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Text from Leviticus 16
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Text from Leviticus 16
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The speaker discusses the book of Leviticus and focuses on Leviticus chapter 16, which tells the story of the Day of Atonement. The chapter describes the rituals and sacrifices that the high priest, Aaron, had to perform in order to make atonement for the sins of the Israelites. The speaker explains that the laws and ordinances in Leviticus are divided into ceremonial, civil, and moral laws, all of which reflect God's holiness and righteousness. The speaker emphasizes that God is the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong. I invite you to stand, please, for the reading of Scripture. We continue in Leviticus, and we're hitting several key stories there. Probably not the book that we tend to go to a lot for sermons on Sunday mornings. Nevertheless, here we are, by God's grace. Leviticus chapter 16, and this is a little bit of long reading because it's an entire chapter. We're not going over the details of all the laws and the ordinances that are written in the book of Leviticus, but there's a couple of them that we want to call our attention to, and this one's a big one. So this is the story of the Day of Atonement, and it's in Leviticus chapter 16, verses 1 through 34, and this is God's Word. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of his two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the most holy place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area, with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He is to put on the sacred linen tunic with linen undergarments next to his body. He is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments, so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. From the Israelite community, he is 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 for himself and for his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord in sacrifice for a sin offering, but the goat chosen by Lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. And he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the testimony so that he will not die. He is to take some of the bull's blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover. Then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover. And he shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull's blood. He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do this for the same for the Ten of Meeting which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness. No one is to be in the Ten of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out having made atonement for himself, his household, and the old community of Israel. Then he shall come out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and put it all on the horns of the altar. He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites. When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Ten of Meeting, and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goats. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites, all their sins, and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. And the goat will carry on itself all the sins to a solitary place and the man shall release it in the desert. Then Aaron is to go to the Ten of Meeting and take off the linen garments he put on before he entered the Most Holy Place and he is to leave them there. He shall bathe himself with water in a holy place and put on his regular garments. Then he shall come out and sacrifice the burnt offering for himself and the burnt offering for the people to make atonement for himself and for the people. He shall also burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar. The man who releases the goat as a scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. Afterwards he may come into the camp. The bull and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp. Their hides, their flesh, and their fall are to be burned up. The man who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. Afterwards he may come into the camp. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you. On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work, whether native-born or an alien living among you, because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins. It's a Sabbath of rest and you must deny yourselves. It's a lasting ordinance. The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest is to make atonement. He is to put on the sacred linen garments and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the Ten of Meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the people of the community. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you. Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites. And it was done as the Lord commanded Moses. The word of the Lord and thanks be to God. Please be seated. Okay, a lot there. Let's dig in in a few minutes and see what we have for us here. Today's message is entitled, Atonement Will Be Made For You. And we're going to see how this text is structured. Verses 1 and 2 we read of a solemn warning. Verses 3 through 4 we see where the priest enters into God's presence. Verses 15 through 22, atonement for sin. Verses 23 through 28, then the priest withdraws from God's presence. And then at the end, verses 29 through 34, we read of a lasting ordinance. And then we'll take a couple minutes, as we do, to see Jesus in the wilderness. So the first five books of the Bible, the first five books of the Old Testament, of course they're all generally attributed to Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. In some Bible translations on the first page of your Bible, the first page of the Old Testament, the first page of Genesis, the heading across the top will read something like the book of Moses, or the five books of Moses. We generally attribute these to Moses. It's true that Moses may not necessarily have written these books by his own hand, but we hold that at least Moses is considered something like the general editor of the project that compiled these five books. We think there were a number of people writing with and for Moses to compile these books. And for a few centuries, these first five books would have been the totality of God's Word. So the rest of the Old Testament, from Joshua through the prophets, being written much, much later. So there was a time, 3,400 years ago, when these five books were the only books of the Bible. This was it. And for a season of time, God's Word was expressed to man in just these five books and these five books alone. And in the middle of these five books, we find the book of Leviticus. A lot of laws and a lot of commands and a lot of ordinances. We find that Leviticus is largely divided into two sections. The first half of the book deals with religious regulations. It's about the rules, about how Israel is to worship, how it's to conduct its offerings and the sacrifices. So we would say that the first half of the book of Leviticus deals with Israelite ceremonial law. The second half of Leviticus describes how the Israelite people are to interact with each other. The behavior that God requires of His people as they engage with each other. The second half of the book of Leviticus largely deals with Israelite civil law. And then, of course, the totality of the law, the totality of the Israelite law, whether ceremonial or civil, is also founded upon and driven by the moral law. The Ten Commandments are primarily a compilation of ceremonial law and the civil law flow. Now, the ceremonial and the civil law are not merely arbitrary distinctions. They align with God's moral law. And they do so because we know that God is the moral arbiter of the universe. So all of God's law aligns with God because God is the moral arbiter of the universe. He is the arbiter over all things. Recall in the book The Reasons for God, written by Presbyterian pastor and theologian Tim Keller, Keller describes God as the great says who. Who is the universal arbiter over right and wrong? God. Why? Because God is the one who has always been the great says who, and He's the only one who can be the great says who. In the big scheme of things in the universe, who has the right and the power and the authority to declare what's right and what's wrong? It's God. There's nobody else that gets to do that. God is the one. So God's ceremonial and civil law are not arbitrary distinctions. All of God's laws are direct reflections of God's holiness and God's righteousness. Okay. A law lesson for today. No tests later on after that. Maybe we should have one, but a big law lesson for today. All right. In the middle of Leviticus, located between these two considerations of the law, we find Leviticus chapter 16, the text where we're at today. And it's the spot where the moral and ceremonial and civil law of God all converge. They all kind of converge right in the middle of the text. As we've seen already, it's the spot where the first five books of the Old Testament converge. And at the time that we said that they're writing, this is all there was to God's Word. So this means that what was the full revelation of God at this particular time in history of the world and the history of God's people all converges here. This is the crux of the story. This is the middle of the Bible as it was presented back in those days. The crux of the story of God and his people are found here in Leviticus, right in the middle, chapter 16. So what does Leviticus chapter 16, what's it about? What does it reference? Well, as we see, Leviticus 16 is about a specific set of laws, commands, ordinances governing what's known as the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement. Ceremony for God's people. The regulation of the Day of Atonement declares a civil event. It's on the tenth day of the seventh month when the people of Israel are to take the day off from work and observe the day. This regulation also describes a ceremonial event as the priests and the people are to follow the liturgy of God that God has prescribed. And this regulation, of course, articulates a moral law of God because the matter before the people is their sin and the sin of the nation. And that's all what this day is about. Now, this may seem strange because buried in Leviticus, we know there's already something about daily sacrifices, right? The people of Israel would make daily sacrifices for their sin. Well, if they did that, if they made the daily sacrifices for sin, why is there a need also for a Day of Atonement? Well, here's the truth. The sacrificial system regulating that daily practice, that daily practice that they would do, this was not sufficient. This was not sufficient. Why? Well, first of all, everything, of course, is broken, corrupted, tainted by the fall. So the priest, for example, that offered the sacrifices for sin, right? The priest himself is sinful. He comes as a sinful individual into the temple, into the holy place to offer the sacrifices. Not only that, but the animals that serve as the daily sacrifices, those animals are tainted as well, right? Animals are supposed to be without spot or blemish. If you sacrifice an animal for sin, it's supposed to be an animal without spot or blemish. Well, as you know, you might have the blue-ribbon winning prize 4H calf. He may look that way on the outside, but he may not be that way on the inside. Because every animal, every day, is dying on the inside. Just that alone, right? Our cell death and reproduction that goes on in our bodies and goes on in the animals every day means every animal is dying on the inside. Not only that, but that doesn't take into consideration the disease or the injury or the defect that exists on the inside of an animal that you can't see. Back in this day, they did not have x-rays, blood tests, MRIs, and body scans to see whether or not an animal was without spot or blemish. And so the animals brought to the sacrifice, though they looked perfect on the outside, could not possibly have been so. And so the sacrifices were all insufficient. And then the other question is this. There's also the matter of unrepentant sin. So the regulation of the daily sacrifices for sin was that you committed a sin, you confessed that sin, and then you took the sacrifice for that sin, to atone for that sin. But that doesn't cover any sin that you haven't confessed, nor does that cover the sins that you don't even know about. You and I carry a record of sins. And I'm thankful that there are some sins out there that I can't even imagine. I don't want to know my full record of sins. I don't really want to know that list. There's a list out there, and that existed for the people of Israel as well. So they weren't able and they weren't willing to fully confess all their sins, to have the sacrifices for all their sins. And so you could see the deficiencies of the system. There has to be something that atones for all these unrepentant sins. And so along with the daily sacrifices, God also said, fine, let's do a once per year religious observance when the high priest will enter the tabernacle, proceed in the holy of holies, into the most holy place, the very heart of the tabernacle, at which time God will provide atonement for the people and the nation. And this is the very broad picture of what we find in the middle of Leviticus, which we know is the day of atonement. It's what they did back in the day. They still kind of celebrate this, if you know a Jewish person, and you might go to Yom Kippur, the Yom Kippur, Yom is day, Kippur, atonements. They may celebrate that on this day. This is still a tradition among many Jewish people, to celebrate the day of atonements. So we look at our text today, and we see a couple things that we do want to take note about in chapter 16, verse 2, because we find, and we understand, that these rules must be followed, and they must be followed precisely. There cannot be any carelessness in the tense. Look at verse 2 of our text. This is when Aaron is going to go into the tabernacle. Look what the text says. It says, the Lord says to Moses, tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the most holy place, behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover, or else he will die. Aaron, as we know, and we'll see in a minute, has already lost two sons, right? Nadab and Abihu, because they acted inappropriately before God. And so God here issues a solemn warning. He says atonement is only going to occur in a manner that God has prescribed. And we come to verse 3 through 14. Here a section of the text is giving us a little information about the preparation the priest must follow on the day of atonement. Now why does God's Word take such pains to articulate how the priest is to enter into God's presence? And as we said, the big reason is that we all remember the story of Nadab and Abihu. And we find this in Leviticus chapter 9 verse 22. These guys were sons of Aaron. So here's what the text says. This is Leviticus chapter 9. It says, Aaron lifted his hands toward the people, blessed them, having sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering, the fellowship offering. He stepped down. Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out, they blessed the people. And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions of the altar. And all the people saw it, and they shouted for joy, and they fell face down. So far, so good. But come to chapter 10 and verse 1, and we find Aaron's sons and their unwillingness to stick to the plans and the consequences of their actions. Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, took their censers, put fire in them, added incense, and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Now, we're not exactly sure why Nadab and Abihu are condemned by God. I mean, we get a little bit of the picture, but we're not sure what Scripture means by unauthorized fire. If you're reading King James, it says that they had strange fire before the Lord. We don't really know what that means, but we do get the picture clearly enough. And all the priests would get the message too. Somehow, Nadab and Abihu violated God's commands, and when they did so, they paid with their lives. I'm glad I don't have to worry about this in this day and time, but this is the procedure of the day. Not wanting to have anything like this happen again, notice verse 3. This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area. Strict adherence is to be observed. This is how the priests are going to begin their work. They're going to put on certain clothing, and they're going to do it in a certain way. They're going to bathe before they put these clothes on. They're going to bring certain animals to the temple. They're going to bring two goats, present them before the Lord, and they're going to cast lots to these goats. One's going to be sacrificed. One's going to be a live sacrifice. Hold on to that. We'll discuss more in a moment. And then also in the Day of Atonement, this one time, this one place, preparation is done inside the temple itself over the way that the priest is to administer the blood inside the tent. Now, why is it so important? Why does the attended priest follow these particular rules as he enters the temple and the most holy place in the Day of Atonement? Well, it's very clear. Look at verse 13. So that he will not die. That's why. They want to make sure that they don't repeat the accident, the situation of Aaron's sons. The place of worship, worship apparently can be dangerous. The place of worship can be a deadly place. And the people need the priests to perform these sacrifices. Why? Because it's the Day of Atonement. And they need to be atoned for their sin. And so the people need the priests to do this. And so this is all vital. That the priest carry out his appointed religious duties. These have to be done in accordance with God's explicit direction. Dangerous stuff. It's got to be done the right way. Verses 15 through 22 now detail us a procedure that's unique here in this particular part of the text. Here we see one animal slaughtered and another animal kept alive. First, the attention is focused on the slaughtered animal. He's a goat for sin offering. The blood is going to be sprinkled inside the tabernacle, on the outside of the tabernacle, across the altar. The blood of that sacrifice will be sprinkled everywhere. But now the attention shifts to this animal kept alive. Look at verse 20. He lays both hands on the head of the live goat, confesses over all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites, all their sins, and puts them on the goat's head. And then he sends the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. And the goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place, and the man shall release it in the desert. Did you notice what the animal is called? Did you notice the term that's there? It's once in verse 8. It's twice in verse 10. The animal is called the scapegoat. We've heard that term before. The animal is called the scapegoat. As the goat escapes from its handler and runs into the desert, so the Israelites, the people of God, escape the judgment of God, the penalty due for their sin. That's where we get the term scapegoat, from here in Leviticus chapter 16. So the Day of Atonement, this is the action of the priest that displays the atonement for sin. Now, keep in mind the scapegoat. We're going to visit him in a minute as well. And then the priest withdraws. There's another section that says, well, you had to go into the temple a certain way. Now you're going to have to come out a certain way as well. And it's going to require taking off linen garments, putting on the priestly garments, taking another bath, making sure to burn even the fat of the sin offering. What's happening here is that everything, everything, even the ashes and even the dirt, must remain behind in the tabernacle. Even the dirt must remain behind because everything in the most holy place is most holy. And it remains most holy. You can't just sweep the ashes into a dustbin and then throw it into a garbage can and put it in the dumpster, waiting for the garbage man to pick it up. It has to be treated correctly because it's most holy. If it is consumed with the fire, then it's left behind because it must remain in the most holy place. And this is how the Day of Atonement is carried out. The priest has to be careful in which they enter into the presence of God. They have to be careful in the way they exit the presence of God. And they must follow these commands. Okay, so that's a lot of rules and regulations. Verse 29 through the end tells us some stuff about why we do this and why the people of Israel had to do this. So we find some final instructions. Several things jump out at us. First, the description of the Day of Atonement procedure was directed at the priest. The chapter listed priestly duties. But here at the end, we find that it's not just the priest's duty, but it's everyone's duty. Look at verse 29. Look what it says. It says, this is to be a lasting ordinance for you. On the tenth day of the seventh month, you... And these yous are in plural. You can't see it in English, but the you is plural here. You must deny yourselves and not do any work, whether native-born or alien living among you. So everyone is to stop what they're doing for this one day and participate in this ceremony. Second, notice how big this day really is. Notice in verse 31, God describes the Day of Atonement as a Sabbath of rest. A Sabbath of rest. Now, we think of Sabbath as one day in seven. But God's word here says, no, no, this day is also a Sabbath day. This day also should be recognized as a Sabbath day. It's part of the fourth commandment. The Day of Atonement is also the Sabbath day, and we're to recognize it as such. Yes, it's that big. And then third, we see that three times God's words mention the process of atonement must be a continual practice. Did you notice that? Verse 29, this is a lasting ordinance. Verse 31, it is a lasting ordinance. Verse 34, this is a lasting ordinance. It's repeated three times. And we know that when God's word repeats something three times, we better take it seriously, we better pay attention. This is a continual practice. This is a lasting ordinance. And there's one other thing that we want to see here in this closing part. Let's make sure we embrace the glorious truth of this message. Maybe we skipped over it, but we can't really skip over it. It's important. Look with me at verse 30. Look at verse 30. Grace and mercy poured out for the people of God. Verse 30, the text says, Because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you. Then before the Lord you will be clean from all your sins. Now, the verse doesn't say this is how you atone for your own sins, this is how you cleanse yourself, this is how you make yourselves clean. That's not what the verse says. These are not statements expressing activity of the people. Yes, the priest is active in making the sacrifice, but God himself is the one who is declaring atonement. God himself is doing this. God is providing the means by which sins are forgiven. And is that not grace or mercy? Yes, it is. This is compassion from God. We tend to think of the Old Testament as not being very gracious and all the graces in the New Testament. Well, here, right in the middle of one of the most important parts of the Old Testament, it's all grace and mercy. It's God providing atonement for His people. What's the middle focus of the first five books of the Bible? What's the crux of the wilderness journey? What's the heart of God for the universe for His people? It's atonement. It's forgiveness of sins. It's grace and mercy. What does God's Word say? It says, Because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you. For the Lord, you will be cleaned from all your sins. A gift given by God at this day. So the chapter comes to a close. As it was done, and it was done as the Lord commanded Moses, God's promise to His people, atonement will be made for you. Okay, now why do we still read that? That's stuff from 3,400 years ago. We don't follow those rules any longer. We don't make those kind of animal sacrifices any longer. Why do we read this? What do we learn from this text? Well, in these last few moments, as we consider Jesus in the wilderness, we realize we have a nagging question. Or at least I have a nagging question. About all the stuff that I just read and all the rules and the regulations, the nagging question I have is, what happened to the goat? What happened to the goat? There was a live goat, and the priest laid his hands on the goat, and then they shooed the goat out into the desert, and then that's it. They don't tell us what happened to the goat. What happened to the goat? Physically, we assume that the goat runs out into the desert, and of course with no water and no shelter and no shade, the goat's not going to last long in the desert. So we know the demise of the goat, or at least we can assume so. And of course from a ceremony standpoint, the goat escapes into the desert, and the plan is that he's never to return. I don't know if the goat ever did return, but the plan is that he would not return. That was the plan. That was the symbol. That was the ceremony. I hope the goat knew his part, but that was the plan of the ceremony of the Day of Atonement. So the symbol of the live goat running out into the desert, that's part of this ceremony. We know this only lasts for a year. The text says that this is a lasting ordinance, but if the symbol only lasts for a year, because every year the high priest had to do this, and so every year another live goat had to take the sins upon him and run out into the desert. He had to do this every year. He had to repeat it each year. So if the symbol lasts only for a year, then the symbol can't be a lasting ordinance. I mean it must mean that the symbol points forward to something else, something that truly provides lasting ordinance. The goat who goes out into the wilderness can't be the lasting ordinance, because he's only good for a year, and then they've got to do it over again. So if that's the case, what does the symbol, what does the goat point forward to? All right. We've looked at the book of Hebrews before, and let's go there again. So this is Hebrews chapter 9, and let's go to verse 7. So this is the New Testament book of Hebrews. It's toward the end of the New Testament. So just before Revelation, you go a little bit forward, and you find the book of Hebrews. If you get the book of James, you're almost there. It's the book of Hebrews. And we'll look here, and we'll see if we can get some indication from the Scripture in the New Testament about this symbol and about how we should read it. So this is Hebrews chapter 9, and we'll start with verse 7. And look what the text says. It says, Okay, we read that story. That was chapter 16. Now let's go down to Hebrews chapter 9, verse 11. And the text says, He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. See, Christ becomes this, clearly becomes that which the symbol pointed forward. The symbol pointed forward to something that would be a lasting ordinance, not just a once-a-year thing, but a complete thing. And the symbol would be once for all, not shedding someone else's blood, not displaying someone else's blood, but his own blood. We see here in the text. Now, Hebrews 9, go down to verse 24. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one. He entered heaven himself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest must enter the holy place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have to suffer many times since creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all, at the end of the ages, to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. So Christ not only brings the sacrifice, Christ is the sacrifice. And the blood he brings into the most holy place is not the blood of another animal, it's his own when he comes to make that sacrifice. And just as man is destined to die once, after that to face judgment, Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of the people. Where was that happen? On the cross. Jesus was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. And he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. So the ceremonial day of atonement, I know this is a lot of rules and regulation, and I appreciate you all hanging in there going through this text, but the ceremonial day of atonement points forward to the true day of atonement, which is the one-time sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. His blood shed for your sin and for my sin. And Christ was not only the sacrifice whose blood brought the forgiveness of sins, but Christ was also the sacrifice who carried away our sins. Now remember the goat released into the desert. The sacrifice released into the desert back in Moses' day, it never returned. We never saw it again. It never returned. But our Jesus, who carried our sins away, he is returning. And that is coming, he is coming soon. And as God's word confirms, Christ returns to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. So dearly beloved, children of God, those who rest and rely on Christ, know that God's word guarantees that atonement will be made for you, and this atonement, the atonement provided by Christ, is indeed the lasting ordinance. Amen. Let's pray, shall we? Heavenly Father, you have enabled us in these few moments to drink from the fire hydrant of your word. A lot of stuff, a lot of texts, a lot of rules, regulations. We glance over these things quickly, we don't read them often. They're difficult and they're challenging and we don't understand their applicability in our time and our day. But we should because in this text you have told us about atonement. In other words, you have told us that it is your will and your desire to forgive the sins of your children and to redeem them and to make them new. You've displayed this for us in your word. And you've sent us Jesus, who makes the once for all sacrifice, so it doesn't have to be repeated over and over. And you've sent us Jesus, who isn't just the goat that disappears in the desert never to come back. But you sent us Jesus, your Son, the Lamb of God, who not only takes away the sin of the world, but will return to take his children home. What a glorious gift you've given us, the gift of the truth of your word and the gift for all who would believe. Father, there is no other name under heaven and earth whereby we must be saved when we understand that our salvation comes only through Jesus and that we receive this gift by faith today. We praise you, Lord God, and we give you glory. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's stand for our final song this morning.
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