Jeff Durbin | Acceptance In Christ

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:41

If you would, please open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 14.

00:49

We are on our series, Wisdom from Above, working through this incredible book of wisdom in chapter 14.

00:58

You notice we're doing some bouncing around. I hope that's understood by this point in terms of how the book itself is put together.

01:06

The first section, very thematic, huge chunks on themes, and then it gets in the middle section towards more...

01:16

You'll see some thematic stuff in a single chapter, but it'll sort of change up on you in terms of different forms of wisdom, patterns of wisdom, lanes of wisdom, and then of course it gets to the very end into a huge thematic section about the wise woman and the excellent wife.

01:34

But we're in chapter 14 now in verse 9. Hear now the word of the living and the true

01:42

God. Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance.

01:53

Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's praise God's people. Father, we have this incredible privilege of your grace to be able to come boldly before your throne of grace.

02:09

Lord, in your limitless knowledge, God, you know the people that you've saved.

02:17

You know what you have forgiven at the cross. You know all about us,

02:22

God, and you knew all about us before you ever saved us. Before the foundation of the world, you chose us in Christ.

02:32

And so God, we're grateful for this grace. We stand before you, counted righteous apart from our works, and that you do not count our sins against us.

02:42

You remember our sins no more, and Lord, we acknowledge that that just seems so incomprehensible.

02:51

Lord, we're aware, because of the work of your spirit in our lives, of our own failings, our own sin, whether they're high -handed sins, knowing the right thing to do and purposefully violating it, or if they're sins that we just don't even realize we're doing,

03:11

God, you've saved us and you're, Lord, sanctifying us, and so God, we just rejoice.

03:17

We rejoice that we are accepted by you, that we have, Lord, your favor and your grace.

03:24

We're grateful that we have, Lord Jesus, in you the offering for our guilt, and so Lord, we praise you that we stand in this grace, that you promise,

03:39

Lord, to finish what you've started in us, and Lord Jesus, you say you'll never lose us or forsake us, and so we ask

03:47

God today that you would, Lord, renew our minds, strengthen our hands and our feet, put us on a solid rock,

03:55

God, help us to look up to you and the forgiveness that we have in you with joy and confidence, and we're just so thankful,

04:03

Lord Jesus, for your life and death and resurrection. That is the only way of our redemption.

04:08

It's the only thing we cling to, Lord Jesus, you and your work. We pray as we always do, Lord, please, that you'd move by your spirit through your word today that it would not be the words of a mere man, but they'd be words empowered by your spirit.

04:22

We pray, Lord, again, as always, that you would allow your people to forget me and remember what they've learned from you today.

04:28

We pray this in Jesus' mighty name, amen. Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance.

04:41

It's interesting, there's, if you, you can look this up on your own. I just pulled a couple of them just to read at random.

04:51

Understanding where we get our Bibles from and how we get to English translations or other language translations is important for us as a

04:58

Christian. I think that there's some good resources for us as believers that we need to understand about how we got our

05:05

Bibles. Was it the church that created the Bible or did the Bible create the church? Which one is it, guys?

05:11

Who knows? What's that? Okay. We're going to change the sermon up right now on the spot.

05:18

Okay. Did the church create the Bible or did the Bible create the church? There you go.

05:25

Very important. We need to know where we get our Bibles from, how we get to English translations, and why are there differences between English translations.

05:33

But on this particular verse, it's interesting. There's a wide variety of different translations,

05:39

English ways to translate from the original text or the original language.

05:46

The Holman Christian Standard Bible says, fools mock at making restitution, but there is goodwill among the uprights.

05:53

The English Standard Version, the one that I'm reading from today, most of you probably have in front of you, because it's the more favored translation that I use from the pulpit.

06:03

It says, fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance. The King James Version, which we love, by the way.

06:10

It's a great English translation, even though Pastor James wrote a book called The King James Only Controversy, which, by the way, you should have in your library, so it most of all teaches you how we get our

06:19

Bibles and how we get to English translations. Good translation. It says, fools make a mock at sin, but among the righteous, there is favor.

06:28

The New American Standard Bible says, fools mock at sin, but among the upright, there is goodwill. The NIV says, fools mock at making amends for sin, but goodwill is found among the uprights.

06:43

The American Standard Version says, a trespass offering mocketh fools, but among the upright, there is goodwill.

06:50

The Complete Jewish Bible says, guilt offerings make a mockery of fools, but among the upright, there is goodwill.

06:56

The Hebrew Names Version says, fools mock at making atonement for sins, but among the upright, there is goodwill.

07:03

So, a variety of different ways in the English to translate. There's more literal ways to do translation from a language, like a hard, literal translation, versus more of a dynamic translation.

07:15

This is what the author is intending, or this is what they're getting at. But it's,

07:21

I think, important to note that if you look at verse 9, fools mock at the guilt offering, the word there in the

07:29

Hebrew for guilt offering is actually a technical Hebrew term, asham.

07:35

It's a technical term that's actually used in Leviticus chapters 5 through 7, and it refers specifically to a very particular offering that God prescribes for the people of God to deal with, interestingly, not simply sins that you just weren't aware of, you know, unintentional sins, things you didn't know

07:57

I was doing that, and oops, I did that. Actually, there's a specific asham term for guilt offering that relates in those chapters directly towards some intentional sins, high -handed sins.

08:11

I know exactly what the right thing is to do. I know what God's law says.

08:17

I know what his standards are here, and I'm going to do the opposite. I'm going to do the very thing that I know that God commands against, these high -handed, very intentional sins.

08:28

And so the terminology there, asham, is a term you'll find throughout the Old Testament, but it's actually a technical term used in Leviticus.

08:36

You can see it in chapters 5 through 7, the discussion there about guilt offering. And so let's go there so you can see an example.

08:43

Go to Leviticus chapter 6. Leviticus chapter 6, and again, if you want to get more details on this and what it looked like for the offerings for sin, guilt offering,

08:53

I'd say start in chapter 5, go through 7, and get a little more of a context. But in chapter 6, here's what

09:00

God's word says in verse 1. It says, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, if anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the

09:09

Lord by deceiving his neighbor, notice the two parties there, a sin against God and a sin against neighbor.

09:18

And it says, if anyone commits a breach of faith against the Lord by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor, or has found something lost and lied about it, swearing falsely, and any of all these things that people do and sin thereby, if he has sinned and he has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him, or the lost thing that he found, or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt.

10:01

And he shall bring to the priest, as his compensation to the Lord, a ram without blemish, note that, without blemish, out of the flock or its equivalent for a guilt offering.

10:13

And the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven for any of the things that one may do and thereby become guilty.

10:21

So that terminology for guilt offering, very specific, and it is interesting to note that that particular offering, because you had a number of different offerings for sin.

10:32

You had the day of atonements. You have atonements that are just for sin generally, even sins that you didn't know you were committing.

10:39

And then this particular one is for even sins that you know. You know.

10:44

That's your neighbor. You've deceived them. You know what God says about that. You did it intentionally.

10:49

And it's interesting because what God does here with the people of God is honestly, if we think about it in terms of just being humans and where we're at today culturally, these sound like some pretty strange things.

11:01

You have to offer an animal without blemish. There has to be bloodshed. There has to be representation.

11:07

There has to be a sacrifice. And then there's the issue of even restitution. You knew what the right thing to do was.

11:15

And you chose purposefully to violate God's commandment and to offend God and neighbor.

11:23

And so this guilt offering contains not only repentance, the confession of sin, but also a sacrifice for this terrible violation to high -handed sin and even restitution.

11:36

So this particular asham is a technical term. Again, you find it here in Leviticus and elsewhere.

11:42

And it has to do even with these high -handed intentional sins. But, okay, so there's the context.

11:48

But getting back to Proverbs chapter 14, verse 9, it says that fools mock at the guilt offering.

11:56

Fools mock at the guilt offering. And scripture obviously has so much to say about being a fool.

12:02

The fool says in their heart, there is no God. We see throughout the book of Proverbs how fools live with a lack of wisdom, defying

12:09

God. They are scoffers. They are the unteachable. They have no just standards.

12:15

They don't think about the future. God says so much about being a fool in scripture. And as we've said before so many times, when scripture uses the terminology of fool, it's not using it in a sort of petty name -calling sense, right?

12:30

Like you're just trying to pop off at the mouth of somebody. You're angry. And so you call him a fool. Like calling him an idiot or calling him stupid or making fun of their weight or something like that.

12:40

It's not just trying to offend the person with a word. Being a fool in scripture is a moral indictment.

12:48

It's a moral failing. Being a fool is a sin against God. And in the text here in Proverbs 14,

12:56

God's book of wisdom, here's what it says about the world and how they live. It says fools mock at the guilt offering.

13:04

So we ask the question, how do fools mock at the guilt offering? We could say generally that people who don't know

13:11

God, who defy his ways, who hate his character, hate his law, hate him, rebel against him, they mock at sin generally.

13:21

You see it all the time in the secular world that we live in today. Generally atheistic or agnostic, but generally secular.

13:30

They don't want God's ways. They don't see the world through the lens of God's word and a

13:35

Christian worldview. And so we see how the world responds to God's standards and culture and society today. It's obvious today, how do people who are fools mock at sin or mock at the guilt offering?

13:47

I'd say, well, generally about sin, people just don't want to obey and not just not wanting to obey.

13:56

They actually celebrate their rebellion. Go with me to the text of God's word here. Romans chapter one.

14:02

As we think about the identity of the unbeliever, the fool, the scoffer, the person who rebels against their creator,

14:12

Romans chapter one, a familiar text for our church body. When Paul opens up with explaining the good news in the first three chapters, he lays out an indictment upon humanity, generally fallen humanity.

14:30

And he also indicts the Jew who is prideful that in their Jewish status, like I'm a

14:35

Jew, I'm a child of Abraham. They claim I've got the Torah. I've got the scriptures.

14:41

I've got the word of God. I revere this. I think this is the revelation of God.

14:47

These are the words of God to live by. And Paul indicts the unbelievers, the world itself,

14:52

Gentiles, those who are outside of that covenant. He also, he indicts the

14:57

Jew himself and says, you've got the Torah. Yes, you've got the law of God, but you don't do the things that are in the law of God.

15:03

So you are also under sin. You are also condemned. And so Jew and Gentile alike are all under sin.

15:10

It's this universal indictment. We're all lost. We all need Jesus. But note what the apostle

15:16

Paul says about what happens in this world of sin. He says in verse 18, for the wrath of God, chapter one, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

15:34

For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. So we'll just hang there for a moment.

15:43

Scripture clearly teaches here that people who are made in God's image will actually know the truth, know it clearly, know it so well that it's truth that God gave to them.

15:57

He's the one that gave the revelation to them. They know it. But the problem is, is they don't want it.

16:03

They don't want to listen to God. They don't want to have God in their thoughts, and that's what the text says there. They don't want to have

16:09

God in their thoughts. They don't want to be thinking about God. They suppress the truth of God, and so the text goes on to say that people who are in rebellion towards their creator know

16:17

God so clearly, it's so obvious to them, but they're just holding it down and switching

16:23

God for some other kind of God. They can't escape it. They're made to be religious.

16:29

They're made to be worshipers of God. They can't escape that. They're neomago dei, but they don't want the true

16:36

God, so they switch Him for something else. But it's really important to note what Paul says after the exchange happens.

16:43

Of course, we know the famous section here where they exchange God. They know Him. They don't want to think about Him.

16:49

They don't want Him in their heads, their knowledge. They want to just get away from that thought, so they're switching God for something else, and it goes into all kinds of sexual perversions.

16:58

But in verse 29, or 28, it says, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge

17:05

God, God gave them up. God gave them up.

17:11

You don't want to acknowledge me. You don't want to know me. Okay. I'm going to let you have what you want.

17:18

I'll leave you to yourself. I'll leave you to your own devices, your own desires.

17:24

You don't want me? Here, I'm going to give you to it. He gives them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

17:34

Verse 31, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

17:41

They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ruthless.

17:58

Here it is. Though they know. Note that. These are the words of God.

18:04

Though they know. They're not oblivious to it.

18:10

They're not blind to it. They're not ignorant of it. It says, though they know

18:15

God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

18:30

And so when we think about what the proverb is saying in Proverbs 14, 9, that fools mock at the guilt offering, or fools are making a mockery of sin, any need for reconciliation, any need for atonement.

18:41

You see it right here in this inspired description of the fool and of the fallen one. This is what they do.

18:47

They know the truth. God's made the revelation of himself so clear to every single person that every image bearer of God in this world knows, not some kind of God.

18:59

They know, according to Romans 1, the true God, the real God. How do you know? Paul says through inspiration that God has shown himself to them.

19:08

And it says about their knowledge of their sin and their guilt. It says what? It says, though they know

19:14

God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

19:24

So how do they mock? How do they mock? They don't want to acknowledge their sin. They do the things that they know

19:31

God hates. There's the internal tension that even the rabid atheist has daily in his life.

19:38

He may deny God's existence, deny God's character, deny God's standards, but he can't live that way.

19:45

He can't live that way. You guys remember the, how long ago was it,

19:50

I guess a year and a half ago, maybe or so, the debate that Pastor James and I had in Salt Lake, our second debate together with atheists, where was that,

20:00

University of Utah, University of Utah, two atheists, well, basically both atheists. One was a self -professed atheist, hard atheist, and the other guy was sort of a mushy atheist agnostic kind of guy.

20:13

I mean, he basically was an atheist and fundamentally held to an atheistic perspective. But if you watch that debate, go watch that debate, and the cross -examination section

20:22

I think is the most important to reveal some of what you see identified here in Romans chapter one, because they were debating the topic.

20:30

The topic was essentially that the triune God of scripture is necessary for ethics.

20:36

In other words, if you want to have an ethical system, if you want to say that there is a right and there is a wrong about anything, we were saying that you need the triune

20:47

God of holy scripture. Without the scriptures, the revelation of God, you can't make sense of any of your ethical claims.

20:54

And you can see it in the cross -examination, where this man came to debate that his atheistic system, his humanistic system can provide a foundation for right and wrong.

21:07

And during the cross -examination, the wheels just come completely off. And I knew that they would, because we know his system.

21:15

He's an image bearer of God, and yet he's at war with his creator. And so he develops a worldview and system to try to live in God's world by some framework, and he just can't do it apart from God.

21:29

And so I challenge him in the debate, because he believes there's no ultimate foundation for ethics, that all of us are cosmic accidents, that we're just stardust in a purposeless universe.

21:42

And so I asked him, when we talked about pedophilia, let's go for a big one, pedophilia, is it absolutely morally wrong?

21:50

Is the pedophile absolutely morally wrong in your system? And he says that he doesn't like pedophilia, but then he says, well, they're not absolutely wrong.

22:02

Technically, they're intersubjectively wrong. What does that mean?

22:07

Nothing. And so I challenged him on his system. He knows it's wrong, but his system can't provide a justification against it.

22:16

And so he wants to rail against evil in the world, but he cannot actually do it because he admits publicly in a debate about ethics that there are no absolutes.

22:27

He even said that the Green River Killer, Ted Bundy, all these guys, pedophilia, all that, that none of it is absolutely wrong.

22:36

He says, actually, they're all part of the conversation. The conversation,

22:41

Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, part of the conversation. Let me just say, not part of my conversation.

22:48

They're not even welcome in the room. And you can say that as a Christian, but here's my point. The unbeliever can't escape what they know is true about their sin, about their injustices, about their failures, about their character, my character versus the character of God.

23:08

We know, and it says in the text here that they know what

23:13

God says about these things, but they don't just do them. They give hearty approval.

23:19

They applaud at the sin of the world. They applaud at injustice. Yes, Penny, good job.

23:26

They applaud. That's what they do. Fools mock at the guilt offering. I don't need atonement.

23:32

I don't need forgiveness. I don't have to acknowledge my sin. They mock at that idea.

23:38

That's what they do. They don't want to obey and they celebrate their rebellion. Next, in Proverbs 14, what else do they do in terms of their mockery?

23:50

Well, they mock the guilt offering. They're mocking even the idea of sin in the world, but they don't care about the consequences.

23:59

Look here in the same chapter, chapter 14, verse 16, just a few verses down.

24:07

The word of God says, one who is wise, that constant contrast in the book of Proverbs, the wise and the fool, it says, one who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil.

24:23

One who is wise is cautious and they turn away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless.

24:32

Fools aren't doing what? Well, they're not thinking about the consequences. They're not thinking about the future. See, that's just the devastating nature of sin and how it lies to you, lies to you.

24:44

You don't think about the consequences. You're not thinking about the future. You're just thinking about the moment itself. You're thinking about the gain of the moment.

24:51

You're thinking about the pleasure of the moment. They don't think about the consequences of sin.

24:57

I'm sure you guys have seen this last week and I'll be careful of how I talk about this, but you've seen the news reports everywhere of this woman, this

25:10

OnlyFans woman, who, again, I'll be careful how I say this, spent time with over a hundred men in one day.

25:21

Anybody seen the news on that? It's all over the news. OnlyFans woman spending time with over a hundred men in one day.

25:30

And when she initially is talking about it, she's celebrating it. Oh, I've always dreamed of this.

25:36

It's always been a great thing, and she's proud of it. But then comes the release of a little documentary that was filmed surrounding this day and what she decided to do.

25:49

And I was thinking when I initially heard this, I thought to myself, Oh, that poor woman.

25:55

That poor woman. She doesn't understand the devastation that she's brought into her life.

26:01

She's not thinking about the consequences of a future with any man.

26:07

With any man. Of a future husband and a family. She's just thinking about the moment and the money.

26:12

No thought of the future whatsoever. And I thought to myself, there's no way to escape. There's no way to escape.

26:19

You can try. You can try to blind yourself to it. You can pretend that it's not there. But there's no way to escape the consequences, emotionally and physically, of a pursuit like that as an image -bearer of God in God's world.

26:32

And sure enough, this little piece of a documentary comes out. And it's what took place with her that same day after all these men visited.

26:41

And you see this moment where she went from proud, and I've always wanted this, and it's going to be so great, to where she's breaking down about what just happened to her.

26:50

And what she just did. She's breaking down. And you think, oh, let's pray for that woman.

26:56

I pray she finds Christ. I pray she gets healed from that. And then you find out that she made so much money from it, that now she's decided that her next day will be with a thousand men.

27:08

One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil. See, sin is so deceptive.

27:14

Right? It's so deceptive. The moment seems like just a moment, and it's exciting, and maybe it's something

27:20

I'll do, and I'll never do it again, and it won't really have any consequence. But it has lasting consequences.

27:26

All sin has lasting consequences. For me, for the people next to me, the people that I hurt or violate or victimize in whatever way, small ways, large ways, even in terms of sexual sin.

27:39

Sexual sin, we think, oh, maybe it's something I'll do now, no real consequences for the future.

27:44

But we all know, if you have sexual sin in your past, the kind of devastating consequences it has, even today in your life, the things that you think about, how you just wish to God that it never happened, or you weren't a part of that lifestyle, or you wish that you could just have had a marriage where you both were just there for each other.

28:00

It has devastating consequences. And a wise person, even a wise young person, a wise young person, will be cautious, and they will turn away from that evil.

28:13

They will think about the consequences. They'll think about the future. But a fool is reckless.

28:20

They're reckless with their mind. They're reckless with their hands. They're reckless with their money. They're reckless with their mouth.

28:26

They're reckless with their bodies. A fool is reckless and careless. And why?

28:32

Well, at least one of the reasons is a fool mocks at the idea of sin, the idea of atonement, the necessity of atonement.

28:40

They mock at the guilt offering. They mock at the idea of needing a substitute or even a payment for their sin.

28:50

They think that they can sin without consequence. You see this oftentimes, right?

28:56

Everyone, if you've gotten a chance to go out with Apology at Church to any event we do locally in the public square, whether it's the

29:05

Friday nights, what's it called? First Friday downtown. Thousands of people show up, or you're part of the crew that goes to Mill Avenue, or you go to downtown

29:14

Gilbert, or you go to the Mormon temple, or you go into the abortion mill, wherever it is, when you go to proclaim the necessity, the need of Jesus Christ and that atonement, that cross, that guilt offering, that forgiveness, that salvation, when you're proclaiming it to passersby, people are just mocking at the idea.

29:33

Like, you guys are idiots. You're wasting your life. I don't need to think about Christ. I don't need any of that stuff.

29:39

That Bible is stupid. You guys are the fools. Well, that's what fools do. They mock at the idea of a need for reconciliation.

29:47

I don't need peace with God. I don't need peace with others. I live my life for pleasure, when ultimately they're really choosing pain.

29:56

You think about the fool. They're oblivious to their own hypocrisy. Think about our world today.

30:03

We have a public education system that needs to die quickly, a government education system that is just a system of indoctrination.

30:11

It is a worldview indoctrination center. They are teaching children a metaphysic, an ontology, a view of reality, who we are, what we're made of, our purpose.

30:24

They teach people a view and perspective of how we should live our lives. They are indoctrination centers.

30:30

And think about how oblivious they are to their own hypocrisy. Think about the current secular and atheistic society that we have.

30:39

Christian church owned education before. We owned it. We dominated it.

30:45

Some of the greatest educational institutions in the world that are still standing today, no longer

30:50

Christian, taken over by the secularists, were actually produced by Christians and the

30:55

Christian worldview. When the Christian church was running education in this nation and it was private, we had the highest literacy rates.

31:03

We were advancing in almost every area of life. You could name it, whether it's physics, mathematics, whether it's language and storytelling, whatever it was, the

31:12

Christian church was having the world excel with the minds. And today we live in a time where fools own the system and they're oblivious to their own hypocrisy.

31:22

They say, and they teach our children, they say, there is no God. There is no

31:27

God to be accountable to. They say that there's no ultimate meaning in life. I mean, you have children in front of you and you're telling them there's no ultimate meaning or purpose to you.

31:42

And we wonder why the high suicide rates. We wonder why the children feel so meaningless.

31:48

We wonder why they're on drugs to essentially calm their minds. We wonder why we're giving children drugs to make them feel better and working on mental health issues.

31:59

And it's this huge problem with teenagers. We wonder why. I wonder what would be the consequence of telling an image bearer of God, there is no

32:08

God. You have no purpose. There is no meaning. Nothing is ultimately right. You live, you die, and you're gone.

32:14

You're going to be buried, turned to dust. You are stardust. It's where you came from. It's where you're going.

32:20

You mean nothing. What do you think the consequence is going to be of telling people that?

32:27

It's the same consequences we're seeing all around us. The obvious consequences. You tell them there's no ultimate purpose. There's no ultimate right and wrong.

32:35

That there are cosmic accidents. But think about the obliviousness to the hypocrisy.

32:42

Yet, this atheistic society, this society of fools that says that there's no

32:48

God, no meaning, no purpose, no ultimate right or wrong, nothing above us, but only sky.

32:55

That's what's above us. These people still call the police when someone breaks in their house.

33:03

How do you make sense of that? Right? The person who says there is no God, there's no meaning, there's no right, there's no wrong.

33:10

And then someone breaks into their car while they're having dinner with their wife in the restaurant. They come out and they're indignant.

33:16

How dare this person. How dare this stardust bump into this stardust in this way, right?

33:25

It's just, they're oblivious to their own hypocrisy. I thought there was no meaning. I thought there was no purpose.

33:30

I thought there's no right, there's no wrong. I thought there's no sin or need for justice or atonement or reconciliation.

33:38

I thought all this is just sort of happening. It's just moving along with no purpose.

33:44

It's just time and chance on matter. It's chaos. Or like Shakespeare says, sound and fury, what?

33:51

Signifying nothing. I thought that's what we believed. So what are you doing phoning the police and calling for justice?

33:58

They're oblivious to their own hypocrisy. I don't need a guilt offering. I don't need reconciliation. I don't need peace.

34:04

There's no justice necessary for my sins. They're oblivious. They call the police when someone breaks in or they're violated.

34:12

They still take people to court. Interestingly, they still file lawsuits.

34:19

Unbelievers, atheists who believe the atheistic perspective of origins and ethics, they file lawsuits.

34:25

That's hilarious. That's hilarious. Acting like somebody violated them in some objective way.

34:31

Hey, you stole from me. Hey, it doesn't matter in your world. There is no right.

34:37

There is no wrong. I thought you didn't need sacrifice. I thought you didn't need reconciliation.

34:43

I thought justice is just a made -up thing. It's meaningless. Think about the hypocrisy that we saw the last couple of years.

34:53

People want to mock God. They'll even look at Leviticus in those chapters of five through seven and they'll say, this is just weird.

35:01

Someone has to acknowledge their guilt. They have to go find a way to make peace and pay the person back for what they stole.

35:08

They got to have an animal. No spot, no blemish. It has to be a perfect representation.

35:14

It has to be a substitute. Blood has to be shed. And they'll say, that's so strange.

35:20

You don't need that kind of justice. You don't need to have that kind of peacemaking between us and God.

35:26

You don't need it. And then we saw a couple of years ago and it just seems like, it doesn't seem like it's a million miles away in terms of time.

35:35

The COVID weirdness and it was all coinciding with like the no justice, no peace, right?

35:42

All the Marxist fists going up on our nation, running down the streets, no justice, no peace.

35:48

These are the same Marxist atheists who are telling people that they are purposeless, meaningless, cosmic accidents.

35:57

What's with the fist? What's with the fist? Acting like there's a need for justice.

36:03

You're oblivious to your own hypocrisy. Fools mock at the guilt offering. They make a mock of sin.

36:09

They say there's nothing to it and there's no need for justice. And yet they walked down the streets and burned down cities with a slogan, no justice, no peace.

36:22

Think about the hypocrisy of the fool. I don't need the guilt offering. I don't need reconciliation.

36:28

I don't need peace. However, they demand justice and they think people should pay.

36:38

They still demand justice and they think people should pay.

36:44

And here it is. Just not them. Did you get it? The fool mocks the guilt offering.

36:50

Don't need God. Don't care about the sin. Don't need the reconciliation. Don't need the atonement.

36:56

They make a mockery of it. They say, all this is, you know, just old, archaic, ridiculous ways of thinking.

37:04

We don't need any of that. Make a mock of it. And yet they still demand justice in the world around them for everybody except them.

37:15

See, a fool has no self -awareness. And why do they have no self -awareness?

37:22

Is it that they're ignorant? No. Romans 1 says about them, the unbelievers, that they're not ignorant.

37:31

It's not that they don't know. They know. God has shown it to them.

37:37

And I want to say this. If the eternal, all -powerful, unchanging God sends a message to one of his creatures, that message always, always gets through.

37:50

And so they know. But they suppress that truth. And it even says that they know what

37:55

God says about these sins. And they do them anyways. And they give hearty approval to those who practice them.

38:06

Now, skeptics and critics of the Bible will mock the idea of atonement, sacrifice, guilt offerings, and the need for peace.

38:15

They'll say things like, that seems so strange. Blood sacrifice, the need for a payment for sin, the need for peace with God and our neighbor.

38:25

They'll say it's silly. What is all this archaic way of thinking?

38:32

And yet, secularism and man -made religion, both systems, both religions really, can't solve the problem of sin, the need for justice, and bringing peace.

38:46

Remember what I said when I gave the example of what we all got to witness a couple of years ago, where people who were saying, you know, fundamentally, most of them with a

38:53

Marxist system saying, there's no God, there's no future ahead of us, a day of judgment.

38:58

None of those things. We don't need to think about our sin and the need for our peace with God. But they still demand justice.

39:05

But they can't make sense of that. And I want to say that we can.

39:11

We can make sense of this demand for justice, this demand for peace.

39:19

Now this is, by the way, one of the most powerful and beautiful aspects of the

39:25

Christian faith. It truly is. And I've said this to us so many times, brothers and sisters, I hope that we've caught it.

39:32

Because it is truly an identifying mark of consistency in terms of God and man and sin.

39:40

You see other religious systems, there's obviously so many of them. They know that there's this problem of guilt.

39:46

They know that there's a problem of shame and guilt and right and wrong. And so they'll create some version of a

39:52

God, right? We need to have something to worship. I'm made in the image of God, can't escape it. So they have some version of a

39:57

God that looks a lot like them, by the way. And then they have to find some way to solve the problem of their own guilt and shame before this

40:05

God. And then what it ends up looking like is just some injustice, right?

40:11

They know they're guilty. They know that they've victimized others. They know that there is sin to be dealt with. And so man -made religion can't really solve the problem and keep their

40:20

God or goddesses just. What they hope for is that they'll just do good enough somehow to be able to please their

40:28

God. And that somehow their God, who's supposed to be, I guess, kind of just, will just decide one day to say, you know what, kind of like you.

40:38

You've done all right so far as it goes. I know you've got some sins and some injustices. And yeah, you really hurt this person.

40:44

But I think you've done sort of well so far as it goes. And so I'll go ahead and just decide to forgive you.

40:50

What is that? What is that? It's unjust. Because what does it forget?

40:57

It forgets the victims. It forgets those who were sinned against and violated. It forgets those who were hurt.

41:04

And so man -made religion can't solve the problem of justice with God, but the

41:10

Christian worldview can. The unbeliever can't make sense of their own hypocrisy.

41:15

Their system makes no sense at all. They realize that they're guilty, but they just want to pretend like it doesn't exist. They don't need a guilt offering.

41:21

They don't need any of those things dealt with. But the Christian worldview actually says, no, God is holy.

41:28

God is the only God. You are made in God's image to glorify him and to enjoy him forever.

41:37

That's your purpose. That is your chief end. That is your primary purpose, to glorify

41:42

God and to enjoy him forever. It's what you're made for. And yet God is a righteous God, a just God, a holy

41:48

God. Though he is merciful and though he is loved, his mercies renew every morning.

41:54

He is the judge of all the earth and he will always do right. His standards are perfection.

42:01

His character is perfection. And you were made in his image to know him, to glorify him, to worship him, to enjoy him forever.

42:10

And you are a sinner against the God who created you for his glory. How are you going to solve that problem?

42:17

You can't say, oh God, I just hope you'll just forgive me. That you'll just forget about all the sin and evil and injustice.

42:26

And you'll just sort of let me go. No good judge simply lets the perp go.

42:34

And you and I are the perpetrators, the offenders in God's universe. And we're in his court and what

42:40

God cannot do without violating his justice is he cannot simply say, I'll let you go.

42:46

So what does he do? In love and mercy and grace, in the person of Jesus Christ, he condescends, takes on flesh to do what?

42:57

To live the righteous, blameless, law -keeping life of perfection that his people have failed.

43:06

And he dies a death, making his life an offering for guilt, a guilt offering.

43:15

He dies a death that they deserve and then he conquers death and rises from the dead and then he ascends to intercede for the very people he died for.

43:27

He's our mediator and he intercedes for us forever with this once for all perfect sacrifice.

43:34

But note, read this later, if you read in your Bibles when you get home tonight,

43:39

Romans chapter 3, you see the explanation of the apostle Paul of how does

43:44

God remain just? How does he do it? We're all a mess, we're all sinners, we all fall short of the glory of God.

43:52

What's he say there? There is none righteous, no not one, not anybody, not you, not me, nobody in history not righteous except Jesus.

44:02

He says there's no fear of God before their eyes. They don't want to come to God, they don't seek for God.

44:08

So how do you solve the problem of being able to forgive sinners and deal with the issue of justice?

44:15

How do you have justice and forgiveness? How? That cross, that cross.

44:23

The guilt offering that fools mock is how God brings redemption, forgiveness, peace, favor, and grace to sinners who deserve the opposite.

44:36

They deserve the other way. God remains just, Paul says in Romans chapter 3, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

44:45

How? Through the propitiation of that cross. Because God doesn't simply say to us,

44:51

I like you and I choose to just sort of let your sins go. Really? How does he remain just?

44:57

No, not one sin or injustice will be left unaccounted for on the final day of judgment.

45:06

We talked about this recently in one of two ways. In one of two ways, every sin and injustice will be addressed by God.

45:14

How? If you're a believer in Christ, if you've been accepted, if you're the one that's received favor and grace because of the guilt offering, then your sins and injustices and evils were fully and finally dealt with by God's own hands.

45:34

How? Isaiah 53. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

45:41

There is no sin. When the unbeliever, let's just take a scenario.

45:46

The unbeliever is standing next to you before the throne of God. Imaginary scenario here, okay?

45:52

An unbeliever is standing before you. They don't know Christ. They're not in Christ. They're accountable for all their sins and God is condemning and judging all those sins that unbeliever cannot say before the face of God.

46:06

But what about his sin? What about her sin? Because God would say, and I delivered the blow of justice to my son for those sins.

46:15

They are not unaccounted for. They are fully exhausted in Jesus. Every sin is accounted for, either at the cross in my life, wrapped up in Jesus, him condemned for me, my life, past, present, and future sins.

46:33

It is finished. God dealt with those sins. He doesn't ignore them. He is just because of the guilt offering, because of Christ who offered himself up, and the unbeliever will be accountable for their sins for all eternity separated from God.

46:48

God will address every sin and every injustice throughout all of humanity's history.

46:55

How does he do so? Because he's a just God. He will address it in them and their lives for eternity or he addressed it at the cross.

47:03

But yet, fools mock. Fools mock at the guilt offering.

47:09

I want to point another thing out, because I think it's a powerful thing that's in the text itself. Isaiah 53,

47:14

Isaiah 53. Go there. We've spent time there recently, but I want to note the terminology.

47:20

Same terminology is here in Isaiah 53 that's there in Proverbs 14, 9.

47:29

You're familiar with this. Isaiah 53, 10. Isaiah 53, 10. That terminology that we just saw in Proverbs 14, 9, asham, that technical terminology that's there in Leviticus as well and elsewhere is also here in Isaiah 53, 10.

47:51

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He's talking about Jesus.

47:58

He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt.

48:05

He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. And it says the will of the

48:11

Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.

48:17

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous.

48:25

And he shall bear their iniquities. The unbeliever doesn't like it.

48:31

The fool says he doesn't need it. Fools make a mock of the guilt offering. And yet here we have now the heartbeat of forgiveness for fallen sinful humanity is that Jesus, he makes his life, his soul makes an offering for guilt, that guilt offering.

48:50

That is what the atonement of Jesus is all about. Unbelievers, the fools, the scoffers, they say don't need it, don't want it.

48:56

But what happens to the soul, to the human being, to the image bearer of God?

49:03

What happens to them when God opens their eyes to their need for forgiveness for all their sins?

49:11

What happens to them? It says he makes many to be accounted righteous. How so? How so?

49:17

Because Jesus is that offering for our guilt. What they were rehearsing, it's what it was, by the way.

49:25

It's this very, just sort of rudimentary, basic instruction for the people of God.

49:31

Here's what you need. This is what you need. You need an intercessor. You need a mediator.

49:37

You need a priest. You need atonement for your sins. Your sins have to be dealt with.

49:43

You are really guilty and you need something without blemish. You need a substitute.

49:48

God was teaching them in this basic way of just training wheels. The Jewish people with the temple, the priesthood, the animal sacrifices, they were doing all these rituals.

49:58

They were just teaching them. You're guilty. You need atonement. Life, you deserve to die.

50:05

So this needs to take death on behalf of you because of your guilt, your shame, and even the scapegoat.

50:12

We need to put your sins on this thing and confess them onto this substitute. And so you can watch it get removed from you as far as the east is from the west.

50:21

They're just seeing in these patterns and these symbols all the things they needed to understand about sin and injustice and failing before God, the need that they have.

50:30

And then you get to Isaiah 53 and it specifically notes that the righteous servant, the specific righteous servant in history is the guilt offering.

50:44

And he makes many to be accounted righteous. But I love how it says, watch, go back to verse four.

50:52

It says, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

50:58

But how does he do it? How is he this guilt offering? How does he make us to be righteous? He was pierced through for our transgressions.

51:09

And it's important to know, you said this on your own, the terminology there in the Hebrew for transgressions is willful, willful violations of the law of God.

51:20

Not just, I didn't know, I wasn't so sure, but this is real intentional guilty stuff.

51:26

And it says that he's pierced through. So what does that mean? This one who's coming as the offering for guilt, the guilt offering, the one who's coming to make his life as offering for guilt, he's not dying of old age.

51:37

He's not dying a natural death. He's not dying by accident.

51:43

He's dying by violence. He's dying by violence. He's cut off.

51:49

He dies a violent death. He's pierced through for our transgressions. But I love this. What it says here, don't ever lose this brothers and sisters, because the righteous enjoy favor.

52:02

The righteous enjoy that peace with God. And here's how it says, he was crushed for our iniquities.

52:09

Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace. And there, see, there's the benefit again. Proverbs 14, we have peace.

52:16

We are received by God. We have favor. And it says, and with his wounds or by his wounds, we are healed.

52:22

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.

52:28

If you feel like you're a rotten, broken, nasty sinner, welcome to the club. Everyone to his own way.

52:36

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

52:44

So pause there for a second, because you have now the contrast. Proverbs is constantly doing the contrast, right?

52:49

The wise, the fool, the teachable, the scoffer. It's just throughout the book of Proverbs. It says the fool makes a mock of the guilt offering.

53:01

But it says that the wise one, the righteous one, the upright one, receives acceptance or favor from God.

53:11

How? Well, here's the answer. Here's one of the answers. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

53:20

Who did it? Who did it? It is the father who lays on Jesus your sins, your high -handed sins, your acts of deliberate rebellion against God.

53:36

He knows about it. He knew all about it. You feel like a mess and a sinner and a failure, and you're right.

53:45

Each of us has gone astray. We've gone our own way. And it says that Yahweh laid on him the iniquity of us all.

53:53

It was God's loving, gracious, merciful choice to give to Jesus what you deserved.

54:02

He counted him as guilty, but he wasn't. Guilty for your lies, guilty for your outbursts, guilty for your adultery, guilty for your sexual immorality, guilty for your murderous thoughts or actual murder, guilty for your theft.

54:25

It was the Lord that laid on him. Jesus is that offering for guilt. He makes peace, and it was

54:31

God the Father's choosing, his gracious choosing, to say, I will save you.

54:39

I'm gonna deliver the justice that you deserve to my son. And Jesus said, what about taking your sin?

54:46

What'd he say? He'd do it hesitatingly or saying somehow, I don't wanna. He said this, he said, nobody takes my life from me.

54:56

Nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord. He says about you and I, he says,

55:02

I know my sheep and they know me. I give them eternal life. I will never lose them.

55:08

I will never forsake them. That's the words of Jesus. There's our sin bearer.

55:13

There's the offering for our guilt. There's the one who had our iniquity laid upon him.

55:19

And so the text in Proverbs 14, nine teaches us,

55:29

I believe ultimately, especially on this side of the covenants and the new covenant, it teaches us ultimately about our acceptance in Christ.

55:38

The fool says, I don't need it. Fool doesn't wanna listen. They don't wanna acknowledge. They wanna be blind to their own sin.

55:46

And yet the upright, the righteous, those who know God, they enjoy their acceptance before God.

55:54

They enjoy the peace that they have with God. There's really no end to what we can say here. So I wanna just minister to you as brothers and sisters to think about what all this means.

56:03

Pastor James today in our corporate prayer started by saying this boldly coming before the throne of grace.

56:12

Do you think about that privilege that you have and I have every day, every moment to be in constant prayer, pray without ceasing, but to be able to gather together as God's people and to get on our knees before a holy

56:24

God and to actually be able to say he hears us and he's listening to us, that he calls us children and that he's our father, that we have enjoyed that kind of favor and that kind of acceptance.

56:39

I think a lot of times if we're honest, we just get sort of oblivious to it and sort of, oh, whatever. Yeah, sure,

56:45

I'm saved. And God, could you help me out, God? And Lord, why this or why that? We don't think about this boldness that we have to be able to come before the throne of God's grace.

56:53

We don't deserve to be here. We don't deserve to be before the throne of God now.

57:00

We don't deserve it in eternity. We're never gonna be able to say I should be here, I pulled it off,

57:06

I did all the right things or I somehow deserve this. That's not the answer. That's not the answer.

57:12

You and I have been accepted because of the offering of guilt, that guilt offering given in Jesus Christ.

57:18

God laying on Jesus what we deserve and your sins are blotted out and you can stand before God and hear his word and be called his child because of his grace and favor upon you because of what

57:31

Jesus did. So think about this, the boldness, boldness, boldness. How do you come before God boldly when you're so guilty?

57:39

I mean, think about it in terms of human relationships. We can't comprehend this. We cannot comprehend this.

57:46

I want you to imagine, don't call their name out and don't get bitter over it. But I want you to imagine somebody in your life, if you've been around for a couple decades, you have probably had a lot of experiences with some horrible things in this world.

57:58

I want you to think about somebody in your life that truly hurt you, genuinely victimized you, sinned against you, with a high hand, did something evil.

58:10

Now I want you to imagine they did that to you. It's true, it's real. By the way, God's gonna deal with that, amen?

58:15

Yes? But I want you to imagine now that person having the nerve after having violated you with such a high hand and so willfully sinning against you to just come into your presence and just sort of smile and act like all is well.

58:34

Would you tolerate it? Would you tolerate it? Somebody who has harmed you to such a high degree, would you tolerate them walking into your life right now pretending like nothing happens?

58:47

Acting like they had some right to a relationship with you? No, there's stuff that has to be dealt with here, right?

58:54

There's things you've done to me. You have hurt me or hurt people I love. You can't just come into my presence acting like all is well.

59:02

But strangely and incomprehensibly, that's how God treats you. That's the meaning of the cross.

59:13

That's the meaning and beauty of the guilt offering and what God does when he gives us favor is that we get to actually having been the offenders daily.

59:22

Listen, brothers and sisters, you are now, today. You can talk about what God redeemed you from.

59:27

Amen, I'm there, yes. But today, in your mind, in my mind, with our hands and our mouths and our feet, we've sinned against God today and yet we still get to boldly come before his throne, that he still treats us as though we're not guilty, that he's counting us righteous apart from our works, and he says,

59:48

I'll remember your sins no more. Brothers and sisters, this is the greatest, most beautiful story that's ever been told.

59:54

It's the most incomprehensible thing from a human perspective. It doesn't make any sense that we enjoy this favor before God.

01:00:02

And that's why, by the way, that word is never worn out. Gospel.

01:00:09

Gospel. Good news. That's why it's good news. Because it doesn't make any sense.

01:00:16

Because what we should be hearing, everybody, is what? The bad news. It can never get worn out.

01:00:22

It's the good news of what God has done to reconcile sinners like me to himself.

01:00:28

The upright, the righteous, enjoy acceptance or favor from God. Unbelievers say, don't need it, don't want it, no thank you.

01:00:36

And we say, as God's people, praise God for this. Praise God for this, for all eternity, shouting and screaming forever.

01:00:43

Praise God for this. I'm loved by God. I'm favored by God. He's chosen me. He loves me.

01:00:48

I have his mercy. Why? Because of the offering of guilt. Because of what God has done for atonement in Jesus Christ.

01:00:54

There's nothing like this. I dare you to try to create a story better than this. You won't come close.

01:00:59

You won't come close to that kind of love or mercy or grace. It won't happen. It can't happen. Because this is the true

01:01:05

God, and it's his story. You can't beat it. One last section, Hebrews 10, to see the beauty of this.

01:01:10

And what this does in terms of the upright, enjoying acceptance and favor from God.

01:01:17

Hebrews chapter 10. Boy, I'd love to do this whole thing right now, but just let's talk about how. How this acceptance takes place, and just the glory of it.

01:01:26

Hebrews chapter 10. Here, the page is turning, so I'll give you a moment to get there.

01:01:40

Just a place for us to hang out later. I never want to assume that you know this, you understand all these things, you've got your way around the

01:01:47

Bible, wherever you're at, making sure we know these are the words of God. Here's where I can find that discussion.

01:01:54

Pastor James, by the way, has an excellent series online, going through the book of Hebrews.

01:01:59

Where do they find that? Sermon Audio. Sermon Audio. Look for the book of Hebrews, all the way through the book of Hebrews, verse by verse.

01:02:07

And so, it's an excellent series. If you want more on this, go there. But I want to make sure we have this understood.

01:02:13

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities.

01:02:24

Remember what I just said? The Old Testament, the system, some of this stuff seems so strange and weird.

01:02:29

Why are we rehearsing it in this way? Why are we practicing this? Why do we have to give these animals and do it this way?

01:02:35

The writer of Hebrews says, the law is but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities.

01:02:42

It can never, by the same sacrifice that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

01:02:52

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.

01:03:02

But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year.

01:03:08

For, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

01:03:14

Right. How does a bull or a goat represent me? I mean, really.

01:03:19

It's a goat. It's a bull. I'm in the image of God. So it has to be different.

01:03:27

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me, and burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

01:03:38

Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.

01:03:48

In verse 11, And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

01:04:03

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

01:04:20

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

01:04:29

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after saying, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the

01:04:37

Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds.

01:04:43

Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

01:04:50

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. How does

01:04:56

God do that? I'll remember your sins no more.

01:05:04

How does the one who knows all things, everything, for all eternity, how does he not remember our sins?

01:05:19

We know the how technically, right? The cross. He deals with it. All of that.

01:05:24

I get that. I get it. But I'll confess. I'm a creature. I don't understand it. I don't understand it.

01:05:31

Because with a human mind you might forgive somebody who's next to you and say,

01:05:36

I'll let it go and I'll let the blood of Christ cover it and I will forgive it. But you still remember.

01:05:43

And if you were asked about it you'd be able to give the details of what you forgave and what the offense was.

01:05:51

We don't have the capacity, if we're honest, to do what God does with our sins where he says,

01:05:58

I will never remember your sins. That is incomprehensible. And no human mind can truly understand the power and the glory of the gospel to the degree that it goes with the forgiveness of sins and God saying with his limitless mind his infinite mind,

01:06:18

I will remember your sins no more. Here it is. Watch. The upright enjoy acceptance.

01:06:25

The upright enjoy favor. Therefore, brothers, verse 19 since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus that once for all, forever sacrifice, we have confidence to enter in to the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near here it is, ready?

01:06:54

With a true heart in full assurance of faith.

01:07:01

No lack of confidence is allowed. Stop. Stop doubting his promises.

01:07:08

Stop not believing what he says about that perfect sacrifice once for all that perfects you forever.

01:07:15

Stop in the unbelief. Stop doubting his words. Stop believing your feelings and your emotions and your experience.

01:07:23

Stop. Trust his word. Full assurance. Full assurance of faith.

01:07:31

With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

01:07:41

You see, one of the powerful things about the system they were operating in with the guilt offering and the atonements and all they had to rehearse and do and practice to understand the holiness of God, their sin, the need for sacrifice.

01:07:55

Watch this. One of the beautiful things about that system is that it taught us the people of God, it taught us you need atonement, you need representation, it had better be without blemish, it has to be perfect, but it also taught something else.

01:08:10

You know that you're guilty. You know you're guilty. You know you did it with a high hand.

01:08:17

You know, ready? Here it is. You know you did it and you meant it. That's the point of Leviticus we just read,

01:08:23

Leviticus 6, that little section about the guilt offering. These are sins that you weren't like, oh no,

01:08:30

I forgot, I just didn't know or I wasn't even aware that that was a sin.

01:08:35

I wasn't aware I was doing it or I wasn't aware I wasn't supposed to do it. No, it's specifically high -handed guilt offering stuff is you knew and you did it anyways.

01:08:45

And one of the beautiful things about that offering is what did it do? Is it gave, okay, representation, sacrifice, and you also had to make amends.

01:08:54

You have to also say, I stole from this person, I violated, there's a certain amount I have to actually give to make amends.

01:08:59

But you know what happened? I read the text. Is that there was now, okay, now there's forgiveness. There's forgiveness between me and God and now there's forgiveness between, and reconciliation between me and the person next to me.

01:09:10

Guess what it does to my conscience? It's not weighing on me anymore. I'm at peace.

01:09:17

Peace with God, peace with them. The guilt offering solves the problem of my conscience constantly testifying to me about how guilty

01:09:25

I am of what I just did. And what this says is that Jesus with his once for all sacrifice that perfects you forever, that brings you to peace, it says that, the words,

01:09:38

I'm going to read it to you. It says this. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with the pure water.

01:09:49

You see, they could go for the guilt offering and do all the things prescribed with the priest and reconciliation, all making amends, they could do all the things and then go, okay,

01:09:58

I made it right. I made it right. I did it. I was guilty. I've confessed it and I've repented and I've got the whole sacrifice and I've made amends and it's off my conscience now, it's gone.

01:10:10

And this says that it's a once for all sacrifice with Jesus. What do you enjoy as the upright? What do you enjoy as the righteous? Now you also have this conscience that's sprinkled clean because of what

01:10:19

Christ has accomplished in the atonement. You see how all that comes over into your life as a believer?

01:10:26

God has forgiven you of your sins. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And so what are the benefits of the upright? We enjoy acceptance.

01:10:32

We enjoy favor from God. Like what? Like Romans 4. Counted righteous apart from your works.

01:10:40

God never counting your sins against you. God remembering your sins no more. Romans 5 .1.

01:10:47

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have what? Peace. Peace with God.

01:10:55

Romans 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation what? For those who what?

01:11:00

Are in Christ Jesus. There is therefore now no what? No condemnation. Not condemned.

01:11:06

Having peace. Counted righteous. Not holding our sins against us. Remembering our sins no more.

01:11:15

Foreknown. Predestined. Called. Justified. Glorified.

01:11:21

What can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord? What can? What's the answer?

01:11:27

Nothing. Nothing. And so while the fools will mock the cross, while the fools will not acknowledge their sin, while the fools mock the need for forgiveness and atonement and salvation, it is the upright, it is those who have received forgiveness and grace that enjoy acceptance and favor with God.

01:11:50

Praise God for his cross. Let's pray. Lord we thank you for your word.

01:11:55

We thank you for the truth that you've given us in your word about the atonement, the guilt offering, the peace we have in Jesus.

01:12:04

We pray God that you would use this message to heal us, our minds, remove our doubt.