(silence) Okay. Okay. Alright. Well, as we begin our second lesson, I want to begin with just a quick review. Last time, Pastor Peter focused our study on the character of God and His holiness. Okay? Just want to jog your memory a little bit and ask you, in what ways did He define that holiness to be?

You know? I'm just going to go through a couple of lists here. He mentioned that the holiness that God is described as, first and foremost, the definition we typically think of is that He is perfect in His morality. Right? That there isn't evil in Him. That there isn't sin and wickedness in Him.

Right? But He elevated that by saying, it's not just that God is moral, but He is the standard of morality. He is the standard of perfection. Okay? Now, I'm not going to ask for volunteers, it's a big room, so just kind of getting you to think about, and then as He stated that God in His morality, or in His perfection, is the standard, He went on to talk about how God is truly unique.

That there is nobody like Him. And this uniqueness about God contributes to our understanding of how God is holy. And what's more, as God is unique, and therefore, as the only one who truly has those character traits, He is priceless. There is this value innate with Him, which we would call glorious.

Okay? And then He used this term that God is weighty. So just really quickly running down through some of these concepts, He is morally perfect. He is the standard of perfection. He is entirely unique. And He is glorious and weighty. Okay? Glorious and weighty. And those are concepts that, obviously, you and I are not going to exhaustively understand and be like, ah, that's exactly it.

A lot of that is transcended, and it's just beyond us. But that causes us to just worship and be in awe of the fact that God is that holy. However, today, as we make our transition into the topic that we're gonna be learning about today, when God, in His holiness, essentially appears and is revealed to us, there is a reaction.

Almost as two elements in chemistry, when, you know, introduced to each other would have a chemical reaction, there is a sense to which God in His holiness, as He appears and is present in this world, there is a reaction. And that's really what I'm gonna be focusing on today's lesson.

The question primarily is, how does this holy God relate to mankind? Okay? How does this holy God relate to mankind? And the first thing I wanna say is this. That as our God relates to man, He is, first and foremost, as the scripture reveals it to us, repulsed by sin.

Aw, man. I need 20 of these points for us to post to come up one by one. Now they're all up there. Okay. Well, well, bam. There it is, okay? So here are gonna be my points. Now, I was trying to use my words carefully. I mean, we don't really use the word like, aw, you repulsed me, you know?

But what do we mean by that? Is, as there was such an intense emphasis, okay, first and foremost, as there was such an intense emphasis of God's holiness in the scriptures of the Old Testament, when I look through the Old Testament, and particularly, there's gonna be some digging into the book of Leviticus, there has been a contrasting emphasis on sin.

And for, again, we don't use the word often, but how sin is so repulsive to the Lord. I wanna begin by saying this. That the book of Leviticus, when you read it through, you will find that the word sin is used so many times, as a matter of fact, it's used 194 times.

Can you imagine that? And there is this emphasis, not just on, you know, the general concept of sin, but there is an emphasis on the various kinds of sin. Okay? There's an emphasis on the various kinds of sin. What do I mean by that? In the book of Leviticus, God is not just generally saying, ah, there is this general concept of sin.

He is almost meticulous, describing every category of sin. He describes various categories of sin, such as sins that are of being defiled, sins that are of uncleanness or blemishes. There are sins that are of the heart, such as wicked intent, evil, and then there are sins of rebellion and transgression.

There are unintentional sins, there are intentional sins, there are weighty sins. I mean, he goes through the full gamut of all the different kinds of sins. Okay? And the reason why I think, you know, when you think about that, somebody, when somebody is starting to tell you and trying to define for you what something is, but they're able to tell you what that is in all its different contexts.

Categorically tell you where all that fits. Now there's an emphasis on what that definition is. But what's more, there's an emphasis on everyone's sin. Okay? And what do I mean by that? For your devotional passages, I had you guys look at Leviticus chapter 16. And if you're able to quickly turn there to Leviticus chapter 16, I'm gonna read verses, let's see here.

Give me one second, I wanna hit the right verse. Okay. Turner, with you? There's a really important verse here, starting from verse 16. Okay? It says this, "Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place "because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel "and because of their transgressions, "because of their transgressions, all their sins.

"And so he shall do for the tent of meeting "which dwells with them in the midst "of their uncleanliness." Okay? And then verse seven says, "No one may be in the tent of meeting "from the time he enters to make atonement "in the holy place until he comes out "and has made atonement for himself, "for his house, and for all the assembly of Israel." Do you see that?

What I'm highlighting there is this is, everyone from the priest himself, then his household, and then the whole nation. There is this concentric circle that continues to expound. And what he's talking about is from you, the holy guy, you know, the one anointed and set apart, to his whole extended family, and then to the nation.

Everybody needs to be cleansed. Why? Because there is uncleanliness in all of you. And what's more, so there's a sense then which when I emphasize this idea of everybody's sin, think about how pervasive that sin is. That he says, even as he describes this tabernacle, the whole house must be cleansed.

Okay? So, there is emphasis on, just by the fact that the number of time he talks about it, about the various kinds of sin, and how that sin is pervasive in everybody. And then, God describes that sin's effect everywhere. Okay? And we're gonna talk more about that, but I just want to make mention of this fact, that when you think of the book of Leviticus, what you'll find is just that there's so many rules and regulations, right?

So typically, at the start of the new year, people say like, "I'm gonna read the Bible." They get through Genesis, you know, Exodus, and then when they get to Leviticus, it's just like, "What in the world?" And there's just tons of little laws and regulations that's very hard to come by.

I want to help you categorize that by saying, sin's effect is so pervasive, it has affected everything. From the animals, from their house, from their tents of meeting. Sin's effect has been decaying the whole world, and so in Romans, it talks about how this entire generation and the world in its creation is groaning under this sin's decay.

So, what I'm kind of presenting to you is, just as there was this emphasis on why we need to understand the holiness of God, we know that there has to be a contrasting emphasis of understanding our sin. And this is just reality, the spiritual reality that we're blind to and we don't know before we meet Christ, before we know the truth.

But it's so vital that in contrast to God's glory, there is an understanding of the weight of sin. Now, the point that I made with this first section is not only that God is pointing out sin. All right, aw. Okay, is anybody back there? Okay, well, you're looking on as on your sheets, right?

Maybe I'll, okay, yeah, I don't wanna distract us with that. So, as you're looking on on your sheets, maybe I'll just kinda go along here, okay? The point that I was making is not just the fact that God points sin and is like, there it is. The idea that I was trying to get us to think about is the fact that in God's presence, he is repulsed by sin.

He rejects sin, right? Scripture says that he casts sin away. So, there's a passage in Leviticus, chapter 22. You don't have to turn there. I'll read this for us. Leviticus, chapter 22, starting from verse two to three, it says this. God commands and says, "Say to them, "if anyone of all your offsprings "throughout your generations," okay?

So, not just anybody here, but everybody from here forward in all your generations, "approaches the holy things that the people of Israel "dedicate to the Lord while he has uncleanness, "that person shall be cut off from my presence. "I am the Lord." There is this automatic expulsion, right? There's a rejection.

If there is uncleanness, there is reproach, there is disgust. And that's what I'm emphasizing. Can I say this? Maybe you've heard, you know, maybe you've heard like, oh, we're just dust of the ground. Right? Maybe you've heard we are low because we're sinners. But truthfully, from the Scriptures, we're worse than that, right?

The way Scripture describes us through the words of God, God is trying to show them that there is this uncleanness like mold, like fungus, like dead carcasses. And sin is described in such a way where it is detestable, abominations. And the kind of words that are used is really shocking.

It's really eye-opening. You know, there was a time when our church was doing Korean barbecues. You know, some of you guys who used to do that. It was hard work and stuff, and we used to make huge batches of rice and meat and stuff like that. And after each barbecue, we typically have a whole lot left over.

What ended up happening is, you know, because at the time, when I was like a single guy, or whatever, we would take most of the leftovers home. One time, we brought home an entire cooler of rice. So imagine just like one of your big coolers, and it's just filled with rice.

Sometimes you get lazy to clean that stuff. And there was this time when all of a sudden, like everybody in my apartment started to smell something funky. And we all kind of had, in the back of our minds, like, oh my God, we forgot to clean that stuff, right?

So we got there and opened, and we're like, oh, what is that? 'Cause it gets all colorful, right? I made a mistake because I left it open, and then I ran away. Within just like a day or two, it's crazy how vibrantly colorful rice can get. It's white, but if you guys have ever had rice mold, and it mold progressively, somebody's like nodding their head, okay?

(audience laughing) When we think of mold, you typically think like, oh, it's the green mold. No, no, no, no, rice can mold, and then there'll be like pink stuff. There'll be black stuff. And then there's gonna be like fuzzy white stuff. And then it gets even worse and worse after that.

And the thing about it is when we went outside, like the stench was so bad, we would smell it, and then be like, no, I can't clean it, man. And we'd run back inside, but we felt like the stench was like chasing us, you know? It's like following us outside and all that kind of stuff.

It was so bad, we had to throw the entire cooler away. You know? It was so crazy. And the stuff that was growing inside, obviously, like there was like moving maggots, and it was just getting gross. (audience laughing) Now, I'm going at length to describe this to you because of this.

God, through his command, he was teaching the nation. He was teaching them, I wanna give you rules about animals and dead carcasses. And I wanna show you what is unclean versus clean. I'm gonna show you based on animals and things with blemish to show you what's clean versus unclean.

I wanna show you through rituals, sacrifice, drama, through the people, through the buildings. He would talk about examples such as this. There would be examples of animals, about different forms of animals. There'd be examples of gnats. There'd be examples of mold in the house. I wanna read you some of these things.

In chapter 11, verse 44 to 45, again, for the sake of time, I'll read it for us. It says this, "I am the Lord your God." He begins with his character. He says, "Consecrate for yourself therefore, "and be holy because I am holy. "You shall not defile yourself with any swarming thing "that crawls on the ground, "for I am the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt "to be your God.

"You shall therefore be holy for I am holy." And then he gives the example of a house when there's green or colorful mold that they scrape everything off, they throw it outside the camp, and then the priest comes over, takes blood, and then he anoints the house. What does an animal that swarms on the ground have to do with holiness?

What does sprinkling blood on the walls have to do with mold? God is teaching them. This is what's holy, this is what's unholy. This is what's clean, this is what's unclean. And there must be a recognition by the people. There has to be an ability to distinguish. By those people who God calls as his people, they have to be able to tell what is clean versus unclean.

There is a very pivotal passage that comes from Leviticus chapter 16, verse 10. You can jot that down. Jot that down as a passage reference. Leviticus chapter 16, verse 10, where God says to them, you are to distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean.

Because I was preparing for this study tonight, that's why I preached what I preached on Sunday. I was so convicted that for people who say they know God, that means they have to have a light shine on them, that means they have to have truth, and the teaching of God given to them so that they can tell what's clean and unclean, so that they know the difference between left and right.

And then there is this moment, and then there is this pivotal recognition, epiphany as you would put it. As God is teaching them through the rituals and sacrifices of what is clean and unclean, that the people would realize, I'm unclean. I'm detestable. Because if there's anything that these sacrifices are showing, that what cannot enter into the presence of God, it is anything that is unclean, but what's really been represented, what's really been covered with blood, what's really been going through the drama is them.

And there has to be an oh my goodness, through all this God is showing us, I am the one who is unclean. And now this world might say something like, well, God hates the sin, but not the sinner. But the truth of the matter is the book of Leviticus teaches us men die at the altar, because God judges both sin and the one who sins.

Because the one, the man who offers, the man who enters into his presence, the man who sinned is himself unclean. That's one of the biggest lessons that we realize from the book of Leviticus. That's one of the biggest lessons that God is teaching us through all of that in history.

And so as we see again, the character of God, and how he is repulsed by sin and sinners, we realize that there's such a contrast and discrepancy, and God highlights it by pointing out that he is going to judge such sin. So we move to number two, where when we ask the question, how does God relate to man?

And we wanna make this statement, that God requires and demands holiness because he is holy. So in answering the question, how does God relate to man, we wanna answer with number two by saying, he demands holiness. God knows we are sinners, God knows we're unclean, God knows we're incapable, but he demands holiness from anything and anyone that approaches him.

Anything in his presence, he requires that it be cleansed, because he himself is holy. And so I don't know how else to put it, except that God's standard is God's standard. We're gonna do a quick exercise here. I wanna highlight that when God's command is given, God gives, in some ways, commands based upon a certain tag, a repetition by which he's emphasizing a truth, and what he says is this, you shall be holy because I am holy, because I am God.

For example, I'm gonna read some of these passages. The Leviticus 19, verse 17 one, you guys know well, because some of you guys have memorized it, and it's a short statement. He just simply says, be holy as I am holy. What's more, I'm gonna read to us Leviticus 18, 'cause I read the chapter 11 earlier.

Leviticus 18, verse four through five, he says, you are to perform my judgments, keep my statutes, to live in accord with them. I am the Lord your God. So you shall keep my statutes and my judgments by which a man may live if he does them. I am the Lord your God.

So what essentially is happening is, God is relating to the individuals, and he's teaching them that they're sinful, and there's a sense in which, perhaps, if you think about it, of what we maybe assume of God, that he might give some conditions. He might give some, what you would call, handicaps.

He might give some leniency. He might give some X, Y, or Z. But what's surprising about the book of Leviticus, all the Old Testament, and how God operates is, God's standard is God's standard, and it never gets diminished. I want you just to take a moment and think about that standard, right?

Be holy 'cause I am holy. Abide by all of my statutes. I am the Lord, God's standard of himself is being posed to these sinful people, and then he warns them, should you fail, you will be judged, right? So, I wanna give a couple of these passages as well.

A couple of these passages as well, kind of deriving it from chapter 26. I had you guys read chapter 26. Let me see if this thing's working. Thanks for clicking it for me. It's not, okay. From chapter 26, you guys can turn your Bibles there, 'cause let's take a look at that passage.

Okay, please turn your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 26. And my train of thought and reasoning is this. There is something contrary to maybe what typically we would expect. God is showing us that we are sinful. We're clearly very far from his standard, but yet still, God's standard does not change, because God's standard is God's standard.

And then, God warns them, should you fail, you will be judged. And in very alarming, very sobering words, this is what God says. So, chapter 26, verse 18 says this. And if in spite of this, you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins.

Verse 24. Then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. Then I will walk contrary to, sorry, and then verse 28. Then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. And the reason why I read those things is because it is sobering, isn't it?

I mean, it's sobering for us to hear those words like, if even after all this explanation, and all this teaching, you sin, I will judge you sevenfold. It's like, wow. And then he says, I will stand contrary to you, and then he says, I will stand contrary to you in fury.

Right? It's escalated, it's elevated. And it's an incredibly sobering thing, and this stands, again, in such stark contrast to perhaps how we think about things. You know what's something interesting in the way that we think? Is that there's a lot of times in which we understand that truth, I cannot bring holiness to the table and altar of God.

Right? And in moments when we sin, there are times when we say something to the extent of, yeah, you know, and we all know, and already know, that we couldn't have obtained righteousness and approval by God by our merit anyways. Right? But then, all of a sudden, that transitions and changes into something altogether different.

It changes into, like, an excuse. And so, therefore, that's why I am just the way I am. And then, that somehow, in this day and age, and perhaps a lot of times in our own private lives, and the way that we think, it not only turns into an excuse, but it turns into a presumption.

It turns into a presumption about God's standard and says something to the extent of, and therefore, God's gonna be okay with it. And God always still accepts me. But the fact of the matter is that the idea and truth that we are sinners is a wake-up call of reality.

It says nothing about how we are excused, and it says nothing about the standard of God. Rather, the rest of scripture informs us the standard of God is still up here, and yet you are still sinful. Do you see what I'm saying? When we, in our lives, start learning the doctrines of grace, and we know that statement of truth, where we say, "Righteousness cannot be earned by my works," that is absolutely true, but that states nothing about God's standard.

It just simply gives us the reality that we are sinful. And so, those individuals who use that statement as a means by way of excusing them, or presuming God's gonna just naturally accept them, they don't understand the standard of God. And I'd go as far as to say they don't actually understand how sinful they are.

Right? Now, the examples of this that Pastor Peter gave last week are the people like Nadab and Behu. You know what they were guilty of? They were guilty of the sin of presumption. Scripture says that when you offer something before God, and then you know that it's blemished, you know that it's not perfect, and you know that's not the standard of God, but you put it there anyway, do you know what you do?

You assume that the table of God is contemptible. You assume God is okay with subpar. You assume God is okay. And that is the sin of Nadab and Behu, the sons of Aaron. And what's really crazy about that is when God judges Nadab and Behu, and the fire comes out of the altar and immediately judges them, and they die.

Just to show all the nation, and just to show Aaron that God's standard is righteous, do you know what God says? He looks over at Aaron and says, "I don't want you to weep, wail, or say a word. "I want you to accept this as right." Because, and then he describes, "Because at his temple, he will be regarded as holy." That's so sobering.

If you would please turn your Bibles to Malachi chapter one, verse six through 14, this is another just sobering passage of scripture. Something that just naturally causes us to evaluate where we are, what we're doing, and what we're offering up as a sacrifice, what we're offering up as worship before God.

Addressing this whole topic that I'm talking about of not being presumptuous before the Lord, this is what the scripture says. Again, Malachi chapter one, verse six through 14. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my respect?

Says the Lord of hosts to you. Oh, priest who despise my name, but you say, "How have we despised your name? "You are presenting defiled food upon my altar." But you say, "How have we defiled you?" In that you say, "The table of the Lord is to be despised." But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is that not evil?

And when you present the lame and sick, is that not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly, says the Lord of hosts? But now, will you not entreat God's favor, that he may be gracious to us?

With such an offering on your part, will he receive any of you kindly, says the Lord of hosts? Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering from you.

For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name will be great among the nations. In every place, incense is going to be offered to my name. And a grain offering that is pure for my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

But you are profaning it, in that you say the table of the Lord is defiled. And as for its fruits, its food is to be despised. You also say, my, how tiresome it is. And you disdainfully sniff at it, says the Lord of hosts. And you bring what is taken by robbery and what is lame or sick, so you bring the offering.

Should I receive that from your hands, says the Lord? But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts. And my name is feared among the nations.

Dang, doesn't that just cause us to take a moment and think? If ever we've griped and complained, like why do I have to do this in church service? Why does it have to be like that and it's inconvenient? And why, and then all of a sudden, every expectation and standard that we feel from the church, from the people, from the pastor, from the word, all of a sudden becomes burden to us.

And then, if we've ever succumbed to that burden and then started to reduce our standard, and just to simply assume, God is gracious, maybe God is far, does God even see this stuff? And then you start to offer things that are to you, not even priority, not to you, even not even their best efforts.

Does the scripture say God's standard all of a sudden has been lowered because we're in the New Testament? Does the scripture say that God has changed because all of a sudden we're in the New Testament? Does the scripture say that God's holiness not all of a sudden become diminished because God simply understands our sin?

No, God's standard is God's standard. And the way that God, the holy God, deals with his people is he demands perfection. He demands holiness. That is the truth of scripture. God does not simply say, I understand, it's all right, everybody tries. That is not the way scripture talks. But at this point, if you're feeling a sense of like, dang.

If you're feeling a sense of like, dang, so what can we do? If you are feeling a sense of at a loss, like, oh my gosh, that is the standard of God, that is absolutely appropriate. 'Cause that is where the gospel places us. We are in a place of being completely lost.

But we don't know what to do. How do we approach the holy God who is holiest of all holies? And how do we, as sinners who are so wretched, unclean, and sinful, and defiled, approach God? We can't. And so all the book of Leviticus is telling you, can't come here, can't come here, don't even come close to the mountain, don't even come close to the cloud, don't even touch, don't even do this, don't even do that, because you can't.

And so thanks be to God, because even in the book of Leviticus, Old Testament book of Leviticus, there is that truth presented to us in a context of grace, in a context of love. And that's my next point, which is how does the holy God relate to man? By teaching us the way of atonement.

By teaching us the way of atonement. Again, I know we're flipping around lots of different passages in the book of Leviticus, but I just wanted to show you that this is not just like one verse, or like one theme, it's just such a profound, major thrust of everything that's happening in the Old Testament.

But take a look at this, chapter 16, verse one through three. Chapter 16, verse one through three. And he says this, I had you guys read this passage, but I'm just gonna read verse one through three. And it says this, the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, okay?

Their death actually set like a precedence for how the people were supposed to come before God. And then he says this, when they drew near before the Lord and died, and the Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is in the ark, so that he may not die, okay?

For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat, but in this way, Aaron shall come into the holy place. And in my Bible, and in my notes, I've highlighted in circle with a little heart this way. Okay? Because when God is telling Aaron, you can't come in, because if I allowed you, if I didn't say stop, you would have died.

That's God's grace. And then by God's saying, and in this way, you shall approach me, that is the profound grace of God, teaching them that during this time, during this era, this is the way by which Aaron is going to approach the holy God towards his what? Mercy seat.

And it was supposed to be so clear to all the nation of Israel. Chapter 16 is a profound chapter of the entire Bible, why? Because this is the chapter on the day of atonement. The day of the atonement for the nation of Israel is the greatest, the holiest, most profound day of all.

If you guys have Jewish friends, they disappeared during what? Yom Kippur, okay? Yom means day, Kippur means atonement. It's the day of atonement in which God has given them this profound way by which they would sacrifice and they would atone for their sins. There is a need then for us to pay attention and ask this question, what does atonement really mean?

Okay? Atonement means in scripture, to simply make amends or to make right. That is just a simple definition. But symbolically, there has been so much that's been taught to the nation of Israel in terms of what atonement means. You guys know the various, there's been like, there's five major sacrifices in the book of Leviticus and then on top of that, there are lots of descriptions about each one of those sacrifices.

The main description is the pre-common ones come from a sacrifice of the sin offering, okay? Of the sin offering. And the whole offering. And the description about that, as you guys know, is just the sacrifice of the animal. And then the lifeblood of that animal that is spilled covers, covers everything, right?

The term atonement in the Hebrew is figuratively to cover. And the way that it comes about essentially is to say, how do we reconcile that distinction and contrast between the holy God and the sinful man? There needs to be covering. There needs to be a covering of the sinful individual in order that God may enter into his presence.

But what's more, what's more, included in the idea of atonement, there is this term, propitiation, okay? Propitiation. And this is where I wanna take a little bit of time. Just a little bit of time. There is a concept that's gonna hit us a little bit weird. And that concept I'm talking about is the idea of appeasing God.

Essentially, if you could imagine two individuals who are in an argument or a fight, and then something incredibly offensive happens, right? Typically, even when guys fight, even when brothers fight, nobody ever slaps each other in the face. 'Cause to hit the face is like disrespect, you know? It's offensive.

But if you would imagine something like that, okay? Imagine something like that. And where an offense has happened. And then one individual gets incredibly angry. What needs to happen, right? If an individual's incredibly angry or bitter, right? What needs to happen is that person's anger needs to be pacified or appeased.

Now, the reason why I say we might not like that idea is because that idea sounds a lot like pagan gods, you know? The Greek gods, or the gods of some Eastern religions or whatever it may be. Like there is this unpredictable, angry god, and then his anger has to be dealt with.

So you do crazy stuff like sacrifice a bunch of animals, and you sacrifice all this stuff, right? Now, I'm not gonna say that God's anger and the way that we're supposed to approach God is just a simplistic thing where it's one-faceted. But one clear facet that the Bible says is in terms of that appeasement of God, it's absolutely true.

Meaning, there is a wrath and anger of God that is fiery and burning and is waiting to be poured out. And there is a truth and fact of the matter that you need to deal and appease that anger, right? That is something that perhaps oftentimes escapes us, but that is at the core of what it means to atone for sin.

That in you making it right, in you rectifying the situation, you are dealing with the anger of God, right? And so this is why I think it's super important, as I connect the dots a little bit, is because perhaps a lot of times in our day, when we think about our sin, when we think about our shortcomings, oftentimes we deal with it in terms of our pain, our hurt, our suffering.

When we think about our sins, we start to think about it in terms of other categories and contexts without connecting it as though God is displeased with that sin. Am I making sense? If I can say this as clear as possible, you're dealing with your sin, you're dealing with your guilt for your sin, you're dealing with your shame for your sin.

It is not the people, it is not your church, it is not your family, it is definitely not you and your standards. You and your sins has to do with God's displeasure. That's what I'm saying. It has to do with God's anger, God's wrath, it has to do with God.

But so many times we miss that point. And I use this analogy all the time. I use this analogy with Catholics and people who struggle with trying to work, trying to do something, trying to just simply do self-improvement. And I essentially say this, given that same example of a fight or some kind of conflict between two people, if you slap me and you offend me and then you disrespect my wife, you talk ill of Bia and you disrespect my kids, maybe you punked them around in the nursery or something.

And then you come back the next week and you say, but Pastor Mark, I listened to your sermon, it was so good. If you say, but Pastor Mark, I serve snacks, I'm gonna look you square in the eye and say, what does that have to do with you and me?

And what happened between you and me, right? But that is a lot of times what happens for Christians, and especially those individuals, let's say, who are given, who aren't Christian, who are in the Catholic faith struggling so hard to work out something to appease God. That's not the way it works.

And so, this is kind of a weird way to wrap things up, but I wanna wrap it up with this. In asking the question about how does God deal with man, we realize there is a huge dilemma, right? This is an essential part of the truth that we believe.

This is an essential element of the story of redemption that we are called to understand. There is an incredible dilemma where the holy God who is absolutely powerful is repelled by us, rejects us because of our sin, and we who are so defiled and unclean, we're incapable of drawing even an inch to the holiness of the Lord.

Oh, what a dilemma. And regardless of what we try, regardless of what we say, there's an element by which even what we do and say is still producing more stain and uncleanliness. So what are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to bridge that gap? What do we do with that kind of animosity?

And this is where we can look to the gospel of Christ and say, thank you so much, Lord, because to all and every of those questions, we find the answer yes in Christ, amen? That is to the depth and degree that we're supposed to be grateful for the work of Christ in both covering, in both appeasing and propitiating, in both satisfying the demand of God, in both transforming and sanctifying, and in revealing to us the greater glory of God by which we cannot see on our own accord, amen?

Let's take a moment to pray. Lord God, we took just an hour to talk about what you've been trying to teach the nation for generations upon generations. And Father God, we know that we have not even began to cover just how holy you are. We have not began even to exhaustively think about the kind of chasm that exists between the holy God and maker of this universe versus creating beings as ourselves.

But Lord, I pray that we would understand to greater measure that to that measure, we would grow in our appreciation for Christ. And to that measure, we would grow in our adoration and worship of your name and your work in our lives. Father God, we pray that as these are foundational truths to the gospel and these are foundational truths to the church, would you grant to us a spirit of conviction that these things would dive deep into our hearts and truly cut us so that Lord, there would be no arrogance thinking that we're not so defiled.

Father God, there would be no arrogance thinking that we could reach you however and any way we want. But rather God, we would be so broken and God, that we'd be so appreciative for your great grace. Lord, we thank you, it's in Christ's name we pray, amen.