There Must Be Blood - [Leviticus 16 / Hebrews 10]

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It is good to be back here at Bethlehem Bible Church. I was at Omaha Bible Church last week, seeing my brother and sister and their families, and it's good to be back to preach to my own beloved congregation.
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It is holiday time, as we all know, holiday season.
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Just a few days ago, we were at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Rain Parade, and just a time when we get together for holidays, and what do we do in America?
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We eat. It's a time of food, festivity, fun, family.
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When we have a holiday, it's an uplifting time. It's a joyful time. It's a time of high caloric intake, and I think that's fine.
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But what if you had a holiday that would focus on repentance? How many
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Hallmark holiday cards do you think would be sold for a holiday that would focus on mourning, suffering, fasting?
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Would you sign up for such a holiday? Would you please turn your
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Bibles to the least read and least preached from book in all the Bible, and we'll have a message today about such a holiday.
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Go ahead, turn your Bibles there. The least preached from book in all the Bible. Not 2
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John, not Numbers, not Zephaniah, but the book of Leviticus. Please turn your
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Bibles to Leviticus. We'll have a detour from our Sermon on the Mount series this morning to focus on this national holiday that ultimately will give you a greater appreciation for Christ's death on the cross.
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I'd go so far to say that unless you understand Leviticus 16, you cannot fully understand
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Christ's substitutionary death on the cross. The risen
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Savior being in a state of being pleased, his father's pleased by his death, raised from the dead, we certainly understand that, but yet many of us do not understand
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Leviticus 16, a Jewish holiday, the day of atonement, Yom Kippur. I know this week is not
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Yom Kippur, but the holiday season gives a good backdrop for me to preach this passage. How many people have ever heard a sermon preached from Leviticus?
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Not many, but we want to preach from Leviticus today so we can see this passage as it points to the greatest fulfillment,
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Christ Jesus. And I'll say it one more time because it's important. Unless you understand Leviticus 16, you cannot fully appreciate the ramifications of Christ dying on the cross in a bloody, vicious way.
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As you know, the Bible contains 66 books from Genesis to Revelation. And lots of times we just jump into the
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New Testament. We have little pocket Bibles just with the New Testament. But we will see from the day of atonement in Leviticus 16, understanding that, then when we go to the day of atonement in Hebrews 10, it'll make perfect sense.
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And so we want to look at Leviticus 16 this morning as we see many themes. Could be the holiness of God, could be a sacrifice as needed, could be blood, it could be
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God decides how we worship, but ultimately we will see this pointer, this preparatory signal that says
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Jesus has to come and die in our place. Christianity is a religion that is not invented on the inside.
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It is a religion that God reveals things to us from the outside. Every other religion, pagan religion, says
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I have a feeling it should be this way, or God move my spirit this way, or I'm led this way. God somehow spoke to my heart about what
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I should do. Yet Christianity is God speaking from the outside and he lays down these prescriptions in Leviticus that I dare say no one here would ever come up with, nor would you want to come up with.
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Answering the question in Leviticus, how do we approach a holy God? Now the
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Jews still celebrate Yom Kippur today. Marshall Roth said this is how you celebrate it, with these five things.
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You don't have to write these down, it's just some background. Eating and drinking, you don't involve yourself with, you don't involve yourself with washing, you don't apply oils or lotions to the skin, no marital relations, and no wearing leather shoes.
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Well that might be fine and dandy, but I have one question. Where is the blood? Where is the death?
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Rabbi Dressler said, quote, on Yom Kippur, the power of the evil inclination is muted. Therefore, one's yearning for spiritual elevation reasserts itself after having lain dormant as a result of sin's deadening effect on the soul.
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This rejuvenation of purpose entitles a person to special consideration and forgiveness. I again have one simple yet profound question.
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Where is the bloodshed? Where is the death? And if we look at Leviticus chapter 16, we are going to see death and blood all over this, and in fact
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Christianity, Judaism is a bloody religion, and it has to be, and we'll understand why in just a few minutes.
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Leviticus, by the way, is a word that talks about the Levite's responsibility for how do you approach
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God? How do you go before God where it says over 50 times, I am the Lord, I am holy.
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Do you just kind of saunter right on up? You just kind of knock and say, God, I'm here, just it's time to accept me, take me as I am.
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I feel good about this relationship. My spirit feels good. I've been kind of at a worship service with lots of drums and rock and roll and high -strung guitars, and I feel like I'm worshipful.
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Or it's a little bit different. Well, let's jump in and find out. This is one of the most amazing chapters of all the
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Bible. These are the commandments which the Lord commands. Now, Leviticus 16, you'll need a
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Bible. The Lord, Yahweh, spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they had approached the presence of the
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Lord and died. Well, that's interesting. Here's a little clue for you. Here's a little chronological clue.
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When did this happen? Well, if you remember, Leviticus 10 talks about Nadab and Abihu who walked right in and said, here's how we should worship
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God, and let's just go back there to find out. Leviticus chapter 10, what happened to Nadab and Abihu?
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Let's find out. Achan was Achan to steal something, and it's Nadab and Abihu. That's the way you remember these things.
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Leviticus chapter 10, now Nahab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before Yahweh, the
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Lord, which He had not commanded them. Exodus 30, it says, you shall not offer strange incense on it.
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You shall not pour a drink offering on it. God very specifically, minutely, meticulously, exactly prescribes the way we should worship
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Him. That's not only true for back then, but it's true today. And they just thought, you know, we don't have to do it.
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We'll do it our way. We worship as we feel. We worship as we see fit.
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Where two or three are gathered, they decide to do it on their own. And instead of doing it
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God's way, they did it their own way. And what happened? Verse 2, and God applauded them for being special in their worship.
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And fire came out from the presence of the Lord, probably from over the ark of the covenant, and consumed them, and they died before the
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Lord. Punctuation mark with the holiness of God and sinfulness of men, like Uzzah, like Ananias, like Sapphira.
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They do it on their own, and it was destruction. Improper worship. The real question is not how could
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God do that, but why doesn't He do it more often? We know He's also not just a just God, but He's loving, and patient, and kind.
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Verse 3, then Moses said to Aaron, it is what the Lord spoke. By those who come near me,
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I will be treated as holy. And beloved market, that has never ever changed, whether it's
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Israel or the church. And before all the people, I will be honored. So Aaron, the father, kept silent.
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This was not just a minor infraction, because the infraction was against the eternal, infinitely holy
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God. And they didn't do it accidentally, they did it on purpose. Exodus 19 said, the priests who come near the
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Lord should consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. Verse 4 of Leviticus 10,
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Moses also called the Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp.
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Can you imagine how they were tiptoeing? How their heart must have been racing? Now it's your turn to go get these guys.
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And amazingly, this was not some kind of spontaneous combustion, some kind of so -called miracle, because look what happens in verse 5.
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So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics. The fire from the
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Lord from over the mercy seat came and consumed them, but it did not burn up their tunics. They were killed.
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So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp, this time properly, as Moses said.
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Unfortunately, most of our Ark of the Covenant knowledge comes from Indiana Jones, the first one. Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons
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Eleazar and Ithamar, do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes so that you may not die, that he may not become wrathful against all the congregation.
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But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the Lord has brought about.
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They were warned. You say, why did God do it? Well, we get a little inclination here in verse 8.
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The Lord spoke to Aaron saying, verse 9, do not drink wine or strong drink neither you nor your sons with you when you come into the tent of the meeting so that you may not die.
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It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations. Don't get drunk. No, excuse me, don't get drunk.
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And maybe that's why they were burned up. They also offered the strange fire. It was the wrong timing and they were drunk. He said, don't ever do that.
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God is serious about sin. And in Leviticus 16, it tells us the backdrop for what has happened.
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So now going back to Leviticus 16, we pick it up chronologically.
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It's almost as if chapter 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 tell us how to properly act so what happened in chapter 10 doesn't happen.
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He can't just go from chapter 10 chronologically to 16 without giving the warnings because of God's holiness.
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And the Lord, Leviticus 16, 2 said to Moses, tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat, which is on the ark, lest he die.
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It's for the day of atonement. It's for the high priest. You just cannot saunter in. It's not like Henry David Thoreau.
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What do I do? I saunter. No, you don't saunter here except one time a year to the holiest of holy places, the most holy, the holiest of all.
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For I appear in the cloud. I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. There's got to be precautions for approaching the presence of God.
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What are those precautions? I'm going to have a kind of a strange outline today. They'll tell you in seminary never have more than three points.
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So here's 14 points today. And that's only for Leviticus. We've got
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Hebrews chapter 10. Instead of taking two verses today and just bringing them out for all their truths,
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I'm going to give you a tour through chapter 16 of Leviticus. Then we're going to go to the New Testament day of atonement called
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Hebrews chapter 10. And these 14, you don't even have to write down. I'm going to give you the 14 things that the priest had to do before they came before God.
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14 things they had to do every single year, year in and year out before they would approach God to have the sins of the people covered.
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And I'm picking 14. I'm going to call it a 14 step program. You've heard of 12 steps. Here's 14 steps because we're going to go from many to few or one.
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We're going to have lots of prescriptions for the old Testament approaching God. And then there's going to be one in the new
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Testament. So I want you to see how many there are. And I'm going to skip around a little bit because I'm going to use Defenbos the scholars chronological way to do this.
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Number one, every year, Aaron had to take his regular priestly garb off, wash it and put on special garb.
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Look at verse four. He shall put on the holy linen tunic and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body.
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He shall be girded with a linen sash and attired with linen turban. These are holy garments and he shall bathe his body in water and put them on.
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Now, what were the regular priestly? What was the regular priestly garb like? Exodus 28 says it was ornate, sapphire, topaz, gold, all kinds of fine linen, emeralds, artistically make the breastplate of judgment, scarlet thread, purple, blue, fine woven linen.
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I mean, he was wearing things, pomegranates made out of blue and he looked good normally.
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But that one time a year when he would stand before the holy God, it was not time to act like a high priest.
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It was time to act like a slave or a servant. He was to wear humble clothes, regular clothes, ornate, no, level playing field.
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He needs atonement too. He's not standing there saying, I represent the people. He's one of the people and it's time to dress down.
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By the way, this is not a verse for pastors to dress down on Sunday when they preach at all. This is the time where his clothes show what should be in his heart.
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He is a servant, he is a slave. He stands in need of atonement as well. Plain, ordinary garments.
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Number two, every year Aaron secured then the sacrificial animals.
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Verse three, every year he had to do this. Aaron shall enter the holy place with this, with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for burn offering.
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And he'd have to have offerings for himself because he needed atonement. And then he'd have to offer them for the people.
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Notice here, exact, precise, detailed, God tells us how he wants to be worshiped.
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Verse five, and he shall take from the congregation the sons of Israel, two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burn offering.
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Both the priest and the people are sinful and that is what God knows and what we should know and what they did know.
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Number three, every year, and again you don't even have to write these down. I'm just trying to give you 14 because I want you to think of the large number in comparison with the
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New Testament. Aaron slaughtered the bull for his own sin offering every year.
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Look at verse six, 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.
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Verse 11, then Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin of the offering which is for himself, make atonement for himself and for his household.
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So he has to kill those things and all of a sudden we're going to start seeing lots and lots of blood. This is a bloody religion.
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Number four, every year before he entered the Holy of Holies, he had to make a cloud of incense.
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Now this is really cool for those of you who are sleeping and going, well I know why pastor never preaches from Leviticus because it's quite boring.
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If you listen, you're not going to find it boring, especially this part. And by the way, if you were Aaron, you would not think this was boring.
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You would have this down in your palm pilot and you would read and reread and reread again making sure that I get this right.
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You would double check. It's almost like a pilot's checklist. How many things do you check off, Scott, before you fly?
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18 to 20. So here's 14. 14 things he has to make sure because you don't present yourself before God and God is like,
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I'm so glad you're here. Here's the thrice holy God. You cannot just walk up into God's presence like Nadab and Abihu.
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And so here in verse 12 and 13, he creates this kind of covering. You can kind of almost make bees not attack you if you kind of smoke them a little bit.
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Is that true? Does anybody do any beekeeping? Okay. Some shake your head.
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Now that's new to me that you guys are beekeepers, but you've probably read about it here. Just imagine above the mercy seat is the glory of God, the
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Shekinah, the outflowing brightness of God, the effulgent glory of God. And if it's going to hit his face, he's going to be undone.
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So what you're going to do is put a bunch of incense all over and it's going to reflect, it's going to reflect and refract and create this so it's not so intense.
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And if you take a look at verse 12, that's what happens. He shall take a fire pan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the
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Lord and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense and bring it inside the veil.
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And 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 ark of the testimony lest he die to somehow shield him from that intensity.
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This week when I was flying to Omaha, I saw in the little airplane catalog that you can buy things there.
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Shop direct or order online. There's this thing that you could put all around your body so up to 1500 degrees you wouldn't burn.
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And it was only $39 .99. You could just put it all around your body and that's almost what this incense is doing.
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I was wondering why I didn't have one of those things. All I had was like a three cent you know bag that you're supposed to expel into.
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That's all I had. I wanted this other thing. This is like an asbestos blanket type deal except against the glory of God.
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Can you imagine just walking in there? I'm thinking tiptoeing. I'm thinking when I'm really nervous
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I sometimes don't even really breathe right. Number five every year
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Aaron then takes some of the blood of the bull and sprinkles it on the mercy seat seven times.
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Look at verse 14. Every single year here's the prescription these 14 things. Moreover he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side.
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Also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. I mean there is blood everywhere.
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I don't know how much blood you've ever seen but I've worked in the operating room for a lot of years and there's a lot of blood sometimes.
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Usually it's very precise and exacting. They take care of the bleeders but I'll never forget the one time where the scalpel goes across an abdomen.
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It hits a bleeder and that thing this is kind of pre -hiv day and everything else where you had to have goggles on.
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I have no goggles and that bleeder just shoots straight at my eye. Just hit with this big blood thing.
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I just thought and that's a lot of blood. Here there's blood everywhere.
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You can imagine the flies and the blood. There's got to be blood. Sprinkle all around.
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Sixthly every year they cast lots for two goats. Which one would be killed?
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Which one would be let go? Verse seven. He shall take the two goats present them before the
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Lord at the doorway of the tent of meeting and Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats. One lot for the
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Lord and the other lot for the escape or the scapegoat. More on this later.
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Number seven. Every year the goat for slaughter, the goat for the people's sin offering is sacrificed and the blood is taken into the holy of holies and applied to the mercy seat.
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Just where that bull's blood had been. Verse 15. Then he shall slaughter the gold of the sin offering which is for the people bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.
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Feelings oriented worship? No. Emotions are good but I think the only emotion going through his mind right now is fear.
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Number eight. Every year you have to clean the holy place. Make cleansing for it. Verse 16.
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He shall make atonement for the holy place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel. People walking around in there they ought not to be because of their transgressions.
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Just in general being close in the regard to all their sins. She shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities.
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When he goes to make atonement in the holy place no one shall be in the tent of the meeting until he comes out that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel.
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Did I mention there was a lot of blood? And did I mention all the people were not there? All the people were at home.
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This is a day of mourning and fasting and contrition and humility while the priests are there doing what
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Moses through God has ordained. Number nine. Every year.
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Did I mention they had to do this every year? Next outside the tent Aaron makes atonement for the altar of burnt offering.
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And I mean it goes on and on. You can read that in verse 18 and 19. Number 10. Every year the second goat which was still alive which had the sins of the nation symbolically placed on its head with their hands is driven out to some isolated place.
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Verse 9. Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell and make it a sin offering.
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But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement upon it and send it to the wilderness as the scapegoat.
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Removal of all the sins. Sins are gone. As we would think of as far as east or from the west, they take the goat out in a really far place and let it go.
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At Christ's time they would take it 12 miles from Jerusalem. Some people think this is some demon. You can study it all you want.
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I think the King James and the NIV and the NAS are fine going back to the Old Testament. Greek which basically says a scapegoat, a go away goat.
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Two goats. One atonement by death, two complete removal of sins with the scapegoat.
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Number 11. Every year Aaron entered the tent of meeting, removed his linen garments, washed and put on his regular priestly garments.
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Verse 23. Every year, number 12, the burnt offerings of the ram, one for Aaron and his family and the other for his people is now offered.
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Every year, number 13, the sacrifices of the bulls and goat were completed. And 14, lastly, every year, those who had been rendered unclean because they touched these animals on which the sins of Aaron and the people were laid had then had to wash themselves and return to the camp.
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What do the people do by the way? Well, there's a response. Look at verse 29 and following. And this shall be the perpetual statute for you in the seventh month.
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On the 10th day of the month, you shall humble your souls. This is for the people. Do not do any work, whether the native or the alien who sojourns among you.
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For it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you. You should be cleaned from all your sins before the
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Lord. It is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you that you may humble your souls. It is a permanent statute.
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Here, God is prescribing how to cover sins. Now I've got a question for you.
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I ask this of my lifeguard friend all the time who's Jewish. If you'd like to approach
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God today, I know we're not Israelites. I know we're past that.
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I know in 70 AD, the temple was destroyed by Titus and no longer could there be any goats or bulls slaughtered.
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But if you want to approach a holy God, simply, if you'd like to go to heaven when you die, can you do it on your own?
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Can you do it without following God's prescriptions? Can you do it without blood? God requires bloodshed to enter his presence.
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And as John Calvin said, no one knows the 100th part of the sin that clings to his soul.
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If the wages of sin are death, somebody has to die to approach God. Who's going to die?
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Where's going to be the bloodshed? And Leviticus points and anticipates to Jesus's death on the cross like nothing else does.
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Let's turn to Hebrews 7 and see if that's true. Hebrews 7, with this quick understanding of Leviticus 16, you are now going to see
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Hebrews 7, 8, 9, and 10 in technicolor, in Dolby, in THX, in IMAX kind of sense around whatever it's called.
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It is so much clearer now to go to the book of Hebrews with just that cursory overview of Leviticus 16.
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And you're going to see the superiority of Christ's sacrifice over annual bloodshed.
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How do you approach God without some kind of bloodshed? I could put it in this way.
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There were 14 steps to approach God in the Old Testament. There is one way to approach
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God now. One way and one step. And we're going to see in Hebrews 7, 8, 9, and 10 that that one step is to see the finished work of the risen
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Christ Jesus as your only atonement for sins. By faith alone, you see that as the lambs and the bulls and other things were killed year after year after year,
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Christ one time died at Calvary for the sins of all those people who would ever believe. We've gone from 14 steps to one.
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And we so need it because we, along with those priests and those peoples, were sinful.
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I've met people today, they don't even think they're sinful. And when I was a kid in the 70s, we had something called the book of lists.
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Do you remember those book of lists? Some of you do. Chris does. He's my age.
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What's the big deal about having some blood sacrifice to approach God? Well, it's only a big deal when we remember that sinful people have to approach
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God. And in this book of lists, I found it in Meredith's big book of Bible lists.
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31 descriptions of mankind arranged alphabetically to push you to the point where you say to yourself,
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I cannot just come into God's presence on my own. I do a lot of funerals. And here's the good old boy, and he's now up in heaven looking down.
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Bechler is not thinking about any of those losses to Ohio State anymore. He's looking down on the game now with great glee until now the
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BCS thinks he's number three. So I don't know what's gonna happen to him. You just die, you go to heaven.
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I'm telling you, if you have sin, you need bloodshed. And it's true for the Jews. It's true for us today.
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We've got to have some death, vicious, bloody death in our place or we're not going. And in that Bible list,
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I found these. You don't have to write them down. They're too long. But here is the CV. Here is your resume, along with mine.
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As we think about trotting into God's presence, alienated from God, Ephesians 4, spiritually blind,
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John 12, carnally minded, Romans 8, corrupt, Matthew 7, darkened,
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Matthew 6, dead in sin, Ephesians chapter 2, deceived, Titus 3, defiled,
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Isaiah 64, destitute of truth, Romans 1, disobedient, Titus 3, enemy of God, James 4, evil,
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John 3, foolish, Ephesians 5, going astray, 1 Peter 2, hateful,
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Titus 3, hypocritical, Matthew 6 and 16, impenitent, Romans 2, malicious,
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Titus 3, pleasure loving, 2 Thessalonians 2, proud, Romans 1, refusing belief,
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John 3, rejecting truth, 2 Timothy 4, resisting God, Acts 7, guided by Satan, John 8, self -lovers, 2
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Timothy 3, self -satisfied, Revelation 3, slave of sin, Romans 6, subordinating
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God, Romans 1, unconscious of bondage, John 8, unrighteous, 1
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Corinthians 6, vain in their imaginations, Romans 1. I'm exhausted just reading it.
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And then we have some little pop slogan that says all you have to do is accept Jesus in your heart and you're fine.
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I think not. The question is this, do you see
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Jesus Christ's perfect work at Calvary where He let His blood in a vicious way satisfy the just requirements of a thrice holy
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God in your place and do you see it by faith? There's no other way. The soul that sins will surely what?
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Die. The penalty for sin is death. On that day you eat of it, you will surely what? Die. The wages of sin is death and the only hope you have if there's a substitute, if it was a
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Passover lamb in your place or if it was the bulls and the scapegoat and everything else, you've got to have a substitute because all of us will stand before God on that day, that great day, naked and bare and everything exposed and God will know us for who we are.
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Martin Lloyd -Jones said sin is so terrible, so foul, so vile that nothing could deal with it but the blood of Christ.
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And that is what happened on the cross. It's not a patching over, a covering over of sin. It's not
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God saying don't worry all as well. It is God showing us sin as it really is, really bringing it out to the light and then dealing with it.
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And Hebrews is a book that is summarized by one word and that is superiority. When you look at the
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Old Testament and all the regulations of God, Jesus is superior, he's better, he's greater than all those and now we get to look at our
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Savior here. If you're not a Christian, I hope I drive you to despair so that you'll be driven to the cross.
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And if you're a Christian, I hope you're going to be thankful. What a great Thanksgiving sermon to remember what Jesus died, that Jesus died in your place.
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Let me just read a few verses in Hebrews and now going over Leviticus 16 as we just did, it's going to sparkle.
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These verses are going to shine. Hebrews 7 .26, for it was fitting that we should have a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalt above the heavens, who does not need daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this
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Jesus did once for all when he offered up himself. Everyone else has to offer his own sin atonement sacrifice.
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Jesus didn't because he sinned less. Verse 28, for the law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the law appoints a son who's not weak, who's made perfect forever.
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Hebrews chapter nine. Friends, if you just read the Old Testament, you don't need to have 5000 commentaries for the new, especially
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Hebrews. Look at Hebrews chapter nine, verse 10. I mean, this just makes all the sense in the world now after looking at Leviticus chapter 16.
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And I want you to look for the word blood as I read through these verses. Somebody's blood has to be shed under the point of death.
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And for us, it's Christ. Hebrews nine, 10, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.
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But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation.
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Verse 12, and not through the what blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood.
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He entered the holy place how many times year after year after year, no once for all.
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And it wasn't yearly annual redemption. It was having obtained what eternal redemption.
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For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh.
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How much more will the Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God will cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living
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God. Verse 15, for this reason, he is now the mediator of a new covenant.
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So that since the death has taken place for the redemption of transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the internal inheritance.
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Someone has to die, he says, in verse 16, for where there is a covenant, there must be of necessity death of the one who made it.
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For a covenant is valley only when men are dead, but it is never enforced while the one who made it lives.
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He's talking about Christ Jesus, he's alive. And then verse 18, do you spot it there again?
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Therefore, even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people, according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats and the water and the scarlet wool and the hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying, this is the blood of the covenant, which
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God commanded you. In the same way, he sprinkled both the tabernacle and the vessels of the ministry with the blood.
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And then now we get to the great stuff. According to the law, one may also say, all things are cleansed with blood.
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And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. There's got to be bloodshed. You say, well,
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I don't like those rules. Well, that just proves to me that you've got number 32 on the list of 31 things about your sinfulness.
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We didn't make up the rules. He is the creator, right? People say, I hate all those bloody songs, always talking about the bloody cross.
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It makes me sick. I don't know what to tell you. You should embrace that Jesus spilled his blood and died for you.
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There's no other hope. You see, in verse nine, chapter nine, verse 25, nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with the blood that is not his own.
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He didn't do it that often. He did it once. Otherwise, he would needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world.
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But now, once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin, scapegoat terminology by the sacrifice of himself.
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And now one of the verses that's taken out of context almost more than any other verse 27. And in as much as it is appointed for men to die once and after this judgment, comma, don't forget verse 28.
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So Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him.
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He's not coming back to judge sin because it's been dealt with. Now let's go to chapter 10 and we'll spend the rest of our time here, which is the
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New Testament day of atonement. He's talking about the day of atonement here. And I just want you to reflect on how great it is that Jesus could die once for our sins.
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And we don't have to do this every year. I mean, I can just imagine Louis, Dave, Steve and I having a little powwow once a year before we have to go into whatever room in here would be the holy of holy rooms.
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And according to tradition, you know, they would tie that rope around your leg. And I probably would have to be the one who would go since somehow
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I'm senior pastor and there'd be bells around my ankle and there would be Dave letting in the rope.
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And then Louis would be kind of having the rope around his waist and Steve would be in the middle and just hoping
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Abendroth had taken care of all his own sins. Because if the bell stopped jingling, it's just time for Cooley, number two.
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And if I didn't make it, how much more would Steve? Well, wait, for the longest time,
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I never really liked the book of Hebrews. I knew it was in the Bible. I knew I was supposed to like it. I knew it was part of the canon.
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I knew it was profitable. But it almost seemed like a book that I couldn't unlock. And, you know, if you can't understand something, you don't run to it all the time for your devotions.
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But if you just for your homework this week would read the book of Leviticus and you see God's precise, exacting, meticulous ways he wants to be approached, you will rejoice this week that you don't have to do the same thing because you couldn't do it.
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And here Jesus has done something in our place. As the Jews would have to do something physically, we're going to learn in Hebrews chapter 10 that what the
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Jews had to do every year wasn't enough. It was only pointing. Jesus has done.
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The gospel is not what you do and bring to God. And he says, Oh, now that you've done it, I saved you. The gospel is God has saved you and you respond with faith.
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And here, after looking at just briefly, Leviticus 16, you're going to savor Hebrews 10.
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I love Hebrews 10. I want to read it all the time. It is just so rich. And half the time when
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I think about my own devotions. Friends, if you're anxious this week, it would be good to go look at some verses about being anxious.
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If you're kind of down, look at some verses about joy. If you got some kind of communication problems to go look at some verses about how do you communicate.
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But what's needed on a regular basis in daily devotions is this. God is holy and lifted up.
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His son is to be worshiped because he has dealt with the problem, the sin problem. And if God has taken care of the greatest problem you'll ever have sin, won't he take care of you in every other problem?
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You lose your job, you've got a surgery coming up all these other issues. Don't go running for the topical index.
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I need to look about the verses about surgery. I understand if you do. But how about just opening up a book, the
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Bible, and say I want to see God high and lifted up again and everything else will just put itself right in order.
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That's why John Piper wrote that article, Don't Waste Your Cancer. You get cancer, don't waste your cancer by spending all your time running around doing everything else.
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WebMD, Tabor's Dictionary. What's the worst thing that could happen? What are the percentages of my family members' chances in the operating room?
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Here is God high and lifted up and then focus on him. Everything else will be put in its place.
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That's exactly what Hebrews 10 does. Even though in your heart it doesn't say, you don't say, oh that's my favorite chapter.
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Maybe it will be after today. Hebrews 10 verse 1. For the law, since it was only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make perfect those who draw near.
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There's no way this Old Testament law can make you perfect. That is saved. Can't do it.
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It's a shadow. It's out of focus. It doesn't have very many pixels. It's a pale reflection.
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Why would you run back to anything else, Judaism or any other religion that can't deal with sin?
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It's a mirage. It can never. The system's weak. Built -in weakness and limitation.
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Otherwise, verse 2, would they have not ceased to be offered? Because the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had the consciousness of sin.
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The rhetorical question, if it really worked, they would not have in their bosom, as it were, some burning thing that I still am sinful and I need atonement.
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But in those sacrifices, verse 3, there's a reminder of the sins year by year.
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There's a remembrance. This word is used here and only two other places. And it's used for the
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Lord's Supper, do this in what? Remembrance of me. When God remembers sin,
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He either punishes it or pardons it. And there's verse 4. Doesn't this make sense now? For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
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It was temporary. It never could be taken away. Same word, taken away, where Peter saw
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Malchus and he did what to his ear? Took it away. Same language.
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No, there's one sacrifice for sins. And that's what chapter 10, verses 5 through 18 talks about.
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And it talks about not our will, but the Son's will to obey the Father. And he does this argument with Bible verses.
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Do you see, at least in my Bible, I have capital letters in a lot of these. She's just quoting the
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Bible. How do you talk to the Jewish readers of Hebrews? Well, you do it with Bible verses. It's not some new thing.
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Verse 5, therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice an offering thou has not desired, but a body thou has prepared for me.
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In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou has taken no pleasure. Compared to obedience, there's no pleasure for that.
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Then I said, behold, I have come in the role of book is written of me to do thy will,
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O God, with the Leviticus people could not do. Jesus, the one who was presumed eternal and preexistent, says,
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God, I'll do it. They can't do it. It's every year. I will do your will. After saying above, verse 8, sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin that was not desired.
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Nor has thou taken pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law. It's limited. It's partial.
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Yes, it's a good law, but it's a pointing law. And he said then, verse 9, behold, I've come to do thy will.
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It's going to take God's will to get us saved, not our own will. It's going to set it aside.
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He takes away the first in order to establish the second. It's the will of God who does that.
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Verse 10, by this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ year after year.
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No, may it never be once for all. And it just gets better.
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Verse 11, and every priest stands daily ministering, offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, pointing to the finality, to the sufficiency, to the once for all death of Christ.
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But he, verse 12, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, did something that angels aren't allowed to do in heaven, did something that no priest could ever do.
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I'd probably get killed and is doing something that wasn't even possibility in the tabernacle of the temple, because there's no chairs there, because people sin all the time.
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So you need to sacrifice all the time. But Jesus has done sacrificing. And when you're done sacrificing, and you have nothing to add to that sacrifice, what do you do?
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You sit down. He sat down at a place of honor and preeminence at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until enemies be made a footstool for his feet.
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For by one offering, he has perfected for all those who are sanctified or saved. By the way, the
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Holy Spirit bears witness to that too, 15, 16, 17. And then 18, it says now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sins.
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You don't have to slay any animals, you don't have to cut yourself, you don't have to wallow in any kind of works righteousness.
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Jesus paid it all. And then he summarizes it, verse 19 and following.
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Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Christ, what do you mean confidence? Nadab and Abihu got slain.
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Well, we have confidence because God is not going to kill Jesus and then kill us by a new and living way by which he,
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Jesus, inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see as the hymn says.
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And since we have a high priest or a great priest over the house of God, what should we do?
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Let me give you three exhortations. You say you're a Christian, you've been taught this truth, and now comes practical foot leather.
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Number one, found in verse 22, knowing what you know, congregation, the first thing you should do is repent and believe, believe the gospel, get saved.
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He uses a different language that the readers would surely know. Verse 22, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
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Draw near to God, make a genuine commitment to Christ Jesus. Congregation this large, there has to be those who have said, you know, it's my parents faith or it's my wife's faith or my faith is my husband's faith.
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Visitors, you will die one day and blood will be shed, but this time it'll be your own unless you place your hope in another.
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Number two, found in verse 23, the second practical exhortation from the writer of Hebrews. If you're a
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Christian, hold fast to what you know. Verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.
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All the reading we've just been doing in chapter 7, 8, 9, 10, he's so faithful. God holds you, yes.
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Can God lose a Christian? No, but God doesn't lose a Christian as he exhorts you to be faithful to the end.
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Are you persevering? Trials, temptations, health issues. Here's the great high priest, persevere.
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And number three, amazingly, I would never write this. Get together with other
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Christians and do good deeds. What? Let us consider verses 24 and 25, how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.
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Not forsaking our own assembly together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near.
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Here's Jesus, the once and for all sacrifice. He shed his blood. He was raised from the dead. And now he says, if you believe that, then you need to stir up one another to do love and good deeds.
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It doesn't say by the way the elders should do it. The leaders should do it. It says you should do it with one another to spur each other on.
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I like actually the word there, stimulate. It means a lot of times kind of a negative connotation of irritate and exasperate.
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Kind of like, you know, you just goading them on. But here it's in a good sense. Is that your life? Here's Jesus, my great high priest.
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And he says to me, believe. I believe by the grace of God. Persevere to the end. I'm persevering. And now get together with other
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Christians and kind of like your washing machine, agitate each other to do good deeds. It's the new ministry around here.
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We had the mandrakes ministry this summer, and now we've got the agitation ministry now. Spur each other on, provoke one another to love and good deeds.
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Because this is the one who has done the love and good deeds. And we want to be like the savior. It's not a fourth command because grammatically it ties itself in.
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Verse 25, and you can't do this on your own. Not forsaking our own assembly together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.
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Because the day is drawing near. You've got to get together to agitate one another. Well, I'm a lone ranger
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Christian, and I'm not going to go to some kind of building. It's not really the church. It's man -made. It's 1015.
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How did they make that up? I don't like the elders. I don't like the deacons. I don't like the look of things. I don't like this.
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I don't like that. I like to do my home church, and I'm the one in charge. Friends, the answer to all that is you need to look at Christ's death again, because if you see
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Him high and lifted up, won't you gladly want to do what He says? So the church is supposed to get together, not forsaking our assembly.
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For those that forsake the assembly, they don't understand the once -for -all death of Christ for their sins.
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You say, no, I still don't want to believe. I've kind of had enough of all this.
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I don't like to be preached to, and I don't want to submit to anybody, and therefore,
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I'll take my chances. My mom and dad taught me the truth, but I am in charge of my life, and I will live like I please.
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I'm my own man's ship. I'm my own man's island, and I don't care if somebody's telling me about my life.
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Forget it. I like to do things that I know the Bible condemns. I like to do other things, and I'm going to do whatever
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I please. Then friends, may I just give you these last bits of warning here from Hebrews.
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Hebrews 26 and chapter 10. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, and you've received it today, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin.
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Friends, destruction is certain for you who will not believe the gospel, but a terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire will consume their adversaries, and not just for a moment like Nadab and Abihu, but for eternity.
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And as God the Father prepared a body for the Son to inhabit at His incarnation, so too will
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God the Father give you as judge a body that will experience the torments of hell forever without ever dying and being consumed.
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Verse 28, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
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How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who is trampled under the foot of the Son of God? You know and is regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which you sanctified and insulted the spirit of grace.
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Is it insult to say I won't believe in Jesus? I like my own life.
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Don't you tell me what to do? And is it a lie to think somehow you can believe and then not follow?
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If you believed God you'll follow Him. Not perfectly, I know. And then it gets more frightening.
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When I think about hell and how frightening it is, I couldn't even wish Hitler there, let alone you.
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For we know Him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay.
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And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living
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God. That's Christianity.
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I have nothing else to offer you except here's Jesus who dies in the place of His people. And I want to commend you to believe.
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I'll commend you to follow, commend you to trust. And for us as Christians, I am so glad I don't have to have a national holiday where I have to go around repent and mourn and be humbled.
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I could eat. I can eat because God gives me the best thing, Christ's sacrifice, and then all the minor things.
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Christ's sacrifice is superior to Aaron. His sacrifice brings me better access to God.
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I don't have to shed my own blood. And I will be one day like Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress when he starts going through that sea of death.
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He starts choking and he starts drowning and then the next minute he sees God in all
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His glory. I'll never forget as my mother lay there dying, she just kept wanting to not drown in her own lung fluid.
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And I read her that passage two nights before she died about Pilgrim walking through that sea called death where it contains no more sting and it only hurts for a moment.
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And then after the last breath is exhaled, it is the sight of God wholly lifted up and the sight of Christ Jesus with handprints there, with feet prints, and one print in His side who is the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world who you will worship forever and ever. No more tears, no more repentance, no more humility, but standing in His presence with great joy.
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That's the hope for Christianity. Let's bow in prayer. Thank you,
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Lord, for our time today. Thank you that we could learn from your word in this kind of jet tour of atonement.
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Certainly, it's no accident that people come here to hear the truth. And as I look at the people when I was preaching,
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Lord, there are certainly some today that need to be right in your eyes. And Lord, maybe they've tried, maybe they've tried many times.
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And Lord, I pray that you'd be very gracious today to grant them salvation, that you would make them born again, that you as 1
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Peter 1 says, that you would exactly do that, make them born again. And Father, I pray that they would believe with their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and they would love your
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Son, Jesus Christ. And we would acknowledge as a church, the only reason we love Christ is because you first loved us.
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And you've given us a heart of love, a heart that has new affections, and a heart that sees Christ as holy, sufficient, once for all sacrificed.
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And Lord, it is my desire today, maybe for some of my own kids, some of your own children here representing the congregation or other people, that they would believe.
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Father, may no one leave today on their own without having their conscience turned upside down.