Transcription downloaded from https://bibletalks.htd.org.au/sermons/38315/the-one-day-of-the-year/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Amen. Dean Warren will be back, eligible to play in the Australian cricket team. [0:33] As I'm sure everybody knows, only too well, he has been suspended for one year from about last February for drug taking. And some of us may think good riddance and wish it was longer. [0:46] Some of us don't care less at all. And some of us think it's one of the great national tragedies of the 21st century. But when he comes back, how will he make up for the wrong that he's done? [1:00] How many wickets will he need to take before the people of Australia generally forgive him for what he's done wrong? How good will he have to be to make amends for his stupid drug taking? [1:15] What does he have to do to make atonement for himself? Now we often hear the language of making up for our mistakes. Like what will Shane Warne need to do to make up for his mistake of drug taking? [1:28] Or you might hear it in the football commentary, where perhaps a player has missed a goal or dropped a mark, and then later on he does something particularly good, and they'll say, well, he's made amends for his stupid mistake earlier on. [1:40] Or he's atoned for his bad kick or dropped mark or something like that. Or perhaps a child is studying hard to redeem a lost semester or a lost year or a lost term at school, when perhaps that child is mucked up. [1:56] And now, in a sense, to redeem that time lost, to atone for their mistakes or failures or lack of discipline, that child is now studying particularly hard. Or it might be an ex-drug taker who, because of the badness of his life, now out of drugs, wants to do something good to compensate, to make up for his stupidity, so he helps with charity work or whatever it might be. [2:21] The Booker Prize-winning novel just a couple of years ago was a book called Atonement by Ian McEwan, a novel about a girl who wrongly testifies about what a younger man has done and lies, which means that this man ends up in prison and then ends up, in fact, because of that, fighting in the Second World War in the British Army. [2:45] And the plight of her as she thinks about what does she now need to do and how should she live her life to make atonement for that crime that she committed as a teenager many years before. [3:00] Try and think of somebody really bad, the sort of Hitlers or Pol Potts or Saddam Husseins, perhaps, of our world, who've committed so many atrocities in their times. [3:12] What would somebody like that have to do to make up for their mistakes and crimes? How many good things would they need to do to wipe the slate clean, to atone for the seriousness of their atrocities? [3:28] Or how bad do you have to be before you're beyond redemption? How bad do you have to be before, it doesn't matter what happens, you can't atone for your mistakes? [3:40] Well, let me tell you the good news, very simply and straightforward, what this passage is about, what indeed the Scriptures are about. The good news is this. Atonement is not something done by us, but something provided for us. [3:59] We don't have to atone for our errors, no matter how good or bad we are. Atonement is something provided for us, not something to be done by us. [4:10] Now, the most important festival of the whole of the Old Testament practices of ancient Israelites and Jews was this, the Day of Atonement. And we've heard in Leviticus chapter 16 the detailed regulations and rituals that needed to be accomplished on the Day of Atonement every day, or rather every year, once a year on that specific day. [4:33] The Hebrew name for it is Yom Kippur. Day is Yom and Kippur comes from a verb meaning to cover or atone. The Day of Atonement is Yom Kippur, the one day of the year. [4:44] The most solemn, the most serious, the most sombre, if you like, of all the Jewish festivals or gatherings of the people of God. It was full of elaborate ritual, as we've heard it read just a few minutes ago. [5:00] In order to understand what's going on in this elaborate ritual, then we need to understand something about how the Old Testament tabernacle, which later became the temple, was set up. In early days, they had a movable tent because the people were in the wilderness in the time of Leviticus, and until the time of David, about 400 years later, their central place of worship was in fact what's called the tabernacle. [5:24] Later, the same design of the tabernacle was made into stone, an ornate building, as the temple in the centre of Jerusalem. But before that time, it was the tabernacle, and it would move from place to place into the land and then within the land to a couple of different spots until Jerusalem had its own temple. [5:41] There was an outside court where no non-Israelites, where only anyone could go, including the non-Israelites, the very outsides, beyond the sort of far fence, if you like. [5:55] And then there was a general courtyard into which the Israelites could go, and then beyond that one where the Israelite men could go. Probably there was this distinction between the women and then the men. [6:07] I had even thought tonight of getting you to sit in the old church as the sort of general populace outer court. But I thought I'd be kind to you. It's a bit more comfortable in here. But then beyond that court where the Israelite people could go, the priests could go into the holy court, in effect. [6:23] So any person who was a priest could go into that holy court. But the most important part, and in that holy court, let me say, was the altar, a lampstand, an incense bowl, a few other bits and pieces, and so on. [6:37] The most important part of the tabernacle and the temple was the holy of holies, or the most holy place. And from the priest's court, you would enter it through the curtain. [6:51] It was walled on three sides with a curtain on the fourth facing into the priest's court. So if you can imagine, within the holy of holies, that was the throne room of God, the dwelling place of God. [7:08] Inside was the Ark of the Covenant, a box about so big. Inside it there were a few bits and pieces, like the Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone that came from Mount Sinai. [7:19] Later on, Aaron's rod and a couple of other bits and pieces. It was covered with gold. Its lid was gold. The lid called the mercy seat. On each end of it were two cherubim angelic figures that would face each other across the Ark with their wings outspread. [7:38] And it was understood that above that gold seat was the throne of God. There was no representation of God. You never represented God with some sort of figure or statue in the Old Testament. [7:50] But God, that was the throne, although even the footstool of the throne of God who reigned in between the cherubim above the Ark of the Covenant. The only person who could go behind the curtain was the high priest, the first of whom was Aaron, the brother of Moses. [8:11] And he could only go there once a year. On the one day of the year, the Day of Atonement. But even then, he had to go strictly on the terms that God decreed as we read them in this chapter of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 16. [8:29] Remember from what we saw last week, you can only approach God safely on his terms, not on your own. And we saw last week in chapter 10 how the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, thought they'd be very religious and make up their own ceremony, but it wasn't God's ceremony. [8:50] And though it might have been motivated by some sort of sincere or genuine piety or religious devotion, it was wrong. And so they died. [9:01] Beginning of chapter 16 reminds us of this serious event. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they drew near before the Lord and died. [9:13] Approaching God's a serious business. Indeed, approaching God on your own terms is walking into dangerous territory. And we saw last week the general sacrifices that could and should be made by the people of God. [9:29] Today in the Day of Atonement we come to the most crucial of the sacrifices and rituals that the people of God had to make. Remember, you can only approach God on his terms, never safely on your own. [9:45] So how then do you get behind this curtain safely if you were the high priest in the Old Testament? What follows in this chapter looks like a whole lot of religious rigmarole and almost gobbledygook. [9:58] It looks so foreign to us we think, what on earth is going on here? Is this really that important? But let me tell you it is important. It is important because safety first. [10:12] If you're to approach God then you need to do so on his terms if you're going to be safe. And I imagine that if you are a fireman by profession and you are about to fight the fire, safety first. [10:25] You must make sure that you wear the protective garments if you're going to fight a fire. Have all the gear that you need in working order, all that sort of stuff. If you're going to be safe in fighting a dangerous fire, getting onto dangerous territory. [10:38] If you're a person who's a rescuer and you're going to rescue somebody from a landslide or a mine collapse or the Threadbow disaster a few years ago, you'd make sure that you were wearing protective clothes, that you had all your ropes and safety harnesses all in good working order because you were treading into dangerous territory. [10:55] Well no less so here spiritually speaking. Nadab and Abihu are the good examples of that. They've walked too close without the proper safety precautions and following God's instructions and they perished as a result. [11:08] So we're dealing here with something serious. We're dealing here with the protective requirements so that the high priest could go behind the curtain on that one day of the year. [11:20] So what's required for this high priest? Well the first thing comes in verse 3. The high priest needs to make his own sacrifices. See what verse 3 says. [11:31] Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Now if you can imagine it shouldn't be too hard that I'm the high priest. [11:44] Here's my sin offering. Here's my burnt offering. They're supposed to be without blemish. It's got a black nose. I'm a bit blemished. [11:54] But the point is that Aaron himself needed to sacrifice animals for his own sins before he could do anything for the sake of the people. [12:05] So this is my sin offering. Put it on the altar. This one's for a bit later. This is the burnt offering. My ram. I'll just leave it on the chair. Don't do any mess on the chair. [12:16] And he would need he would need to sacrifice his own sin offering. We'll come to that in a minute. The second thing which I'm not going to act out is that he would need to wear particular clothes. [12:29] Now normally the high priest at the various festivals in the Old Testament would wear very elaborate garments with precious stones sewn into the front of his garments and so on. [12:40] But verse 4 tells us here that for this ceremony he shall wear a holy linen tunic. He shall have the linen undergarments next to his body, fasten the linen sash and wear the linen turban. [12:53] These are the holy vestments. Now that's not what he would normally wear. These are plain linen. Indeed it's almost the outfit really for a servant or a slave. [13:05] Because on the day of atonement when the high priest comes to minister for the people he himself is a sinner and he comes wearing servant or slave like clothes to offer these first sacrifices at least. [13:20] In a sense at this point the high priest is stripped of all honour. He is a sinner before a holy God. And also verse 4 tells us that he was to bathe his body in water which I shall not act out now and then put on these clothes. [13:37] That is a sense of his own being cleansed. And then in verse 5 come the sacrificial animals from the congregation. Aaron the high priest shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. [13:55] So Steve represents the congregation here. We need therefore three animals. Here come the two male goats the white ones and the teddy bear you can pretend is a ram for a burnt offering. [14:06] So thanks very much. We'll put that down with my burnt offering animal and we'll put down these two rather cute reject shop without blemish or spot let me tell you goats for a sin offering. [14:25] They can sit there don't run away if they run away Vanessa stop them tie them up and so on. Now what does the high priest have to do in all of this? Firstly he sacrifices his own bull here blue for bull sin offering for himself and his house because he himself is a sinner. [14:48] So presumably if you can hear this what he would do would get a knife he would slit the throat of the animal and you can imagine that an animal like this wouldn't be full of cotton wool but blood and so the animal is killed. [15:15] The next thing we're told in verses 7 to 10 here is that he would cast lots for the two goats that have been presented from the congregation. [15:28] Now I forgot to bring a coin with me I've got a pen I'll put it in one hand behind my back Vaughan left or right? Right it's in the right so this then is the people's goat that is going to be sacrificed as a sin offering as well. [15:44] Same sort of thing would happen it slit its throat and the blood would pour out of course and the other one is set aside we'll come to that in a little bit. [16:02] Now before these animals over here and this one that is set aside are dealt with the high priest goes behind the curtain verses 12 and 13 we're up to he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of crushed sweet incense and he shall bring it inside the curtain and put the incense on the fire before the Lord that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the covenant or he will die. [16:35] Now I'm not really that fussed and keen about incense so I haven't actually got any you'll be pleased to know I thought it would create a scandal in Anglican church circles if I had incense but you can imagine a bowl with coals you put incense on and out would come the smoke that would smell so well sweet and beautiful some people think awful I think and he would take it behind the curtain and he'd be gone for a little bit there might be a couple of other priests in this courtyard the rest of the people would be way back and this is the one time of the year that the high priest goes behind the curtain to the throne room of God and probably what this incense is doing is creating not only a nice smell but probably a sense of smoke so that there's a sense in which the mystery of God is symbolised as the high priest goes behind the curtain then he takes the blood of his own slain bull verse 14 tells us that's the blue one blue for bull as you can see it's bleeding a little bit here and he takes it behind the curtain and he sprinkles it on the mercy seat and around the [17:50] Ark of the Covenant seven times now I should have symbolised this a bit there because he wouldn't carry the animal in he would have collected the blood drained it into a bowl I thought that was a little bit gross I probably should have just carried this thing of tomatoes blah behind the altar so what he's doing is splattering the blood from his own sacrificial animal around the mercy seat behind the curtain for his own sin sacrifice or sin offering if you like that's verse 14 and again no doubt there is a sense of great relief for him and the people when he comes out alive tradition has it that later in history because this was such a solemn occasion that the high priest would have a rope tied to his leg so that if for some reason he didn't come out in good time other priests could drag him out without them having to go behind the curtain so fearful would they be of all of this and then having splattered the blood of his own sacrifice around the mercy seat he would then take the blood from the people's sacrifice and splatter it around the mercy seat now presumably at this time the two animals are actually left as corpses on the altar or thereabouts we're not actually told yet the animals are just dead and he's drained the blood out from them and sprinkled that blood around a bit messy that's why I've got a tea card here to sort of try and keep my hands clean a little bit so that's verse 15 and you might think well what on earth is that about why sprinkle blood on the Ark of the Covenant across the gold topped cover lid for it the mercy seat and around it what's going on verse 16 gives us the answer thus shall he make atonement for the sanctuary that is the holy place because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions all their sins and so he shall do for the tent of meeting which remains with them in the midst of their uncleannesses that is he's cleansing the sanctuary itself in effect from the effect of sin iniquity transgression and so on the other thing that he does verse 18 and 19 tells us is to sprinkle the blood of both animals on the horns of the altar now altars were huge much bigger than this and they had horns not unlike this but of course made of stone and he would take the drained blood and he'd [20:18] I've got to be careful here and he'd sprinkle blood on the horns of the altar church wardens will get me into trouble if I make too much of a mess so we'd better stop there but you get the idea so blood sprinkled inside blood sprinkled on the horns of the altar the place of sacrifice and the purpose here like the purpose of the blood inside the curtain at the end of verse 19 tells us it is to hallow the altar from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and all through this time the congregated people are at a distance verse 17 says no one shall be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the sanctuary until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel well that's the first part of the ceremony when I lived in England up to about seven and a half years ago I remember the first time I went into London from living out of London and I was at a conference just over the road from Westminster Abbey and Westminster Abbey [21:28] I must say was fairly disappointing it was quite extraordinary inside and ornate and full of tombs and so on but this building was encased with scaffolding and it's often the way when you go to these ancient buildings in the cities of Europe you expect to see grand edifices and half the time they're covered in scaffolding Notre Dame in Paris was like that a couple of years ago on my holiday and St Peter's in Rome a few years before that it seems wherever I go there's scaffolding might as well stay in Melbourne I suppose it's a bit cheaper but the reason it was covered in scaffolding was not because it was quite falling down but because it was being cleaned that is the build up of decades of London cab and double decker bus pollution had meant that the outside of Westminster Abbey was becoming quite black thankfully the next year I was in London for a conference pretty much it was finished and so Westminster Abbey looked beautiful the stonework was clean and light and almost glistening in the rare London sun so the idea was that the pollution was being cleansed off the building because if you left it there not only would it look ugly but in the end the pollution would begin to corrode the mortar between the stones now in a sense similarly that's what's going on here with this blood sprinkling ritual although from a spiritual point of view not from a sort of car bus type pollution point of view obviously that is the pollution of the people's sin in a sense spiritually built up through the year and even though they had regular sacrifices which we saw last week there's a sense in which throughout the year there's this build up of spiritual grime going on and if the sanctuary and the altar were not themselves in a sense cleansed from the effect and the build up of people's sin then no longer would the tabernacle or temple be a fit place for God to live in so the day of atonement is like a spring cleaning festival in a sense a spiritual spring cleaning festival it is making the tabernacle the sanctuary the holy place fit for the ongoing presence of God as well as the altar fit for future sacrifices before God that's why all this blood was being sprinkled around the place it wasn't just a sort of gory sense of humour so we've got two animals dead sitting on the altar got two rams down here for burnt offerings and we've still got one little goat down here that either won or lost the lot depending on whether you wanted to be dead or staying down there for a little bit three animals still alive so what now happens the high priest takes the other goat this is the one that lost or won the lot depending on what you want to do with it and he lays both hands on it and over it he confesses all the sins all the iniquities all the transgressions of the people of [24:23] Israel you can imagine that that might take a fair while it may well be a general prayer we're not really quite sure exactly what the prayer that Aaron would have prayed would have been and then it gets sent to the wilderness so see verses 20 to 22 that little paragraph on the right hand side when Aaron has finished atoning for the holy place in the tent of meeting and the altar he shall present the live goat then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions all their sins putting them on the head of the goat and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task so Stephen Fulford you're designated for the task there you are if you could just take that out into the wilderness there please and then you can come back in just leave it out there we don't want it to come back so it's got to be real wilderness the kitchen's probably good enough thank you note that that animal is not killed probably badly bruised now hurled over the thank you very much [25:30] Steve yeah that's that's fine it's not to be killed it's left alive out in the wilderness somewhere I should remind tell Steve by the way that if we're doing this properly having been designated for that task you then have to sort of have a ritual bath and so on before you can be part of we won't worry about all that either now the name that's given for that goat that's just been sent out there into the wilderness of our kitchen is that it's gone to Azazel the name's an odd one it's there in verse 8 verse 10 and verse 26 it's a word that doesn't occur anywhere else in the Old Testament so there's lots of pondering about what does it mean is it actually a place or is it a word that means something and the key ideas or suggestions behind this word Azazel have been that it means something like being cut off being removed so it's the place in the wilderness removed cut off from the people of [26:32] God some say that the word has got a similarity to a word that means precipice or cliff so there are some who think it was pushed off the cliff but it's actually we're not told that it's dead very clearly it's left out in the wilderness the other thing is that it's later on in Jewish history there is a word like Azazel that is used to describe the devil or one of the devil's servants so perhaps the idea is that it's taken out to the wilderness alive on its head are all the sins of the people and in a sense it's returned back to the devil the source of evil and that may be part of it part of what's going on here when the Bible was translated into English 500 years ago nearly a new word was coined by William Tyndale when he wrote translated this passage a word that we use today in all sorts of different ways the word scapegoat in a sense that's what it is a scapegoat is one who cops the blame for what others have done and there's the scapegoat it's copped the lot all our sins all the sins of the people on its head as it's led out into the wilderness it's the scapegoat for the people of [27:47] God he takes the can for everyone else well then having that having happened then in verse 23 and 24 the high priest takes a bath we won't enact that one either so that's his second bath very clean and he changes clothes he goes out of the just the plain linen and now he puts on his normal ornate vestments that have been described back in the book of Exodus and earlier on in Leviticus as well and then we come to the final two animals here we go these are the burnt offerings for the people and they are sacrificed as burnt offerings which is a general sacrifice we saw about them last week in the sermon last week so the end of verse 24 he shall come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people there's the burnt offering for the people at the end of verse 24 making atonement for himself and for the people now these I'm not allowed to sort of destroy so we'll just pretend that they've now been killed then we come back to the first two sacrificed animals still sitting dead on the altar probably blood all drained out and then we read that the fat of them is to be burned there but then the rest of the animal all their innards and everything like that are then taken outside the camp and burned now with every other sacrifice that happens in Israel's history all the ones that are in [29:18] Leviticus 1 through to chapter 7 they're all sacrificed really on the altar here but these are the sacrifices to purify the temple or tabernacle there is a sense of atonement going on here as well and so so solemn and serious is this that these are taken way outside the camp and there they're actually burned up as the sacrifice for sin that's what's in verse 27 the bull of the sin offering that's the priests and the goat of the sin offering that's the peoples whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place shall be taken outside the camp their skin their flesh and their dung shall be consumed in fire and the person who does that also has to have a bath at the end of it well that's it what a lot of complex instructions religious ritual if you like even rigmarole for the day of atonement verse 29 tells us it's preceded by self denial so you shall deny yourselves you shall do no work that's a costly exercise to give up a day's work for this special day [30:28] I mean most people like public holidays but in those days you wouldn't get paid for a public holiday so you lose the day's work in effect the income if you like and this applies not only to Israelite citizens but also to the foreigners who live permanently in their midst as well it's set for the 10th day of the sorry the 7th day of the 10th day of the 7th month this year that would be the 6th of October in our calendar so it's roughly the end of September early October it moves a bit because the Jewish calendar was linked to full moons and we're also told in verse 34 I should have said the self denial leading up to this would mean probably fasting of food probably sexual abstinence and maybe other sorts of self denial as well and then at the very end of the chapter over the page verse 34 we're told this shall be an everlasting statute for you to make atonement for the people of Israel once in the year for all their sins an everlasting statute now so important is this law that it is right in the middle of the book of [31:35] Leviticus and the book of Leviticus is the middle book in the Pentateuch the first five books of the Old Testament so if you like this is at the heart of all the foundational books of the Old Testament that is deliberately this is put right in the middle so important is this it's an everlasting statute so why don't we obey this law why don't we on the 6th of October this year bring animals to this place or the cathedral or somewhere and slit their throats and sprinkle their blood why don't we do this if this is to be an everlasting statute and it's right at the heart of the law of the Old Testament well as good as all this system was for atoning for sin it is really just a prototype a sketch model so to speak it was good because God really did provide atonement for the sins of the people it's not a fake he's not calling their bluff as they offered these animals with faith their sins were truly forgiven and atoned for by the blood of these animals but it needed repetition every year on the day of atonement animal blood is fairly limited in its power after all it's just an animal maybe without spot or blemish but it's in the end just an animal the priest himself needed atonement so even there the system looks a little bit deficient we might say and though their sins were forgiven there's no internal change to stop them keeping on committing sins and at the end of the day the curtain remained in place the high priest couldn't go into the throne room of god apart from this day and the people couldn't even get into the court in front of the curtain into the throne room of god now it's a bit like an early car or an early computer an early pc or something like that I mean I remember when pcs were coming out 20 years ago or thereabouts you know everybody thought this is these are fantastic the things we can do here but a year later we realise that our model's been superseded and a year later we realise that that model's been superseded and indeed by the time you buy one these days you can buy a better one the next day it seems or with cars you know you'd buy a car a hundred years ago everybody thought this was this was sort of the end of the greatest of inventions but they were fairly feeble fairly futile couldn't go very fast they needed to be filled up with petrol whatever much more often and frequently than the ones today do etc this sacrificial system of the day of atonement is like a prototype an early model but now there is a better longer lasting more permanent more powerful model just like there is for cars and computers and so on today so hundreds of years after this prototype was launched in the time of Moses 1400 BC in the wilderness at [34:38] Mount Sinai before the people entered the promised land 1400 years later thereabouts the final version was unveiled now check out its features let me tell you the features of the final version for which we have only read the prototype tonight the final version promised unlimited sinfulness will be dealt with in this atonement sacrifice no annual repeats necessary it is once for all you'll never need another version you'll never need an annual repetition or servicing or check up this offers permanent atonement not a one year temporary atonement permanent atonement of sin moreover the final version has a perfect priest who himself didn't need to sacrifice an animal for his own sins for he was perfect and sinless and therefore a perfect mediator between [35:42] God and people he dealt with or the final version deals with a more powerful blood because it is human blood not animal blood and it is the blood of the perfect perfect person that is shed and the power of that blood deals not only in a sense externally with the sins that we've committed but actually cleanses the conscience internally as well moreover in this final version there is no need for the people of God to provide for an animal it's all provided for us and the blood that's sprinkled in the final version is not just sprinkled around the earthly tabernacle and ark of the covenant and altar it is actually sprinkled around the throne of heaven itself and moreover at the end of the final version the curtain is torn for everyone to see full atonement the cross of Jesus [36:48] Christ that is the throne of God that is where God reigns that's the mercy seat the cross of Christ where God makes full atonement for the sins of the whole world for it's on the cross that Jesus blood is the perfect detergent for our sin on the cross a blood was shed that opens a permanent way behind the curtain to not an earthly temple but to the throne of heaven and to God's glory but Jesus is more than just the sacrificed animals whose blood was shed on the altar on the day of atonement because Jesus was also the perfect scapegoat that was taken outside the camp and left in the wilderness ultimately to die for Jesus was taken outside of the city and hung on a cross carrying the sins of the world on his shoulders and on his head sent to death even to hell died for us but Jesus is not just these two animals sacrificed on the altar whose blood was sprinkled nor is he just even the perfect sacrifice but Jesus himself was the perfect priest sinless and blameless who needed to make no sacrifice for himself for he and he alone had lived the perfect life and was therefore the perfect mediator between God and humanity a perfect sacrifice a perfect scapegoat and a perfect high priest you see atonement is not something that we have to do to make amends for our own mistakes atonement is something God provides for us once for all for all people for all time for all sins [39:09] Jesus death on the cross hundreds of years after this day of atonement laws were instigated and after Jesus himself had died and risen the writer of part of the new testament to the letter to the Hebrews said that we can have confidence to enter the sanctuary the most holy place by means of the blood of Jesus by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh and we have a great priest over the house of God so since then that Jesus is that perfect sacrifice and since then that Jesus is the great and perfect priest let us approach God with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water that's for us now but there's even more to come because as we approach [40:18] God with confidence and with faith because of the blood or death of Jesus on the cross for us then we look forward to being in God's very presence in heaven's throne room one day that's all because of the blood of Jesus for us as we gather around the throne of God to celebrate that final banquet meal of heaven to last for eternity we will sing the praises of Jesus in these words from the end of the Bible these are they who've come out of the great ordeal they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb and for this reason they are before the throne of God and worship him day and night within his temple and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them they will hunger no more and thirst no more the sun will not strike them nor any scorching heat for the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of the water of life and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes full atonement that is great news good news out on me and this is on [41:45] Thank you.