I toiled with the idea of going up to John prior to the service and saying, John, I know you're an Isaiah student, but don't be nervous just because we've got an Old Testament expert sitting here. You wouldn't have to say it. Mitch and I know each other, but I have no idea how long. I think I was just a child. Mitch is one of those guys that you forget how much you enjoy being around him until you are with him. We don't get them up here enough. That's something we're going to have to rearrange and put it on the Charlene case, on the calendar. As I said, I know Mitch from back when I was still in New Jersey growing up. Of course, that church is in Detroit, and I don't know if he remembers me from there, but we both had connections to that church. And Mitch has been involved in ministry, evangelistic ministry, to Jewish people through originally a youth of Jesus, and now Chosen People ministry. And we are so grateful to have him here with us this morning to open the Word of God. Of course I remember, Jeff. He was an obnoxious teenager. Oh, you do remember. With hair. I don't know what I'm talking about with hair. My first Baptist in New Jersey. That was really the first church I ever experienced. because I left New Jersey. I was born in the homeland. My parents kidnapped me to New Jersey when I was about 15. And then I left when I was 17, and then became a believer at 19 on the West Coast, came back, and didn't think that there were any Christians in New Jersey. Well, there were. And so I heard about these Jesus Freaks having a meeting in a park in Detuction, in their place. And so we were great by and I went and joined them. Then, the weather got cold, so we moved into the first practice on Detuction. But it was tough, because our meeting was Sunday night, after the regular Sunday night service in the days when there were Sunday night services. And I was the only one. And that was a wonderful time. And quite honestly, I had about 100 people at the Sunday night service from the church. And I had three or four hundred young people that night at Christmas in Jesus' name. And it was absolutely dynamic and crazy and wonderful. And that is how I became a conservative. which my parents never expected me to become. You may not feel it in the air, but I sure do. Because as a Jewish believer, tonight is Rosh Hashanah, evening and morning, the first day. So we begin the holiday at night. When I leave here, I go down to New Rochelle, and I'll join the 30-plus family members for a Rosh Hashanah dinner, which we have every year. Everybody actually skips synagogue services to eat dinner. Then everybody spends the next day at that synagogue. And so we're not walking into, again, I really don't think Epstein is either sort of Christmas or Easter season for a non-Jewish event. So this is our new season of the year. I was sitting there trying to count up how many services Chosen People is going to have in the next 25 days between Rosh Hashanah and the end of Tabernacles or Sukkot. And I was kind of having trouble counting, but I know it's somewhere over 300 between all of our 17 countries, and 25 cities, and North America, and all the congregations we planned. I think it's more than that in this country, in this county. And probably we will impact more Jewish non-believers in the next 25 days than we will the rest of the year, except for maybe, maybe Passover. But we have more services. In fact, I believe that just through sort of an anecdotal survey and listening to a lot of testimonies, that if there is one day when more Jewish people tend to accept Jesus as their Messiah than any other day, that that could be possible. I'm trying to survey the Gentiles on that one. But you know, there might be. There might be. You know, there might be Easter. You know, it might be. But the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, really seems to be a day that a lot of Jewish people are coming to. Because when you set Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, who is the jewel beautiful setting of the Jewish holidays, he's brighter. He's Chinese brighter. He's more beautiful. He's more attractive. And for a Jewish person, since our number one objection is if I believe in Jesus, I'm not going to be Jewish anymore. That's the historic objection. When you see Jesus in his Jewish setting, then you're sort of a little bit more at ease, and the gospel's more compelling for the Jewish person. So I say this so that you would pray for us. And our missionaries and our pastors and best man congregations, this is our businesses. And so everybody's going around the clock. And so do pray for us. And so I thought that in order to help you pray, to help you appreciate the season of the year, since Jimmy gives me the privilege of handing over his pole to you to support, please. I'd like to introduce you to the festivals a little bit more. But today, instead of focusing on Rosh Hashanah, I would like to focus on the Day of Atonement. And listen, I have three to talk about. You've got to pick one. But I think I picked the right one for today. And so this is going to be as much a Bible study as a sermon, because it's just so much to know. My wife, nine years ago, wrote a book called The False Peace of Israel. I guess this was a commercial announcement. And so it's printed by Moody Press. And it's very interesting. I've done a number of books. But this is our longest bestseller. And I think one of the reasons is the message never changes. So this has a long shelf life, is what UD has told me. Because the Fall Feasts were given a very long time ago. And they haven't changed. The Bible hasn't changed. So it's much the same. So I'll miss a lot. And so you can get that book and there's other stuff back there. As I read my own book, I wrote it so long ago that now I learn about it. It's a good book. I think I read it. So we're going to open up our Bibles this morning for a bit of a study. We're going to look at Leviticus chapter 23. I'm sure your Bible just falls over to you. Leviticus 23. But the old Baptists like to talk about the crimson thread that runs throughout church history and skips over about 800 years and medieval Catholicism and so on. But there is a crimson thread that runs through the Bible. without a doubt. I think the greatest theme of the Bible is the theme of redemption. And it runs throughout the entire scripture. And so the festivals of Israel are just one of the highlights where this great theme of redemption is so beautifully woven into the fabric of scripture. And I hope that you see it as we look at it. So we're on We're on Mount Sinai, and God is speaking to and through Moses. And we read a verse. And the Lord spoke again to Moses, saying, speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, the Lord's appointed times, which ye shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed times are these. And so not only did God give a list of do's and don'ts from Mount Sinai, according to Jewish tradition, there are 613 positive and negative commandments. You can go home and count them before your first football game. So there are 613 positive and negative commandments. I've actually tried to count it. You kind of get lost in it. And sometimes Jewish people get confused between the Bible and the Talmud and so on and tradition. But there were a lot of do's and don'ts that are in the Old Testament. But not only are there do's and don'ts, but here with the calendar, God through Moses gives the Jewish people a bunch of wins. And so each one of these festivals, these appointed times that he's talking about, are to be observed at a particular time. And that's very important. At Chosen People Ministries, which many of you, as you hear this, will want to just quit your job and come work for us, you get the Jewish and the Christian holidays right. It's like the New York City school system. You can go to class, but there won't be any teachers. You get both. And so I remember one year when Yom Kippur actually fell on a Saturday. And one of our Gentile administrators came up to me and said, Mitch, by the way, is there a commensurate day off? Because Yom Kippur falls on a Saturday. I said, I think you're missing the point. So it falls when it falls. The Jewish holidays always interrupt our lives. The one common theme of all the holidays is that everything you do that's regular must stop. Knock it off. So there's no work. And that's one of the common themes. Another common theme is that they are convocations. So it's not just you don't work and take the day off. It's you don't work because it's time for a convocation. It's a big worship service. You have to come and worship. And as we go through this, you learn a few more, particularly from the Sabbath. Six days' work may be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. Don't do any work. It's a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings. So again, it's no work. It's a convocation. And as you go through the rest of these festivals, You can see it in Passover and some of the other ones. There are offerings that are being made. See, in the temple, everybody thinks that worship was, you know, we get the liturgical choir out and power points. And we have a great worship service. But really, worship smelled like a barbecue. And so there was a mixture between incense, and the burning flesh of sacrifice. And so a specific day, rest no work, a convocation, a sacrifice, and then in each one of the seven great festivals of Israel outlined in Leviticus chapter 23. And there are seven, four in the spring, three in the fall. There are seven. In all seven festivals, every one of them looks back to something God has done and looks forward to a greater event in the future. You see it in Passover. In Passover, for example, you see it in all of them, but in Passover, we look back to the slain lamb in Exodus chapter 12. And then the redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, and so on. A little detour for 40 years, but redemption, again. The last song of the Passover Seder is L'shanah HaBa B'Yerushalayim. Next year we will be in Jerusalem. Why? Because every Jew knows that that Passover looks forward to a great day of redemption when the Messiah will come, we gather the Jewish people, bring us all back to the Land of Israel, and establish His Kingdom. Everybody knows that. The Sabbath as well. We look back, why do we observe the Sabbath? We look back to celebrate the fact that God created the heavens and the earth in six literal days, which is traditional Jewish thinking, and rested on the seventh day. And of course, we all know he rested because he was tired. He saw a man who said, very, very good, very good. And so God rested on the seventh day, took great joy in his creation, and so on. And things went on. Well, Jewish people understand and describe the coming kingdom as a great Sabbath. The Messiah will reign and rule, establish his kingdom, and finally, we will have rest from all of our enemies and all of our And so the holidays look back, and they look forward, but they always look forward to something that has to do with God's plan of redemption. And so there's no wonder that the prophecies, that the festivals can also be treated as prophecies of a coming of sun. And we do know that star looks right because it's right in the scripture. And probably the greatest prophetic, redemptive holiday. So if you look at the religious Jewish people walking to synagogue, what are they wearing? Sneakers. You'll see more Nikes in synagogue any other day of the year. That's so that they can be uncomfortable. Tradition, I can't explain it. It's the way it is. A day of self-denial where you humble yourselves before God. Why? Because you're repenting of your sin. And you should be uncomfortable. If you're repenting and it feels good or it feels comfortable, there's something desperately wrong with your repentance. Repentance requires contrition of the soul. And according to the rabbis, we confess. And if you don't have that attitude going into Yom Kippur, then you're cut off from your people. And so actually, John Whitney said it was absolutely true. It's not that you shouldn't humble your soul. It's not that you shouldn't offer sacrifice. God commanded it. So if you were a faithful Old Testament Jew at that time, You had to offer a sacrifice. That's what God told you to do. But if you did it with the wrong attitude, then you could lose your life. The second are the offerings. The offerings are incredibly important on the Day of Atonement. These are the high point of the Day of Atonement. And the offerings are outlined, actually, in a whole chapter, in Leviticus chapter 16, And there are, and then also in Numbers chapter 29 verses 7 through 11, which is, if you ever want to learn more about the offerings, which I understand most people will not. But if you ever want to, Numbers chapter 28 and 29 have a lot of information on the offerings, and there's a lot to learn from. But the offerings, as outlined more specifically in Leviticus chapter 16, are, first of all, the blood of a bull and a goat. And so I'm going to invite you to go back and turn to chapter 16. This is the day when you read a little bit more of stuff you might breeze through when you're just kind of reading through the Bible. So Leviticus 16, looking at verse 14, He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side. Also in front of the mercy seat, he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Okay, that's the blood of the bull. Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and in front of the mercy seat. And he shall make atonement in the holy place, because of the impurity of the sons of Israel, because of their transgressions, in regard to all their sin. So here's what's happening. The high priest, once a year, will walk through the curtain, going from the holy place to the holy of holies, and come face to face with the mercy seat, which was above the ark of a governor. the spirit of God left in the Babylonian dispersion. And Ezekiel brings us through that whole process of God's presence, the Shekinah, leaving the mercy seat. God would be hovering as the Shekinah. And Shekinah is the presence of God, probably synonymous with the Holy Spirit, but not necessarily known in the Old Testament. of God would dwell, hover, above the mercy seat. So the high priest, once a year, would go through an incredible ritual cleansing, which you can see. He'd offer a sacrifice for himself, which you can see in Leviticus 16, so that he was totally purified. And then he would walk through the curtain just this one time a year. And with the blood of the bull and the goat, he would sprinkle it on the mercy seat to make atonement a ransom, a covering for the sins of the Jewish people. And that would cover the sins of the Jewish people that the Jewish people never offered other sacrifices for their atonement. So there's always the concept of, so to speak, unconfessed or hidden sin within the Jewish community, within the Israelite community. The only question I have for myself, and I'm going to have this theological discussion with God face-to-face, I haven't had it now, but I'd like to have it face-to-face, and that is, is it like an iceberg? What percentage of our sins do we confess? What percentage of our sins do we even understand? Do we know them? That would lead to a first John 1 time cleansing. Right? We confess our sins in spiteful righteousness. It gives us, of our sins, it cleanses from all unrighteousness. So when we talk about repentance, and when we talk about confession, and we talk about getting ourselves right with God, what you have to appreciate is that you probably don't even know 90% of your sin or 95% of your sin. I don't know that much about my sin. As I've grown in the Lord year upon year and understand more about God's holiness, then I'm dumbfounded by my sin. We studied Isaiah 6 this morning in Sunday school. It was only when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and greatly exalted that Isaiah, in that moment, had a greater understanding of the sin and life of the glorious holiness of God. I just taught a class in evangelism, and of course, I believe that you need to repent to be saved. I'm not a heretic, OK? However, there's always this big debate. Do you need to repent before you're saved? Right. Yeah, you repent of what you know, which, believe me, is like 1%. OK? What you don't appreciate when you come to Christ is that he died for all your sins and what that means. And so the high priest, once a year, took the blood of the bull and the goat and sprinkled it on a mercy seat to make atonement for all the sins of the Jewish people, which prophetically foreshadowed what would ultimately happen, whereby God would send his son to the cross and he would die for all of our sins. And that's magnificent when you see it in this light. Like I said, when you take the jewel and put it in the Jewish head, it's more glorious, isn't it? And then, of course, we're going back to 23, no work. And again, in verse 30, look again. Tomorrow, I'm going to services. Thankfully, I'm not preaching tomorrow, so I cannot be accused of work. So that's when work kills you. And so verse 30, as for any person, any person who does any work on the same day, that person, look at this language, I will destroy them among these people. Then, again, in verse 32, it's to be a Sabbath of complete rest, and you shall humble your souls. And so that's what was supposed to be done on Yom Kippur, on the day of Atonement. There was one other additional sacrifice that I think I have time to introduce you to. that also gives you a beautiful picture of atonement in the day of atonement. And so can I ask you to just jump back to Leviticus 16? This is now the Jewish experience. When you're doing anything with Yom Kippur, you're jumping back and forth between these two chapters. So if you look at verses 20 through 22, we're introduced to these two votes. So when he finishes atoning for the holy place, the tent of meeting, and the altar, so remember, the high priest has to atone for the holy place and the altars. It will help you understand what he means. He shall offer the live goat. Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel, all their transgressions in regard to all their sins, and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat into the wilderness." Now, according to Jewish tradition, there was a whole selection process for the goat. They actually played, it was almost like darts in the Talmud, in order to select the right goat. But, and sometimes the two goats are viewed as one goat. You have Azazel, which is one goat, and then the other goat, which is offered in the, and it puts blood sprinkles on the altar. So you have two goats. But in Judaism, they're often looked at as one goat, which I kind of like. So one goat is killed, it's blood put on the mercy seat. The other goat, the priest symbolically lays hands on that goat. All the sins of Israel go upon a goat. How do you like that? Symbolically, they're all on the goat. And then that goat goes off into the wilderness. And Leviticus talks about this person will wait for them. Well, Judaism expanded on that. And by even the first century, somebody would be waiting in the wilderness and make sure that that goat went off the cliff and died. That was Jewish tradition. You have blood atoning for one goat for the sins of people. And then the other goat demonstrates another aspect of atonement, which is that their sins are removed as far away as the least is possible. Expiation. This is Jim's church. You all know what that means. So you have God's wrath satisfied through the shedding of blood. And the removal of sin. See, God's wrath is satisfied, and your sins are moved away from the east is from the west. And all of this, of course, for us, is by God's grace and because of his mercy. So it's not even possible in this understanding of atonement to believe that you have anything to do with removing your sins. You do not. You have nothing to do with it. God accepts a sacrifice, and God removes your sin. That's a total. All right, we're almost there. Now, if you can stay in 16 and just move ahead with me a little bit, because I lied. We're not just going to do 16. We have to go a little bit to 17. Because in chapter 17, verses 10 and 11, we begin to see something that's also very, very powerful. Any man from the house of Israel, from the allies who sojourn, that's not the space people, those are gentiles, who sojourn among them, who eats any blood, okay? Jewish people have a big thing about eating blood. You know, if you make anything kosher, it means it's bloodless. No blood. That makes it kosher. Blood, not kosher. Makes it easy to eat. Boy, that was a really juicy hamburger. Not kosher. Unless it's really fat. OK. So any man from the house of Israel or from the Alias Gentiles who sojourn among them who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. The life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, no person among you may eat blood, nor any alien who sojourns among you may eat blood. Then in verses 14 and 15, just keep working with me. For as the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life. Again, you see it in italics because the Hebrew doesn't. It's adding words so that we understand them in English. But there is this fierce connection in the Old Testament between blood and life. Now, I'm not a medical doctor. I have a PhD, so people do call me doctor. And I always remind people, I'm a doctor, and I can't help you with anything. Unless you want a book recommendation. So I've read a lot of material. I'm not going to even explain it, because there's probably a half a dozen doctors here, and I'm going to look foolish. But being a Bible person, I can tell you that in the Old Testament, Life and blood are wedded together synonymously. No blood, no life. No life, no blood. For the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life. Therefore, I said to the Son of Israel, you are not to eat the blood of any flesh. For the life of all flesh is in its blood. And again, whoever eats it, shall be cut off." Pretty severe. And you know, here's the nice thing about being a Gentile, by the way. You were never under the law. How's that for good news? You were never under the law. OK? I can say, oh, free from the law, what happens? It doesn't mean I can do whatever I want. But it does mean that if I eat blood, my sin was born already. And I will not be destroyed. OK? So it's the blood that matters. So the blood is linked to life. Now all of that sets the stage for what I would call the penultimate atonement, the penultimate sacrifice. And that sacrifice, of course, was made by Jesus the Messiah. Although it's not a far crossover, let's go to the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. I can't go into depth on the book of Hebrews, but one thing I find interesting about the book of Hebrews besides the fact that we don't know who the author was. There are great arguments for why it was Paul. There's some really good ones for why it was Aquila and Priscilla, mostly Priscilla, because she was viewed to be the smarter one. I don't know why, just because she was a little bit smarter. It's good to know. It's my book. But the temple was still standing when the book of Hebrews was written. So the illustration was staring the apostles in the face every single day. Did the apostles and the disciples still go to the temple in order to sacrifice? Absolutely. They did. They did. They were good Jews. They worshipped in the temple. They did everything that Jewish people would do in the temple. And I know there's controversy about millennial temples and offering sacrifices. You've got to understand, these things, there are civil penalties for not obeying. If they were not offering sacrifices, they would have been in deep trouble. But here's the way this works. You take a couple of your friends who are not yet believers in Jesus yet. You take them with you to offer a sacrifice. The brother who sacrificed, and you say to them, you see, this is what pointed to Jesus. These sacrifices, they don't matter. But Jesus is the one who made them. So my understanding is that Hebrews is written while the temple is standing, which, for me, makes everything make sense. So beginning at verse 11. And I do recommend the whole book of Hebrews. But when you're talking about atonement and you're talking about the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, for a Jewish believer, of course, the book of Hebrews is, well, Every priest stands daily ministry and offering time after time the same sacrifices. Now look at this. Which can never take away sins. So even if they were obedient, it didn't work. Because God had a different intention for the sacrificial system than those sacrifices removing sin. But he, Jesus, having often once sacrificed for sins, for all time sat down at the right hand of God. So the priests were constantly sacrificing animals while the temple stood, but the blood of the animals could never satisfy God's wrath and bring about the forgiveness of sin. The whole temple and the sacrificial system was a part of this tutorial handbook that pointed people to Jesus. And I wish I was there. I wish I had the temple there. Because showing people is great. I was in Israel almost all summer. And it's really great. But when you go down to the southern steps and to the western wall, The only thing he can say is, well, imagine if the temple was still there. But at least you came close. But there were great fathers of the temple up there. But the entire sacrificial system, not just one sacrifice, the entire religious infrastructure of the temple, it all pointed And so the writer of Hebrews reminds us that the sacrifice of Jesus was once for all, for all people, and for all sins. And when he finished, he sat down when he ascended. The work of redemption was completed. The priests never sat down while they worked, because they were too busy sacrificing. He sat down because the work of redemption was done. Nothing else to do. Jesus fulfills the entire sacrificial system. He provides the blood that does create an opportunity for atonement. His work of redemption is completed. Then in verse 13. waiting for that time until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. And so verse 13 of Hebrews 10 harkens back to Psalm 110. It's almost the same language. So the writer's work speaks of a future day when the Messiah will return. and his time of being seated at the right hand of the father would be over, because even though redemption was complete, his plan still needed to be completed. So don't confuse the two. Redemption is done. But the outworkings of redemption were not completely complete. And so the day would come when the Messiah, who Then verse 14 again reiterates all of this. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Until the time that he returns is set in coming, the Messiah will continue to intercede for those who he is perfecting. That's us. those he is making perfect. We don't ever get there till he's there. Us with him won't get anyone else. We never get there. So this speaks of that one offering that enables us to be forgiven. And it speaks of what's happening to us until he comes to clean it all up. We are in the process of being perfected. We've been made perfect. Now we're in the process of being perfected. Everybody with me? Then in verse 14, I'm sorry, verse 15, we read something that I love this. The book of Hebrews, obviously, is rich in Old Testament allusions. But the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, this is the covenant I will make with them after those days, said the Lord, I will put my laws upon their heart, on their mind I will write it. He then says, in verse 17, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. So the writer of the book of Hebrews, who I believe is probably Jewish, so the writer of the book of Hebrews quotes from Jeremiah 31, and links the promise of the New Covenant to the death of Christ, which is exactly what Jesus did in Luke 22. And in that New Covenant, Israel was promised forgiveness of sin and the promise of the Spirit. And these New Covenant promises have been fulfilled through the death of Christ. Because Jesus died, we are forgiven. And because Jesus died, the law is written in our hearts by the coming of the Holy Spirit. It's totally transforming. Brothers and sisters, it's not simply that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead, ascended, and is coming back. It's more than that. He ascended, and he intercedes. And we are being perfected. each and every day, never going to make it totally, but by the power of the Spirit whom he sent once he ascended, we are being created into the image of Jesus. So through the death of Jesus, the once for all perfect sacrifice, we have forgiveness of sin and the indwelling power and presence of the Holy Spirit transform us and to unleash us into this new glorious life. Verse 18, now, where there is forgiveness of these things, there's no longer any offering for sin. He said on the cross, to tell its time, it is finished. A little bit of Greek never hurt anybody. I paid a lot of money to learn this. It is finished. It is in a Greek. whereby there was a complete action with continued ongoing results. So it is finished, the act of redemption, atonement was complete, and the blessings of it continue forever. That's what you receive in Christ. It is finished. It's once for all. away to the fire. Now, in closing, sorry, I have to get to a restaurant in a minute. So I was getting out tracks with one person, and it was fall, because it was right after the high hours. I was wearing, at that time, I was working with Jews for Jesus, which was a rebellious break-off, young adult break-off, off of Chosen People Ministries that I helped with. So the rebel came along, for 21 years. And so I was standing there handing out tracts in a t-shirt to Jesus. And immediately, this other Hasidic rabbi, a Chabad rabbi, some of them believe their rabbi is the Messiah. Anyway, so he came running up to where I was handing out tracts. And he started asking people I gave tracts to, are you Jewish? Are you Jewish? And if they said yes, he would take the tract away. And I looked at him. I said, who made you God's sensor? He smiled at me. And then we began a conversation. Now, you understand this Baruch, which means blessed. So I said, so Baruch, what was a blessing to you this high holiday season? He says, oh, there were so many things that were a blessing for me. I said, oh, that's wonderful. He said, it was a blessing for me, too. And of course, personally, any Jewish person can answer such a personal question, but it's sort of in the family. He says, so did you fast? And so then I looked at him, since he now entered into a personal relationship. I said, so, brother, when you walked out of synagogue after the last opium war service, I said, were you sure your sins were forgiven? He looked at me, called me by my Hebrew name, Menachem, which means comforter, which I'm not. And he looked at me. And he said, He said to me, Monopoli, Monopoli, you know you can never know whether your sins were forgiven. I said, well, not quite. I said, but you don't know if your sins were forgiven. He says, no, you can't know. I said, well, which way is the way you want it? Towards forgiveness? Away from forgiveness? He says, well, maybe a little bit towards. He says, well, what's the point? I walk out of synagogue, the first thing I'm going to do is sin. Now, that's interesting, because Jews are not supposed to believe in original sin. So, I walk out of the synagogue and I sin again. So, you know, you just have to repent again and do the same thing. You're a pioneer. You're a pioneer. I said, oh, well, you know, again, you've been a blessing to me. He says, really? So absolutely. He says, why? I said, because you have once again reminded me of how wonderful this, you know, Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. Because I know that it's not because I did good deeds, or I prayed effectively, or I repented adequately. These are all replacements for the sacrifices. I know it's because of what God did for me in setting aside the documents. He said, what you'd say. It's the truth. Nothing we can say or do will in any way alter our eternal destiny. It's only through him and what he did for us. And it's not just forgiveness. It's abundant life. Because he died for our sins and created a holy place to put his spirit. And he will transform us until the great day of his coming. One last thing. Take out your brochures. Did you get them? We've got a couple of questions. They're right on the table, right next to the brochures. I mean, right next to the handouts. So grab them. We'll do it real fast. All right, when you get it, I need you to be involved in the ancient chosen people of ministries tradition called the tradition of the tearing of the brochure. So you get it, you want to hurl it, and go to where there is one. Where there's only one? That's it. Is there more? Yeah, there should be some more on the table. You can share one if you want. Give it to the best. I don't think it brought enough. Well, what we're family, and give it to the best group of our family. OK, so fold it along the perforation. I can count to three in Hebrew. Listen, don't put it together. I didn't count. OK, that's it. There are people right out there. Raise your hand. So we're going to count in Hebrew. Consider this. Preparation for the second time. Because when Jesus returns, he's Mexican. OK? So learn a little Hebrew now. So here we go. After me. Echad. Echad. That was good. Shtayet. Shtayet. Shalom. Shalom. Great. Keep the brochure. But fill this part out. I'm going to ask you to turn this in with your love offering or without your love offering. But if you can turn this in, this is great so that every month, one of us from the Chosen People staff can visit your home for dinner. If you have a menu online, that would be great. Avoid pork and blood at all costs. But some of us are saved by grace for just not taking any change. So fill it out if you would. And on the reverse side, there's also some boxes that you might want to look at. On the back table, we have the Fall East book. We have my book on Isaiah 53 Explained, a more in-depth book on Isaiah 53, which I think some of you will like. It's kind of cookies on the top shelf. And then we have, not all expressed, our Chosen People calendar. Why do we give out or sell calendars? in September, because it's New Year's. I know it's not in the Bible, but it's a Jewish tradition. And so our calendars are in the back, and you can even get one of these calendars If you're going to give it to a Jewish non-believer, you can have it for free. If you're not, then you have to buy it. Listen, these holidays are glorious. Pray for us. When you put the Jewel of Jesus in his Jewish settings, then he shines gloriously. Please pray that many, literally hundreds and hundreds of Jewish people will hear the Gospel over the next 21 years, all across the globe. Please pray that God will use us and use His Word as we tell Him about Jesus. Amen. Father, we love You and thank You. Thank You, Lord, for Your Word. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of the Word. Thank You that it's transforming. Lord, I pray that we might learn at a walk in the power of Your Spirit. Lord, that we might be able to grow closer to You and enjoy this abundant life. And then, Lord, fill us with the words to say, And we pray especially for your chosen people, the Jewish people, during this season of the year. We pray, Lord God, that by you, you give us an opportunity to testify of the one who died for us in Jesus' name. Gentlemen, will you come forward, please? We're going to take our love offering, and we're going to open our final dinner as a Father, thank you for the words you've given to us this morning. We ask, Father, that you would cause us to be appreciative and generous. And, Father, if you may continue your work, we do pray, Father, for the ministry of chosen people and for the gospel as it goes out to the Jewish people, Father, may it be effective. Amen. Be drawn to the Messiah. In Christ's name, amen. But those who would argue probably don't know Jesus. But I do, so I think it is. And so each one of the holidays are observed. We don't have time to go through them all, so we're going to focus, beginning at verse 26, we're going to look at the Day of Atonement. And we're just going to look at some of the highlights of it. But before we do, I have to go back a verse. You have to say something about Rosh Hashanah, New Year's, in order to understand the Day of Atonement. So look at verse 23 with me. But this is just by way of introduction. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the sons of Israel. Now, we're already in the seventh month of the year. So we are now in the seventh month of the Jewish year begins right now. So speak to the sons of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, on the first of the month, that begins tonight. You shall have a rest, remember? Every one of them has a rest. A reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no glorious work, presented often by fire to the Lord. So you see it has all the elements that I described previously. But it has a unique element, and every festival has a unique element that looks backwards a little bit. This one's difficult. Because the only thing we know here is that it says a reminder by bone of trumpets. And in the Hebrew, those words aren't in there. That's why if you have a certain Bible, maybe a New American Standard, it's in italics. It's in italics because the Hebrew doesn't say it. The Hebrew word there, now I'm not playing any translators, I don't know what I wrote, but the Hebrew word there is thruah, so reminded by blowing of trumpets, it's not blowing of trumpets, it's a reminder by thruah. Thruah is untranslatable because it is the actual sound that the shofar or the trumpet makes. So if I was to translate it, not to confuse people, I would say, it was the day of tutu, or something like that. I don't think I can take a show car and do it poorly. Now, the shofar and trumpets were flown in Israel to call people's attention to something that was about to happen, to warn them of danger. It was celebratory. There are a lot of reasons why the trumpet is blown. And the reason why the trumpet is blown in this instance, and we're not really sure what it refers back to, honestly, But the blowing of the trumpet and Rosh Hashanah is related to Yom Kippur, because Yom Kippur is viewed by far as the holiest day of the Jewish year. And so we blow the shofar to call attention to it. Now, there's a lot more on the blowing of the shofar. In fact, one of the themes is that when you blow the shofar, it scares the devil away. But that, especially the blow of the shofar, announces the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year. That's what it's supposed to mean. So beginning at verse 26, just a few points on the Day of Atonement. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, on exactly the 10th day of the seventh month. So we know that it's 10 days after Rosh Hashanah. On exactly the tenth day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you, so you gather and shall humble yourselves, present an offering by fire to the Lord, sacrifices, You shall not do any work on that same day. It's a day of atonement. Commit atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God. If there's any person who will not humble himself on this day, he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall not do any work at all. It's to be a perpetual statute throughout the generations. In your dwelling places, it's to be a Sabbath of complete rest to you. You shall humble your souls in the night of the month at the evening. So that's tonight. From the evening until evening, you shall keep your Sabbath. It's even called the Sabbath. So let's look at some of the high points of it. First of all, And he, the word for atonement is kaphar, C-A-F-A-R. Now, I remember when I was a young believer, somebody really got smart and decided to explain atonement as at-one-men, at-one-men, which was great for me because I was into Eastern religions, and I really got that, the at-one-men universe. I want to tell you, that is not a good understanding of atonement. pretty unbearable understanding at the time. OK, it is not at one point, Lucifer. Atonement, the Hebrew word kaphar, literally means two different things. But they both converge to give us a fuller picture of what atonement really is. Number one meaning is covering, covering. So kaphar is a covering. And so it is a covering. Now, on Yom Kippur, it is the day of covering. Covering of what, from what? Well, a covering, certainly, from judgment, was our sin. So it's a covering. It's a time of covering. It's also, some people would say, that there's that crimson thread again. And it's a crimson covering, because the covering is of what? I like that, because I think that's probably true. also means ransom, one instead of the other. And that's used quite a bit in the Torah, in the five works of Moses. If your ox scores another one, you need to kill your ox as a? Atonement. Gephardt. Same word as the Hebrew word for that. So you combine those two, if you don't mind, and you have a covering. That covers your sins so that God does not bring judgment. And it also has the concept of ransom. So whatever is covering you, in a sense, is a replacement for you. You see? And it makes a lot of sense. So it is the day of the covering, or the day of the ransom, the day of of replacement. Now, that's what the festival means. And also, another very interesting idea here is that we are to humble our souls. Humble our souls. And actually, in verse 29, if you don't humble your souls, you'll be cut off from among the people. That's one of the Hebrew phrases or idiomatic expressions that means you're dead. So you never want to be cut off. Doesn't mean that nobody likes you anymore. You need to stay outside the camp. All that's true. That's because you're being buried. So there is a severe penalty, according to the Old Testament, for not humble yourselves. Now, this is where the rabbis have gotten the idea that we should fast. Because sometimes this term is also used as a fast. But it means more than fast. The whole idea of humbling means depriving yourself of personal pleasure on the day of atonement. It's the contrition of soul on the day of atonement. Now, there's a very funny Jewish tradition, OK? To me, it's very, very, as days go by, things get, you know, you do things that at one time meant something, and then they start meaning something different. So at one time, wearing leather shoes was seen as sort of opulent, probably somewhere in late medieval days. So if you had leather shoes, you'd probably wear a shoe. And so on the day of Atonement, Jewish people do not wear leather shoes. So they don't wear leather shoes. They wear anything so that they can be uncomfortable.