In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of sin and its consequences. He emphasizes the need for salvation and restoration of the unity between God and man. The preacher warns against the misconception that salvation guarantees a ticket to heaven regardless of one's actions. He also mentions the importance of understanding the justice of God and how it relates to judgment and restitution. The sermon references the book of Romans and encourages the audience to read chapters 14 and 15, as well as chapter 5 three times.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Good morning, brethren. We are brethren, amen? You know what the Bible says? You know what one of the commands is to the brethren? Hmm? Yes, to love one another, but the Bible also says, greet the brethren with a kiss of charity. Do you know that verse? Greet the brethren with a holy kiss. You know that we've discovered through the years that somehow the young men, they just don't want to do that. You know, it's just, I don't know, different, uncomfortable, you know, all the different things. Maybe it looks old man-ish or whatever, but they don't want to do it. But I want to encourage you that that is a command in the Bible. And it's not one that we want to throw away, you know, like the modern church has done, you know. It's, well, they just translated that into a holy hug or a holy handshake. But the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says, greet the brethren with a holy, sanctified kiss of love. And I want to encourage you brothers to greet each other that way when you meet each other here in the morning. Can I give you that admonition? Okay, your assignment for tomorrow. First of all, we'll get the easy part out of the way first. Your definition for tomorrow is the word propitiation. Propitiation. Also, I want you to read chapter 14 and 15 in your book. And I'm going to give you one more assignment. I want you to read Romans chapter 5 three times for tomorrow. Romans chapter 5, three times. Anybody got that? Anybody need a repeat? The word? Okay, the chapters in the commentary on Romans chapter 14 and 15. Alright, let's get into our lesson today. Let's stand for a prayer. Father, again, we bow before you. We do rejoice, Lord, with joy unspeakable that there's blood on the mercy seat this morning. Lord, we, yes, those sinful men can come in sincerity and talk to you because there's blood on the mercy seat. Thank you for that, Father. God, we come in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, this morning and we ask you again, God, that you would teach us. Oh, teach us deeply. What salvation is. Lord, clarify in our minds. Stabilize our hearts. Build the foundation stones of a sound theology of salvation in each one of us. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Yesterday, we looked at sin. Today, we're going to look at the atonement for that sin. The title of the message today is The Theology of Atonement. We're going to be on this subject for two days. These next two days, we're looking at the theology that undergirds our salvation. Praise God for the reality of salvation. And you don't have to understand all of the theology of salvation in order to experience the reality of it. Because I didn't know much when I got born again. I had never gone to church. And I knew the reality of salvation, but I didn't understand the theology of salvation. But we're not talking about a new baby in Christ here this morning. We're talking about solid men in the church of Jesus Christ. And if we're going to be that, be mature, be established in the faith, we need to understand the theology of salvation as well as have the experience of it. And by the way, the one will shore up the other from time to time in your life also. So yesterday, we looked at sin and how it entered into the world. And how death by sin also entered into the world. We saw that a beautiful unity and simplicity of life and fellowship between God and man was broken and destroyed by the offense of sin. What a tragedy! But the last chapter isn't written yet. We saw very clearly that man needs salvation. He needs to be delivered from his separated condition and brought back into fellowship with God, his Creator. Oh, the consequences of sin! Sin brings outward penalties. The way of the transgressor is hard. Sin brings suffering to our own selves and to others. Sin stings the conscience continually, doesn't it? And the sting of death is sin. Sin hardens man's heart and makes it like a stone. Sin enslaves man's will. And he becomes servants to uncleanness. And servants to iniquity. Unto more iniquity, Romans chapter 6 says. Sin brings a fearful looking for of judgment. Amen? And fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary. Those are pretty scary thoughts when you think about the Almighty, the God of the universe. The God that no man can approach on his own and cannot look at in this body without dying. That God releasing all of His fiery indignation upon me. Sin brings a fearful looking for of judgment. And lastly and the greatest of all, sin brings isolation and alienation between God and man. Yes, man needs regeneration, doesn't he? Regenesis. Oh, I like that definition. He needs a way to deal with his sin and be delivered from it. But today, I want to turn our attention God's way and look at the need for an atonement because of man's sin. God needs an atonement. Paul said these words in Romans chapter 5 using very revealing words as he describes the breach between God and man. Listen to some of his words. He talks about transgression. This is Romans 5. He talks about offense. He uses the word condemnation. He uses the words like judgment coming upon all men. And he uses the word by one man's disobedience. So we can see the words that Paul is using to describe this breach between God and man. Now, the word atonement is an Old Testament word. It only appears one time in the New Testament. Thank you, son. And that is in Romans chapter 5 and verse 11 where Paul says, And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. The theology of atonement is all through the Bible. At first thought, I pondered why the word is not found more often in the New Testament. But it dawned on me in my meditation. Why use the word atonement when you have the atonement Himself all over in the New Testament? And besides that, the New Testament, can I say, was written out of motivation of reaching the rest of the world. And the rest of the world was not Jewish. It was Gentile. And those Gentiles, they don't have to figure out all of that atonement and all of the mercy seats in the Old Testament. They don't have to figure out all of that. The Christ, the atonement, is now on the scene in the New Testament. But the theology of atonement is all through the Bible. And Jesus Christ is that atonement. He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Hallelujah! That's what He did. I'll give you a definition. Atonement is the process of forgiving or pardoning man's sin. It means to cover. That's where you get the word mercy seat. Well, many times, mercy seat, atonement, they're kind of interchangeable words. And it's because there on the mercy seat, the blood covers. And oh how we do rejoice this morning that the mercy seat in heaven has precious blood on it. Even today. The process of forgiving and pardoning man's sin. It means to cover. It means to cancel. It means to appease by sacrifice. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 14 says, Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. God said that. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. And that word remission means forgiveness. This process of atonement or this process of forgiving and pardoning man's sin is alluded to in Genesis chapter 3 where God made coats of skin for Adam and Eve. Now we don't get to see all that happened there. But we can use our imaginations and put, you know, two and two together and recognize that if both Cain and Abel are coming offering sacrifices to God, they must have learned it from mom and pop. And they did. And I believe, though I cannot see into everything that happened there in the Garden of Eden, that God took animals and slew them. And there was a sacrifice made for the sin of Adam and Eve. And Adam and Eve learned from that that there must be sacrifice to atone for sin. Then it is seen clearly in the sacrifice of Cain and Abel. Now Cain, he comes with vegetables. Oh my! He didn't have a clue what atonement meant. I mean, by the time we get through these three weeks of sessions, what a mockery! To bring vegetables! Think about it. To bring vegetables! I haven't been right, God! Here are my vegetables. Would you forgive me? Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. No forgiveness. We can learn also from Cain, can't we? Because we can develop in our own minds, although we would never say it out of our mouth to God, but we can develop in our own minds a theology of the things that we do and come to God and say, God, would you please forgive me? Don't you see how much I have my devotions in the morning and how much I do this and how much I do that? Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. So Cain, he came with vegetables. And Abel came with blood. And God had respect unto Abel and to his offering, the Bible says. I don't know what that means, but I know it's good. And as I understand it, God accepted that sacrifice and freed Abel's heart of whatever he needed to be free from. And we know the rest of the story of what happened to Cain. I mean, he was an incarnation of Romans chapter 3, verse 10, down through about 20 that we read yesterday. He was an incarnation of those verses to the T. Quick to shed blood instead of to come to grips and face the reality of where his heart was really at with God. We know because we have read the Bible that these blood sacrifices had no covering, canceling, appeasing, forgiving value, except that they were offered in faith and hope of the great sacrifice to come, which is Jesus Christ. All of these sacrifices were simply types of the sacrifice that was to come. And it's because Jesus is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, those blood sacrifices had value to them and efficacy and brought about a certain amount of freedom in the heart of those who sinned. This stands for all the sacrifices instituted in the Old Testament. They all pointed to and typified the sacrifice of Christ, the slain Lamb. And I know that this value or efficacy, that's a big theological word I thought I'd put on you this morning, this value or efficacy has varied depending on Israel's condition. I understand sometimes they came offering sacrifices and they were so far away from the heart of a penitent one, wanting to be free from the guilt or be forgiven for that which they did. They were far from that. They were just simply going through the motions. I know that. The word atonement is an old English word. Consider its meaning in the older English. At-one-ment. At-one-ment. Circle that little prefix there. What do you call it, Esther? In the center. Circle that. One. At-one-ment. We see through this that the foundational principle undergirding the atonement is oneness, harmony and unity of life. Oh, how beautiful was this oneness, this harmony, this unity of life and heart in the garden in the beginning. That's the whole basis of the atonement. It's based on the fact that there was a time when man and God had a beautiful unity, had a beautiful oneness, had a beautiful harmony, had a beautiful agreement of life and blessing. But now, it's lost. There are three main points of interest as we consider further the theology of atonement. Note these three points. Number one, the atonement assumes a unity between God and man, a harmony in relationship. Again, remembering that beautiful union in the garden. It assumes a unity that was. And it assumes a unity that must be restored. And it assumes a unity that must be maintained. Was. Restored. And maintained. Those are important words. Oh, the beautiful insights into the Christian life in words like that. There was a glorious, beautiful unity between God and man. It was. It must be restored. And when it is restored, it must be maintained, brethren. That means a whole lot more than I got my salvation ticket in my back pocket, and I'm going to heaven no matter how I live. Don't kid yourself. It is because of these things that the wrath of God is released upon the children of disobedience. Be not deceived, Paul says. So, it assumes that unity in those three ways. Number two. The atonement assumes that sin has made a breach, a separation in that unity, in that harmony. And that breach comes because God is holy, holy, holy. That's why the breach comes. Because God is holy, holy, holy. And man is in sin. The Bible is clear throughout on this. Holiness and sin do not go together. Cannot dwell together. They are as far apart as light and darkness. Thus, a breach between God and man. And lastly, the atonement is the means of restoring and maintaining that unity. The atonement is an expression of desire for unity. An expression of desire for unity on God's part. He so loved the world that He gave. That's God expressing His desire for unity. He so loved the world that He gave. It is the means of restoring that unity on man's part also. That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. So, whosoever believeth in Him because of an appeasement that has been made, and it is the means of maintaining that unity, because there is blood on the mercy seat this very moment, brethren. So, do you see? Do you see the atonement in the heart of God? There must be blood shed in order for this unity to come back together. And God is willing to send His only begotten Son into the world to make that happen. But on man's part, that atonement also assumes a desire, and all whosoever will will recognize, where am I at? Recognize the breach that is there. Recognize the emptiness that is in my soul. And come, based on that atonement, and say, I want to be restored. Unity takes place again. Alright, let's move on from there. Why does God need an atonement? That's a good question. There are two primary reasons that cannot be overlooked. And they have to do with who God is in His very being. It has to do with His attributes. God's so great salvation is the greatest manifestation of His attributes that man has ever seen. And we'll say more about this later, but I'm telling you, you want to see what God is like. Look at God. Look what God did to save man and make Him righteous. You want to get a glimpse of who God is? You look at what God did to make man righteous and bring about that unity again. So what are these two primary reasons? Number one, because our awesome God is holy, holy, holy. And number two, because of the justice of God. Our God is just. Let's look at these two reasons. First of all, God is holy. This is why there's a need for atonement. Because God is holy. What is it that makes God awesome? You know, the Bible talks about being in awe of God. But what is it about God that makes Him awesome? Perhaps it would be good to give you a definition of awesome. I myself believe you shouldn't even use that word for anything but God. I mean that. I think we're letting the slang of the world water even our theology down. And now it's awesome pizza and man we had an awesome time and yuck. I mean that makes me sick to even say it. Oh, we had, oh that was awesome pizza. Don't you dare use that word that way. You don't know what the word means. But this is what it means. Full of awe. Fear mingled with admiration or reverence. Dread inspired by greatness. That's what awesome means. So you see how foolish that is to talk about pizza or ice cream and put that adjective in front of it. I'm telling you, that's almost blasphemous. May I be that bold? That's almost blasphemous to use a word like that. But the only reason why it's not blasphemy is all those people out there, they don't know what the word means. See, it's just a word, they just throw it around, you know. It's a new word, it's the latest click word, you know. I'm telling you what, you begin to understand what that word means and you just don't flip that word around anymore. But what is it that makes God awesome? It is His holiness that makes man stand in awe with fear mingled with admiration and reverence. It is God's holiness that grips man with a dread inspired by greatness. It is God's holiness that does that. That brings those feelings of awful admiration into the heart of man when he comes close to God. It is the holy righteous character of God that makes God transcendent or high above everything. That makes God altogether other, totally unlike anything we know. It is God's holiness that makes Him that way. So other than anything we know. God said of Himself, My name is holy. I think of the prophet Isaiah and I call the prophet Isaiah the apostle of the Holy One. And Isaiah used this word holy referencing God 32 times in his book, the book of Isaiah. Very interesting. But you know, in the Bible, name equals character. When God says, I'm jealous for my holy namesake, God is saying, My name represents who I am. And you're throwing My name around in a way that does not represent who I really am. And therefore, I'm jealous for my holy namesake. But Isaiah used that word 32 times in the book of Isaiah. The Holy One. The Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. And many other verses like that. Why? Because in Isaiah chapter 6, in the beginning of the book, he saw the King. He saw the King. And from then on, God was the Holy One. Somehow, Isaiah got a good enough glimpse of the King in all His beauty that his heart began to ring with those seraphims who said, And Isaiah joined in with their song and said, Yes, He is the Holy One of Israel. What was it that Isaiah saw that so changed him? Because he said, Mine eyes have seen the King. What was it that so changed Isaiah? Was it pretty colors? Was it the creatures flying around in the throne room? Is that what changed Isaiah? Was it the temple all so beautiful? Whose posts shook at the voice? Is that what changed Isaiah? I don't think so. Although, that would be pretty staggering, wouldn't it? To see a few seraphims flying around in the throne room of God. Crying out with a voice that was so powerful that the posts of the temple shook. That would be pretty staggering. But that's not what changed Isaiah. He saw the King in all His beauty. He saw the awesome Holy One. And He was filled with fear, mingled with admiration and reverence. Wasn't He? We can imagine, can't we? Isaiah saw what those seraphims saw. And it is interesting to see the different responses. That of the man Isaiah and that of the seraphims, the holy angels. Very interesting to see their different response. What does the word holy mean? Here's a definition for you out of Webster's 1828 Dictionary. Webster says, When applied to the Supreme Being, holy signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character. Holiness is unmixed purity. It means perfectly pure. And because of that, totally set apart. It means that God is perfectly pure. And because God is perfectly pure, He is totally set apart. Totally other than anything we know. God is holy. Which, in its simplicity, simply means set apart. The Greek word for holy, listen to this little short definition. An awful thing. God is an awful thing. And there again, see, we use that word differently today. We say, oh, I had an awful day. I had an awful day. You what? Do you know what you said? I had a day that was filled with awe. That's what you said. But is that what you meant? The awful one. What was it that they, the seraphim and Isaiah saw? It was more than pretty glowing colors, although he saw some pretty colors, if you check in on the book of Ezekiel. And Ezekiel's revelation of the glory of God. He saw some beautiful colors, but it wasn't pretty colors that changed Isaiah's life that day. I promise you. It's not blues and pinks and reds and ambers and yellows that changed that man's life. I guarantee you, it was a lot deeper than that. What Isaiah saw was the glory of God. He saw the bright outshining of God's nature coming out at him. He saw God's holy character manifesting itself all at once. That's what he saw. He and those angels, those seraphim, they saw omniscience, wisdom. They saw God's unchanging character. They saw God's mercy. They saw God's love. They saw His justice. They saw His purity. And on and on we could go. They saw all this all at once. The outshining of God. The glorious light of the outshining of God. That's what they saw. All of God and all of what He is shining out of Him all at the same time. And all those angels could do was to grab the highest heavenly word they knew to describe Him and fly around there in the throne room saying, Holy, holy, holy. And all Isaiah could do was simply say, I am undone. Woe is me. Mine eyes have seen the King in all of His beauty. And I am a man of unclean lips. That was Isaiah's response. You don't respond that way if you see pretty colors. You might stand and say, wow. But the biblical records are clear as they describe the responses of men when they get a glimpse of the glory of God. And it's not a big bright shining light, my friend. It's not just a bright shining light. It is the light of the revelation of the character of God shining out of God. Because you see, the character of God is who God is. They saw God's holiness manifesting. And I know no other way to explain God's attribute of holiness. Theologians have wrestled with this word, and they go round and round and round with it, trying to describe what holiness means. That's hard to do. We are fallen creatures. And our whitest white is only dingy gray, A.W. Tozer would say. Thank you, Tozer. Our whitest white is only dingy gray in the light of the glory of God. We can't understand this kind of perfect purity. Let me give you a definition of holiness as we consider the subject of the atonement. You see, we have to see deeper, brethren. We have to look deeper. There are some pretty deep, big, powerful, important reasons why God slew His only begotten Son to atone for your sin and mine. A definition for holiness. The absolute, complete absence of sin and evil, plus the total presence of all of God's attributes. That's a definition of holiness in light of God. The absolute, complete absence of sin and evil. Think about it. Plus the total presence of all of God's attributes. That's holiness. This is perfect purity and total set-apartness. This is who God is. The total absence of all evil and the total presence of all of His character. The holiness of God. Why is there a need for an atonement? Because God is holy. You got it? You get it? Because God is holy. Let's look at the second reason why there is a need for atonement. Because of the justice of God. The just judgment of God. Remember I said earlier, maybe on Monday or Tuesday, that righteousness, the word righteous and the word just are much the same words. And many times they're crisscrossed back and forth in their use as the translators went from Hebrew and Greek to English. The word just or the words just and justice means moral equity, morally equal, morally upright. The word justice is used in the Scriptures in some places because it's in the context of judgment. And justice and judgment are sisters. Because of God's justice, judgment takes place in this world. Because of God's justice. In Ezekiel's day, the people were accusing God of being unequal or unjust. You'll find that in Ezekiel 18. Which by the way is quite another revelation of the fact that God expects true righteousness out of His people. But you can study that on your own. But in there it speaks about God being unequal or unjust. Inequality in the Scriptures, you don't find that word very often. What you find instead is the word inequity or unequity. Wherever there is inequity, that is whatever is not morally equal is iniquitous. Whatever is not morally equitable is iniquitous. To help us understand God's justice this morning, let us go to the courtroom and learn what happens in a courtroom. Judgment is the application of justice. In order for justice to be meted out, judgment needs to take place. In order to bring things back into equal or balance, judgment needs to take place. So judgment is the application of justice. That is the application of moral equity to a moral situation. Am I going over your head? Turn in there. Don't let me lose you. Judgment is the application of justice. That is the application of moral equity to a situation that is not moral. That's why we have the courts. Because there are situations that are not moral. There are situations that are not equitable, that are not equal. And therefore, we have judges. Wherever justice is applied to a moral situation, you have a judgment. This judgment is not always bad. It can be good. Which is quite a revelation. You know, we tend to think bad when we think of the word judgment. But when you realize that judgment comes out of God's justice and wanting everything to be brought back to equal, it all of a sudden changes everything. You see, God's judgment will be meted out for us someday too. Someday, He will bring everything back to equal as He releases us to go into heaven and spend eternity with Him. Right now, we kind of get kicked around a bit. You know, people think we're a bit weird and all kinds of those kind of things. But the judgment day is coming. Not just for that guy who mocked me because I've got a beard. But for this guy who took a stand for God while he lived upon this earth. Judgment is also coming for me someday. Hallelujah! And God's going to reward me. So, this judgment is not always bad. Justice is moral equality. The scales of moral balance are balanced equally again. This happens all the time in a courtroom on many different levels. Let me just give you an illustration here this morning. We have the illustration of a young man and a car accident. Where we have a young man who is at fault for a car accident that happened. But he says, it's not my fault. It's not my fault. The man who also was involved in this accident, who suffered maybe physical damages on his own body, and also his vehicle, he says, it was your fault. And you need to make these things right that you put upon me. Maybe he wasn't driving right. Maybe he was reckless or whatever. But the young man says, it's not my fault and I'm not going to do anything about it. Okay. Then, we've got a moral situation here that needs to be judged by a judge. And it will come into a courtroom and a judge will listen to that thing. And he'll hear the testimonies and he'll hear the witnesses. And when he's all done, he will bring justice by proclaiming judgment. And this is what he will do. He will say, okay, young man, we've heard all the witnesses and we've looked at all the facts. You are responsible for this accident and the damages that have happened. You will pay them. That's his judgment. But he will also turn around and say to this man over here with a broken leg and a smashed up car, every bit of your expenses will be covered and then some. That's also judgment. Also, so I give that as an illustration just so that you can understand the justice of God. Now, let's place this quality in the hands of the Most High God. In Deuteronomy 10, verse 17 and 18, it says this, For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, and great God, a mighty and a terrible, which regardeth not persons nor taketh rewards, bribes. He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and the widow. He's being a judge. He's looking at a situation, a moral situation that is out of equity. He's seeing that somebody is taking advantage of the widow or the fatherless. And as I understand this verse, God, the God of heaven, will execute judgment on that situation. He can do that in multitudes of different ways, but he's going to do it. He's going to take care of that person who's taking advantage of the widow and the fatherless, and he's going to bless that widow and that fatherless. God will do that. Why? Because he is a just God. And he looks at things that are iniquitous and says, These things have to be brought back in balance and equity and order and right. Justice is something that God is. It's not something that God has and is able to lose. It is part of his very being. It's important to know that. It's part of his very being. It is an attribute of God. And it is who God is all the time. He doesn't put on the judge's robe every now and then and say, Okay, it's time now for me to be just and take care. No, it is who he is. As he looks out over everything, as he looks at the world and the universe that he made, and all of those things, he is a just God. With God, justice is not a principle that must be obeyed. It is who he is. He is a righteous, moral equity. That's who he is. And because God is just, he is a judge. Or I should say, the judge. He is the judge with infinite moral equity. The highest perfection of righteousness or moral uprightness. That is God. He is the infinitely just God. He will yet balance all the scales. Don't doubt that. He will yet balance all the scales. He has to. Because of who he is. Because of his holiness, he loves and enjoys in righteousness. But he hates and abhors iniquity. He will condemn the unequal, the moral iniquity. And he will vindicate and reward the just, the equal. So, God says in several places in scripture, The soul that sinneth, you finish it. It shall die. That is an expression of God's justice. That's what it is. Alright, now let's go back to the fall. Which is where we ended yesterday. Something must be done. Because of God's holiness, a great disunity has come from man's offense, his disobedience, his transgression. A great disunity has come. Because of God's justice, this sin must be punished. The scale must be balanced. I thought about it last evening, or yesterday afternoon. I'm not sure when it was, but it dawned on me, you know. Now I don't understand how all this happens, but it seems to me like sometimes Satan throws things at God. You can see that in the book of Job. Throws things at God. Ah, your servant Job. He's only loving you like that because you bless him in everything he does. Don't you think that Satan would accuse God? If God doesn't mete out just judgment on that sin that happened there in the Garden of Eden, don't you think Satan would accuse him? Something must be done. Because of God's holiness, a great disunity has come from man's offense. And because of God's justice, this sin must be punished. The scale must be balanced. Yet God, out of love and goodwill, desires fellowship with man and desires man's highest good. How can it happen? Enter the atonement. The sacrifice of His Son. That's the only way that God can make right, rectify this fall that has happened in the Garden of Eden. That is the theology of the atonement. We will look into it more tomorrow. But it's important to understand why these things have to take place. Why God could look on the travail of the soul of His Son and be satisfied? How it could please the Lord to bruise Him? How can that be the atonement? The at-one-ment. God's move to bring disunity back into oneness again. Brethren, do you see what the atonement means for you? Are you at one with God today? See? And if you're not, that at-one-ment with God can be maintained because there's blood on the mercy seat. But do you see what God was after? And what God is after? And where righteousness comes from? It comes from being one with God. And that oneness comes through the atonement, the sacrifice of His Son. So, the challenge that I leave you here this morning is are you at one with God? All the provision has been made. God has expressed His desire to be one with man through the atonement. Will you express your desire to be one with God by responding positively to the reality of the atonement? If as you sit here today, things are not right in your life, hey, just go get it right. Hallelujah, there's blood on the mercy seat. You don't have to stay where you are. God loves you. Look how much He loves you. The at-one-ment of His Son's blood is a picture of how much He loves you. So, why live in all that? Why let those things bother you anymore? Get it right. Wash it away. And go on and walk with God today. Amen? Amen. Let's stand together for prayer. Oh, Father, how you could let us fit into all of this, I do not understand. Dear Father, we do thank you this morning, God. We thank you for the gift of your Son. We thank you for your heart. That though it cannot change and you cannot change who you are, you made a way to be just and to be the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. Thank you so much, Father, for the atonement. I pray that you'll continue tomorrow to open our eyes and help us to see, Lord. Help us to see deeply. Help us to see till it changes us, Father. Oh, God, don't let us just sit here and fill our heads with thoughts. I pray you change our lives, God, as we look and see who you are and what you've done. Oh, God, this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.