Let us turn in our Bibles this
evening to Leviticus, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus chapter 16. In this chapter, learn about
the Day of Atonement, the great Day of Atonement. Matthew Henry's
comments upon this chapter are the following. It had as much
gospel in it as perhaps any of the appointments of the ceremonial
law, that is, the law concerning the Day of Atonement. It had
as much gospel in it as perhaps any of the appointments of the
ceremonial law. I have no intention tonight to
try to speak to everything in this chapter to bring out all
of the types and pictures that are here concerning the atoning
work of Jesus Christ our Lord. But I have three divisions in
my message. First, I want us to say that
this day and work was settled by the Lord. And second, I have
five things to mention about the work of this day. And then
third, I have two more things to say. So first, this day and
work was settled by the Lord. I want us to look at three verses
of scripture. Verse two, and the Lord said
unto Moses, speak unto Aaron thy brother, 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. And then, if you will, down in
verses 29 and 30, 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 sojourneth among
you. 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. This day and the work
of this day was fixed, that is, it was settled by the Lord God
himself. In Hebrews chapter nine and verse
seven in the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote, but into
the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and the heirs of the people. The atoning death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the point I want to make and emphasize, was determined
by God himself, by God Almighty. On the day of Pentecost, Peter
declared him, that is Christ, being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. You have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
was not an accident. It was determined by God himself,
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Just as the psalmist
David wrote concerning all men, my times are in thy hands. That's true of you and that's
true of me. And that was true also of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The time of his birth was fixed
in eternity. When the fullness of the time
was come, the apostle tells us, God's time on God's calendar
When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his
son, made of a woman, made under the law. He lived in Nazareth
for almost 30 years, but the time of his baptism was also
fixed by God. When he was 30 years of age,
he made his way to the River Jordan, where John the Baptist,
his forerunner, who was also prophesied to come, John the
Baptist, where he was baptizing. And the time of his baptism also
was fixed, the time that he would enter into his public ministry. And we know he was 30 years of
age because that's the age that men began to execute the office
of the priesthood under the Levitical system. The time of his death
was fixed also in eternity. And until that time came, the
enemies of Christ, and there were many of them, and how many
times do we read in the Gospels that tell us his time was not
yet come. They took up stones to stone
him. One time they wanted to push him over a cliff at Nazareth. to destroy him, but over and
over, we read, his time was not yet come. What am I saying? I'm saying that the time and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ was fixed by God Almighty in
eternity, just as the day of atonement and its work was settled
by the Lord. Moses and Aaron and other elders
of the nation of Israel, they didn't get together and think,
you know, we need to have one day in the year special for an
atonement to be made. No, this was settled by the Lord. That's what the first verse tells
us here. Verse two, rather. And the Lord
said unto Moses, speaking to Aaron, this is God's work. the
work of redemption, the work of atonement. This is God's work,
and He determines when and how atonement should be made for
the sins of His people. This day of atonement was once
in a year, once in a year, to picture to us that the work that
Christ would do, His work of atonement, would only be done
once. It would only be done one time. How many days have passed since
God created the heavens and the earth, the first day of the week?
How many days? But there was only one day wherein
God had determined the work of redemption, the work of atonement
should be accomplished. And that's because His work is
finished. You know that verse in Hebrews
9, I believe it's verse 27, which says, once in the end of the
world, once, not twice, not three times, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. And then in that 10th chapter
of Hebrews, and I love the letter of Hebrews, I love all the word
of God, You know, Paul, I believe he wrote the letter of Hebrews
to encourage Jews who had professed faith in Christ, but maybe pressure,
persecution of one sort or the other was moving them maybe to
depart and to go back to the old legal system, the law. And Paul is showing through the
letter of Hebrews how that Christ is Everything about Christ is
better, a better covenant, a better priesthood, a better sacrifice. Everything is better by the coming
and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because these old types and pictures,
they couldn't take away sin. They couldn't remove one sin. They could picture how God would
remove sin by the death of his son, but in themselves, they
couldn't remove sin. And yet Paul was able to write,
but this man, this man, this God man, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. Now Tabernacle, we know the pieces
of furniture which were in it. There was a table, there was
a golden altar, there was a lampstand, there was a mercy seat, an ark
of a covenant, but there was not a chair. There was not a
chair, was there? Why? Because that work would
be repeated year after year after year. It never accomplished what
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. By his one offering, now he has
sat down at the right hand of God, waiting, expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. The Lord Jesus Christ, we know,
is called Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.
You say, from the foundation of the world. Yes, in the purpose
of God, he was as a lamb slain from the foundation, from the
very beginning, because Abel offered a lamb, didn't he, in
sacrifice. We read that early on in the
book of Genesis. His lamb, of course, was a type
and a picture of the Lamb of God. When John the Baptist pointed
him out, he didn't say, behold, a lamb of God. No, he said, behold,
the lamb of God, the lamb of God, which taketh away the sins
of the world. Now, my second point, I have
five things to mention about the work of this day. Just going
to point these things out to us. First of all, I want you
to notice in verse five that the congregation, The congregation
of the children of Israel provided the two kids of goats for a sin
offering. And he shall take, now notice,
of the children of the congregation of the children of Israel, two
kids of the goats for a sin offering. Two goats, yes, but the point
I'm trying, I want to make is the goats were provided by the
congregation of the children of Israel. The priest, the high
priest or any of the other priests, they didn't provide these goats.
No, they were provided by the congregation. And I see in this
that the goat who was symbolically to be slaughtered and his blood
shed to make an atonement was taken from the congregation. And this pictures to us that
the Lord Jesus Christ, who made the atonement, was taken from
among men. There's a verse in the Psalms
which tells us, I have chosen one out of the people. He had to be a man. I guess that's
the point I want to bring across to us tonight. It was a man who
had offended God's justice. That is your father, my father,
Adam. It was a man who did that. He
offended God's justice. He sinned against God. And it's
needful that a man satisfy God's justice. An angel couldn't do
this. An angel, the nature of an angel.
It had to be one with the same nature. that had offended God's
justice who would satisfy God's justice. That's the reason we
read the Lord Jesus Christ was made of a woman. He's a seed of the woman, but
he's truly a man. But by being the seed of the
woman, all of us here tonight, we are the seed of some man,
our father, our fathers rather. We are his seeds. Only the Lord
Jesus Christ is the seed of a woman. God did something one time, something
extraordinary, right? That he should be the seed of
a woman, that he should be the son of a virgin. And why was
that necessary? Because if he'd been the seed
of some man, then he too would have been sinful. He too would
have been represented by Adam and inherited the sin of Adam
like all of us do. But no, by being made the seed
of the woman, that's the reason in Hebrews the apostle Paul said
he's holy, undefiled, separate. Separate from sinners. Being
the seed of the woman, separate from, a man, yes, fully a man,
the congregation would provide these two kids, but he was separate
from sinners. He had a nature that was holy
and pure by being the seed of the woman. He was not in the
covenant that God made with Adam because he was the seed of the
woman. He did not partake of Adam's
transgression. We have a savior tonight. A Savior who had no sin, who
did no sin, who knew no sin, and yet he was made sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The second thing
I'd point out is the two goats were taken from the congregation. They were brought to Aaron and
the goat upon which lots were cast. And you know the whole
disposing is of the Lord. The lots, however they cast lots,
I don't know how they did it, but I know this, that every year
the lot, the goat that God chose, the lot fell upon him to be the
Lord's goat, the Lord's lamb. Sacrifice and the other goat
would be the scapegoat every year. It didn't happen by accident.
We think the casting of lots is all accidental, but it's not. It's not. God determines the
casting of the lots. If you had a pair of dice, let
me see if I can illustrate this. If you had a pair of dice and
you shake them up and throw them, and they come up, let's just
say three, one is a three and one is a four, seven. That's
supposed to be good, I believe. I'm not really familiar with
that. But anyway, if you could imitate the same thing again,
The dice in the same hand and the same force and the same shaking
and everything, just like it was that time, and you throw
them, you would come up with a four and a three. Now that's
just so. If everything's the same, nothing
different. There's no such thing as luck. Look, that's something man has
come up with, right, who denies the providence of God. No, the casting of the lot, it's
all of the Lord. But the goat upon which the Lord's
lot fell was under the hand of the appointed priest. Notice
that in verse eight, under the hand of the appointed priest,
Aaron. He's a high priest and Aaron
shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and
the other lot for the scapegoat. It wasn't just anyone who did
this. It was the man that God appointed. It was, in this case, he being
the first high priest, the first time they observed this ordinance,
it was Aaron. He was a man that God appointed
him. In Hebrews, again, I quote from
Hebrews, the apostle said, no man taketh this honor unto himself. Man didn't just wake up one day
and say, I'd like to be the high priest. I'd like to put on that
beautiful garment. No, no man taketh this honor
unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. Well, what about Christ? He came from the tribe of Judah.
The priest came from the tribe of Levi, from the family of Aaron. How did he become a priest? By
an oath. By an oath. Thou art a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. No, he didn't become a priest
by being a Levite and being of the family of Aaron. He didn't
glorify himself. to become a priest. Christ glorified
not himself to be made a high priest, but he that said unto
him, Thou art my son, said also, Thou art a priest forever. Now the third thing, the goat
must die and its blood carried within the veil. Notice that
in verse 15. Here's the third thing I point
out to us. about this work on this day,
then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering that is for
the people and bring his blood within the veil. Bring his blood
within the veil. Now, it occurred to me this past
week that something was presented before the blood was carried
in there. Something was presented. You
say, what was it? Well, if you look back to verse
12, this was the third time that Aaron had entered in to the most
holy place on this day. When he carried the blood of
that goat and presented it there before the mercy seat, this was
his third time in behind the veil. What did he do the first
time he went into the veil? He took incense and live coals
from off the altar, the brazen altar. And he went back behind
the veil, and he put those coals down, I assume, in some kind
of, they were in a container of some kind, and he put the
incense on those coals, and the incense, the smoke covered, it
filled that whole place. And they tell us, the Jews tell
us, that the priest then, he backed sideways out. He was not
to look upon the shekinah. Remember, God dwelt between the
cherubim above the mercy seat. And so before he ever went in
there, that sweet, it was sweet incense, you know. And what does
that tell us? I believe it tells us of the
life of the Lord Jesus Christ. His life in this world before
he ever offered himself as a sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. His
life as he went about, the scripture says, doing good. And you think of the Savior. Every person that came to him,
no matter what sickness it was, the Lord Jesus Christ cured them,
cast out demons, cleansed lepers, healed lepers. He went about doing good. And
I believe that's pictured to us in that sweet incense that
filled that place before the high priest ever brought the
blood of the goat in there. He had taken the blood of a bullock
in, that was his second time in, but that was for his own
sins. Christ had no sin. He didn't
have to offer a sacrifice for himself. But the priest went
in the third time, and that place is filled with smoke from the
incense. And then he offered the blood,
as he had offered the blood of the bullock. His perfect life
of righteousness. Righteousness. And doesn't it
thrill you tonight to know that his righteousness is your righteousness,
if you believe? all of his goodness, all of his
obedience to God, his Father. That's your obedience. That's
your righteousness. You are accepted in the beloved,
in Christ, and in Christ only. And then I want to notice four
in verse 16, how that atonement was made for the holy place.
He shall make an atonement for the holy place, notice, because
of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their
transgressions and all their sins. And so shall he do for
the tabernacle of the congregation that remaineth among them in
the midst of their uncleanness. You know, everything that we
do. Because we are sinners. Everything that we do has sin
somehow mixed with it. So that even our praying and
our singing and our preaching and our reading the word of God
is all tainted because of who we are and what we are. Paul said, I know that in my
flesh dwelleth no good thing, nothing. made an atonement, a
covering to cleanse us so that our service might be accepted.
And then fifth, the live goat was part. He had
a part, didn't he? You ever notice that? We saw
that when they brought those two goats, they were going to
make one, not two, but one set off. It took both goats, didn't
it? It took both goats to show the perfection and the completeness
of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look in
verse 21 and verse 22, and Aaron shall lay both his hands,
this is after he's taken the blood of the goat, the Lord's
goat, into the holy place, he comes back out, and when he hath
made an end of 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 unto a land not inhabited and he shall
let go the goat in the wilderness. To show the result of the blood
atonement, the efficacy of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
to remove sin, it was necessary to have this second goat. And a man was chosen to take
that goat and lead him out. lead him out of the congregation,
lead him out of the camp, lead him out into no man's land, so
to speak, and let him go. And so the people, as they observed
that day, they would see that goat going a little bit further. Man, I can barely see him out
there. And before long, I can't see
him. I can't see him. And that's the
way the Lord removes sin from his people as far as the east
is from the west. So that he proclaims their sins
and their iniquities, I will remember no more. No more. Now the two last things that
I mentioned. In verse 29, on this day, men
were to do no work at all. Nobody was to do any work this
day. Not cutting any firewood or drawing
any water. No work is to be done on this
day. What does that show us? It tells us that none but Jesus
saves by his perfect work. It's not Jesus and baptism. It's not Jesus and the Lord's
table. It's not Jesus plus the best
creed that any man have ever came up with, ever come up with,
rather. My faith, we sing this hymn,
my faith hath found a resting place, not in device nor creed. I trust the ever-living one is
wounds for me to bleed. It's Christ and Christ alone.
No man is to do any work on this day. And the second thing is,
it was to be a Sabbath. Notice in verse 31, you see,
it was the 10th day of the seventh month. Wouldn't always be the
same day of the week, would it? No. But on the day of atonement,
it would always be a Sabbath. Verse 31, and it shall be a Sabbath
of rest unto you. Rest. Christ is our Sabbath,
isn't he? Christ is our Sabbath. Where
do you find rest for your soul? Only in Christ. He said, Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Laboring because of a sense of
need, a sense of sin, dishonoring God, whatever it is that causes
your conscience to be burdened down, loaded down. Come unto
me, Jesus said. Who but a God man could say that? Who could say that? Anyone and
everyone, if you're laboring and heavy laden, no matter where,
when, come unto me. And I will, and I might, perhaps,
oh no, come unto me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy. For I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy
and my burden is light. Rest, rest only in Christ. Only in him do we find rest for
our souls. Well, I pray the Lord would bless,
and I encourage you to read through this chapter, chapter 16 of Leviticus. What a beautiful type and picture. There's so many other things
that I didn't even try to bring out to us that picture to us
Christ and his so great salvation.