Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3400
“And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.” Leviticus 16:34.
WE have taken these words for our text. The whole Chapter, however, will have our attention.
I must be allowed to say at this time, though I seldom say anything in the way of an apology, that this is not the place, nor would time serve us to go into a full exposition of the very wonderful teaching of this Chapter. If we may ever set any portion of Scripture before another, this is one of the most precious Chapters in the whole compass of Revelation and, in some respects, the most remarkable of all. It is so full of wonderfully deep teaching that, instead of a sermon, it might require a volume! And then, perhaps, we would scarcely have done more than skimmed the surface. And there are difficulties, I may also add, connected with the interpretation—very great difficulties—which have puzzled the most learned of the Reformed and of the Puritan divines. I do not at all attempt to solve those difficulties, nor profess that all I say might be able to support and carry out. I desire to give, instead of any attempt at criticism or deep explanation, a simple exposition of this Chapter, bringing out of it, I hope, some Truths of God which, if they do not belong to the Chapter, are, nevertheless, exceedingly precious ones and will, I hope, be useful to us all.
In a remarkable way God dealt with Israel in the wilderness. There were special tokens of His peculiar Presence, as in the cloudy and fiery pillars which were the emblems of His Presence, and in the bright light called the Shekinah, which shone between the wings of the cherubim which overshadowed the Ark. But God cannot dwell where there is sin. He is a holy Being. “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts,” is the song which continually rises into His ears. In order, then, that He might dwell in the midst of Israel without compromising His Character, He was pleased to appoint one day in the year which was called “the Day of Atonement,” which should be considered to purify the camp and make it fit to be the dwelling place of Jehovah.
Now, God has promised that He will dwell among men, and He does dwell among His own people at this very time. He dwells with them in a remarkable way. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul. God is the heritage, the Friend, the Companion of all His people, but because of their sin He cannot dwell with these believing men unless an Atonement is made. The annual atonement among the Jews was the picture of the great Atonement—but the real Atonement, the effectual Expiation which, not once a year, but once and for all, the Lord Jesus Christ has offered—now renders it possible for God to walk with men and dwell among them!
In the ceremony of the atonement, in the Chapter before us, there are four things that struck me. The first is— I. THE WAY IN WHICH THAT REMARKABLE CEREMONY SET FORTH THE SACRIFICE MADE TO GOD’S HONOR.
My Brothers and Sisters, the offense of man against God was, so to speak, a stain upon God’s honor. Man set himself up in rebellion against the Most High! He stood out, therefore, against Divine Sovereignty! He impugned the Divine Love. His offense blasphemed the Divine Wisdom. Every human sin is an attack upon the whole Character and life of God—and sin, itself, is a dishonor done to the glorious attributes of Jehovah. Before God can be reconciled to man and deal with Him at all, except by way of retribution, there must be something done to restore the Divine Honor. Now, we have it declared in this Revelation which comes to us from Heaven, that Christ has fully restored the Divine Glory and that since He suffered on the tree, the Just for the unjust, God can be gracious without a violation of His Justice and Hecan dwell with us—with us poor fallen creatures—without the marring of the luster of any single one of His attributes! The model man has honored God more fully than sinful man ever dishonored Him! And if God was angry with the race for our sins, He is now towards the race full of tenderness and pity because of the transcendent goodness of the new Head of the race, Christ Jesus our Lord, who has magnified God’s Law and made it honorable!
Now, this is the Truth of God that was taught in the first part of the ceremony on the Day of Atonement. It was taught thus. Two goats were brought to the door of the Tabernacle. Lots were cast and the first goat was selected to teach this lesson. The goat was brought by the people. It was their common property. It would not have sufficed—it would not have been of any use at all if it had not been so. Read the Chapter and you will see. Learn from this that the compensation to God’s honor for man’s sin must come from men. I t was a man in the Garden who dared to rebel—it must be a man, another man, who shall honor God’s Law so as to set the race in a fresh relationship towards God.