McKendrick, Jim: Doctrines Of Salvation-02

I think it was the second verse of that hymn that started out. Once heaven seemed a far off place. That's the way it was in our lives, wasn't it, when we were unbelievers? Heaven certainly was a far off place. Not because it was at such a great distance geographically, necessarily, but because there was that great separation between me and God. We've been studying this month on the doctrines of salvation, and it is, we have advanced slowly but surely. We began with, uh, trying to understand a little bit about the sin question, the sin problem. We discovered that we were sinners not only by practice, but we were sinners by nature. And therefore we were dead in trespasses and sins. We were ruined. We could not accomplish in any way the purpose for which God had placed us on this earth. All of our works were corrupted before God, and therefore we needed to be born again, didn't we? We needed to be regenerated by the Spirit of God, given life and a new nature. We discovered Sunday evening, and actually this evening's message should have been reversed from Sunday evening's message in a logical fashion, but I felt that the Lord wanted me to preach on the subject of propitiation. The reality that there was a sacrifice. There was a person who was able to turn away the wrath of God from we who were sinners, so that all who believed in him could be made nigh. That was the big problem, wasn't it? This evening, I want to do a sort of a historical overview, if you will, of the Old Testament. The subject this evening would be the subject of atonement. The T, the ke- the key text verse, and I'm sure we all know it, I'm sure somewhere along the line we've memorized this along the way, is in Leviticus chapter seventeen and verse eleven. It's a very key verse in the Old Testament, for it says, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Chapter seventeen of Leviticus emphasizes two great truths. Number one is if you would, if you would kill an animal to sacrifice unto the Lord, it had to be brought to the altar. There was a place designated by God, and it was that altar upon which all sacrifices of the Old Testament had to be brought. You couldn't take it out into your backyard and kill, kill the lamb and assume that it would be okay. I have given it to you upon the altar, and there was a place. There had to be blood. Why? Because the life of the flesh is in the blood. And the other emphasis of chapter seventeen of Leviticus is the fact that you cannot at any time eat the blood, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar for an atonement and for the soul. It's an interesting word, the word atonement. It is only used in the Old Testament in reality. The New Testament brings us to the fruition of what the Old Testament was pointing to, and there in the New Testament we use the word propitiation. However, if you would pick up a Greek translation of the Old Testament, you would find that the word behind propitiation in the New Testament is the word that's behind atonement in the Old Testament, and therefore these two things are very closely related. And yet the apostle who would write the book to the Hebrews would, would remind us that there is, there is a difference. And that's what we would like to look at a bit this evening. It's interesting to find out that the very first time that the Hebrew word that is most often translated, translated atonement, and in fact the word atonement is used more in the book of Leviticus than any other book of the Bible, any other book of the Old Testament. By far, the majority of all the times that the word atonement is used, it's used in the book of Genesis, or in the book of Leviticus. For that is the great book that tells us about the sacrifices, that is the great book that tells us about the tabernacle and the priestly function within the tabernacle. And so therefore would be normal that in the book of Leviticus we would discover this word a great deal. But I find it very fascinating that the first time this Hebrew word is used, it's in Genesis chapter six uh and verse four. And there it is not translated by the word atonement in the English language, but it is translated by the word pitch. It was that which the ark was to be covered within and without with pitch. It was that pitch that caused the ark to be able to ride over the storm of the wrath of God that was going to fall upon the earth. And the only shelter from the wrath of God falling upon mankind was to be inside the ark, which was within and without with pitch. It's the same word that's translated atonement here in, uh, Leviticus chapter seventeen. For you see, the problem is this, that our sins had separated between us and our God. How can a sinner be accepted in the sight of God. What is it that can stand between me, a sinner, and a thrice holy God that will allow him, in all of the majestic holiness of his being, to be able to accept me? What is it that can be between him and me? Atonement, in my definition, atonement is the sacrifice that stood between God and a sinful people. The atoning sacrifice was the way in which a sinner could be forgiven and reconciled to God, and thus approach his God. We go all the way back to the beginning of history, in chapter three when our first parents sewed fig leaves together. And when God came into the garden, they hid themselves, said Adam. Why? Because they were naked. Of course, they were covered with fig leaves, weren't they? But they knew that while covering with fig leaves would maybe make them acceptable in the presence of man, it will not make them acceptable in the presence of God, and therefore before God, they knew they were still naked. They had no ability in their own doing to be able to approach their God, to be able to have fellowship with God, to be able to come into God's presence. And so God very graciously, in that very first chapter, would cover them with the skins of an animal that had died on their behalf. I find it interesting in the very last verse of chapter three that after he had thrust man out of the garden, he placed cherubim with shining swords at the east of that garden to guard the way to the tree of life. There would be no way in which man could get to the tree of life except he come to that place. And how could he get to the tree of life? It was guarded by these cherubim. And they had been placed there. You know what the word there is? A very fascinating Hebrew word called shakan. It's the first time that Hebrew word is placed there, and it means to place or to cause to dwell. And it's interesting that outside of that particular place and one or two other places in the Old Testament, that the rest of the times that that particular Hebrew word, which means to dwell or to place, and that particular phrase is used a number of times in the scriptures, translated by another Hebrew word. But it appears most frequently as where God would dwell. The same word, to dwell. Where? Between the cherubim, over the mercy seat. And the mercy seat is our word atonement, or a form of it. What a beautiful picture that is, because we get our word, you've heard the preachers talk about the Shekinah glory. Well, I could never find that word. I never know where they, where they came from. I figured, well, they got it out of a book, got it out of a book, got it out of a book, and went back a few generations, and everybody kept carry- carrying it forward. But the word Shekinah comes out of shekan, to dwell. It's the idea that the glory of God dwelled between the cherubim. How can God dwell in the midst of his people? Where can God dwell in the midst of his people? How would it be possible for this thrice holy God to dwell in the midst of his people? He would dwell where? Between the cherubim. And where were they looking? The cherubim's faces were downward where? Upon the mercy seat. And what was on the mercy seat? The blood of atonement. Actually, the word for mercy seat is just simply the word lid. It was the lid. It covered the Ark of the Covenant. What was in the Ark of the Covenant? In the Ark of the Covenant were the tables of stone, upon which were written the law, what we know as the Ten Commandments. That revelation of the righteous character of God, which demonstrated once and for all, and in writing, if you will, his righteous character, and the only way I could approach God was to live up to that standard. But we all know that you could never approach God because we could not live to that standard. We had all come short of the glory of God. We were all sinners. There needed to be a price, a ransom. Now, it's interesting that the ransom price is seen in a couple of ways in the Old Testament. And in Exodus chapter thirty, we find that every male that was numbered in the children of Israel from thirty years, twenty years old and upward, had to pay redemption money, a ransom for his atonement, that the plague of God would not fall upon the people. And what was that? Well, it was a half a shekel of silver. And what was that silver used for? It was brought into the sanctuary, and it was used in the construction of the temple, of the tabernacle. Because the tabernacle stood on with pillars of wood to hold it up as the supports, and the bases of those pillars was the half shekel of silver. It was, in fact, redemption ground on which the tabernacle stood. But as I would approach that tabernacle by, as a child of Israel, I would come with my offering, would I not? For you see, God dwelled in the holiest of all, and it was a veil. And then there was another compartment, the holy place, with the three pieces of furniture, the incense altar, the, the candelabra, and the table of showbread. And in front of that which building, if you will, in front of that veil, there was the laver. And in front of that was the brazen altar, or the altar of burnt offering. And before that, there was another gate. And that whole thing was surrounded by this, with these white linen, linen cloths, seven feet high. And it said this to the children of Israel. You can't approach God in any old way because you are a sinner. But you had to come in by the gate. When you came in by the gate, you've, you've, you, you came to the altar and you had brought your lamb or your bullock. And in Leviticus chapter one, because all we, God always starts at the innermost and works to the outermost. God always starts with the highest and works outward from himself. And the very first problem that had to be dealt with in the offerings of God was this. There needed to be an altar that was accept- an offering that was acceptable to God. And that's why we start with the burnt offering. Now, you and I, experientially, we start the other end of them, don't we? There's five offerings, we know that, right? You have the burnt and the, and the meal and the, and the peace and the sin and the trespass, right? And you and I, we, we start here with my sins. And then we understand the principle of sin. And when those, when that is, when that, when that sacrifice has been brought and I understand that, then I, then I have peace with God. That's right in the center, isn't it? But as I grow in my appreciation of God, I begin to understand the great life of the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of his life and who he is. That's the meal offering. But in the end, the highest form of worship is the burnt offering. And as I stand at the burnt offering and I bring it, there is nothing in that offering for me. It is all for God. And I find in that offering that it is the acceptability of the offering in which I stand. When I'm dealing with the sin and trespass offering, I deal with something entirely, I deal with substitution, if you will. I deal, this lamb died for me, and I place my hand on the head of the offering, and I said, this lamb is going to die for me, for my sins, and I've realized the cost of my sin and the horribleness of my sin. And I realize that, that it cost the life of this lamb that I might have an atonement for my soul, a covering for my sin. Ah, but when I come and I lay my hand on the burnt offering. I I say. say this lamb has been accepted, and because this lamb is accepted, I can know my acceptance as well. For the lamb will be, Leviticus one and verse three, an atonement for your soul. The sacrifice, the lamb will stand between you and a holy God, and because it is accepted, you are accepted as well. And that is the very highest form of offering. It deals with truths which are not for me, but it deals with the reality of what the offering was to God. As we come to break bread on Lord's Day mornings, it is good. Please don't ever say I did said anything different than that. It is good when I deal with the trespass offering in my mind or the sin offering, and say Jesus died for me. And that's a wonderful truth. It is wonderful to know something of the peace of God that passes all understanding because God and man has met. God has come out from the tabernacle of the congregation, and we have come from a distance, and we meet to the peace offering right in the center, and we all sit down and enjoy fellowship together because we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Ah. But we go further on occasion, don't we? We begin to think of the immaculate person, the glories of the person of Christ and who he is. And that is acceptable. But oh, to go the next step and enter into the reality that he offered himself to God. And I stand back in amazement as I look at the Lord Jesus Christ and his acceptance to God, and the fact that he was a willing sacrifice, and he offered first himself to God, and it was in the acceptance of that sacrifice by God that I can be accepted. Oh, that's a tremendous truth. Yom Kippur. There's our Hebrew word, isn't it? Kippurim, atonement. It's a great day in the Jewish reckoning of time. Leviticus chapter sixteen. when the high priest, once a year, with the blood of the bullock for himself and his house, and the blood of the goat, with the incense and the fire from the altar of incense, and the cloud of incense filled the holiest of all. And he splattered the blood of the sin offerings on the mo- on the mercy seat, and the children of Israel stood without. And when he came back out, they knew that they were accepted by God. They could breathe easy, if you will. And he would lay his hands on the, on the scapegoat, and he would confess over the scapegoat all the sins of the people, and they would watch as a, as a fit man would take him out into the wilderness, and they could see my sins, my iniquities are gone. Oh, and believe me, there were many Israelites that entered into those kinds of truths. I have no doubt in my mind. But, I ask you a question. What if... you would have gone up to one of those Israelites on the Day of Atonement, and you said to them, well now, you're accepted before God, are you not? Your sins are atoned for, are they not? Yes. And God has accepted the sacrifice. Yes. Well, come now. Why don't we go into the holiest of all, into the presence of God. Why not? Why not? I mean, the atonement had been made, had it not? God was going to be pleased to dwell in the midst of his sinful people for another year. Wouldn't it have been okay on that day, before anything else went wrong, to walk into the presence of God? And you know what? There wouldn't have been an Israelite there that would have even dared to think that kind of thing, let alone anything else. Obviously, no! You cannot go into the presence of God. Why not? I thought atonement was all that was necessary. The blood had been shed. Come with me to Hebrews chapter ten. For the law, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then, would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers, once purged, atoned for, their sins put away, should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Verse 14. For by one offering, he, that is this one who has come, Jesus Christ, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Spirit also was a witness to us, for after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them. Ezekiel chapter thirty six, by the way, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, where remission of these things is, there is no more offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, we have boldness, not audacity, but confidence to enter into the holiest through the blood of Jesus. He says then, 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. I always thought that, I always, you know, it took me, I was an adult before I realized that that verse didn't mean that we had to take a bath on Saturday night to come to meeting on Sunday morning. Somehow that's what I thought that verse meant. But I found out, finally, you know, it takes me a time, you know, I'm a little slow learner. We have, we have a number of things here, difference contrasted in. Number one, we have the multiple sacrifices of the Old Testament contrasted with the one sacrifice of Christ. We have in the, in, in, we have the conscience that is not cleared to be able to come into his presence because we have the consciousness of sins, and in the New Testament, because the Spirit of God has come, we have no more conscience. Our hearts are sprinkled from the evil conscience. We have in the Old Testament a remembrance made again of sins, year by year, continually. Continually. You remember the book of Esther? And you remember the king couldn't sleep one night. And so he got up and he got somebody to read to him the records of the events of the history of the kingdom. I suppose that if I had somebody droning on and on about some ancient history, it would have caused almost anybody to fall asleep, and that was the whole idea, I suppose. But anyway, he was listening, and all of a sudden, remember, he heard about this fellow by the name of Mordecai, who had never been, um, honored for a past deed that he did. Well, you see, it would be pretty tough. That's the idea of the word remembrance. It was a book of remembrance. Now, it would be pretty tough if... if I knew that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords had a book of remembrance about all my evil deeds. And that he could have insomnia one night, if I probably shouldn't say it quite like that, he would decide one night to look through that book, and he would discover things about me that everyone had forgotten, including me. And you know what? I don't want that kind of a book about me. Believe me, I don't want that kind of a book about me. But you know what the blood of Jesus Christ has done? He says their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. My sins are blotted out. They're not just atoned for, for a season, but they're taken away by the blood of his cross. And it isn't that he will forget my sins. He remembered every one of them, and that's what propitiation is about, isn't it? He remembered every one of them, and he placed the penalty for those sins upon his son at Calvary. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses me from all sin. And therefore, I can live in the conscience, conscious appreciation of the fact that there will never be a sin of mine ever remembered in the sight of God again. And that, my friend, is worth shouting about. That is a tremendous reality, and it's a reality that no Old Testament saint ever had. But I can do it at any moment, at any time. And you know what's great about that? It's this text is telling me that it isn't just the fact that he dwells with me, which is a great truth. But it's the fact that I can come into his presence where he is, at the right hand of God. In all of the majesty of the glory of the heaven, I am a welcome sight. And I come in there with, uh, my heart sprinkled. Blood is always sprinkled, by the way. I know you're all going to tell me, yeah, it was poured at the base of the altar, but beyond pouring it at the base of the altar, it was always sprinkled. And so the blood has been sprinkled, not the blood of bulls and goats, which cannot take away sin, but the precious blood of Christ. And my body is washed with pure water. Whose body got washed with pure water in the Old Testament? Every priest, when he entered the priesthood, he was bathed in the water from the laver. He only needed to be bathed once. And after that, he just washed his hands and feet from the defilement of the way. I have not only been to the altar, but I've been to the laver. Not only have I been cleansed of my guilt at the altar, but I have been cleansed from my defilement at the laver. Not only have I been empowered by the work of Christ at Calvary, but by the Spirit of God as well. I'm washed, and I'm clean, and I'm clear, and as a priest of God, I can enter his presence. The blood, it makes atonement for the soul. But the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses me from all sin. May we appreciate the value of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and may in our gospel preaching, may we never get away from the blood, for it is the blood that cleanses from all sin. Shall we pray? Father, what a glorious truth that we have been washed. We have been cleansed. We are clean through and through. And we can come into your presence. We have come into your presence this evening as we prayed together in a very special way, laying hold upon yourself to find grace to help in time of need. And there is every one of us here who know the effects of the blood on our lives and the glorious reality of what it has brought us into. We thank you that at any moment, at any time, we can come into your presence. Our Father, we would pray that each of us would avail ourselves of this wonderful privilege of coming by this new and living way in full assurance of faith. Our Father, we thank you that we will be met by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who is our high priest, and who will run to our aid and give us what we need. Our Father, we prayed for many tonight who have desperate and special needs. And our Father, we would pray that where they are, we would pray that you would give them the reality of the sense of your nearness, of your presence. May they know what it is to have communion and fellowship with you in the holiest of all. And our Father, may we each in our lives, as we go day by day, as we live amongst a world and people that are defiling on every hand, may we constantly live in the reality of the presence of the living God, and may we moment by moment call upon you and know your cleansing power in our lives. We would ask this in our Savior's name.