If you will, let us open our
Bibles to the book of Leviticus. I'm introducing my message again
today with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as they are recorded
in John chapter five. words which he spoke to the religious
leaders of the nation of Israel. Had you believed Moses, you would
have believed me, for he wrote of me. These men to whom he spoke
those words are the same men who we read in John chapter nine
reviled that man who was born blind, to whom the Lord gave
sight. They told him, we are Moses'
disciples. And the Lord said of them that
they sit in Moses' seat. When Philip, one of the first
disciples of our Lord that he called, found his brother Nathanael,
he said, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the
prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth. They sat in Moses'
seat, that's true, but had they believed Moses, they had the
words of Moses, but had they believed Moses, they would have
believed Christ, for he, Moses, wrote of Christ. Now we know
he wrote the first five books of the Bible, and so far we have
looked once at Christ in Genesis, and last time in Exodus, and
today in Leviticus. But I want to share something
with you from one of the old writers in his commentary on
this book, and I quote, it is generally agreed that the delivery
and arrangement of this Levitical system as contained in this book,
that is the book of Leviticus, occupied about a month. 40 days had been previously occupied
in directing Moses how to make the tabernacle. Here, at least
30 more are added in directing him to arrange its services,
and yet, Only six days were employed in the great work of creation. This at first may seem a little
strange, and yet it is suggestive of important truth. Redemption
is the most glorious of God's works and is deserving of the
most attention. It is of more consequence for
man to have his sins forgiven and his soul saved than to have
a fine world to die in and be lost forever. It is more important
for us to understand the laws of grace than the laws of nature. God has devoted only six days
and two chapters of his word to the one whilst he has devoted
a multitude of days and more than 50 or 500 chapters to the
other." What a tremendous statement, right? God devoted two chapters
to tell us about his creating the world, his work of creation.
50 or 500 more chapters speaking
about his glorious work of redemption. Again, as in the two previous
books, I've passed over a number of places and a number of subjects
that speak of Christ. I thought about the offerings
which are mentioned first in this book of Leviticus, the various
feasts that are mentioned. All of these speak of Christ
and His work. But I settled on chapter 16,
if you will, Leviticus chapter 16. And in this chapter, we have
the account of the great day of atonement. I want you to notice these three
things before we look at the type itself. First of all, in
verse 29, the day of atonement was in the month,
the seventh month. Notice in verse 29, and this
shall be a statute forever unto you, that in the seventh month
on the 10th day of the month. Now, in the scriptures, the number
seven is a symbol of completeness, completeness. So this at least,
the fact that this great day of atonement was in the seventh
month of the year, this at least suggests to us what the Apostle
Paul wrote in the letter of Galatians, when the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman to redeem
them that were under the law. God had providentially been preparing
the world for the coming of His Son to take away our sins. And in the completeness of the
time, the fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son made of
a woman. In the completeness of the time,
the Lord Jesus Christ appeared. A second thing, if you notice
back in verse two, Here in Leviticus chapter 16, in verse 2, the day
of atonement was once in a year. 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. Aaron, the high priest, was not
to come at all times, this verse tells us, tell thy brother Aaron,
who was the first high priest, that he come not at all times
into the holy place. And in the letter of Hebrews,
of course, we read that into the second went the high priest
once every year. So the great day of atonement
was in the seventh month, and it was only one time in a year. Now a year is a complete, a full
period of time. There's no day, there's no month
that is not included in one year. Everything falls into one year. And this very plainly pointed
to the truth that is also recorded in Hebrews chapter 9. Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many. There's no need. There's no need, nor will it
ever happen again. There's no need of repetition. of the sacrifice that is the
Lord Jesus Christ, His one sacrifice for the sins of the many. There were common sacrifices
every day. There were two lambs which were
slain. There were special sacrifices all through the year, every day
of the year. And these sacrifices only only
serve to show us that we continually need to be cleansed and washed
from our sins. As we go through this world,
there's not a day passes that we do not need to pray, forgive
us our debts as we forgive those who trespass against us. Because
there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth
not. So there were sacrifices, yes,
all through the years, day by day, but they only served to
remind us as our Lord did by washing His disciples' feet. He said, you're clean every whit,
but they needed their feet to be washed. And as we go through
this world day by day, there's not a day that passes by that
we do not in some way offend, that we do not in some way sin
against God. They're sins of ignorance. They're
sins of ignorance. Many times, no doubt, we are
guilty. We don't even know of our sin. And yet we are promised and told
that if we confess our sins, that he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But there was one day, one day
in the year when this great day, this atonement was brought out. And that was on the 10th day
of the 7th month. Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ
was hanging upon the cross, some of his last words were, it is
finished. You know there are religions
and some of them call themselves Christian religions. And yet
they continue to offer what they call sacrifices for sin. They may call it an unbloody
sacrifice, but still they say it is a sacrifice for sin. Know that there was one day in
the year of atonement, And there was one time when the Lord Jesus
Christ was offered and He put away the sins of His people. He did that. He accomplished
that all by Himself. And that's the next thing I want
to point out. The Day of Atonement, the high
priest went in there alone. And I want you to notice in verse
33 that this Day of Atonement had respect to it. a definite
people. Verse 33, we read, And he shall
make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make
an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for
the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priest,
and for all the people of the congregation. Now this great
day of atonement, the high priest, his work is to make an atonement. But this atonement was made for
a definite group of people. There were these nations that
we find in the scriptures, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the
Philistines, and there are many other nations that are mentioned
in the word of God. Gentile nations. But this atonement
was made for a definite group of people. The congregation,
the priest, yes. The priest of Israel, the Levites,
yes. And also for the congregation. It wasn't made for the whole
world. This was a picture of the fact that the Lord Jesus
Christ, He gave His life, the scripture says, for the many.
the many that God had given unto Him. In Isaiah chapter 53, a
prophecy that speaks of the Savior, we're told that He shall see
of the travail of His soul and He shall be satisfied. And that is, of course, speaking
of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, making an atonement for
His covenant people, those who were given unto Him and that
everlasting covenant of grace, just as this pictured that, this
great day of atonement. So there's three things. First
of all, it was in the seventh month, it was once a year, and
it had respect to a definite people. Now, let's look at the
type itself. First, the high priest on the
day of atonement. And here are two things that
I want us to consider. The high priest on this day,
he had to divest himself of all the glory and all the beauty
that usually accompanied him. In Exodus chapter 28 in verse
two, God told Moses, thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron
thy brother And these holy garments, God told Moses, are for glory
and for beauty. And so every day of the year,
except this day, you've got this man, Aaron, the first high priest,
but then his son and so on and so forth, until that passed away
by the coming of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But he was dressed in such a way that he had glory and beauty,
but on this day, he had to take those beautiful robes off. Those robes, we know, consisted
of beautiful colors. There was blue, there was white,
there was scarlet. Those robes consisted of beautiful
stones, precious stones, 12 of them on his breast, two of them
on his shoulder. And those, that dress consisted
of gold. It was lashed together with gold,
and gold was weaving into the material even. Beautiful, beautiful
garments. But on this day, set those aside. Set those aside. I want you to
notice in verse 4, here in chapter 16. 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 the linen matra shall he be attired. These are
holy garments. Now, there was a plate of gold
on Aaron's forehead also. I didn't mention that, but there
was a plate of gold upon his forehead. So here's the type. Here's a high priest. And he's
dressed in these garments of beauty and glory. But on the
day that he's going to make atonement, that has to be put aside and
he has to be dressed in very simple white linen breeches and
a coat and a mantra upon his head. What does that remind us
of? What is that a picture of? What
is that a type of? Well, certainly it is a type
of the eternal Son of God who, we can't put any time on this
because it's from eternity, who had always shared in the glory,
whatever that glory is, the glory of the Father from the time that The angels
were created, he had the glory and the praise of the angels. But the glory of the Father,
he shared in because he is the eternal Son of God, one with
the Father and one with God the Holy Spirit. But in the fullness
of the time, in God's time, he had to veil that glory. He veiled
that glory. And he came into this world,
the scripture says, in the form of a servant. In the form of
a servant. He laid aside that beauty, that
glory, that had always been his from old eternity. And the scripture
says, though he was rich, yet for your sakes, speaking to the
believers there at Corinth, though he was rich, Yet for your sakes,
he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. Now, as I said, Aaron had that
plate of gold on his head when he had the beautiful garments
on. And even when he dressed in the
linen, he had the linen matra upon his head. The Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world And men crowned him with a crown
of thorns. Crowned God's dear son, his holy
one, with a crown of thorns. We see in this type how that
the Lord Jesus Christ, like Aaron on this day, had to dress in
simple linen garments. Now, linen, white linen, is also
used as a type of righteousness. The righteousness of the saints
is referred to as white linen garment in the book of Revelation. So the Lord Jesus Christ, though
the high priest, now he dressed in this white linen. The Lord
Jesus Christ, even though he laid aside his glory and all
his life, we might say he was dressed in white linen because
he was always righteous, always. He was always the holy son of
God. And then in verse 17, the high
priest, he had to do this work alone. Verse 17 says, and there shall
be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth
in to make an atonement in the holy place. No one could help
him. Now, many of the writers believe
that on this day, the great day of atonement, the high priest
had to do everything. That lamb that was slain in the
morning, he had to do everything this day. Every work that involved
the priesthood fell upon the high priest on this particular
day. But we do know that he alone
could go into the most holy place to make an atonement. Everything
in regard to making this atonement was the work that fell upon the
high priest. He must do it all alone. Now,
when you think about it, this was not an easy work. The animals
that the blood was offered had to be killed. and their bodies
had to be prepared for sacrifice. This was the work that the high
priest had to do. He had to slay the animals, the
burning of the incense, he had to take care of that. He had
to carry the blood in a basin or something of that nature into
the most holy place to sprinkle upon the mercy seat and before
the mercy seat. In other words, all of the work
All of the work in making this atonement was the work of the
high priest. He had other priests there normally
who would do most of this work except on the day of atonement.
They would be the ones who would be slaying the animals and offering
the blood and burning the sacrifices and burning the incense. But
no, on this day, all this work fell upon him. And who does not
recognize what a type this is of the Lord Jesus Christ? The work of atonement for our
sins was the work of Christ alone. It was his work alone. Sometimes
you read or hear in the news they speak about someone making
atonement or some group making an atonement for past transgression. The only one who was able to
make atonement for sin, that is to cover sin, to put sin away,
is our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. If your sins,
if my sins, are ever going to be put away, they're not going
to be put away by anything that we do, or anything that any other
man does for us. They're going to be put away
by Him alone. He's the only mediator between
God and men, the only great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the one who must do this work alone. You know, I've seen
people crawl on their knees. Cutting their knees on stones
and and coming up to some idol or to pray and and to do something
burning candles and all of the other rituals and and Ceremonies
that men have come up with just like those false prophets of
Baal that day that that faced Elijah when they cried unto Baal
and And when that didn't work, Baal didn't answer, they cut
themselves. They did everything they could
to try to get Baal to answer by fire. But God answered by
fire when his prophet Elijah, whom God had told to do this
very thing, obeyed God. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
our high priest. He is the one who made this atonement. You know, the scripture says
in Isaiah, I looked and there was none to help. There was none
to help. His own arm brought salvation. The apostle Peter wrote, he bore
our sins in his own body on the tree. And I want to impress you
this morning with this thought. Have you ever been alone? Have
you ever felt like you were alone? whatever the problem was, whatever
the situation was. Well, I'm here to tell you this
morning there was never anyone so alone as Jesus Christ. Of all the peoples, millions
of people who've ever lived on the face of God's earth, no one
has ever been alone like he was alone when he was bearing the
sins of his people. In Isaiah 62, we read, wherefore
art thou red in thine apparel? What's this thing? You're red. You're red in your apparel. What
is this? It looks like your garments are
those who've been in the wine fat. Have you ever seen pictures
probably of those people in some countries where they put the
grapes in the container and then they get in there and they mash
those grapes and that juice comes out of the grapes and splashes
up on them. That's the picture here. Wherefore
art thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like him that
treadeth in the wine fat? And here's his answer. I have
trodden the wine press alone and the people there was none
with me. The high priest on this day,
it was his work. He was the only one allowed into
that holy place, the most holy place. All the work fell upon
him. He was alone. And I don't know
of any other thing that we find here any more important than
the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was alone in putting away
the sins of his people. You can't help. Nothing you could
do to put away your sin. Everything that you would try
to do, God would not accept. The Lord Jesus Christ was alone,
just as this high priest. That's what the type is. That's
the whole picture. Moses wrote of me, Christ said. And he wrote of him in these
Old Testament books through Types, many times, of types. Now, I
want you to look at the actual atonement. You might miss this
if you're not careful. Now, first of all, in verse 11,
we're told that Aaron, the high priest, he had to take the blood
of a bullock in first. And Aaron shall bring the bullock
of the sin offering, and notice, which is for himself. So the
first time he's going to go into that most holy place, he's going
to take blood, but this time it's the blood of a bullock.
And the atonement he's going to make this time is for himself,
for his own sin. And that has to be done first
before he brings in the blood to make the atonement for the
people. Now, our great high priest, he
had no sin. He had no sin of his own. He
is the holy, harmless one. But then, if you notice in verses
seven through 10, this is where we really read about the atonement. Verse seven, and he shall take
the two goats. Now, when I was a young man,
my uncle had some goats. I tell you, those are scroungy
animals. I mean, they're dirty animals,
and They're stinky animals. That's not the type of goats
that we read about here. These goats were, they're called
Syrian goats, and they were beautiful animals. And they were animals
that many times kings would have. They were important animals. So that's the first thing that
I would point out to us. These goats, these two goats,
that are taken were not the common type of goats that we think of
and we see here in Texas. These were beautiful, beautiful
animals. And he shall take the two goats
and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation. Now there are two goats he brings,
and one of them is going to be slain, and one is going to be
the scapegoat. Now who's going to make the decision? And the congregation now, they
bring the goats. They supply the goats, the congregation
does. Just like it was a nation of
Israel that paid Judas the 30 pieces of silver. So they bring
the goats to the high priest and One of them is going to be
killed. One of them is going to be led
away. Now, who's going to decide? Any,
many, many? No, no. He's going to cast lots. And what's important about this
is, you know, the scriptures tell us that the casting of the
lot is of the Lord. God determined which of these
two goats was going to be killed that day. Just as Peter told
the nation of Israel on the day of Pentecost that what they had
done, they had done with their wicked hands, but it was according
to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. And God
is the one who determined before the foundation of the world who
would be the Savior and His saving work. The first thing that happens,
they determine which goat is going to be slain. 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 for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat
upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for a sin offering,
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." You see that? With Him. In other words, it
takes both of these animals. It's a picture, it's a type,
but it takes both of these animals to make this atonement. It wasn't
just the goat that was slain and the blood which was sprinkled.
that made the atonement, but it's the two goats together,
one by being slain and one by picturing the sins being carried
away. The slain goat with its blood
sprinkled typified the means of atonement. How are the sins
of God's people put away? by the blood of Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. But the live goat, called the
scapegoat here, typified the results. What were the results
of this atonement? The result was the removal of
sin. What did the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplish on the cross? And frankly, folks, I hear people
who say they're preaching the gospel and you listen to them
and all they tell people is that he did something. He did something. And now if you will add your
part, you'll be saved. What did he accomplish there
on the cross? Did he by himself put away the
sins of his people, or did he only make it possible? Well, when that high priest came
out and he laid his hands upon the live goat's head, he confessed
all the sins, all the iniquities, all the transgressions of the
children of Israel, and a fit man led the goat away. that goat was never to be seen
again. In other words, when the Lord
Jesus Christ died on the cross, he put away the sins of his people. They are removed from his people
as far as the east is from the west. And God has declared, I
will remember them no more. The scapegoat was never to be
seen again. So he has removed our sins as
far as the east is from the west. I want to close by pointing out
one verse in the New Testament, Romans chapter five and verse
11. The great day of atonement. Moses
wrote of Christ and he did so in this type that we've looked at here this
morning. But here in Romans chapter five and in the King James translation
of the scripture, this is the only place where we have the
English word atonement. Romans chapter five and verse
11. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom We have received
the atonement. If you have a marginal reading,
you see that that word is reconciliation. But I ask you this morning, have
you received, have you received and confessed the Lord Jesus
Christ as your atoning sacrifice? Have you? Have you received the
atonement? Have you been reconciled unto
God? You know, in 2 Corinthians 5,
the Apostle Paul says, we beseech you, for Christ's sake, be ye
reconciled unto God. Be reconciled unto God. Throw
down your arms. Stack your arms. That's the way
the preacher used it. Stack your arms. Run up the white
flag. And surrender. to the claims
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Be ye reconciled and quit fighting
against God. That's what it comes down to,
doesn't it? And receive him. To as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
which believed on his name. And if you have received him,
confess him, follow him in baptism, identify with Christ and with
his gospel and with his people. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
this message to all of us here today. I want us to turn to hymn
number 201. We'll sing this hymn and then
we will be dismissed.