A statistics report says every person in Bangalore creates an average of one-half to one kilogram of garbage. The whole city creates 3,500 tons, and one ton is 1,000 kilograms, so that is 35 lakh kilograms of garbage in just one day. Imagine for a month, and for a year, that is 1,277,500,000 kilograms, more than 1.2 billion kilograms. That is just one city; imagine the huge amount for the whole nation of India. What a burden this would be for the nation. Imagine if every person and every family were asked to keep their garbage within their house and could only dump it once a year. What a huge burden it would be for every person, every family, and the whole nation. If the garbage van doesn’t come for two days, we get so tense, and it becomes a burden. For a year, what a burden that would be.
This is a dim example of the great burden every Israelite’s conscience felt. God had made them realize how holy he is, and on the other side, from Leviticus 11-15, he made them realize the burden and guilt of sin and the importance of maintaining a ritually clean life. The uncleanness from birth, the surrounding land, water, air, animals, leprosy of body, garment, and house, and continuous bodily discharges, meant every man’s household had accumulated tons and tons of uncleanness in the eyes of God throughout the year. Hour after hour, day after day, week after week, every Jew and every family would have uncleanness accumulated through daily violations of divine commandments. If you could measure it by size and weight, it would be an infinitely big mountain, a vast, shoreless ocean.
All these accumulated burdens of moral impurity are big, immeasurable tons of garbage. We may even see in our mind’s eye a spiritually immeasurable, vast, vast amount of unclean garbage on each person’s conscience, burdening him, uncleanness that has been accumulated through the year. The whole nation was pressed with the burden of their guilt, the accumulated weight of sin, and their unworthiness to stand before this God of burning holiness.
This is not just a problem for Israel, but it is every son of Adam’s problem. Created in the image of God, every breath, every atom of his being, yearns for the face of his Creator. He was created to glorify and enjoy this God. The great hindrance from his side to come to God is his own guilty, burdened conscience. Today, each of our greatest problems is a guilty conscience. What does it do? The same thing it made Adam do. It is what makes you hide from God like Adam and Eve, and what makes you shift blame to everyone else for all the wrongs you do, like Adam blamed Eve and even God. The Bible describes the wicked as being like a “tossed sea, for it cannot be still”; it is the cause of all restlessness, constant inner turmoil, a persistent feeling of unease, anxiety, fear, regret, tension, and an inability to find peace or rest. A guilty person may isolate themselves from others, feeling unworthy, unable to have or maintain any proper relationships with others, and always irritable. They engage in negative self-talk and self-criticism, always grumbling, saying negative and harsh things about themselves, headlines like “no use trying anything,” which damages all confidence. They may experience despair, depression, boredom, loss of interest in activities, and difficulty concentrating. Insomnia and sleep disturbances make it difficult to sleep. Sometimes, it even leads to self-inflicted punishment in various forms, such as destroying their body with drugs or drinks. Even as believers, we suffer from those feelings of guilt and unworthiness. These are all symptoms of a guilty conscience that is away from God’s face.
How can you be delivered from a guilty conscience and enjoy God’s face? How, then, shall people come to God? They can try 1,000 ways, but they cannot solve this problem. The only solution is God’s appointed way. He himself devised the way, and He has taught it to us by a parable in this chapter. This is God’s appointed way of access to God for every person. God’s wise plan is to resolve this problem by two means: the High Priest mediator and sacrifice. The mediator and His atonement.
This is a great chapter in the whole law of Moses because it treats a matter that is of the very highest importance to all of us. Practically, even as believers, it teaches us how we can overcome the blocks that sin creates in our life to enjoy God. Grasping this truth can teach us a way to enjoy constant, unceasing fellowship with God. Oh, may the Holy Spirit open our eyes to learn this lesson, so that we may enter into the fullest fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, in the only God-appointed way. Hebrews calls it “the new and living way.”
On this great day, if these people of Israel were to survive in the presence of holy Jehovah, all this one-year’s garbage must be atoned for and removed and put very far away. That is what happens on the blessed Day of Atonement. We saw the wonderful High Priest mediator, AHRAE—he was appointed, humiliated, righteous, atoned, and entered as the mediator. The amazing fact of the Day of Atonement is that all the work on this day should be done by the High Priest, he alone. Verse 17 says, “There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place.” On other days, almost all the work of the temple was done by other priests. On this Day of Atonement, no one else was to do any work; all work was done only by the High Priest: sacrificing, taking blood, smearing it, all by him. This is a beautiful type that our High Priest, and He and He alone, will do the final work of atonement, alone and unassisted. He was alone in the garden, alone on the cross, with only two of the worst thieves who could not have helped him in any way. No disciple was crucified with him, no angel helping him. He was alone. “I have trodden the wine-press alone.” Oh, bow down and adore Him, then give all the glory to His holy name, for alone and unassisted, He made full atonement for your guilt.
Aaron, the priest, is a dim shadow and type of the perfect priest who will come, so he brings his own tons of sins to the tabernacle as he needed to atone for his own uncleanness accumulated throughout the year. So verse 6 says, “Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself that he may make atonement for himself and for his household.” Now, having made atonement for himself, he is to turn away from the problem of his own personal defilement to turn to the heavy burden of the nation in their unclean problem. Aaron had to provide a bull for himself. The congregation gave Aaron for their sin problem two goats for a sin offering. When you read the chapter, it may look confusing because the bull and goats get mixed up. If you remember the bull is for Aaron and his household’s sins, and the goats are for the people’s atonement, things will be clear. So we will skip all references to the bull for Aaron and only look at what he does for the people, as that is what Christ fulfilled. What he does for the people is the two-goat ceremony. Notice verse 5: “And he shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.”
Today, I want to focus on simply the two-goat ceremony. The two goats typify and emblematize the God-prescribed remedy for the terrible problem of a guilty conscience.
- Selection and Casting of lots
- Sacrifice of the first goat
- Deportation of the second goat
Selection and Casting of Lots. Verse 7: “He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.” Two goats are selected. Where did they get these? They would buy them. These two goats will be purchased by the public treasury of the temple. So, Jesus Christ was purchased by the public treasury for “thirty pieces of silver,” which is what they had valued Him at, so they brought Him to be offered. Verse 8: “Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat.” These two goats will have two strikingly distinct roles in the atonement. Which goat will take which role will be decided by casting lots. It is like writing on a paper, like a coin toss today. Why? They could just decide one for this and another for that. No, God says to decide by casting lots. Why? Proverbs 16:33 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” The people cast the lots, they put the toss, but who will decide the outcome? It is the sovereignty of God that will decide which goat will take which role. Lots are put by human means, but the result is always by an invisible hand. How marvelous we see in the Gospels who decided to put Jesus on the cross. We think it is the people who had the lots, as the historical drama is unfolded: the leaders, the Sanhedrin, Judas, came on that dark night in the Garden of Gethsemane, seized the Lamb of God, and put him on the cross. It is true it was all by the instruments of men, but it was God’s appointment and decree, as Peter says in Acts 2:23: “You nailed Him to the cross by the hands of godless men, but he was delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” Okay, the lot is cast. One is selected for a sin offering and is offered, and another as a scapegoat. It is told that to identify each goat and not mix them up, they would tie a scarlet cloth on the horns or forehead of the goat where hands were to be laid on its head, and it would be sent into the wilderness. A scarlet cloth would be tied around the neck of the goat that would be offered to God by cutting its neck.
Sacrifice of the Sin Offering. The first sacrifice is the sin-atoning goat. This sacrifice is a satisfaction of Jehovah’s justice. There are two stages. First: In verse 15, we see a bloody slaughter. Aaron will take the sin-atoning goat, and verse 15 says, “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.” Imagine in your mind’s eye: Aaron would drag this goat, take a knife, cut the throat of the innocent goat. Blood would gush forth; it would immediately collapse, marking its agonies, struggling for life, a thrashing back and forth that would take place. It would be a very horrible, pitiable sight. This is a sin offering.
Brothers and sisters, behold your savior. Do you see Him there in your mind’s eye? Your savior arrested, sentenced to be sacrificed, casting lots, beaten, scourged, with a heavy beam placed on him? Do you see Him staggering and collapsing under the weight of the cross beam as He’s on His way to Golgotha? His body placed on the beam, and spikes being driven into His hands and into His feet? Rising at the pillar? Do you see Him suffocating as for hours He’s being outstretched on the cross? Do you see Him crying in dereliction, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” This goat dying on Atonement Day foreshadowed all of that.
The Father’s sword of justice must be quenched in one or two places. Either by you sinners being cut to pieces on the day of judgment or it being sheathed in the heart of His own Son. We see it here in this dying sacrifice, the sheathing of the Father’s sword in the heart of His Son. And behold, behold the blood flowing from His open side as the goat typically spilled His blood. So we see a sin sacrifice, we’ve seen a bloody slaughter.
Now the second stage is a bloody sprinkling. We also see that in verse 15. Then the High Priest, with his humble dress of a linen white tunic, imagine, he sacrifices the goat in the outer court, and then the High Priest goes inside the holy place, crosses the thick veil, and, holding his breath, enters into the Holy of Holies behind the veil, standing breathlessly inside the veil and sprinkling the blood on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. The mercy seat, under which the tablets of the Ten Commandments lie, cries out in wrath because we have violated it all our life, all ten commandments, in billions of times every second in our mind and heart, words, and actions. Every second we have not conformed to that law, loving God with all our heart. Infinite wrath is boiling in God’s heart against our sins. Oh, praise God, but all wrath and judgment is appeased by this blood. This is appeasing blood. This is propitiating blood. This is wrath-satisfying blood as we have violated all the ten words in the two tablets below.
Blessed be God for the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see that our high priest, as our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ, did far more than going inside the veil. By offering himself and crying out “it is finished,” he hung his head down and died. Where did he go? Where he entered, he said to the thief, “Today you will be with me in heaven.” So he entered heaven and sprinkled his blood on the mercy seat and completely satisfied the justice and wrath of God against all sins and completely fulfilled all the demands of his holy law. That is why God didn’t wait until his resurrection, but as soon as he died, what happened? The earth shook, and the veil was torn wide open. And then there was the resurrection on the third day, all pointing to a perfect atonement. There was a public display of satisfied justice.
You see even that public display is shown in types here. So beautiful. What took place inside the Holy of Holies was between Aaron and God. How do people know? So we see verse 18: “And he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord, and make atonement for it, and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around.” Verse 19: “Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.” What is he doing? He is making public a private transaction, what took place in the secret Holy of Holies between the High Priest and the Holy God, so the whole nation can grasp hold of the significance. There is a public spectacle then made for the burdened nation. Imagine the whole nation standing, holding their breath: our representative High Priest, bearing all our sins, went inside. Will he come back or die like his sons before the burning holy God? Oh, what joy when they see the High Priest coming back from the veil. They all watch him coming back from behind the curtain, out into a public stage where all the nation’s eyes are focused on him.
Notice: So we see verse 18: “And he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord.” This is the altar in the outer court. Others can see this. “And He is to make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar on all sides.” The horns of the altar were like his pulpit, and four horns would come out of each corner. And these horns were a symbol of strength. This could be the altar of the golden altar of incense, which represented the prayers of God’s people, and the bronze altar of sacrifice. Incense was burned daily. What a wonderful picture. God’s people are able to see the transaction that happened inside the veil, that God has accepted the atonement sacrifice, and their sins have been atoned for by the smearing of the blood on these four horns of the bronze altar. Now, the blood on the horns of the altar of incense tells us that this blood is so powerful that it not only cleansed our uncleanness but it has cleansed even the most holy services like our prayers; sacred things are cleansed and accepted by God now because of the blood. God has not only cleansed us, but even our prayers are accepted by God. The blood purified the altar from the “uncleanness of the children of Israel.” Verse 19: “Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.” How beautiful! How many times? Seven times. What does it mean? A complete, perfect, finished atonement and a complete cleansing by the blood from all uncleanness is displayed by the seven sprinklings. So we have seen the sin-atoning goat.
Now, the transfer to the scapegoat in verses 8 through 10. 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.” Verse 21: “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.” Verse 22: “The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.”
The word “scapegoat” in the Hebrew is called “Azazel.” You will find this in most English Bibles. It’s a puzzling word that has multiple interpretations. So many explanations are given; some strongly say this goat is given to Satan. Verses 8 they explain: “One goat offered to God and another sent to the wilderness for Satan,” giving the meaning of “desert demon, Satan who mostly lived there,” as Satan also had to be appeased because he held us captive. Some good preachers also explain it by saying Satan is an accuser, and the scapegoat announces to the accusing evil one that sin has been atoned for. The goat is sent out to announce to Azazel, the devil, that sin has been taken care of. But all this has no Bible basis. You will find many explaining it that way, but that notion is totally foreign to any Old Testament or New Testament theology. We find in both the Old Testament and New Testament that God alone is the offended party. God alone is the one whose wrath needs to be appeased and needs to be propitiated.
I believe it simply means a desolate place, a desert, as verses 21 and 22 say. Azazel is best understood as the place of cutting off, a wilderness, a far place from the camp. Far away from God. Far away from the people of God. Deep into the wilderness. Out of sight. Where there will be no return, a barren land beyond the camp of God’s people. The first goat put away sin by sacrifice. The second goat carries it away into oblivion, as if it never existed. The first goat satisfied God’s justice. But now the second goat shows another dimension, and that is the dismissal of sins.
It’s interesting that the first ritual was done inside the veil, but this sending away was fully done in public view. The whole nation, millions of people, stand and behold each and every element of this ritual. This ritual shows the outcome or fruit of the Day of Atonement. If you ask what is the benefit of the Day of Atonement, what is the effect? God says, “I’ll tell you what the effect of the atonement to come is.”
It is shown in two acts. The first act is hands on the head. We see it in verse 21a: “And Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins. And he shall lay them on the head of the goat.” Hands on the head, we see here. The high priest who is the representative of that sin-burdened nation, those millions of people with heavy trucks of sin and uncleanness upon their backs. We see this representative takes both of his hands and presses them down upon the head of this scapegoat. And what does he do there? He confesses all of the iniquity of the sons of Israel and transfers everything onto the head of this scapegoat. It will not be just a few minutes, maybe a long prayer. You can even see as he would stand there and confess sin after sin, as he would confess sins of presumption, sins of ignorance, sins of uncleanness, sins of omission, heinous sins and more heinous sins, and ceremonial neglect. It’s almost as if you can see standing behind him, one by one, each Jew comes and drops off the heavy load, mountains of garbage, accumulated over one year of his sin, upon the back of that scapegoat. One after another, hundred after hundred, thousands after thousands, billions. “Lord, we have broken all ten commandments; been idolatrous. Lord, we have blasphemed your name. Lord, we have been Sabbath breakers. Not only have we been picking up sticks on the Sabbath, deserving to be destroyed by stone, but we have made a profit on the Sabbath. Lord, we have our children who have not obeyed their parents. Husbands have not loved wives. We have been murderous in hating. We have been adulterous in our lusting. We have robbed you of tithes. We have been deceitful in not telling the truth. We have been covetous in being discontent.” As he would go on and on, rehearsing the sins of a nation.
And you can see, brethren, the mountain of wrath-deserving defilement being stacked upon the back of that scapegoat. As the camp of Israel, because of their sin, what do they deserve? They deserve to be cast far away from God and not get any of his blessings, far away to destruction by fire and brimstone. Look at the face of the poor goat. The millions of trucks and barrels of iniquity, as it were, are placed upon that goat. And what do we say, brethren? Oh, what a beast of burden. What a beast of burden was this substitute, a poor animal. You should see its face. Just keep watching him. Suddenly in graphics, his face turns into the face of a man. Do you see the face of a man? Oh, what a beast of burden is our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Isaiah 53:6, “He has no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” His face was not like a human face at all. Why? God has “caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon Him.” “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.” It was all transferred to our scapegoat, Christ. He became our scapegoat, who bore not only a one-year truck of household garbage but all the life of infinite, dirty garbage from birth that kept flowing. It was poured on him one by one until he who knew no sin became sin for us.
And not only your sin. When you think of the weight of the guilt that was placed upon Him on Golgotha, it was a mountain range of the sins of the elect, barrels of sin from men and women from every age, from every tribe, from every tongue, from every kindred, from every nation. From Adam, the first believer, all the way to the last believer who will embrace the Lord Jesus Christ until he comes back. All of those heavy barrels of uncleanness placed upon the back of our Beloved. And as John the Baptist said, “I say to you, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Transfer on the scapegoat.
Now the second act: the sending away of the scapegoat into the wilderness. After transferring all this guilt, see the face of the goat. Will we feed and give water to the poor goat? No, most cruelly. And that’s in verses 21b and 22, where it says, “And He shall send it, the goat, away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness.” “And the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities, all the oceans of garbage on its back to a solitary land, to the depths of the wilderness. He will go to a place of no return.”
Now what is all this? Brethren, this is a public visual aid for the burdened conscience of the ancient people of God. Burdened. They hear of the law of God. They hear of His moral law. They hear of His civil law. They hear of His ceremonial law. And they see they don’t keep the law as they sweep up day by day the sins of themselves and their families. They’re burdened by how much there is there, violating the law of God. And when they come annually at the Day of Atonement, they are burdened in conscience by their sins. But we see here, we see this visual aid as an appointed escort accompanies the goat deep out into the wilderness. It may be that a rope was tied around the neck of the goat and he carried him out miles and miles away to Azazel. He was to go so many miles that it was to be assured that the goat would never find its way back. He was to go to Azazel, a place of removal, cut off, where there will be no return, a barren land beyond the camp of God’s people. It is told they had different men placed at different places to take it very far, so it can’t be seen anymore.
All the people see the scapegoat carrying all their burdens, going, going, going far. After some time, they lose sight of it. A fit man goes with it, and they wait, and after a long time, the man returns back, waving, “The goat is gone.” And says, “He can no longer see it; it is gone so far, it will not return.” You should see that moment. There will be a celebration of clapping hands, blowing of trumpets, because all these burdens of their nation’s sins are all gone very far; they will never come back. All these sins have been carried into oblivion.
Leviticus 25:9 says, “Once every fifty years on the day of Jubilee, you shall sound a ram’s horn on the day of atonement; you shall sound a horn through all your land.” The sounding of the ram’s horn there on the Day of Atonement speaks of how the debts of God’s people have been canceled. Jubilee was a year of deliverance. Whatever debts you owe to someone, if you are a slave, if you sold your land, all will be returned to you every Jubilee year, every 50 years. Imagine what joy some people had gone into debt. They had to sell themselves into slavery. They lost their land. They lost their house. But on the Day of Jubilee, all debts were canceled. They were given back their land and their house.
When the flags came back and the report came back, “Our sins are gone,” there was rejoicing. Then was the horn to be sounded. Then was the celebration. “Now is Jubilee, for all the debts have been canceled.” And we can see the blessed blasts would be sounded, speaking of liberty. “Our sins are gone. Our debts are gone. Our sentence is gone.”
Do you see the blessed theological drama that is found in these old covenant shadows, depicting perpetual truths? Our scapegoat, the Lord Jesus Christ, has taken away our sins upon His head, just as the scapegoat, and he took it so far from us. All past, present, and future, it can never come back. He made it a non-entity in the eyes of God. Oh, soul, can you see your sins all gone? See that goat, keep seeing it until you lose sight. Rejoice, your sins are gone like that. They are utterly cast into the wilderness of forgetfulness, where they shall never be found anymore against us forever, not even on the Day of Judgment. But mark, this goat did not sacrificially make the atonement—it was a type of the sins going away, and so it was a type of the atonement. For you know, since our sins are thereby lost, it is the fruit of the atonement, but the sacrifice is the means of making it.
Think of that burdened scapegoat; it would go far, far away, with no water, no food, to burn in the hot desert, starve, alone, and die. Oh, what a picture of what our Lord went through. He was sent far away, to the utmost place, and suffered. So far away he had to cry, “My God, my God, why did you forsake me?” Billions and billions of miles he traveled, very far, carrying our sins to a place where they would never return. Praise his name.
Application Blessed be God the Father of Lord Jesus Christ for the Day of Atonement. Oh, suffering, guilty conscience sinners, even believers, may the Holy Spirit help us to grasp this truth. How can the burden of mountains and oceans of guilt that press us be removed? How can you be delivered from a guilty conscience? Behold the answer in these two goats. One by a suffering substitute that bears all punishment and wrath for our sins, and then the scapegoat that carries our sin far. Our Jesus Christ accomplished both these works.
How can you and I participate in that work and experience a cleansed conscience? By doing what the High Priest did: by our placing our hands on the forehead of God’s appointed scapegoat. That is the only way that our sins can be removed from our conscience. The only means appointed by God. We must rest the full weight of our souls upon Him, the Lord Jesus, the goat of God, the Lamb of God. There is nowhere else, sinner, nowhere else where you can unburden your guilt. It will not leave you all this life and even for eternity.
God’s sword of justice will pierce in only two places. It must either be plunged into Christ on crucifixion day or cut you to pieces on judgment day. Which will it be? There is no other place for the sheathing of that sword. This is the only means of the removal of our sins. What must we do? We must have faith in Him. That’s what the idea of hands are, hands of faith, grabbing hold of, placing weight upon. Faith is typified by the laying on of hands while confessing sin. “Lord, I am a wretched sinner. I have violated Your law. I have been ungodly in Your presence. I am unclean and unfit to be near You.” And then we have to rest the full weight of our hope. If we are to experience deliverance from a guilty conscience and enjoy the light of God’s face, for which our soul yearns, this is the divinely appointed means. And our hope rests exclusively on His work alone.
And now I ask you, I ask you who are here sitting here, “Have your hands touched the scapegoat’s head?” If not, your loathsome load remains; your conscience will torture you all your life. There is no way to rid your back of the heavy load. No way. Stagger, stagger now with all of the weight of your sin to this Lamb and put your hands upon Him. “Oh, I’ve been there before, Pastor, I’ve done this. But why do I feel guilty again, not happy?” You have to learn how to deal with guilt as a believer. Every time you feel guilty, you have not learned to come back to this scapegoat and lay your hands, confess it, repent, and send all our guilt far away. 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
What a visual aid is found here for our spiritually disabled souls. We are mentally disabled children spiritually, so it is difficult to grasp theological truth. And then, once having grasped it, we have such a hard time remembering it. And therefore, God gives us visual aids here in the old covenant in dealing with His immature people. Every time you feel the burden of sin, don’t feel the light of God’s presence, remember the two goats. Put your head down, send your goat far away. You will experience what the Pilgrim Christian felt when a big burden fell off; how much joy he felt, he said, “glad and lightsome.” It rolled and was buried in a tomb, never to be seen again. “Come to me, you who are weak and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” How tranquil it is to muse upon and ponder these things.
Believe God’s promises. Psalm 103:12: “As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” It is an infinite distance; you cannot go from East to West. Brethren, our sin is profoundly unretrievable. Isaiah 38:17: “Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” That means out of God’s sight. It’s behind His back. Jeremiah 31:34: “For I will forgive their iniquity; I will remember them no more.” My sins are banished from them, non-existent in the mind of God. God’s all-searching eye finds it no more. Isn’t that glorious? Micah 7:19: “He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, Thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” As a scapegoat is sent out into the depths of the wilderness, sunken in the wilderness, never to be seen again. Oh, why does the Holy Spirit give such promises and pictures? To give assurance to a staggering, guilty conscience. May the Holy Spirit screw it tight into your conscience, so you won’t forget it.
What should be our response to the Day of Atonement? Hebrews 10 tells us that is the purpose of the great Day of Atonement. Hebrews 10:19-22 says, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
The great achievement of the Day of Atonement is that we should draw near to God by a new and living way. How? With boldness, full assurance, and a cleansed conscience.
First, we should have boldness, freedom, and liberty to enter God’s presence. When we realize Christ’s blood has been sprinkled on the mercy seat, all sins are atoned for, and the law is satisfied; if we truly believe that, it gives us a bold access into the presence of God. Smearing the blood on the altar not only removes our sins, but all our prayers, worship, songs, and services are so pleasing and acceptable to God. Not because they are perfect; everything we do is unholy. Our poor prayer is an unholy prayer, for we have uttered it, and that which comes out of unholy lips like ours must be tainted. But, ah, it is a prayer that has been sprinkled with blood, and therefore it must be a holy prayer. It is the most pleasing prayer, the most pleasing worship.
It is so pleasing. I told you he comes with perfume, showing how pleased God is. So pleased. Do you know Aaron was alone in the Holy of Holies? God always has two other creatures always with him: two cherubim angels forged in gold. You see the presence of the cherubim in Revelation 4 and 5 always; four creatures who are ever surrounding the throne, worshiping the living God. You see, the cherubim are very delightful in the presence of God. God delights in the eternal and perpetual worship of the cherubim. No one else is allowed to come so close to God’s Holy of Holies than these beings.
Do you know something? When we as sinners, because of the sprinkled blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, can now offer up to God and his presence in bold access a worship that is delightful to God, as is the worship of the cherubim. Think of it. We, in our prayers, come into the presence of the living God. Our sin has been covered by the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we pray, our prayers are received as so delightful to God; praise like the highest cherubim. God delights in them. Oh, as delightful as the cherubim.
In the fullness of redemption, when we go to heaven, does God delight in our presence? It says he will sing and rejoice. Oh, yes. It will be as delightful as the worship of the cherubim. Why? Because of the blood. The blood of this beloved lamb. This goat who has been sprinkled on our behalf.
Secondly, you’re supposed to draw near with full assurance of faith. You’re supposed to draw near with assurance because your sins have been forgiven through the work of Jesus Christ. See, full assurance, not any doubt. Trusting God’s promise, we draw near.
Third, with a clean conscience. We should draw near to God with full assurance and a clean conscience. This enjoyment of a clean conscience should make us draw closer to God. In fact, it kind of automatically happens. As soon as the conscience is cleansed, there is a peace of God that transcends all understanding. He feels a strong pull to come to his satisfying creator.
So, the great achievement of the Day of Atonement is that we as creatures yearning for God’s face, now because of Christ, can draw near to God with boldness, with full assurance, and with a clean conscience.
Secondly (verse 23): “Hold fast without wavering.” If the Lord has done this for you, if He has shed the blood of His own Son, hold fast without wavering! Don’t turn back, keep on going! Persevere!
Thirdly, look at verse 24. Hebrews tells us to encourage one another to love and obedience. “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.” That’s what we’re to do. If Jesus has given this full and final sacrifice on our behalf, what should we do? Encourage one another to love, encourage one another to be like Him.
In verse 25, what are we supposed to do in response to this? “Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.” Isn’t that interesting? Don’t stop going to church! That’s the application that the author of Hebrews gives. Because of the full and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we’re not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some, but to encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Because you can experience drawing near to God with boldness, full assurance of faith, and a clean conscience and enjoy his graces only by these means. So, don’t stop going to church.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 