WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.660 me begin by saying that looking closely at the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16, can be 00:00:07.660 --> 00:00:12.919 challenging. I was reminded of that from a couple of books from different perspectives. Andrew 00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:17.980 Wilson wrote a book called The Making of the Modern World, and he speaks about modern Western 00:00:17.980 --> 00:00:24.240 people, and he gives 100 markers, things that will be true if we are from the modern West, 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:31.379 and one of those is that we will most likely never have seen an animal be sacrificed. Now, 00:00:31.419 --> 00:00:36.259 that may not be true of us because we're not all from the West, but most of us will not have seen 00:00:36.259 --> 00:00:42.780 animal sacrifice. On the flip side, I shared with you last week the account of the slave 00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:51.799 Alouda Aquiano back in the 18th century, and when he arrived in the UK, landing in Falmouth in Cornwall 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:59.299 in 1759, there were two things that struck him very quickly. He arrived in December 1st. There was snow, 00:00:59.379 --> 00:01:04.700 and he'd never seen snow, and he was surprised by the snow, but he was more surprised when he first 00:01:04.700 --> 00:01:12.780 went into a church because he found himself asking, where's the animal sacrifice? So he was raised in a 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:17.640 traditional African religion that centered on animal sacrifice, and he didn't see it. 00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:24.359 This is a reminder to us that from whatever point of view, wherever we come from in the world, 00:01:24.420 --> 00:01:32.460 it can be a real challenge as we come to think about Old Testament worship, and especially, 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:40.460 I think, as we come to think about the Old Testament system of sacrifice. It can seem foreign and strange 00:01:40.459 --> 00:01:49.019 to us. It is not part of our religious practice. Perhaps we can be squeamish and uncomfortable about 00:01:49.019 --> 00:01:55.119 the detail, all the blood and the killing and the sprinkling, but let me say that we need to look 00:01:55.119 --> 00:02:01.799 closely at texts like these, as much as we might like to turn away and move on, because the truths that 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:09.240 we find on the Day of Atonement take us to the heart of the Christian faith. What does it mean that God 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:16.420 has provided a way for our sin to be covered and removed? Why is it good news that the heart of the 00:02:16.420 --> 00:02:24.620 Christian faith is the statement that Christ died for our sins? And so the Day of Atonement is going to 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:32.260 help us to see that God forgives our sin freely, but there is great cost. And as we think about the 00:02:32.259 --> 00:02:40.379 cross, we understand the cost comes to God Himself and to Jesus, His beloved Son. So as we come to Leviticus 00:02:40.379 --> 00:02:49.079 16, we come to the Day of Atonement, we see it as promise, the promise of Jesus' sacrificial death, which 00:02:49.079 --> 00:02:57.079 represents the fulfillment of everything we have in our text, that the animal sacrifice is a shadow preparing us 00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:04.820 for the reality that Jesus would come to be that perfect once-for-all sacrifice. And our goal today, 00:03:04.900 --> 00:03:12.360 as we spend some time in this text, is that we might together have a sense of serious joy. 00:03:13.640 --> 00:03:22.480 It's a somber thing, but it's a joyful thing, like Psalm 32, as we consider the cost of being 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:29.039 pardoned and forgiven as we look again at the death of Christ for our sins. So we're going to do three 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:33.479 things together. One, we're going to think briefly about the terms and conditions of the Day of 00:03:33.479 --> 00:03:38.659 Atonement, because they matter. We're going to think about the significance of the sacrifices on 00:03:38.659 --> 00:03:45.239 the Day of Atonement, and then we'll think about how Jesus fulfills what the Day of Atonement promises. 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:54.320 First, let's think about terms and conditions. With any contract, with any deal, if you listen to any 00:03:54.320 --> 00:04:00.200 advertising, we know that there's always T's and C's that apply. And if we fail to read the terms, 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:04.879 maybe you've had this experience, you might find yourself paying more than you expected, 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:10.920 you miss out on the deal you thought you had arranged, you find that you are penalized in some way. 00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:20.659 It is absolutely true also of the Day of Atonement. Okay, this is the high point, one of the high 00:04:20.659 --> 00:04:27.339 points in Israel's religious life, happens every year. It's absolutely the high point in the ministry, 00:04:27.459 --> 00:04:31.779 the service of the high priest. It's the one day in the year that he gets to go behind the curtain 00:04:31.779 --> 00:04:40.699 into the presence of God. But it is essential that God's terms and conditions are followed exactly. 00:04:41.580 --> 00:04:47.300 If the holy God is to accept the sacrifice, if the perfect God can live among sinful people, 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:51.819 then his terms and conditions must be kept. So, we're going to think about five of them and see 00:04:51.819 --> 00:04:58.900 why they matter. First, and this is in verses 1 and 2, God says both who is to come and when they are 00:04:58.900 --> 00:05:05.540 to come. So, verse 1 introduces a problem. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of 00:05:05.540 --> 00:05:10.740 Aaron who died when they approached the Lord. These sons were Nadab and Abihu. They thought they 00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:16.180 could come into God's presence however they pleased, that they could offer what the Bible describes as 00:05:16.180 --> 00:05:24.079 strange or unholy fire, and God judged them and they were struck down. And so, the message comes 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:29.839 through Moses that Aaron may come. He is the high priest, so he may come, 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:37.479 but he has to pay attention to God's timetable. God says when he may come right into his presence. 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:40.220 And we're told why this matters. 00:05:43.220 --> 00:05:45.319 It says there at the end of verse 2, 00:05:46.140 --> 00:05:50.720 He can't come whenever he chooses or else he will die, for I will appear in the cloud. 00:05:51.420 --> 00:05:58.319 It's a reminder to the people of God. God is pure and God is holy. God is present, 00:05:58.460 --> 00:06:04.819 represented by the cloud. So, people are not free to rush in and to choose however they want to worship, 00:06:04.819 --> 00:06:16.199 because God is awesome in the true sense of the word. Moving beyond that, God also says how the 00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:23.060 high priest is to come. We read there verses 3 to 6. Three different things. There must be the proper 00:06:23.060 --> 00:06:30.459 sacrifices. So, notice this high priest is not perfect. He must present a bull for his own sin 00:06:30.459 --> 00:06:39.799 offering. He must present the two goats and the ram. Notice as well that there was the proper clothes. 00:06:40.699 --> 00:06:48.060 He had to wear these sacred garments, that symbol that he has now set apart to serve God and to meet 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:57.740 with God. And there was also proper washing. He must bathe himself with water. Again, a sign of the need 00:06:57.740 --> 00:07:03.980 for cleansing and purity when a person comes before God. And so, again, the terms and conditions are 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:14.300 saying God is pure and God is holy. God is looking for a representative who is pure, someone who can 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:21.319 represent the people before God, and God before the people must be pure. And again, just to cast our 00:07:21.319 --> 00:07:30.779 minds back to Genesis 22 when we saw God providing a ram for a substitute for Isaac on Mount Moriah, 00:07:31.079 --> 00:07:37.639 so the high priest brings the ram as an offering, as a reminder that God is providing this whole day. 00:07:38.180 --> 00:07:43.139 He's providing the way of access for the priests, and He is providing the sacrifices. 00:07:43.139 --> 00:07:53.459 Thirdly, God says what to do with the sacrifices. And these details are also important. This is verses 7 to 10. 00:07:54.500 --> 00:08:00.000 We read in verse 8 that there's the casting of lots, a bit like rolling a dice, trusting that God 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:08.919 provides and directs. And after the lot is cast, there are these two goats. One goat is to be killed as the 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:17.640 sin offering. That goat is taken right into God's presence and is sacrificed privately behind the 00:08:17.640 --> 00:08:24.040 curtain in the presence of God. But one goat is sent into the wilderness called the scapegoat, 00:08:24.180 --> 00:08:31.840 and all the people watch publicly as this animal is sent away. Why do those details matter? 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:41.899 Because both those goats, they're like actors in the great drama of atonement. So, we have the sin 00:08:41.899 --> 00:08:53.779 offering reminding us that the wages of sin is death, reminding us too that God provides a substitute 00:08:53.779 --> 00:09:00.639 to face the judgment, to pay the price, to take away and to cover sin. 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:09.639 And then there is the scapegoat, which speaks to the effect of God's work of atonement. Sin is removed 00:09:09.639 --> 00:09:17.740 from the worshiper. The grace and the kindness of God has provided forgiveness so that people can remain 00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:27.279 in right relationship with God. Here's the fourth of the terms and conditions. God also says what to do 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:36.879 with the blood. Old Testament worship was full of blood, and God has a purpose. So, we read many times 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:44.860 that the blood is sprinkled. In verse 14, the blood is sprinkled on the atonement cover, sometimes known 00:09:44.860 --> 00:09:55.199 as the mercy seat. In verse 18, it's sprinkled on the altar where sacrifices are made. So, why the sprinkling? 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:04.140 And there's two reasons, actually, in our text. One reason is this. God says that sin, the people's sin, 00:10:04.940 --> 00:10:14.460 makes God's house unclean. Verse 19, he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times 00:10:14.460 --> 00:10:23.940 to cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites. So, imagine a home with a nice 00:10:23.940 --> 00:10:33.720 white carpet. And imagine a visitor coming from working in the garden with big muddy boots and 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:40.520 leaving that trail of muddy footprints all over your nicely cleaned white carpet. 00:10:42.300 --> 00:10:49.880 Becomes a picture of what's going on in the tabernacle that God says, this tent is like my house, 00:10:49.879 --> 00:10:56.539 and it is pure, and it is clean, and it is holy. And even as the people come to worship, 00:10:57.679 --> 00:11:04.360 they come to worship as people who are sinful. And God says, it's as if the stain of sin 00:11:04.360 --> 00:11:10.240 is now coming into my house, and my house needs to be made clean, not because God is unclean, 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:15.919 but because the people are. So, that's one reason why the blood is sprinkled, 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:25.279 because sin has made God's house unclean. The second reason is because sin makes people unclean. 00:11:26.740 --> 00:11:32.919 Listen to verse 17, no one is to be in the tent of meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make 00:11:32.919 --> 00:11:42.219 atonement until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household, and the whole community 00:11:42.220 --> 00:11:55.540 of Israel. So, if sin is like a dirty stain on clean clothes, if sin is like a virus that contaminates, 00:11:55.879 --> 00:12:05.000 then every single person in the community has that stain, has that infection. And God says, 00:12:05.100 --> 00:12:11.660 here's the way to be made clean. And it's by the sprinkling of blood. And that instinctively seems 00:12:11.659 --> 00:12:19.159 perhaps bizarre and sort of counter to what we would expect, but that blood that is said to make us 00:12:19.159 --> 00:12:29.639 clean is the symbol that another has died as a substitute, that the moral debt has been paid, 00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:36.220 that the moral stain has been cleansed, that there is a cure for that moral disease, 00:12:36.220 --> 00:12:46.139 so that God can continue to live with His people. Here's the fifth term and condition. God says, 00:12:46.660 --> 00:12:52.340 He said a lot about what the priests must do. God also says what the people must do. This is in verse 00:12:52.340 --> 00:13:01.740 29, where the whole community, whether native-born or foreigner, are to rest, 00:13:01.740 --> 00:13:12.200 to have a Sabbath rest, to have a Sabbath rest. In other words, to do nothing except worship God. Why? 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:21.580 To teach the people clearly it is God who provides for your atonement, to cover your sin, 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:29.560 to give you forgiveness so that peace can be restored. And the worshipers are invited to a faith 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:39.579 that rests. As they worship God, they are invited to trust that God has provided, that those sacrifices 00:13:39.579 --> 00:13:48.199 are effective, that not trusting in my own works, but trusting in God's works is how salvation and 00:13:48.199 --> 00:13:54.419 forgiveness comes. So, the terms and conditions of the Day of Atonement, they really matter. 00:13:54.419 --> 00:14:03.019 To think about them positively, when these terms are kept, God says His people receive forgiveness from 00:14:03.019 --> 00:14:12.079 their sin. When these terms and conditions are met, there is mercy, even for people who have broken God's 00:14:12.079 --> 00:14:20.879 law. When these terms and conditions are kept, then God keeps His covenant promise and remains in 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:35.120 relationship with Him. This is why we call Leviticus 16 a gospel text, a good news text, because it helps 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:41.939 us to see in so many different ways the promise that God makes, even at this stage in the story of the 00:14:41.939 --> 00:14:49.039 Bible. And in the New Testament, as we have already read, we discover Jesus, our great high priest, the one 00:14:49.039 --> 00:15:00.199 who came and perfectly fulfilled all God's terms and conditions for atonement perfectly. Perfect high priest, 00:15:00.779 --> 00:15:10.120 perfect sacrifice. By dying on the cross as our substitute and our sacrifice, we understand that in Jesus, 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:22.500 the Lord has provided. The Holy God is pouring out costly love even as His Son's blood is poured out on the 00:15:22.500 --> 00:15:33.799 cross. That the self-giving love of the Son of God means forgiveness for all who believe. It means we can have 00:15:33.799 --> 00:15:45.059 the serious joy of life with God. How do you and I receive those benefits? Well, like the Old Testament 00:15:45.059 --> 00:15:54.319 worshiper, we rest and we trust. We acknowledge that Jesus has done everything for my salvation. 00:15:55.159 --> 00:16:00.459 The when He declared on the cross, it is finished. He meant the work of salvation was complete. There was 00:16:00.460 --> 00:16:08.360 nothing for us to do except to believe in Him, to turn from sin to trust in Jesus. 00:16:10.460 --> 00:16:16.800 Well, having focused on the terms and conditions, let's zoom in for a few minutes on the significance of 00:16:16.800 --> 00:16:22.740 the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement. But before we even do that, let me just pull back a little bit and 00:16:22.740 --> 00:16:30.320 give us a bird's-eye view of sacrifice in the storyline of salvation as we find it in the Old Testament 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:37.700 part of the Bible. Four key texts. Now, Genesis chapter 3, verse 21, the first time we hear about 00:16:37.700 --> 00:16:43.920 sacrifice. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden have turned their back on God. They've disobeyed God. Sin 00:16:43.920 --> 00:16:49.560 has come into the world. They feel covered with shame, and to try and hide their shame, they make a 00:16:49.560 --> 00:16:55.320 covering of fig leaves. And God says that will never do to cover sin and shame. And so, He sacrifices an 00:16:55.320 --> 00:17:04.740 animal and clothes them. God graciously provides covering for the shame of sin. Fast forward to the 00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:11.240 book of Exodus, we find God's people are now slaves in Egypt, and God has announced that in faithfulness 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:17.160 to His covenant promise, He is going to bring them out of slavery with great acts of judgment. The last 00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:26.160 judgment will fall on the people in the land of Egypt, the judgment on the firstborn, but God provides 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:33.860 a Passover lamb so that every household that takes a lamb and kills the lamb and sprinkles the blood 00:17:33.860 --> 00:17:41.820 will know the judgment of God passing over them. God graciously provides for salvation. 00:17:41.819 --> 00:17:50.700 Leviticus 16 reminds us what we're reading just now, God provides these animal sacrifices to atone for 00:17:50.700 --> 00:17:59.879 sin so that God's people can continue to live in fellowship with Him. And then the last text, Isaiah 53, 00:18:01.819 --> 00:18:10.379 tells us some 700 years before Jesus ever came that God will provide the great sacrifice, 00:18:10.380 --> 00:18:23.680 who will be the suffering servant. And we learn before the cross that only a man can substitute for a man. 00:18:24.600 --> 00:18:31.240 And so, God graciously provides the system of sacrifice because He is committed to covering shame, 00:18:31.540 --> 00:18:37.220 to dealing with sin, to living with His people, to securing blessing for His people. 00:18:37.220 --> 00:18:44.279 Now, let's move from bird's eye to think from the point of view of a worshiper on the ground on the 00:18:44.279 --> 00:18:54.079 day of atonement. So, imagine ourselves as the people gather around this great tent, watching Aaron, 00:18:54.240 --> 00:19:02.259 the high priest, as he gathers and brings those animals into the temple as we witness the blood 00:19:02.259 --> 00:19:11.500 and the sacrifice. What details do we observe? Let's go back to the sin offering for a moment or two. 00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:18.000 In verse 9, we read of it in brief, Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:28.240 and sacrifice it for a sin offering. We see violent death. We see that blood is spilled. 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:36.720 That blood is sprinkled on the furniture of the temple. Some of it before God. Some of it before 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:48.140 the people. We see that the whole animal is consumed by fire. There's a very graphic message being given 00:19:48.140 --> 00:20:00.740 to the worshipers on that day. This is what my sin deserves. This is God's holy judgment because we 00:20:00.740 --> 00:20:10.900 have broken God's law. God is a holy God, and if I am to live in His presence, I need my sin to be covered 00:20:10.900 --> 00:20:19.800 and taken away. And we would know that God has provided for me what I could not provide for myself 00:20:19.800 --> 00:20:29.100 with this sacrifice. Lots of religions, lots of traditional religions, have practiced in the past, and some 00:20:29.100 --> 00:20:38.280 still practice in the present, animal sacrifice. Human attempts to win the favor of the gods, perhaps to 00:20:38.279 --> 00:20:43.759 appease the gods. The gods seem to be angry. Let's offer a sacrifice and hope that they do good instead 00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:50.720 of bad. With that kind of system, the question is always, what can I do to get on good terms with my 00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:59.019 God? It's a great picture of sort of a religion that's based on works. But the sacrifices in the Bible 00:20:59.019 --> 00:21:06.000 are different, entirely different, because they are God's idea and God's good gift. And the message of 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:13.519 the sacrifices, this is what God has done. This is what He has provided so that sinners can be on good 00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:23.200 terms with Him. The sacrifices remind us God must be true to Himself. There must be a way for sin to be 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:31.759 dealt with. And so, God provides that way for justice to be done through the sacrifice. But He is also true 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:37.299 to Himself in His mercy and His love. And so, He has made a way through the sacrifice for sin to be 00:21:37.299 --> 00:21:46.319 forgiven and for sinners to be reconciled. As every animal, sacrifice in the Old Testament stands for us 00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:53.940 as the shadow of that true and better sacrifice, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, who would lay down 00:21:53.940 --> 00:22:01.860 His own life for us to secure eternal redemption. So, that's what you see when you look at the sin 00:22:01.860 --> 00:22:06.180 offering. What about with the scapegoat? That's a well-known expression, isn't it, in the English 00:22:06.180 --> 00:22:13.539 language, a scapegoat? Perhaps a company or a government where things go wrong, they choose 00:22:13.539 --> 00:22:18.360 someone who's going to take the blame. And they have to bear the shame, they probably get the sack, 00:22:18.359 --> 00:22:26.559 they face exclusion. Somebody is selected. It comes from the Bible. Let's look again at the actions 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:34.740 that we have here as Aaron brings the live goat. What happens first? Verse 21, he is to lay both hands 00:22:34.740 --> 00:22:41.199 on the head of the live goat. There's a great piece of drama happening here that the laying on of these 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:50.080 hands is representing a transfer that's taking place. The transfer as sin is loaded onto this goat. 00:22:50.799 --> 00:22:59.019 And then there is confession. He confesses over all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites, 00:22:59.160 --> 00:23:06.840 all their sins, and puts them on the goat's head. So, here's something that is true. The people must own 00:23:06.839 --> 00:23:13.619 that sin. As the sin and the wickedness is confessed, there must be a heart response. I'm included in that. 00:23:14.519 --> 00:23:23.720 I'm trusting that what's happening here represents what I need. And then the goat is walked into the 00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:30.659 wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins 00:23:30.660 --> 00:23:38.420 to a remote place. So, imagine that as the people gather. They see this goat wandering off beyond the 00:23:38.420 --> 00:23:48.019 horizon. And they see and they hear the message that my sin has been taken away and dealt with by God. 00:23:48.620 --> 00:23:55.259 It's an acted message that by God's mercy, our sin has been transferred, our guilt has been taken, 00:23:55.259 --> 00:24:03.819 and it has been removed. Atonement has been made. A remarkable day in the life of God's people, 00:24:04.059 --> 00:24:12.460 year upon year upon year. An amazing ceremony. I don't know how many of you were in Edinburgh when 00:24:12.460 --> 00:24:18.099 the festival was on this year, but I was taken by the strapline for the Edinburgh International 00:24:18.099 --> 00:24:27.779 Festival. The strapline was rituals that unite us. And we probably understand that rituals and shared 00:24:27.779 --> 00:24:34.299 practices have that kind of power to create and to sustain community. And that was absolutely true 00:24:34.299 --> 00:24:40.240 for the Old Testament worshipers. As they shared the Day of Atonement together, this ritual helped 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:47.799 them to see and to enter into the good news of the gospel, that God is holy and the people are 00:24:47.799 --> 00:24:54.159 sinful. And that God is just and God is loving, and that faith brings forgiveness and a restored 00:24:54.159 --> 00:25:00.960 relationship. And you know, that's the goal of the rituals that unite us in the church today also. 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:07.779 Whenever we gather for worship Sunday by Sunday, whenever we gather for the Lord's Supper, we are 00:25:07.779 --> 00:25:15.859 uniting around Christ's work on the cross. We are sharing together, entering in, celebrating the good 00:25:15.859 --> 00:25:24.899 news of forgiveness and new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus. So, as we come to a close, 00:25:25.379 --> 00:25:33.399 let's think thirdly about how Jesus fulfills what the Day of Atonement promises. Back to that opening 00:25:33.399 --> 00:25:39.519 observation question from the former slave as he arrived in the UK, why is there no animal sacrifice in 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:45.339 church? Why, as modern Western people, are we not used to seeing animals be sacrificed? 00:25:45.339 --> 00:25:56.839 Well, the answer lies in the message of Isaiah 53, in the message of the cross. In the end, we discover 00:25:56.839 --> 00:26:06.799 that sin is so serious that no animal sacrifice can be a suitable substitute for sinful humanity. 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:15.960 That God is so holy that only a perfect, sinless sacrifice can pay the price, and God is so good 00:26:15.960 --> 00:26:27.139 that he has provided his Son to be that sacrifice, to be the great high priest. As our high priest, 00:26:27.859 --> 00:26:35.259 Jesus is perfect and sinless. He has no need to sacrifice for his own sin. 00:26:35.259 --> 00:26:44.000 He is clothed in perfect righteousness, not just for a while, but for all time, always obedient. 00:26:45.059 --> 00:26:54.920 He is the one who came according to God's salvation timetable. And remember who Jesus is. He is the eternal 00:26:54.920 --> 00:27:04.160 Son of God who became a man in history. And only Jesus, the God-man, 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:15.180 can secure atonement for us. Only he can fully pay the price for our sin. Only he can give us eternal 00:27:15.180 --> 00:27:27.060 salvation. And Jesus came to go to the cross. And at the cross, the penalty fell on him. He offered 00:27:27.059 --> 00:27:38.059 himself as a sacrifice. His blood was shed as our sin offering. He bore sin and its judgment as our 00:27:38.059 --> 00:27:48.559 scapegoat, so our sin can be removed from us. We don't have an altar in a church because the cross 00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:59.559 is Jesus' altar, the place of sacrifice where he is offered to God for our forgiveness. The cross becomes for 00:27:59.559 --> 00:28:10.559 us our mercy seat. As we understand that standing between the holy God and us as lawbreakers is the perfect 00:28:10.559 --> 00:28:23.579 one. Jesus. That his blood is shed to cover our sin. He stands in our place so the just anger of God falls on 00:28:23.579 --> 00:28:38.699 him and not on us. Like the day of atonement, the cross was a place of violence and death and bloodshed. 00:28:40.059 --> 00:28:49.539 But we must not turn away because in his sacrifice there is that washing from the guilt and the stain 00:28:49.539 --> 00:28:54.920 of sin. There is the promise of sin. There is the promise of peace with God and restored relationship. 00:28:55.099 --> 00:29:01.839 There is the news that judgment has been taken and eternal life is given. And that's the message of our 00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:10.559 worship. And it's the message of the Lord's table. And to hear it and to see it is to enter into 00:29:10.559 --> 00:29:19.259 that serious joy, that deep unbreakable joy that belongs to those who know 00:29:19.259 --> 00:29:27.099 that Christ has died for me and my sin is forgiven. Now, we're going to pray. 00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:34.519 And once we've prayed, our junior church classes will return and we'll move to the Lord's table. So, 00:29:34.519 --> 00:29:44.779 let's pray. Our God and Father, while sometimes the Old Testament system of worship and sacrifice can seem 00:29:44.779 --> 00:29:53.980 so strange and foreign and different to us. And we thank you that by your design, the details point us 00:29:53.980 --> 00:30:01.000 to the coming of your Son, the Lord Jesus, to what he would do for us on the cross as our great high 00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:08.480 priest and our great and perfect sacrifice. Now, we thank you that his is the blood that covers sin, 00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:17.440 that his is the sacrifice that removes sin and guilt, that by his wounds we are healed and we are 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:25.079 reconciled so we can live before you, that we can come into your presence as our Father, knowing that 00:30:25.079 --> 00:30:33.200 you are a God of grace, that you have shown your love to us in the Lord Jesus. May everyone here 00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:38.460 see and believe the good news of the Day of Atonement.