Hebrews 9, verse 18 and forward, "Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.' And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.

And according to the law, one may almost say all things are cleansed with the blood. And without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves were better sacrifices than these.

For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, not to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.

Otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the consummation of the ages he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, after this comes judgment.

So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you, Father God, that you've given us the privilege and the ability to be able to come before you.

Help us, Lord God, to not to take for granted what you have given us. Give us deeper understanding of your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, what if this morning I told you that I got a letter from the city of Irvine saying that what we are doing is illegal and that every single one of you who are here this morning has broken the law and after the service is over there is going to be Irvine PD waiting for us and every single one of us is going to go to jail.

And there is no bail and you're just going to have to wait for your sentencing. What if I told you that and that was true? Most of you probably don't believe me. First of all, what we're doing is not illegal because we're outside, right? But what if that was true?

What if that was true and that there is going to be consequence for the behavior and afterwards that you're all going to go to jails? No matter what I say from that moment on, my guess is most of you are going to be thinking about how to prepare. What should I do?

Did I lock the doors? What about my kids? What about work? Do I call them? Whatever responsibilities that you have coming, that's coming, that thought is going to consume your mind because of the indictment that's coming after the service. For whatever the reason, we hear the passage in Hebrews 9, 27, it says, "Inasmuch as it is appointed for a man to die once, after this comes judgment." The beginning of understanding of the gospel is recognizing that God's anger is burning against sinful world.

And so, when the gospel is presented, that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, and that's all you understand about the gospel, even though, whether you believe it or not, that's how you heard the gospel. The next question that's going to be coming is, "If God loves me, why would he judge me?" If God loves the world, why would he allow famine?

If God loves the world, why would he allow war and sex trafficking? My guess is, you've either asked that question before, or you have many friends around you who ask you and say, "You know, I can't believe in your God for that reason." You say he's loving, you say he's gracious, but why would he allow these things to happen?

It is not that that statement is false, but there's a reason why the whole purpose of the tabernacle was to prepare and to teach the nation of Israel that they are not to enter into God's presence just willy-nilly, that you can't just walk in and say, "Here, God, here I am." The whole point of the tabernacle was to teach the nation of Israel that a sinful man cannot be in the presence of this holy God.

And so this elaborate ritual of setting up the tabernacle, what animals to use, who to what, what tribes are supposed to touch what part, that there's this elaborate explanation of what they are to do, what they are not to do, and the punishment for not obeying that and coming into the tabernacle just willy-nilly was capital punishment, that you would die.

He says that everything that happened at the tabernacle was simply a copy of the reality found in heaven. If you have a false understanding of the gospel, you will live the rest of your life saying, "God is not fair because he didn't make me this way. God is not fair because he didn't give me this.

God is not fair because he didn't give them that." Because the gospel has been presented in a self-centered manner, as if God actually owes me something. That is not the beginning of the gospel. The beginning of the gospel is we've offended a holy God. That if we die in our natural state, it says, "As it is appointed for all men to die once, after this will come judgment." All men are appointed to die once.

The world right now is freaking out. They're freaking out because maybe, many people for the first time in their life, death has become a reality. Because of this virus, because of what's being spread in the news and some percentage of people who have certain risks, and if they get this virus, they're going to die.

And although we all know 100% of the people who were born into this world will die. Whether you die from a virus, whether you die from an accident, whether you die of a heart attack, whether you die of diabetes, whatever you die from, at some point, 100% of the people will die.

It is appointed for all men to die once. But the focus for people who death is not a reality, will focus on, "Oh, we're going to die. We're going to die." That's not the biggest terror. That's not the biggest problem for mankind. It's the second part. Because whether you're good, whether you're bad, we will all die.

But the second part when it says, "After this comes judgment." It's the second death that the purpose of the gospel helps us to deal with. It's the wrong or incomplete understanding of the gospel causes people to live their lives focused on this world. God is not fair. God is not fair.

God is not fair. But if you understood, if you read the Bible carefully, the starting point of the gospel is understanding that we've offended a holy God. And if we die in this natural state, there is judgment waiting. And the judgment is described all over scripture, and particularly in Jesus' parable, where he talks about gnashing of teeth, where there's a hellfire that will burn and will not be quenched and it is a horrendous place.

And he says that judgment is waiting for all who die in their natural state. So why is it, if that is the beginning of the gospel message, where so many people who have supposedly heard the gospel, live the rest of their lives wondering why God is not fair? Instead our focus ought to be, if that is the state that mankind is in, in his natural state, how do we get out of that?

How do we get out of that judgment? How do we guarantee that when we die that we are not going to face a God who's going to judge? That's the whole point of the tabernacle. The whole point of the tabernacle is to appease the wrath of a holy God.

It wasn't to get into the tabernacle and say, "Well, if God is pleased, maybe I'll have a better life. Maybe he'll give me, you know, maybe he'll bless my business, or maybe this will happen, or that will happen." That was not the point of the tabernacle. Tabernacle was not a place for them to come and build a community.

Tabernacle was not a place where they came and strategized how they can do away with poverty. The church was not a place, the tabernacle was not a place where they can come together and see all the suffering in the world and how do we strategize to meet the needs of the world?

That was not the point of the tabernacle. The tabernacle's primary purpose was to appease the anger of God. And that's what the sacrifices were for. So the whole point of the tabernacle, as he says in verse 22, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, and without forgiveness we remain under God's wrath." There's nothing that any human being who believes this truth that needs to answer and have this answered clearly than this fact alone.

Are we forgiven of our sins? In the copy that pointed to the reality that was going to come in Christ, what specifically did it teach about forgiveness? If the whole point of the sacrifice, the whole point of the tabernacle was to appease the anger of God, how did they receive forgiveness?

What was the tabernacle that was established, taught the nation of Israel? Number one, there's four things I want to highlight this morning. Number one, forgiveness requires active repentance and not just passive acceptance. Forgiveness requires active repentance and not just passive acceptance. You know, even in the way that we present the gospel, and after the gospel is presented, we typically will say, "Anyone want to accept Jesus Christ?

Accept him." And if we're not careful, and I'm not saying that that language in and of itself is wrong, but if we're not careful, we can give the impression that God has offended us and he's the one coming and apologizing to us if we're not careful. The way that the gospel is sometimes presented is, "Give Jesus a chance." He did not come, he did not come to give us purpose.

That's not our problem. You know, I don't know, I don't know what my purpose is. You don't have purpose because you don't know who God is. And if you know God, he'll give you purpose. God did not send his only begotten son so that we can live our best lives now.

That's not our problem. Our best lives is meant to be lived in eternity with Christ, not here. You see, sometimes if we're not careful, the way that the gospel is presented is man-centered, and so even after people accept Jesus, they live man-centered using Christ to pursue their idols. Forgiveness required active repentance.

If you read verse 19 and 22, and I'm not going to read all of this, but if you read 19 and 22, it gives a glimpse. Remember when we were studying the book of Leviticus, how tedious every part of this tabernacle was. God gave instructions on what animal to sacrifice for what sin.

He gave instructions on where it needed to be sacrificed, who can touch the sacrifices, even the priest, what outfit that they were to wear when they're in the tabernacle versus when they're outside the tabernacle. Even when they had to pack up the tent, he said only this tribe of the Levites can touch these poles, and only this tribe of the Levites can touch the ark of the covenant.

He said the animals had to be without defect. Certain animals needed to be slaughtered this way, certain animals needed to be slaughtered that way, and then with the blood to sprinkle this, sprinkle that, on what day to do what. I mean, it is an elaborate description of what was required for them to appease God's anger.

And think about it, if you were a Jew, you didn't just casually walk into the tabernacle and say, "Ah, you know, last night I sinned, and I'm so sorry," and then it's like, "Forgive me," and then just walked out. That's not how it happened. Imagine the tabernacle served over a million people.

You ever go to the DMV? The DMV is a place where people serve, and you know, we have to renew our license, and if now, I mean, I think it was a lot better when I was younger, but now if you want to go to the DMV, it almost takes three months of appointment, right, because they're so backed up, and if you just show up without an appointment, you might be there for five, six, seven hours, depending on what day you go.

Imagine the tabernacle was serving over a million people, and it was only one tabernacle, there wasn't a tabernacle per tribe. And so imagine all of those people, when they sinned, had to come to the tabernacle and give sacrifice. So not only were there tedious instructions on what they were to do, the fact that even going to the tabernacle required much planning.

My guess is they probably had to make reservations. If it takes three months to get to the DMV to deal with our license, right, imagine how backed up the tabernacle must have been every single day. See, all of that taught the nation of Israel that when they wanted to repent, when they wanted to appease the anger of God, there was this ritual that they had to go through, and all of that taught the nation of Israel.

Repentance was not a casual acceptance. It was an active pursuit. That's why in Matthew 3, 7-8, "But when he saw many Pharisees, Jesus, and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance.'" Repentance wasn't simply acknowledging, "You know what, I agree with you, this is wrong." And if we're not careful, repentance becomes nothing more than acknowledging that it's wrong.

That's not what repentance means. Repentance means to turn away from whatever it is. It's not repentance just to say, "You know what, I agree with you God, I agree that's wrong." The word for repentance means metanoia, to change your mind. But it doesn't simply mean that you thought it was right and all of a sudden now you believe it's wrong.

It is a call to turn away from whatever it is that we believe is wrong. In 1 Thessalonians 1.9, when the Thessalonians met Christ, they became the model church in Macedonia. And this is how Paul describes them, "For they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had with you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God." They turned from their idols to serve the living God.

As I mentioned several weeks ago about the Hindu lady who wanted to accept Jesus Christ but had no intentions of ever turning away from their idols. And our idols in our secular, humanistic, materialistic society is the pursuit of money for our hope, for our security, for our refuge. So that pursuit for many Christians has never been put away.

And so we pursue the world while we accept Jesus Christ. And for some reason that has become normal in our culture. In fact, if you don't do that, what do they say? You're a Jesus freak. You're a freak because you're not normal. And then if you pursue Christ passionately, you say, "Oh man, you shouldn't just be a lay person.

You should be a pastor. Or maybe you shouldn't be a missionary because you're passionate about pursuing Christ." But for whatever the reason, we've delineated between a natural repentance and following Christ which is a call to every single person. We made it a unique thing for a few Christians. And those people who are leaders should model that.

For the rest of us, God is okay with us continuing to have our idols and just casually and passively accepting Christ. Repentance requires an active pursuit. Ephesians 2, 1-2 it says, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." Repentance means to turn away from our idols and to turn to the living God.

And so first thing, imagine if you were a Jew living at that time, again, it was no casual event for you to go to the tabernacle. You didn't just wake up and say, "Oh, I feel bad. I'm going to go to the tabernacle, take care of this, and then I'm going to just get back to my life." No, it required planning.

It required money. It required probably an atonement, clearing of your schedule, and all of that because you were convicted that you needed to atone for your sins. Secondly, forgiveness required a mediator. You can't separate the tabernacle with the priest. When you think of priest, you think, "Well, where's the tabernacle?" You think of the tabernacle, it's like, "Where's the priest?" Why did God do that?

Because it's extra work. Now we know that these priests were not holier than other people. God didn't survey the nation of Israel and say, "Well, these guys are holier, so they're going to represent me and them to me." No, they were just as sinful. If you study the history of Israel, you'll find that the Levites were just as guilty as anybody else.

But the reason why God established a mediator, again, it was a copy of the reality that was going to be found in Christ. This was to teach the nation of Israel, again, that they were not to casually walk into the tabernacle. They needed to consider carefully which path that they were going to go through.

They needed somebody to mediate for their sins, and obviously this ultimately pointed to the coming of Christ. Hebrews chapter 9, verses 24 to 25, "For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." The tabernacle only represented the presence of God.

What Jesus did was he mediated into the actual presence of God. And so now he says he is a mediator between us and God, not only for now, but for eternity. And that's why we have eternal security, because he stands between us for eternity. And it was, again, to teach them that the desperate need for Jesus Christ.

You know, years ago, the term "evangelical Christian" had to be placed, instead of saying that they're just Christians because Jehovah's Witnesses were calling themselves Christian. The false gospel teachers were calling themselves Christians. The Mormons were calling themselves Christians. And so they needed to identify, no, we're evangelical Christians. And evangelical Christians meant that in the core doctrine, we believe the same thing about the identity of Christ and the gospel message.

Today, that term "evangelical" has been so watered down. There are people who call themselves evangelicals who will say openly and publicly that Jesus is not the only way. He's the best way. And you have these televangelists who are coming on television when they are asked, "Do you believe that Jesus is the only way, that the Hindus and the Buddhists, that they will not, when they die, they're not going to go to heaven?" And the response that they give is, "Well, who am I to judge?

We're just about the love of Christ. Life is hard enough as it is. I'm not going to. Only God can judge, and I'm not in a position to judge." If you're not in the position to make that clear, you're not in the position to speak for God at all.

Because the Bible says, "He who preaches a different gospel other than what I have preached to you, let him be anathema." And the fundamental need for the atonement of Christ was because that was the only way, only through the blood of Christ. If there was another way for a sinful man to appease the anger of God, it would be the greatest injustice that God would send his only begotten Son and crucify him, allow him to suffer what he has suffered, as just a way.

If there was any other way, if there was even one other way to give his only begotten Son to suffer and absorb our sins and to present him as just a good way, just as a way. Imagine how offensive that must be to God. You think if there was another way I would have sent my Son?

You think if somebody else could mediate, if there was another path to get to me, that I would have ever allowed that to happen to my Son? Think about how offensive that is. As these televangelists are more concerned about what the non-Christians would say and how they would be offended, than to consider how God would be offended.

The Bible is crystal clear. If anybody is in doubt that there is only one mediator between us and God, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and no one comes to the Father but through me." Nobody. There is no other way. There is only one mediator.

Third, forgiveness is costly. In 923, "Therefore it was necessary for copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." Better. Now that's as understatement as you can get. Imagine if you spent all your life investing a good chunk of your paycheck for your retirement, and at the point of your retirement you realized you went to the banker or whoever was managing money and they said you have nothing in the bank account.

Imagine how you would feel. Especially the more, the harder you work to invest in that portfolio, the more disillusioned, the more angry you would become. Because it was a lot of money that you've invested in that. It wasn't just a few bucks. Let's say 50%, 60% of your money went to that.

Now think about it as a Jew, a good faithful Jew in the old covenant. You know in the new covenant there's a lot of people who say, "Oh you know 10% that's too much, you know that's a lot of money." And I remember somebody years ago who talked, you know, talked about like they were having a hard time giving their 10% or tie and they realized that every, every tenth that they give that this is a payment for a good Mercedes, right?

It's like Mercedes, I mean I know, you know, Mercedes is not considered the best car, maybe the best Tesla out there, whatever car is good, right? Or a Raptor, whatever is your dream, okay? They say, "Oh man, if I don't pay this money then I can literally get, drive the nicest car that I can want." An Old Testament saint, if they're a faithful Jew, if you added up all the things that God mandated, right?

10% was only one of the commandments. If you added all the things that God mandated of a faithful Jew, they say it comes out to somewhere around 35%, 35%. And again, this was mandated, right? On top of that, you gave sacrifices and you have the free will offerings. When God gave you a great harvest, you would give a thank offering to him or something good would happen and you would give an offering on top of that.

And then on top of all of that, you gave these sacrifices. A lamb or a goat for a farmer at that time would have been somewhere around three to five days of his wages. That's one lamb. I'm not even talking about a bull. One lamb would have been five days, three to five days of his wages.

So on top of the 35%, on top of whatever else you gave to God, you had all these sacrifices that you gave. So let's say if you were a good Jew, a good Jew, a conservative estimate is somewhere around 40 to 50% of your income was placed into the sacrifices to give to God.

Now imagine at the end of that, Jesus comes and says, you've added nothing. There's nothing in your portfolio. The point of all of that was the point of the reality that was going to come in Christ. So what was the point? What was God trying to teach the nation of Israel?

That these sacrifices were costly. The one that is coming, the sacrifice that's going to be given to you, whatever it is that you have placed in order to come to God is going to pale in comparison to the cost that God is going to pay to bring you to him.

And so that's what the tabernacle taught the nation of Israel. He said Christ's sacrifice in verse 28, having been offered once to bear the sins of many. No matter how costly these lambs were to the farmer or to the individual, he had to do it again because it would only appease the sin of that person for that event.

But only Christ's sacrifice could be offered up once for all for many sins. And there's a reason why Christ, his sacrifice, why he had to be the son of God. Only the son of God's sacrifice could have appeased the sins of many once for all. That's what it says in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 17 and on.

It says, "If you address father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth, knowing that you are not redeemed with the perishable things like silver or gold or from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." When we recognize what it is that we have in Christ, the first thing that it does in us is produce worship, thankfulness.

When we live week to week, focus on the things that God hasn't given us. Faith is only begun. It says, "Yeah, I believe that Jesus died for me, but why did he make me this way? I wish I was better looking. I wish I lived here. I wish I had parents that were like this." And you live the rest of your lives kind of like, "Yeah, yeah, thank you.

Thank you Jesus for dying for me on the cross. But yeah, how about my job? How about my family? How about this? And how about that?" The first thing that it says, it kills your, you're not worshiping. It kills your worship. You can come to church, you can serve, you can give, but you're not worshiping.

Because the fundamental foundation of worship is an overflowing gratitude of what God has done for me. If we do not mature, you know, maybe you've heard the gospel and you didn't fully understand the cost, but then because we've never pursued, we've never understood, we've never matured in our faith, there is never a growing gratitude for Christ.

And so we just kind of like what Christ did for us, justification is a long history behind, something that happened years ago, but today, what have you done for me lately? You know, when we're young, we don't think twice about the house that we lived in, the food that we ate, you know, the shoes that we wore.

We don't think about that because it's just a given, you know. But guess what? You pay for those shoes, somebody. You know the food you ate, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, that didn't just pop out of nowhere, that wasn't magic. You didn't just wake up one morning and then poof, food just appeared on your table, you know.

You know the clothes that you wore when you were a kid? You didn't get that out of thin air. Somebody got that for you, somebody. Not sure who, somebody. You know exactly what I'm talking about. It didn't cost you anything, but it wasn't free. You know, it isn't until we have children and we start raising kids and we start realizing, man, my parents did that for me.

My parents did that for me. When we're younger, we're always comparing with the other guy who has a better car and better shoes and better clothes and better this and better that. Until you raise your own kids, you know, I mean you know it mentally, but you don't fully understand like everything requires payment.

So you have to work, especially if you come from immigrant parents, right, they had to get blue collar jobs. You know, people always ask like, "Oh, is your church doing okay?" You know, because all these churches are having problems because people are laid off, they're furloughed. But for the most part, our church is okay because most of us are, you know, white collar workers.

You know what I mean? White collar jobs are, it's not completely safe, but it's much safer. It's the blue collar workers, right? And so we live in a neighborhood where I think majority of the people are doing okay. If you come from an immigrant family, you know, it doesn't matter what kind of education they had, wherever country they came from, when they came here, they had to do physical labor.

And you don't think much about that. It's like, yeah, you know, the food that I ate, the thing that I complained about, it's like, "Oh, why are we having this again?" My dad had to empty trash cans so that we can have food. My mom had to work in a, you know, dry cleaners and 105 degree heat in Burbank so that they can pay the rent.

You don't think about that when we're young, you know. Yes, it was free for us, but it wasn't free. And part of maturing in life is recognizing that what we have was given to us. See, even as Christians, sometimes we just take for granted. It's like, "Oh, yeah, go to church.

And how come the church isn't giving me this and this and that?" The very fact that you are here even understanding anything that I'm saying is because it was given to you by the blood of Christ. It was his blood that caused you to open your ears that you can see and hear who he is.

If it wasn't by the grace of God, if it wasn't for the sacrifice of the Son of God, we wouldn't have this work. We wouldn't be here. We can't sing these songs. We don't have access to this holy God. See, part of maturing is recognizing the costliness of what it is that he has given us.

And our natural response when we recognize the cost of God the Father giving his only begotten Son, and Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he emptied himself and he became nothing. For what? So that you and I can eat.

You and I can live. So you and I can have hope in eternity. And recognizing that and growing appreciation of that is what causes true worship. Fourth and finally, forgiveness is the basis of our hope. Hebrews 9, 27, "As much as it is appointed for men to die once, you will die, Christian, non-Christian alike." This is a 100% agreement.

You know, part of the problem of living in a rich world is that we marginalize death. We only see death when we go to funerals. And even then, the dead body is dressed up nice, put makeup on, and so to make them look like they're alive, as close to being alive as possible.

And so for a brief period, we think of death. But for the rest of our lives, we marginalize that. We know it's real and it's theoretically real, but it's not real. And that's why so many people are freaking out because of this virus. Because all of a sudden, death is real.

You can die. No, no, no, no, no. Not you can die. You will die. You will die. "In as much as it is appointed for all men to die once, you will die." Whether you die as a young person or old person. Whether you die violently or you die peacefully.

"It is appointed for all men to die once." He says, "After this comes judgment." See, but he says in verse 28, "So because of that, because of the state of mankind, God could have said, 'You know what? I am disgusted.'" Just like Caleb was describing, you know, that rice that's molded is disgusting.

When we see disgust, what do we do? Turn away. Don't run toward disgust. If you see, if you walked into a bathroom and somebody barfed in there, right? Turn around and you go out. "I can't use that bathroom. It's disgusting." You don't go looking for a mop. That's not your responsibility.

You don't get paid for doing that. If you go into, you know, a public transportation and somebody defecated, you don't walk in there and say, "Hey, give me a trash can, trash bag." You walk away. You wait for the next bus. God saw the filth in us and he didn't turn away.

He didn't turn away. He said, "Because it is appointed for man to die once, after this comes judgment, and so because of that, Christ also having been offered once to bear sins for many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him." He says, "Christ will come in his full glory." For those who have been forgiven, whose sins have been atoned for, his glory means salvation.

His glory means consummation of our marriage that he started here. But you know, again, because of a superficial and partial understanding of the gospel, most people when we talk about glory, we only think of heaven. And I've heard people say that heaven is the presence of God and hell is the absence of God.

There is nothing in the scripture that says that. Hell is not the absence of God. God is not omnipresent except hell. And typically, if you see Hollywood, heaven is where Satan is God, right? And he reigns. And so people have this image, and a lot of Christians even have this image of, you know, Christ is present in heaven, but in hell he's not there.

And that's why it's so horrible, because the goodness of God is not there. Hell is a horrible place because of God. When we talk about glory, glory basically means to take the essence of who he is and to magnify it. When Jesus was going to the cross, he said, "It is time for me to glorify you and for you to glorify me." And so when we think about heaven as Christians, we think of his mercy, his compassion, his gentleness, his patience.

But at the same time, the cross wouldn't make sense if that's all it was. The cross is the cross because where the wrath of God was placed upon his son. His greatest anger, all the sins of the elect were placed upon his son. And so the only way the wrath of God could have been appeased was by the cross.

So the glory of Christ does not only mean the goodness of God. The glory of Christ also means the judgment of God. Hell was created by God for Satan and his angels. And those who continue to follow him will also be judged. So it is a place of torment even for Satan.

When Christ comes in his glory, for those whose sins have been atoned for, we'll see the glory of Christ in his magnificence and his compassion and our love for him and his love for us will be consummated. But for those who do not know him, where the wrath of God remains on him, his glory means terror.

And it is more terrible than anything that you and I could possibly imagine. More terrible than this disease, more terrible than an atomic bomb, more terrible than anything that you and I can imagine. What we see in the book of Revelation, as terrible as Revelation is, Revelation is warning for sinners to repent.

You ever wonder why the book of Revelation, the judgment of God comes in intervals? Why it doesn't just come all at once and judge at the end? Through all of his judgments, through the seal judgments, through the trumpet judgments, through the bowl judgments. Why does he go through this elaborate drama of judgment after judgment after judgment?

Because each stage of judgment is an opportunity for sinners to repent. So even the book of Revelation is a revelation of the kindness of God. Because once the final white throne judgment comes, it is the end. And there's a reason why there isn't an elaborate description of the final judgment.

Because it is going to be more terrible than anything that you and I can imagine. Knowing, knowing this, shouldn't our primary concern be about the second judgment? We are so tangled up right now, worried about how to make this world a better place. And sometimes by people who have never shared the gospel, all of a sudden is so concerned about making sure that the boat that is headed for judgment is a nice, comfortable boat.

Don't get me wrong. The Bible calls us to be good witnesses. God calls us to be compassionate. If there is wrong, we ought to call it out. We need to stand for justice. Don't get me wrong. The Bible says it ought to be the character of a Christian. But the mission of the church is to spread the gospel.

It is to spread the gospel. Because you can make this place the best place to live, and at the end, there's still judgment. The hope, only hope for mankind is the blood atonement of Jesus Christ. So I pray again with all my heart, with all the chaos that's going on around us, at least for you and I, that we would give our energy to things that's not going to change.

People ask me, "Hey, Pastor Peter, how come you don't talk about the political stuff that's going on around us?" So you know, I can tell you my opinion. I have a lot of opinions. Ask me about anything. I have an opinion. I'm a bit too opinionated. Ask me about your shoes.

If you really want me to know, you don't want to know, I'll tell you. If you really want to know, you don't want to know, right? Because if you ask me my opinion, I'll give you my opinion. I don't like giving false compliments because then it doesn't mean anything, right?

So if I say I like it, it means I like it. If I don't like it, I'll tell you I don't like it. So don't ask me if you really don't want my opinion. If you want like a puff piece, you don't want me, right? But the reason why I don't give my opinions up on the pulpit is because it's my opinion.

That's my opinion. Political stuff that's going on. Yeah, I have strong opinions. I'm a Republican. Does that offend some of you? I'm a proud Republican. I have my opinions. But I don't make that my primary talk on the pulpit because that's my opinion. Our churches should not be divided because of our opinions.

We should not be fighting each other because of our opinions. We should not be marching for our opinions. What you and I need to stand for is a truth that 10 years later we don't look back and say, "Oh, I was wrong about that. Oh, I changed my mind.

Oh, the culture has changed. Oh, things have shifted." That is not what this pulpit is for. That's not what this church is for. We stand for truth and truth does not change. And truth is not my opinion or your opinion. It does not change. So we need to stand for the truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And we have to make sure that we are anchored in that and don't move no matter what's happening around us as Christians so that the world will know that there is hope only in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen? Let's pray. Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much for your continued grace and love toward us.

I pray that the truth of your word. I pray for the drama of the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the cost. May it all make deep impressions in our hearts, Lord God, that we may recalibrate our mind and our heart according to the gospel that you've given us. Help us to live for the things that are eternal, not just temporal.

Help us to be united, Lord God, in our voices to honor and glorify you in all things. So we pray, Father, that as a church that you would keep us grounded. And as the world is desperately seeking for answers, I pray, Father God, that we would be ready in season and out of season to give the reason why we are so stubbornly attached to you.

May your grace be sufficient for us. In Jesus' name we pray.