(Following the Footsteps of Christ) the Atonement — Willie Mullan

The Atonement, Redemption, and Substitution at the Cross

Coming to our subject this evening, and you notice that it's the atonement that we are after this evening. I want you to get this very carefully. You see, in following the footsteps of Christ, for the past three weeks we have been standing at the cross.

You remember that first evening we looked up the cruel, brutal Roman crucifixion. And then on the second evening we listened to that cry from the cross, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

Last Tuesday we went on into the death and looked up the book of redemption and we found out that when Christ had paid the price of our redemption by his own shed ribbed blood, that he obtained eternal redemption for us.

But we want to get the difference between these things. Crucifixion and redemption and the order of atonement. Let's put it like this. Crucifixion was something that the servant did to him, by laying him to the tree.

Redemption was something that was brought by him for every believer. Crucifixion was something that was done to him. Redemption was something that was brought by him. Now atonement was something that was brought to him at different events.

And of course, we have reconciliation and propitiation and there are so many sides to this wonderful cross made for Christ. Now this word atonement, it's an Old Testament word. You find it only once in the New Testament it's only in a sort of marginal reference.

In fact, some of the translations don't have it at all. It's the Hebrew word the whole way through. It's the Hebrew word kathar. K-A-T-H-A-R. Kathar. And if you know Hebrew tonight, the moment I would say kathar, the word atonement would ring in your mind.

Or there's another English word, the word kathrin, or the word kathar. Because atonement means to cover. Now let's keep this book quite correct, that when we talk about covering, we're not using the word in the sense that God covers our sin.

Not in that sense. Let's keep this quite clear, that there is not only this great work of redemption done at the place called Calvary, and not only this mighty work of atonement, but there was another work which is called substitution.

You see, our Lord became the substitute for every belief. Which actually means that God made our sins atonement. And that he bore our sins away. This is substitution. And he's taking them away. And he's taking them away forever.

So that we're not just covering our sin, you know. But we see the atonement means this. That when the price of redemption is paid, and sinned by our substitute is removed, then he gives us atonement. That means the whole requirement of a holy God for our eternity.

And that's the bit of the look of the cross that went up this evening. It's the atonement, it's the covering. Now let me see it like this. Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

And speaking about God's view, Paul says, in the very last verse, verse 21. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. For he, for God, hath made sin, the Lord Jesus, to be sin for us. You know that's a sort of staggering statement.

If you can see him hanging on the table, he's like the serpent on the table. He's made sin for us. The great, godly doctor, John de Morgan, looked at this once and he said, I looked at it for quite a long time.

And I looked up the cross, and I tried to picture him being made sin. And I looked up to God and I said, if he's made sin, who's sin? And he said, God seemed to whisk the sin down from heaven. Who do you think?

Kendall Morgan said, he dared my sins. His own body on the tree. But who is it from them who set the tree? God hath made sin to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? That we must be made the righteousness of God.

I must be covering with it. That's how I stand before God tonight. Purely beauty, not my own. He took my sin. He exchanged with me for it the righteousness of God. Because if I'm standing in the righteousness of God this evening, then I'm not being acceptable to God.

If God doesn't accept his own righteousness, then where would I be? I've always said there's nothing purer, nothing nobler, nothing more beautiful, nothing more righteous, nothing more holy than the righteousness of God.

And that's the covering I have. Let me just clear the stage as we go to Romans chapter 5, the letter to the Romans, and get up the fifth chapter. Now this is the very thrilling fifth chapter. It's sometimes you do it like this.

It's you take all the we have in the chapter, 3 verse 6, for then we were yet without strength. There was a time when we had no strength at all. If you go to verse 8 it reads that God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners.

Once upon a time we were without strength. Once upon a time we were sinners. This thing. For if when we were enemies, he got those. Once upon a time we were without strength, you know. Once upon a time we were sinners.

Once upon a time we were enemies. I was an enemy of God's. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. And that's reconciliation. Being reconciled we shall be saved by his life.

You know this risen, exalted life of his comes into this salvation of ours. Saved only because Jesus lives. And not only so, verse 11, but we also join in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement.

And you can see there's a number of it there because it's a marginal reference. And actually it has more to do with reconciliation there than it has to do with atonement that we use to work. I think you can see that this old medieval word suffer, that you can see that it means the suffering that makes us acceptable to God.

And what I want to do for you in the class this evening, I want to show you some pictures of this suffering in the Old Testament. And then I want to show you the prophecy concerning this suffering. And then we're going to come to the issue of atonement.

Old Testament Pictures of Sin, Covering, and Atonement

Now let's go back to Genesis, and we're at the third chapter, the book of Genesis, and we're at chapter three, and we're right in the garden of Eden just then. And you know how the serpent beguiled Eve, and you remember that Paul records this in 2nd Corinthians as the serpent beguiled Eve, he said.

So he had no doubt that Paul had got this story. None at all. And the Lord Jesus touched in Matthew chapter 19 from the book of Genesis chapter 2, so he believed this story. And if Paul believed, and Jesus believed, then I'm a very simple creature fathering on, I believe too.

And because he beguiled Eve, and she did eat of the forbidden fruit, and then she gave to her husband, and he did eat. And it says in verse 7, the moment that they had both disobeyed God, and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were noticed.

But did they not know before that? No, I don't think so. You see, if we would go back into this wonderful creation that God made, we would hear God saying, let us make man in our own image. And in the image of God, man was made.

You know, when David's writing the 101st Psalm, he says, thou hast clothed thyself with light, but with a garment. You know, God doesn't put clothes on in the morning. God is clothed with light, and the great light there is the good for glory.

And I have the feeling, you know, that when we meet man, they were clothed with light. They were made in God's image. But the moment man fell, the light went. He's in the kingdom of darkness now, and he knows that he's nothing.

There isn't any problem in my mind about the people. Now, I'll tell you this, he knew that he needed a covering now to meet God, because he was not a church. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed, sewed leaves together, made themselves aprons.

You see, Adam knew that he needed some sort of covering now to meet a holy God. And do you find that Adam and his wife took themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

You know, the very presence of God exposed the foolishness of a man's mind. It was a foolish thing to think that his own sinful hands could make a remedy that would make him acceptable to God. Christians can't work at this yet.

They're going to church and paying in, and all the rest of it, the only thing is that our Christians say to me, I go to church every week, you know, and I give my money, and I do my best, and I pay my bills, and they think they'll go to heaven, they'll go to hell.

There's not one word about Christ in the whole thing. They haven't got any Christ. They're just hypocrites, that they know God. There's fig leaves they have. But the very presence of God exposed this thing.

There were two of them around behind the trees of the garden and knew these fig leaves were no good. And I want you to get the hold of this. Do you see verse 11? Verse 10, Adam said, I had my wife in the garden and I was reserved with her because I was naked and I hid myself.

And God said, they told me that I was naked. You see, God not only exposed the foolishness of the man's mind, but God is revealing the sinfulness of the man's act. He says, you must have disobeyed me.

They told you that you were naked. Now, when we come down the chapter a little bit, just to take time, in verse 21, it says, unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of things and clothed them.

I'll give you an introduction, that's the first time that they gave coats of things in the garden. They have coats on occasionally, just to hide their nakedness. And we needn't be too shranky about it.

Some people say, you're all that nice and tidy Mr. Mark. Well, I know that, sure I know that. But I always think, you see, that because I was brought up a child, I should just be tidy for the Lord. That's all the reason that I keep myself tidy.

Because I'm a tramp no longer. I'm the child of the king now. But this is the first place that you get the word coat. Now, you know the man, well, who not only exposed the foolishness of this man's mind, and not only revealed the sinfulness, but he revealed the Godness of this man's wish.

He took the fig leaves off him. Because the God is God and isn't acceptable to himself. You have to stand before him as a naked sinner. Yes, and he exposed you. And unless you come to the grace to feel that you're a sinner in need of a covering, to meet the requirement of a holy God, you'll never be saved.

So God took it. It makes you stand in his presence, naked sinner. And you notice that God made them coats of sins. So there must have been a sacrifice. There must have been bloodshed. God asked them, I'm an animal, to make a covering, to make me still acceptable in his presence.

That's the first hint we have in this book about atonement. It's the covering that God gave. But we'll get deeper into it. Here's something that I didn't put in the notes, but it doesn't matter because I haven't loomed all the time in these notes.

You read Genesis chapter 6. You remember this story. This is the story of God going to destroy the world that then was. It was so wicked that God couldn't go on with it anymore. And God said to Noah, verse 14, Make me a mark of gold for me.

You shall burn it in the earth, and shall pitch it with him and without you pitch. See the word pitch. Now I assure you, though I needn't be a scholar to you, I assure you it's a word chapter. Now that's funny, isn't it?

Well you know right now that pitch is for covering things, or at least you ought to know. When the painters come to paint the house, they talk about putting on coats of paint. That's to watch the painters, you know.

They say they put on three coats, and they'd only put on two. But we don't need to watch our painters because they belong to the assembly. But you know that painters got to look like this. Coats of paint.

We'll give her the coat of paint. That's what she says to you sometimes. We'll give her the coat of paint, doesn't she? Yes. Well you just start them till you see where you'll be. She'll have the paint in the whole house, that's all.

But this is going through with the earth, with pitch. I want you to get this. Pitch it with him, that would come first. And without you pitch. You know you can easily see the outside of it. It was pitched on the outside, because that was to make all the storm and all the laugh.

It was the gun. It never touched the pitch that was inside, because it was the pitch that covered it. It never fell in there. You say if it was pitched outside it would be enough. That's true. But you see when it's pitched inside, you're looking at the covering all the time.

Because God never wants you to forget about the covering. Never mind how safe you are. You need to look on the first day of the week, you know, to remember the covering that was made for you with Calvary.

Pitched with him. And without. It's good with the song of Solomon, and I think that you see this very clearly. Without the song of Solomon and without the chickens, that's all. This has always been delightful for me.

The Beloved as Shade and Covering in the Song of Solomon

Now this is the branch in the song of Solomon, and she's talking about her beloved. Now this was the language she uses without the second chapter of the song of Solomon and without the third verse. I'll be apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the thorns.

Now you can see what she puts about the apple tree. You know me and Logan, we're not far from the apple country. I'm going to stop dead on round in the streets there for nights on the apple country. Now the apple tree is the union tree among the trees.

Whether you like it or whether you don't. You know, we just love to go down to the after hour, to an apple blossom time of the year. And the fruit leaves alone, never mind the grouping of the flowers, let's follow by the fruit.

Because when you get the fruit leaves and the flowers and the fruit together, you begin to see the richness of the tree. And the bride knew this. She says, I'll be apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the thorns.

There's nobody like him, he's incomparable. And then she says, I'll stop down under his shadow with great delight. Tell me what is suffering again? His shadow. Tell me how the shadow comes. There is something that's lifted up between me and the sun.

That's what made the suffering. And then incomparable Lord Jesus will be lifted up on the tree. He made the suffering for all those who have put their trust in him. And you can sit down under his shadow with great delight.

And with recovery. You know, she went on with this talk. Verse 4 she said, he brought me to his bankrupting house, and he dug it open with love. Ah, that was the covering that we did. You know, I think that they sang the same in the Spirit of Dependence Go into the first chapter while you're there.

See this one. Verse 13. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me. See verse 14. My beloved is unto me as a cluster of chain fire in the chain fire there. But I assure you, and there are Hebrew scholars who can prove it, that it's a good example.

And I assure you that I couldn't understand that for a long time. And I was riding along, talking to this old Arab fellow who guided us in Palestine, and I happened to have my old boy who sat in the front seat to ask the questions.

And I said to him, do you know anything about the cluster of chain fire? He said, well, where did you get that from? I said, you know right well where I got it from, from the song of Solomon. He said, you know, that's wonderful because I can tell you all about that.

He said, you know, this chain fire, it's really the old henna flower, and I would like you young ladies to get the hold of this. So the henna flower grows about this length, it's pink, it's got a long cluster, and sometimes a young lady going to bed in Palestine at night with this glow in the garden, this cluster of chain fire, she'll just cut a piece off and take it into the bedroom.

And as she opens the package between her thumbs like that, the crown becomes dyed, beautiful, rosy pink. And then she rubs it all over herself, and she rubs more, and she rubs her arms, and she rubs her belly, and she cuddles herself with this.

And she says, my beloved, it's my turn. Just like that. That's where we are tonight, you know. We are in Christ. That's the covering. It's most amazing, you know. Here's another one that's not in the notes, but we'll do it just the same.

It's tied by a 20 inch. It's tied by hand, it's cut to 20 inch. Now this is a very wonderful one, and it's only because of this red cap that you would ever find it. We'll accept the 20 inch, and we'll address it too.

The Prophetic Hiding Place and the Covering of Christ

God is talking to Israel here, and He's saying in due covenant with death, shall be disannulled. See the word disannulled? Then it's a red cap. It can be pitch, it can be lots of things, you know. It can be coats.

It's covering, it doesn't matter. You see, when a covenant was made in those days, it was usually cut out in stone. You know, the letters were cut out in stone. And this is the covenant with death that He's talking about.

This is behind the weapon that was against us. And sometimes when there is covenant that has been cut out in stone, how could it be annulled? There is a wonderful way of disannulling it. What they did with this?

They got lead, and they put it in a pot, and they put it on the fire. And they melted it. And we were girls. We used to get lead and put it in an old pan and melt it. And run it all in for one rent and take it down to the blood store to sell it.

You don't take it to run it now if they would have known where it came from. But once you melted it, you say, I don't want to lead you into this. Just believe me, that's all. I did it a thousand times.

Yes, but here's what they did in olden times. When this covenant was written on the stone, cut out in stone, they wanted to disannull it. They melted this lead, and then they poured it over this writing.

And they brought it out. It came out. There in my hand, there was a revelation. Brought it out this evening. Disannulled. This is the atonement, you know. This is what Christ did at Calvary. But let's get away from the pictures now.

Have a look at Isaiah 32 just while you're there. And I think you'll get this quite easily. Verse 2,. And the man shall be an hiding-place. Oh, what a mighty statement to say it. A man shall be an hiding-place.

A cover from the tempest. You know who the man is, don't you? It's the man Christ Jesus. And he stepped out of the glory, and took upon himself the form of a serpent, and from thence did the two blood-stained rugged cross, and was crucified, and shed his precious blood at the price of our redemption, took our sins upon him, and bore them away in his own body to between that with substitution, and at the same time he became a covering for us.

Yes, we're clothed in the righteousness of God this evening. Let's go back to Leviticus 17 and see this. The book of Leviticus, and we're at the 17th chapter. Verse 11, For the life of the flesh is in the blood.

That's a tremendous token, don't you know? Because that's how we replace blood with different from any other person's blood. You see, we were talking about just in time with his life on Sunday night, we were talking about the blood of the soul, with no opportunity.

That's the sort of life that we're having, blood. We were talking about God, talking about living after the death of Christ, he was such a Pharisee, that's what we call Pharisee for living. That's the life that was in his blood, so that not one of us could give our blood as an atonement because we're untrue.

We have to find God with life in it, that God made him absolutely spotless, pure, without blemish. Can I think like this only with blood? Maybe you'll get the hold of the day. I will remind them to be the covering for us.

But precious blood, more precious than any one of us will ever expound. And look what God is saying, verse 11, for the life of this flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your soul, for it is the blood that makes it an atonement for the soul.

You know, our young brother was preaching at the table on Sunday morning, and he took the text and gave themselves to us. And we were all told, let me say that before we go any further. He was sitting beside me and I could see him looking at the book and looking it up and down, and I was eyeing him with the tail of my eye and I was wondering how long he was going to dilly-dally with this.

Because I can tell you young fellows that God gave you a message for this table on Sunday morning that you dilly-dally too much the devil will take it out of you. Because the God has given you from him, get on your feet and speak out.

Don't be afraid of anybody around you. And then he did that, he did tremendously well. And he did that through Joseph himself for us, and he did the whole at the beginning, he gave himself for us. Now through this New Testament we find this again and again, he gave himself.

He loved me and gave himself to me. He loved the church, he gave himself for it, for us. Now if you just take the words, he gave himself, then you are at the atonement. Because it was by himself he felled, he felled our sins.

When we are by himself, sins is the word. It's cowardly the word. Now if you just take the phrase, he gave himself, you will bear him, you are at the substitution aren't you. Because he gave himself for me, he gave himself for you, he gave himself for the church, he gave himself for us.

You are at substitution now. Now it's good like this, he gave himself a ransom, a redemption. You see there is redemption for all who know. Don't look any mistakes about this, you know. Don't have a picture in which you pretend, oh no, in the precious blood of the man, there is sufficiency to buy back all that he will only suffice for those who believe.

So if it is you say he gave himself, you are at the atonement. If you say he gave himself for us, for all, you are at the substitution. If you say he gave himself for ransom, you are at the redemption.

If you say he gave himself to God, this is one of the statements at all, he gave himself to God as a sweet smelling saviour, you are at the preparation now. It's such a fine God. Oh you are beginning to learn about the cross are you.

Because the cross is a mighty place. The things you talk about being left again, you are left in the trail, about the cross. I was a sick listener to your liturgy. I might as well tell you, because that's exactly what Angel of the Lord said about the cross.

You walk and you talk yourself. And I have said long, long ago, I am filled with the righteousness of God, this is to say. I have got the conscience that God prepares for me, which is Christ, I am in Christ.

Yes, God I am not in the devil, I am in Jesus. And let me tell you, it is the eternal redemption. And let me ask you this, if you would see my substitutes and do my things, if you didn't take them all, if you left me out, I am damned.

He is not coming back to do it over again you know. If he missed one when he was there, I am finished. He didn't miss any. All this might be because of the cross. Now we have looked at the crucifixion, that was something that was done to him.

We have looked at the redemption, that was something that was done by him. We have looked at the atonement, that was something that was brought to him. Now let's keep the whole thing together. We are going to deal with I am not going to tell you the scornfulness.

I am not going to tell you the purpose. But when I talk about the Lord's death, let him be the Lord. The Lord of glory. Die for me. That staggers me you know. I am a very simple believer, I can believe anything that is in his book.

But this staggers me. That the Lord of glory, the almighty maker of all things, he died, he died for me. You don't think I need to do anything else do you? You Roman Catholics, you don't think that I need Mary up for that do you?

You don't think that I need a British priest do you? That I am looking for absolution at the end of the day do you? You don't know a thing about what we are talking about. We don't need candles, nor money, nor pornography.

When I shall lay the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died, my riches gained, my comfort lost, poor contempt. I am just a sinful thing that he gloriously says, be all the glory. God rest thy soul.

Evangelism, the Gospel Message, and Congregational Singing

I am hiding in a single couple of verses about what we have had. 519 groups. 519. Now you will remember that next Tuesday we are on the Lord's death and I have prepared a lovely little discourse that I would like to introduce you to tonight.

We will not be telling them tonight but next Tuesday. It is called perish Now it is a message that I have preached and I have sent you all a document. It is a very beautifully designed document. It was my son sitting down there who designed it.

And I have put it in stock. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. And there is another translation, I think it makes it clearer. The preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness.

So I don't first of all with the perishing crowd. I took my time with that one just to let the perishing crowd show how perishing they were. And then I took up the preaching of the cross. And it is something that I do something about.

The preaching of the cross. So I dealt with the perishing crowd and then the preaching of the cross. And then I dealt with the problem in the congregation for the preaching of the cross to them that are perishing of foolishness.

That is the problem. You are completely foolishness. Now we went into this very topic. Now when you think that this has got to be prepared and pitched and taken off the tape and written down and edited and the full stacks and the columns and the paragraphs all put in.

And then it's got to be stenciled and it's got to be run off in its hundreds and thousands of pages. Then it's got to be snippets. It's got to be prepared. And as you may request a paper today, if I ask you five new pens for that, you will not even pay me for it, I assure you.

But we don't want to miss none of it. See what I want you to do. Use the gospel message. In fact it's one of the gospels I've ever preached. In fact every day I preach this on my holidays. I don't mind carrying new pictures.

I've pitched it every day I went on my holidays. That's how I got on. There were people who said every time. So it's the message that God used to save many souls. Now I want you to do a bit of evangelising.

It will only cost you five new pens to take it and send it to some old man. Maybe you'll never get the message immediately. You can pitch it to your old mother, you know. If you haven't got the guts to talk to her.

You can pitch it to the schoolmaster, you know. You can pitch it anywhere. You can pitch it to the hospital. You can pitch me and the ones that I've ever seen. I've told you that the old mother should kill the world.

I've put her in contact now. She's a woman now. She's an example. But she used to take these books and put them on the table for the men. I'm telling you she did. I'm telling you a little doctor comes down and says give me a lot of those.

And I put them on the table for the patients. This is evangelising. I put a barbecue in front and just take the gospel to somebody. See you next Tuesday. All the best. Thank you. Two verses. 519. First and last verses, you know.

First and last. Don't shift to the left or the right of the mic. 519 please. Don't think that you're singing the way you should, you know. If you're in Christ, my friend, and you're clothed with the righteousness of God, and you're covered with the atonement, then we need to open our mouths and say, every one of us, every saved soul in this building, singing at your very loudest, never mind about your best.

I'm never at my best. I just shout. Now we're singing. And as soon as you're in the seat, if you're not singing, I'm stopping you. You'll listen for me stopping you. And I'm bringing you up and you're on your own from that moment.

Old or young, we need to sing. Let's sing. Sing for the Lord tonight. For oft in the conflict, when pressed by the polls, I have fled to my refuge and grieved out my woe. For oft in them trials, like Siebel of Rome, I have hidden in me, O thou rock of my soul.

Like every stock now, all together. I have fled to my refuge and grieved out my woe. For oft in them trials, like Siebel of Rome, I have hidden in me, O thou rock of my soul. Remember those who mourn for a soldier tonight.

Give us thy blessing, for thy name's sake. Amen.