sermon: Jesus in the Feasts (Part Four): Atonement
The Day of Atonement
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 02-Oct-25; Sermon #1840; 83 minutes
The Jesus in the Feasts series:
Have you ever noticed that human beings are a sorry lot? Yeah, I mean you. And I mean everybody else. Many out in
the world may argue this point. But they are just fooling themselves. Humans are terrible creatures. Masses of people, especially seems like this should not be, but people who have higher education degrees think mankind is improving. Shows you they have been spending too long in their ivory towers. They think that Men, humans are ascending to a higher species, to a higher form of life. They're evolving into something better. Even though with their. Degrees in various things. They know science. Sociology Psychology, all these things prove. That they are wrong. The universe, we could say, cries out against them and their idea that men are good at improving. I mean, for instance, physics tells us that everything material has a strong tendency toward decline. Toward disorder and decay and disintegration and death. It's called the law of entropy. To think that humanity is improving toward good flies in the face of all evidence to the contrary. I mean, just look at people. Take off the rose rose colored glasses and look at people. Humans
gossip. Deceive And betray And The Steel They commit fraud. They are always in contention with one another. They commit
adultery. They commit sexual perversions. They abuse one another, even their children. They They commit things like abortion and murder. There are so many acts of terrorism and war everywhere and who knows what other godless acts people do. There is no good in these things. Those are all sins. All of those acts are sins, and I could have added many more. Especially more religious sins that many out there do not think are sins but actually are like unbelief. Idolatry
Coveting Blasphemy. Here's a big one,
Sabbath breaking. Just ask the Jews and the Israelites from 22,500 years ago. What about adding and subtracting from God's word? Those are, that's a horrible sin.
God says he'll bring the curses down on a person who does that. And so on and so on. All of these are sins. Men Women children They commit these type of things all the time. I mean, you think about it, you start thinking about all the sins and all the people you can't help but come to the conclusion that humans are moral cesspools. They're steeped in a world of sin, piling on sin after sin, becoming more evil every day hour by hour. And it doesn't stop. Even among Christians. Oh, they found a very convenient way to keep on sinning. Just by saying, oh, God will forgive me for it. I've accepted
Jesus Christ. And I'm saved. And I consent That's really what it comes down to,
once saved, always saved. Let's go to Romans 3. I do not want you to take my word for it. Let's go to Romans 3 and we will start in verse 9. We'll read down through 19 and then we will pick up 23. So starting in verse 9, Romans 3. Paul writes, What then he's speaking of the Jews. Are we better than they? We being, I think he's concluding himself with the Roman church here, mostly Gentiles. Not at all, he says, for we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. Just go back and check out chapters 1 and 2. As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb with their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of
peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And Paul says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are
under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Saying that the law testifies against them. They're not keeping it. They're all guilty. Verse 23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I'd like to, to I have my own spin on this particular verse. It's just adding one word. And I do not think it changes the meaning except it Emphasizes it a bit. For all have sinned and fall far short of the glory of God. I mean there is no comparison whatsoever. God is pure. He's holy and righteous. He doesn't sin at all, but look at mankind. What a loser! Sin from one end to the other, Isaiah says from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. He's sick So the Bible's own words on the subject here. Kind of back up what I just said earlier. Here in Romans 3 is a litany of negatives about good old Homo sapiens. None are righteous. Not one. None does good. Again, not one. All are under the penalty of sin because all have sinned and fall short of God's glory, every person, every person. He is guilty before God. Even little children, have you ever thought about little children? Have you thought of little children? I'm sure you've thought of little children. Have you ever thought of little children in terms of sin? I have. I remember back in my wee lad days. Hearing Mister Armstrong. I, I must have been under 10, but I heard him, and it made an impression on me because I were one. I was a child, and he said, You parents better make sure you get a hold of your children because
Satan is going to get a hold of him as soon as he can or something to that that effect. Uh, sorry, Doctor Moss, I did not do the voice right. OK But we falsely call little children innocent. I mean, they are in their own way, but not really in terms of sin, they are not innocent. They learned to sin. No, it's not the the verbi here they learn to sin at a very early age. They are little bundles of selfishness, aren't they? Not immune to Satan's influence. Uh, nor to. Get this people, nor to their parents poor examples. Or their siblings for examples. You might remember a sermon I gave about 10 years ago I guess it was about then about how intelligent little children are and how their sensory perceptions are just on high and their brains are going like mad and they see everything they experience it all and they take it in. Before long These little tykes are plotting to get their own way. They may not form the words I'm going to deceive mom, so she'll give me ice cream or whatever, but they are plotting, they are trying to figure out how can they get for themselves what they want. Oh, if I throw a tantrum, maybe Mom will let me have this sucker. And so ah. They're beating their, their fists and heels on the floor. To get the mom or the dad to give in. So they display their beastly attitudes and throw tantrums. They lie, they steal, they beat up their playmates. All to get what they want. To be the one on top. Oh, King of the mountain, that's a great game. What does it show? Little kids play a game showing the aggression of and selfishness of wanting to be the one on top of the hill. Now, I do not know. How early God ascribes sin to children. But these early behaviors that they show are just a warm up. For their later sinful conduct that they will show as Adolescence Teenagers Adults Grandparents All the way up These foundational years. Are the ones that Project into the sin of adult sins of adulthood. They learned them When they are still crawling around. And toddling So we can't be naive about people we may laugh about seeing these things in children, but they are sinful things. And humans are all sinners. It's just the way it is. From Mother Eve and Adam were all sinners. You go read Romans 4 and talk about the sin that Adam dragged into the world. Sure, some sins are worse than others. Some sinners are worse than others, but every person. Has broken God's laws many times. And each one lives under the penalty of death. Because that's what the Bible says, that's what Paul says in Romans 6:23, for the wages of sin is death. It's really simple. Our work Which we get paid for. is evil. The things we do The acts that we perform our sins, and we get the wages for those sins, which is death. No one gets a pass. No one has earned a pass. If you will. And as Paul writes in this passage. That we just read. Keeping the law cannot balance the books. That's not a solution. Because that's not the law's purpose. He says by the law is the knowledge of sin. It can't justify us. There is no way doing what the law says can make up for the sins that we've committed. One of the reasons is that we keep on sending. We never could catch up. Never could pay them, pay, pay for all of them. But it wouldn't work anyway, even if someone tried. So where does that put humanity? Is humanity doomed to die? Is humanity a hopeless species? You're redeemable. Just going to live far into the future and eventually exterminate itself? That's what science fiction authors always say. Think about this. A human being cannot. Save or justify himself by any means. It is downright impossible. Money Land jewels. Or precious precious metals or anything else that one thinks might have value will not buy redemption. Can't pay for all that long list of sins. Living a quote unquote good life. Can't pay for past sins either. Like we mentioned, if you even try to keep the law, I wouldn't pay for the sins already committed. And human life is not valuable enough to pay the redemption price even for another person, say a spouse or a child, because each person is flawed. Blemished by sin. And therefore by definition utterly worthless to stand as a substitute offering to cover another person's sins. I mean, it would be like the pot and the kettle. The pot trying to save the kettle from their sins, but they are both black with sin. It wouldn't work. They're just both sinful. The person can't even save save himself. He certainly can't save another. So humankind is stuck, right? We can't save ourselves, it's finished. We just die in our sins. Since all humans are sinful, there could be no redemption. No payment for sin from within created humanity. None of us are righteous, Paul said. Now, I've mentioned this or, or at least alluded to it, that redemption from sin must come through the payment of an unblemished sacrifice. We're talking sin here being redeemed from sin, there has to be a sinless or perfect a unflawed, an unblemished sacrifice to pay for that. Yet no human qualifies. And certainly no lower form of life. You can pay that price. All you need to do is look up Hebrews 10:4. And where the author there says it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. It, it's just, it, it, it's impossible. It, it can't happen. Doesn't work. They're not valuable enough. To pay for sin, human sin. And because they are of a different kind. Made of spirit, angels cannot pay for human sin. Even though now they are a higher form of life. For a little while But there is no, no angel that's going to give his life for mankind, wouldn't work. Angels and humans are different. So the only solution, once you work all this out. Is that A higher being Someone more valuable. He has to make himself a man. Live as a man. Live sinlessly as a man. And then pay the gargantuan price for sin by giving himself. As an offering for sin. And of course the only higher being who could do this. Because as far as we know, the only two higher beings that there are are the God, the Father and the Word. And thankfully the word said. I'll do it. The Creator God Himself, voluntarily gave himself as the offering for sin. This one we know as the word or by his Hebrew name Yahweh or the eternal or the great I am. Said I will pay the price. I will go as a man. I will live as a man. I will live sinlessly. As a man And I'll give my life for them. That's exactly what happened. Let's go a few pages forward to the book of Philippians, Phillip to Philippians, as I like to say. And we will read chapter 2, verses 5 through 8. We all know this scripture. Philippians 2:58, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. He had this same mind, the same attitude. From eternity. Who, being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. He did not think that it was something that he should hold onto with all his might. But instead it says verse 7 made himself of no reputation taking the form of a servant boy, he's awfully nice by calling us just servants instead of slugs or worms or anything worse. And coming in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So Jesus Well not Jesus, the word. Decided That the sacrifices were worth. That he would divest himself of his glory. And come as himself but as a baby. A man A servant A lower life form, a restricted material being. And he would Humble himself He would Put himself under those restraints of flesh. And he would Communicate And act With others Among humanity Who all of them. We bad influences. All sinful All trying to bring him down. And of course this also put him. In one sense, under the dominion of Satan, the devil who Rules On this earth The ruler of this world, he calls him. And John. And he would have to live under those conditions. For years and years, we know it was 33 5. Always tempted to sin. Always surrounded by sinners. And he would have to Maintain his righteousness. Through all that and then give himself at the end of all that. To death. For all those who were trying so hard to bring him down. I mean, just look at the, the scene in front of Pilate. Crucify him, crucify him, said his own people. Let's go back to the book of Romans. Chapter 5. This time verses 6 through 11. For when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own
love toward us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. So Paul says here, That despite Our being moral cesspools and without strength. And terrible creatures full of sin. The one who became Jesus Christ decided to give it all for us so that we can be reconciled. To God By paying the price for our sins. And he did this as we will see. Silently as a sheep goes. To the slaughter He did not contend or anything like that. He did not cry out. He did not do those things to get sympathy. He just did his job. And did it well, did it perfectly. And you know what? It was all for us. The supreme act of love. To give himself for his creation. Now this is part 4 of my series of Jesus and the feast. And you know, I posited that while these
holy days have prophetic implications in terms of showing the major steps in God's plan, I do not think that that is the primary purpose of those of these days. I think their primary purpose is to point us to Christ. Every one of these holy days, point us to take a. Uh, a more focused look at our savior in one of his roles or offices so that we can get a better understanding of who he is and what he requires of us. Just as Christ is our
Passover and our bread of life and our first fruit and our divine king. In atonement, he is our. Atonement He is our atoning sacrifice. He is our payment for sin and so much more. Now this is a solemn feast day. It's the most solemn day of the year. And it's because of the fact that Christ is our atoning sacrifice. That our God died. For us We Made him die. That should crush us. It should humble us. That he had to go to that extent to redeem his people. So it's a day that we humble ourselves and we afflict ourselves. By not going. Uh, not eating, not drinking. And we do this because of what was required to clear us of our guilt. The awesome price that had to be paid for our justification. That is the lifeblood of our very Creator. It also reminds us each year. Of how much we owe him. You know, when somebody does something that grand, that momentous, it puts us under obligation. We can't just say oh thanks. And walk away. It requires us. To do something in in response. And Because he gave his life for us. It means that our lives are his. He paid the price for us down to the very penny if you will. We are wholly and completely his. And so because of that, We are obligated to serve him. Forever. And with all of our being. And on this day One of the things I think we are supposed to think about is that this awesome price has been paid for us, this awesome gift. that we have of being cleared of our sins. Done for us and we know this. But we also have to realize. Especially on this day, how frequently we fail him. He's never failed us. But we fail him all the time, every time we sin. Every time we fail to do his will. It's showing that We still need that sacrifice. To Put on the mind of Christ to get to have the opportunity to put on that mind of Christ and to grow and overcome. So that we can be fully in his image. Now let's go back to the book of Leviticus. Where we see what we must do on this day back to Leviticus 23. The section on the
Day of Atonement begins in verse 26. And the Lord spoke to
Moses, saying, also the 10th day of this 7th month today shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you. You shall
afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, and you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For any person who is not
afflicted of soul on that same day, he shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest. And you are a Sabbath of Sabbath, you shall afflict your souls on the 9th day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath. OK. It's always intrigued me a little bit. That in this command to keep this day, the passage contains Such a passing mention of the concept of atonement. More emphasis seems to be going to afflicting our souls and doing no work. Now that's very important actually because this is our response to what has been done for us. So that we, because of our atonement. That we afflict our souls and we do no work. Now this may be a false impression, but we just get two mentions of the name of this day that it is the Day of Atonement and a brief explanation to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. And that's it for the idea of atonement within this passage. So I think at this point we need to define some terms and get a little depth to our understanding of what atonement is. So what is atonement? In English, we will we will take the English word first. It is in a secular manner. Reparation for a wrong or an injury. Reparation for a wrong or injury. And theologically, It is reparation or expiation for sin. Now, reparation and expiation and atonement have to do with paying. For a wrongdoing. So to atone. Or to make expiation is to make amends. Or reparation. By paying something In other words, it is to give or to do something to make up or pay for. Personal Group or national wrongdoing. I'll I'll repeat that. It is to give or do something to make up or pay for personal group or national wrongdoing. So we have like in the United States, the descendants of former slaves calling for reparations. For their great grandparents and back work that they did when, when this nation uh. Uh, had slaves. The same usually happens after a war. The defeated peoples usually want reparations for. All the pounding on their, their their soil or their towns and cities. So it's a a payment for a wrong that was done to them. Mm Now theologically, Atonement is the sacrificial act of paying a price sufficient to cover humanity's sins. The sacrificial act of paying a price sufficient to cover humanity's sins. And what that does is once that it's paid it allows for the reconciliation of God and man. They can come together in agreement because there is no sin, no dispute separating them, and they can come together and be unified from that time forth. Now the concept of atonement is closely related to another theological term that we toss around now and again, and that is redemption. Redemption deals with buying back or clearing debt or guilt through a payment. So both atonement and redemption have to do with with making some sort of a payment either through an act or some sort of an offering uh a valuable thing so that you can clear the decks of of all the sin or you know all the wrong that has been done. And basically use another example, it clears the table so that you can start anew, start fresh. Now the Hebrew word, go from English to Hebrew here. Is Kapar, K A P A R. And it means Basically the same thing. To atone or expiate by offering an innocent substitute. Now the Hebrew definition adds that because we are talking about a definition brought out of the Bible so it's to atone or expiate and by offering an innocent substitute all the atonements that are done in the Bible use this formula an atonement is made by offering usually an animal who is that is unblemished. And that by By its blood being spilled it pays for. Or make amends, makes amends for the particular sin or wrongdoing. Now the result of this, of offering an innocent innocent substitute is cleansing or forgiveness of sin. With the The Object being the reconciling of two parties, one of which had been offended by the wrongdoing that had been had it happened in the Bible. The one who is offended is God. He is the offended party. He is the wronged party. And since God In his
holiness cannot abide sin. Well, there must be an atonement. Made to make this reconciliation of two parties possible. Now this happens by his gracious acceptance. Of the substitute sacrifice. So it's I do not have this in my notes here, but it's not just it's always going to happen when we do it this certain way. He must still accept it, and he does this graciously on our behalf. It's his gracious acceptance of the substitute sacrifice that actually causes the reconciliation. But as we sang in one of these songs, his mercy is always in his acts and so he acts mercifully and accepts the sacrifice. And because of that, because of his gracious acceptance of the sacrifice, God and man. Now cleansed of sin can have a relationship. And they could be One They can be united And go forward with one voice and in one. One way of acting, which is righteousness. Now our savior, of course, Jesus Christ, is that perfect innocent substitute that is given for the payment of our sins. OK. Austin opened the door. We're going to go to Leviticus 16. Actually, Austin gave my sermon in miniature. We're going to go to several passages through here. I do not want to dwell on. The details of this very extensively because we've done it so often we just did it in the sermonette, but I do want to bring out a few details um. That are pertinent for today. Of course, all of this could be pertinent for today because this is the, the offering on the Day of Atonement, but we are just going to look at a few. Few particular things. Let's start in verse 3. Thus Aaron shall come into the holy place with the blood of a young bull as a
sin offering and of a ram as a burnt offering. He shall put the holy linen. Tunic and the linen trousers on his body, he shall be girded with the linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore, he shall wash wash his body in water and put them on, and he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel
two kids of the goats as a sin offering and one ram as a burnt offering. Earn shall offer the bull as a sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the
Azazel will say, um. The goat of complete removal. An errand shall bring the goat on which the Lord's lot fell and offer it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell to be the Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement upon it and let it go as the Azazel into the wilderness or as the goat of removal into the wilderness. OK, let's drop down to verse 15. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering. This is kind of backing up and uh. And filling in. Uh, some of the details he shall kill the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions for all their sins, and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. Now drop down to verse 20. And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions concerning all their sins. Notice the three owls in a row, all the iniquity, all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. All right, let's drop then down to verse 29. This shall be a statute forever for you in the 7th month on the 10th day of the month. You shall afflict your souls and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who sojourns among you. For on that day, the priest shall make atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. There is another all there. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever. OK, like I said, I want to point out a few particular things here. One of the things I especially want to emphasize is that in verse 5, God calls the two goats together a singular sin offering. They both deal with a toning for in this case all of Israel's sins and in the spiritual sense or its spiritual application all of spiritual Israel's sins. Jesus, uh. Jesus, A toning sacrifice. Can and will eventually cover the whole world, apply to the whole world. But right now, It applies only to those whom he has called and who have accepted that sacrifice for them. All these others are not released from their sins yet because they haven't accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So right now, That sacrifice only applies to Israel's sins. Under the New Covenant spiritual Israel since. The blood of the first goat. Symbolizes the shedding of blood to pay for sins. That is the redemption price that has to be paid. But think about it. Just because there is a payment for sin doesn't mean that the sins are suddenly disappear. The sins are there they have just been paid for they have been redeemed if, if you are the, the, the price for the for the penalty has been shunted aside because the right price has been paid. But there is still the sins, they need to be removed. They need to be Gotten out of the way. They needed to be, need to be taken away, and this is where the second goat comes in. The second goat symbolizes those sins being borne away. Gotten rid of Removed As far as east is from the west as Psalm 103 verse 12 says. Both Parts, both goats, if you will, are necessary parts of the sacrifice. And because both parts are necessary to the sacrifice, it had to be shown in two goats. One goat could not do it because the one goat is slain. How could that slain goat Carry the sins into the wilderness. It's impossible, so it had to be another goat just like it. So like it that a lot that lots had to be uh. Throne, if you will, for to tell which goat would do which part, it did not matter. That's the reason why they they they cast lots. It was just to differentiate which goat would would die and which goat would be led away into the wilderness. So, We have these two goats. And they make a complete singular sacrifice for sin. That's what it says in verse 5. He shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering. It's just a sin offering in two parts. OK. Let's note in verse 30 specifically. Uh, that I I should say that it's specifically designated, designates that it is the priest. The high priests, often called Aaron. Throughout verse chapter 16. It is the high priest that in particular who makes the atonement for us. He's the one That does the atonic. I do not know if you've ever noticed this before, but. Erin, the high priest, is incredibly active on this day. I mean if he was an old high priest, he must have been just tongue dragging on the ground by the end of this day because he had so much to do. He had what, at least 3 animals to kill 4, I got a bull ram kid of the goats, and what's the other one? Uh, the other, the other one he sends out to the wilderness, but uh. I mean, he was doing all that work himself. You go read read back through there and you find that he does all the work. There is no talk about anybody else doing it for him, he does it all. It even says in the one place, no other priest should be with you there in the holy place. No one else goes into the holy of holies. It's just you. So the the high priest Aaron does everything. Does all the work of atoning. For the people, and you can see the obvious symbolic significance of this. I at least I hope you can because Aaron is a type of Christ and Christ does all the work to make atonement happen. And he doesn't care how much work it takes, he's going to do it to make sure that all of our sins are atoned for. And this is why There is such a strict command not to work on the Day of Atonement. It's impressing on us that our Savior does this atoning work himself. Alone. Without our help. All we do basically. Is accepted And receive it. Because we can do nothing. In our own atonement Except have
faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And this is not even to mention. All the other sacrifices that also represent him on this day. Here's the bull. He is the ramp And all the other sacrifices that are done that were done throughout this whole period of time. They all represent him in one way or another. So all through this chapter we
see Christ in his various types as the one who makes atonement possible. Let's go to Isaiah 52. Austin was also here in Isaiah 53. We're going to go to the end of Isaiah 52. And read into Isaiah 53. We'll start in verse 1352. And we will read all the way through. Chapter 53. Behold my servant, shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted, by the way, just, just. In case you do not know, all of this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ, just, you know, every word in here. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. That's kind of a. Of shorting it a bit, I mean, he is the highest, not just very high, he is the highest, just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations or startle them. Uh, kings shall shut their mouth mouths at him, for what had not been told them, they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider. Who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened on his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare his generation, for he has, for he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people, he was stricken, and they have made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased or satisfied the Lord to bruise him. He was. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. OK, this prophecy of the suffering servant or the sin bearing servant as the new King James has it in my Bible. It is an obvious prophecy of Jesus Christ offering himself as our atoning sacrifice. Shedding his innocent blood to pay for the sins of all those who come to believe in him. And then bearing them away. This passage. This what, 1213, 1415 verses here. Links Leviticus 16 with the Gospels. And with Romans 3 and Romans 5 and the
book of Hebrews and Lot of other places in the New Testament. And they And others all testify that Jesus is our sacrifice for sin. The one who gave himself so that we can be clean. Now a careful reading. Of especially versus 4 through 12 here. Upholds what it says in Leviticus 16 about the sacrifice coming in two distinct parts. Like the two goats, For instance, verse 10. Tells us specifically that his life or his soul, as it says in in the new King James was made an offering for sin. That was the life that was extinguished. When he shed his blood, when the first goat was killed as the offering for sin. While verse 7 Compares him to a lamp. Led to the slaughter. He was the lamb of God, of course. Verse 8 He says that he died for the transgressions of his people. For all Israel For spiritual Israel, verse 9. Verifies he was sinless. He did not do any violence, he spoke no deceit. It's a poetic way to say he did not sin. He did nothing wrong. And verse 6 says that God laid on him all our iniquities. So that's the first go, the first part. What about part two? Well, verse 11 tells us that he bore the iniquities of those he will justify. They were placed upon him to be borne away. And verse 12 repeats it saying that he not only bore the iniquities of those who you will justify, but he bore the sins of many. So we have these two major activities contemplated in the supreme sin offering, the shedding of an innocent sacrifice's blood in death. And the bearing away or removal. Of the sense Jesus Christ performed both parts. Through shedding his blood in sacrifice and removing human sin in his death. He bore them to the grave and They're gone. Now we have in the Gospels confirmation of this. Let's go to Matthew the first chapter. Where we see that. This was his purpose, his mission, or at least part of his mission. To do exactly this, what was said in in Leviticus 16 and also in Isaiah 53. This is told immediately to his mother and his stepdad. Let's look at this verses 18 through 21. Now the
birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying. Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you marry your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she will bring forth a son. And you shall call his name Jesus or Joshua Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins. And the angel here basically. Gives you the definition of the of the name Joshua or Jesus. Savior And but he adds on that the salvation notices right away from the very beginning. He was not to save them as a nation. That was not his reason for coming that time. He was coming to save them from their sins. He was coming for a spiritual reason. To be the sacrifice for sins, not to be the, the conquering king that would take the nation back to the throne of David and, and ruling themselves. It was never part of the mission. Not the first time. OK, let's go to John 1:29. I'm coming here just. Uh, to these two places to show that. Early on in his life and here early on in his ministry, yeah, actually just before it began, it's basically told what he was going to do and we just need to pick up this one verse 29. The next day, John saw Jesus coming before him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Bang! Jesus is off. He starts rounding up disciples. And his ministry goes into high gear. That's what he had come to do. He had come to be the Lamb of the Lamb of God. To save his people from their sins. And of course there were other things too like show an example, put all this teaching in the Bible so that we can have that to to lean on once we are are called. So that we can be like him. As well as other things, but this was at the top of the list that he came as a sacrifice for sin. Let's go to one more where he admits what he is doing. Let's go to chapter 10. In the good shepherd section. We'll read verses 1115, and 17 and 18. Starting in 11. John 10, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Verse 15 As the Father knows me, even so, I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Verse 17. Therefore, my father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. He's volunteering. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from my father. So that was his father's will that he come as the good shepherd to lay down his life for the sheep. And therefore fulfilling his assignment to be the Lamb of God. To be uh. The savior To be the atoning sacrifice, uh. For his people. OK, let's go back to the book of Matthew. This is Also where Austin went. I told you he gave my, my sermon in miniature here. We're going to start where he started in verse 45, Matthew 27:45. And we will read down through 53. Now from the 6th hour until the 9th hour there was darkness over all the land, and about the 9th hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli lama Sabatini, that is, my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? Some of those who stood there when they heard that said, This man is calling for Elijah. Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. The rest said, Let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up his spirit, and behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth quaked and the rocks were split and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the graves after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So Jesus's cry, why have you forsaken me? is the clearest indication of the time when the sins of the world were placed upon him. Remember that was something that the the high priest had to do in Leviticus 16. He placed his, his hands on the head of the live goat and he transferred all the sins of Israel to the goat to be borne away. All the sins, all the iniquities, all the transgressions of Israel were placed on the live goat's head. You know, God would never forsake his son. His beloved son Except for the fact. that he was at this point. The most repulsive being in the universe with the evil of all human sin, every human sin. On him The weight of that Must have been terrible for Jesus. To suddenly have to face The guilt Of all humanity. All that sin placed upon him. And it was equally horrible for the Father to see his son. Bearing all of those sins. You know, Isaiah 592. Says that our sin separates us from God and that's exactly what happened here. Our, our sins, not Jesus' sins. It was our sins that caused the Father to forsake his sons, his son there. On the cross And Jesus, as Austin said. It was the first time that he had been apart. From his father Forever. In that sense, cause he said his father was always with him. But not this time. Not when he was forsaken for all the evils of of mankind's sins. And Thankfully, Jesus carried them for just a short time. I do not know how long it was between the time he made that cry and the time he died, but it doesn't seem like seem like it was very long, just maybe a few minutes. I do not know that a man with that much sin on him in such a weakened state could stay alive for very long with that burden of sin. I do not know. But it was just a short time later that it says that he yielded up his spirit. And the creation responded. Their God, the creation's God, had just died. And the in intimate Earth rocked. The veil of the temple was torn top to bottom. To show that access to God had been opened by the death of the Savior. That sinless perfect lamb of God had done the job. Had done the work that would open up the way for us to come right into the holy of holies. Reconciled to God justified. And have a relationship with him. This is why we mourn on this day. This is why we are humbled on this day, and we afflict our souls because of this momentous act that was done for us. Long before. We were even born. Long before we ever thought. Of having a relationship with God. God was already putting things into place so that that could happen. This is why we are supposed to be humble on this day. Because we understand where. We are in this relationship and how much, how little we have done. And how much we have been given. Let's go to the Book of Hebrews. And just look at the theology of this and very briefly. Chapter 9. Verses 11 through 15. This is gonna, I'm going to go over three passages here and it goes over it covers a lot of the same territory but it comes at it from slightly different angles so we can get a full picture. All right, Hebrews 9. 11 1 through 11 through 15. But Christ came as high priests of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats in the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this reason he is the mediator of the New Covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Telling us here that he did all of this for us. He came down. As the greatest priest of all to make sure that all of these things were done, he lived without sin, and he gave his life to purge us to purge our consciences of guilt, to help us in every way so that we, the called may receive the promises of the of the eternal inheritance that God has, has offered to us. OK, let's go down to verse 24. We'll read through the end of the chapter. Verse 24, for Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. That's his, his job now as mediator and as high priest to appear before God in our behalf. Right in the holy of holies, not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another. Now, it's only once a year, but year by year by year by year, he had to go in and do this. So he doesn't have to do this often, it says. He would then have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. He would have to suffer every year if he were a human priest. But now, once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. As it appointed for men once to die once, but after this, the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. Remember that at the end of Isaiah 53. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. This is the ultimate salvation of the first fruits when he comes as
king of kings and Lord of Lords. It's not for sin that he's coming the second time, but to rule. OK, let's go on to chapter 10. Starting in verse 11. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. From that time
waiting till his enemies were made his footstool, for by one offering he has perfected for ever those who are being sanctified, being made holy. And the Holy Spirit also witnesses witnesses to us, for after he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them. Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Just took one. And then all of those other offerings became. Unnecessary. Because the one perfect sacrifice was made. So the author makes sure. We understand here that his sacrifice is redeeming. A payment for cleansing or clearing sin, forgiving it, and also bearing it away and putting or putting away or removing sin. And this all makes it possible for us to come to God, come before God. And have a relationship. Let's see this much simplified in First Peter. Peter takes this one step further. At least in terms of of our responsibility, our obligation, First Peter 2 verses 24 and 25. It says Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now and have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. You see what Peter does here? Peter states the cause and the effect of Christ's sacrifice, very simply. Jesus bore our sins. Because encumbered and crushed by them, we could not live righteously. There was no way possible that we would be able to live a life that would please God. So by taking those sins away, He gives us the opportunity to live godly lives now. Our sins kept us cut off from our shepherd. And by accepting his awesome
sacrifice for our sins, now we have returned to him. It's a glorious, joyous reunion that we have been called to be under Christ in this age. Why is this so important? So he could shepherd us. So that he could guide and oversee our lives because frankly, Coming from the cesspool of sin, we need a shepherd. Let's conclude in Hebrews 13, just a few pages back. Starting in verse 20. 20 and 21. There is a Benediction here for all of us. Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead after he had made that terrific sacrifice. That great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant which we have made. Make you complete or perfect or mature in every good work to do his will working in you what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. I shake my head. At the Christian churches of this world. Because many of them preach. That accepting Christ is all it takes. But accepting Christ is nowhere near the end of the story. In fact, it's just the beginning of the story. There is so much more to Christianity than merely accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, as our sin offering, as I said, it's just the starting point. So We Humbled by what has been done for us, must now step forward. We are obligated as slaves of righteousness, Paul, as Paul put it. To do the work alongside Jesus Christ. Toward our spiritual maturity, toward our perfection, toward doing
God's will and putting on the mind of Christ. Our great high priest and shepherd who has given his all. Has already done so much. And given so much. He's the one If we stay faithful to him. He's the one who will ensure that our journey ends with our entry and glorification in the kingdom of God.