[Darris McNeely] Couple months ago the Beyond
Today crew took a trip to Europe to do some filming for upcoming programs of Beyond Today. We focused most of our time in Germany. For several of us in the group, it was not
our first time to go to Europe, nor Germany. Many of you have been there as well. Something I've learned as I've studied about
Europe through the years and made a few trips there is that if you want to understand Europe,
you really must go to Germany. I know France is very nice and Italy is sweet
in its own way, but you must go to Germany if you want to understand Europe. If you want to understand Germany as a nation
and as a people, then you really must go to the city of Berlin, the capital of Germany. Especially after the reunification of East
and West Germany with the fall of the Berlin War. Berlin is the place to go to understand Germany. If you go to Berlin, you must go to one spot,
one museum, called the Pergamon Museum, and there, in one room, you must see a monumental
altar called the Altar of Zeus that was built before Christ was born in the city of Pergamos
in Asia Minor. It was excavated more than a century ago by
a group of German scientists and excavators and archaeologists, and they brought this
huge, monumental frieze or altar, called the Altar of Zeus, to Berlin and they built the
museum around it. And it is the centerpiece of the museum and
it bears its particular name because on that frieze is a scene of chaos and confusion and
battle that once stood in the city of Pergamon of gods and semi-gods and men wrapped in combat,
seeking to overthrow one another, and intertwined throughout all of the gods on this altar. And I wish I could have shown you a picture
of it today but this room's not set up for showing slides on a beautiful day like it
is today so you probably wouldn't have been able to see it, but intertwined through this
are serpents, huge serpents with their mouths open, biting the men, and lions, who are also
engaged in this combat. Scholars look at that and they have studied
it, and several have come to the conclusion that that is a scene of some primeval, primordial
chaos of a gigantic battle between gods and men. Some mythic battle of the past. And on that, you have a very interesting story
because, when you see that altar, then you will understand the world. So you go to Germany to understand Europe. You go to Berlin to understand Germany. You go to this museum, in my opinion, and
look at this altar to understand something even bigger, and that is to understand the
world. Revelation 2 is the letters to the seven churches
of revelation, and specifically to the church at Pergamos. It says this. John was inspired to write this, Revelation
2, “To the angel of the church of Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the
sharp two-edged sword: I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne
is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not
deny My name even in the day when Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was killed among
you, where Satan dwells.’” Scholars and I feel they are correct when
they say that when the church at Pergamos was read this letter, they understood immediately
what the allusion was to, and that was this huge Altar of Zeus that dominated their city,
set on a hill in the midst of a plateau. Those of you who have made the trip to the
seven churches in Turkey perhaps have seen the spot where it once stood, but as a sight
to see the actual reconstruction of it, that's in a museum in Berlin. But I think that the connection is correct,
that when the members of the Church of God heard this letter, that they lived where Satan
dwells, they, in their mind, went straight to that altar and understood exactly what
it meant. Not just because of the altar but so many
other things that were a part of that city of Pergamos at that time. But to look at that altar and to understand
that battle that is taking place as it is described mythically. When you understand the truth of God, you
come to understand something about what operates at another level in today's world that people
just do not understand and that brings us, brethren, to the meaning of the Day of Atonement. That brings us to why we are here today keeping
this Holy Day. This commanded solemn assembly, a very solemn
one as was even described in Leviticus 23, and also afflicting ourselves through fasting
to put our minds into an entirely different dimension. As we keep the Day of Atonement, it shows
us something very important about this world. It shows us that this world is not what it
seems. That there are forces, there are powers, there
is a spiritual dimension to this world that men do not see. That is not normally understood, recognized,
and appreciated. But there is an unseen spirit and spirits,
in this world, that influence so much of the physical. When we come to the Day of Atonement, this
is a very important concept and meaning, I think, for us to focus on and to understand
about our world today. You know, in Leviticus 16 is a long description. We don't have the time and will not go through
all of that today, but the very grand and elaborate ritual that the high priest did
on this day when he sacrificed many animals, but primarily two goats were brought before
the priest and lots were cast over the two goats. One to determine a goat to be sacrificed for
the people and the other a goat that was to be let go out into the wilderness by a man
and was not killed. But it was not let go until it had confessed
over it, that one live goat, the sins of the people. And we understand that one of those goats
represents Jesus Christ, slain and killed for sin, and the other represents Satan, not
killed but let go. But having placed upon him the sins of Israel
and therefore the sins of the world, and then he's let go into the wilderness. But what is interesting to note about that
is human beings, not even the high priest at that time, could determine which of the
goats were to be representing Christ and which representing Satan. Lots had to be cast in order to determine
God's will, and God then showed which one would be slain and which one would be let
go. Human discernment, human eyes, couldn't see,
couldn't tell on that critical moment, on that Day of Atonement, for that very special
part of the offerings that were given that day. As the priest prepared himself to go into
the holy of holies only one time. We take a lesson from that. Our eyes today cannot see, really, what takes
place in this world unless we tune to the Word of God unless we believe what God's Word
says. And unless we come to keep a Day of Atonement
the way God tells us to keep it, as a Holy Day, a day of fasting, then we will lose sight
of that very critical key about the way this world operates at that level, that spiritual
level, and the adversary that is still loose and we still must be aware of and is not yet
finished in his particular agenda. Isaiah 14 tells us about this. Isaiah 14 we understand to be a picture that
tells us something that happened long before Adam was formed. At some point in eternity, when a decision
was made, in Isaiah 14 beginning in verse 12 where it says, “How you're fallen from
heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who
weakened the nations!” Other scriptures give us the understanding
that Lucifer was a covering cherub and a very high ranking angelic being, a part of the
creation and that time in God's purpose and plan, and he fell from that position, from
that influence that he had. But he says he weakens the nations, “For
you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides
of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,”
or to the grave, “to the lowest depths of the pit.” Isaiah begins to unfold a little bit of the
history that took place before Adam, and at that time, I think, depicted by that Altar
of Zeus in the museum of Pergamon in a human fashion, at least, between a titanic battle
between gods and men. But I think that is actually portraying a
fight that erupted, that took place, that is described in Revelation 12 where that serpent
drug a third of the stars with him in a rebellion against God. As described herein Isaiah. And, again, we wouldn't understand that except
by God's revelation, by the Word of God. Paul, the apostle Paul, writes in Ephesians
6 about the real battle that we fight when it comes down our spiritual battles that are
in front of us as Christians in this well-known passage out of Ephesians 6, beginning in verse
10. Where he says “Finally, my brethren, be
strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness
in the heavenly places.” This is what Paul reveals, again, by God's
Spirit to be the real field of battle for all of the people of God, the Christian battle. It is a spiritual fight and it's not always
against ourselves, even though at times it is. When we get crossways with one another, we
may have a bit of conflict at times in the Church and we have had and do have at times
on an individual level. No matter what it might be, we've got to always
remember what Paul says. We're not wrestling against flesh and blood
but there are powers. There's levels of spiritual wickedness in
our age today in heavenly places. Spiritual powers that we don't see, that we
don't fully understand and, again, observing the Day of Atonement as this one day, among
all the others of God's festivals, God's Holy Days, really opens that understanding up to
us and helps us to understand something critically important about this world. There was one other passage that I love to
teach every year when I go through the book of Daniel with the Ambassador Bible College
classes, in Daniel 10, where Daniel's praying and wanted understanding about some part of
the plan of God. And finally, a man came to him, an angelic
being, and he said, “I've been delayed for a period of time. The prince of Greece withstood me.” And then he gave the vision, the revelation,
to Daniel and he said, “I've got to go. And the prince of Greece is going to fight
me again and he's going to be aided by the prince of Persia, but Michael, another of
the archangels, will come and help me.” And it's one of those little glimpses into,
again, that world that we get in the Bible that we always wish we knew more about. But what we're being told there is that at
the levels, even, of great nations, powerful empires and nations in the world throughout
history, they're influenced by powerful spirit beings. A prince of Persia, a prince of Greece, and
that there are decisions and there are battles, there are challenges, that take place behind
the curtain, if you want to look at it, that we don't see in this world. And yet the Bible tells us about it. And, again, we come to the Day of Atonement
to be reminded of that, and in all of the symbolism and all that this day does picture,
this is one, I think, is important for us at this time to, kind of, focus on. When we look, as we read in Isaiah 14, Lucifer
said “I will ascend to the heavens. I will be like the Most High.” Ezekiel's account says that “iniquity was
found in his heart.” Sin. You have there the rudimentary fragments of
Satan's agenda. Lucifer, fallen, identified finally as Satan. Satan has an agenda. It's really very simple. It comes down to two points. Number one, Satan's agenda is a hatred of
God. Why would he want to be like the Most High,
except that he felt he could do a better job. Why would he want to ascend to that throne
and do battle with those angels that he led? And, again, I really do believe that it was
led to be put and carved in and chiseled in stone on that Altar of Zeus to depict that. It's tinged with all the Greek mythology and
figures of it, but behind it is a core truth that we are told here in Scripture. Satan hates God. Number two on Satan's agenda, his hatred of
mankind. The creation. That part of the created order that would
be in the image of God, with the opportunity, with the potential, to become a part of the
family of God. And he hates that creation. He hates mankind. And that's the real agenda that Satan has,
and brethren that's the real agenda that is behind every major issue that we see in our
world today. Every major issue. As you know, I like to keep up with what's
going on in the world and I think we should. I'm born and bred in the Church of God culture
and I think that we should know what's going on in the world today. And as I watch and read and listen to everyone
argue back and forth, blame the left, blame the right, blame the liberals, blame the conservative,
blame the Democrats, blame the Republicans, blame the men, blame the woman, blame the
white guy, blame the black guy, blame the Russians, blame whoever else you want it to
be, and all of this sides and all of this it's instructive. You have to sort through it all. But if a saint of God, any of us, get caught
up in the political, ideological, racial, gender aspects of all that is dividing the
world today, brethren, we're deceived and we're being absorbed into the world. And we're not coming out of it. Don't kid yourself. Don't kid yourself. I may identify with a certain person or a
certain network of news or a certain point of view, for whatever reason, but the one
point of view that I'd better not lose sight of is what is described in here as God's point
of view, God's worldview. Our world today is divided by issues. Gender issues, sexual issues that have come
to the fore… to the fore in a resounding crescendo that I would have never dreamed
in my lifetime to see. It's funny to go back over notes that I have
in my files from 10, 15 years ago as people were up in arms about certain issues then,
and what they must be writing about now. And that because of what we see and how far
things have gone, it's very instructive to see how quickly this has happened. We are in the midst of a cultural war, there's
no question about it, and it's ripping the soul of not only America but Germany, Spain,
the Middle East, Asia. The world is being ripped apart in so many
ways at that level, while at the same time another force is trying to bring everyone
together into a global society where there's no borders, no nationalities, no Germans,
no Italians, no Americans, no Canadians, no family, and in some minds even the real agenda
comes out, no sex in terms of gender. You can have all the sex you want with whomever
or whatever, but to break down even that, what is thought to be barrier between male
and female, and change the whole dynamic of the human creation, it's all part of what
is swirling around us in all these issues that come out. And it's ripping our souls and our world today. And it's no matter who you vote for. It doesn't really matter, in one sense, who
you might support because behind it all is the one agenda of a powerful spirit being
who hates God and hates the human creation. And regardless of the issue, the time, whatever
advances the destruction of that will win in his mind. The world today is being herded into a box
canyon and one day the trap will be sprung and it will truly be revealed that the power
that is there, but it will be too late. Wherever Satan has his throne there's chaos,
there's confusion, and there's suffering. And the world is not what it seems to be and
we must never forget the levels to which we must discern everything that we see. One of the other things that we learn from
the Day of Atonement is that evil does exist and evil has a name in the world. It is Satan. It does exist. Psychologists and psychoanalysts and those
who study the human condition are trained to not accept the spirit realm as an explanation
for evil or for suffering or for the human condition and maladies that they study. That's not part of the curriculum, but there
are some things that even a student psychologist and psychiatrist have to admit and understand
are there to try to even explain what chaos goes on in a person's mind that they resort
to unspeakable evil. On the individual scale or on a mass scale. Things that they realize cannot be explained
by the chemistry of the mind, cannot be totally explained, even, by upbringing and by society
and sociological factors because a lot of people are born into abusive situations, abusive
families. They are born with certain disabilities, but
not everyone turns to evil as a result of where they were born, how they were raised,
or certain other problems. It's the critically astute evil that takes
place, that is hard for them to explain by anything physical. The smart ones realize that chaos, as they
call it, sometimes they think that chaos might happen in a person's mind to jumble everything
around to result in a psychopathic murderer, homicidal maniac, but the smart ones recognize
that chaos is just really another way to explain evil. In John 8, Jesus Christ cut through all of
that when he was talking to the Jews and showing them something that we cannot forget. John 8:44. He said to them, after much debate back and
forth, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own
resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” That's it. That shows the origin of evil. Satan was a murderer from the beginning, Christ
said, he was a liar from the beginning. There's no further explanation, in one sense,
to understand the source of evil in this world today, and it does come from a mind that sought
iniquity rather than righteousness. This is the mind that Christ is describing
here. This is the source of evil. One of the other things that we had the opportunity
to tour on our trip a couple months ago in Germany was a concentration camp, Sachsenhausen. One of the lesser known of the infamous camps
from World War II and the Nazi era in Germany. I had never been to a concentration camp and
we took a few hours one morning and went through Sachsenhausen. And there they have the ovens and there they
have the building where people were killed, and it's all laid out there for you to see. And we were all sobered by that, by what we
saw, and the method by which it was done because all of that was very plain to see, as well,
as to how it was done. And you could picture it right down to the
door being slammed on the oven as a dolly rolled the bodies in. And they had it down to a process. I won't go into all the details, but it was
sobering to see that and to reflect upon the depths of evil that sometimes have arisen
throughout history to a national level. One of the things that I've noticed about
the Germans, post-war Germany, and I will give credit to this, they have not sought
to hide what took place during that Nazi era. We also went to a place where a taping was
done right in the heart of Berlin where they have built a museum called the Topography
of Terror right on the site of the Gestapo headquarters. And it is a museum dedicated to putting faces
to evil is the way they explain it. To putting faces to evil, and they have the
faces of virtually everyone they could gather from the Nazi period National Socialist party
who contrived and worked and labored to create the Holocaust. From those at the top to clerks and workers
who aided and abetted at the lower levels. They've got their faces there, they've got
their stories so that people can go through and see and not forget. And the place was packed. People were lined up well before 10 o'clock
to get through the gate on the day we were there. So they have chronicled the Holocaust of World
War II and what has taken place there, and when you see evil at that point you are reminded
of verses like this. You are reminded, again, of the way the world
works and how you understand that. Because as people have sought to describe
antisemitism that would reach to that height of evil, they still try to find the right
words, the right thesis, the right book to figure it all out as to why that happened
in and among the Germans who, before, had produced the great works of art like Beethoven
and Goethe and other works of art. And had contributed a great deal to culture
and to civilization to be turned to that. But the Germans are not the only ones. Holocausts have been done by Russians, by
Turks, by Arabs, by people of all different sorts. Jews have been persecuted for a long period
of time by many different people, and other ethnicities have been persecuted and genocide
has been perpetrated upon them, as well. And that's something we need to understand
in terms of the ultimate source of that. In Ephesians 2, the apostle Paul talks about
a power that works. Ephesians, the second chapter, beginning in
verse 1. “You He made alive,” he said, “who were
dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the
sons of disobedience.” Now the prince to the power of the air. Understood here to be Satan who broadcasts
in the spiritual power through the air, like a radio or television wave, and influences
minds to create wrath. And Paul reminds the people that you were
like that, but he says in verse 4, “God was rich in mercy because of His great love
which He showed us.” And a sacrifice has been provided to restore,
to reconcile us. But he gets to the very heart of this. I remember the first time I heard this being
explained in a way to recognize how human nature is influenced and how human nature
does the evil things that it does, and Mr. Armstrong explained it on the Day of Atonement
one year. I remember it very well. I was in the audience and listening to it,
and it opened up a whole new understanding for the Church to understand about human nature
and how evil works. And how Satan broadcasts his attitude among
mankind and creates this condition of evil as he works his purpose and his plan. This is all backed up by what we read in Revelation
12, as well, where there is one key chapter that even talks about the deception that Satan
has. Revelation 12:10. It says “I heard a loud voice saying in
heaven, ‘Salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ
have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night,
has been cast down.’” Satan. The accuser of the brethren who is identified
in verse 9 as the deceiver of all in the world. This is a chapter that talks a great deal
about the work that Satan has had as he has attacked the Church, beginning in verse 1
here, but again, because the world doesn't keep the way of God and certainly doesn't
keep the Day of Atonement with full understanding that all the Scriptures, both old and new,
lay upon it, they cannot fully appreciate the role and what these verses are saying. And the reality is that Satan's work is cloaked
a great deal in our world today and people don't understand and would not have that understanding
of the way things work and the way things are as a result of that. And that's what's really being… God is showing us here that there is a deception
and you don't know you're deceived if you're deceived, but there's going to come a time,
and these verses show that when that will be lifted. And there will be a change because behind
all the verses here in verse 12 is Satan's attack and persecution upon the woman, identified
as the Church. And there is described one last battle, it
seems, one other attempt by Satan and his demons to usurp God, and he's cast back down
to the earth with great wrath, as verse 12 says, knowing that he has but a short time. And at that point in the narrative, it opens
up the reality that Satan's attention is not going to be on the Jews. One people who, in their own way, through
the ages have remained faithful to God in terms of, at least, an identity, knowledge
of the Sabbath, the fourth commandment, and because even in those few ways that they have
maintained their identity and a semblance of that former relationship through the covenant
of the people of Israel, that's the reason that antisemitism has been such a virulent
problem throughout human history against Jews. Because they have, in a sense, worn their
identity out there and they have preserved it, to their credit, but it has cost them. But keep in mind Satan's agenda is that he
hates God and so often, throughout history, he has turned human governments against those
people who stand out, in a sense, like a thumb. Won't call it a sore thumb but they stand
out very well as people of the covenant, the remnant of Israel, and they have born their
brunt of persecution. What Revelation 12 is showing is there's going
to come a day when that persecution will turn off of the Jews and it will turn upon the
people of God, because that's what it begins here in verse 13. “He persecutes the woman who gave birth
to the male Child.” That's the Church. The Church is given an opportunity for protection,
wings to fly into a place called her place, into the wilderness, a place that has been
prepared, but the serpent, verse 15, “spews out water like a flood after the woman,”
but there is protection. The earth helps the woman. In verse 16, “The earth opens its mouth,”
swallows up the flood that had been spewed out of the mouth of the dragon. The powers that are then dragooned against
the church, at that point, are stayed but verse 17 says, “The dragon was enraged with
the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments
of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The commandments of God and the testimony
of Jesus Christ, the two identifying features of the people of God at this moment in history,
at the end of the age. The commandments of God and the testimony
of Jesus Christ. You're here today, and I'm here today because
we keep the commandments of God. We're here today because we understand the
fullness of the testimony of Jesus Christ. We know how it all works together in the Bible,
old and new, to give us a full revelation of truth and the purpose and plan of God. That's why we're here today and there will
be a time when, in a sense, the protection over all parts of the Church may be lifted
and there's going to be a time of persecution. Who that will be upon and who will be a part
of that I'm not going to try to put labels upon people. Every time that's been attempted in the past
in the Church we create internal problems. Let's just take the Word for what it says
and recognize that that is the force that is turned against the people of God because
they obey God, and that's what lies ahead. But for today, we are told to “resist the
devil and that he will flee from us.” In 1 Peter 5, Peter tells us that Satan is
like a roaring lion. 1 Peter 5. This is another reason that we keep a Day
of Atonement, brethren, because of what 1 Peter 5 tells us regarding Satan. In verse 5 of 1 Peter 5, Peter cautions us
to humility. He says “You younger, submit yourselves
to your elders, and all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility.” There's nothing like a fast track to humility
then a day of fasting. Takes all the wind down. Just, kind of, realizes “Hey, wait a minute,
that's all we are. Just a bunch of windbags. Hot air.” Takes it all out for a brief period of time
and reminds us of a few critical factors. That we're physical. Reminds us we're not yet to the Kingdom, but
it also reminds us that we need to be humble and that “‘God resists the proud, but
he gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting your care upon Him, for He cares
for you.” And then the teaching that, again, springs
out to us on this Day of Atonement, he says, “Be sober, be vigilant; your adversary the
devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” A roaring lion. Remember by description of the Altar of Zeus? Lions are a part of that along with serpents,
huge serpents, and lions gnawing and attacking on that, as well. Like I've said, there's no greater symbol
that I think shows us so much — available on any one spot on the face of the earth today
than that Altar of Zeus. You know, probably like you, how many of you
are fascinated by lions? When I go to the zoo I don't care about anything
else. I want to see the lions. You've got lions? I want to see the lions. I just love to watch them. Been fortunate to see them in the wild a couple
of times on safaris in Africa, and we've seen a couple of lion kills. The last one we saw, it was last summer, we
were there and it was about eight o'clock in the morning. We came up upon 14, 15 lions. In the middle of the road they had just brought
down a giraffe and they were having breakfast. And the way they do these safaris, you're
out in these open jeep-type trucks out in the bush. It's crazy. And you come and you drive right up, and the
guide stopped us right in the middle of this pride of lions having breakfast. And they're walking all around us. We're not even in seat belts. They don't know those things over there. And normally they don't bother you. They're focused on eating and if you don't
make a lot of sudden gestures or movements, you'll be okay. Well, another safari truck pulled in front
of us and the international tourists, I won't say who, started clicking away with their
cameras and talking, and it kind of agitated the lions. One of them walked right around behind us,
Debbie and I were sitting at the back of the truck, and literally, about four feet separated
one lioness from Debbie. And I'm just looking over my shoulder and
I caught the eye of the lioness looking at my wife as it paused, and I said “Honey,
don't move.” Because one spring it could have been right
in the middle of the truck, and even the guide we were with got a little bit nervous and
once that lioness walked on by he said “I think we've seen enough.” And when a guide in Africa gets nervous and
says it's time to go, you know it's time to go. You don't ask any questions. But to see the way they work and what they
do and to look them in the eye, it brings a verse like this home. They stalk, they attack, they get what they
want. The stories are fabulous about lions actually
stalking human beings in Africa. Well maybe fabulous isn't really a good word
for that, but they're gripping. Let's put it that way. And instructive as to what Peter is telling
us, as God tells us, that we have that type of an adversary. That's what we come to when we keep the Day
of Atonement. This day shows a solution to the world's problems. In Revelation 20:1, brethren, after Christ's
return pictured by the Day of Trumpets, and in verse 1 another event where an “angel
comes from heaven, with a key to the bottomless pit and a great chain is in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent
of old, who was the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him
into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, that he should deceive
the nations no more til the thousand years were finished. But afterwards, released for a little while.” There will be a day when this source of evil,
this power, will be removed from the world. Satan will be bound. But it hasn't happened yet and today's world,
and the conditions that we see is a major proof for keeping God's Holy Days. Any group that does not keep the Holy Days,
claiming to be Christian, claiming to be Bible based, but they don't keep the Holy Days,
to that degree they will be divorced from a true understanding of God, His purpose,
and His plan. Because the Church of God does keep the Holy
Days and has for many, many years, we understand the plan of God. We know the Father, we know Jesus Christ,
and we also know where we are in that plan. We understand the times in which we live and
we understand, as well, because we keep the Holy Days and, specifically, the Day of Atonement,
we understand this world. That it is not what it seems and we understand
why it is the way that it is. In the early days of my ministry, I had a
college instructor who departed the faith and he wrote a letter trying to argue against
the need to keep the Holy Days. One of the things that he said was that “We
have the Passover, we have the sacrifice of Christ, we don't need to keep the Day of Atonement
because it's all done.” I remember thinking, well, that's an interesting
way to approach it. If only Christ was to die for sin, and if
that's all there was as far as the plan of God, then how do we explain the last 2,000
years? How do we explain what's happened to this
point? How do we explain our world? Let's bring it down to our level. If our sins are forgiven, which they are when
we accept the sacrifice of Christ, when we repent in faith, and when our sins are forgiven,
when we're reconciled to God, does that make the world a better place? Does that remove all the evil and suffering
from the world? No, it doesn't. It's only a part of God's purpose and plan
with a group called the firstfruits for a time. Atonement shows that there's another step,
and that step is in the future. And we fast for humility to be reminded that
we will be released from that suffering when that day comes. Through the years I've come to really appreciate
the Day of Atonement. To be honest, I have to tell you, it's one
of my favorite days. I don't like to fast, I get hungry, I get
thirsty, my stomach gnaws and growls just like yours is doing right now, but when you
understand what it means and what it pictures, it is awesome. And it's beauty and it's grandeur for the
world. And years ago I came to realize, you know
what, I fast, I do it because God commands us to do it and I'm going to do it also because
this is my protest. You know, people used to fast years ago, they
don't do it so much anymore, they would go on hunger fasts if they were in prison. Gandhi did this against the British empire. They would literally starve themselves, some
to death, through the years. It was a political tool but it really didn't
change a whole lot in many cases. But, you know, I kind of began to look at
my fast and the Day of Atonement as at least my protest against the evil, the suffering
of this world, as God has told us to do that. If I can borrow a modern setting, on the Day
of Atonement I take a knee for God. All right? I take a knee for God because I understand
what's behind all the other problems. That everyone wants to protest about today
in the world, regardless of what they are, and as bad as they all are. Past evils, present evils. I understand the source, and that's why I
keep this day. In Hebrews 9 the beauty of this day is laid
out. Beginning in verse 11, when it describes Christ
as a “High Priest of the good things to come, of a greater and more perfect tabernacle
not made with hands, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but
with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal
redemption.” The high priests in the old covenant went
into the holy of holies one day a year, on the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for
the sins of all the people for that year. Christ did that and that's where He is today,
and that blood means far more. Down to verse 23, he says, “Therefore it
was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens would be purified with these,
but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ does not enter the holy places
made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters
the Most Holy Place every year with the blood of another.” That's what was done on the Day of Atonement
every year under the Old Covenant. “He then would have had to suffer often
since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Christ's sacrifice has done that, once for
all, and Christ sits today, as these verses show us, at the right hand of God as our High
Priest, making intercession for His people, for the saints, and occupying that critically
important role. Now, in chapter 10 here of Hebrews, we go
down to verse 12, and it says something else that helps us to paint the picture of Christ's
role and what He's doing right now. Hebrews 10:12, “But this Man, after He had
offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,” that's what
He did. He has sat down at the right hand of God. Stephen had a vision of that very scene, “from
that time,” verse 13, “waiting.” Waiting. That's where Christ is right now. He is sat down at the right hand of God and
He's “waiting until all His enemies are made His footstool.” He's waiting. Now He's not idle. He's very active, along with the Father, but
He's waiting. And that's where Christ is now. We celebrate the Passover because of all that
it means for the sins of all mankind up to this point, and Christ has ascended and He's
waiting until His enemies be made His footstool. That hasn't happened yet and, again, He keeps
the Day of Atonement to be reminded that it hasn't happened yet, and to understand why
this world is the way that it is. And to recognize that Satan is still alive
and well on the planet earth. Satan's throne symbolized I think, even my
that Altar of Zeus in the Pergamon Museum. He' still on this throne, or he's still on
this earth. His power, his role, is still permeating the
world today, and though he's not limited to one throne and one spot and one city and one
country, like, that would be in Germany, his influence still purveys this world. And this world is not what it appears. Let's remember that as we come to the close
of this Day of Atonement. Here in chapter 10, in verse 19 it says, “Therefore,
brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh.” Paul writes to boldness here, and boldness
is what we need in our lives every day, to stand against the deceptions and the wiles
of Satan. To stand strong in confidence in the faith
of God. Boldness. Because, in verse 21, we have “a High Priest
over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. And let us hold fast the confession of our
hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to
stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as the
manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Let's be very grateful, brethren, for that
confidence and boldness that we have. That we have a High Priest waiting, and waiting
not only to the Day when His enemies are made His footstool but waiting to help us, His
people, overcome this world and to demonstrate the faithfulness in Him, in Christ, and in
His Father. Have a good Feast of Tabernacles to all of
you.
