So let's turn in our Bibles today
to Leviticus chapter 16. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus chapter
16. I want to speak to us this morning
on the Day of Atonement. Those of us who are familiar
with the Word of God know that from the very beginning, that
is, from the days of Adam and Eve, there has only been one
gospel, one gospel given to save God's chosen sinners. In the
Old Testament, the gospel was revealed in types and shadows
and pictures. And in this chapter, we have
one of the greatest of the Old Testament types, the great day
of atonement. The word atonement sometimes
is broken down into three parts to help us to understand. Atonement,
it's broken down to three parts, at, one, ment. at one man. It speaks of how men who, because
of sin, because of our sins, are rendered enemies of God,
how that we may be reconciled to God, be at one with God. Now the word atonement itself
literally means to cover, to cover. We think of the verse
in Psalm 32 in verse 1 where the psalmist said, blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. In other
words, the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ so covered
the sins of God's people that our transgressions are forgiven. Now, let's look in this chapter,
as I said, it's one of the great types in the Old Testament of
the atoning work of Christ, and I cannot cover everything today,
but I have a few points I want to make. My first point is this. If you look in verse 34, God
ordained that there be one day of atonement in the year. God ordained that there be one
day of atonement in the year. In verse 34 we read, this shall
be an everlasting statute unto you to make an atonement for
the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. Once a year. God ordained that
there be one day of atonement in each year. And it was to be
on the tenth day of the seventh month, if you 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 sojourneth among you. But the point is,
God ordained that there be one day of atonement. And this in
itself, this in itself teaches this great truth that there's
only one atonement that reconciles men to God. Now, a year is a
complete period of time. And we know in all time, that
is, from the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth
until the end of time, when time shall be no more, And the scriptures
tell us that's going to happen. That's going to happen. There's
going to come a day when time shall be no more. God created
time. There is no time with God. He's
immutable. It's all now. But in this great
expanse of time, from the beginning until the end, God has ordained
that there be one day of atonement, one time when the atonement of
his people should be made. Now in the New Testament, the
letter of Hebrews, the letter of Hebrews explains these Old Testament
types, especially the type of the tabernacle, the priesthood
and the sacrifices and everything that had to do with the law of
Moses, the covenant that God made with Israel. The letter
of Hebrews explains these Old Testament types or shows how
they pictured the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I said
here, God ordained that there be one day of atonement in the
year. So in the New Testament we read,
and this is in Hebrews 9 and verse 26, now once I get that word once, not twice,
not 10 times, now once in the end of the world, that Jewish
world, now once in the end of the world, hath he appeared,
who? Christ, hath he appeared to put
away sin, how? By the sacrifice of himself. Once, once, just as there was
one day in the year for the great day of atonement, so there's
one real atoning day, and that is through the work of Christ.
Also in Hebrews 10 and verse 12, the apostle wrote, but this
man, after he had offered, how many sacrifices? There were many
sacrifices in the Old Testament, wasn't there? Many sacrifices. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, sat down on the right hand of God. And
the fact that he tells us that he sat down tells us the work
was finished. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ
cried on the cross that day he was crucified, he said, it is
finished. One day, God ordained that there
be one day of atonement and God has through one atoning sacrifice
forever put away the sins of his people. The second thing
is God ordained that the high priest do the work of atonement. Let's look in verses three and
four here in Leviticus 16. God ordained that the high priest
do the work of atonement. Thus shall Aaron come into the
holy place. Aaron, the high priest, with
a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering,
He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen
breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with the linen
girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired. These are
holy garments, therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and
so put them on. All the work, and there's many
sacrifices that are going to be offered on this day, but all
the work, all of it, is to be done, to be accomplished by one
man. There were many priests in the
household of Aaron, but he was a high priest. This is the work
of the high priest and the high priest alone. Just as there was
one atonement that reconciles men to God, so there is only
one high priest who makes the atonement. Think of that. There's only one
sacrifice to make the atonement, and there's only one high priest
to make that sacrifice. He's to do all the work. And
we should notice these two truths here. The typical high priest,
Aaron, he was a sinful man. He was a man just like you and
just like me. He was conceived in sin, shapen
in iniquity. God chose him to be the first
high priest when God gave the law. But he was a man just like
you and I. He was a sinful man. And so when
he does, now he's a typical, he's a typical high priest. He's
typical of the great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. But this
man Aaron, he was guilty of sin. So the first thing he has to
do, he has to offer a bullock. He has to sacrifice a bullet,
shed the blood of a bullet, not for the sins of the nation of
Israel now, no, but for his own sins, for his own sins. He must take a bullet and a ram,
the scripture says. The typical high priest, number
two, the typical high priest, Aaron, on this day had to lay
aside his golden robes. You could easily miss this, but
the high priest, his robes were made for beauty and for glory. That's what God told Moses. He
said, I want you to, he didn't say I want, he said, you're going
to make these robes for the high priest and they're going to serve
for two purposes. They're going to be for glory,
for beauty and glory. That's what they're going to
serve for. And they were glorious. Gold, gold. And so the Jews, they referred
to these robes as golden robes because there was so much gold
involved. He had a gold plate on his head,
the matra. And it was attached to his head
by a blue ribbon. And on that plaque of gold was
written, holiness to the Lord, holiness to the Lord. And then,
of course, he had an ephod that was woven with tiny strings of
gold in it. And all of those 12 stones, those
precious stones which represented the 12 tribes of Israel, on each
one of those stones he wore it on his breastplate. They were
connected there with ouches of gold. And then around the hem
of his garment, there were bells. There were bells that were made
of gold. As I said, the Jews referred
to these garments as his golden garments. But on this day, they're
all put aside. They're all put aside. This day,
he was to be dressed all in linen. Linen breeches, a linen coat,
a linen matra. Who cannot fail to see this as
our great high priest, the son of God, who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but took upon him the form of a servant. Who cannot see in the priest
laying aside these beautiful, glorious, golden garments to
wear some plain, plain garments, linen garments, a pitcher of
the Lord, the eternal son of God, who came into this world. He laid aside his glory. He didn't
cease to be God. He didn't lay aside any one of
his attributes. He's God of gods, but he became
a man, joined that body that was prepared him of the Virgin
Mary to his eternal deity. He laid aside, but he was in
this world as a man, in the likeness. In fact, Paul tells us in Romans,
he came in the likeness of sinful man. I know the artist, especially
in the Middle Ages, they couldn't paint any pictures except they'd
be religious pictures, and they painted a whole lot of religious
pictures, and most of them are worth burning, that's about it.
But they would paint a glory around the head or over the head
of Christ in many of those pictures, those drawings, those paintings.
He didn't have any of that. In fact, the Pharisees, they
said, we know who he is. His brothers are here. He was
the son of Mary. He laid aside his glory. Get
that, get that. Our great high priest, our savior. Oh, what he did. How he humbled
himself to become our savior. Why do we love him so? Because
he loved us so much. Right? Right? We don't talk about him like
he was just any person, no. He's the son of God who laid
aside his glory and came into this world as a man, just like
this priest. It was pictured in this priest
laying aside his golden garments to be dressed in linen garments. But remember this, in Revelation,
the righteousness of the saints is spoken of as being clothed
with linen, linen. And so even though the priest
was dressed in linen, the Lord Jesus Christ, he came as a man,
but he was that holy man, that man who was nothing but righteousness. You know, in that letter of Hebrews,
the apostle who wrote that, he said this about him, about our
high priest, He's holy. The angels worshiped him. Holy, holy, holy. He's holy. He's harmless. The scriptures speak about him
not even bruising a reed, a broken reed. You say, what is that picture?
It pictures his love for sinners. No matter how weighted down you
may be because of your sin, Christ, he'll receive you. He came into this world because
he loved sinners. He's separate, he's undefiled,
holy, harmless, undefiled. Which of you convinces me of
sin, he said. And no one did, no one could.
He had no sin, he did no sin, in him was no sin at all. He had to be holy to be an acceptable
sacrifice. But then the apostle also says
he was separate from sinners. holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners. You say, well, what does that
mean? He received sinners? Absolutely. What does it mean
he was separate from sinners? The way he was born in this world,
that is being the seed of the woman and not the seed of a man
like all of us are. He was separate from sinners. He was a man, fully man, as fully
God, but yet he had no sin. He was holy. He was harmless,
made higher than the heavens. Third, God ordained that the atonement
be pictured by two goats. Notice these verses here in chapter
16. God ordained that the atonement, the atonement the Lord Jesus
Christ would later offer, that it be pictured, this is how God
preached the gospel in that day, that it be pictured by two goats. Notice verse five and then we'll
skip down to verse seven. And he shall take of the congregation
of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering
and one ram for a burn offering. Then down to 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, one lot for the Lord and
the other lot for the scapegoat. I say that the atonement was
pictured by the two goats, and that's all it was. That's all
it did, it pictured, as the apostle in Hebrews 10 said, for we know
that it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should
take away sins. The blood of this goat, the sacrifice,
didn't remove any sin, but it did picture how God would take
away sin, how sin would be atoned. Now I named these two goats.
This past week as I was reading this, I thought, well, I'm gonna
name these two goats. And one goat I'm naming Method. Not Methodist, but Method. This one goat, his name is Method. And the other goat, I'm going
to name Result. His name is Result. So we've
got Method and Result here. Two goats in the hand of the
high priest. Now Aaron, the high priest, there
was a kind of a ritual, really, if you read about it, how they
cast lots. But you know, when you cast lots,
when you roll dice, it seems like it is common or by chance,
by chance the way those numbers turn up there. But we know with
God, there is no chance. And every time, every year, when
this lot fell upon one goat, It wasn't by chance the Lord
Jesus Christ was made the sacrifice for sin. It was by God's determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's what Peter says on
the day of Pentecost, isn't it? Yes. God's determinate counsel. God purposed this way before
the foundation of the world. He's a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. But I call the goat on which
the Lord's lot fell method. For in him, for in this goat,
we see God's method of atoning for sin. Look down to verse 15. In this one goat, we see God's
method of atoning for sin. And God's method for atoning
for sin is through blood. Then shall he kill the goat of
the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood. God's method of atoning for sin
is through blood. Now the Old Testament types declare
this, as well as the New Testament declare this same truth. You
go back to the Garden of Eden. Just as soon as sin entered into
this world, And God, we know, prepared coats. He clothed Adam
and Eve with the coats of skin. Where did that come from? And
how do you get a skin from an animal without the shedding of
blood? You don't. No, from the very
beginning, an able who offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.
That sacrifice was a blood sacrifice. And when the children of Israel
came out of Egypt, when God delivered them, God said, when I see the
blood, He was not passing over Egypt
that night looking to anyone's credentials or anyone's education
or anyone's, the things that men have to distinguish us one
from another, a father, a mother. No, no. God said, when I see
the blood, I will pass over thee. I've given thee the blood. in
Leviticus for an atonement. This has been God's method. This
goat's named Method because this has been God's method from old
into the New Testament when the Lord Jesus Christ said, this
is my blood. And he didn't have a glass of
blood there in his hand. He had a glass of wine, didn't
he? But he said, this is my blood,
it represents my blood, which is shed for the remission of
sins. Of many, yes, shed for the redemption. In Ephesians 1, in verse 7, Paul
said, in whom we have redemption. How, Paul? How does anyone have
redemption? Through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. I know people say, well, that's
a bloody religion. It is. It is. This has been God's method from
the very beginning, because you see, the life of the flesh is
in the blood. And when blood is shed, life
is sacrificed. Life is laid down. I love that verse in Revelation
where the Lord Jesus Christ, it is said of him who loved us,
and washed us from our sins. How? In his blood. In his blood. God's method of
atonement is through blood, through the blood of a substitute, and
blood that satisfies God. Now, in 1 John 1, the blood of
Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. How is it possible
that the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse his people from all
sin? Because he is, first of all,
the son of God. He became man that he might die,
that he might bleed, that he might shed his blood, yes. But
it is the fact that he is God that gives efficacy to that blood. Not any blood. He said, my blood,
I couldn't save a lizard. You couldn't either. Oh, but
his blood. In fact, Acts chapter 20, it's
called the blood of God. Why? Why? God doesn't have blood. No, but the garden man did. And
he shed his blood. And then this other goat, his
name is Rizal. The result, for it is through
it that we see the result of the blood atonement. Look in
verses 21 and 22. 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. You know I've read
this many times and every time I read it I always think He wanted
to make sure everything's included, didn't he? I mean, look at this. Confess over him all the iniquities
of the children of Israel. Well, isn't that saying enough?
Isn't that saying enough? All the iniquities? Oh, but he
enlarges, doesn't he? He makes sure that we understand
what he means here. And all their transgressions. Not only all their iniquities,
but all their transgressions. You say, what is that? We have
transgressed the law of God. All our iniquities, all our transgressions,
and all our sins. Nothing is left out. Nothing
is not included. And what's the result? Well,
it was typically, and that's all this could be, a type, the
removal of all the iniquities of the children of Israel. There
that man, that goat, that live goat on which Aaron had laid
his hands and confessed the sins and iniquities and transgressions
of the nation of Israel, man, he takes that goat and he leads
him off and he I know people have tried to make more of that,
I think, than we should, but the picture is he took away our
sins. They're gone. No one was ever
to see this goat again. Did they kill him that day? Some
people say they did. That's not the important thing.
He may have lived out there for 10 years, but no one ever saw
him again, and the picture is When Christ died, when he shed
his blood, he removed our sins from us as far as the east is
from the west. Now, and you can't miss this,
this atonement was made for a particular people. He didn't confess the
sins and the iniquities and the transgressions of the Amorites
and the Philistines and the Canaanites and all those other ites around
there. No, he confessed the sins of
the children of Israel. The atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not limited in its sufficiency, but in God's design. God limited his atoning work
to atone for all the sins of all of his sheep. And they're
all removed, they're all taken away. Paul said, who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Now, I have just a few other
things I want to say, not long, but bear with me. I want you
to see, you shouldn't miss this, in verses 12 and 13. Before this
high priest, before he ever went into that Holy of Holies. Now
remember, in the Holy of Holies, you've got the Ark of the Covenant,
you've got the mercy seat, but more than that, you've got the
manifested presence of God. The Shekinah, they call it. The
glory. Now before he carries any blood
in there, what does he do? Well, let's read it here in verses
12 and 13. And he shall take a censer full
of 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. And he shall put the incense
upon the fire before the Lord. that the cloud of the incense
may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony. Now notice,
that he die not. That he die not. There had to
be that cloud of incense. That he did not come into the
absolute presence of God in his own person. That's what would
happen. If I, in ourselves, if we were
somehow transported right now into the presence of holy God,
what would happen to us? We'd die, that's right, we'd
die. No, to come into his presence,
there must be that blood, there must be that mediator, that one
mediator. to represent us and to bring
us to God. Now turn to Revelation 25 and
we'll close here. Revelation 25 in verse 9. You know, every 50 years there
was a year of jubilee, wasn't there? A year of jubilee. Do you know the year of jubilee,
when it started? The first day of the year of
jubilee, the day of atonement. Read it here in verse nine. Then
shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the,
notice it's the 10th day of the seventh month. Well, we read
that while ago, didn't we? That's the day of atonement,
the 10th day of the seventh month. In the day of atonement shall
you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. On this day, after this atoning
work was finished, someone, I don't know who, put his lips to that
silver trumpet and blew the trumpet. Oh, what a sound was that throughout
Israel. When that sounded, what did it
mean? It meant that every debt, every
debt of every Israelite was canceled. Just like if you owed a debt
and you paid every month and then finally you've made that
last payment and they marked it paid in full, paid in full. Blood it out! That's what happened. All the debts were canceled.
And not only that, but those who had sold themselves into
servitude, they were free. They were free. That's what the
atoning work of Jesus Christ does for his people. It cancels our sin debt. God
will never remember it again. And it loses us. We come into
this world, we're servants of sin. He came to save his people
from their sins. He saves us from the penalty
of our sins, which is eternal separation from God in hell. And he saves us from the power
of sin. He gives us a new nature. We
begin to live for Christ. We have power. Doesn't mean we're
sinless, I understand that. But it does mean we live a new
life and we mortify the deeds of the flesh, that old nature. And one day we'll be saved from
the very presence of sin. We'll be in his presence forever. I pray. My prayer this morning is that
this truth, this glorious truth, right?