“At-one-ment” Yom Kippur Morning 5784

0:00 Today is the most solemn day of the year on the Jewish calendar. And as such, I would like to start my message with a joke. Em, Goldstein was on his way to Yom Kippur morning service, and em is running late. He's trying to get there and he's driving down 6 35 and there's traffic and he's getting a little upset and he says, I'm gonna be late. There's gonna be no parking spots.

0:46 And he pulls into the synagogue and sure enough, there's no parking spots. And he drives around the synagogue trying to find a spot. Even one of those ones where it's not technically illegal, but it's also not legal to park. But he can't even find one of those spots. He continues to drive around. He says, Lord, it's Yom Kippur, please, please help me find a spot. And just then he turns the corner and he sees a car backing out. Nobody ever explains why there's a car leaving during yo Kippur, but anyways, there's a car backing out. And he says,

1:35 ha, I found one. He says, Lord, nevermind. I got it. You see, the Lord provides for us in ways that we may not recognize, and unfortunately we take credit for them. I think I told this story last year or the year before, uh, but I'm going to tell it again. I, I just felt this was the way that we were going to go today on Yom Kippur. I think it was in 2002, I was off at college.

2:21 I was in another state, another city. In fact, I, I, at, at my, at that point, I don't think there was even a Messianic congregation near me. There was a synagogue though. And while I was there at college, I thought, I'm an adult. I can make whatever choice I want to make. I don't know if any of you have, have gone through moments like this. I'm an adult. I'm going to make the choice that I want to make today. So on Yo Kippur, that year, I decided that I was going to go flying because I was in flight school.

3:12 So I took a training flight. And at that point in my training, it was, I think it was only my fifth flight ever. And we were learning how to do touch and go landings. So we go to this airport and there was the, the flight instructor, myself and another student we had, we went in pairs. So we would take one flight out would be one student, and the flight back would be the other student. So the flight out is my leg. I just wanna remind you, it's on Yom Kippur. And I'm flying, I'm doing great.

3:57 Fantastic job being a pilot. So good that I didn't really need any more instruction. So I'm there. I know how to land the airplane. Mind you, I've never done, I've done full stop landings, but I've never done what is called a touch and go, which is where you land and then you take back off. And I land. I also at this point have never really done what, what is known as a crosswind landing, which is where you have a wind that comes at you from the side. Just so happens that day that there's a little bit of wind coming from the side. I come in, I land,

4:44 I'm doing all right, I'm in the middle of the runway. You know, unlike cars with airplanes, you, you let, you want the stripe to run right in the middle of the airplane, not on either side. So I'm, I'm doing great. I'm right in the middle of the runway and my instructor says, okay, now what I want you to do is add power so that we take back off By now the i I have not corrected for any wind that is coming from a direction, and the airplane is beginning to drift slowly, but I'm no longer on the middle of the runway.

5:30 I'm more like three quarters to one side. And I begin to add the power and I continue to drift. And the instructor's starting to get nervous because I'm going slow and I'm drifting. And he goes, pull up, pull up. And it's not the, it's not the right time yet. We're not going fast enough, but I'm, I'm still going. I've got the full power in. And so I pull up and right then I hear, and he goes, pulls the power out. And then I hear two noises that you don't necessarily want to hear while you're flying an airplane. So I look at him, I'm like, what am I,

6:17 I don't know what I'm doing, what's going on? All of a sudden, I don't know what I'm doing. And it's now the instructor's fault. And, and he goes, well, you didn't correct for both the, the wind. And also what happens with the airplane when you add the power back in. And we just hit two runway lights, One with the tail, with the elevator, and one with the landing gear. So we, we pull off, we, we get out, we go look at it, and um, sure enough, those runway lights did a number on the airplane. And I look at it and I'm like, can we, can we fly back?

7:06 And he goes, Nope. Now, I want you to remember it's Y Kippur. We're supposed to fast on Yom Kippur. I, I think I may have eaten that morning. I can't remember that. But now we're stuck at an airport that there's no place for food. And we just so happen to be, it's about an hour and a half drive from our home base. So we call the mechanics. The mechanics have to file with the f a a for a special ferry permit to pr to fly the airplane. But it has to be one of them who flies the airplane.

7:55 So they have to drive out and pick us up. But in order to do all that, it takes a couple hours and like three hours later they show up, we load into the car, we leave the mechanic 'cause he's gonna fly it back, And we drive back and it's another about hour and a half drive back. And I realized by the time I got back it's dinner time and I didn't eat lunch. And I'm thinking to myself, man, I'm really hungry. And I get back and, and as I'm reflecting about the day, I recall that it's Yom Kippur

8:42 and that on Yom Kippur, there are certain things that we don't do. And I learned that day that for at least me, flying was one of those things I don't do. Because even if I didn't want to fast, I ended up fasting and I had what is called an aircraft accident or incident report that thankfully ended up not on my record because I was a student and it ended up on my instructor's record. But anyways, but uh, it, it didn't really, i it, it went away after a little bit. But all of that to say in my own life, what I took away from this is, number one,

9:32 I didn't miss another Yom Kippur service. But number two, what I learned was that we need to always be aware of our course, what is causing us to deviate and make corrections to stay on the path. Jonathan today read Leviticus chapter 16, which is the chapter that describes all of the regulations regarding Yom Kippur, what the high priest had to do,

10:19 what the people had to do, all of everything. And so in our lives, as we are walking our paths, as it's inevitable that we deviate from the way that the Lord has set before us, and when we deviate, it's important for us to recognize it and to make corrections because we are now off course. Leviticus 16, among other passages throughout the, to and throughout the scriptures is one of the ways by which we recognize that we've deviated and also we make the corrections to come back.

11:08 In Leviticus 16, it says that Aaron is to confess the sins of the people over the goats. You see, confession of sin is a recognition that we have deviated from the path. And in fact, confession is the beginning of the correction back. It's not the end, but it is the beginning. In fact, maybe I can go one step further and say, if you don't confess your sins, I doubt you're coming back to this correct path. Even if you think you are, Because confession is that important. You see it throughout scripture. I don't mean going into a booth with a semi-permeable,

11:58 uh, window in between you saying, forgive me Father, for I have sinned. I mean, Lord, I did this. And then sometimes I'm just going to be bluntly honest with you. Sometimes the Lord says, yeah, you didn't do that to me. You did that to so and so. You need to go to them. And it's at that point when it becomes even more difficult for us, it's really interesting that we have way more difficulty repenting to one another than we do to the Lord, When in fact is the Lord who holds our eternal destiny in his hands. Avner Bosky wrote in his newsletter this week, Dr. Lewis Goldberg, a former professor of Jewish studies at Moody Bible Institute,

12:45 a dear friend now with the Lord, love to stress that the heart of the sacrificial system in the mosaic covenant was something he called the exchange of life principle. When the high priest would lay his hands on the live sacrificial animal, the sins of the guilty sacrifice, or would as it were, go into the innocent animal and the life of the innocent animal would be accredited to the one who was laying his hands on the sheep or the goat, thus granting him atonement as it is written in Leviticus one, four. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering so that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf.

13:36 When there's a deviation from the course that the Lord has set before us, It requires a way to be made to come back into relationship with him. It doesn't just start in Leviticus. You can go all the way back to the beginning of Genesis to creation with Adam and Eve. And when they deviate from the course, a way has to be made for them to come back into relationship with the Lord if you've never noticed it before. They cover themselves with leaves and the Lord doesn't find it acceptable. In fact, what he does, you have to, you have to discern this through what happens. But what he does is he sacrifices an animal on their behalf and he covers

14:24 them with animal skin. It's the first sacrificial, a, a atonement of sacrifice that's noted in scripture, and it's, it allows them to come back into relationship with him, but there's still consequences for their deviation. So when after we've recognized that there's been a deviation in our lives, we have to take necessary correction, the Torah, and in particular, the Book of Leviticus presents a solution to a life that deviates from God's intended direction. The blood from a sacrificial offering serves as a substitute

15:11 for one's own blood. In Leviticus 16, this is the procedure for Yom Kippur. A bull is required as the sin offering for the high priest in order for the high priest to enter into the holy place on Yom Kippur and then offer a goat on behalf of the sins of the people. I want to make a note here. There's a bull for the sins of the high priest, but it's just a little goat for the sins of all of the people. So often we think everyone else's sin is greater than our own, but if we take this principle that is laid out here,

15:58 we should always look at our own sin as the greatest that we encounter. It took a bull to atone for Aaron and the following, high priest's sin these offerings, both the bull and the goat make atonement for the high priest and for the people of Israel. Well, we just had a discussion with the children about what is atonement. Atonement is the reconciliation in this case between God and man and also his people. In Leviticus 16, reconciliation happens and a relationship where there has been a

16:45 break In the relationship. In other words, some action has per precipitate, has caused, has caused a break in the relationship. And that break in the relationship brings distance in between the two. In the case of the high priest, uh, excuse me, when atonement is made, it brings the separated parties back together. Thus we have, I know that my dad has said this before, and many you've heard this many a times on the Day of Atonement,

17:30 when you bring the two parties back together, the two become at one meant. In other words, the two become back into a singular relationship. So atonement brings us back together, uh, in particular in this case between us and the Lord. Therefore, it's recognized that atonement is the covering and the removal of the sin action that originally began, the separating of the paths and the case of the high priests and the people of Israel, the sacrifices named a bull and a goat. Actually in this, in this passage, we have two goats that will bring the high priests and the people back into

18:16 relationship with the God of Israel. It is on Yom Kippur when atonement is made for the entire nation of Israel. But before atonement being can be made for the entire nation, atonement has to be made for Aaron or whatever high priest is in office at that point. And Aaron must make atonement for himself before he can intercede on behalf of others, namely the people of Israel. It's interesting to note that if Yom Kippur serves as an atonement day for Israel, that just four days later Israel begins to intercede on behalf of the entire nations of the earth by offering 70 bulls. But first,

19:05 Israel has to be atoned, just like Aaron has to be atoned before he can come in on behalf of Israel. Israel has to be atoned before she can come on behalf of all of the nations and so on. Kote, we'll talk about this probably a little bit more in Shabbat, but on Suko, 70 bulls get end up, end up getting offered on behalf of the 70 nations of the earth. So modern practice, what do we do today? Do we offer up bulls and goats? I don't think so. Maybe some. They do somewhere, but not anywhere that I know of and not anywhere that's probably kosher.

19:57 We don't offer up sins, uh, uh, offer up bulls and goats anymore on behalf of sins. We now pray. We ask the Lord for forgiveness. We di i it's also scriptural, but we deny ourselves and that's interpreted as meaning. Uh, we fast, we, well, there's, there's several different definitions of denying yourself. You can go look those up on what you're supposed to be fasting from, but it's not just food. You, you, there's tradition, uh, informs us of several other areas in our lives, uh, from which we fast. But what we do is we now we say the aka the AKA helps us identify areas in our lives where we may have sinned. And sometimes it's an important thing because we are sometimes unaware

20:46 of areas in our lives where we sin until it's brought to our attention. That's why I said it last night. I didn't say it today, but I probably should have. That's why when we're reading through the, it's important to ask the Holy Spirit to ask the Lord to reveal within us if there's anything that we have missed. Because if I can be very blunt, we are often blind to our own sins. We're not very blind to other people's sins. In fact, we get laser focused on other people's sins and maybe that's what blinds us to our own. But Yeshua says, remove the log in your own eye before you remove the speck

21:34 in your brothers. So let us ask the Lord to identify areas in our lives of sin. And this is, this is one of the functions of the, if we allow the Lord to speak to us through it and through this we confess our sins. But even when we confess our sins and when we deny ourselves on Y Kippur, is that what makes atonement for us? Is that sufficient? Is it enough for me to fast, to not eat, to not drink, to, to forego coffee, to forego anything and everything that makes me a better person?

22:22 Brisket, for instance, sorry, it we're past the first 12 hours of the fast and now it's between now and about four 30 where it gets real. So I'll stop mentioning food, don't worry. But if we fast and if we deny ourselves and if we confess our sins, is that enough for atonement? No, it's not because God's word, if I, let me, let me rephrase that. God spoke to us and it has been written down and God said it's not enough. God said

23:08 that atonement cannot be had without a blood sacrifice. The blood sacrifice has not been replaced. It's been 2000 years since the destruction, well, nearly 2000 years since the destruction of the temple. But here I have, I have another question. Even with a blood sacrifice, is that enough for atonement? If we deny ourselves, if we confess our sins, if we, if we lay our hands on the goat or the bull or whatever it is it in the, in the sacrifices offered, is that enough for our atonement?

23:56 I'm going to say no. And the reason I say no is because even when I lay my hands on the goat, the the lamb or the bull, whichever one it is, even when I lay my hands on it and confess my sins, it's not just a confession of the sins, but it's the trust in the Lord that he's taking those away from me and putting them in the goat. Therefore, it's the trust that is the most important element. If the people followed what was commanded in Leviticus, it still really required faith and trust in the Lord that he would accept their bold, their goat, their sheep as a sufficient offering or ransom to cover

24:41 their sins. But my question now is, is it really the offering that the Lord is after? If it's really the offering that the Lord is after, then I'm going to tell you that the rest of the tenah is lying because throughout the prophets and the writings, we have numerous examples. Let's, let's start here. In Psalm 40, we have numerous examples that it's not the offering that the Lord wants, that it's something else. Psalm 40, sacrifice and offering Psalm 40 verse seven through nine,

25:26 you did not desire my ears. You have opened burnt offering and sin offering you did not require. Then I said, here I am. I have come in the scroll of a book, it is written about me. I delight to do your will. Oh my God, yes, your Torah is within my being, Micah six, six through eight. With what shall I come before the Lord? With what shall I bow myself before God on high shall I present him with burnt offerings with your old calves? Will otai be pleased with thousands of rams, with hoards of rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my belly, for the sin of my soul? He has told you humanity what is good and what otai is seeking

26:15 from you only to practice justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Jeremiah six 20 says, of what used to me is frankincense coming from Sheba or sweet Cain from a distant country, you burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me. Isaiah one 11, for what is it to me, the multitude of your sacrifices says the Lord, I am full of burnt offerings. You see on the, on the day of fasting, the Lord says, I am full of burnt offerings and fat of fed animals. I have no delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs.

27:04 Or hes Amos 5 21 through 22 says, I hate, I despise your festivals. I take no delight in your sacred assemblies. Even if you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I look at peace offerings of your fattened animals. Let me go back and reread a couple verses from the psalm this morning. Psalm 51, verse 18, for you would not delight and sacrifice or I would give it nor be pleased by burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

27:49 a broken in a contrite heart, oh God, you'll not despise you See all of this points to God wanting us. He wants the hearts of his people to be knit to his heart. He wants his people to be in a relationship with him and to obey his word. I recently want, uh, heard a pastor say something that I, I actually found deeply profound and very true. He said,

28:35 so often we come and we say, I just need a fresh word from the Lord. I I need to hear from the Lord. I need a word today from God. And he says, and yet we're not willing to open up his word, which he's already given and read it. And he said, stro some strong words. He said, you are not going to get a fresh word from God unless you're willing to read his word and listen to it. His word is the most important thing to draw us near to him. One of the most important things God wants us to be in relationship with him and his word.

29:25 These sacrifices that he ordained in the book of Leviticus serve as a means for the people to draw close to him. But it's only a temporary, how can I say? It's only a temporary solution because the sacrifices had to be offered over and over and over again. Every year the sacrifice had to be offered, which means it wasn't effective. If it was effective, it would be offered on one Yom Kippur and we would never have it again. The author of the book of Hebrews says this,

30:13 Hebrews chapter 10, The Torah has a shadow of the good things to come, not the form itself of the realities. For this reason, it can never by means of the same sacrifices they offer constantly year after year, make perfect. Those who draw near otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers cleansed once and for all would no longer have consciousness of sins. But in these sacrifices is a reminder of sins year after year for it is impossible to take, uh, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. So when Messiah comes into the world, he says,

31:02 sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me and hold burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not delight. Then I said, behold, I will come to do your will. Oh God, in the scroll of the book, it is written of me after saying above sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor did you delight in them, those which are offered according to the Torah. Then he said, behold, I come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second by his will. We have been made holy through the offering of the body of Messiah, Yeshua, once for all indeed every kohen stands day by day

31:49 serving and offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But on the other hand, when this one offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God waiting from then on until his enemies are made of footstool for his feet, for by one offering he has perfected forever. Those being made holy. The kodesh also testifies to us for after saying, this is the covenant that I will cut with them after those days says Denai, I will put my Torah upon their hearts and upon their minds I will write it. Then he says,

32:35 I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Now where there is removal of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have boldness to enter into the holies by the blood of Yeshua. He inaugurated anew in a living way for us through the curtain that is his flesh. We also have a kohen gaal over God's house. So let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and body washed with pure water.

33:20 You see, Yeshua has done once and for all what the sacrificial system couldn't do. It's once and it's done, and his sacrifice will never be offered again because it's complete now. It takes us having faith and trust in the Lord to recognize that his sacrifice is sufficient for us. He is sufficient. We sin. I don't deny that, but when we place our trust in Yeshua and we continue to follow the Lord,

34:12 theoretically we're supposed to not sin in the same way over and over and over again because Paul says, Paul says, if by sin grace of bounds, should we keep sinning? In other words, should I keep sinning because God's grace and mercy is everlasting and Paul's answer is absolutely not. May it never be. Why? Because we are continually being refined and conformed into the image of the Messiah. When I look at each one of you,

34:57 I should be seeing a portion of the image of the Messiah because we are walking this journey together. When I look at you, I should see Yeshua shining through. Okay, you know what? Maybe we're not pristine uh, elements yet. If I can put it this way. It's kind of like, uh, your porch light. Anybody have a porch light on their front porch? You put that light in there, the light shines. Now depending upon the level of dirtiness of the glass, depends on how much the light shining through affects others. So the Messiah is shining in you whether or not that glass is dirty

35:45 or clean. But it's our job to continue to try to clean it. And you know what? It's a, it's a hard task. My wife this week has been cleaning our bathtubs. And our bathtubs were fantastic. They weren't. So they were, they were used, But now it's pristine. But the effort that it took to go from one to the other is a lot of energy. We don't transform overnight. We don't

36:35 become pristine, clean without difficulty. But are you praying? No. You see, I was having a discussion with my children this morning reading the proverb, and we were talking about the silver and how the silver has to be refined. And in the refining process, in the refining process, the heat gets turned up, that silver gets heated up. I just, do you think the silver enjoys being heated up and melting? I mean,

37:21 did any of you enjoy this summer here in Texas? Like we don't, as people don't inherently like being heated up and melting. The silver doesn't like it either. But as the silver heats up, the impurities come to the top and it's at that point that the Lord is able to scrape them away and remove them from our lives. So what does this mean for you and me? How does the Lord get the hearts of his people and continue to have the debt or ransom paid? It requires interchange. It requires an enabling force that strengthens us and

38:08 enables us to love the Lord with all of our hearts. Hebrews chapter nine, verse 22 says, and nearly everything is purified in blood according to the Torah, and apart from the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. That's enough One. John says this. Now, this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and keep walking in the darkness, we are lying and do not practice the truth.

38:53 But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of his son, Yeshua purifies us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word is not in us Today of all days.

39:39 Let us allow the joy of the Lord to be our strength. Today is generally a day where we wish each other and uh, to have an easy fast. That's a totally a Jewish, you say, have an easy fast. I know I've said this before, I don't wish any of you to have an easy, fast. First of all, I'm not having an easy fast. If I'm not having one, I wish it upon no one else, but, but secondly, but secondly, and more importantly, fasting is not about easy. It's about discovering the things that are within us that shouldn't be there. And that's difficult. And it's hard, and it's when the heat gets cranked up and it's, and it hurts. Therefore,

40:26 I wish you to have a meaningful fast today. Not necessarily an E, an easy one. I hope that the Lord uses this time of fasting to restore in me and in all of us the joy of our salvation. You see, because today is the most somber day on the Jewish calendar, but it also is the most joyful day. And how can I say that? Because it's joyous to know that our sins are as white as snow, that the Lord doesn't see it anymore, and that he is drawing us near to him through our Messiah, Yeshua. And if that's the case,

41:15 then today is a day to rejoice. Paul says in Philippians, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all people the Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything. Lemme say that again. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to the Lord and the shalom or the peace, the wholeness of God, which surpasses all understanding,

42:00 will guard your hearts and your minds in the Messiah. Yeshua, today is a day for us to, number one, be Solomon. Understand what the price of our sin is. The price of our sin is an innocent life. That debt has already been paid, and because that debt has already been paid, it's important for us, even as we're reflecting on our own sinful nature and we're confessing things, it's important for us to exercise the muscle of faith, of trust and recognition that God has already provided the way.

42:51 And when we exercise that muscle, it grows. When we don't exercise the muscle, it remains weak. It remains incapable of doing anything to benefit all of God's creation. But when we exercise the muscle, all of a sudden we become strong and we become emissaries of our Messiah, Yeshua and the light of Yeshua shines through us so that other people can go. You didn't use to be like that. Who is that? Can I get some of that? Or maybe I should point over here. Now, I,

43:38 I'm pointing at this side a lot. I want that Messiah, Yeshua that I see in each one of you. How do I get that? You see, that's our mission today. We recognize we come just like Aaron, just like the people of Israel, we recognize that we have sinful natures and that we need atonement, but we also recognize that atonement has been made that Yeshua, our Messiah, died, was buried and resurrected and continues to live. Today he sits at the right hand of the Father and he intercedes on behalf of you and me. Therefore, today, let's exercise our faith muscle.

44:25 Let's rejoice and the fact that the Lord has provided our salvation once and for all. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace

45:34 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua. Amen. May you have a meaningful fast today.