[0:00] It's kind of lengthy, it's 34 verses, but I think we need to read it in its entirety, so we'll see Leviticus 16 tonight. It says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron.
[0:11] When they had approached the presence of the Lord and died, the Lord said to Moses, Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die.
[0:24] For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. Aaron shall enter the holy place with this, with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body, and he shall be girded with a linen sash and attired with a linen turban.
[0:43] These are holy garments. Then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on. He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.
[0:55] Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household. He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the doorway of the tent of meeting.
[1:07] And Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell and make it a sin offering.
[1:18] But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. Then Aaron shall offer the bull the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his household.
[1:34] And he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. He shall take a fire pan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense and bring it inside the veil.
[1:50] And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony. Otherwise, he will die. Moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side.
[2:06] And also in front of the mercy seat, he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in the front of the mercy seat.
[2:24] He shall make atonement for the holy place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins. And thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities.
[2:36] When he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel.
[2:48] Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar on all sides. With his finger he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it seven times and cleanse it from the impurities of the sons of Israel, the sons of Israel, consecrate it.
[3:08] When he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins.
[3:24] And he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
[3:38] Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the holy place and shall leave them there. He shall bathe his body with water in a holy place and put on his clothes and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people.
[3:55] Then he shall offer up and smoke the fat of the sin offering on the altar. The one who released the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water. Then afterward he shall come into the camp.
[4:07] But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place shall be taken outside the camp and they shall burn their hides, their flesh and their refuse in the fire.
[4:20] Then the one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water. Then afterward he shall come into the camp. This shall be a permanent statute for you. In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native or the alien who sojourns among you.
[4:38] For it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you. You will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you that you may humble your souls.
[4:50] It is a permanent statute. So the priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest in his father's place shall make atonement. He shall thus put on the linen garments, the holy garments, and make atonement for the holy sanctuary.
[5:03] And he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. He shall also make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. Now you shall have this as a permanent statute to make atonement for the sons of Israel for all their sins once every year, just as the Lord has commanded Moses, so he did.
[5:22] The day of atonement. We have been looking at the reality of much of, not much of, all of the Old Testament types are pointing to one person, and that is Jesus Christ.
[5:35] That each one of the sacrifices, the five specific sacrifices introduced to us in the first pages of Leviticus, find their ultimate fulfillment in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. And each one of the pictures of this Levitical law that we have recorded for us in the book of Leviticus find their ultimate perfection and completion in the person of Jesus Christ.
[5:55] There is no better picture of the work of Christ than the day of atonement. And it truly points to the completed work of Jesus Christ. As Hebrews, the book of Hebrews records for us in chapter 9 and 10, Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this day.
[6:13] This is the only time in which we find some unique pictures, and that is the picture of the scapegoat. In other places of Scripture, we do not see that, but we'll get to that in just a little bit.
[6:24] And I want you to see five things in regard to this day of atonement that ultimately are fulfilled in Christ. Five truths that God laid out for them, and it will not take us very long to go through them.
[6:36] Don't let the number scare you. But see, five truths from this day of atonement that make it unique and also show us the work of Christ. Number one, there is a specified time.
[6:48] It says here, Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they had approached the presence of the Lord and died. I cannot think of a more opportune time for God to set a standard, right?
[7:00] When Nadab and Abihu went and offered strange fire, and the fire of the Lord consumed them, and they died in his presence, God set the standard, I am holy. And then he also set this standard, You cannot come to me anytime you want to.
[7:14] I can think of no more opportune time for Moses to get this command, because surely Aaron, of all people, his ears are going to perk up, and he's going to say, Yes, I will take this serious. And what we find here is the Lord is giving a specified time, a specific day.
[7:29] It is the tenth day of the seventh month. What God is saying here is, You cannot rush headlong into my presence whenever you want. What we are dealing with inside the tabernacle was the manifest presence of God.
[7:44] Remember that? The glory of God, the Shekinah glory of God, filled the Holy of Holies, and no man could go in. No man could even go into the tabernacle, so he gave them the sacrifices that they may at least enter into the presence of the Holy Courtyard, but they could not go into the Holy of Holies, right?
[8:01] They were welcomed near him, but they were not welcomed with him. And what he is saying here is that you cannot just come to me whenever you feel like it.
[8:11] God is setting a standard. He is setting a specific time. He says that on this day, this person, and we'll get to him in just a minute, can come before me in this way. God was saying that we cannot choose when we wanted to come.
[8:26] We cannot choose exactly however we wanted to come. We had to come on this day, or the nation had to come on this day. And God was saying this to show us that he works by his divine timetable.
[8:39] God does things on time every time. We know the reality of that, right? But God also operates on a divine timetable. Timetable. We see, even in the New Testament, the scripture tells us that in the fullness of time, God offered up his son on the cross for the sins of man.
[8:56] That really, the wording there, in the fullness of times, is at the right time. If you think about historically, the time in which Christ was crucified, you cannot think of a more opportune time for these events to happen.
[9:09] Rome had paved the roads, and now saying that all roads lead to Rome was a reality. God had opened up the way of travel by sea. He had opened up the way of travel by paved roads.
[9:20] He had opened up the world, really, to worldwide empires. He had offered up, everything had come at the right time. God had a date in history pinpointed in which the sacrifice for the sins of man would be offered.
[9:34] God always operates on a specified timetable. And what he is showing us here in Leviticus 16 was that man could not come whenever they wanted.
[9:45] They only could come when God ordained. And man cannot be saved however they want to be. They must be saved how God ordains. It is a specified time. We are still trusting in that day in which Christ died on the cross of Calvary for our sins.
[10:01] That day in which atonement, it is the day of atonement, right? There is one day of atonement on the Jewish calendar. There is one day of atonement for all of the world.
[10:12] And it's amazing how Christ fulfilled all of the types of Scripture. And we've looked at the reality of it. The date and the time and all these things.
[10:23] And even how the Scripture tells us that he was crucified on the day of preparation. And the day of preparation, all four gospel accounts, by the way, say that the day he was crucified was the day of preparation.
[10:34] And the day of preparation is the day in which the Jewish people would take the lamb that they were sacrificing for the Passover and they would slay that lamb and shed his blood for the Passover that God may pass over their sin.
[10:51] On that day, Jesus hung on the cross. I know the argument is, well, then how did he have a Passover meal? How did he have a Passover meal? He had the last supper, right? And he said, well, that was a Passover meal.
[11:02] But if you read Scripture, it says that he was crucified on the day of preparation. It was a day of preparation because he is the Passover lamb. There was a specific time that God had in mind that the sins of man could be atoned for.
[11:17] And he makes it clear here that God would only allow and accept someone into his presence on this day. We have a point in history which we point back to and say that is my day of atonement.
[11:29] The Bible says now is the day of salvation. I understand that. But also that salvation rests upon a set time in which God atoned for the sins of the world.
[11:40] And that atonement is found in the personal work of Christ which leads us to the second thing. Number two, not only do we see a specified time, we see a set-aside person. We see a set-aside person.
[11:51] The thing that got Nadab and Abihu in trouble was they weren't the right people. They were the wrong people in the right place, right? They weren't the people that were supposed to be there. They knew they wanted to go into the presence of God.
[12:02] They brought strange fire. We don't know exactly what that means. They just brought an offering which God had not ordained. But they really had no right being there either. They were the wrong people in the right place. The presence of God is always the right place.
[12:14] But we cannot all just rush into that presence. And here we see that God is ordaining that Aaron would have a set day in which he alone would come into. This was a set-aside person.
[12:26] And when we read this, if you remember when we had the instructions of the priestly garments that were going to be made, how ornate Aaron's garments would have been. He would have had that gold plate on his forehead that said, Holy to the Lord.
[12:38] He would have had the breastplate, would have had the 12 stones on him with the gold chains and this flowing robe of bright colors and all these things. Well, this day, he would lay those aside.
[12:49] He would take off the flashy garments that set him apart and he would put on the plain clothes of a linen priest, right? He would have this plain linen clothes and put on to go into the presence because God was saying, Don't wear your flashy garments in my presence.
[13:02] It's almost like when Moses is before the burning bush, I love how Tony Evans says it, Take the sandals off your feet because that half inch of leather is putting you on too high of a podium to be near me, right? What he was telling Aaron was that show is to show the world you're set apart.
[13:15] I don't need you to be set apart in my presence. So Aaron was the only person who could enter on that day. Someone has said that the most holy person entered the most holy place and the most righteous sacrifice and the most holy sacrifice at the right time.
[13:28] It was a set aside person. Nobody else could do it. Only Aaron could do it. When Aaron died, the one that was high priest at that time could do it. Only one person, one time a year, could go into that place.
[13:41] And so holy was this operation in which he was doing. God says, Nobody else can even be in the tabernacle. I've told you this before and it's worth repeating that when they would put that on, they had this garment and around the garment there would be these bells around the hem of the garment, right?
[13:55] And they would tie a rope around their foot and they would walk into the holy of holies because if the bells quit ringing, the person died and nobody else could go in there to get him and if you died in there because you didn't bring the right sacrifice, they'd have to get you out, right?
[14:09] And the only way they could get you out was by pulling that rope that was tied around your ankle. They said, We can't go in there because there's a set aside person. There's only one that can make atonement for the sins of men and he had to be clothed with the right clothing and he had to bring the right offering and you notice here he had to bring the coals from the fire which was before the Lord and a handful, two handfuls of incense and when he entered the holy prayer he had to put the incense so that the incense, the smoke, would cover the ark of the covenant so that he could have this shield between him and the presence of God and to go into this place he alone.
[14:44] Why? Because God was saying atonement doesn't happen by a multitude of people atonement only happens by one person and we know who that person is, the person of Jesus Christ. Hebrews tells us that the high priest went once a year into his presence but our high priest not according to the lineage of Aaron but according to the lineage of Mephizadek because it's from the tribe of Judah not the tribe of Levi by the way who is a high priest forever.
[15:09] That's why we have this mysterious for us. Let's just get on the side of it. It's Sunday night so we can do this. You ever wondered why God even introduces Mephizadek the scripture. You might know who Mephizadek is other than the guy with a real cool name.
[15:22] Mephizadek is a guy in which Abraham went to go fight. I remember Lot got captured from when he was hanging out down there in that beautiful valley where it was lush and green and he was hanging out in Sodom and Gomorrah and the kings of Sodom decided that they didn't want to pay ransom anymore to the kings out here to the other five kings so there was this war and these five kings went in and took Lot and they took him away and cast him to Lot and his family and then someone went and told Abraham hey your nephew Lot has been captured.
[15:52] Remember that story? It's pretty cool because what's cool is that Abraham goes oh no they didn't. That's not what he said. That's how the joke says it. Abraham got his household people together and these five kings that had just destroyed the other three kings met their match and Abraham the man of God so Abraham went there and whooped upon these five kings and took Lot back.
[16:12] So Lot had an opportunity to go back and Lot went back to Sodom. We know that got him in trouble later but it says after that great victory then the king Melchizedek or Melchizedek met Abraham whose name translated means king of peace right?
[16:27] He is the king of peace and Melchizedek met him and Abraham gave to him a tenth of everything that he had got his spoils right? He had offered to him this tenth of his spoils and so what we have is this great picture and the whole reason Melchizedek is introduced because in Jewish thought and I know this goes away from our thought and you're going to think I'm nuts but in Jewish thought if there is never a mention of who your mama and daddy is then you are from eternal past and if there is never a mention of your death then you are eternal future.
[17:00] we don't know where Melchizedek came from nobody does because his mother and father are never introduced for us therefore in Jewish thoughts in Jewish thoughts this is a Jewish volume he is eternal and he is the one that was a priest before Levi was even born and the scripture says Levi was still in the loins of his father Abraham at that time there were no twelve nations so his priesthood supersedes the priesthood of Levi that is why the book of Hebrews I'm not just completely off the talk from where we're at right that is why the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is not a priest according to the tribe of Levi he is a priest according to the tribe of Episodek who is without beginning and without him because his priesthood supersedes the priesthood that came from the loins of Abraham who is Levi and he is that person many people believe that Episodek is none other than Jesus Christ because he is the king of peace he is from
[18:01] Salem which means peace right he is the king of Salem which literally depends as the king of peace many people believe that it was him but he has been a priest forever and he will be a priest forever and he is the one person who can make atonement because he has a right to the high priesthood he had to be from the tribe of Judah because he had to be from the family of David in order to hold his earthly position as king of kings and lord of lords on this earth but he had to be from the priesthood of Mephizodek so that he could have that position as high priest to have the opportunity so the whole reason Mephizodek introduced the Old Testament is so that we would know we have a greater high priest than Aaron who could enter once a year and that greater high priest is that single person that set aside person who is Jesus Christ who brought in who was clothed in the right clothing by the way and he went into the right place as Hebrews tells us he did not enter the tabernacle made with hands but rather he entered the tabernacle of heaven that was the one that made with hands was a type or a picture of he entered the greater tabernacle and he gave that which leads us to the third thing that is the shedding of blood
[19:01] I don't know if you noticed this so many times by the way in this Leviticus 16 chapter this repetition of the word blood because there is no atonement there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood right there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood so this single person this set aside person on this specific day who was clothed in the right attire went into the presence of God and did you notice what he did into the presence of God he had the incense and he offered the incense and the smoke and the whole reason the smoke was there when he went into the holy of holies anybody notice what he did all he did was sprinkle blood he took the blood of the bull which was for his own sins by the way this is the downfall of Aaron we don't want a priest from the tribe of Aaron or the tribe of Levi we don't want an Aaronic priest as they call it why because he has to offer sacrifices for him first so he would go in with the blood of the bull which was for his sins and his family's sins probably all the priests and he would go into the holy of holies and he would sprinkle blood on the east side of the ark of the covenant and before the covenant seven times and then he would come out and then he would take the blood of the goat and he would go into the holy of holies and he would do the same thing it was just this sprinkling of blood the only thing that was brought into the very manifested presence of God was blood and where was it put on the propitiation seat the mercy seat which was over the ark of the covenant which is where the ark of the covenant contained what the law of God the standard this is what it takes the mercy seat was that which had blood on it and above the mercy seat was God okay the manifest presence of God okay so get this picture this is why it's so important you have the law of
[20:42] God in the box we call the ark of the covenant okay so let's just think of this as the box I'm not going to get out here to say okay for demonstration purposes let's say that when anybody get upset if I move anything I'm going to say okay we won't so let's just say it's like this are we filled right so we're not going to get we're recording so it doesn't I don't get in trouble this way okay so say that box down there contains the law of God right and in that box is the ten commandments that was the stone cabinet which was the standard of God by the way every one of us if we ever read the ten commandments and not said man I broke that one we've all broken the law right so the standard of God is perfection and only took ten great sayings for God is such a standard that no man can live up to it but between that standard say this is the presence of God no it's just a fake flower I'm not trying to belittle it all but say this is the saccharine glory of God there was the mercy seat the cherubim remember the cherubim with the wings and this mercy seat was on top of the ark of the covenant which can hang along now it had blood on it which seems to work with it because these have ribbons right so they would sprinkle the blood and then
[21:50] God's presence would be above that so what was between God's holy standard and his presence was blood so that kept God from judging the people because the blood covered the mercy seat you know what Jesus offered when he went into heaven is blood and he presented his blood to the holy father who had such a holy standard because there is the shedding of blood does anybody notice what happened in Leviticus 16 to the body of the bull and the goat they burned the fat the fat is a sign of life right a fullness of life so they took the fat and they burned it on the altar what happened to the body they took it outside the camp and they burned it in a fire it was consumed outside the camp wait a minute scripture is beginning to make sense now where did Jesus suffer outside the city of God which is Jerusalem he had to suffer outside the city on the hill of
[22:54] Calvary because that's where that atoning sacrifice was offered that's where that body decayed even though we know his body did not decayed that's where it was consumed it was the blood that was going to the presence of God he is the mercy seat he is the blood that is between the holy standard of God and the manifested presence of God he is the shedding of the blood what we see here is there's a specific time there's a set aside person and there was the shedding of blood blood was so necessary this is a bloody thing because why there had to be the shedding of blood for there to be the atonement of sin and in Jesus Christ we're not seeing the blood of bulls or goats and lambs and all these other things we are seeing the blood of the son of God who is God himself number four there is a substitutionary death because this is the only time in scripture that this is introduced to us but it is very important and it is the two goats the two goats that are brought to the presence of the Lord Aaron was to change his clothes to go in and take his bull he was to slay his bull he was to make atonement for his sins and then he was to take two goats from the nation now these two goats are one sacrifice okay stay with me if you will two goats one sacrifice two goats one sacrifice it's important because if we if we separate the goats and we make it two different sacrifices then we lose the image that is there you have two goats and they're both here and they're both before
[24:16] God they came from one people that is the nation of Israel they brought them to Aaron and Aaron took the two goats and he brought them through the doorway of me and he cast lots now let's not get bent out of shape because scripture says they cast lots it's not like he's rolling dice it's not like they're drawing straws I know some people that get really really bent out of shape and and I can say this because I used to be one of these in the early days of Bible study I used to get real mad at the apostles anybody ever do that I used to get real mad at the early stages of Acts because they drew straws and they cast lots to see who was going to fill Judas Iscariot's position and I got really mad at that because I said God didn't tell him to do that but but slow down pastor slow down about it that is the way in the Old Testament God had ordained for his people to discern his will because there was no manifest presence of the Holy Spirit yet so the casting of lots among the Jewish people they said we cast the lots but God determines the fates right so they trusted that God was over they weren't gambling they were surrendering there was a
[25:17] God's going to show us which one he chooses and they were still working in Old Testament theology now after that they had the presence of the Holy Spirit and then we have Paul apostle born out of due season we can get into a whole lot of other things there but what we see is they were doing exactly what the Old Testament had said do they cast lots cast a lot into the lap but trust the outcome to the Lord God and see what God does with it and here we see that Aaron would take these two goats which represented one sacrifice and he would cast lots and what he was doing is saying God which one are you choosing the goat kind of say so in the whole matter it was Aaron the man and it was God the one who was over the lot and then the one in which the lot fell which was the horse and that goat was slain and that goat's blood was brought into the Holy of Holies and here we have a substitutionary death we see one goat dying for both of them it could have been either one right either goat could have died either one at that moment before Aaron cast lots he had two goats here one's gonna die one's gonna go free one's gonna die one's gonna live and it was up to the Lord to determine which one was his the cast lots to determine which goat belonged to the Lord and this picture for us is that of a substitutionary death we're not trusting in a goat to die in our place because there was a lamb that has been slain before the foundation of the world who died in our place and here's the reality I don't know how long it's been since you read the book of
[26:45] Isaiah Isaiah really especially when you get in like 52 53 54 and even in the 56 it it almost disturbs me when I read Isaiah those passages of Isaiah because there's this passage in scripture and I can't really recall exactly where it is right now but it says that God was pleased to chastise his son he was pleased to crucify the savior why because I'm going to go to Jesus as a lamb yet God cast a lot and a lot fell on Jesus he's the one that belongs to the Lord and he who died in my place it's this picture of substitutionary death someone's dying in my place someone's going to die someone's going to go there's only one sacrifice only one one lives the other goes they represent one and with this goat we see this one sacrifice one atonement one shedding of blood one lives one dies that's exactly what happened with us when we put our life beside Christ now if we're standing there alone when we don't have the lamb beside us then there's going to be that lot cast and it's going to fall on us right but we see a substitutionary death God was giving an opportunity for something else to die in the place of another that's the whole reason for the sacrificial system by the way to show men that someone can die in your place and God would accept that and we see it now here let's look at the fifth and final thing which is probably the greatest of it and this is why this happened at the beginning of the new year for the Jewish people on the 10th day of the new year and it was such a big ordeal and it is the separation of sin let's look at the second goat for just a moment and see the separation of sin because when God atones us or forgives us he removes our sin this is why the scapegoat is so important this is why it's such a great picture it was William
[28:38] Tyndale who first penned this word scapegoat some have given it the word and if you're not reading from King James New King James New American Standard and there's a few other translations use the word scapegoat some translations use the word like a zeal which is just a destination of a place separate apart from some people believe that it's a word he forsaken himself that God put the sin back from where it came from which is Satan William Tyndale the one who's a great Bible translator is the one who first used the goat which escaped which led to what we call the scapegoat but it's the same picture as this that God would take the sin put it upon something else and send it away and what we see and by the way by the before sins could be removed we have Aaron going in offering all this blood this is important he's going in before the presence of the Lord and all of a sudden he comes to this goat that's still alive and there's one that's alive and it says that Aaron lays his hand on the head of the goat and he confesses his sins and the sins of the people as a matter of fact let's read it there one more time it says verses 20 and 21 and when he finishes atoning for the holy place wait a minute I almost forgot something I gotta show you this he had to atone for the holy place okay so he had to put blood all over the tabernacle why this is important I almost forgot it and I don't want to forget this our sin not only affects us as individuals it affects our environment get that like because of the iniquities of the nation of
[30:00] Israel because of their sin nature all year long even the tabernacle was defiled and had to be atoned for on that day our sin affects us and our environment if you don't believe that just look around the good news is is that when Jesus atones for our sins he also redeems our environment this is why I don't think we need to necessarily separate ourselves and completely change who we are God made us as unique individuals and he gave us passions and likes and dislikes and he gave us all these things and when he redeems us and he calls us he renews us he he listen he redeems who we are he redeems our personalities he redeems our environment we can do the same thing in a different light why because our sin is no longer affecting that right all these things that that he even atones for our environment we see this picture but anyhow let's go back when he finishes atoning for the holy place in the tent of meeting and the altar he shall offer the live goats how does he do that verse 21 then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goats and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of the man who stands in readiness when
[31:13] Bible translator said that God used all three words for their sin in this their iniquities their transgressions in their sins God says he's going to confess everything he is supposed to lay his hands and he is to confess by the way audibly everything they had done wrong it might have taken a long time but we see this principle here without confession there is no removal of sin without confession there is no removal of sin this is not Old Testament practice by the way the book of James tells us what confess your sins one to another and be cleansed from your sin someone said we like to sin in retail and we like to confess in wholesale as soon as we do specific deeds but we like to confess in generalities Lord forgive me for all the bad things I've done wrong but what we see here is Aaron being very specific here's our transgressions here's our iniquities here's our sins why because we think that if we confess those things it makes us more guilty really in confessing them we are freeing ourselves from guilt we are laying them on the head of the one who would bear that and take it away from us we don't lay our hands on the head of a goat you can but it's not going to do you any good rather we lay our hands on the feet and the cross of the Savior and we confess our sins and our failures our transgressions our iniquities all of our mess ups and this is the beautiful picture that after confession someone was standing in the readiness I like how scripture puts that he was waiting right how would you like to be that guy I get to be the guy who takes every one of our mess ups into the wilderness and lose it that's right that's a good that's a good guy to be right there as a matter of fact this goat is going to be so unclean that he has to bathe himself before he comes back into the camp because he's been defiled just by nature being in the presence of this goat but he's in the readiness he's ready to take it away as soon as Aaron's done Aaron gives it to him and he leads this goat to the wilderness and he makes sure that that goat gets lost and never finds its way back probably one of the only times you ever want an animal to get lost and not come back why because
[33:22] God was showing them that on this day of atonement all your mess ups all your failures if you've confessed them and you've called out to them and you've laid them on the head of another I will take them away from you and they will never come back into camp it is this removal or this separation of sin this is exactly what the Bible says as far as the east is from the west so as he removed our sins from us he has cast them into the sea of forgetfulness this is why when we have come to the lamb who is Jesus Christ and we have found atonement for our sin and we have confessed our sin let's let's be clear on this and we have confessed our sin if we are reminded of them it is not from God it is from Satan God has the ability to forget our sin Satan has the power to remind us of our sin now if we cannot confess them and we have not laid them on the head of another but rather we are holding on to those pet sins then he is his spirit who is stirring up inside of us but God removes our sin from us he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins if we confess them and this day of atonement reminds us that the work of that day the work of forgiveness is not just this well okay you're forgiven it is a removal of our sin removal of our transgression removal of our iniquity in Jesus Christ we have the ability now we don't have to wait for a goat to come by and lay our hands on it we have one that we can go to at any moment and confess our sins sure we ought to confess our sins one to another and that is not in the light of judgments that we may pray for one another we may lift up one another but we ought to confess our sins to the Lord God Almighty before us and we ought to be open about that and we ought to lay our sin so that he can take it and separate us from our sin so much sin lingers simply because there's not been a confession when all along God is saying there's a way for me to take that into the wilderness and let it get lost and all he's asking is that we would lay it on the hand of another and we see here this is to be something for the nation of Israel perpetual perpetual statute but for us it's a one-time event the day of atonement was a specific time it was a set-aside person it involved the shedding of blood the substitutionary death and a separation of sin and in all of those things friend listen all of those things Jesus Christ has fulfilled every one of them he died at the right time he was the right person he shed his blood he died in our place he is our substitute and he removes our sin forever the power of
[35:59] God to forget the failures of men simply because of the blood of the lamb no wonder God wanted them to do that to have a fresh start on a new year but what a picture we have of all that Jesus Christ has done for us and we can rejoice in that not just once a year not just for a temporary thing to tomorrow well if on the 11th day of that seventh month they sinned they had to wait a whole nother year right another 300 days they have 365 they had to wait a whole nother 299 days before that sin could be forgiven we live on this side of the cross where on that day we confess sin he removes it and it is gone forever more let us pray Lord I thank you so much for this night you've given us we thank you for the beautiful picture we have of atonement found in the book of Leviticus Lord I pray that our hearts and minds would continuously rejoice before you for all you have done we will celebrate the death you've died in our place and we will rejoice the life that you've given us in your place Lord may we be filled with your love may we be filled with your purposes and your calling and live for your glory and honor we ask it all in Jesus name Amen
[37:34] Amen Amen Amen
[39:04] Amen Amen Amen
[40:34] Amen Amen Amen
[42:04] Amen Amen