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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/scott-macleod/day-of-atonement/
Let's turn, please, to Leviticus chapter 16. Lots of references to the Day of Atonement this morning in the Bible reading. I think it's probably one of the greatest pictures of the Lord Jesus and of his work, is Leviticus 16.
It's only recorded once for us, the Day of Atonement. And there's many, many unique things that are brought before us here that are completely answered in the Lord Jesus. Now, we don't have time to read too much here, but we'll just read kind of the start and the finish, and then we'll fill in a few things in the middle.
The Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16 and verse number 3, we'll pick up at. And here's what it says, Leviticus 16, verse number 3, thus shall Aaron come into the holy place with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
Now, notice verse 4, he shall put on the holy linen coat and he shall have on the linen breeches upon his flesh and shall be girded with a linen girdle, that'd be a belt, and with the linen mitre, that's the headgear, shall he be attired.
These are holy garments. Therefore, shall he wash his flesh in water and so put them on. And then, of course, we're introduced to the two goats, which is really a single, a sin offering. It's interesting that you have two animals, but it pictures one offering.
Now, just come over to verse number 23, and Aaron shall come into the tabernacle, a number of things have happened, and Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there.
And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place and put on his garments. Now, those are the garments of beauty and glory that we can read in other places. And come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make an atonement for himself and for the people.
And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar. And then there's reference made to this fit man that took the goat out into the uninhabited area, verse 26. And he that let go the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water and afterward come into the camp.
And, of course, there's much more that you could read. I would encourage you to take home and study it, read it, and just sort of think upon it because there's much there. One thing you'll notice that is very fascinating about this event on this particular day, as I said, it only happened one time in the whole year.
But if you remember in your head the structure of the tabernacle system, you know that the tabernacle was right in the center of the camp and all the 12 tribes were positioned around that camp. Three on one side, three, three, three, the 12 all positioned correctly.
And the tribe of Levi was right all around the center, right? And that whole tribe was taken and they were dedicated to all of the functions of the tabernacle, the offerings and the washings. And there was a massive amount of people that would function under this high priest, Aaron, and these other people were priests, you know all that.
But here's what's amazing. Try to imagine this tabernacle system that is surrounded by anywhere, what, a little over 2 million people. That's a massive crowd, okay? Some people estimate that 2 million people gathered camp like that would possibly cover 12 square miles.
It's incredible to think of all of this activity. Those priests and that high priest were just continually working around the clock, trying to service all of those people, okay? Think of the busyness, think of the activity that took place, that God was witnessing in that tabernacle structure and all the different animals.
And I sometimes wonder, what did they do with all this blood? Because there was a tremendous amount of animals that were killed and put on the altar and on and on it goes. But those are other things you can think upon.
When it comes to the day of atonement, you know what you'll notice in Leviticus 23? It was to be a holy day, a Sabbath, no work. So try to imagine, let's just take 2 million people, holy day, no activity, why?
Another thing you're gonna notice is, of all of those priests that functioned, tremendous emphasis in chapter 16 is put upon Aaron. Him, him, he, he, he. Do you know what God wanted? God wanted all of the people in the camp just to sit still for a whole day, while one man functioned and did something very unique in the day of atonement.
That dear child of God is a lovely picture of what took place at Calvary. There is a reason why God put this whole scene into darkness. Almost like it just brought everybody to a complete standstill. And there's just one man, glorious man, that is performing a work.
Amazing. Now another thing that I was just noticing here recently was, with this uniqueness of this man Aaron, this high priest functioning. You know the other person we're introduced to? A fit man, unnamed.
I looked at him as an unnamed servant. I thought to myself, what a lovely picture of the spirit of God. We have in the book of Hebrews, who through the eternal spirit offered up himself to God. Tremendous to see just these little tiny pictures that we have here in the Old Testament.
But what I want to get focused in on here for a few minutes is this. I want to get occupied with the sinless perfection of the Lord Jesus. This is so important. This is elementary, these things. But if someone could prove to us that the Lord Jesus could have sinned, we are all going to hell.
That's how important this is. If someone, and you'll hear people say this, the Lord could have sinned, but he chose not to sin. That is wrong. If that's the case, we are still in our sins going to hell.
We need to understand from the word of God that the Lord Jesus is absolutely sinless, holy, harmless, undefiled, suffered from sinners. And we're going to go over that. I think we got a lovely picture here.
You'll notice that if you take time to read other parts of the word of God. Aaron was robed in garments for beauty and glory. Now there's 360 days in the Jewish calendar, 359 days of the year. Aaron was seen moving in these gorgeous garments.
He had that robe that went down to the ankles of pure white. And then there was that robe on top of it of blue that went maybe somewhere just below the knee. And then there was on top of that the ephod.
And remember the five colors in the ephod, the gold, and the blue, and the purple, and the scarlet, and the fine twilight. And you might remember all of that. And that ephod was a two-parted thing joined at the top.
Remember the two gems on the top? Six names on one side, six names on the other side. And then the breastplate, which is lovely. The 12 gems, hand breath. Reason I know all this is because I'm building Aaron at home.
A Christian who used to run a waxing museum gave me a six-foot figurine. And I've got just about all of his garments built. And I've yet now to get onto the breastplate, the stone. So I'm building this.
And my mind is in Leviticus 16. And it's a wonderful study. We just finished doing his headgear. And that's quite interesting. So think of this, all of this that Aaron had on, and then that lovely girdle with all those colors, the same as the breastplate, OK?
So if you just saw this man walking in the sun, I mean, he sparkled. He glistened. All these beautiful colors and all of these gems. He was quite a sight to behold. But on this one day, he used to take all that off.
Now, that's a lovely picture of the down-stepping of our Lord from glory. Think of what is just naturally his, all of that glory. Now, I don't like when someone says he laid aside his glory, because we don't read that in the New Testament.
I know that's what Aaron did. He laid aside these garments. I would rather say it this way, that the Lord Jesus only veiled his glory in human flesh. We come to the top of the mount there, and we just see what is essentially his just literally radiate through that veil of flesh.
So that is wonderful to think of that. So there is Aaron, the only one moving on this day. And he goes into the holies of holies. He puts off those garments of glory. And then he puts on these four things, pure white linen.
He puts on, and I don't mean to be irreverent when I say this, but it would be what is a quick breeches, like boxer shorts. That's kind of what they were down to about the knee. They're pure white. And then on top of that, he had this robe of white.
And then on top of that, he had this girdle, this belt, pure white. And then he would put on top of his head that pure white bonnet. That speaks to us of the sinless humanity of our Savior. But you know what I was thinking of?
There's parts of that that you can see. You can see the whole headgear. You can see the outer robe. You can see the belt. But you know what? You couldn't see the breeches underneath. Do you know what that's a picture to me of?
Always remember when we're dealing with the Lord Jesus, he's infinite. You and I might come to the word of God, and we might line up all of these verses, and we might almost get to the point where we think we fully have grasped the sinless perfection of Christ.
Nobody is able to fully grasp just how sinless and how holy only the Father can. Okay? There are certain aspects of it that are just hid from us. You can get it in the chapter. You'll notice there's an awful lot of stuff that we're given, an awful lot of information.
But you know what? There comes a point in this day of atonement when the sins are infiguratively pressed upon the head of this goal. It's the only time in the word of God where you'll read of two hands pressed upon the head of an animal.
Add it to that, it's the only time you'll read of both hands taking incense to put upon the burning coals. You'll never get that anywhere else in the word of God. So there's all these unique things. But after the people had heard all of their sins pressed upon the head of this animal, do you know what they watched?
They watched as that second goat went out of the camp. And it came to a point where there came a little tiny dot on the horizon. Then it was gone to our sight. But then the word of God says he had to go further.
He had to go into a place uninhabited. He said, when we come to the cross of Calvary, yes, with the eye of faith, you and I can only go so far. Only the father can fully measure the distance his son went.
We will be in eternity constantly enjoying the depths of Calvary. I thought of it just recently this way. I never quite thought of it this way before, but I am so limited right now because of the failure of my mind, the flesh, everything else.
You know what's going to happen when we just step from earth into heaven? There will be such an increase of knowledge of him. And do you know what that increase of knowledge glory will produce? A fuller understanding of the depth he stepped to.
And throughout eternity, his knowledge will increase. His glory will increase. And therefore, the depth to which he stooped will increase. And that will just keep on going like that for all of eternity.
It's almost hard for our minds to comprehend someone so full, isn't it? It's beyond us. But that is what is waiting for us. So coming back here now to this little picture. So you have these four unique, pure, white living things.
Now, here's the interesting thing about it is this. He's all by himself. You're going to discover that he's got to kill a ram. He's got to kill one of those goats. He's got to kill one of those bullocks.
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not a farmer. And we had a horse at home. And I just never felt comfortable around a 1 ,500-pound horse because he could just momentarily go squeeze me right against the wall.
I'm trying to imagine Aaron when it came time to kill this bullock all by himself. That seems what we're inferred here. And this ram all by himself. Can you see what would happen to those white garments covered in blood?
He's no longer pure white. To me, when I come to the cross of Calvary, I always remember. We know the blood that came from the beatings and the piercing and the side. I always remember that that blood, his own blood, stained.
Absolute perfection, sinless humanity. Very unique. What that must have spoke to the Father is tremendous. But here's what I want you to think of. You could look at the four Gospels and line them up with those four different things, and that is beautiful as well.
But I want to quote you some verses just to bring before us how careful the Word of God is and just what is pictured for us here. Think of these words in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. This has to do with the mind of the Lord Jesus.
For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. Isn't that wonderful? You understand a little bit just in contrast to the sin that goes through your own mind. I'd be embarrassed if you knew what was in this mind.
I'd never stand in front of you on a platform if you knew what was in this mind of mine. Isn't it wonderful to think, well, we can hardly understand it. The very thought life, his very dream life was sinless.
You ever woke up in the morning with regrets of what you dreamed? I have. You ever woke up in the morning defiled by what you dreamed? I have. First thing you had to do when you came conscious is just acknowledge your sin.
Never. Even when the Lord Jesus slept, he was a joy to his father. It's tremendous to think beyond this. First Peter chapter 2, verse 22, who did no sin. There's the body, the deeds, who did no sin. First John chapter 3, verse 5, and ye know.
Now, this is the verse I'm going to challenge you. This is the verse that is misquoted by many people when they pray. Listen to it. And ye know that he was manifest to take away our sin, and in him, people say, was no sin.
That's not what it says. Thank God it says, in him is no sin. Right at this very moment, in him is no sin. It's not good enough, dear child of God, that there was no sin in him on earth. No, no, no. In heaven is no sin.
That's tremendous. So how careful the word of God is. Here's another lovely verse. Verse, Hebrews 7, verse 26. For such a high priest became us who not was holy, no. Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate.
He'll always be separate from sinners. This is what's being pictured here. First John 3, in verse 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he was, no. Even as he is pure. Isn't that delightful?
So when you think of the Lord Jesus, that perfect humanity, unaffected by sin, couldn't be defiled by sin. In him is no sin. Impossible for him to be tempted by sin. I hear people sometimes that almost say it this way, that the Lord can relate to us because he was tempted.
He can relate to us when we're tempted by sin. Absolutely not. There was nothing in the Lord Jesus that even remotely responded to sin. There was nothing that would. Sin literally fled from his presence.
I've even heard individuals say it this way when he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and we read that the Holy Spirit overshadowed. I've even heard it said this way that the overshadowing was to protect the child from the sinful nature of Mary.
Believe that for a minute. The Lord Jesus never needed to be protected from sin. He is holy. Like I said, sin fled from his presence. What a delightful person, eh? That's why you and I are eternally secured.
That's why we will forever be accepted before the father because of the absolute perfection of the Lord Jesus. Time is gone and need to end. How delightful before any blood was brought in to the holies of holies.
Okay, you go and you read of these four. There's four again coming up in this chapter, four spices that were taken herbs and they were, they were put together. And those four things, first of all, they were, you know, they were individually.
You think of spices individually, how beautiful they smell, right? You can enjoy the fragrance of any one of them. And then you start to put them together. You put them in a bowl together and then there's a sort of a blending.
Think of it. That's beautiful. But then there was something else that had to be done. They had to be crushed. They had to be really ground fine. Think of how the fragrance just started to increase as the pressure was put upon it.
Now that, that, that, that's magnificent. But then it went even higher. That finally crushed material was then taken. And you know, when the fragrance really came out, when it went right on top of the burning coals, my dear child of God, I want you to get ahold of something.
When the anger of a holy God fell upon the Lord Jesus. Do you know what just ascended to heaven? Such a fragrance. Such an aroma went up. It's beyond us to try. I wish I had a mind and a heart that could fully understand it.
And when that man Aaron was in the holy of holy and he would walk around the, the, the arc with that burning center and that fragrance, you know what existed in there? You know that right? The kind of glory, right?
God's presence was above the arc. Do you know what happened in there prior to blood prior to death? It's a picture of the life of the Lord. Jesus, that cloud of incense that came off of those four, four little herbs all together.
Do you know what happened? They just perfectly blend it meshed with your kind of glory. One. That's the life of the Lord Jesus. We know that the life of the Lord Jesus could not take away our sin had to be the death.
But I'll tell you what gives value to the death. It's the life. It's the person who lived it and his whole entire life as he just was born into this world and walk toward Calvary. It was just a continuing increase of fragrance and blending with the kind of glory.
That's what you get on the day of atonement. And that only pictured and there's so much more that we could we could look at. I'll end with this. The washing, you know what Aaron had to do at the first and what Aaron had to do at the end is not what the Lord Jesus had to do.
Aaron had to wash away defilement before he started to function. And after he was done functioning, he had to wash away defilement. But our Savior is just as holy on the throne as he was in the midst of Calvary.
No defilement, no need of removing or cleansing anything. And isn't it delightful to know him whom to know is life eternal.