An Overview of the Day of Atonement

If you asked the average person what the Day of Atona was, they wouldn't even know. And the few that would know would probably tell you it's some kind of Jewish observance. In fact, many Christians would believe that to keep this day, to actually observe this day, is bondage and is against Christ. The fast, to keep the Sabbath they see, is actually against what Christ came to free us from. Now, in the Jewish community, of course, especially in the Orthodox Jewish community, this is the holiest of all the Holy Days. It is a special day. Even the command not to work on this day is a different word. Absolute rest. And it was a day in which they would fast. In fact, Yom Kippur, in its Day of Atonement, in many Jewish calendars will be Yom Kippurim, which means atonement, to signify that this is a great day, because this is the day that God reconciles human beings back to Him. And they see this correctly as a day of reconciliation. This is the day that God reconciles His lost humanity back to Him. Now, when we look at the Old Testament, the core of the Old Testament teaching is that God kicked humanity out of Eden, and they were sinners. They sinned. Their nature was changed. And He kicked them out, and He said, you will all die. And in order to come back to Me, in order to come back into a relationship with God, He said, you would have to bring a sacrifice, because there has to be a substitute for your death, because I require your death. And so from the very beginning, from the time of Abel, we see a blood sacrifice brought. On this day, there were special sacrifices that were done in the Jewish temple. Kippur, which we translate atonement, or atone, Kippur literally means to cover. You cover something. On this day, they believed that God looked at your sins and covered them. He removed them. And it wasn't just like, well, they're covered, but they're still there. David talked about blotting out my sins.

Remember, I've said this before, but ancient papyrus, ink did not bound to ancient papyrus like it does to modern pages. You can take your Bible and you can put white out all over it and hold it up to the light and still read what's underneath of it. You can't remove the ink from the paper without destroying the paper. With papyrus, if you had the right kind of chemicals, you could blot it and lift the ink right out of it.

And there'd be nothing left on the paper. To cover, to blot out sins meant that it was removed from the sight of God. Once the sins were removed, now you could have a relationship with God. But as long as those sins were there, they formed a barrier between humanity and God. Today I want to give a very simple sermon about the Day of Atonement. I always have a hard time deciding what to talk about on the Day of Atonement, because if you take all the different aspects of the Day of Atonement, you easily...

In fact, I have five or six sermons that I've given over the years on the Day of Atonement, and I keep creating new ones, but I have to keep going back to the old ones, because there's so much contained in this day. Because what they did in that tabernacle was simply a play showing the reality of what God is doing, every sacrifice, what the high priest wore. In fact, I was going to prepare a slide presentation, I'm going to give it in the future, just on what the high priest wore on this day, what it looked like, and why he wore what he wore, and what the Holy of Holies was, and the difference between that and the rest of the Temple, and why going in there was such a holy time, and this was the only time during the year they could go.

Let's look at the Day of Atonement. Let's go clear back to the book of Leviticus, and let's get an overview today of the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 23. Because some of this is so distant from our Christianity, because we know we're not supposed to do sacrifices, and we know Christ is our high priest, and this stuff seems distant. And yet everything they did pictures what either has been done, will be done, or is now being done. This day actually pictures some things that are being done right now.

It's not just the past and future that it tells about. This day tells of things that are happening right now. Leviticus 23, verse 26, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Also, the tenth day of the seventh month shall be the day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you.

So that's why we're here. It is a holy meeting. The people of God are to meet together in a holy convocation. And you shall afflict your souls in an offering by firemaid to the Lord. You shall afflict your souls. Of course, what they were told to do was fast.

In fact, in the New Testament, this day is simply called the fast. So here we are today. We're not drinking water. We're not eating food. Something that seems strange to people. We're not doing this just as some ritual to earn God's favor. They were to humble themselves before God because God was going to remove their sins, and they could be reconciled to God. Of course, we know that the complete reconciliation of human beings to God doesn't happen until Christ comes back.

But He is now in the process of reconciliation. In fact, the Apostle Paul said that his message was the message of reconciliation, how God was bringing human beings back into the Kingdom of God, which they had been thrown out of in Eden. It says, verse 28, And you shall do no work on the same day, for is the day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people.

And any person who does not do any work on that day, that person I will destroy from among the people. And you shall do no manner of work, it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwellings. And it shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest. And you shall put your souls on the ninth day at the month of evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath. He makes sure that we know we start this on the day before, yesterday, before the sun even goes down in evening. You're to start this ahead of time. You're to be prepared. We go into this. It's not a good idea to be watching the sun go down with a cup of coffee in one hand.

Okay? That's not how we're supposed to go into this. We're supposed to be prepared for this day. And so here we are, are afflicting our souls as a humbling experience, having a holy convocation. But why?

What is it that God is teaching us on this day? Well, let's look at a little bit closer look at the activities that happened on this day. There were a lot. But let's go to Leviticus 16.

I'm not going to read all of this, but I'm just going to pick out a couple of things, a couple of things that happened this day that teach us about what God is doing. Leviticus 16, verse 29. This shall be a statute forever for you, in the seventh month or the tenth day of the month, so that here we are at that time.

You shall afflict your souls and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you. For on that day the priest shall make an atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is the Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls in his statute forever.

So the priest here was to make an atonement. He was to do something that would cover their sins. So we see a couple of things here. One is there has to be a priest involved, and two, he is to make a covering. He used to blot out. He used to remove their sins. And this is a very solemn day. We always look at the Passover as a solemn time.

But in some ways, this day is just a solemn. Of course, part of that is forced on us by fasting, isn't it? You don't have to think energy you usually have and the same sort of peppiness that you usually have, because it is this solemn day, and we are being afflicted. And yet that doesn't mean this is to be a sad day.

There is a great joy in understanding what this day is all about. Let's go back to verses 1 and 2 here. I'm just picking out a few things. You can read all of Leviticus 16 to get an understanding of some of the things that went on during this day. Now the Lord spoke to Moses. This is verse 1. After the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the Lord and died, the Lord said to Moses, Just tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat, which is on the ark, lest he die, for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.

God's presence came into, little presence in the form of a cloud at the time of the tabernacle, came into the temple, into the Holy of Holies, the inter-room of the temple, once a year. And it was on this day. And on this day, the high priest would go through a ceremony and be prepared to go into that Holy of Holies. At later times, by the time of Jesus, when the high priest would go into the temple, they had a rope tied to his ankle.

Because there was understood something. If he goes in there and God does not accept the sacrifice he brought, the blood he brought, for the atonement of the people, then God would kill him. See, this day was a day of stressful anticipation. When the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, all of Israel stood by and watched, because if he didn't come out, they were in trouble.

And so this was a time of very solemn time, because they're waiting to see if the high priest is not accepted, we die. Because we're still in our sins, because atonement, our sins are still open to God. We cannot be reconciled to God. And so the high priest would go in. And so I thought it's interesting that over hundreds of years they got to the place they tied a rope to him. At least they could drag him out, and God killed him.

You can imagine a horrible indeed for that high priest to die, because it would mean that their nation was now lost. Caught off from God because their sins would not be forgiven, and their relationship with God was broken. Once a year he went in at this time. Let's go back to verse 7, here in chapter 16, and just pick out another passage here. Because I really want to talk about this. This was another thing that happened on that day. So the high priest had to go in. And he had a special uniform that he would wear on this day.

Everybody would be fasting on this day. He would go into the Holy of Holies with the blood to say, do you accept this blood to cover the sins of all the people? But there's something else done on this day that was unique.

There's nothing like this in any of the other holy days. Look at verse 7. He shall take two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of Eden, and Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, from one for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Now, that's a bad translation. The zazzle goat. You know, we use scapegoat to mean someone who was blamed for something that really wasn't their fault.

Right? Oh, you're just a scapegoat. It really wasn't your fault. That's not what this meant. This goat was selected to take fault, to take blame. Verse 9 says, And Aaron shall bring the goat in which the Lord's lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat in which the lot fell to the scapegoat shall be presented live before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as a scapegoat into the wilderness.

There are a number of Christian groups that look at this, and they say, well, both of these goats represent Jesus Christ. We see this a little differently. The first goat obviously represents Jesus Christ. He is killed as a sacrifice. The other goat is not killed, but he takes blame. All the sins come upon this goat, and it's let out into the wilderness. He's removed. It's interesting, by the time of the first century, they didn't want to take it out into the wilderness around Jerusalem. There wasn't a lot of wilderness, because there were people who lived.

So they took it out and shoved it off a cliff. That way they would get rid of it that way, because they didn't want to have to do with it. But in ancient times, they did. A man dragged it out and let it go into the wilderness. Their wonder carrying the blame.

We see this, of course, as a type of Satan. We have Jesus Christ, who dies for our sins. And we have Satan, who introduces sin into humanity, and God puts his blame on him and drags him out. The Old Testament teaches that the Messiah would come as a Redeemer. That term is very important in the context of the Day of Atonement. This whole idea was that something had to buy humanity. Humanity had been put into slavery. Humanity had gone into slavery.

They were in slavery to Satan. They were in slavery to sin. And if we had time, I'd show you, it says they were in slavery to death. Now, for God to restore his kingdom, he had to defeat all three of these. Each one was an equal enemy. You could defeat one, but you had to defeat all three. Or you could never restore the kingdom of God. To this day, we see where all three are defeated. We see where Satan is defeated, but we have the idea of the Redeemer. When we talk about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it is not just his death. It is also the fact that he's been resurrected. Look at 1 John. First John.

Just look at a couple New Testament scriptures now that tie directly into this.

First John 1.

Verse 5 says, This is the message. John says, this is what Jesus told us, and this is what we tell you.

This is the message which we have heard from him and declared to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Verse 7, But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin, that sin offering, the one goat. And the priest, there were other sacrifices he would have to do that day. He would have to sacrifice a bullet for himself. There were all these sacrifices, but eventually the blood was offered to God in the Holy of Holies before the mercy seat, which symbolized the very throne of God. And either God accepted the blood or he didn't. When Jesus Christ died, he accepted his blood. That said, this defeats sin. Well, what it did was it gave pardon for sin. The second stage of defeating sin is done every day in you and me through his Spirit. Defeating sin isn't just a matter of forgiving it. It's a matter of defeating it. His death is death brought about pardon from God. His resurrection of life brings about the defeat of sin, as it is defeated every day in you and I as we learn to overcome sin.

Verse 8 says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. He's talking in the Christian series. He says, we still struggle with sin. We have to recognize it. We have to overcome it. If we confess our sins, he has faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Chapter 2, John says, My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. He said, this should be a motivation for us not to sin. If we are not motivated to fight sin, then we don't recognize the sin offering. We don't recognize the agony of Jesus Christ.

We don't recognize who he was, and we don't recognize that this is the only way for sin to be removed from us. And it is the only way to be reconciled to God. It is the only way to become at one with God. There is no other way. You can't earn it. You can't dance fast enough. You can't add up your righteous deeds and say, Look, a thousand righteous deeds wipe out five hundred evil deeds.

It doesn't work that way. The evil deeds must be forgiven. A high priest has to walk into the Holy of Holies and say, This blood is given, and he says, That blood is enough. I don't require their blood. When Jesus Christ went into the Holy of Holies in Heaven and said, I have offered myself, God says, Your blood is enough for all of them.

But you know it didn't defeat sin. It simply provided pardon. Sin is defeated every day. In fact, it's what Jesus Christ is doing right now, because Jesus Christ is the high priest. That's a whole other part of the day of atonement. That's a whole other sermon. How Jesus Christ is the high priest. And everything that high priest did during this day, pictures something he's doing right now. Not in the future, right now. And carrying out this work of God.

But notice what it says then. The rest of here in verse 1, again, My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He himself is the propitiation of our sins. And not for ours only, but for the whole world. Propitiation means to win back the good will of somebody. It's similar to atonement, kapoor.

There's no Greek word exactly for atonement, but this is close. The relationship is broken. The relationship is broken because of sin. That sin must be removed, so the relationship can happen. Propitiation means he, through his sacrifice as the sin offering, the first goat, covered your sins. And now you have a relationship with God. God begins to interact with you. You begin to understand. You begin to live by God's dominion right now. You begin to live by the laws of the kingdom of God, by the rules of the kingdom of God, in relationship with God, in relationship with your advocate.

We usually think of advocate today in terms of legal advocate, right? Well, somewhat your defense lawyer. You can use that right there, too. He's your defense lawyer. He's the only defense lawyer in history when you go up and say, and the judge says, are you guilty? And your defense lawyer says, oh, he's guilty of sin, killing. Hey, that's what your defense lawyer says. And the judge says, okay, he's guilty. God says, you're guilty, death. And then your defense lawyer says, but take me instead. There's no defense lawyer that's ever done that.

He doesn't even argue for you. Let me give you my client's side. He says, no, guilty of sin, killing. And then when sentence is passed, he says, I'll do it. I'll do that. I'll do it. Give this little one another chance. So he is your advocate. He's different than any other defense lawyer in history. And so he now buys us. There's a price that had to be paid. Look at what Peter says in 1 Peter 1.

That's why that first goat had to be killed. He had to be killed. There is a price to be paid, but I want to also stress that since this day represents Jesus Christ as my priest, it also represents the fact that he's been resurrected. There's an emphasis on this day on his death, but there's an emphasis on this day on his resurrection. That he is the high priest. 1 Peter 1, 17.

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's works, conduct yourself throughout the time of your stay here in fear. In other words, he's talking to the church again. 1 Peter wasn't written to the world. The book of Acts was written to the world as the message. Here's how you can learn about God. Much of the New Testament was written to the church. And he tells church members, be very, very careful how you live life, because God is judging you.

But then, verse 18, he leaves it at that, we have no hope. If God's judging me, I'm doomed. That's it.

I can't stack up off enough good things to outweigh the bad things. I can't do it. But he says, verse 18, knowing that you were not redeemed, you were not bought, you were purchased. But you weren't bought with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.

He walked into the very throne of God and said, accept this blood for them. And he said, yes. And this day reminds us of that. It reminds us of that sacrifice. But it also reminds us that he had to be resurrected because he's the one who walked into the Holy of Holies and said, accept the blood.

Right? If both of those things picture him, the one pictures his death, the one pictures what he's doing now that he's resurrected.

So he tells us, yes, we're not here to somehow commemorate just a dead Redeemer, but a living Redeemer.

Who both died for us and lives for us. This day tells us that.

Now, there's something very interesting I want to mention about this Redeemer concept. You know, in the early part of the United States, many people came here as indentured servants. They couldn't afford to get here from Europe, so they would sell themselves.

And they would have a master. And that master would keep them. Usually, it was a seven-year contract, and they would keep them for seven years, and they would come here, and they would work. Now, I'm not talking about the African-American slaves who were forced into slavery. These were Europeans who sold themselves into slavery. They were called indentured servants.

They usually weren't treated as poorly as owned slaves were, but it was an easy life. But after seven years, they were freed. That's how they would get over here. Indigenous servitude happened in Australia. It happened in different places around the world. As people had to get from one place to another, so to get passage and to get started, they would sell themselves for so many years.

And they would go work for that person for so many years. That happened in ancient Israel. Say someone was poor, and they owed somebody a lot of money, and they'd say, Look, I can't pay the money. So I'll tell you what, I'll sell myself to you, and I'll be your indentured servant. And if you were in deep poverty, that indentured servitude could last a lifetime.

But there was a law on how a person could be redeemed from indentured servitude. Let's go to Leviticus 25. Leviticus 25. Because then I'm going to show you a New Testament Scripture that ties this in with what we understand this day is all about. And what we're emphasizing here is something else in just a minute. But the first half of the sermon we're going to emphasize the fact that Jesus Christ is the first goat, and He is the high priest.

His death was the substitute. It was the price for redemption. His job as high priest is His job as active redeemer. Active redeemer. Leviticus 25. I hope I haven't lost you so far. There's a lot of stuff. It's at least six sermons. Leviticus 25.47.

Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brothers who dwells by him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you or to a member of the stranger's family, after he is sold he may be redeemed again. So here the person has to sell themselves because maybe they got in debt. Maybe they owe the person money. Whatever. They end up, okay, I have to sell myself to you to work for you until I pay off my debt. He says, well, you can be redeemed. This person can be bought back. But notice, second half of verse 48, one of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or anyone who is near of kin to him and his family may redeem him. Or if he is able, he may redeem himself. The problem is, of course, how do you redeem yourself?

If you could redeem yourself, you wouldn't be in slavery. So not anybody could go buy you back. You couldn't have a friend show up and say, I'll buy you back. Nope, law wouldn't allow it.

This seems like a strange law until you realize God is teaching us something in this law. He said, no, you have to be brought back by a brother. This is called the law of the near kinsmen. You have to be a close relative.

You get yourself into such a pickle that you have to sell yourself?

Well, that was so dumb. Not anybody can buy you back. Only a close relative can buy you back.

Adam and Eve sold themselves to Satan for a cheap price. Who can buy them back?

You and I have been sold, right? The Satan. Can you buy yourself back?

Can I buy you back? Are you buying me back? There's nobody to buy his back.

Hebrews 2 Every time I read Hebrews 2, I think of Leviticus. The law of the near kinsmen. Hebrews 2, verse 9.

We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone.

Remember, I said he would have to conquer Satan's sin and death. He had to conquer all three of them, or God's kingdom could ever be restored. That was verse 14.

We went through the covenants recently. You will be saved by the seed of a woman. You will be saved by the seed of Abraham. It wasn't just going to be God that saved us. It was going to be a God-man that saved us.

God can't shed his blood. He has to become a man to shed his blood. Right? God has no blood to shed, but God is a man who has no blood to shed.

Then verse 17. Think of Leviticus.

Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren. He had to be a near kinsman. He had to be just like us.

He had to live life like we do. He had to face what we do. He had to live and go through what we go through.

He is a near-kinset. He is not a stranger to us. He is not a friend to us. He is our brother.

Notice the rest of the verse. He came as that goat. He came to pay us his blood as a relative, as a brother, so that it would be accepted in the mercy seat. Notice that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. So then he could capore the sins. He became our near-kinsmen. That statement alone should really be thought through.

When God says, I'm your father, we have a hard time understanding that because he is spirit-wear physical. He says, okay, I hope you understand it. My son will become physical.

Then he will come back and you can see how this works.

We are related to Jesus Christ, not by blood, but by spirit. Well, actually we are related by blood now.

We were related before. We are related to God by spirit. We are also related by blood, by the way, because Jesus Christ became a flesh and blood human being.

We are related in every way you can imagine. We are relatives because it was God's purpose to create human beings to have a family.

It's the whole reason for the whole thing. That's it. This is the reason. Why is God doing what he's doing? This is the reason.

He's working hard at this all the time. And Jesus Christ right now is your high priest.

There are days he says, okay, God, I'm here as Joe's defense attorney again. He sinned again.

There are other days before God he's acting as high priest. There are other days he's before God and he's just your brother.

He's all those things all the time for all of us. That's what he does. He's a hard worker. That's what he does all the time.

So that you can have a relationship with your father. See? The high priest. That's what this day is about.

This is the only of the holy days that have such an emphasis on the work of the high priest.

And Jesus Christ is now the high priest.

By the way, that ransom, the redeeming isn't paid to Satan. It's paid to God. Satan's not that big in this.

God doesn't owe him anything. He doesn't get the ransom. God gets it.

Now, what Jack brings us to that second goat. That second goat is removed and banished from the congregation.

We read that earlier.

This symbolizes the one who originated sin into human experience.

The isasal goat, representing Satan.

Now, we just went through the Feast of Trumpets, the time of the seven trumpets when Christ returns.

Next week we'll be at the Feast of Tabernacles that represents Jesus' millennial reign on the earth.

But between the time that Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives and the time that his kingdom is over all the earth, a lot of things have to happen.

One of the things that have to happen is that this resurrection takes place and human beings are reconciled to God.

The first fruits are reconciled to God because their sins are cupboard, covered, and gone.

And because sin has been defeated in them by God's Spirit, they are resurrected.

There's something else that has to happen on this day, or that this day represents, is that Satan has to be removed.

When you go to Revelation 20, when Jesus comes, one of the first things he does is remove Satan.

The one who originated sin, the one who corrupted the whole thing that God was doing.

The whole thing that God was doing.

You go back to Genesis 1, it's very interesting.

In Genesis 1, God told human beings, you have dominion over all the earth.

And Satan came along and said, now it's mine, and took it from us.

He took it from us.

The earth was God's kingdom, and we were the family.

And God said, you can't have it very long. He's taking it back.

That's why this day contains so much of this imagery of what God is doing, and what is God doing in your life right now.

I don't know if this doesn't motivate us. I don't know what will.

If we can't be motivated by understanding this, I don't know what will motivate us.

As I said before, I read where this was the only time the high priest could go into the veil, into the Holy of Holies, to bring this.

So they kill the Lamb. That's the first thing they do.

They kill the Lamb for the sins of the people.

Then they take the one who originated the sin, I mean using the symbolic symbolism here, and removes him.

Now, the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies to represent the people before God. This is what Jesus Christ is doing.

It's interesting that when Jesus died, that veil that separated the Holy of Holies from everything else was ripped and torn, and there was nothing there.

It was ripped and torn. There was nothing there. The Ark of the Covenant was no longer there. That veil that separates us from God is ripped and torn, and you no longer have a barrier between you and God. When you get on your knees and you pray, when you think in your mind and you cry out to God, when you open this Bible, you are in communication with the Almighty God.

Because your sins are Kapoor, and your high priest, your avagant, and your brother is right there with him.

This is how God decided to do this.

You could say, is there another way he could have done this? I'm sure.

But this is how he decided to do this.

In order to get human beings to become God-like, God became like a human being. Just think about that.

In order to get human beings to become God-like, God became like a human being.

He sent his son, who was God, John 1-1, to become like a human being.

Look at Hebrews 9.

Hebrews 9.

Then we'll wrap this up with just a little bit about Satan.

Hebrews 9.

Now let's go with verse 7. Because he's talking here, Hebrews 7, 8, 9, and 10, or 7, 8, 9, are all about the David's Hormant.

It's what happened during the day of the Hormant and how everything pictures the work God is doing through Jesus Christ. Not only in the past, the goat who was slain, and not only in the future, when he reigns on earth, but right now.

Verse 7 says, But it is the second part the high priest went alone once a year, now without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. Human beings, for the most part, did not have a right to go before the actual throne of God. That's what the Holy of Holies represented. The mercy seat was the throne of God.

And they had no right to go there to God, except through this intercessor.

Verse 9 says, It was symbolic for the present time, in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. In other words, you can do all these things and still not be converted. Concerned only with foods and drinks and various washings and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation. But Christ came as high priest, and he was a very high priest.

When he was resurrected, he became high priest. Christ came as high priest of the good things that come with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with his hands that is not of this creation.

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. He redeemed. He bought. He paid the price. And that's what's so amazing about this.

He brought his own blood into the Holy of Holies.

When he was resurrected and he appeared before God, he said, Accept my sacrifice, not the blood of a goat or a bull or a lamb, except my sacrifice. What I just went through, and the Father said, Yes, this is what I have planned, and this is what I have wanted, and you have fulfilled it, and you have completed it. It's the wave sheep offering during the days of the Llemon Bridge.

All these things represent the work that he's doing.

I want to wrap it up with, what is it that Satan hates about this day? Before I go there, and there's one scripture I want to read. Let's go to Titus 2. Titus 2. I know there's only so much people can absorb on the Day of Atonement because you're not eating.

That's funny. I can still preach all day.

Afterwards, I'm a little spent, but I can preach all day. Titus 2.11, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us, if we understand the salvation, if we understand that you are being saved from being absolutely lost, you're being saved from eternal death.

You're being saved from Satan, from sin, and from death.

He says, teaching us, this is what this should teach us. This is what motivates us to do.

Do we understand what God has offered us?

And do we understand the price, the price that was paid for us?

And do we understand the price we will pay if we deny it?

Sometimes I think we don't talk enough about the price we pay if we receive God's grace, and we receive God, and then we deny it? We go back?

There isn't like a fire.

It says, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. It has an immediate effect.

Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed, and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. God wants you to be His special people who live for one thing, doing His works.

That's what He wants. That's what you've been called. That's why you are now inheritors of the Kingdom of God.

And He says, you were paid to do that.

The price paid for you to be able to have this opportunity was enormous. It was God becoming flesh, and it was God being tortured and dying.

And a Passover and Atonement bring us back to those two points every year.

But it's interesting about Atonement, because Atonement doesn't just deal with Christ dying for us. It deals with Christ, what He is doing for us now.

It deals with the work of God now.

And how you are part of it.

You've been called to be part of it, and it has a huge future, as He says here, the glorious appearing of our Savior.

Satan doesn't want you to keep this state.

This day really represents a lot of bad things to him. I'm not sure he understands all of it. Well, I know he doesn't.

But he knows enough, obviously. This is a bad day.

When this time is fulfilled and Christ stands on the Mount of Olives, and God begins to reconcile all things to Himself, or restore all things to Himself, there's a lot of stuff that has to happen.

When first human beings are resurrected, Satan, remember, isn't removed until after the resurrection. When the first human beings are resurrected, it's like he won.

He changed human beings into eternal children. He brought them into His kingdom. He beat me.

Then God says, I'll remove you.

But He beats Him first.

The resurrection of human beings into God's kingdom as eternal spirit beings marks the absolute defeat of sin, and the absolute defeat of death, and the absolute defeat of Satan.

The next thing He does is He takes Satan and He binds him.

He's now at one with some of humanity. See, the work is not done. It's only just begun.

He now wants to reconcile all of humanity.

That's what the Millennium and Great White Throne Judgment is all about.

The reconciliation to God of all of humanity.

Satan wants to pervert God's grace by cheapening the atonement.

What he wants to do is he wants to make the atonement a license to sin. See, God has covered your sins. You're under the grace of God, so it doesn't matter what you do.

I've heard people say that. I've read writers who say that.

That if you believe you must obey God, if you believe that there are instructions from God or laws from God that you must obey, you are legalistic.

Because God's grace frees us from obedience. All we have to do is love.

Okay, let's define love.

I can go to the Bible and show you. Lots of definitions of love. By the way, they all contain commandments.

I don't even have to go to the Old Testament. I just do that in the New Testament.

But see, Satan wants to cheapen atonement. He wants to cheapen Kapoor. He wants to cheapen Christ's sacrifice.

Remember something? God allows us to choose between good and evil.

He doesn't allow us to determine good and evil.

Satan deceives people. He thinks God lets us determine good and evil. No, he doesn't.

God determines good and evil. We just chose between good and evil.

Satan really twists that. That's pretty subtle.

Secondly, Satan wants mankind to have a form of worship, but in reality, worship him.

It's interesting. That's what Paul talked about when he said, don't you understand that when the pagans sacrificed to idols, they sacrificed to demons?

People thought they were worshiping some kind of God. In actuality, they were worshiping demons.

Satan is now the God of this world. When human beings said, okay, we give up being having dominion over the earth, we give it to you, what did he become? God of this world.

That's what Paul says.

And so he perverts religion.

Number three, Satan wants to cloud the vision of Christ's return.

He doesn't want him coming back. Because when he comes back, his way, which is sin, will be defeated.

He will be defeated. Eventually, death will be defeated.

At the end of the book of Revelation, it says, there comes a time when God brings New Jerusalem to this earth, and it says, there will be no more death.

In fact, Paul says in Hebrews, the last thing defeated is death.

The last thing he defeats is death. There reaches a point where there's no one left to die.

Like a fire burns up the earth, and there is death. And then there's no one left to die. There's just children in his kingdom.

Number four, Satan wants to deny you reconciliation with God. And this day pictures that, and he hates it.

You will be reconciled to God in an entirety. But understand, you are already reconciled to God in relationship.

It's what John meant when he said, we don't know what we will be, but we are now the children of God.

I don't know what it is to be a spirit child of God, but I know now I'm already a son. I know now that's my relationship.

So you are already reconciled enough to have a relationship with God. What we will be is beyond imagination.

Satan hates that. He doesn't want people to know they can be reconciled to have a relationship with God now. God can be active in your life now.

God can change you now. He doesn't want people to know that. And he sure doesn't want them to know that they can be reconciled with God in the future when Christ comes back.

So what happens when Christ comes back? He gathers humanity together, which he's deceived to do what? Try to stop Jesus Christ.

Stop him! That way people can't be reconciled. You see how he thinks? That's why he hates this day.

At the fifth point, Satan doesn't want human beings to be humbled before God. Because if you're humbled before God, God will work in your life.

And he doesn't want that. He wants us to be vain and arrogant and proud, just like he is. And when you fast, it upsets him. Because you were humbling yourself before God. And he hates that.

We are told to afflict ourselves. This is an exercise in humility. Because I don't care how big and strong and tough you are. 24 hours without food and water. And you feel bad. And you're a little weak. And you're thirsty.

And for some of you, you get sort of grumpy. Right? And you have no blood sugar. And you can't stay awake.

And everything's getting on your nerves.

He hates that. Because you realize, I am pretty small. I am pretty small. I am very weak.

You know, in some Orthodox Jewish synagogues today, on Yom Kippur, you have to understand why they would do this.

This day was the holiest day of all. Because this was the day the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, sacrificed a goat, took the blood, went into the Holy of Holies, and God covered their sins.

The other goat was taken out and removed from the people.

With the destruction of the temple, and since they don't understand that those things represented Jesus, they're lost. They don't know what to do. How does God cover their sins?

This is a very difficult day for many of them.

There is, in some Orthodox congregations, synagogues today, where man will wring a chicken's neck and the blood will come out.

And they will chant, This is my substitute, my vicarious offering, my atonement. This chicken shall be death, but I shall find a long and pleasant life of peace.

Find something interesting in that.

First of all, it's not biblical. But it's an attempt to do something biblical.

I'll kill a chicken, and that blood will be my substitute so I can have a long, peaceful life.

A long, peaceful life. But you know, that's not what the death of Jesus Christ is just about. It's some kind of long, peaceful, physical life.

It's about a long, peaceful, joyous, eternal life in the family of God.

It's so much bigger than that.

It is a great blessing from God that you understand that His Son is the real atonement, the real substitute, the real vicarious offering.

But not only is He the vicarious offering, He wasn't a lamb or a bull or a... well, chickens couldn't even be sacrificed. I don't know how they come up with that.

He is your brother, your near kinsman, because only a near kinsman could pay the price.

Not just anybody could do it. Only your brother could do it. And that's who He is.

And He redeemed you, and He bought you back from Satan, and He bought you back from sin, and He bought you back from eternal death.

In a few days, we're going to be observing the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorates Christ's ruling on this earth, His Kingdom being set up.

The time when St. Nis removed and humanity is being reconciled to God, and He's doing that work. It's a whole other job He has to do, called King of Kings.

That's a whole different job. He has to now fulfill His role as King of Kings in preparing humanity.

Satan hates what all these days mean. He hates what they mean. We should love them.

Because these days, as we observe them, aren't just days to have fun.

Do not go to the Feast of Tabernacles and just have a good time, and do some shopping, and eat at some nice restaurants, because your place has a nice swimming pool.

If that's why you're there, you might as well go on a vacation, because that isn't why you're there. That is a benefit of why you're there. You are there to worship the Almighty God. You are there to worship the King of Kings, the Redeemer, the Advocate, the High Priest.

And you are there to celebrate the time when God brings and re-establishes His Kingdom on this earth.