Paying the Price

And I should say that has nothing to do with my sermon. That thought just popped into my head. But as I was saying to, I think... I can't remember who I was saying to you. It's amazing fasting. Going without water makes your memory go away, it seems. Of course, a year ago I was saying it was having the baby. They say that pregnant mothers, you know, can start to get a little scatterbrained. And I would tease Sue saying, well, the baby's stealing your brain cells. And I'd say, well, she's stealing mine. But anyways, what I was saying last night, I was looking through my notes and said, boy, this seems like it might come up a bit short. So most people don't complain if a sermon goes a little short. But on atonement, you're filling the day anyways. So what I'll try to do is speak at a pace where you can all hear me for a change. Or not hear me, but understand every word. Well, we've all heard, speaking of phrases and hearing, you've heard the phrase, you get what you pay for. Or, and what most often that means, you know, if something only costs a little, it may only be worth just a little. It might even be worth less than that little you paid for it. Or sometimes you say you get what you pay for if you're paying a high price. Because you think you're getting, I shouldn't say you think, but usually you are getting good, high quality. Something will last a long time. So you're willing to pay that high price. Now, this is the day of atonement, so you might be wondering why this talk about buying stuff and prices. Well, the reason I wanted to lead in with this is because paying a price is not necessarily all about money. You know, we might have to pay a price sometimes in time and in effort. We sometimes talk of making a mistake and then having to pay the price of that error. And I've studied military history for many years, and I know that's a measure they look at with generals. When a general makes a mistake, the price is often measured in how many lives are lost. And all this does relate to the day of atonement, because we'll see that the word atonement is very much about paying the price. And if you like titles, that's what I'm calling this in my notes, is paying the price. So I made a claim about what the word atonement means. I thought I'd better back that up, so I pulled my big bulky dictionary off the shelf, and I looked up the word to atone. Atonement is the noun, the thing, or the action. Atonement is the action. You can atone for something. So to atone means to make amends. Make amends or make reparations for some type of offense or even for a crime.

Now, I said amends and reparation amends is anything that makes up for what's done. Now, if you do something to make amends, you're making it better. Amends really means to make something better. Reparations is a little more specific. The term reparations means a payment or a retribution. Now, even peace negotiators have used that when nations are negotiating a peace treaty, and they've been fighting. If one nation is harmed another, sometimes they'll talk about making reparations.

One nation will pay for damages done to another. Now, we often focus on different meanings for the word for atonement. We think of atone meaning to be reconciled. That is, to get back in good graces with someone. And it does mean that. Or atonement is often referred to as the state of reconciliation between God and man. And that definition is correct also. All of these definitions are interrelated.

Making amends can mean paying for damage caused, but it can also mean taking some action to undo the hurt that you did. Many times that can be accomplished by a simple heartfelt apology. I'm really sorry I hurt your feelings. Maybe a handshake, and that makes the amends. That makes things better. But there are many times when an apology is not enough.

Have any of you ever gone into a store that displayed fragile items? My wife likes to buy little knickknacks. And I keep telling her, You can't buy any more knickknacks unless we get rid of some of the old ones, because our shelves are full. I don't know if I can use that for a while now, because we've got a bigger house.

Her mother has a really nice display case. I'm not sure if they call it a whatnot, or something that has these beautiful, fragile statues, and porcelain things. But anyways, I've been to stores that sell those. Strangely enough, usually if we're on vacation or at the feast, we go into these shops. And many times they'll have a sign on the wall that says, If you break it, you bought it. That's the simple thing.

We're familiar with that. If you break a piece of this fine china or crystal, the store doesn't want a heartfelt apology. They want money. They say, You bought it when you broke it. Now, on the other hand, if someone has to go out of their way to do extra work to make up for something you've done, sometimes a very warm thank you can make amends. Someone might have to work to clean up a mess that you've made. I've had that happen many times because I'm a little clumsy. I've made a mess and just, Oh, thank you so very much.

And people thought, that's okay. But sometimes you make a mistake that's going to go more than that. Say I'm trying to fix the drain at the house, and I make a mistake to where we have to call in a plumber. And he comes in and he gets out the proper equipment and puts in new parts. He's not going to be satisfied with a thank you and a handshake. Now, he's going to put out his hand because he wants me to put a check in it, or cash.

So, the old saying goes, If you want to dance, you have to pay the piper. If you want to dance, you have to pay the piper, which is funny. Even I mentioned this to Sue when I was looking at this. I said, that's where our common phrase, It's time to pay the piper. A lot of younger people are familiar with, It's time to pay the piper, but didn't know that the dancing came beforehand.

In any event, if you offend someone, or if you incur an expense in order to be at peace, in order to be reconciled to that person, or to make atonement with that person, you have to pay the proper price. Whether it's saying the right words, or writing a check, or perhaps doing some work for somebody. Another way this is often phrased is, they sometimes say, making it good.

Say, if you're dealing with a business, and they make a mistake, they say, okay, we'll make it good, which means, they'll make up for the loss of time or money you've had. Sue and I had that at the feast a few, two or three years ago. We were staying at a hotel, and these horrible smells started coming into our room.

It turned out, down on the floor beneath us, they were resurfacing the bathtubs, and they were applying some chemical that was just horrid. It was the right tool for the job, but the fumes came up into our room, and we had to go to this, that we cannot stay there. They said, we'll make this good. They moved us to another part of the hotel and gave us an upgrade to a much nicer room than we'd had before. So, that's part of, you know, they were atoning for the mistake they'd made. This is all leading up to the discussion of what price you and I owe.

Let's quickly review three familiar scriptures to bring this in. I've been talking about, you know, doing business and prices and all that. Let's go to Ezekiel 18. Ezekiel 18, verse 4. As I said, I've got some very familiar scriptures, but I think it's important to bring them in in this context. Ezekiel 18, verse 4. And I'll mention, we usually just refer to the last part of this verse, but in this case, the last part is very important, but also the first part is.

So, 18, verse 4, God says, Behold, all souls are mine, the soul of the Father, as well as the soul of the Son, is mine. You know, God owns us. The soul who sins shall die. When God says, all souls are mine, it makes me think of that shop with the fancy trinkets on the shelf.

And those fancy trinkets, in this case, are our lives. You know, the life that God gives us. He owns us. So, all these people are on this shelf, and God has a sign that says, if you break it, you bought it. So, if you break your life, the price is death.

You ruin it, you've got to pay the price. Another way of putting this can be found in Romans 6, chapter 6, verse 23. This is another one a lot of you know by heart, Romans 6, chapter 23.

Here he says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life and Christ Jesus. This shows we can earn death. We can incur that penalty. We can do something to deserve death. But we can never earn eternal life. That can only be given to us as a gift.

Now, from reading these, though, a normal person who's not been already through this material before might say, Whoa! I don't want to sin, then! The price is death! So, I'm just never going to sin. I don't want to have to die. But if you flip a few pages forward, we'll see that it's too late. In Romans 3, verse 23, a very simple statement, We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We've all sinned. We've already done it. We've already broken that trinket on the shelf that is our life. And so, we all already broke it. We all have to buy it. We owe that price. We can find confirmation, by the way, across the page for me on Romans 3, chapter 10 through 12.

It's expounded a little more poetically. 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 turned aside. They have all together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. So, the Bible is telling us that every one of us has sinned. Every one of us has earned the death penalty.

Now, it's in our human nature to say, Well, wait a minute! I'm not as bad as that guy over there. You might point across the room or out in the parking lot. There are some bad people out there. And especially with young people, I see this in Portsmouth, we have a lot of young adults who grew up in the church. They've always been here. They've always kept the Sabbath. They've never cheated on income taxes or stolen from people. Whereas there are people out there that are murderers and child abusers and all that.

You know, we aren't like them. Why should we have to pay the same price? Or you could say, Do we have to pay the same price? Well, for the answer to that, we have to go to the one who sets the price. And that's God. And He says, Yes. There is the same price. Let's go back to the book of James in chapter 2.

James chapter 2 will begin in verse 10.

And God makes this point. As I said, you could say, Well, my sins haven't been that bad, or I barely transgressed anything. But it's very clear here. We'll read 10 and 11 first.

Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you've become a transgressor of the law. So it doesn't matter. And you could say, The one who said, Don't commit adultery or don't murder also said, Keep the Sabbath. So if you've never murdered or hurt anyone, but you've broken the Sabbath, you've incurred the penalty. You're a sinner. But let's continue on in verse 12.

But mercy triumphs over judgment. That's an important thing to say. There is mercy. We've all earned that death penalty. We've all broken what God gave us. And it doesn't matter how small our sin is. We've all done it. We've all brought the death penalty. But James here says, Mercy triumphs over judgment. Another way of saying that might be to say, We can d- Well, let me ask it as a question. Because I've got a question mark here. Is this saying that we can dance without paying the piper? Well, the answer to that is, well, yes and no.

The piper has to be paid. There's no getting around it. Atonement must be made. But perhaps not by you. It should not be a surprise to anyone here that we have a hope. We're not looking and saying, Well, we've all sinned, so we're going to die and be dead for all eternity.

The price for our sins, which is death, has been paid by Jesus Christ. And that's something- Well, you hear on atonement, but I wanted to focus on it more because we often focus on another aspect. But let's go back to the book of Romans and chapter 5.

Romans 5, and we'll begin in verse 6. We're going to read 6 through 11 here. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly, those who were sinning, those who were dancing, and owed the piper. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in 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.

This is an important point, and this is off where I was going, but it's interesting. We're justified by His death. All of our past sins can be wiped out by His blood, but that doesn't necessarily bring us eternal life because human beings will always go in sin again. But we're saved by His life. We'll be saved by wrath through Him, because when God puts His Spirit in us, He and Jesus Christ start to dwell in us, and it makes us into a new person who can start to overcome sin.

So Christ's death is very important to give us that new start, and then His life, Him living in us, is even more important. Well, maybe I shouldn't say more important, but it's vitally necessary. Verse 10, 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. We're saved by the fact that Jesus lives, not just by the fact that He died.

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. We could put the word, receive the atonement there. Atonement and reconciliation can be interchangeable in many cases. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread through all men, because all sinned. I just realized I think I'm coming back to that later, but we were reconciled, atoned to God through the death of His Son.

So that's the atonement. We rejoice that we received that reconciliation, that atonement. Let's go back a few chapters to Romans 3. We'll read verse 24 and 25. Romans 3 and verse 24. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Redemption is like being bought back, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness. Because in His forbearance, God has passed over the sins that we previously committed in His forbearance. Now, it's interesting. I think for most of my life, the only time I'd ever seen the word propitiate was in the Bible.

And I've got to admit, I thought, that has something to do with Christ's sacrifice, but I don't know what. And I've heard it sometimes used other places. It's a pretty rare word, so I thought, I'm going to look that up, too. Propitiate means to make someone favorably inclined, to appease someone who doesn't like you. So Christ served to propitiate God the Father's feelings towards us, because He paid the price.

Now, when I put it that way, though, I thought, it could make it sound like God is some evil monster who demands blood. You've got to punish, you've got to pay. But that's not right. The reason this has to be this way is because God is stable. God is unchanging. He created the universe, and what's right in the universe is always right, because it is what God is. Right conforms to God's way of doing things, and because God can't change, what's right and wrong can never change. Right is always right, wrong is always wrong, and sin always brings death. So it's not that God is evil and just wanting to punish people, it's just that He can't change, and it's for our good that He doesn't change. He's not unstable, and He likes you one day and doesn't like you the next. He's always there. He's always loving and kind. And that love and that mercy of His is why He allows us to have someone else pay the price for us. The price has to be paid, but in His mercy, the Father said, I'll let someone else pay it. Now, I wrote it down here because I was thinking this as I was writing my notes for my sermon. This might be starting to sound a lot like a Passover sermon, I'm thinking, rather than the Day of Atonement. But the reason for that is I've just shown through the Scripture and through the definitions of the very words that atonement is about paying the price, about making it right. And that that atonement, our reconciliation to God, can only be done through Christ's sacrifice. None of us, we can pay for our sin one time, and then we're gone because we earned the debt penalty and we paid it, we're done.

So that might lead to the question, though, why do we so often on atonement talk about Satan being bound and his punishment for leading mankind to stray? Why is that such a big focus on atonement? Well, we do so because that also is a vital part of the meaning of this day. It's not inconsequential. That is part of the day, and I don't want to ignore that. Let's go to Revelation chapter 20.

I think if I tried to give a sermon on atonement and didn't turn here, then I'd probably be due for some punishment. Of course, I know it's probably not like that. I didn't see that in the manual anywhere, but we'll read Revelation 20 and begin in verse 1. Because this is something we look forward to a great deal.

We can somewhat look back on Christ's sacrifice because the price has been paid, although we have to acknowledge it and have to claim that sacrifice.

The Holy Days tend to work this way. Of course, you've noticed that the day of atonement or the Passover looks back at Christ's sacrifice. And then the days of Unleavened Bread, that's been being fulfilled since Christ's sacrifice of us putting out sin.

The Feast of Pentecost looks primarily at the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and that's begun and ongoing. When we come to the Fall Holy Days, we're looking ahead almost entirely. We have this one connection that makes us look back on atonement, looking back at Christ's sacrifice. But we're looking ahead to the fulfillment of this verse, Revelation 20, verse 1.

And then after these things, he must be released for a little while. And I wasn't necessarily going to go down to verse 7, but since I don't want to leave it hanging, we've read this a week ago. But in verse 7 it says, And I wasn't necessarily going to go down to verse 7, but since I don't want to leave it hanging, we've read this a week ago. But in verse 7 it says, So Satan's end is to be cast out, first bound in a bottomless pit, then in the lake of fire. And we have no reason to think the lake of fire, we don't know that it will exist forever, but Satan's punishment will. Satan will never again be allowed to influence other people. Now, I mentioned the plan of the Holy Days. Just a little over a week ago, we celebrated the Feast of Trumpets. And it depicts primarily the end of this age, the end of man's rule on earth and the coming of Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ returns to the earth with a strong arm and a strong hand to take over. And soon after that, Satan is bound. And that's why we mark that on the Day of Atonement. Soon after Christ returns, Satan is bound. Soon after the Feast of Trumpets comes the Day of Atonement when we honor that. Now, to connect this, connect Satan being bound with Christ's sacrifice, let's go back to the Old Testament. And see one of the unusual rituals that brings these together. We're going to go to Leviticus 16. Leviticus 16. And this is another one of those passages of Scripture that I like to go to on Atonement. Some ministers would just as soon leave it alone and focus on other things, but that's good. There's variety in the universe and within the Church. Leviticus 16 provides detailed instructions for an annual ritual once a year. And what's interesting, and many of us in the Church don't realize how little this is understood outside the Church. Maybe I should qualify that because I know there are many older than me here. Many of us who have been in the Church most of our lives don't realize how little this is understood. We grow up, those of us who grew up in the Church mostly know this, and many of us have known it so long we forget that most Christian Churches don't really understand Leviticus 16. And the Jews, they've had these Scriptures all this time and it's part of their ritual, but they don't understand it either. We have the understanding that comes from God's Holy Spirit that lets us see what this means. So let's go into it. Luke 16... I say Luke Leviticus. That's a lack of water, or maybe it's a lack of coffee. Leviticus 16, beginning in verse 2.

Now, I know some of you might have the original King James. I'm using the new King James, and they inserted the just to make that clear. Because otherwise the old King James says, tell Aaron not to come anytime into the Holy of Holies. And then it proceeds down through the rest of this chapter to tell him to come into the Holy of Holies once a year. So what it means is not to come in just anytime, not whenever he felt like it. Aaron did come every day into the main part of the temple. And after Aaron was gone, whoever the high priest was came into that main part of the temple, offered sacrifice every day. But the Holy of Holies, which was the back room, which was closed off by a heavy veil, it was a place where he couldn't go every day. He could only go one time in a year, and God is telling them that here.

Now let's go down to show when that one day of the year is. We'll skip ahead to verse 29.

Because you might not realize that all the ceremony we're going to review is focused on the Day of Atonement. And if you didn't realize at the end of the chapter, he tells you when that day is, that one time of the year.

So in verse 29 it says, It's interesting. I mentioned no work at all as opposed to on the other Holy Days it says, no servile work. The difference is on the other Holy Days, you prepare food. You might wash dishes. You do things that on Atonement you don't have to do. So he says, you don't have to do any of that. You're not doing any work. I lost my place here.

So it's not hard to tell why we call it the Day of Atonement. That's the one day when Atonement is made, that making it right, paying the price.

This shall be an everlasting statute for you to make Atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins, once a year. And he did as the Lord commanded Moses. So Moses went out and passed on these instructions. Now we're going to come back to Leviticus 16. So you might want to put a finger here or a marker. But I want to turn back to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 9.

We're going to see that the writer of Hebrews, who we think was the Apostle Paul, it's the one book that he doesn't have his name on, but it's written like his others, Hebrews 9 will begin in verse 6. He's going to add some explanation, because the Apostle Paul very well knew this ceremony in Leviticus 16. He was raised as a Pharisee. He understood the Old Testament inside and out and was trained in all of that.

But he also had been taught personally by Jesus Christ, and he understood Christ's sacrifice. So let's carry on here in Hebrews 9 beginning in verse 6.

The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to conscience. So we see that the high priest went in once a year with blood, but we're going to see that that blood was symbolic. That actual, the blood of the animals, isn't what would take away people's sins. Reading on in verse 11.

That is not of this creation.

So all those sacrifices, all those years were symbolic of Christ's sacrifice. That his blood would be able to pay for our sins, would make an actual atonement. Notice in Hebrews 10 in verse 4.

Even if they could pay for our past sin, they couldn't stop us from sinning. There's where I said we're reconciled, justified by Christ's sacrifice, but we're saved by his life. Because not only does he pay the sacrifice, but he puts his Holy Spirit in us and dwells in us so that we can change and grow and overcome. We'll move ahead in Hebrews 10 to verse 10. Hebrews 10 verse 10.

By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 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. So it's interesting, that ceremony, even though it was only once a year, we've had thousands of years since it was instituted. Offered over and over again. But Jesus Christ came and only had to be offered one time to pay that price. So this is bringing us back to the fact that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is central to the meaning of the Day of Atonement. Now, we could stop there, but we barely touched on the ritual. There's more to it, and it reveals some more detail about God's plan and about how he's going to work it out. So that it's not just a matter of, as many Protestant churches say, where you say, Well, I accept Jesus, okay, you get to go to heaven. God's plan is more interesting and detailed than that. So let's go back to Leviticus 16. I did manage to keep my hands there. I don't know if all of you are, I say, as dexterous as me. I'm still not sure if dexterous is an adjective. I know dexterity is a noun, but anyways. And I'm not usually that at all. I'm not good with my hands. That's why I stand up here and talk. Today, I'm not that good at that either. But let's go to Leviticus 16, beginning in verse 3. Okay, we're going to... and this is showing... look ahead of what's going to happen on this day. So thus, Aaron shall come into the Holy Place. Earlier than that, God said, Tell Aaron not to come just any time into the Holy of Holies. He can go every day into the other part, but once a year he can come into the Holy Place. And verse 3 said, Thus... in other words, this is how he can do it. 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 tunic and the linen trousers on his body, and he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with a linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore, he shall wash his body with water and then 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. And Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house.

Now, interesting, he's looking ahead, saying, okay, Aaron, this is how you're going to have to do it. You're going to have to put on the holy clothes. That means you've got to take a bath first. You're going to have to offer a sacrifice for yourself, so you've got to choose a bull for that. You've got to choose two goats, because they're going to play a role. So, his day probably started fairly early that day. He'd have to get up. He'd have to wash himself, get on the proper clothes, choose the right animals before beginning the actual ceremony. And if you wonder about this bull for himself, I find this interesting, because at certain times during this ritual, the priest would represent Jesus Christ. At other times, a goat would represent Christ, and we'll get to that later. But Aaron's going to portray Jesus Christ, so he has to have his sins covered. So, he would have to sacrifice a bull for himself personally before he could do any of the other stuff.

Now, that's one part of the ceremony that has no parallel in reality, because Jesus Christ never had to sacrifice for his own sins first. He never sinned. So, I find it interesting. It's a little trivial thing. I don't know that it matters, but the fact that that sacrifice of the bull was showing in some ways the contrast between a human priest and Jesus Christ as high priest. Christ never required any sacrifice for himself.

Now, let's go on to verse 5. Oh, actually, I just read verse... well, we'll pick up here. I want to point out the two goats.

We cast lots for the two goats, one for the eternal and the other lot for the scapegoat. Now, we always insert another word here, because scapegoat is somebody who gets blamed for something he didn't do and doesn't deserve. Well, that's not the case here. This is not really a scapegoat, which is funny because scapegoat comes from that term. But we use the Hebrew word azazel, which we're not sure exactly what it means. I think sometimes you could just say, instead of scapegoat, you could say an escape goat, because that goat's going to escape from punishment.

He's going to be sent away from the people. But it's important to remember they're symbols. The one... Yeah, and Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord's lot fell and offer it as a sin offering. And the goat on which the lot fell to be the escape goat shall be presented alive before the eternal to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the escape goat into the wilderness.

I'm inserting my own word there now. Remember, this is a description of overall what's going to happen, and then later it goes through blow by blow this happening. But it's interesting, lots were cast as to which goat would be which, because it's worth noting they're symbols. Neither one of these goats deserved the fate that was going to come on it.

They're just goats. One goat was going to be for the eternal, one would be the azazel. Now, after this is all ready, we'll go into verse 11. So, Aaron, as I said, he gets up early, takes a bath, put on the right clothes, chooses the animals, gets everything in alignment, and then he's going to start. Verse 11, Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself.

And he'll take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the eternal, with his hands full of sweet incense, beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. So this is Aaron's first time coming inside the veil, and he only gets to do it one day out of the year. And he'll put the incense on the fire before the eternal, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony, lest he die. It's interesting. This has to happen. Aaron has to do things just the right way, or he die.

And we didn't look there, because I didn't necessarily want to bring this in, but just the chapter before, one or two chapters before, Leviticus 15, there's the description of how Aaron's sons brought what's called profane fire, not the fire that God lit on the altar.

They just brought any old fire in, and God struck them down dead. And then after that, God said, tell Aaron, don't just come just any old way, or don't, you know, he gave them specific instructions.

So it shows that, you know, your life's on the line. You have to do this just the way God says. It's a very important ceremony, and he wasn't messing around, so to speak. Oh, and the other thing I wanted to bring out here is, we see in Revelation, there's a place where it talks about the incense, is as the prayers of the saints. So this is symbolic of our prayers going up to God, which I think is a nice thing.

I'm glad that he revealed that later on. Then in verse 14, He'll take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat. On the east side and before the mercy seat, he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Okay, so this is all to prepare for the main event. As I said, so far, Aaron is taking care of his own sin, symbolically.

And he goes in and makes this offering, which, as I said, now, soon after this, he's going to represent Jesus Christ. We go in verse 15. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, and 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 shall he make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, 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. There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. So it's interesting here.

This is the atonement. The shedding of blood, making it right, paying the price. This is to pay the price for sin. The goat represents Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. And the reason I'm pointing this out is there are some in other religions who believe that the other goat represents Jesus Christ.

Or that it has to be both together to make that reconciliation and atonement. But it's the one goat, the blood, that makes the atonement. We'll see that the other goat also has to carry a certain responsibility, though. The other goat is important to the ceremony. But I'm just saying that it's only the sacrifice goat that pays for the sins. And that sacrifice is the atonement. Keep your finger here. I want to go back to the book of Exodus to show something else that I think is important. Exodus 12. I've been stealing all the lines from Passover sermons, so I'm going to steal the Scriptures, too. At least some of them. Revelation 12 will begin in the first verse.

Now the Eternal spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be your beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor of this house take it according to the number of the persons each man needs, so he shall take the lamb. And your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year, you shall take it from the sheep or the goats. And I wanted to, I read the whole thing, but I wanted to get to that last part to show that, as I said, there's a connection between atonement and Passover. The lamb could be a goat in that case as well. It could be a lamb, meaning, you know, a newborn, either from a sheep or a goat. Both the Passover lamb and the atonement goat symbolize Christ's sacrifice for our sins in different ceremonies at different times. But I think it shows that it's such an important sacrifice that the two major sacrifices of two of the major festivals on our holiday calendar represent Christ's sacrifice. Of course, we could extrapolate out and show that virtually every sacrifice symbolizes Christ's sacrifice, and that's not incorrect either. And while I'm doing that, let's, if you still have a hand in Leviticus, we're going to come back there, but let's go to Matthew, Chapter 27. Because there's another important symbol that ties in here, and I wanted to make the point while it was on my mind. Because remember, as I said, the priest went that one day of the year inside the Holy of Holies. The whole temple was holy, so the back compartment was either called the Holy of Holies or sometimes called the Most Holy Place. And he had to go behind the veil, behind this thick, heavy curtain, and that separated the Holy Place from the rest of the temple. Now, and of course, this is talking in Leviticus, it's speaking of the tabernacle, which was an elaborate tent structure. Later, the temple was built, but the same veil with the same ark of the covenant and the tables inside. In Matthew 27, in verse 50, we'll see something that changes when Christ is not... when His sacrifice is no longer symbolized by the goat, but when His sacrifice became a reality. So we're here in Matthew 27, Jesus Christ was being crucified, and He's about to end His life. And in verse 50, it says, Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His Spirit. Or in some translations say, He gave up His last breath. And then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom, and the earthquake and the rocks were split. That same veil that Aaron had to go behind, and that every high priest for all those years could only go behind one day a year.

Suddenly now, it's ripped in half. It's ripped wide open. And importantly, from the top to the bottom. So there's no way, and I don't remember the height, but it's high enough that you'd have to have a significant step ladder, and I don't think any person would have the strength to rip this curtain. It's described earlier in the book of Exodus. It shows God ripped it open, symbolically showing that when Christ's sacrifice was done, the way to the Holy of Holies would be open.

Access to God the Father was now open without another mediator. Jesus Christ takes the priesthood of Melchizedek, and He's our mediator, and we can go to the Father with His blood, not just one day a year, but every single day, as often as we want. Now, that's a powerful symbol that would be brought in later. We're showing that the atonement ceremony with the goats shows how much Christ's sacrifice is needed, and we see so many things open and happen once that sacrifice is realized and fulfilled. But of course, we're not finished yet. Let's go back to Leviticus 16. Once again, I managed to keep a hand here, so I hope you did too. We'll begin in 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, and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions concerning 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. Or the Old King James says, the hand of a fit man, which I always liked a phrasing of that. But in our modern parlance, it might mean someone that works out a lot if he's a fit man. A suitable man, someone able for the job. And the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land, and he shall release the goat into the wilderness. So we see, after atonement is made, that reconciliation is made by the blood sacrifice, then the live goat is burdened with responsibility for Israel's sins, and led away by a fit man into the wilderness. Now, we understand the fit man represents the angel of Revelation 20. We read earlier that angel comes down with a chain, binds Satan, and throws him into the bottomless pit. So the goat, the live goat, represents Satan, who is cast away, put away from people forever. Satan will be put into what is termed a bottomless pit. Now, he has to bear his share of the responsibility for the sins of all mankind.

And that's because he's the dragon of Revelation 12 and 19, where it says that serpent of old, that old dragon, whose tail swept down a third of the angels and deceives the whole world. And I talked about that last week. That Satan, who deceives the whole world, because of that deception, he's had a hand in every sin that every person has ever committed. He was there in the Garden of Eden when he told Eve, you will not surely die. Let's go to Romans 5 again. We're going to come back to Leviticus one last time, so if you haven't already moved it, you can keep a finger there. But Romans 5 and beginning in verse 11.

We were here earlier reading the earlier verses.

I'm going to make a point of where it starts and the responsibility. There's a chain there. Romans 5 verse 11.

Now I'm trying to think the term the Catholics use. They call it the stain of sin. You're born sinful. We don't believe that, but we believe every person sins. We're exposed to Satan's evil from the moment we come into this world and it leads us astray.

So you might ask. I don't know if any of you would ask, but the question could come up.

Why not sacrifice the other goat? If Satan had a hand in all of our sins, why not have Satan die for our sins? Seems like he was much more deserving. Why not him instead of Christ? That would have made it the ceremony of one goat.

I asked that almost facetiously. I'm thinking most of you are very clear on the answer, but I'll mention two very clear-cut reasons. One, Satan himself has sinned. The Bible does state that he's sinned. He's earned his own penalty. Because he's committed his own penalty, or committed sin, he can't pay for anyone else's. He has to pay his own penalty. But Christ was sinless. He never sinned. He never incurred that penalty, even though he was tempted in every way as we are. And I think of the temptations. I mean, think of the way we feel now, how he felt after 40 days. It's still mind-blowing, but he still didn't give in. He didn't weaken his resolve to obey God. Another important reason is Christ was the creator of all things. He created all. Matter of fact, if you want to... I can read this to you, or if you want to turn to John 1, verse 1.

I think it is worth reading.

Because if you made all things, you can be responsible for what you made. Just as when children are minors, we can be responsible for them. If they do, they break some. And the analogy of the store with the fine crystal and such, where it says, if you break it, you bought it. It could also say, if your kid breaks it, you bought it. You know, because the kid doesn't have the money. Samantha's smiling. I'm thinking about that, because we're going to go into some of those shops with Connor here in a couple weeks. I'm going to tie his hands together or something, maybe. Anyways, John 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him. Without Him, nothing was made that was made. So Jesus Christ created everything, so He could bear the responsibility. Of course, He could bear the responsibility, especially because He didn't owe any penalty for His own sin. Let's go back to Leviticus, if you still have a hand there. Let's pick this up towards the end. Leviticus 16, verse 29. We read this earlier. I want to read it again to bring out another important factor.

This shall be a statute for you in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month, and that's today. According to the Hebrew calendar, this is the seventh month, the tenth day of the month. You shall afflict your souls. We're doing that. Do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you. For on that day, the priest shall make atonement for you. Well, in that case with us, our priest is Jesus Christ, and He's already made atonement that lasts forever. To cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before the eternal. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It's a statute forever. There, I wanted to point that out that we don't do the goat ceremony anymore. The sacrifice of the goats and of the bulls and the others has been superseded by Christ's sacrifice. But the commemorating the atonement is a statute forever, and so we do keep it as a Sabbath, and we do afflict our souls because that's a statute forever. That hasn't been superseded as Christ's sacrifice superseded that of the bulls. As a matter of fact, we can see some of that if we go back to Hebrews 9 one more time. And I'm looking. I'm not planning on coming back to Leviticus, so you can leave it go if you want. Hebrews 9 and 24.

So Jesus Christ only had to do that one time. He came in before the Holy of Holies, but then, of course, He gets to stay there. He's with God at His right hand offering for us. Now, I had thought, and I made a note, as I said, we fast. That's part of the statute that goes on. Why we fast is worthy of a sermon in itself, and it's a sermon that I'll give some other time. It's funny. As a matter of fact, I think I'm not sure if I've ever even given a sermonette on fasting. You might have guessed I'm not a big fan of fasting. But it's interesting. Actually, you don't mind hearing a sermon on fasting if you fasted recently, because then you say, yeah, I'm in there. If it's been a while and you have it, and you go, oh man, yeah, I should fast. But I don't like to fast. You're not real happy with the minister on that day. This is the one day we could talk about fasting, because you're not going to feel guilty. You're right in the middle of it. So anyways, there's lots of things to note about fasting. But one is that fasting reminds us that this is a solemn occasion. It honors the death of our Savior. We think of the other things, but remember we also keep Passover with a certain amount of solemnity. We come in and we're not as joyous and happy as we often are, and we don't usually stay quite as long fellowshipping, because we're commemorating the death of Jesus Christ. But both days do, both days still have an element of joy. And so we have that mixture. On trumpets, I said that trumpets was sort of a bittersweet day. Atonement is that way, too. It's that joy that our adversary will be put away and our sins are covered, but we also remember the sacrifice that it took. And speaking of our adversary, I wonder about this sometimes, and I'm somewhat speculating, but I think it is worth mentioning. This day commemorates the punishment of that one. He's the one who has a hand in all our sins. He deserves his punishment. But it's interesting to think of what he had been. He was formerly the pinnacle of God's creation. Let's go back to the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 28. I'm not going to go to Isaiah 14 this time. Just Ezekiel 28 will show it, and we'll begin in verse 12. Ezekiel 28, verse 12.

Every precious stone was your covering. The sardius, topaz, and diamond, barrel, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were anointed the caribou covers I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you. Perfect until iniquity was found. And then in verse 16. By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned. Satan has sinned and earned punishment. Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O covering carob, from the midst of the fiery stones. I think thinking of the corruption of one who had been and had meant so much to God is a solemn occasion.

Well, this thought occurred to me, it wasn't all that long ago, when Richard Nixon passed away. And we know Richard Nixon was involved in some terrible crimes and was reviled as president. But when he died, we also thought, well, he held that highest office and he had accomplished some good before he turned bad. I don't know for sure, but I wonder if God also expects a little solemnity from us, knowing that although Satan turned evil and deserves every punishment he ever gets, he had been something good before that. And so we paused solemnly to think. And it should help us to think that we never ever want to have that happen to us. And of course, that's one of the reasons God makes us live in the flesh. We're changeable, moldable, so that we can become good and develop God's character and become like God. And as I said, God does not change. He can't change. He wants us to develop a good character so that we can't and won't change either. But it's too late for Satan in that way. But we want to resolve that we'll never go that way.

Now, brethren, a ceremony of the two goats shows that this day is not only sad, but it has an underlying meaning that is incredibly happy.

The one goat was sent out into the wilderness, but the other goat served as atonement. Jesus Christ is that atonement for us all. He paid the price. Let me bring out my cliches. He paid the piper. He made it good for us. He paid for our lives, and therefore we belong to Him. He paid the price, and because of that, we can live. Brethren, I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day of atonement, and feast at tabernacles.