Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: This is not just some religious quote-unquote faith that's some kind of pie-in-the-sky dream. It's not a pie-in-the-sky and I hope it happens and I'm kind of trusting and hoping. No, trust in the scripture and hope in the scripture is a certainty of things unseen. Why? Because there's evidence. You ought to bank your life on it because there are reasons to believe it.

Dave Drew: So what is this biblical evidence that validates our trust? Where in scripture could we turn to find these encouraging promises from God? I think most of us would head straight to the New Testament. Well, today on Focal Point, Mike Fabarez points us back to the Old Testament for evidence of God's faithfulness. Currently, we're in a series called When God Makes a Promise, exploring the many reasons to believe every word from God. Pastor Mike calls today's message His Pledge and His Historical Assurances.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: As you're turning to Leviticus 16, the most holy day on Israel's calendar, Yom Kippur. Yom is the Hebrew word for day, Kippur the word for atonement. Also called Day of Atonement is the day of atonement that is discussed right here in Leviticus chapter 16. It's the most holy day on their calendar and really, those of you who know something about this day, it's really not a day anyone would greet someone with the words "Happy Yom Kippur" in the Old Testament because it was the one day in Israel's calendar where God actually called them to fast, to deny themselves.

We see a lot about fasting in the Bible, but this is the day that God called for it. Refrain from doing things that make you feel good. This is a day of sobriety. This is a day for you to step back and say, "Wow, this is serious stuff we're dealing with here." The Day of Atonement. Look at this text and how it begins as it describes the Day of Atonement and how it is supposed to be approached and understood. Leviticus 16, verse number one.

Yahweh spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached Yahweh. They died when they approached Yahweh. Do you remember who those two guys were? Nadab and Abihu. There should be a cross-reference in your margin if not, jot it down. Leviticus chapter 10. These two guys, you might remember, tried to approach God the way they wanted to in their own way. They did their own little ceremony, their own thing, and God said, "No thanks, you're dead." And he zapped them both. Aaron's two kids killed. Why? Because they approached God however they wanted to in the tent of meeting, meeting with ultimately with God.

And the text here says now, let's not repeat that mistake. Here's some prescription for you related to that. Verse two. Yahweh says to Moses, "Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the most holy place." Do you know something about the ancient tabernacle and ultimately it turned into Solomon's temple? And that is that it had outer courts and inner courts and then there was the building and the sanctuary, the set-apart building. And then within that, there was one room and that was called the Holy of Holies, the Inner Sanctum, as the old radio show put it. It's that inner room.

And in the inner room, there was nothing but this—the primary object was the box, the Box of the Promise, the Ark of the Covenant. Take the lid off, your face melts or whatever. That's the box. Haven't seen that one for a long time. Should watch that one tonight. The Ark of the Covenant was this special box that in it had the jar of manna from the wanderings, it had the tablets of the Ten Commandments, it had the rod of Aaron that budded that showed that he was to be the chosen line of the priesthood.

And on top, it had these images of these angelic beings. And on top of that, this mercy seat they called it, was God's special presence. Now of course Solomon said when he dedicated the temple, "You can't put God in a box or in a house. Obviously, you can't build a house that God can fit into." Isaiah echoes the same sentiment. But this special building, the sanctuary, was a special place where God's presence was somehow visibly present. It was there, it was tangibly focused, and it was like, this is God's special place. And if you're going to come in to meet with God, you can't do it whenever you want to.

He says don't just come whenever you want into the most holy place behind the curtain. The curtain was what separated it. No drywall, no timber. It was a curtain that separated the Holy of Holies. In front of the atonement cover on the ark or else, if you do, if you just come in any day you want, you're going to die because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. This is my focalized presence here on earth. Don't come in there whenever you want.

This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area. And as we'll see in the rest of this text, on a certain day of the year, it was called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. He is to come into the sanctuary area with a young bull and that bull is for a sin offering. That is, he's going to be killed there. And the ram is going to be burnt up as a burnt offering. He is to put on, not only to bring those sacrifices, he's to put on the sacred linen tunic and you've got special underwear. Look at this, verse four. Special linen undergarments next to the body. He's got to tie that with a linen sash around him and he's got to put on a linen turban.

These are the sacred—what does sacred mean? Holy, special, set apart garments. So he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. Gotta clean up as best you can then put on the special holy garments here. Verse five. From the Israelite community, he's supposed to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement. There's our word, the covering, to somehow take care of sin here. Atonement for himself and his household.

Verse seven. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before Yahweh at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Want to meet with God? Bring the goats. Then he's supposed to roll some dice, cast the lot if you will, for the two goats. One for Yahweh and the other for the scapegoat. Here's where we get the concept of the scapegoat. What do you do with that? Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to Yahweh and sacrifice it for a sin offering. That is for the whole nation of Israel. Verse 10. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord and he is to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.

Now all you've got to do is look at this from a New Testament perspective. Even from an Old Testament perspective and you scratch your head a lot, but you get the idea. If you're going to approach God, you can't do it however you want. You can't do it whenever you want. It's a special place. It's behind a veil, behind a curtain. And if you're going to go in there, there's lots of prep you've got to do. You've got to clean up, you've got to put on this holy garment, this outfit, this uniform. Then you've got to kill a lot of animals to show that there's a problem with sin that deserves some kind of punishment.

And then you've got to take two goats and one of them you've got to kill for the sins of the nation and the other one you've got to release into the wilderness and off he goes. He's the scapegoat and it's as though the sins of the people are taken away. If you boil it down just again through the lens of New Testament theology, if you're going to approach a holy God, you've got to somehow remove the sin and you've got to be clothed in what is righteous and holy. New Testament carries that theme out, doesn't it? Sin needs to be taken away and we need to be clothed in righteousness because we've got two problems. We're not righteous enough to hang out with God behind the veil and we're too sinful to get behind the veil and hang out with God.

So we've got to get the sin problem taken care of and the lack of righteousness, we need to have that on us. That's why in the New Testament Paul loved to say things like this—we need to be clothed in Christ. We need to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ and we need to have our sin somehow atoned for by the sacrifice not of an animal or the blood of bulls and goats, but of Jesus himself. Obviously, we see this from our perspective, we say, "Okay, we see that. It makes sense. We connect with that."

What needs to be understood though is that there is a problem that exists outside of the Holy of Holies, separated by the curtain. But inside it's different. That's not a normal room. You can walk into your own house whenever you want, dressed however you want. You can't walk into God's living room however you want. If you want to get in God's living room behind the curtain, it's a whole another ball game. As a matter of fact, it is so clear if you read the rest of Leviticus 16, there is so much you have to think about if you're going to hang out with God in God's living room. To get behind the curtain, it's just a lot of work and you've got a lot of prep to do.

Why? Because you really don't belong there and you can only go there one day a year and you're just really representing the people of Israel and you're in and you're out and that's it. And then next year, hey, we get to go in again. One guy to represent the nation. There was a book written by a theologian slash philosopher and he defines sin with some great words. A phrase that I think is so helpful for us because it resonates, it really captures the theology of sin and it resonates with us just in the vernacular in the way that we speak.

He says sin is basically this, just to put it in a summary form. He says sin is the way things shouldn't be. Things aren't the way they should be. When sin is in one sense falling short of the glory of God and all that is sinful, it's just less than what it ought to be. And that phrase is great when you look at the distinction between outside the inner sanctum and inside the inner sanctum. Inside, everything is the way it ought to be. God dwells there. He is holy. Everything's right. Outside sin, not the way that things ought to be.

And all you've got to do is look at the Bible or just, I don't know, the newspaper or your life and say, "Yeah, you know life is full of things that aren't the way they should be, right?" My life's not the way it should be. The world's not the way it should be. Church is not the way it should be. My garage is not the way it should be, right? Everything. My sock drawer, not the way it should be. Everything's messed up. Oh, there are glimpses of the way things should be. Our hearts long for perfection. Our hearts long for what's right, but it's never right. Nothing in the world is right. That's the imagery here.

Behind the veil, that's where you want to be. Problem is you really don't belong there. It's kind of like if you find the perfect church, don't join it because you'll mess it up. You've heard that one, right? Same thing. You find the perfect place where God is dwelling, don't go in there because you'll mess it all up. So you have to go through all these ceremonies to just get there and represent the people for a day. So how do we get there? Everything between Leviticus chapter 16—or I guess we could go back to Genesis 3—all the way to the end of the book, the end of Revelation, is a story of God's redemptive work and how he, not only through history and the sacrificial system, but most importantly in Christ, fixes the problem.

So that we can one day live behind the curtain. We can live in the living room of God. We can live behind the veil where things are the way they should be. As Isaiah put it, and I quoted it many times throughout this series, I mean this is the hope of the Christian life that we can live where the rough places are made plain and the crooked is made straight. It's the way it ought to be, see. Let's get to the end of the book. Just a glimpse of this. Revelation chapter 21. At the very end, look at the wonderful way it's described. And see with this picture of the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, in your mind if you can't tie this together.

Revelation 21:1. We're two chapters from the end. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. Why's the old system go away? Because it wasn't the way things should be. Sin messed it up. Then I saw the—look at the descriptive term—holy city. This is the way things ought to be. The New Jerusalem's not like the old one. It's coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying—now underline this phrase—now the dwelling of God is with men. This is the first time that happens. Now the dwelling of God is with men. Now people get to live behind the curtain, see. And he will live with them. All you had in the Old Testament was symbolism of living behind the veil. And in the New Testament, all we have is a spiritual relationship that gets in behind the veil, but we're not living there. We're still living in a place, wouldn't you agree, where things aren't the way they're supposed to be?

But God says, "I'm going to fix that." And one day through the work of everything from between Leviticus 16 and Genesis 21, I'm going to be able to bring you into a place where you can live in a place where you dwell with God. Now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. Not representative, not mediatorial, not through some priesthood or some guy with a funny hat and funny holy underwear and a sash around his waist. Not like that. This is God living with people and things will be the way they ought to be.

He will be with them and be their God. And he will wipe away—because here's the problem, when things aren't the way they're supposed to be, you cry a lot. There's all kinds of things like death and mourning and crying and pain. But he says he's going to wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain for the old order of things characterized by sin, the way things shouldn't be, they've all passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, "I'm making everything new." And he said, "Write it down for these words are trustworthy and true." You can count on it, God says in the first century to John in the Revelation.

He says and he said to me, "It's done. I'm the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end. To him who is thirsty, I'm going to give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. I'm going to do it and it's going to be grace." And people that don't deserve to live behind the curtain are going to be made into a state of reality where they can live behind the curtain. And they can live there at peace with God and everything will be the way it's supposed to be.

And unlike the garden where this was a temporary state, it will be a permanent state. The New Jerusalem goes on to talk about the end of Revelation 21, the beginning of Revelation 22, a place where we're going to want to be, where everything's the way it's supposed to be. So throughout history, even since the coming of Christ, God is pulling people out from the ranks of humanity and saying, "Hey, come over here and follow Christ." And here's what you get—the hope of living behind the curtain. That's what you get, the hope of that.

Because as soon as you become a Christian, you don't get sucked up like those tubes at the bank, right? Where there you go, right up to the place where everything is the way it ought to be. No, you get left down here. And Jesus says, "Bye-bye" to his disciples. "See you later. In this world you'll have tribulation, but take heart, I've overcome the world, but I'm coming back. See you." And off they go, off he goes and they're left, and so are we. We heard the message of the disciples, we said, "Well, this makes sense. This is right. God pulls our heart into this and we say, 'Yeah, I'm going to follow Christ. I trust in Christ.' And then what? We're left with nothing but hope."

But a hope that according to Hebrews 6—let's turn there now—that he says ought to be so certain in your mind. You ought to be sure of this. You ought to be—bank your life on it because there are reasons to believe it. And in this text, he's been trying to convince us. Consider the nature of God, consider God's dealings with Abraham, consider the way God keeps his promises. God is faithful. He's been trying to tell us when God makes a promise he keeps it. You ought to be sure of that. You ought to be confident about it. And then he gets to the center of the Bible, the person of Christ.

He starts it this way in verse 19. Remember the motive, verse 18, just to review for a second. It's all about giving us a great encouragement because we have hope that's resolved. Now look what happens. He says this, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul." It goes down and it grabs it. It is firm and secure and it's like immovable. Remember chapter 2, long, long time ago when we talked about drifting away, going down the Colorado river and everything's just going? No, you've got to hold on to this hope and there's an anchor, an anchor for the soul.

Now this is where the metaphor crosses. Watch the metaphor cross. It enters in the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Huh? See, you boaters, there you go. There's another word that sounds better than that, but you boaters—you know what this is all about. I don't. I'm not on boats. I'm not often out on boats. When I go out on boats, I'm out with somebody else on a boat, vacations or whatever. Except for this summer I rented a boat. You remember that, right? I rented a boat and Dad was the captain, okay?

Now we got to a place we found a little cove, we wanted to let the kids swim and so we were going to drop anchor. Now we had one, I'd never used one. I'd watch people use them before. My family didn't know this, I acted like I knew what I was doing. "Yeah, let me just drop anchor here." So I got the anchor out, made sure it was tied up, I knew that much. Throw it out there. Now there's a current going on in this lake that we were at and I threw the anchor down there and you know what? I was like, "Wow, it works!" Because the boat kind of turned and we were there. I didn't act like I was surprised because I wanted my family—"Yeah, I do it all the time, drop anchor." But I was like, "Wow, it's cool, it works!"

The idea though is if I'm going to drop anchor, where do I drop it? Into the water. Gotta catch something down there. I don't know how it all works, but it hooks on something and our boat stays, okay? I don't drop it into a room. Look at what this is saying. We have a hope, it's like an anchor for the soul, it's firm and secure. Now look where it goes. It's like it's cast out by a rope. It enters where? Into the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. And that anchor, it gets in there behind the curtain. Is that a bizarre metaphor? Yeah, that's where the anchor goes.

My hope is an anchor and it's behind the curtain. Do you see what we're saying here? It gets into the access of the presence of God. It gets to be where everything is the way it ought to be. It's a hope that's out there, but it's solid. Now look at the parallel. It enters into the inner sanctuary—look at verse 20 now—behind the curtain where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. Yom Kippur, that's exactly what we're talking about here. Jesus did that. He went into that place, he—and I love this phrase—who went before us, he was our forerunner.

You know what that means? We get to go too. In Israel, could you ever go behind the veil into the inner sanctum? No, not unless you were the high priest and got to go in there once a year. But this high priest goes in and he says, "One day you're going to get to go behind the curtain with me. You're going to get to live behind the curtain with me. I'm going to go behind the curtain and you're going to come behind the curtain." But right now, I will be like an anchor to you. Your hope will go behind the curtain just like I went behind the curtain. See the parallel? The anchor goes behind the curtain, Christ goes behind the curtain.

Then it says this—and he has become—bottom of verse 20—a high priest forever. While he wasn't from the Levitical tribe, how does he get to be a high priest? Because he's a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, right? Before the 12 tribes. That's all in our next series, don't worry, that's coming. It enters into the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus—same place—who went before us has entered on our behalf. The anchor is our hope, but the anchor really is analogous and parallel to Christ who entered into that place behind the curtain.

Here's the thing. We from a New Testament perspective get to look back at the ministry and work and historicity of Christ and see him do something there that should allow our hearts to anchor into that thing that he did. And then we get to hold steady and hold confident and hang on to that faith and say, "I know where I'm going. I'm going one day behind the curtain because of the work of Christ." And what that does for us is something that the Old Testament saints could never have. And that is that we get to look back on something that secures our future.

They were looking forward to it. When it came to their future hope, all they could do is hang on the promises of God. We have the promise of God like they did, solidified on oath, and then on top of that, we have the historicity of the ministry of Christ. I'll put it this way in your outline number one, if you're taking notes, jot this down. Number one, we must realize that my future, it depends on his past. My future depends on his past. Did you catch that now?

I know that right now that besides just a promise, I have something—a hope that is predicated on something that already happened in history. People say—my dad used to—put your money where your mouth is, right? When you put something on a table, it's called a down payment then we take you seriously, right? In real estate, I know it's all complicated, you got the escrow and all that, but the bottom line is we want to see something. If you're serious, don't just talk about it, do something.

Here's the great thing about us. We're looking to get behind the curtain and live in a place where everything's the way it ought to be. We can look back that God didn't just make a promise, "Hey, yeah, I'm going to buy your house." No, Jesus came on the scene and already paid for it. As a matter of fact, he used an accounting term on the cross and he cried out on the cross, "Tetelestai." What's that mean? You know it. Paid in full. Paid in full. Done. Paid for. The atonement has been paid for. Therefore, everyone now has all the credits necessary to live behind the curtain.

Oh, I'm not going—as a matter of fact, I'm going to wait to increase the gathering so we're not going to do it now. But the living behind the curtain has already been paid for. Paid in full. He didn't just write a down payment for our future home, he paid for it in full. That's why Peter said it's guaranteed, it's been paid for by the blood of Christ himself. It is reserved in heaven for us. It's paid for. He didn't just give them a credit card number where they put a little down payment on it. It's been paid for. He bought the hotel, it's just waiting for us. The bottom line is we better study that whole ministry thing of Christ. We better look at the historicity of Christ. We better figure out what this is all about because my future hangs on what he says he did. So I need to understand it. Paid in full.

Dave Drew: The only way we can have confidence in our future is by being sure of what Jesus did in the past. You're listening to Mike Fabarez on Focal Point, and if you'd like to hear more from our series called When God Makes a Promise, just go online to focalpointradio.org. Or download the free Focal Point app to find even more content and faith-building resources. You know, promises have power. They have the ability to persuade us, attract us, and assure us. It's why we're drawn to products with a lifetime warranty or a money-back guarantee.

But while most assurances we hear are exaggerated or underwhelming, God's promises never fail. And to go along with our current study on God's promises, Pastor Mike has selected a special resource we'd like to send you. It's a book from Herbert Lockyer titled All the Promises of the Bible. It catalogs every assurance God extends throughout scripture, showing how his pledges meet our deepest concerns. Looking for confidence about daily needs, security, his constant nearness, or spiritual strength? Lockyer unpacks the reliability of God's sworn commitments to his people.

Request All the Promises of the Bible when you donate to Focal Point today. It's our way of thanking you for standing with this ministry. Call us at 888-320-5885 or give online at focalpointradio.org. Prefer to mail your gift? Well, send it to Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654. Your support, whether you give once or join as a Focal Point partner with monthly donations, keeps verse-by-verse Bible teaching on the air nationwide.

Sign up as a Focal Point partner today by calling 888-320-5885 or become a partner online at focalpointradio.org. And if you're a first-time listener, we'd love to welcome you with a complimentary resource. Ask for Pastor Mike's booklet, Promises, Promises, when you contact us. Simply call 888-320-5885 or get in touch online at focalpointradio.org. Well, I'm Dave Drew. Be sure to join us tomorrow when Pastor Mike begins a message titled The Only Path to the Good Life and Making Sure You're on It. That's Tuesday on Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Pastor Mike here. I pray today's message will help you live out your faith with truth and love. After all, that's the kind of biblical faith that changes lives and transforms a crooked culture. But if you haven't truly surrendered your life to Christ, then I'd like to invite you to get in touch. We'd love to pray with you and help you discover God's plan of salvation. Visit focalpointradio.org.

Dave Drew: Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.