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There Will Be Blood, Part 2

Summit Life / J.D. Greear
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January 22, 2025 9:00 am

There Will Be Blood, Part 2

Summit Life / J.D. Greear

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January 22, 2025 9:00 am

Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, is the holiest of all the biblical feasts. And traditionally, the activities of this solemn day centered around two goats. One was sacrificed, while the other was sent into the wilderness as a scapegoat, symbolically carrying away the sins of the people. As Pastor J.D. continues our series called, The Whole Story, he explains how this ancient practice points to Jesus!

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Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Leviticus was not written to tell you all that you need to do. Leviticus was written to show you all that God was going to do for you.

The effect of reading Leviticus on you should not make you look up in despair and say, Oh my God, look at all the things I got to do for you. It's Oh my God, look at what you've done for me. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. I'm Molly Vidovich and I hope today's message encourages and challenges you. Yom Kippur, also called the Day of Atonement, is the holiest of all the biblical feasts and is celebrated religiously in the Jewish community each year. Traditionally, the activities of this solemn day centered around two goats.

One goat was sacrificed while the other was sent to wander in the wilderness as a scapegoat, symbolically carrying away the sins of the people. Today, Pastor J.D. continues a two-part message called There Will Be Blood, explaining how this ancient practice actually pointed to Jesus. You see, even though we're in the book of Leviticus, Jesus is still coming into focus.

Now, if you missed the first part of this message, remember you can catch up online at jdgreer.com. But now let's get back into our study of Leviticus chapter 16. Here's Pastor J.D. What is it that we learn about guilt and sin, our guilt and our sin, from this chapter?

Here's number one. We learned that our sin is much worse than we imagined. If you died today, do you know absolutely for certain that you'd be good enough for God to let you into heaven? The question behind that question is, what's the standard that God uses to determine who gets in? Leviticus answers that question in a very clear way.

Absolute perfection is what is required. One false move, one unauthorized movement, and you're dead. We always talk about sin like, it's not that bad. We call it mistakes. No, it's not that bad.

I was confused. I'm not as bad as other people. And that's because we have a very man-centered view of sin. Sin is sinful because of who it is against. A sin against an infinite God is infinitely guilty. And what Leviticus shows us is that we are filled with these kinds of sins.

It's in everything we think, it's in everything we say, it's in all that we do. Leviticus even has this category for unknown sins. Things we do are sinful that we don't even know about. Paul says it this way in Romans 3 23, all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The standard we're comparing ourselves to is not that person sitting next to you. The standard you're comparing yourself to is the glory of God. And inside of the glory of God, you fall way short, Leviticus tells you. You and I are so far short that we just fall on our faces in despair because I'm Nadab and you're Abihu and both of us are going to be destroyed in God's presence.

Which leads us to number two. Leviticus shows us that God's grace is greater than we dreamed. It shows us our sin is worse than we imagined, but his grace is greater than we dreamed. Why did God have them use two goats?

Well, one goat would have made the point, right? It was to illustrate two different things God's doing with our sin and he wanted us to make sure that we saw both of them. One goat got slaughtered for our sin showing that the price for our sin had been paid. That was a theological concept called justification. Justification means there literally is no more claim against you, right? You've been justified.

The debt has been settled. The other goat, the one that was sent into the wilderness, illustrates for us the concept of cleansing. God not only pays for our sins, he removes them from us.

Whereas the first goat that was slaughtered shows us that we are forgiven on the basis of a substitute, the second goat shows us that our sins are forgotten and removed from us as far, the psalmist says, as the east is from the west. The psalmist says he's put them into the depths of the sea. The depths of the sea. Corey Timboon used to say, and wherever that deepest part of the sea is that God puts our sins in, he puts a little sign up that says, no fishing allowed.

You're not ever going to get to it. There are some people who say, I feel like my sins are probably too bad. I'm not sure that I can be saved. Did you see verse 16? Whatever, whatever their sins may have been, do you see any conditions in there at all? I know people who say, well, no, but see, I've committed the sin against the Holy Spirit and I can't be forgiven. What Jesus said about the sin of the Holy Spirit in Luke 11 cannot contradict other things the Bible says like this. And the Bible says that whoever comes to Jesus with whatever sin can and will be forgiven. The sin against the Holy Spirit means that you no longer desire forgiveness. If you desire forgiveness, whatever you've done, you can receive that forgiveness. And the fact that you desire that forgiveness means that you haven't committed the sin against the Holy Spirit. When you say I cannot be forgiven, you are not exaggerating the size of your sin. You are shrinking the forgiving power of God. You say, well, maybe God can forgive me, but I can't forgive myself. Now you're saying that your opinion matters more than God's.

Who do you think you are? I get that you feel like your sin is that bad, but don't add to it another sin by shrinking the size of the power of God, saying you can't really do what you said you were going to do. And if God promises to forgive you and he promises to restore you, who are you to exalt your opinion of yourself above God's opinion of you? Do not try to out holy God.

That ain't never going to turn out well. Atonement literally means in English, break the word apart, at one minute. God has made us one with him on this day. God made Israel one with him by satisfying the penalty of their sin and by putting it away forever, following it off a cliff, putting it at the bottom of the sea, making it as far as the East is from the West. And he made us one with him on what God has joined together.

No man can ever put us under. Number three, this is really important. The day was all about Jesus. Well, we've been kind of hitting at that the whole time, but the day was all about Jesus. Did you see the fingerprints of Jesus all through this sacrifice? When you read through the last week of Jesus's life that we call the Passion Week and you do it after reading Leviticus, you will notice that Jesus seems to be going out of his way to stage his own day of atonement.

Listen to this. Just like the high priest, Jesus began to prepare for a week beforehand. That's why we call it the Passion Week. The night before Jesus's sacrifice, he stayed up all night just like the high priest. Except Jesus is not going to be clothed in rich garments like the Jewish high priest was. He's going to be stripped of the only garment he has.

And instead of being cheered on by the people like the high priest was, he's going to be jeered by them and abandoned by nearly everyone he loves. He wasn't bathed in a purifying pool. He was bathed in human spit. When he came before God, he didn't receive words of encouragement.

The father turned his face away. Silent as he stood accused, beaten, mocked and scorned, bowing to the father's will, he took my crown of thorns. He was struck dead in the presence of God even though there was no defilement on him at all because he was wounded for my transgressions and bruised for your iniquities and the price that obtained peace with God was put upon him. On the cross when he died, he cried out as his last words, it is finished. In Greek, literally to tell us die. To tell us die was a common phrase that just meant it's been paid. Archaeologists have found it inscribed on receipts. After somebody paid a debt, they would write across the top to tell us die. In Christ, God has no more claim against our sin.

We have been justified. It would be unjust for God to bring it back up because it's already been paid for. The curtain that separated us from God was a symbol of Jesus' perfect flesh that was torn so that we could enter into God's presence. During the crucifixion, the curtain was literally torn in two. And for the first time in history, the way to God was wide open and whosoever will may come. Jesus' body was the mercy seat where his blood was sprinkled so that we could find forgiveness of sins and enter into God's presence without fear.

By the way, you ever notice this? When the disciples first go to Jesus' tomb after he's been resurrected, there's a little detail in there. It says that there were angels there. How many angels? Two. And where were they?

One at the head, one at the foot. What is he trying to recreate? The mercy seat.

They're not there because they're tired. They're there saying, this is the new Ark of the Covenant. And if you come to this spot right here where the resurrected Jesus, not physically, but if you come there and say, I believe it was done for me, then you will be given forgiveness of sins. In fact, Leviticus 16 says that when Aaron was done with this ritual, he would take off this linen and lay it aside. What was it that Peter and John found in the empty tomb? There was only one thing.

It was that linen. Jesus didn't take it off because he was hot. He took it all. Why did he take it all? He took it off because he was trying to say, it's done. It's this whole day of atonement.

I just finished it. And just like Aaron laid it aside, I'm laying it aside and it's never going to have to happen again. Jesus was the scapegoat who carried away our sins forever into his grave. Jesus went down into the depths of the grave, burying our sin. Three days later, he came out and he left our sins there at the bottom of the sea, as far as the east is from the west. Our sins are not merely covered over.

They are gone forever. The Old Testament prophet Zachariah, who wrote 500 years before Jesus was born. The book of Zachariah is built around a vision that Zachariah has where he sees a high priest whom he calls Yeshua, go into the presence of God. But to Zachariah's horror, it's on the day of atonement. Zachariah, who's very familiar with the whole process, sees that this high priest, about to go into the presence of God and the Holy of Holies, is not dressed in fine linen.

He's covered in human excrement. This was disaster, not only for Yeshua, who certainly would die. It was disaster for all the people of Israel because this moment was the moment that they obtained forgiveness. But just as Zachariah despairs, he hears the voice of the Lord. Zachariah 3 verse 1, he hears the voice of the Lord say to Joshua, Yeshua, the high priest, Yeshua, take off your filthy clothes. See, I've taken away your sin and put rich garments on you.

I will send my servant and remove the sin of this land in a single day. You know what God had given to Zachariah? He'd given Zachariah a vision of what Jesus was going to do one day.

You see, Yeshua is just the Hebrew name for Jesus. It literally says Jesus. That one day Jesus is going to come and he is going to dawn our garments, garments that are covered in the filthy human excrement of sin. And he's going to walk into the presence of the Holy of Holies. And he's going to be struck dead.

And then he's going to take it off. And he's going to hand you and me a clean white linen garment of righteousness and say, you wear this for the rest of eternity. That's why we say the gospel in four words is Jesus in my place. Jesus did not merely die for you as a statement of love for you. Jesus died instead of you. He took your sin. He bore your shame. He rose to life. He defeated your grave.

A love like that the world has never known. People misread the book of Leviticus. They read the book of Leviticus and they say, Oh my God, look at how many laws there are. Leviticus was not written to tell you all that you need to do. Leviticus was written to show you all that God was going to do for you. The effect of reading Leviticus on you should not make you look up in despair and say, Oh my God, look at all the things I got to do for you.

It's, Oh my God, look at what you've done for me. The goal of all Bible teaching is not that I fill up your notebook with new facts God wants you to know or new things that you need to do. And five ways to be a better dad and four ways that uncle JD is going to give you how to handle your job. The Bible is not good advice. The Bible is good news. And you leave with a sense of, Oh my God, look at who you are. Look at what you've done.

Look at the love that you've given to me. And then in response to that, everything changes in your life. You see gospel change happens, not by giving a list of things to do. Gospel change happens when you are overwhelmed with the beauty of what God has done.

And that's what the book of Leviticus is about from verse one to the end of the book. You were listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. I wanted to take a moment to share with you about this month's featured resource. The start of the new year is a great time to reset and refocus. And whether you've walked with God for years or are just starting to explore, the truth is we all need opportunities to grow and deepen our relationship with Him. One of the best ways to do that is by putting God's word into our hearts. Translation, memorizing scripture. This spiritual discipline helps us truly know Him and is a great step in helping us walk with the Lord. This month, we are offering a set of 52 memory verse cards to help you carry God's promises with you each day. We offer this resource every January because memorizing scripture isn't just about growing in knowledge. It's about embracing God's truth and promises and recalling them in times of need. These cards are a practical, intentional way to grow closer to Him. You can request your set with a generous gift of $45 to this ministry.

Call 866-335-5220 or visit jdgrier.com to give. Now let's return to today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Number four, it shows us that all ways do not lead to God. Always don't lead to God. Did you notice how God set the whole thing up? You get this really terrible story about Nadab and Abihu and then God says, hey, tell your brother Aaron, man, he's not just to walk in any way he chooses into the most holy place or else he's going to die.

It's really popular for people today to say, well, you know, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what way you try to get to God, as long as you're sincere, as long as you're good, as long as you love people, not hurt anybody. Nadab and Abihu were sincere. And if you were to say to the people of Israel right after that situation where they die, you know, all paths really lead to the same God, I think Aaron would say, we got two dead men here that would say the opposite. All ways don't lead equally to God.

My sons were very sincere, but it didn't come in the way that was prescribed. The whole chapter declares, there's one way to come to God and God gives you that way. And if you're going to come to him, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the father except by me. Do not try to enter the presence of God in any other way, because it's not about how you reach out to God with whatever fire you want to present before him. Salvation is about God's reach to you and you receive it for what it is. Number five, it shows us that you have to accept the atonement for yourself. You got to accept it for yourself.

This might be my favorite point, not all of them. Even though full atonement has been made by Jesus, even though full atonement was made by the high priest, you had to individually appropriate it. Verse 29, this is to be a lasting ordinance for you. On the 10th day of the seventh month, you must deny yourselves and not do any work. Sabbath, that's what he's talking about. You must go into a Sabbath, whether native born or whether you're a foreigner residing among you, because on this day Yom Kippur, atonement will be made for you to cleanse you. Then, and only then before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins.

This is such a beautiful picture. To reap the benefits of the day of the atonement, you had to do something. The benefits of the day of the atonement, the sacrifice the high priest offered, the benefits were not conferred on you automatically. You had to do something. What was that something you had to do?

Pay a lot of money, say enough prayers. You observed the Sabbath. And what was observing the Sabbath? Doing nothing.

You had to consciously do nothing. The way that you received the work of the atonement was by doing nothing and resting in what God had already done. That's what we call salvation by faith alone. It is the acknowledgement that Jesus has done it all and I cease trying to earn my way before God. And I say, you've done it all. And I rest in what you've done. And God takes my rest. God takes my faith. And He counts it as righteousness.

There are many of us who are not walking. We're not going to enter eternity, not because we're too guilty, not because we're not good enough, simply because we simply refuse to believe. We simply refuse to believe that Jesus did what He said He did and He paid it all. Number six, for the rest of your life, you're going to respond to this great sacrifice. For the rest of your life, you're going to respond to this great sacrifice. Commentators point out that the order of events in this chapter is incredibly significant. It begins with what the high priest does for the people. 28 verses of him climbing this mountain, making atonement for the people.

And only then does it cross that crest and begin to show Israel how they are to live in response. Y'all, that is such a common pattern in the Bible. God's work of salvation comes first.

Our obedience comes as a response. In other words, good works don't lead up to salvation. Good works flow from salvation.

And that makes all the difference. Martin Luther was the Catholic monk who rediscovered this truth. And he began to say, salvation is a free gift that God offers to those who will just rest in it, to those who will receive it. And the church of his days said, Martin, you can't go around telling people. You can't go around telling people that that salvation is a free gift, because they'll lose all their motivation to obey God.

And he said, quite the contrary. He said, the only reason they obey God now is because you threaten them with hell. He says, that's not obedience to God, that's fear of God. God wants people to obey Him, not because they fear Him, but because they love Him. He's not just after obedience.

He's after a whole new kind of obedience. An obedience that grows out of desire. An obedience where you seek God, not because you're afraid of hell, but because you crave God.

An obedience where you love righteousness and therefore you do righteousness. What if you saw your entire Christian life as a response to the gospel? What if you saw everything you did as a response to what Jesus had done for you on the day of atonement?

What would your life look like? Because the book of Hebrews, which is the book in the New Testament that explains pretty much everything I've been saying to you right now, that all these sacrifices were about this one sacrifice. The book of Hebrews ends, chapter 13, by suddenly switching and talking about sacrifices we offer to God. It's like all these sacrifices in the Old Testament, they're all done. And then it says, you're going to offer to God, listen to this, a sacrifice of praise.

That's an incredibly important way to say that. It's not a sacrifice in order to please God, in order to be saved. It's a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise because I have been saved. And what the writer of Hebrews says is, what comes out of your mouth in worship ought to be a reflection of the price that Jesus paid for your sin. Let me ask you, your worship this morning, was it a good reflection of the price Jesus paid to save your soul from hell?

I'm just going to tell you, hands in your pocket, bored look on your face, not the right response. That just shows me that you've never really understood how sinful you were and how far Jesus reached to save you. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say, he says, how you share your things, what you do with your money, ought to be a reflection, ought to be a statement about the price you realize that Jesus paid for you. Why is it that people in this church sacrificially give their money? Is it because they think that giving a little more money is going to make God happier with them?

No. God has given us full and complete acceptance in Jesus. It's because we realize where we were and how much Jesus gave to save us. Why do people leave this church and go live in places like the Sudan and the Sudan or Indonesia or India or Afghanistan? Is it because they don't like America? Is it because they want to be away from their parents? Is it because they get the sense of adventure and they just go have to live over there?

No. It's because they realize how far Jesus came to save them and there are people in Afghanistan and Sudan and Indonesia who've never heard about him. And so they say, if this is how far Jesus came to save me, there's nowhere on planet earth I can go that is nearly as far as the price that he paid and the extent that he traveled so that he could save me. And I just want to respond.

I just want to respond and say, as you've been to me, I'll be to others. Why is it that some of us reach out to people that are around us and try to talk to them about Jesus? Is it because we're extroverts? Is it because we like religious controversy and we're just looking to engage in debates in random places?

No. That is not the reason that we do it. The reason we do it is because we know that that Jesus died for that person. And we know that we were wandering away from God when Jesus got ahold of us. And so we want to be to other people the way that Jesus was to us. You say, well, I don't like, it just makes me feel awkward.

Of course it makes you feel awkward. And I don't mean to be heavy handed here, but I imagine being stripped naked and crucified felt a little awkward too. But if that's what Jesus did to save me, then it means that I'm probably going to need to tell that person in my life that Jesus died for them. And if this was the price that was paid, then that's certainly a way that I can respond. You see, there's really two questions that the book of Leviticus presents to you.

Here they are. Number one, have you received the free salvation that God has offered to you? It's not automatically yours.

What do you have to do to get it? You rest in what Jesus has said he's done. Here at the Summit Church, we compare it to sitting down in a chair. Let the chair represent the fact that Jesus paid for your sins. You can be around the chair. You can know where the chair is. But you have to transfer the weight of your body onto the chair. Jesus died for your sins.

That's true. Have you ever transferred your hope for eternity into what he has accomplished for you? Because if not, you could do it right now. You could say, Jesus, I receive it. I believe it. I surrender to you as Lord. And I receive you as Savior. Right now, you're going to sit down. Sit down. You're going to Sabbath rest in what Jesus has done.

If you've never done that, I would invite you to do it right now. The second question that Leviticus presents to you is simply this. Are you responding appropriately to the gospel? Is how you spend your money, is it a good reflection of what Jesus did for you? Is the zeal with which you live, is the focus of your life a good reflection of the price you believe Jesus paid for sin? I urge you, therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, that you present your lives a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God. This is your reasonable act of worship. Don't be conformed to this world. Don't listen to everybody saying it's all about the American dream and it's all about acquiring stuff.

No, don't do that. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind and the message of what Jesus has done, because then you'll begin to live out that perfect and acceptable will of God. What would your life look like if you lived each day responding to what Jesus did on the cross? That's something to ponder today. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. So, JD, all month, we've talked about the importance of scripture memory, and sometimes we even joke about how it can seem like an activity for kids, but why is it still important for us as adults to keep up the practice?

Well, actually, Molly, let me start with the kids thing. I mean, my kids do memorize a lot of scripture. They do it at their school, the Awana program here. I always tell them that at the time that you most need scripture, a time of temptation, a time of doubt, usually you don't have a Bible you can run to and try to look stuff up. What the Holy Spirit does is He draws on the resources that you've hidden in your heart.

And so I encourage them. I use these scripture memory cards with my kids. On a previous episode, I explained that I actually pass these cards out and we will go over them as a family.

We'll read it, we'll explain it, we'll apply it. A lot of times we memorize these verses together. And of course, as you become an adult, you don't lose the need for scripture memory.

If anything, it increases. This is a tool that, especially as you begin the year, it's very doable. It's kind of one verse a week that you can take some of these core verses, read over them, man, it'll transform your life if you will get scripture in your heart. So if you haven't done it yet, reach out to us. We get these brand new Summit Life scripture memory cards.

You can secure your set today at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Bidevich. Join Pastor JD Thursday as he explains the purpose and meaning behind the Old Testament rules and regulations. We'll see you then right here on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program is produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-22 10:32:21 / 2025-01-22 10:43:31 / 11

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