What Spiritual Lessons Do We Learn From the Leviticus 16 Ceremony?

It was the summer of 1984, August. Typical day. Not much different than any other day in August at that particular point in my life. 32 years of age. And I got a phone call from Pasadena, California.

On the other end of the line was a gentleman who was going to ask me some very serious questions.

He said, Randy, I understand that you've been thinking about becoming a minister full-time in a church. Is that still the case? And I said, yes, sir, it is. I said, if it's God's will, if you would like me to serve in that capacity, I'm more than willing to do so.

He asked if my wife was in agreement with all of that, and I said, yes, she was.

He said, we've got a couple of churches in central North Carolina, Raleigh and Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. Their pastor is working outrageous hours, a 12-hour day for him is just standard anymore. Sometimes it's more than that.

His wife has contacted us. He needs some help there in North Carolina.

And we'd like you to move there in North Carolina, Tim North Carolina, your first assignment. He said, what do you think about that? I said, well, it's really quite simple. I'm going to go get a for sale sign and stick it on my front lawn. And so I did that. And in three days, that house sold.

Interesting in that the day the house was sold to the person that the house was sold to, our realtor was slow in getting to our house. So I basically sold the house. I took the person. Now, they didn't like this, but I took the person around, showed them the home, sold the home, and then had the opportunity to pay my realtor 6%, which is what you pay in Michigan.

So three weeks later, my wife and I and my little boy, who was at that point 18 months old, were in Raleigh, North Carolina. I was there in North Carolina for five and a half years, really enjoyed my time there. I was working under a man who was basically the same age as I was, but he had been in the field ministry for 11 years. He graduated from Big Sandy, Texas. He had a lovely family, a wife and two lovely little girls, and he was preparing for the fall Holy Days with his little girls. And he asked them to kind of tell them, give him, I should say, a summary of what the Holy Days represented. So they went through and discussed trumpets. Then they came to the day of atonement. And the one little girl, there were the two little girls, one was probably in the early elementary school years, the other was preschool.

Little Debbie was, you know, toe-headed, bright blue eyes, cute little thing. And she wanted to respond before her older sister. I know how the day of atonement is different from all the other Holy Days. And she kind of had that glow that she was going to be one up on sis. And so my boss asked, well, Debbie, what's, how's this Holy Day different than the other Holy Days? And she said, the day of atonement is different in that it is Satan's Holy Day.

Now we laugh. My boss at the time, he related this in a sermon sometime after that point.

And he felt really bad. He felt badly that, and he knew why she responded the way she responded.

She responded that way because in his sermons and Bible studies and studies with his kids, there was a certain emphasis that came across about Satan.

And she took it to mean this was Satan's Holy Day. Now, obviously, this day does represent something having to do with Satan. A very big thing, a very specific thing, a very important thing regarding Satan. But that's not the whole story, is it? That's not the whole story.

Let's go back to Leviticus chapter 23. I really appreciate the message that was given earlier today.

Some of the points Mr. Gillespie covered I'll be reinforcing with the sermon today.

But here in Leviticus chapter 23, let's get our spiritual bearings for today.

Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 2, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts.

So you and I and that pastor, we all realize these are God's holy days. The little girl came to understand that, came to be taught more about that day from a more balanced point of view.

Verse 27, Also on the tenth day of the seventh month shall be the day of atonement, shall be a holy convocation for you. You shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And you should do no work on that same day, for it's the day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before your Lord your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work. It shall be a statute forever throughout all your generations and all your dwellings. It shall be, if you witness, a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month from evening to evening. You shall celebrate your Sabbath.

So there we see the whole of the command for the day of atonement. We see a number of very important issues that God brings out here. But, brethren, I want to ask a question today and hopefully answer that question today, because we're going to spend a lot of our time today in Leviticus 16.

The question I want to ask, and if you take notes, you might want to jot this at the top of your paper. What spiritual lessons do we learn from the Leviticus 16 ceremony?

What lessons are there for us as New Testament, New Covenant Christians? Why do we go back into the book of Leviticus to learn these New Testament, New Covenant lessons?

Well, hopefully during the course of the sermon today we will answer that for us. I want to revisit verse 27 of Leviticus 23. We're not going to go back to Leviticus 16 quite yet.

Leviticus 23 verse 27. A couple of points I want to emphasize here.

Tenth day of the seventh month shall be the day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you. It shall be a holy convocation. Spiritual lesson number one. And I've got seven of these as we go through the sermon today. Spiritual lesson number one. God desires at onement with us through a personal relationship. God desires at onement with us through a personal relationship. The Bible here says it's a holy convocation. It is a very special meeting. It's a very important meeting. Vines expository dictionary of biblical words has this as one of the definitions for their word convocation. And I quote, this verb is also used in judicial context to mean summoned to court. We are being summoned to the court of the Most High.

Now that sounds a little clinical, but what God is doing, God commands us to do those things that are in our best interest. And it's in our best interest to assemble together with Him, to fellowship with Dad. We're God's kids. He wants us to fellowship with one another, but He wants us to fellowship with Him. He wants relationship with us. He wants to be at one with us.

And so this is, to me, a very important New Covenant, New Testament lesson to be learned by the Scriptures we're going to see in the book of Leviticus.

What did Jesus, and every year at Passover, we read Luke chapter 22 and verse 15. I'm not going to turn there, but if you know for your notes, Luke 22, 15. What did Christ say?

To His men who were not yet converted, He said, with fervent desire, I desire to eat this Passover with you. And that's not only true of Passover, it's true of all the Holy Days. And of course, this day today, a day that pictures at one month, a fervent desire by our great God and our elder brother to be at one. Let's continue on in verse 27, Leviticus chapter 23. We've read about the convocation, middle of the verse. You shall afflict your souls and offer a offering made by fire to the Lord. I'm going to combine those two thoughts into spiritual lesson number two. Spiritual lesson number two, God desires that we love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

That we love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. In your notes, you might want to jot down Mark chapter 12 in verse 30. Let me read that for you. Mark chapter 12 in verse 30.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.

Now today, we are afflicting our souls. Today, we are fasting. Afflict comes from the Hebrew word ana, which means to beat down, to depress, to abase, to chasten, to humble. Today, we are God's humble people. We are fasting. We're fasting because it helps us to realize who and what we are.

We are physical, chemical people. We don't have eternal life of and by itself abiding in us as flesh. We need God. We need spirits. We need a resurrection. And God wants us to realize we only have that life by being at one with Him. And so we fast today to show us, to give us our physical bearings. And when we read that verse there in Mark chapter 12 verse 30, two of those four words really stand out in my mind. The word of love, the Lord our God, with all of our soul and all of our strength. Those are physical connotations. And today, as we're fasting, this is a physical aspect that teaches us mental and emotional and most of all spiritual lessons. So today, we are afflicting our souls to learn to be at one with God, to have that frame of mind. It also says there in verse 27, we're to offer a offering made by fire. Now, we don't do that today. Today, our offerings are what we did a few minutes ago. Today, we offer, as it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 7, we offer with a certain purpose in our heart. We offer generously. So when we read that scripture there again in Mark chapter 12 and verse 30 about loving a God with with our all, we can also read there in those two of those other four words that we're loving the God with all of our heart and all of our mind, as was correctly pointed out in the offertory today. As we gave our offering, that shows where our heart is, whether it be one penny or one thousand dollars. God is looking at our heart. When it talks about in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, talking about how we purpose in our heart, that's talking about our mind and where our mind is as we think about our offering. Now, Mr. Gillespie was talking about how we can take time to think about our offerings. Over the course of my ministry, I've known a number of people who plan out their annual offerings. They plan those out almost a full year in advance. After the last great day, they're thinking about the next coming year and those offerings that are coming.

And they're thinking about, well, what can I do that's really special with my circumstances, with my income, with the way God's blessing me? I'm going to think about, during the course of this year, not just kind of getting up on the day of the high day and writing out a check and handing it in church. I've known a number of people who say, I want to give some real thought to this.

People have had yard sales, not for their own needs. I remember when I was in Tennessee, some very poor people there in Appalachia. This was back in the day when there you could pick up bottles and cans and then turn them into a store and get money back. Remember this one family, they're pretty poor folks. They're in Appalachia. And as the course of the year would be going around, they're driving up in their pickup trucks, or as they would say, pick them up trucks. They're driving around and as they see a bottle of can, they'd stop the vehicle, go out there, pick up the can, throw it in the back of the pickup. And they get all these together, and then they turn these in. And that was a part of their planning, their offering, as they purposed in their heart and mind. That was their offering. So a couple of things there for us to be appreciative of.

Two lessons to be learned that aren't just to be confined to the pages of the Old Testament.

These are New Covenant, New Testament lessons. Let's move on. Let's now turn over to Leviticus chapter 16. Leviticus chapter 16. This chapter gives us special insights into the meaning of the day-to-day. It describes God instructing ancient Israel to observe the day of atonement in a very special way. Although you and I are not required to do all of the things we see here in this chapter today, there's spiritual lessons for us to be learning as we take a look at this chapter today. I'd like to quote something about, you know, taking a little bit of a step back about the book of Leviticus in general. Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary has this to say about the book of Leviticus, and I quote, Leviticus is an Old Testament book filled with worship instructions for God's chosen people. The Hebrew nation, the Levites, members of the tribe of Levi, were the priestly family of the nation. The title of the book seems to indicate these instructions are given specifically for them. But Leviticus was actually a manual of worship for all the people because of its emphasis on holiness, sacrifice, and atonement. The book has an important message for modern believers. I thought that was quite interesting given our day-to-day worship instructions for God's chosen people. Leviticus was actually a manual of worship because of its emphasis on, among other things, atonement. Here we have now Leviticus chapter 16. As you and I study the life of Jesus Christ, we follow His life. We follow the principles we see in His life.

Certainly, there are going to be principles we're going to see in this chapter that we can follow as well, spiritual principles, as we watch the high priest who was a type of Jesus Christ.

So, let's move on now to spiritual lesson number three. We see this in Leviticus chapter 16.

It's actually more of a reference here. Maybe sometime in the future I'll go through this more in detail. Leviticus 16, verse 1. Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they offered profane fire before the Lord and died. So, spiritual lesson number three is we must worship God as God instructs us. We must worship God as God instructs us. You know, today people have the idea they can approach God any old way they want to.

Just whatever feels good to you, worship God that way.

Well, as we heard earlier today, God must reveal Himself to us. And just as God must reveal Himself to us, He must reveal to us how we are to worship Him. How we are to worship Him.

I would like you to put a marker here. Let's go over to Deuteronomy chapter 5.

Deuteronomy chapter 5. Again, this is one of the most quoted books in all of the New Testament, the book of Deuteronomy, along with Psalms and Isaiah. Those three books are the most quoted books in the New Testament. Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 32. You know, the law had been stated, and now we see here in verse 32, Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. God's going to reveal to us how we are to worship Him. It says there in verse 1 that the sons of Aaron died because they didn't follow directions. Nadab and Abiyu. Their story is found over in Leviticus chapter 10. I'm not going to take the time to go through all of that. Suffice it to say that Nadab and Abiyu were very careless with God's instructions. They were careless. They were irreverent. They were lacking in faith.

They did things that they were not commanded to do in a way they were not commanded to do it. And they died as a result. And, of course, brethren, the same thing will be true for any of us if we decide we're going to go our own way and worship God the way we feel we should do it as opposed to the way Scripture says we should do it.

Let's continue on about this first point we're talking about here, about worshiping God the way God says. Verse 2, The Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron and your brother not to come just at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die, for I will appear in a cloud above the mercy seat. Well, this directive was now followed by the two fellows.

We drop down to verse 17. There shall be no man in a tabric knuckle 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. Well, they have not abided you by you, they went in together.

Not one person may seem like a small thing, but it cost them their lives. And the last, I think it's the last verse, we have verse 34. There shall be an everlasting statute for you to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all of their sins, once a year. And he did as the Lord commanded Moses. So, very specific instructions. In your notes, you might want to jot down John 4, verse 23. John 4, 23 says, the hour is now coming, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the Father is seeking such to worship him. So, brethren, we want to make sure we are worshiping God the way he shows us, the way he describes for us. And again, as I made mention last week, it's a matter of commitment. And talking to people on Counseling for Baptism, I hit that point very, very emphatically. Nobody, when they're about to be baptized, knows the Bible, you know, from cover to cover. It's all a great deal for us to learn. That's true all of our lives. But if we've got a commitment that no matter what this book says, we're going to do it. Not what somebody says about the book, but what the book itself says, if we've got a commitment to do this, then we are well on the way to obeying what God wants us to do, and have that frame of mind to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

This moves us to Spiritual Lesson number four. To better serve others, we need atonement. We ourselves need atonement. To better serve others, we have a need for atonement. Take a look at verse three. Thus Aaron shall come into the holy place with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and a ram as a burnt offering. Verse six. Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house.

And verse 11. And Aaron shall bring the bull of a sin offering which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house, and he shall kill the bull as a sin offering which is for himself. Then we read in verse 15. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering which is for the people.

Bring his blood inside the veil. Do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. But notice the first thing that he's told to do was perform an offering for himself. He was to bring an animal for a burnt offering. Israel had five major offerings in the Old Testament. One of them was the burnt offering. The burnt offering represented an individual's entire surrender to God. Everything was burnt up in that burnt offering. Everything, with the exception of maybe some of the skins of the larger animals. Everything consumed just as we should be entirely consumed in our worship for the great God.

So this is speaking to an attitude Aaron, the high priest, needed to have. He also was to bring a sin offering.

Now, two of those five offerings, you had a sin offering and a trespass offering. It says here, Aaron was to bring, the high priest was to bring, a sin offering. The sin offering showed man as a sinner. It didn't deal with specific sin. That was a trespass offering. The trespass offering dealt with specific sin, whereas the sin offering dealt with the individual as a sinner. And so he is to go in, the high priest is to go in, in offering these sacrifices for himself as a sinner and offer himself as an entire sacrifice to the great God.

And then he was able to do the sacrifice for the people. But there's something else that's interesting here. Notice here in verse 4, Leviticus 16 verse 4, he shall put on the holy linen tunic and a linen trousers on his body. He shall be girded with a linen sash and with a linen turban he shall be attired. Now, the Hebrew word for whiteness is also used to represent linen, because linen could be bleached so white it was outstanding. That's from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary. So there's a purpose behind what God had the high priest wear. White linen, bright white linen, which puts us in mind of Revelation chapter 19 verses 7 and 8, which I will read for you. Revelation chapter 19 verse 7, let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. What has she done? Verse 8, and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. So here this man is to put on what amounts to something that represents bright righteousness, the righteousness of God.

End of verse 4. Therefore he shall wash his body in water and put them on. He shall wash his body in water. Have you ever wondered why it was that when John the Baptist began his baptizing tours, that you don't read in the scriptures about people saying, well, what exactly are you doing? What is that you're doing? You're taking people and you're dunking them in the river Jordan. What is that all about?

The washings for the priests were a type of baptism. The priests had to wash on many occasions, on all occasions, before doing their duties. They had to wash their hands and their feet in the labor outside before entering the tabernacle. They had to wash themselves, like we see here, on a day of atonement. People who were unclean had to wash themselves. This is all typical type. The dirt is a type of sin where to wash off that dirt. The high priest had to wash off that dirt.

Interesting. Fawcett's Bible Dictionary, in talking about the consecration of a high priest, said a high priest, and I quote, a high priest's consecration was threefold. One, by baptism.

Two, by anointing. Anointing with oil. And three, a sacrifice. So this whole idea of washing, cleansing, is very much a part of what the high priest was doing here. Again, worshiping God in spirit and in truth. In spirit and in truth.

Okay, let's move forward. We're going to kind of bounce around a little bit in the chapter here for me to make the points I want to make. Spiritual lesson number five.

Our work, the work of God, is to be accomplished and accompanied by much prayer. Our work is to be accompanied and accomplished by much prayer.

Chapter 16, verse 12. He, the high priest, shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine and bring it inside the veil. He shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony lest he die. Again, very specific instruction, very detailed instruction here. The high priest is to bring this incense and notice there it is to be sweet incense. It's not bitter. By sweet, we see that it is something that is proper, something that God looks to, something that is properly aromatic and not bitter or vindictive. Our prayers, as we follow the pattern we see in the high priest here, which represents Jesus Christ, we are to have prayers that are not bitter or vindictive, but very powerful and very sweet in God's nostrils. And it said not only sweet, but the incense must be beaten fine, beaten fine, detail, a great deal of detail.

I don't know what you were like when you first were coming into the church. I remember when I first started attending Ambassador College, of course, if you remember, my experience was I went to church on a weekly Sabbath. Next day I was in Pasadena, so I'd only gone to church one time prior to going to Ambassador College. And I never heard a bunch of sermons on prayer, and I don't remember reading a whole... I'm sure we had a lot of articles, but I don't remember reading a lot of those or remembering those. And I remember, especially my first year at Ambassador College in 1970, hearing all these, especially in first year Bible class, got to pray an hour or half hour, and 45 minutes is better. An hour is even better than that. And of course, you get into this numbers thing. But the whole idea of praying for half hour, to my... I thought, you know, I ask a blessing on my folks and my siblings. That takes about five seconds. Where am I going to come up with the other 29 and a half minutes? And yet, here it says to beat our prayers fine. Fine detail. Something for us to appreciate in our work. James chapter 5 and verse 16. Pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Detailed prayer. Every congregation needs it. Chicago's no different. We've got serious health needs. We've got some serious financial needs. We've got career decisions that need to be made. We've got all sorts of things that people are wrestling with. Every congregation has this. And this is why it's good for us, as it says in James, to be praying for one another. We're family. And certainly God is our Father. Jesus Christ is our elder brother. So we want to accomplish our work by much prayer. Okay, we move now into lesson number six. And we remember that Leviticus 16 shows two goats, not just one. Two goats, not just one. Leviticus chapter 16 verse 5. 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 burn offering. Verse 7. He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle. So the priest will select two goats for a sin offering. Okay, verse 8. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one for the Lord, the other for the ezzazzal. Scapegoat is a very poor translation there.

Scapegoat tends to indicate somebody taking the blame for somebody else. That's not what we have here. The individual who's going to be blamed put on his head very much is deserving of it. But here we have lesson number six is that forgiveness and reconciliation is possible through the goat for the Lord, the one that represents Jesus Christ. Forgiveness and reconciliation, atonement, is possible. It's available because of this particular goat.

So they're offered as a sin offering. Again, that's one of the great themes of this book, our sins being forgiven. Verse 14. He shall 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. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering. Again, this one represents Jesus Christ. He shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people. It's a sin offering for us, the people. Bring its blood inside the veil. Now, once this goat had been killed, that goat had represented Jesus Christ, but now that goat is killed, now the high priest is representing Jesus Christ. Now the high priest is coming inside God's throne room by typology here. Bring its blood inside the veil to do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull. What did he do with that blood of the bull? He sprinkled it with his finger seven times. Seven being a number of completeness. Jesus Christ is completely, his blood is completely covering our sins. That blood is there on the mercy seat.

What was under the mercy seat? The mercy seat was the lid or the top of the ark of the covenant. What was in that ark of the covenant? The tablets of the Ten Commandments. So what you have by typology is the high priest representing Jesus Christ completely putting blood to cover that law we've broken.

Completely cover that law that we've broken. Seven times. Complete forgiveness. Complete forgiveness. Verse 15, many shall kill the sin offering which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil. We've read this for 16. So he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions for all of their sins. When I'm counseling people for baptism, I discuss that no matter what they've done, how bad it's been, how often they've done it, if they are truly repentant, this blood covers all of their sins.

So he shall do so for the tabernacle of meaning which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in a tabernacle of meaning. We've read this. Verse 18, he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar all around. By typology, as the nation of Israel was sinning all through the course of the year, their sins were being attached to various pieces of furniture there in the tabernacle. Then once a year, this atonement was made and things were cleansed in terms of typology. Verse 19, then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.

Now we move on to Spiritual Lesson number seven. Now, again, go back to the little girl in that opening discussion, my introduction.

So far, we've seen six lessons to be learned as we've looked at this material.

And all these lessons have dealt with our atonement with God in one way, shape, or form, or another. So the great bulk of our discussion is about our atonement with God. Now we're going to get to something that many times we think is—some people will think of almost the only thing that's represented on this day. Spiritual Lesson number seven is that Satan is removed from God and man's presence. He's removed from God's presence in a sense that God's turning us back on him, and from our presence, we don't have to deal with him anymore.

Leviticus chapter 16—let's move back up a little bit. Leviticus chapter 16 in verse 10.

But the goat in which the Lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement upon it and to let it go. This goat is not killed and to let it go as the Nezazzal into the wilderness. Something for us to appreciate here, and that is in verse 10, lots had to be cast. People in the world can't tell a difference between the true God and the false God. That's typified what we see here in verse 10.

As we heard today in the sermonette, John 6, 44, God has got to call us. God has got to lead us. God has got to direct us. Same thing is true here in this ritual or the ceremony. God had to show which of these goats is going to represent what. This goat serves a completely different purpose than the other goat. This goat is the Azazael goat. Dropping down to verse 20, 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 of his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions concerning all their sins, putting him on the head of this live goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. So this is not a scapegoat. This is the Azazael. This is a being that needed to have its own sins placed on its head. Jesus Christ died once for our sins. Jesus Christ does not need to die a second time for our sins. There are those people who think that both goats represent Jesus Christ. We don't teach them. We don't teach them.

The one-volume Bible commentary says this. It says, sending of the sin-laden goat, signified the complete removal of the sins of the people, and they handed them over, as it were, to the evil spirit to whom they belonged. Put a marker here. Let's go to Revelation 20.

Revelation 20.

Verse 1. This will be fulfilled in the future. We're looking forward to that time.

Revelation 21. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having a key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who was the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. So this is the type of that suitable man who led that other goat into the wilderness. Cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so he should not deceive the nations no more till a thousand years were finished. But after those things, he must be released for a short while. So we go back to Leviticus 16. There's a couple more things to note before we conclude today.

So yes, this live goat represents Satan the devil. His sins are put back on his head for what he has done to mankind through the history of mankind. And it's only then, when he is dealt with, that we can have atonement in its fullest. Atonement in its fullest. But let's notice something as we some concluding thoughts here. Leviticus 16.23. Then Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of media. After Aaron's done all of his work, taking care of both goats, he shall take off the linen garments which he put on, which went into the holy place, which he went into the holy place, and she'll leave them there. And he shall wash his body with water in a holy place, put on his garments, come out, offer his burnt offering, and to burn offering the people, and make atoma for himself and the people. So here we see the high priest by type coming into contact with something very, very filthy, Satan, and need for a wash.

And certainly, brethren, anything of Satan's is filthy spiritually. And we need to make sure that we are continually being washed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ as we come before his throne and ask for mercy. Ask boldly come before his throne, as it says in Hebrews. Boldly come and ask for for help and time of need and for mercy. Verse 26, And he who released the goat as the Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. So even this suitable man who led the goat away has become dirty by being in contact with what represents Satan.

So a tremendous understanding there, a tremendous chapter there with its New Covenant understanding, and it's there in a book for worship.

So today we've covered seven different lessons to be learned. Six of those very much deal with our relationship with God and Jesus Christ. That seventh one still deals with that, but it's by removing Satan, getting him out of the way. So brethren, we're concluding this day of atonement. The next time I see most of you out of the NAFTA services today will be the Feast of Tabernacles.

Right now, in terms of registration, we've got 540 registered for Dells. You add 10% to that, which we normally would get in a Dell. So we're right about 600 people. Chicago and Beloit is about one-sixth of that, a little over 100 people. So you'll be seeing plenty of your brothers and sisters there. I look forward to conducting the service there and the services there, coordinating the services there in the Dells. And wish you all a very profitable Feast of Tabernacles.

If you got those Feast stickers and you're flying someplace, put that on your airplane.

I always used to like when we had those stickers, other people they didn't like. I liked it. I enjoyed going down the road and seeing those little stickers and people just filtering into the Feast. I enjoyed that. People said that made us a target for people to rob us. I don't know how many times that happened, but I certainly enjoyed that. Mary and I will be leaving for the Feast Tuesday afternoon. So we'll be somewhat available. I've got a lot to do. Last minute details between now and leaving that day. But I wish all of you a very, very profitable, fruitful Feast of Tabernacles the last great day.