Introduction:
The Cross in Leviticus (Leviticus 16:15-22):
- What is the prophecy of the messiah's suffering?
- How did Jesus fulfill this prophecy on the cross?
Luke 23:39-43 - One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise."
- What does this prophecy mean for us?
5 Things God Said to Remind Yourself When You Are Feeling Guilty:
- My guilt is Removed .
Psalm 103:12 - as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
- My guilt is Lost .
Micah 7:19 - You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
- My guilt is Pardoned .
Romans 8:1 - There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
- My guilt is Paid For .
Psalm 32:2 - Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
- My guilt is Not Remembered .
Jeremiah 31:34 - For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Isaiah 43:25 - I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
00:40-00:44
Open up your Bibles with me please to Leviticus chapter 16.
00:47-00:52
And thank you for those of you all here that are wearing green for St. Patrick's Day.
00:53-00:55
If you're streaming, Sharon, I hope you're wearing green.
00:58-01:04
You're like, "Come on, Pastor Jeff, "is St. Patrick's Day really a big deal?" My wife's name is Erin.
01:08-01:10
Her maid name is McElravey.
01:12-01:13
Her mom's maid name is McElroy.
01:15-01:16
So yeah, it's a big deal in our house.
01:19-01:21
So let's pray.
01:22-01:23
I'm gonna ask you, please pray for me.
01:24-01:29
And I will pray for you as we get into God's word together today.
01:37-01:56
Father in heaven, as we come in here this morning, there's a lot of us that bring preconceived notions that are wrong so often, and we encounter your word, and it so often contradicts something that we think.
01:59-02:14
Oh God, I pray that there'd be a change of mind today, that we'd embrace what you say, over long-held beliefs or traditions or what we might have heard from someone else.
02:15-02:16
God, all we care about is what You said.
02:17-02:24
So let Your Word guide our thinking, which will guide our attitudes and our actions.
02:30-02:37
Father, Your Son told us to, when He was praying to You, rather, He said, "Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth.
02:37-02:43
And Father, your son taught us in that, that it is your word that sanctifies us, it sets us apart.
02:44-02:51
So Father, let us be people who regard your word as you've called us to.
02:52-02:53
We pray in Jesus' name.
02:54-02:57
All of God's people said, amen.
02:59-03:07
We've been going through this series, the cross and the Old Testament, as we're heading towards Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
03:09-03:13
And this whole series has one point, and the point is this.
03:14-03:21
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ wasn't some idea that God came up with one day because all the other stuff wasn't working.
03:22-03:29
Like, well, the flood didn't work, and the Tower of Babel didn't work, and the Mosaic Law didn't work.
03:29-03:32
Oh, I got an idea, let me try crucifying my son.
03:32-03:40
And the crucifixion of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was always God's plan.
03:41-03:51
And not only does the Old Testament tell us that was the plan, but it tells us specifically what would be accomplished through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
03:53-04:08
So I know the subject matter of the last couple of weeks is kind of heavy, because the first Last week we said from Genesis 3, "He will defeat the devil." Not always comfortable talking about the devil.
04:08-04:10
But then last week we talked about death.
04:10-04:11
That's not very comfortable.
04:12-04:18
So the good thing is today we're going to talk about a subject that we're all going to find really comfortable.
04:18-04:19
We're going to talk about guilt.
04:23-04:23
So let's just get to it.
04:24-04:26
Guilt is a universal condition.
04:28-04:33
Every single person on the planet at some point has wrestled with guilt.
04:35-04:40
I don't do the things that I know I should do and I feel bad about that.
04:41-04:47
And then I do the things that I know I shouldn't do and I feel bad about that.
04:47-04:54
And those bad feelings that we get is called guilt.
04:58-05:13
And you know, Christians so often struggle with this, saying things like, "You know, I go to church, but I'm still struggling with whatever it is you're struggling with." And you're like, "Man, I just feel like such a hypocrite.
05:15-05:24
You know, I did some things in my past, and I know that God knows, and there's no way that I should be forgiven.
05:27-05:30
You see, guilt is different from shame.
05:31-05:47
A lot of times we talk about the two together, but shame is not really about the wrong thing done as much as how other people see us because of the wrong thing that we had done.
05:50-05:52
And we've all felt shame.
05:54-05:57
And that's normal, and it accompanies guilt.
05:58-06:02
In fact, someone who never feels shame, that person is a sociopath.
06:04-06:08
But guilt, guilt can lead to other problems.
06:11-06:12
Like depression.
06:14-07:00
Like problems sleeping. Guilt can lead to muscle tension. Guilt can lead to gut problems and anxiety. I was reading this past week that they're attributing guilt as the root of OCD. And we try all kinds of things to cope with guilt in the flesh. We try to explain around it. You know, maybe talk to somebody that tells us, "What we did wasn't that bad and we shouldn't feel guilty about it." But I think maybe more often what we do with guilt, My friends, I think what we try to do is distract ourselves.
07:02-07:07
I think that's why so many people struggle with drinking or drug addiction of some kind.
07:08-07:12
It's can I get my mind somewhere else so I'm not thinking about this guilt.
07:12-07:23
For some people, it's playing video games for 21 hours a day because you're in this digital world and I don't have to deal with the guilt that I experience in this world.
07:25-07:29
In the same vein, some people, it's just TV.
07:30-07:40
They immerse themselves in program after program and binge watch everything because it's just easier than trying to deal with guilt.
07:42-07:47
Well, a problem with these coping solutions, none of them work.
07:50-07:53
But God has a solution that does.
07:54-07:56
So let's talk about the cross in Leviticus 16.
07:56-08:01
It's the same outline all month as we're looking at the cross in the Old Testament.
08:02-08:07
So the first question is this, what is the prophecy of the Messiah's suffering?
08:09-08:12
Well last week we talked about Moses and the Passover.
08:12-08:40
This week we're going to fast forward a bit in the life of Moses to where he was giving the Old Covenant law, specifically a very special yearly sacrifice. We're going to be talking about the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was a once a year sacrifice that was for the nation of Israel for all of the sins that sort of piled up and accumulated over the course of the year.
08:43-08:49
And we studied the Day of Atonement in depth somewhat recently when we went through the book of Hebrews.
08:49-08:50
What was that, last year, a year and a half ago?
08:53-08:56
I just want to give you an abbreviated review.
08:57-08:58
Very abbreviated.
08:59-09:03
But under the old covenant, there was the tabernacle.
09:03-09:06
That was the portable version of what ultimately became the temple.
09:08-09:12
And the temple was made up of this court, but there was a building.
09:12-09:14
And in this building, there were two rooms.
09:14-09:18
There was the holy place, and there was the Holy of Holies.
09:19-09:21
And these two rooms were divided by a veil.
09:22-09:26
And inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant.
09:27-09:31
You know, it was this box that God had Moses make.
09:32-09:35
And the top of the box was called the mercy seat.
09:36-09:44
And that was where the Shekinah glory of God, the unique presence of God on earth, rested on top of the mercy seat.
09:47-09:53
But the day of atonement had a lot of very interesting rituals that went with it.
09:56-10:09
And the day of atonement, the high priest who wore all these glorious elaborate robes, he would take those robes off And he would wear just a plain white linen robe, just like all the other priests wore.
10:12-10:16
And then he would offer this special sacrifice.
10:17-10:31
So we're gonna look at a few verses here because what we're focusing on, again, we spent so much time talking about this before, but what I want you to focus on is, in this sacrifice in the day of atonement, it involved two goats.
10:32-10:37
And I want us to really zero in on these goats, specifically one we're going to be looking at today.
10:39-10:50
So Leviticus 16, verse seven, it says, "Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
10:50-11:05
And Aaron," that's the high priest, "shall cast lots," that's like rolling dice, sort of, "Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for a zazel.
11:06-11:07
You're like, what's a zazel?
11:10-11:11
It's a Hebrew word.
11:13-11:21
I spent a long time this week studying a zazel and you wanna buy me Chick-fil-A sometime, I'll tell you all about it.
11:21-11:26
But nobody's really sure exactly what the word's connected to.
11:27-11:31
There's different beliefs, but you're going to see ultimately, it refers to the wilderness.
11:34-11:37
Whatever interpretation you have for it, that's where it ends up.
11:38-11:45
It says on verse nine, "And Aaron shall present the goat "on which the lot fell for the Lord "and use it as a sin offering.
11:46-11:59
"But on the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel "shall be presented alive before the Lord "to make atonement over it, "that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel." Jump down to verse 15.
12:01-12:21
It says, "Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil," that's into the Holy of Holies, "and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.
12:21-12:30
Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins.
12:31-12:38
And so shall he do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleanness.
12:38-12:47
So that's what he does with the one go sacrifice, blood taken into the holy of holies, sprinkled on and in front of the ark.
12:50-12:51
But here's where I really want us to focus.
12:52-12:53
Look at verse 20.
12:54-13:03
It says, "And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place, and the tent of meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat.
13:05-13:17
And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins.
13:17-13:25
And he shall put them on the head of the goat, and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.
13:26-13:30
The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to remote area.
13:32-13:35
And he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.
13:37-13:45
All right, so I want to talk about these goats again, they would cast loss, one of these goats was for God, the other one was the scapegoat.
13:47-14:05
Sacrifice the goat for God, blood sprinkled, lay hands on the scapegoat, confessing Israel's sins, and that transferred the sins to the goat. It was a symbol. Then they would take the goat to the wilderness and release it.
14:06-14:48
And the purpose of that live goat was to show Israel, "Hey, hey, look, your sin and guilt has been removed. He goes on to tell us in Leviticus 16 that after the sacrifice, after the scapegoat was released, the high priest would put his glorious high priestly robes back on. Like, what's up with all these very specific actions? Well, all of this was given to us to illustrate, to demonstrate what the Messiah was going to do.
14:49-14:51
So that leads us to question number two.
14:52-14:54
How did Jesus fulfill this prophecy on the cross?
14:57-15:11
Well, like I said, it's such a profound picture, but the high priest would remove those glorious robes and he would put on a white linen robe, just like all the other priests.
15:12-15:16
Then he'd offer the sacrifice, and then he'd put his glorious robes back on.
15:16-15:20
That is a picture of the incarnation of God.
15:21-15:30
You see, Jesus Christ removed the glory he had in heaven and dressed like one of us.
15:32-15:38
And then after Jesus offered the sacrifice, he put that glory back on.
15:40-15:49
But these two goats represented what Jesus Christ accomplished.
15:53-15:59
The one goat that was killed was a picture of the blood sacrifice that Jesus made.
15:59-16:49
but the goat that was left alive and was released into the wilderness, that is the picture of Jesus Christ taking our sin and our guilt and our shame and removing it from us. And you know, sometimes in the church, we're kind of sold on the blood sacrifice goat, but we're not always sold on the taking away guilt aspect. And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning, my friends, is Jesus Christ takes away your guilt.
16:53-17:09
And you know, we're talking about the cross in the Old Testament, so it would be remiss of me to not mention the fact that Jesus takes away guilt and he actually did that while he was on the cross.
17:12-17:14
We're gonna have Luke 23 on the screen here in a second.
17:16-17:22
But I want you to see Jesus was crucified between two criminals.
17:23-17:30
And the Bible tells us, I believe in Matthew, that initially both of the criminals reviled him.
17:31-17:32
Oh, you're the Messiah.
17:32-17:36
Okay, Messiah, save yourself, save us.
17:36-17:37
Come on, do something.
17:37-17:39
They were both insulting him at first.
17:40-17:42
But Luke tells us, let's look at these verses.
17:43-17:54
Luke 23, verse 39, it says, "One of the criminals who were hanged on the cross "railed at him saying, 'Are you not the Christ?
17:54-18:07
"'Save yourself and us.' "But the other rebuked him, saying, "'Do you not fear God, "'since you are under the same sentence of condemnation "'and we indeed justly, "'for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds.
18:08-18:09
But this man has done nothing wrong.
18:12-18:19
And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
18:22-18:30
And Jesus said to him, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.
18:32-18:36
And what I want you to see, there's a whole lot to unpack there.
18:36-18:38
And we've had whole sermons on that.
18:38-18:48
But I want you to see one thing in this, is that Jesus Christ fulfilled the scapegoat picture right here.
18:52-18:58
You see that? This man, his guilt was taken away from him.
19:00-19:03
And we know that because he received the promise of heaven.
19:07-19:16
But we have to remember, this criminal, in this moment when he cried out, he couldn't do any good works.
19:19-19:27
He couldn't say, "Jesus, I'm turning this franchise around, and from now on, I'm going to do good things." He couldn't do that.
19:28-19:30
The man was literally nailed to his deathbed.
19:33-19:38
Not only could he not do good works, he couldn't be baptized.
19:41-19:41
Not only that.
19:44-19:47
He had a life history of doing bad.
19:50-19:54
In fact, we don't even know his name, the Bible just calls him criminal.
19:58-20:02
There was literally at this moment only one thing that this man could do.
20:04-20:05
And that was to repent.
20:07-20:08
In his heart and mind.
20:11-20:15
Acknowledging his guilt and turning to Jesus Christ.
20:17-20:22
And this man forever serves as a testimony for us, church, that if you want rid of your guilt.
20:24-20:26
It's not about the work that you do.
20:28-20:29
Because this guy can do nothing.
20:31-20:39
It's not about what you can do, but it has everything to do with what Jesus Christ has done on your behalf.
20:43-20:45
And I guess that's a decent segue to question three.
20:47-20:49
What does this prophecy mean for us?
20:51-21:05
we talked about before, Jesus fulfills all of the prophetic pictures of the day of atonement, including, including, including church, including taking away your guilt.
21:08-21:15
You're like, "Man, you seem very adamant about that." I am, because for too many Christians, this is one of the most disbelieved doctrines.
21:16-21:26
And there have been so many, specifically men, over the course of my ministry that have struggled with this very thing to say, "Pastor Jeff, I've done some horrible things in my life.
21:26-21:29
You don't have any idea." And they'll lay it out for me.
21:29-21:31
They're like, "There's no way that I can be forgiven.
21:32-21:53
I've done some terrible things." And you know, we come to church and so often we say we believe it and we sing the songs like we believe it, but deep down, some of us aren't really sure that we believe it.
21:56-22:05
And I know there's some people sitting here and will be sitting at the next service and are watching this stream right now that are struggling with guilt.
22:09-22:14
And to you, I would ask, Why did Jesus die?
22:17-22:26
Did Jesus die so that I could have the opportunity to earn my way back to God?
22:27-22:28
Is that why He died?
22:31-22:32
Correct.
22:32-22:33
The answer is no.
22:35-22:37
Did Jesus die to pay for some of my sin?
22:38-22:41
Like, the respectable ones.
22:43-22:44
But the big ones, hoo hoo hoo.
22:48-22:50
Well church, this is why we theology.
22:52-22:59
Because if you're still struggling with guilt, as we get on the home stretch here, I'm gonna give you five things God said to remind yourself when you're feeling guilty.
23:02-23:05
This is what God says about your sin and your guilt.
23:05-23:05
Okay?
23:06-23:07
I'm going to go through these quickly.
23:07-23:10
Every one of these could be a sermon series.
23:12-23:17
But I just want us to try to step back and look at the big picture here.
23:17-23:19
This is what God says about your guilt.
23:20-23:29
First of all, letter A, "My guilt is removed." What did Jesus do in fulfilling the picture of the scapegoat?
23:31-23:33
My guilt is removed.
23:34-23:34
How far?
23:34-23:35
How far?
23:35-23:46
Well, according to Psalm 103, verse 12, it says, "As far as the East is from the West, so far does He remove our transgression from us." How far?
23:46-23:47
As far as the East is from the West.
23:49-23:50
Do you know how far that is?
23:52-23:54
That's an infinite distance.
23:54-24:00
And I love how exact God's word is, because He didn't say as far as the North is from the South.
24:03-24:06
Because if you have a globe, you have a globe, anybody have a globe on them?
24:09-24:10
Man, I was kind of hoping.
24:11-24:20
Okay, but if you have a globe, and if you keep going north, eventually you're gonna go south, right?
24:21-24:24
And the same, if you go south, eventually you're gonna go north.
24:27-24:31
But you know, if you go east, you're never heading west.
24:32-24:33
And that's why God used that picture.
24:33-24:39
This is how far he removes our transgressions.
24:41-24:42
Your guilt is removed.
24:43-24:45
Let her be, my guilt is lost.
24:47-24:48
My guilt is lost.
24:50-24:52
I love this, Micah 719.
24:52-24:54
We're gonna be doing a sermon series of Micah later this year, Lord willing.
24:56-25:06
Micah 7, 19 says, "You will cast all our sins "into the depths of the sea." You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
25:06-25:07
Think about that.
25:09-25:13
Just imagine for a second that I'm on a cruise.
25:16-25:21
Some of you are like, "Yes, Pastor Jeff, "I've been imagining you being on a cruise for a long time." But imagine that I'm on a cruise.
25:21-25:22
Have you ever been on a cruise?
25:22-25:23
Anybody here been on a cruise before?
25:24-25:24
All right.
25:26-25:38
But imagine, I don't recommend this, but imagine I'm on the cruise ship and I'm leaning over the railing, we're somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and I'm leaning over the railing and I'm just playing with my wedding ring over the railing.
25:40-25:50
You're like, "That's dumb." And I'm like, "Oh no, right into the ocean." What are the chances of me getting that ring back?
25:52-25:53
Zero.
25:54-26:01
Well, wait, wait, wait, what if, what if like, you know, after the cruises over like a week later, I hire the best divers in the world to go find it?
26:03-26:04
Is there a chance they're going to find it?
26:06-26:08
And do you realize that's what God says about your sin?
26:09-26:14
God took your sin and he's like, "Whoop, into the depths of the sea." You ain't finding that.
26:15-26:16
It is gone.
26:18-26:20
That's what God's done with your guilt.
26:23-26:25
Letter C, my guilt is pardoned.
26:26-26:32
Romans 8, one, says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
26:34-26:37
Okay, this is courtroom language, all right?
26:39-26:44
God just hits us with all these different like metaphors and word pictures.
26:44-26:45
This one's courtroom.
26:47-26:51
And in the courtroom, we stand before a holy judge and we're guilty of sin.
26:52-26:59
But when we are in Christ, we're pronounced not guilty.
27:02-27:04
I mean, think of that scene.
27:04-27:04
Could you imagine?
27:06-27:09
You receive Christ like that thief, you just cry out.
27:10-27:14
I can't do anything about my sin and guilt, but I'm trusting you, Jesus.
27:14-27:16
I'm trusting what you've done on my behalf, God.
27:17-27:18
I believe in you.
27:18-27:19
And could you imagine?
27:20-27:33
In that moment, the judge slams the gavel down and says, "Not guilty." And then somebody runs into the courtroom and goes, "Ah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, she's still guilty." Really?
27:34-27:39
Are you going to contradict the judge of the universe when he has pronounced you not guilty?
27:43-27:45
That's a bold move to make.
27:48-27:49
Not this judge.
27:50-27:55
In Christ, the gavel is slammed down.
27:56-27:58
The case is over.
27:59-28:01
There is no condemnation for you.
28:03-28:03
Ever.
28:06-28:08
Letter D, my guilt is paid for.
28:10-28:25
Psalm 32, 2 says, "Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit." So maybe the courtroom thing doesn't grab you, but this is for the math people.
28:27-28:30
Because this is bookkeeping terminology here.
28:33-28:36
The Lord counts no iniquity.
28:36-28:39
Okay, math people, what this is saying is this.
28:39-28:40
God has a ledger.
28:42-28:53
And in the debit column, in the loss column, I guess is a better word for it, in the loss column is all of our guilt.
28:57-29:01
But in the credit column is the blood of Jesus Christ.
29:05-29:10
but God is not counting iniquity because He himself paid the bill.
29:13-29:14
My guilt is paid for.
29:16-29:23
And then letter E, and these are only some, I had a plethora, but this is just, these are just some of the pictures.
29:24-29:28
But this one might be my favorite, letter E, my guilt is not remembered.
29:30-29:31
My guilt is not remembered.
29:33-29:40
Jeremiah 31, 34 says, "For I will forgive their iniquity." And in this passage, he's speaking of the new covenant that's coming.
29:41-30:00
He says, "For I will forgive their iniquity." Look at this, "And I will remember their sin no more." I had an old friend I worked with many, many years ago who struggled with guilt and doubt.
30:01-30:18
And I remember we had this conversation so many times that he would say, "Jeff, I just feel like when I die, "I'm gonna stand before God, "and God's actually gonna sit me down "and make me watch a movie of my life "and point out all of the times that I just, I blew it.
30:18-30:20
"And God's gonna be like, 'What were you doing here?
30:20-30:20
"'What were you thinking here?
30:21-30:36
"'This was wrong, you knew better.'" He says, "I think that's what's gonna happen when I die." And I told this man so many times, I said, You know, I understand why you feel that way, but that just, that doesn't line up with what God has already promised us in Jesus Christ.
30:36-30:37
It just doesn't line up.
30:41-30:57
He says, look at this, he says, "I will remember their sin no more." And again, I love how exact the language is because remembering sin no more, that's different than forgetting.
30:59-31:02
Because forgetting is accidental, right?
31:03-31:04
Forgetting's an accident.
31:05-31:07
Like, oh man, I forgot my keys.
31:08-31:11
Or I forgot where I put my cell phone.
31:12-31:13
That's an accident.
31:14-31:18
Implying that I'm trying to remember and I hope that I can remember.
31:19-31:20
That's not what he said.
31:21-31:26
God says I am choosing not to remember And that is intentional.
31:30-31:32
And that's what God says he will do with your guilt and sin.
31:37-31:40
So my friend, and I believe he was a sincere believer.
31:41-31:48
I think he's gonna be in for a shock someday when he stands before God, if he still holds this belief.
31:51-31:57
I think he's gonna stand before the Lord and say, "God, don't you remember all the times that I let you down?
31:58-32:03
"God, don't you remember all the times "that I really dishonored you, and I knew better, "and I did the wrong thing anyway?
32:03-32:19
"God, don't you remember that?" And according to God's Word, God's reply is, "I don't remember that at all." God says the same thing in Isaiah 43, 25.
32:20-32:34
He says, "I, I am He who blots out your transgression for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins." So that's the introduction. Here's the sermon.
32:36-32:44
Listen, do not undermine the work of Jesus Christ.
32:47-32:52
do not undermine what God has said in his word.
32:53-32:58
And if you're still hanging onto guilt, I gotta tell you, that's actually a form of pride.
33:01-33:03
That's actually a form of disbelief.
33:04-33:10
Because what you're saying when you're still hanging onto guilt, you're saying Jesus didn't do enough.
33:11-33:12
That's what you're saying.
33:14-33:18
And I've said that to some of these men come to me over the years.
33:18-33:20
They're like, "Pastor Jeff, you don't understand.
33:20-33:21
"I've done something so horrible.
33:21-33:22
"I don't think I can be forgiven.
33:23-33:26
"I've said to them." I'm like, "Wow, you gotta tell me what it is.
33:26-33:34
"You mean you did something so bad "that the blood of Jesus Christ isn't enough to pay for it?
33:35-33:41
"Wow." Look, the reality is there's only one sin that can't be forgiven.
33:43-33:46
And that's the sin of rejecting Jesus Christ.
33:47-33:50
That's the sin of not believing in what His blood accomplished.
33:50-33:52
That's the only sin that can't be forgiven.
33:56-34:00
So do not undermine what Jesus Christ has done, and don't undermine His Word.
34:00-34:05
Look, if you have sinned against people, apologize.
34:06-34:07
Make restitution.
34:07-34:10
You've sinned against God, Christians.
34:11-34:17
Thank Him for taking your guilt away in Jesus Christ.
34:19-34:20
And change course.
34:22-34:24
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
34:27-34:52
Many years ago, a house that Aaron and I own in Butler, it didn't sell, but we were renting it to a tenant and the asphalt sidewalk in the front sunk in. Well the city was sending a bunch of notices to the house that the tenant was just throwing away.
34:53-34:59
Like, "Oh, a notice from the city." "Don't need that." Another notice from the city.
34:59-35:01
He was just like throwing them away.
35:02-35:06
Well, then finally, finally we found out about it.
35:10-35:12
And Aaron and I repaired the sidewalk.
35:15-35:20
Well, another notice came in and this one was for a court date.
35:22-35:26
I had to go to court because of the sidewalk issue.
35:28-35:31
And I'll be honest with you, I was so nervous.
35:32-35:33
Because what do you say?
35:35-35:37
Like, "Throw the tenant under the bus.
35:37-35:38
"They're not gonna care.
35:40-35:43
"That's not their business." I was so nervous.
35:44-35:57
And I'm like, "What am I gonna say?" You know, I got dressed up and I even put a tie on, and I'm just like, I'm gonna try to look as respectable as I can, I'm gonna show up, and what am I gonna say?
35:58-36:00
And I'm like, and this is what I came up with.
36:01-36:05
You can tell me later if you thought it was good or not, but I was gonna beg for mercy.
36:07-36:08
That was my plan.
36:09-36:10
I was gonna be like, I'm so sorry.
36:11-36:13
We fixed it, please, please.
36:14-36:15
That was my plan.
36:17-36:23
So I showed up and I go into the lobby and the clerk was there and I told her my name.
36:24-36:35
Well, I was there when my case was And she was just running around the office, looking under stacks of folders, and she opened this filing cabinet, and she was just running around.
36:36-36:39
She says, "Well, that's really strange.
36:39-36:43
"I can't find any paperwork." I'm like, "Well, I got some.
36:46-36:57
"Do you want mine?" But she's like, "I just, I don't." She just kept looking, and I'm just like sweating bullets, And she's just looking.
36:58-37:00
She goes, what'd you say your name was?
37:00-37:01
Miller.
37:01-37:04
She goes, I'm just not finding any record of this.
37:06-37:11
Well, then the judge walked through the lobby and through the administrative part.
37:11-37:14
And the clerk grabbed him.
37:15-37:17
And she said, she goes, excuse me.
37:17-37:20
She goes, I got Miller here.
37:20-37:21
He's here for some kind of sidewalk issue.
37:21-37:22
He has a court date at 1 o'clock.
37:23-37:25
See, I scheduled it after lunch, thinking full belly, lunch.
37:25-37:27
That was part of my strategy.
37:27-37:29
So the judge was just coming back from lunch.
37:33-37:42
So he walked through and she goes, he says he has this sidewalk issue and he never even looked up.
37:43-37:44
He just kept on walking.
37:45-37:46
He goes, it's been taken care of.
37:48-37:49
And just walked out.
37:50-37:55
And she looked at me and she goes, I guess it's been taken care of.
37:56-37:59
And I'm like, can I go?
38:00-38:02
She goes, yeah, there's-- yeah.
38:03-38:07
So I was just-- like Scooby Doo.
38:08-38:10
There's a Jeff-shaped hole in the wall.
38:17-38:23
And I think you know-- Then I had a court date for that whole.
38:26-38:27
I begged for mercy.
38:27-38:28
It was a scene.
38:30-38:36
I think you know where I'm going with this, but there are so many Christians walking around carrying guilt.
38:39-38:43
And their plan is, you know, someday I guess I'm just gonna have to stand before God and beg for mercy.
38:43-38:45
They had the same plan that I had in court that day.
38:47-38:54
When in reality, the judge says, eh, it's been taken care of.
38:55-38:57
You're worried about something.
38:59-39:07
It isn't even around anymore because Jesus, our scapegoat, has taken our guilt away.
39:09-39:09
Let's pray.
39:10-39:24
Father in heaven, I wanna pray for your people, God, because even those of us who know Jesus Christ struggle with guilt.
39:25-39:32
We think that, God, you gotta be disappointed in us and you gotta be mad at us and we're gonna have a lot of explaining to do.
39:33-39:35
And God, that's not what your word says.
39:35-39:40
I feel that sometimes, God, but that's not what your word says.
39:41-39:46
God, your word tells us that you have thoroughly taken away our guilt.
39:51-39:55
So Father, as your people, we do wanna walk worthy of the gospel.
39:55-40:03
As your people in Christ, Father, we do wanna bear fruit in keeping with repentance and change course when necessary.
40:04-40:07
But it's not from a platform of guilt.
40:07-40:09
That's from a platform of forgiven.
40:10-40:13
Wanting to do the right thing because we love you.
40:14-40:16
because of what you've done for us.
40:17-40:42
Father, for those here who don't know you, or those watching this stream or listening to this later who don't know you, I pray, Father, that they would examine very closely in their hearts and minds this promise that you've made, that Christ, Christ served as both goats.
40:42-41:17
the blood sacrifice and the taking guilt away living sacrifice. I pray Father today they'd stop trying to deal with guilt their own way and let you deal with it your way. Father we just we thank you. We thank you that we stand before bore you with no guilt because of the blood of your Son. In whose name we pray, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Leviticus 16:7-10, 15-16, 20-22 and Luke 23:39-43
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think many Christians wrestle with guilt? In what way do you personally struggle with guilt?
Explain the purposes of the 2 goats in the Day of Atonement sacrifice. How do they point to the work of Jesus?
Why is the thief on the cross a great example of how Jesus takes our guilt away?
Breakout
Pray for one another.