religion, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him,
and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him,
and always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the
tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus
afar off, he ran and worshipped Him and cried with a loud voice
and said, What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the
Most High God? What do we have in common? You're
light. I'm darkness. You're good. I'm bad. You're holy. I'm unclean. What connection
do we have together? What do I have to do with thee? I adjure thee by God that thou
torment me not. All he could think was that the
Lord would torment him. He couldn't think of his mercy
toward somebody like him. That's how he saw himself. For
he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
And he asked him, What's thy name? And he answered, saying,
My name is Legion. For we are many. Question. How can a holy God
have anything to do with the likes of me? How can he accept me? How can he embrace me? How can he love me? How can he
have communion with me? How can he have fellowship with
me? It is only as my sins are atoned
for." Atonement. Would you turn with me to Leviticus
chapter sixteen, verse thirty? For on that day shall the priest
make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be
clean from all your sins before the Lord." Don't you find that
attractive? The thought of being clean from
all your sins before the Lord Himself? Oh, what a glorious
thought. Now, Leviticus chapter 16 is
one of the most instructive chapters in the Bible, and it teaches
us how our sins and our iniquities. I'm not talking about a generic
sense of sin, but I mean my sin, the sins that I commit. This passage of Scripture tells
me how these sins that I commit can actually be atoned for, and
have God can embrace me. Now, the great Dave's atonement
took place once a year. Look back in verses 1 and 2 of
chapter 16. And the Lord spake unto Moses
after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before
the Lord, and died. You remember what took place?
In Leviticus chapter 10, Nadab and Abiham, Aaron's boys, they
ran out of the right kind of incense and they thought, well,
this will do. This will do. I mean, after all, we're sincere.
It doesn't matter if we give them. It doesn't have to be exact.
This will do. So they offered up this strange
fire before the Lord. Incense that he never commanded.
And the scripture says fire came down from heaven and devoured
him. Killed him on the spot. And the Lord spoke through Moses
and he said, Aaron, don't even mourn for him. Don't weep for
them. Now, with that in mind, I'm sure
you scared everybody to death. I mean, we're scared. And with that atmosphere, the
holiness of God, the unapproachableness of God, we're given the great
day of atonement. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Speak unto thy brother Aaron, that he come not at all times
into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which
is upon the ark, that he die not. For I will appear in the
cloud upon the mercy seat." Now, the work of Aaron, the high priest,
coming into the Lord's presence this one day a year for this
great day of atonement, represents the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the true great high priest. And the first thing he did, we
went through the tabernacle recently, I guess it was this summer, and
the high priest had these beautiful, glorious, gorgeous clothes on.
I mean, the, the, the lighter and the breastplates and made
of blue and purple and gold and white and all these different
colors that represented the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
when he was to make atonement, he set aside those garments and
put on plain white linen, representing the incarnation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, he then had to have a young
bull and ram for an offering and a burnt offering for himself.
He was not qualified to offer up for somebody else until he
first had to offer up for himself. And what this represents is the
sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, if a priest
has any sin on him, he can't represent somebody else. He has
to be perfect. He has to be holy. So Aaron was
just like you and I. He was a sinful man. So he had
to offer a sacrifice for himself first before he was qualified
to offer up a sacrifice to the children of Israel. This represents
the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then after he offered
this sacrifice for himself, there were two goats for the children
of Israel, one for sin offering, and one was called a scapegoat. That's where that term comes
from, a scapegoat, Leviticus chapter 16. It means one who
brings away. It's made of two words. One means
to go away. I like that. My sins going away.
Remember when the high priest put his hands on the head of
the scapegoat and the sins were transferred to him and he was
led by a pit man into the wilderness. My sins going away. I sure like
the thought of that. So he offers the bull and ram
for himself. He sprinkles the blood on the
altar because the altar had been defiled by him touching it. He
then offers up the Goat for the sin offering for the children
of Israel and sprinkles the blood on the altar and in the Holy
of Holies. And then he comes back out looking
for twenty one. A little bit, because Chapter 16. And Aaron shall lay both his
hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him all
the iniquities. of the children of Israel, and
all their transgressions, in all their sins, putting them
upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand
of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and he
shall let go the goat in the wilderness." Aaron, after this,
takes another bath, puts back on his regular clothing, the
great high priest's beautiful attire, and he offers another
sacrifice for himself and the people, and then the bull that
he offered for himself and the goat that was given as a sin
offering are taken outside the camp and burnt, just as our Lord
suffered without the gate, and hence we have a figure of the
atonement. Here is how a holy God can actually
embrace somebody like me. Atonement. Now, the word atonement
is found 16 times in this chapter. It means to cover, to placate,
to appease, to cancel, to cleanse, to disannul, to forgive, to pardon,
to purge away, to put off, to make reconciliation for sin. Now, I have four very simple
questions regarding this sixteenth chapter of Leviticus and the
great day of atonement. One, who made this atonement? Second, what did he actually
do? What did he accomplish in this
atonement? Three, how was it done? And four, how were the people
to respond for whom this atonement was made? Very simple. That only
God enabled me to preach the gospel in the power of the Holy
Spirit. Who made this atonement? Verse 30, For on that day shall
the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you that
you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. Now, that
priest represents the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only
he can make atonement. There's not a thing in the world
that you and I can do to atone for our sins. It's all together
out of our hands. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can
make atonement. Look what verse 17 says of Leviticus
16. And there shall be no man in
the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement
in the holy place, until he come out and has made an atonement
for himself and for his household and for all the congregation
of Israel. No man's with him. He did this all together by himself. He was to do this alone. I think
of Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 where it says, he by himself, no help
from me, no help from you, no help from anybody. He by himself
purged our sins. Now, why did he have to do this
by himself? Let me give you two real good
reasons. First, because he's the only one who can do it. You couldn't do this. He's the
only one who can do it. And second, he's going to get
all the glory this way. Those are two good reasons, aren't
they? You couldn't atone for your sins. There's not a thing
you can do. As a matter of fact, in this thing of atonement, we're
passive, absolutely passive. This is the work of Christ with
no help from us. He by himself, by himself, he
purged our sins. It was wholly what he did for
us. Look at verse 34. And this shall
be an everlasting statute unto you to make an atonement for
the children of Israel and for all their sins once a year. And he did as the Lord commanded
Moses. Now, the priest put on his humble
garments for this great work. He did have all decked out in
gold and precious stones and so on. How impressive he must
have looked. But when he does the work of
atonement, he puts on his humble garments. He puts on the white
linen. This represents the Lord Jesus Christ. incarnation. It represents the Lord Jesus
Christ becoming flesh. And oh, how He humbled Himself. Now, you think of God becoming
a man. How He humbled Himself. He took upon Him all the same
limitations physically that you and I have. He humbled himself,
and he humbled himself even more than that. He had two stoops.
First, the stoop of becoming a man, and then the stoop when
he was made to cry out in Psalm 22, 6, I am a worm, and not even
fit to be called a man. He was made sin. What a stoop. And you'll notice How Aaron was to offer sacrifice
first for his own sins before he could offer up a sacrifice
for others. This speaks of the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, it also says there in
Hebrews 9, I think I'm going to try to deal with this next
week. It says that this didn't satisfy their conscience. Just
seeing Aaron do it. They never had a real satisfaction
of conscience, because the only thing that can satisfy your conscience
is if the sacrifice is sinless. If it's just a sinner doing it,
it won't look anything for anybody. He couldn't do anything for anybody.
The only thing that I'm satisfied with is that our Lord Jesus Christ,
before he was made sin, lived a perfectly sinless life. It was the Lord Jesus alone who
made atonement. We were passive in this. Now,
second question, what did this atonement actually do? Verse 30, once again, I've read
it twice, but it's such a great verse, I'd like to read it again.
For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you to
cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before
the Lord. Oh, how attractive that is to
be clean before the Lord from all my sins. And let me give
you the Hebrew dictionary definition of this word, that you may be
cleansed. You see, we were defiled, dirty,
filthy, dark in our sins, and to be cleansed is to be bright. That's the first definition,
bright. Pure, clear, unadulterated, uncontaminated,
innocent, holy, clean, purged, purified. Now, here's a word
I like in this 30th verse. On that day shall the priest
make an atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be clean
from, what's the next word? A-double-L-all. From all your
sins. Sins of imagination, sins of
deeds, all sins. Now, that's a lot of sin. The
sin that makes us so dirty, we are cleansed from. The blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Look in verse 16 of Leviticus
chapter 16. And he shall make an atonement
for the holy place. Because of the uncleanness of
the children of Israel, because of their transgressions in all
their sins, and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation
that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
Look in verse 20. And when he has made an end of
reconciling, and that word is the word that's generally translated
atoning, atoning the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation,
the altar, he shall bring the live goat. Now, he made atonement
for the holy things. If I touch it, it's unclean. It had to be purged. My faith
has to be washed in the blood of Christ. My repentance has
to be washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. My love
to the Lord has to be washed in the blood. I can't bring anything
to Him apart from the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He made
reconciliation. He made atonement for the holy
things of the children of Israel. Full atonement was made. For
who? For who? Now, this is an issue.
Now, a lot of times when I think of atonement, I think of the
extent of atonement. What is the extent of it? And
that's very important because the Scripture makes an issue
out of it. But first, I need to understand why atonement? Why
do I need atonement? But after that, let's talk about the extent
of atonement. He says he'll make an atonement for you. Who is
the you? Who are the folks that he made
this atonement for? Was he making atonement for everybody? No, the twelve tribes of the
children of Israel. It was an atonement for specific
people. It's talking about God's elect. Christ Jesus died for the elect,
and he accomplished their salvation. Now, here's why this is such
an issue. Because I know some people say, well, why make an
issue of this? Well, like I said this morning, for one reason,
because the Bible does. But here's the big issue to me. When I'm
talking about my sinfulness, The only hope that I have is
that Jesus Christ died for me. That's it. No other hope. Nothing. Now if you tell me that you can
die for somebody and they wind up in hell anyway, that's going
to happen to me. I know it will. My only hope is that when he
said it is finished, my salvation was accomplished. That's the
only hope I've got. And what a good hope it is. What
a sufficient hope it is. Who is this atonement for? It
was for his elect, his people. And what did his atonement actually
do? It made everybody that he represented clean and pure before
God. Hebrews 10, 14 says, for by one
offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. I am
clean before God. I have no sin before God. I'm
pure. I'm holy. My sin's been purged
away. Now, the only way I get ahold
of that is by faith. What else is needed? I believe
what God says. And before the Lord, my sins
have been purged away and I am clean before Him. Now, here's
the third question. How did he do this? Now, the priest changed into
plain linen. That's Christ's incarnation.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And then there was
a sacrifice. First, the sacrifice of the bull,
which was for his own sins, which once again represents, for someone
to represent me, he can't have any sin. He's got to be perfect,
like the perfect high priest. Our Lord lived a perfect life,
and that's what made Aaron fit to represent the children of
Israel. And then the goat had to be sacrificed. Christ himself
died. He who is alive. This is the
most mysterious thing. I don't understand how it can
be. The God-man died. How did that happen? I don't
understand it, but I know he did. He died. And there's only
one reason for death. Sin. God didn't look at his son
and say, son, I know you didn't do this. You're doing it for
somebody else. But I'm going to punish you for somebody else.
Christ was guilty. Christ was sin before God. It
would be unjust of God to punish him for something he didn't do.
And my sin so literally and truly became his, that the wrath of
God came down upon him, he was guilty. And here's how that is. Look in verse 21. And Aaron shall
lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all
their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them upon
the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of
a fit man into the wilderness, and the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquities." The scripture says, "...who his own
self bear our sins in his own body on the tree." And he bore
them away to a land not inhabited, and he shall let the goat go
into the wilderness. Now, the sin of all of the elect
was removed from them. You know, God's got the authority
to do this. We can't. I never will forget hearing a
preacher say, it hit me like a ton of bricks. He said he'd
been caught in some kind of scandal. And they said, well, what about
what you did? He said, I put that sin under the blood. I said,
you can't do that. You have the authority to put
your sin into the blood. What else do you think you can do?
Only God has the authority to do that. Now God, in His absolute
authority, has taken the sins of His people and placed them
upon His Son so that His Son bore the sins. His son became
guilty, and the wrath of God came down upon his son, and the
perfect righteousness of his son is given to every believer. And don't you love the imagery
here? That scapegoat who bore the iniquities, he's brought
into a land not inhabited. I don't know where that is, but
I like it. A land not inhabited. Nobody knows where it is. It's
gone. But here's the point. Jeremiah
chapter 50 verse 20 says, In those days and at that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and there shall be none. Are you thinking of that? God
coming and looking for your sin. And there shall be none. Where are our sins? They're not. And that is how a holy God can
embrace me. I'm embraceable. I don't have
any sin. Literally? Literally. You got some confidence in that? I can see why God loves me. You
know, we sang that song. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He can love me, a sinner
condemned, unclean. I wonder that, too. But I also
see, through the glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ, I see
how God can love me, and embrace me, and accept me. Why not? I'm perfect. I'm without sin. And that's what the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ does. It actually removes sin. I'm holy, I'm unblameable, and
I am unreprovable in the very sight of God, and that is not
presumption, that's not arrogance, that's just believing what God
says in his word, because God says he's made us holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in his sight. Aren't you thankful for the atonement?
Oh, the glorious atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. We draw
an eye through the blood of Christ. Now, here's the last question.
How were the people to respond to this atonement? We see they
were passive in it. I mean, they were passive. The priest made
an atonement. Well, I'm so thankful for that.
I'm so thankful I don't have anything to do with it, because
if I had anything to do with it, I'd mess it up. But the Lord, the glorious
God-man, he made atonement for all his people. Now, what was
the response of the people? Look in verse 29. And this shall be a statute forever
unto you, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the
month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether
it be one of your own country or a stranger that sojourns among
you. For on that day the priest shall make an atonement for you,
to cleanse you, that you may be cleaned from all your sins
before the Lord. It shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you, and
you shall afflict your souls by statute forever." Now, he
gives three things that people were to do in response. Number
one, afflict your souls. Now, what's that mean? It doesn't
sound very good. I mean, as far as I'm not really
into afflicting my soul. What does that mean to afflict
your souls? Well, a hundred times in the scripture, it is translated,
humble yourself. That's what it means to afflict
your soul. You humble yourself before the Lord. Remember when
Pharaoh refused to humble himself, same Hebrew word the Lord uses.
If I afflict my soul, that means I humble myself before the Lord.
Now, what does it mean to humble yourself before the Lord? What
is humility? Humility is so beautiful. It's
a grace of the Holy Spirit. And what it is more than anything
else, it's a just estimate of yourself. You can be in a good
mood and everything be happy and still be afflicting your
soul because you have a just estimate of yourself. Here's
what humility is. That publican in the temple. He stood in the back. He beat
on his breast knowing his heart was the problem. And he cried
out, God be merciful. God be propitious is the actual
word. God be propitious. Be appeased through the blood
of your son. View me in him. God be propitious
to me. The sinner. The worst man to ever live. You know what the Lord said about
that fellow? He said, I say unto you that
he went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone
that exalts himself, he's going to be amazed, but whosoever humbles
himself shall be exalted. That's what it is to humble yourself.
You take your place before God as you really are. You know,
he sees you as you really are, doesn't he? No point in trying
to hide anything. Come before Him and humble yourself. And it's easy to do when you
see who He is and who you are. And here's the second thing they
were to do. First, they were to humble themselves. Secondly,
they were to do no work at all. That's simple enough, isn't it? No work at all. Don't do a thing. Believe that
He did it all. Don't bring your works. Don't
bring your religious experience. Don't bring your sincerity. Don't
bring your faith. Don't bring anything that has
anything to do with you. Do no work at all. You know what the hardest thing
to do is? Nothing. Nothing. Do no work at all. If we attempt to do, to atone
for our sins, we say we don't really believe that he did it
all. And the only way we prove that we really believe that what
he did is sufficient is by not doing anything. Doing is a deadly
thing. Doing ends in death. Do no work at all. And then he says in verse 31,
it shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you. Rest. Rest. There remaineth therefore a rest
for the people of God. For he that's entered into his
rest hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Now, I love to think of the Lord
ceasing from his own works. He created the world. He said,
behold, it's very good. And he rested. Why? He couldn't be improved. What
he did was godlike. It was perfect. He looked at
it and said, behold, it's very good. Nothing else to do. And
he rested. Rest is the response of the believer
to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest. Now, while you're not doing anything.
While you're resting, keep afflicting your souls. He said that again. Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God, that he might exalt you in due time. Peter said that. And you know what he said next?
He said, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. You know what you do when you
humble yourself? You cast all your care upon him. You know what happens when you
cast all your care upon him? You're carefree. The Lord Jesus actually made
atonement. For real sins. And everybody
he died for is literally clean before the Lord without sin. Now, humble yourself. Don't do
any work. And rest. Let's pray.