The Day of Atonement and the Book of Life

As I was preparing my messages for the Feast of Tabernacles, I have five together while I'm up in Newfoundland. Three sermons and two World News and Prophecy messages. We're having a mini World News and Prophecy seminar to invite readers in the Newfoundland area. My eyes ran across a familiar scripture that you will have read to you at the Feast this year.

We go over many different times and ways.

And the scripture is in Revelation 20, where it talks about the Book of Life.

Revelation 20. We can turn there.

In regard to the meaning of the last great day, we all know that the scriptures here in Revelation 20 talk about the dead, small and great in verse 12.

But they will stand before God in that period after the millennium.

And they will have the books opened, which are the books of the Bible as we understand it.

And then it mentions another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to their works and the things that were written in the books or in the Bible.

And then down in verse 15, it says that anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire. Now, these two verses or two references here in Revelation 20 kind of sum up something about the Book of Life that is quite interesting and in a sense kind of says it all.

But doesn't say it all because the Book of Life is one of these interesting references in the Book of Revelation. Seven times it is mentioned. Seven times. There's actually one other reference to the Book of Life outside of the Book of Revelation, which is in Philippians chapter 4. So it's eight times mentioned in the New Testament and seven right here in the Book of Revelation.

Seven references to the Book of Life. And here in chapter 20, in a sense, kind of sums it up what all the other references say. And that is that those who have never had a chance to have their name written into the Book of Life will have that opportunity once that comes about through the time of the resurrection after the millennium. And then we're told at the end here of Revelation 20 that if you're not found written into the Book of Life, you'll be cast into the Lake of Fire.

Which tells anyone who reads this, obviously, that, son, you're right back here. Turn around. Turn around and go right back. There you go. Unless you want to help me with the sermon up here. I don't think you do. Okay. So what these verses tell us about the Book of Life is that you want to be there. Now, what is the Book of Life? Here's how I've imagined it sometimes. Maybe you have some of these big archival-type ledger books that's opened on a big stand or something.

And there's a line with your name on it, and your name is written into it. And maybe that's how I've imagined it at times. Maybe you have as well. And in my thinking about it recently, I have begun to imagine it a little differently. And I use that word imagine carefully so that we all understand that what I'm about to say is an attempt to magnify something from a sense of imagination. So I'm not setting doctrine or practice or whatever, but I think it's reasonable with what we find about this and to think about it.

And it's referenced here in the book of Revelation, which is full of all kinds of imagery and poetry and realities of the time of the end, as well as the throne of God, as well as the church and everything. But here's this Book of Life. And we want our names in that book.

Everyone's going to have an opportunity to have their name written into it. And what does it mean? What are we being told? You and I can assume that our names are being written into that Book of Life right now, because this is our time of salvation. Now, is our whole name already written into it? Or is it perhaps we have the first few letters? Maybe the first name? Maybe for some of us, as we age and go along in years, we're halfway or more through the last name. Maybe we're getting into the last letter of that name to where it'll be finished at the time of our death or the resurrection.

We want to be sure our name is right there and it's written correctly, and the whole name is there, right? If you want to carry this through to imagine it. And if that is one way to look at it, I wonder if what we are being told here regarding this Book of Life is this is God's great story, this book, as it represents something.

Because people's names are being written into it. You know, would it be safe to assume King David's name is written into the Book of Life? We all in agreement on that? Anybody want to disagree on that? We're small in numbers today. We could have a very interesting discussion. But I think we would all agree that King David's name is written into that Book of Life. We're all familiar with King David's life.

Why? Because we have a historical account from the Old Testament of King David. We have a lot of stories about his life. His highs and lows. His good judgments, his bad judgments. His sins, his repentance. The story of his life. The story of his life is in the Bible. What about your story? What about our lives? Are they being written into the Book of Life in the sense that King David's was, that Abraham's was, that the Apostle Peter's or the Apostle Paul's was?

Is your story and is my story being written into that Book of Life? I think so. I think it's probably more than just one line on a ledger entry. I think this book is pretty big, if you want to look at it that way.

Many volumes, so to speak. Many stories when you take into account all who've lived and whose names will be in that book. And if you really look at what we can gain from looking at the Bible, your name, which is you and your history, your character, the story of your life will be in God's Book of Life.

And we know that, you know, just to imagine it as kind of a big, oversized ledger book, you know, archival-type quality that's going to be around for a long, long time is just a symbol, if you want to look at it that way, to tell us something bigger. Don't freak out on me. I'm not using the word symbol to water down anything or to spiritualize away the reality of what the Scriptures say.

I'm trying to help us to open our minds and imagine a little bit beyond where we are to understand that this story of our life being written into God's Book of Life through, in a sense, having our name put there is telling us something that we need to pay attention to. Because other references to this Book of Life talk about that book being from the foundation of the world, which indicates God's story of working with human life.

And as I look at this, as I think about it in my life, in your life, and those of all of God's saints, I'm beginning to realize and think that the story that we have of the Book of Life and the books of the Bible is a story that we read ourselves into as we study, pray, think, and meditate over the Word of God. When you and I read the Bible, we allow God to speak his life into us.

We understand that God is writing us into his Book. And a way to approach Bible study, and to get it right, I think, is to recognize that as God teaches us through his inspired Word, and we drink it in, we imbibe it as we say, we digest it, we study it, we make it a part of our life, we live it. And in doing so, as the stories, the teaching, the doctrine, the admonition, all becomes a part of our life, we read ourselves into the story, and it becomes our reality.

We're not writing God into our story. God's writing us into his story, into his book, into the Book of Life. He's writing our name into it as we move along. We all on the same line of the same paragraph and the same page as we move through this. God's Word, the kingdom, the world of salvation, which we are called, and the restoration of all things to this earth, it's a great and wonderful story that the Bible tells.

And as we, really, it is focused upon the holy days. When we begin in the spring with unleavened bread, and we move all the way through to the fall and the last great day, we move through the various chapters of this overall vision of the story, as we know. The plan of God that takes us to the end of the book as we have it revealed, and then we know that beyond that is something God will show us when we get to that point. But it's a great and it's a wondrous story. And as I was thinking about my sermon for the Day of Atonement, I thought, came back to how is it that the Day of Atonement help us?

What do we learn from the Day of Atonement in this concept, this idea of the book of life and reading ourselves into the story of that book, and making this story a part of us? What is it that God is telling us? Because that's the next holy day. I hope I don't step on anything Scott Moss will be covering on Monday. If I do, he can use it, revise it, or revise his own as we move along.

There's only so much, and repetition is okay, as I was telling you in my letter I wrote this week. We sometimes skip right over the Day of Atonement because we're thinking about the feast. We want to get to the feast, and we go through the Day of Atonement, and sometimes headaches and hunger and everything else can distract us on the Day of Atonement to miss exactly the meaning of the day, and what is taking place in terms of the message of that day.

The message of the Day of Atonement is one of the most profound messages. What is God telling us through the Day of Atonement that perhaps we should understand about this part of the story that God is working out that we are a part of? Let me step us through a few points to think about as we come up to the Day of Atonement. 1. The Day of Atonement is telling us that things are not what they seem in this world. There's more going on in this world than meets the eye.

When we keep the Day of Atonement, we focus on certain matters that tell us that there is an unseen spiritual dimension of life, an unseen spiritual dimension that we just will not see unless we have God's Spirit reveal it to us. 2. The vast pageantry and imagery of the Day of Atonement is one of the most fabulous in the Bible when you really stop and think about it.

We can get behind the hunger and the headaches and think about it. When we go through Leviticus 16 and try to make sense of this ritual on the Day of Atonement that was to take place in the temple every year in Jerusalem with a high priest getting up on that morning, making sure that he was robed properly with all of the clothing of his office and the vestments of that office, the ephod, the breastplate, the fine robes of purple and white.

He had to be just right. He had to be dressed just right that day. And when he went then out into the courtyard of the temple, he began making sacrifices. First for himself, and then for the people. And those sacrifices had to be done just exactly right. And then he would take that sacrifice and he would go into the Holy of Holies. This was the only day of the year he went into that inner sanctum of the temple where the Ark of the Covenant was, where the presence of God resided, the Holy of Holies.

No one else went in there at any other time, and he was the only one allowed to go in there, and he could only do it once a year on that day of atonement. Because to look upon the presence of God, or to be there unauthorized, as they already knew from various other episodes, could mean death.

Do you not think if you were that high priest you would want to be ready and have everything lined up exactly right through the offerings, through his clothing, through his own personal preparation to be able to go in there and survive? Yes.

And when he was in there, he would sprinkle some of the blood and incense so that it would fill and cover the Holy of Holies, and he would be incensed protected.

And I wonder what the high priest might have also done while he was in there. Do you think he would want to lift the lid on that ark?

And take a peek just to see if those tablets were still in there, if the manna had really gotten moldy in the last year decay had set in, if the new high priest, after the old one died, his first time to go in, do you think he would want to tarry just a little bit? I don't know. Maybe. He's human. Whether they did or not, I don't know. But I know he had to have it just right or he wasn't going to survive, and then he came back out. And then when he came out, there were two goats waiting for him, both alike.

And he had to then cast lots over those two to determine which one was the Azazel and which one was for the Lord.

And one of those then was killed to represent Christ ultimately, but to be the ultimate sacrifice for the people. And the other was let out into the wilderness by the hands of someone who is called a fit man, one who was capable and able, and that goat was let go.

And then everyone sighed a sigh of relief because the high priest had once transferred the sins for the people onto these offerings and to this goat, and there was a sense of rejoicing and relief. And of course, everyone was fasting through that day. It was a very, very solemn day.

And through that ritual, through those ceremonies, we come to understand as we look back now from our perspective of our point in the Scriptures and in the story of the Bible, and we understand that those are telling us that there's something going on in this world that we don't see every day. We don't normally focus on because we're physical and it's hidden and it's an unseen spiritual world.

The high priest himself could not determine which goat was for the Lord and which goat was the Azazel goat. They both looked alike. They were both of the same age, so relatively same height. They had to appeal to God by casting a lot and having that decision made. They had to appeal to God to make the decision. They couldn't see it because there's a spiritual element working there.

And this world is not exactly as it appears. Things aren't all that they seem to be as we just look at it. We have to have God's help. We have to have the Spirit of God to open our minds to understand.

Remember the story of Elisha, who asked God to open the eyes of his servants to show them that there were angels ringing the city at that particular point to rescue them? Even though there was an army out there and soldiers that had come to take them, the servant was all upset, scared. And Elisha said, God opened his eyes and he saw that there was an angelic army even greater there.

We're like that servant. We have to have our eyes open because we live in a world with two parts. The world we see, the world of our reality, and the world that we do not see. And throughout the Bible, we're told this in many different stories and ways, and the Day of Atonement brings that out to us.

But we forget because we're focused on our physical. We're focused on our life, our home, our jobs, our kids, our mates, our problems, our frustrations, our aches and pains, making a living, getting ahead. We're focused on everything that we see, and that's the way it is. But this world is more than that.

In the story of the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, the servants who were after the resurrection, walking along and discussing the events that had taken place, the story begins in Luke 24 and verse 13.

There were two servants going a short distance away from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, and they were talking together about all the events of the period, the trial and the death of Christ.

They were working it over in their mind, but verse 15 tells us, while they were talking, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him. They didn't know who he was.

Jesus materialized, you know, if you want to imagine it just like on Star Trek, where they materialize in the booth when they come and go, Christ in a sense materialized and was right there. And they were so engrossed in their own conversation, they just assumed he kind of walked up from behind them and overtook them on the road or whatever, but they didn't know who he was.

And as you go through the story, he turns in with them and goes and sets down to eat, and then they find out. And then they understand who they were dealing with.

But it took them a period of time.

And he eventually opened their eyes. When you come down to the end here, they finally recognized who he was. Verse 30, in verse 31, their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. He just kind of did that little dematerializing again and disappeared.

And then their eyes were opened. This world is not what it seems. That's one of the major lessons for us to learn on the Day of Atonement and remember every day of the year. The priest could not determine between two goats because of a blindness that is really over all of humanity to determine, you know, you can take so many different lessons from that. But today, without God revealing it to a mind, you can't determine the true Christ and his message from the false Christ and his message. The true God and the God of this world and the deception that he has put over the world. Things are not what they seem. There is a spiritual dimension to reality, perhaps a way to put it. This life is our life. God has his own life, in his own space, if you will, and we call it heaven to distinguish it from earth and where we are. But God has his own space, whatever and however and wherever that is. But that is the ultimate reality and so many different places within the Bible tell us that. You read Revelation 4 and 5 and you see that John went up through a door in heaven in his vision. And he came and found himself before the throne of God. And two whole chapters describe what John saw at that moment that he describes to us for the throne of God. Because he went through a door in the vision that he had. And how many times has that step through a door been taken and applied in stories of fantasy to describe an alter universe, a parallel universe, or an alternative reality, whether it's in the Chronicles of Narnia, where they go through a wardrobe in the bedroom and find themselves in another world. Well, John went through a door and I still maintain the book of Revelation is the better story. To learn, to read, and to really wrap your life around. Because that's the reality. C.S. Lewis did an interesting job with the Chronicles of Narnia to take certain biblical matters and turn them into a fantasy story for children and for adults. And you can read that or watch the adaptations in the movies of those stories and you can begin to get a little bit of an idea of certain things that we're talking about here. But I still maintain that the best story is the Bible. And the best images are right there in the book of Revelation because every literary device of every story borrows from those things that were told right there in the Bible. But John went through a door in heaven, it says, at the beginning of Revelation 4, and he was into another reality. He was actually into the reality. And the Spirit of God inspired him to put it down. We have it as our record, and it tells us that things are not what they seem. And so as you and I go through our life, as we work off the meaning of the Day of Atonement, we should understand that we live in a world and we should make sure that we understand the reality of the seen and the reality of the unseen. And to understand the problems that are there, as well as the strength and the help that is there, as we traverse our way through and as we write our names into the book of life, as we read ourselves into this story.

Now, a second truth that we should understand about coming off the Day of Atonement is that we are at war. We are at war. When we observe the Day of Atonement, we are reminded that Satan is not yet bound. He will be, and his influence will be removed from the work among men, the work that he has been allowed to do. But not until the Day of Atonement, not until Revelation 20 takes place and after the return of Christ, an angel grabs him and puts him into the bottomless pit, into a condition of restraint, into a place, in a condition where he can no longer influence this world. We are at war. There is a spiritual battle. I know that the Seventh-day Adventist, the founder of Adventism, Ellen G. White, her great magnum opus, was the great, what was it, the great conspiracy or the great controversy? Thank you. The great controversy. And in that sense, that's true. There is a great war. God has called us to understand that, and we have to understand that as we move through our life and our world. In Ephesians 5, we always receive ample warnings about this throughout the Scriptures. The challenge for us is to always remember it.

In Ephesians 5, verse 8, he says, You were once in darkness, but now you are light in the world, walk as children of light. Verse 11, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. There are plenty of works of darkness around us. We don't engage in them. Removing ourselves from the works of darkness is that battle, that war, that we are involved with every single day. It's a battle for our mind, our actions, our loyalties, our commitment. It is a battle. It is a spiritual struggle that we have to be reminded of. The Day of Atonement is right there to remind us of that.

He goes on in verse 13, he says, All things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. God's Spirit opens our minds to understand and to make plain the reality of this world and where we are. And therefore, he says, Awake you who sleep. Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Wake up. Wake up. We are at war. We're on a great journey. We are on a great quest. Our life is one that is filled with adventure, but also great peril. To become a part of the Church of God, to take part in this calling, is a great journey.

The book of Hebrews shows us that we are on a journey toward the Kingdom of God. We have to remain faithful to that. We have to hang on. That's what our life is all about. But we have to understand that we are at war. There is a struggle going on. As God works with us, protects us, gives us understanding.

There is a story in the book of Daniel, chapter 10, that is fascinating, but sheds light on this. Daniel, chapter 10. We find Daniel, this is after the Babylonian Empire has fallen to the Persian Empire, during the third year of Cyrus, that a message was revealed to Daniel, verse 1. The message was true, but the appointed time was long, and he understood the message and had understanding of the vision. In verse 2 it says, In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks.

So he took a three-week period, 21 days, and says he ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine, came to my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks were fulfilled. So this was some type of a modified... I would take a... The commentaries say it's probably not a complete fast. It says he didn't eat pleasant food, no... He didn't have any expensive bottles of wine, or expensive steaks, or whatever it might have been. I would say that he probably lived on a very, very modest diet, much like what we find that he and his fellow Jewish friends lived on in the first chapter of the book, where they went through a period of time preparing themselves to, in a sense, be of service there, and they ate a very simple meal. So maybe they just had vegetable soup, you know, occasionally throughout that period of time, and a piece of bread or whatever, and water, when it says no pleasant food. So it was not a complete fast, but it was... They weren't banqueting, and they weren't probably drinking alcohol. And it went on for over three weeks. And on the 24th day, it says of the first month, I was by the side of the Great River, that is the Tigris River. He was probably in one of the palaces and had been fasting, praying. He dedicated himself to three weeks because he wanted to learn something. One of the commentaries brings out that it may have been that at this particular time, Daniel had heard that the Jews that had gone back to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel had let down on their job. You remember the story at the beginning of Ezra and Haggai, where they had stopped their work because of the opposition. They'd stopped their work on rebuilding the temple. This is when this story here, Daniel 10, is set at the time that the Jews had gone back under the decree of Cyrus to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. And that story is told in Ezra and Haggai. And then they stopped. It may have been that Daniel heard about that. And he was mourning over that, whether or not these people would fulfill their calling to reestablish an outpost in Jerusalem at that particular point in time. That may have been what he was going through and what he was dealing with at this time. At any rate, he suddenly looked up in verse 5.

Another man appeared to him out of the spiritual dimension. His body was like barrel, his face like the appearance of lightning. His eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of an altitude. Compare that with Revelation 1. And you read the same thing there in Revelation 1. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision. For the men who were with me didn't see the vision. Things aren't what they seem. We see more than we don't always see what is there. And even those that were with Daniel didn't take part fully in this vision. But they were suddenly consumed with fear. Maybe there was a shaking. Maybe there was just a strong wind that came up. But they fled to hide themselves. They were suddenly fearful. They hid themselves. And I was left alone, and I saw this great vision. No strength remained in me, for my vigor was turned to frailty, and I retained no strength. And yet I heard the sound of his words, and while I heard the sound of his words, I was in a deep sleep on my face, with my face to the ground. Now, it's interesting to go on to read this, then. Suddenly the hand touched me and made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands. And he said to me, Daniel, man, greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you. While he was speaking this word to me I stood trembling. And he said to me, do not fear, Daniel. For from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. And Daniel right now is saying, what took you so long?

You waited three weeks.

Why? I got kind of hungry after the first three days, much less three weeks.

But the angel goes on to tell him, he tells him why. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days. And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help him, and I had been left here alone with the kings of Persia. And now I've come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come. He was held up because of a spiritual war between he and the prince of the kingdom of Persia. And Michael, one of the good guys, another archangel, had to come in to help him.

A titanic struggle, unseen, unknown by the human eye.

But angels were told here war at times to bring answers to the servants of God.

The answer was given. And then he was going to leave, and he said, in verse 20, you know, do you know why I've come to you?

And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia, and when I've gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come. Interesting just to speculate here about, you've got a powerful spirit being called the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece.

Which you can infer from that, that nations, not only Gentile nations, but in this case two Gentile powers, have a, it would seem, an overriding spirit being guiding their affairs, influencing their affairs. And that's a whole other sermon and story in itself.

If Greece being a European power and Persia being an Arab power, and of course that's Persia today as Iran, there's a lot of interesting speculation or thoughts that you can work off of there. But you realize that what we're really being told here is that there are powerful spiritual beings who do influence the course of world nations and world events behind the scenes. In this case they're brought right down to the level of preventing an angel of God bringing a message to one of God's servants, in this case Daniel. What we learn is that things aren't what they seem. We're at war. There is a war on a different dimension going on.

And at times we've got to understand that in terms of world events and spiritual events within and among the church of God, and even in our own lives, to learn these things. We could go on and talk about how angels are sent to be helpers and have interaction among the people of God, and that's another dimension of that story and understanding. Here we find they were even hindered, but not totally prevented, from bringing a message to Daniel about a prophetic message and understanding. You read this and you get a lot of understanding that you don't get from Fox News. Okay? And you don't get it from CNN. And we have to understand that as we look at the world and even as we look at our own lives. This world and our life in this world is far more involved than we realize. It's more dramatic than we realize. I tell you this, and I don't expect any of us to start looking for the Prince of Persia outside the gate, outside the door here today. Don't get paranoid. Don't go around finding a demon under every rock. You don't live your life that way. But you live, as a Christian called the Son of God, you live your life understanding that sometimes the struggles we do have are beyond us, which drives us to our knees, like Daniel did, to pray, and yes, to fast, for God to give us an answer or to God to break the hold on that. And that's the reason we fast on the Day of Atonement.

Our life sometimes can be pretty dramatic if we step back, read the Scriptures, put ourselves in the story, read us into the story, if you will, which is a reality, and believe it.

You do that, and we are a lot closer to getting some answers for our own personal struggles, inhibitions, inferiorities, personal problems, and we rely more on the help of God.

Because most of us, we don't really care about world events sometimes. There are a lot of people in the church. I know some of you will hear that and say, well, that's not true. Well, yeah, it is for many people in God's church. They don't care, but they do care about their own life.

We all care about our own life, and we should. And that's the only war and struggle that we really are focused on.

And sometimes that's enough. I recognize that. Sometimes that's enough.

It doesn't do away with what is taking place in the world, marching toward God's plan and the prophetic end results. But sometimes it's just all that we can do to deal with our own life. And that's all the war we really care about. They don't want to read world news and prophecy. That's fine. When I encounter that attitude, I say, great, that's fine.

And deal with a person wherever they are.

But I also say, if that's where you are, you still better understand the reality of the story.

And the more we read ourselves into the story of the Bible, the more we're writing our name in the book of life, and we're understanding this reality.

Our lives are far more dramatic than involved in this world than we realize.

Without this understanding, quite frankly, life just boils down to Punching the Clock, Facebook, and Dancing with the Stars.

Okay? That's it. Punching the Clock, a good cup of coffee, and Survivor. Because I don't want to leave anybody out. I want to offend everybody.

And let me offend myself. NCIS. Okay?

If that's all our life is, then we're missing the point.

But, you know, for a lot of people, that's all life is.

Because they don't understand that there's more to the world that meets the eye.

And we're involved in a war. We're involved in a struggle.

Those are things we learn on the Day of Atonement.

We learn a third thing. That we have a key role to play in this story.

We have a very key role to play in this story.

Back to Ephesians 2. God's called us to a part, a role. Not a bit part. Not always just a starring role.

But we have a place to play in this pageant, in this story.

We have a very key role to play in Ephesians 2.

Paul picks up all of these points here in these themes.

In verse 1 he says, You've been made alive, you who were dead in trespasses and sin.

Where we once walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit, who now works in the sons of disobedience.

Right there in verse 2 is one of the most important bits of knowledge, I think, that was revealed.

If you will, Mr. Armstrong, I remember it was on the day of atonement, 1970. 1970. That I heard him expound this verse. On the day of atonement, with fuller understanding than the church had ever had, as to how Satan works as the prince of the power of the air, as he broadcasts attitudes of disobedience, hostility.

And that's how the prince of the power of the air works.

And he worked all, verse 3 shows, that we all were once caught up in that.

With our life, we were children of wrath, just as others.

But verse 4 says, God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Too often people focus on those two verses to create a complex web of false theology that does not fully appreciate and understand the law of God and the role that that plays. Yes, we are saved by grace, not by our works. And yes, it is through faith. Nothing you and I can do merits salvation. But verse 10 is what always needs to be read. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we should walk in them. There are good works, workmanship that we are created in through. We have a role to play. With God's Spirit in us, we can see the role that we have to play in this story. We then must read ourselves into the story. And when we do that, we are sitting with Christ in heavenly places. When we fail to do that, we fall into the hands of Satan, who will rob us of this truth and of this glory that we have been called to. Remember that Jesus once said to Peter, He said, Satan has desired to sift you, but I have prayed for you. When you were converted, he said, strengthen the brethren. Satan desired to sift Peter, and he desired to sift any one of us, as wheat or as chaff. We have come into a great and wondrous story, far larger than anything that we can imagine for ourselves. God has given us a place in this. It's greater than any human can imagine, create, or write. And we are to write ourselves into this story. In John 10, John chapter 10, in one statement, Jesus shows the dichotomy, the negative and the positive of this whole situation. John chapter 10, beginning in verse 7, he talks about him being the door of the sheep. And all who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep don't hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters, he will be saved, and we'll go in and out and find pasture. Verse 10, he says, That's a perfect description of what Satan wants to do. He's a thief. He's called a liar in another location. But he's also a thief. He wants to steal your glory. He wants to kill you and I so that we don't enter the family of God. He wants to destroy mankind. Revelation shows us that left unchecked, his forces would do that, except God would intervene. The thief does not come except to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. God wants us and gives us a spiritual life that is an abundant life in the midst of everything else. So on atonement, by fasting and by affliction, we write ourselves into the book of life.

We take another step in that process. It's just one part of many things that we do. But we engage ritually by fasting on the day of atonement, which is always a difficult thing for us humans to do. And as I say, we get distracted from the meaning of the day because of the headaches and the hunger that we go through. And yet we have to understand that that's part of the ritual. That's part of the process. And that is part of how we write ourselves into the story as we observe the day. God's servants who wrestled against the spiritual wickedness in their lives, whether it was Daniel, Elisha, Elijah, Moses, they all understood fasting as a tool to thwart that power of evil. Fasting was a tool to do that. Jesus prepared himself through a 40-day fast before he engaged Satan. It is a tool by which we thwart that power that is against us, that thief that wants to kill and to destroy and to steal. Truth from us, steal our lives, steal our hope, steal our joy, kill us and destroy us. When we fast, not just on the day of atonement, but on a periodic, regular basis, and we employ that, whether it's in the way that Daniel did it, or with a complete absence for a period of time, however, we choose to do it. I mean, if you were going to fast for an extended period of time today, I would recommend what we read about in Daniel 10. And don't put yourself through a complete fast. I don't know of anybody that does that, but it would not be healthy for us to do that. But we do need to understand why God asks us to fast on atonement and what is involved there. Because really, it's that fasting which enables us to unlock a power that breaks the whole of Satan and this realm of evil that is over the world. In Matthew 17, verse 18, the healing of a boy that was possessed of a demon manifested itself through seizures and suffering that he would even throw himself into the fire and water, and they brought him to Christ. They couldn't cure him. And in verse 18, Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why couldn't we cast it out? And he said, because of your unbelief. He could have just said, you forgot that there's more than meets the eye in this world. You forgot that there is a war. You forgot that there is an enemy. You forgot your proper role in to play. For assuredly I say to you that if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Whether it was that kind of demon, that kind of a manifestation, doesn't go into all the details, you said, this kind. You know, the church, we as individuals, we're still seized with attitudes, problems that need healing. You may not be throwing yourself into the water or into the fire. But there are times when we find ourselves at an impasse, whether it's wanting to understand how do we get through, how do we understand a time, a situation, a need. How do we find God's answer for an impasse that we may be in our own personal life. Maybe it is prolonged stagnation spiritually.

Maybe it's problems within a family, between a husband and wife, or within the larger family, within each other in a congregation, and things just don't seem to get any better.

Maybe it's, you know, even church-wide. Maybe it's, you know, we sometimes think about the different groupings of the church of God, various organizations within the church of God that we find ourselves in, and the divisions that are there organizationally.

And I don't have an answer for it. I see God's people scattered over the last number of years, and various groupings and attitudes, and I don't have a human answer as to how to get through that.

It's enough for us to meet the challenges that we have in our own organization.

But there comes a time when we have to approach things individually, collectively, church-wide, in the way that Christ tells us to do here, in the way we see someone like Daniel doing it, and taking a prolonged period of time, and employ these tools of prayer and fasting.

To get ourselves to a point where we don't fast for strife any longer.

You know, Isaiah 58, and I'll leave that if you want to talk about that one on atonement, talks about the right kind of fast. It talks about the wrong kind of fast.

And essentially God says, you fast for strife, as He was talking to the people. And it can be said to us today, you fast for strife.

You're fasting doesn't, in other words, you can go through a fast and nothing makes no difference. You just starved yourself for 24 hours and got a headache to boot.

And you're no closer to God, you're no closer to getting a solution, no closer to a deeper understanding of yourself.

Remember, you fast to get close to God. You fast to read yourself into His story, not to read Him into your story.

We don't fast to bend God to our will. No fast by anyone has ever got God to change His mind or to bend Him down to our will.

We fast to get ourselves right with God. We fast to understand His will.

And when we do that, then we can move further away from a fast that is for strife, that Isaiah talks about, to a fast that opens our minds to all that is mentioned in that chapter.

So often in the church, sometimes we'll call a fast for something and it doesn't do any good.

I lived through enough fasts in my years in the Church of God to see that there have been times when we fasted and we got answers, and there have been times when we fasted, and it was a futile effort because we wound up with more controversy and strife.

Believe me, I've been through a number of fasts, as I have some of you in the church.

One of the things I learned early on is that when you fast individually, or if you call a church-wide fast, you'd better be seeking God's will.

And we'd better be humbling ourselves and not going on a hunger strike to get God to come around to the way we see things in our life.

That will be futile.

We fast to read ourselves into God's story.

We fast to write another part of the letter of our name in the book of life.

And maybe it's a long name.

But that's why we fast. That's why we keep the Day of Atonement. That's why we worship God on all of His holy days and do what we should do so that we can be closer to the power that God has given.

To see ourselves, see this world as it is.

To recognize that there's more that meets the eye to reality.

Our journey involves a journey of struggle, of warfare, of highs and lows.

And that that journey as well represents the place that we have, the part and the role that we have in the plan of God.

So, make sure that we understand what that book of life is all about and what it means to be writing and to have our name, which biblically, God's concern that the name describe the character of the individual.

So, let's think about that, but let's be sure that we are writing our story into that book in permanent ink so that nothing can erase it, nothing can take it out, so that it will be there on that day when God says, Well done, now good and faithful servant.

Well, enjoy your feast and your travels, and certainly hope everything is safe for everyone wherever we go. Keep everyone who travels, who may not be traveling, and your prayers, and we will see you all when we get back.