Good morning. You know what today is? It's a day to remind ourselves to be reconciled with God. Now last week, we had the blasting of the trumpets. Yesterday was the Day of Atonement, the Sabbath of Sabbath, as it's oftentimes called. And so we're gonna talk about the Day of Atonement. We talked about Yom Teruah last week, Yom Kippur today. So let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning and for the opportunity we have to reflect on the Day of Atonement, a day of reconciling with you, our calling as your ambassadors to reach the world and reconcile others to you. Father, we thank you for committing to us the ministry of reconciliation and giving us the word of reconciliation. We pray to that end. that you would draw us closer to you in that reconciliation spirit. And Father, to put that clear and compelling vision in our hearts to get into the world, to fulfill the great commission, to go teach, baptize and teach and reconcile others with you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, this is the day of Yom Kippur yesterday, but it's the season. In the Jewish calendar, this is the last harvest of the year, the seventh month, which seven is, I'll point out in a little bit, a number of completion. It completes the cycles of harvest that occur during the year. But let me ask you a question, first of all. Have you ever wondered why it's so difficult to make sense of the Feast when you read through the Old Testament? Has anyone ever tried to do that, do a study of the Feast? It is a little challenging. I've been working on it for several years. Now, if you try to read the books of Numbers and the books of Leviticus, where there is a description of the feast, there's a lot of details to keep track of, and that's what makes it challenging. But in addition to that, there are the Jewish traditions that have been added to their calendar, like Rosh Hashanah, which adds confusion. Because Rosh Hashanah, if you look for it in the Bible, and that's what we hear most often, you're not going to find it. That was added to the Jewish calendar later as a holy day. But it wasn't the holy day God gave, and Rosh Hashanah kicks off the new year in the secular Jewish calendar. This is the new year, happy new year. But God's calendar in the Bible, this is the seventh month. We're at the end of the year, not the beginning of the year. And so that just ends to confusion. Let's have our next slide, please. The biblical calendar is very simple and straightforward. When you finally get it drawn out and mapped out on a calendar, it's a lunar calendar of 12 months, and that makes it easy. Now, they do use a leap adjustment. I didn't say a leap day. You know why? Because they use a leap month. And so that adjusts their calendars like we do with leap day in the leap year. Keeping the calendar aligned with the appropriate seasons is very important because it helps to keep track when to celebrate the three seasons of harvest. If your calendar was getting out of season, you wouldn't have anything to eventually celebrate with for a harvest. And that's really what God's calendar is all about, harvesting. There's three feasts that God requires all men over the age of 18 to attend in Jerusalem. These feasts were timed with the three harvest seasons of spring, summer, and fall. The spring feast was the feast of unleavened bread. Now that's the new year, that's when the new year begins, when you have your first feast. The summer feast was the Feast of Weeks, which we know as Pentecost. And the fall feast was the Feast of Ingathering, which was appropriate. It's an appropriate name because the ingathering is drawing in the harvest, in this particular case, with the message in God's calendar. It's the final harvest of souls on Earth. The spring feast kicks off the new year in the first month named Nisan. On the 10th day of Nisan, the Passover lamb that was going to be used for sacrifice was selected and then brought into the home to live with the family for the next four days. And then on the 14th day of Nisan, the Passover was observed. Passover initiates the feast of unleavened bread on the 15th day of the month Nisan. And that lasts for seven days, but that's followed immediately by the first Sunday for the first fruits, fruit harvest. And that's the resurrection day that we celebrate. The summer feast is known as Pentecost. is also known as the Feast of Weeks. Now I'm not sure how well you can see that up there. I put all the words up there on the board, but I can make this available to you in print if you want to see that. And I will have a, I'll have this on a podcast as well that I started this morning. So that will be available to you. On the 14th day, as I said, you've got Passover. And then on the 15th day, it kicks off the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then you have the first Sunday following, which is going to be the first fruit Sunday. The summer feast, known as Pentecost, this, for the church, is very significant. Because what happened on the day of Pentecost after Christ was raised from the dead? Man, that kicked off the Great Commission and that's what the church has been engaged in ever since. And what is the Great Commission all about? The harvest. Harvesting souls in for Christ. The Great Commission is go teach, baptize, and teach. And so we have this celebration during the summer in the second harvest of the year, Pentecost. And then we're supposed to train others to do likewise, so this harvesting continues on. That's really the spirit of the day of Pentecost. The fall festival is the feast of ingathering, which is preceded by the day of blasting, or Yom Terorah, also known as the day of trumpets. And those trumpets were being blasted all over Israel by Brother Gary, who was it? What were the names of those people that were blasting those trumpets? I think it was you that took note of that last week. It's the master blasters. And then following the blasting of the trumpets, you have Yom Kippur, which is the Day of Atonement, which shows us the message of God is the trumpets are blowing, hey, it's time to wake up, it's time to repent, get right with God. And what is the Day of Atonement all about? Having your sins atoned for, reconciling with God. It's a day of hope, a day of remembering, I need to be right with God. and then all will be well forevermore. So the Fall Feast is very important and really wraps up the year for the harvest. Now yesterday was the Day of Atonement, which started Friday evening at 6 o'clock and ended yesterday at 6 p.m. It was the 10th day of the month of Tishri, which is the seventh month of the biblical year. So we have then our context. Let me mention also on this calendar, in God's lunar calendar, as described in the Bible, this is the seventh month of the year known as Tishri. That means the full moon has appeared seven times since the Passover took place. In the three harvest seasons, there have been seven holy days over the past seven months. Three holy days in the spring, one holy day in the summer, and three more holy days in the fall. Each month of the biblical calendar begins with the sighting of a new moon. And that's what determines when the month of Tishri and the trumpets begin to blow. At the seventh sighting of the moon in the calendar, the trumpets would go throughout Israel and announce the seventh month is here. The seventh month completes the harvest and the seven holy days. of the year. There's a completion of the seven holy days and the seven months. Next slide, please. Now, in Exodus chapter 23, verse 16, it says, in the feast of harvest, the first fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field. Now, I read this verse because notice the reference to the end of the year. God said, this is the end of the year. It's not the beginning of the year. It's the fall harvest. It's the last harvest of the year. And by the way, something that's very interesting to think about is that the first fruits of the season for each of the three seasons, you always offer up the first fruits. And I got to thinking about that because Revelation chapter 20 verse 6 says something very interesting. Some of you may already know what this is. It says, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. And so at the beginning of every harvest, we have the first fruits being harvested, representing the first resurrection in which you will be blessed. Next slide, please. There's three holy days of Tishri. It's during this seventh month, the final harvest of the year is what takes place. That day of atonement occurs. The trumpets were blown on day one. The Day of Atonement is observed on the 10th day, and then the Feast of Ingathering begins on the 15th day and continues for the next seven days. Hey, that's like the Passover started on Nisan 15, didn't it? You know what they have in common? The full moon. The full shining glory of the sun on the moon. on the 15th, because it's the middle of the month there. And it continues for seven days. Where they're different is the eighth day, in this case of this month, there's a Sabbath. Whereas during the Passover, the Sabbath was on the seventh day. Now, that brings attention to the eighth day. The eighth day Sabbath is very significant. Because Sabbath days are usually on what day? It's on the seventh of something. For example, the seventh day of every week, we observe the Sabbath. The first day of the seventh month of the year was a Sabbath. The first day of the seventh holy day of the year was a Sabbath. What is the seventh? What is the beginning of the seventh holy day of the year? Now, I'm just asking the question just to help get this in mind. It is the last holy day of the year, which would be the feast of ingathering. It starts out with a Sabbath day, marking a day of rest to kick off the final holiday or holy day. And whereas seven, the number seven reminds us there's a completion of something, the eighth day represents the kickoff of a new beginning of rest. Just as we think about in the new heavens, the new earth, entering into a permanent rest with God in the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that something? So whereas the Sabbath ended the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which represents the sacrifice of Christ, the holiness, the unleavened bread, sinlessness of Christ, the Passover lamb, it is done. We're at rest because of the work that Christ finished. But in the fall, with the Feast of Ingathering, There is the Sabbath day on the eighth day, after the completion of the harvest, and that kicks off the whole new beginning of permanent rest. Next slide, please. In Leviticus, and I'll have these slides available for you later so you can see them easier, but Leviticus chapter 23, verses 26 through 30 say this. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying also, on the tenth day of this seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement. It shall be an holy convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Now, if you're sort of listening to this and watching, there's four points up there that we're going to extract out of this passage. And then he goes on and says, and ye shall do no work in that same day, for it is a day of atonement to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. Yesterday, which was observed, if it was observed as a day of atonement, was to be a day of rest and no work done. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day. Let's take a pause here. This is very severe. This was death penalty. If you were not afflicted, So let's read that sentence again. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And number two, this next sentence. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. Whoa. Think again. That's serious business, just because you're not afflicted. And affliction means to be humble. If any soul that's not humble and any soul that does work shall die. The Day of Atonement is called The Sabbath of Sabbath, just to elevate its significance and sacredness in the Jewish tradition. It's a day thought of by the Jews as the last chance to be right with God. And that's what the atonement is all about, reconciliation with God. Just as the fall harvest is the last harvest of the year, there will be a last harvest of souls in the last days. But we ought to clarify here, shouldn't we, because we know that there is a last day for every soul regardless of what season and what day it is. Every soul has a last day when you cross over that line and God says, hey, your soul is required of you this day. Now Leviticus chapter 23, going back to that passage in 28 through 30, indicates four very important points that I've got listed up on the screen here. First, it's a holy convocation. And that means that it's a day of sacred significance when Israel would gather together to worship God. Number two, affliction was required. saying, whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people." Affliction means to be humble. Specifically here, humility before God. The connection between affliction and humility can be understood when we think about the suffering, the state of suffering or being distressed and suffering pain, which brings a humble acknowledgment, boy, things are out of control here. I'm not in control of my life. There's things that I, there's nothing I can do about. That's humbling experience right there. In other words, it identifies our limitations and ultimately our dependency on God. When a crisis comes into your life, what do you do? You begin to pray, God help me. Coming to God in humility is essential for salvation. So any soul not afflicted was immediately cut off. Why? Because it represents if you don't come to God humbly, there is no hope for you. You will die in your sins. And you have to be humble in order to come before God and experience salvation. Number three, the Day of Atonement was about making an atonement for you before the Lord your God. Making an atonement. Atoning for sins with the offering of a sacrifice is required in order to be reconciled with God. Jesus offered himself. He was the offering to pay for our sins so we could be forgiven and reconciled with him. Without an atonement offering, there would be no reconciliation. Number four, the day of atonement was a Sabbath day. Now, earlier I brought attention to the two. You gotta be afflicted and you can't be working on that day. Now some of you might be already thinking ahead here why this is such a severe penalty if you are working on that day of Sabbath. It says, ye shall do no work in that same day for it's the day of atonement. No work on the part of sinners is acceptable for atonement. This point of the message in the Day of Atonement is so important that God said, whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. The reason for that severity, same as I already mentioned with affliction, is because the Sabbath commemorates the sufficiency of God's work and our total dependence on him for salvation. Salvation is by the work and grace of God. We have no part in it. We are the benefactors. And as benefactors, we must come humbly before God, confessing our sins and our unworthiness and our insufficiency compared to his sufficiency, and surrender to him in need of his help. Salvation is not a time to come seeking for a reward or seeking God's approval for something that you've done. Lord, look what I've done. So the Day of Atonement emphasizes this. It's a time to confess that you are a sinner and unworthy of salvation. It's a time to ask God to forgive you, not to reward you for what you've done. So the Sabbath day commemorates the rest that we find in God without works. And that's the significance of the Sabbath. It's a time to commemorate the completion of God's work in which he too is at rest, just as he rested on the seventh day of creation. To work on the day of atonement, to work on the day of the Sabbath would corrupt the gospel message that is built in to God's calendar here. To work on that day memorializes the rest and grace of God to not be sufficient. That's what it would mean if work was done. So the seriousness of this message is what made the offense of not observing the Sabbath a capital offense punishable by death. There's a couple of verses here to wrap up. Romans chapter three, verses 24 through 28 explain the problem with works. That is, I'm going to try to do good to God. I'm going to try to please God. I'm going to try to demonstrate that I'm worthy to be saved by His grace. Wait. Romans 11, 6 says it's got to be one or the other. It's either works or grace. It's all one or the other. It can't be both. So that's not a correct way of thinking and yet that's how most people think about being right with God. I gotta show him that at least if I'm not worthy, I'm sincere enough and here I'm going to demonstrate by my works and efforts. And God will be pleased and reward me with his grace. Wait, grace doesn't mean reward. Grace is given because you don't deserve it, you didn't earn it, it's not a reward. So you can't. Put that together in a sentence. So Romans 3, 24 begins, being justified freely by his grace doesn't cost you a thing. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, a place of mercy for us where we find hope. through faith in his blood, that's his sacrifice, what was offered for atonement, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins, payment in full, that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, because you see, as Paul began in Romans chapter one, It's all about God. It's all about righteousness. If you're not as good as God, you're not going to heaven. And that might sound shocking to you, but the fact is, if God does not impute his righteousness to you, you are not qualified to go to heaven. You won't be there because there's no sin in heaven. And anything less than the righteousness of God is sin. You might be thinking, well, nobody can do that. That's right. And that's why salvation is without works. It's by the grace and power and miracle of God. But Paul goes on and says, to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude, look at this statement, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. And how many times have I heard people tell me from the Church of Christ and other groups who are legalists, you're saved by works and faith. And Romans chapter 328 says, we conclude a man is justified by faith without, without the deeds of the law. Galatians 2 16 states, knowing that a man is justified by, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus. And look, the difference between faith and law is this. Faith is what you are trying to achieve and meet the standards, the criteria to be good enough. Faith is promise of God. Why? Because he reveals that promise to us that, hey, I need God. That's promise, not works. It's based on what he reveals that you need to rely on. You need to rely on him, not yourself and the law, but Christ in faith. There's your contrast. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. If you're not justified by works of the law, then that means you're going to die in your sins. You're not going to heaven. You want to get away. You want to flee from that doctrine of works by the law. You want to flee legalism. Romans chapter 8 verse 3 also declares, for what the law could not do, the law couldn't do it. It failed in that it was weak through the flesh. Now, there's nothing wrong with the law. The law is perfect and good. But what the law could not do was save us. It condemns us, it doesn't save us. It shows us why we're not good enough to go to heaven, not how to be good enough to go to heaven. It shows us the miracle that has to take place in our life, because we can't measure up. Oh, we can't measure up. Does that verse come to your mind? Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and come. Short! I don't measure up. I can't reach the standard of God. So I asked one preacher lady over here I met on campus one day. Yep, preacher lady. She was sanctified and didn't sin anymore. And I was asking the Lord in my conversation with her, Lord, how can I reach this woman? Because I wasn't convincing her that she's not good enough. And the Lord put this in my mind, the righteousness of God. So I asked her, are you saying you're as good as God? Well, she doesn't sin and she's sanctified, but she couldn't go that far with those words, condemned. That's why I love this diamond presentation that we use in the five days of evangelism. It puts it spot on because you don't have to debate with people why they're sinners or that they're not good enough. Oh, yes, I am. No, you're not. Well, I'm just as good as everyone else. Well, that's bad. Well, it's not that bad. I'll still get to heaven. No, you're not. Yes, you see that debate. Forget that debate. Go to the righteousness of God. And when you say, are you as good as God? Well, I'm good. I'm good enough. But man, I'm not that good enough. That's how good you have to be to go to heaven. If you're not that good, you're in big trouble. Yeah, but no one can be that good. That's the point. It's gonna take a miracle to get into heaven. It's gonna take a miracle of God's work in your life or you are doomed forever. So for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, because we can't do it. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, he was made sin for us. He was made just like us, with a human body filled with a sin and carnality by nature. And yet 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, for he hath made him to be sin for us, just like it says here, who knew no sin. what we could not do through the weakness of our flesh, God indwelled in human flesh, brought it under control, and made it do what was right. He miraculously controlled the human flesh and the sin nature and forced it to do that which the law required, making him a perfect, sinless lamb of sacrifice. And for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Because works of the law can't justify you in the eyes of God, you must not try to offer your works as an atonement for your sins. And for that reason, the day of atonement begins and is a day of Sabbath. And anyone who works on the Day of Atonement was worthy of death, because the wages of sin is death, and works will lead to death. If you rely on your works, you will die, and so it was on the Day of Atonement. Those who worked on the Day of Atonement would die, just as God said, and this was a day to proclaim the sufficiency of God's work and the dependency of man on God. This is the message of the Day of Atonement. Turn to God for salvation and let him save you miraculously by his grace. Trust in his works and his offering and not your own. Last slide, please. Likewise, the Day of Atonement reminds us about our salvation. The Day of Salvation, whatever that day should be, and it ought to be today. The Bible says today is the Day of Salvation. We should not wait till it's too late. And that is the message of the seventh month of the final harvest of the year. It's coming to an end. There is a last harvest. Don't miss out. As 2 Corinthians 5, 18 through 20 reminds us about this whole principle, this whole message of reconciliation, day of atonement. Two things go on. Two things to remember. He says, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us. That's number one. We need to be reconciled to God. Reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That's number two. Go out and reconcile others. Be reconciled yourself with God and reconcile others with God. He says, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's head, be ye reconciled to God. And for that, the Day of Atonement memorializes reconciliation with God by grace and not works. Amen? All right, let's all stand.