Laundry Day

TRANSITION

[Video Clip] — The Talking Stain

I am Tony Baker, Lead Pastor at Gateway. Glad you are here — watching online

INTRODUCTION

I hate it when I get a stain on a good shirt

Ta’Mara hates it when I wear a good shirt to work in

Some stains are really stubborn — need “Shout Out” — funny story about Madison (Yell It Out)

Life is a little like the clothes we wear

The more you wear it the more you need to clean it

The more you wear it the more stains appear

Bible writers often used garments as an analogy of one’s character — including God’s

Psalm 104:1–2 TNIV

1 Praise the Lord, my soul. Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. 2 The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent

Psalm 109:16–18 TNIV

16 For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted. 17 He loved to pronounce a curse— may it come on him. He found no pleasure in blessing— may it be far from him. 18 He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil.

Garments represent a person’s character — the things we do or don’t do is like putting on garments - clean or stained

Something I know about every one of us

All of us have something in our past that we wish we could undo

All of us have said — done — thought something that we regret

Something you did when you were young — drunk — angry — lonely — when no one was looking

All of us have a stain or two or three or more

We all have things in our past that we wish we could undo

Anyone here today with things in your past that you wish you could undo?

This brings us to a great question for us today...

How do you undo the past?

It’s not like we don’t try...

We justify our past — “you should have seen my home life” — “I had it really hard as a kid” — “She made me do it” — we try to make ourselves feel better by blaming others

We Hide our past — We stuff it down so nobody will know — we start over — move away — quite that job and get a different one — We think it is okay as long as others don’t know

We Ignore our past — We admit to ourselves we have a stained past but convince ourselves it isn’t hurting anyone — we might even apologize but that doesn’t make the guilt and shame go away does it?

We try to overcome it by spending money on self-help — conferences — counseling

Confession: I don’t know of anything that I can do to undo what I did do in the past — I can justify it — hide it — ignore it — but truth is I still feel the regret — the guilt — the shame

I have come to grips with this truth…I cannot change my past…but why

Because some things are bigger than a mistake, some things are sin and the stain of sin is hard to remove

Mistakes can be corrected but sin is something very different

Mistakes can be overcome — more information — more training — better listening — age and maturity — we can overcome our mistakes with human effort

Sin cannot be overcome — it must be forgiven

Sin is a transgression against the law of God — the law declares us guilty and the law demands justice be served — our sin condemns us to death — that is the punishment for sin

King David knew this all too well — he lays it all out for us in Psalm 51

TEXT

King David — most successful and famous of all the kings — a man after God’s own heart — commits adultery

The story — Bathsheba — tries to hide it — has her husband killed — Prophet Nathan confronts David and he is crushed

David’s sin becomes real and in his face — he realizes what he has done

Psalm 51:3–6 TNIV

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

David knows what he did was not a mistake — it was a sin

“My transgressions” — “My sin” — “I sinned” — “I have done what is evil”

David feels the weight of what he has done — he also feels the condemnation of the verdict — God’s judgement is just

Mistakes mean I am human — Sin means I am guilty

I can fix a mistake — I cannot fix guilty — “I am sorry” doesn’t get it — “I’ll try harder” won’t take away my guilt because my guilty verdict demands more than that from me

David knows that he cannot remove the stain of his sin — so he turns to One who could help

Psalm 51:1–2 TNIV

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

David appeals to the nature and character of God

A God of “mercy” — a God of “unfailing love” — a God of “great compassion”

What does David want from God?

“Blot out my transgressions”

“Wash away all my iniquity”

“Cleanse me from my sin”

The reason we cannot change our past is because sin cannot be justified — hidden — ignored or even removed by human effort

Sin must be “blotted out” like a stain on a garment

ATONEMENT

AT - ONE - MENT

Translators tried to get a word to explain in English the OT idea of Atonement

OT teaches us that sin results in certain consequences

OT teaches us that sin is the intentional or unintentional refusal to walk in the ways God has designed for us

OT teaches us that sin separates us from God - He is the source of life and without him we are dead — God cannot be in relationship with sin

So the question around Atonement is this...

What needs to happen for us to be at one with God again?

We know that God revealed to the Hebrew people that sin needed to be covered over or “blotted out”

Think about blotting — pour something else over a stain to cover it and blot it out

in the OT the most literal meaning of our word Atonement = “Cover Over”

What needs to happen is our sin must be covered over and blotted out like a stain

How do you Cover over sin?

Something else was revealed to the Hebrew people by God

The only sufficient covering of sin is blood — but why blood?

Blood represents life — Only life can blot out death and only death can blot out life

The life blood covers over the death of sin

The Day of Atonement

Priests would go around the temple and sprinkle blood to cover the sin of the people

The most significant expression of this ritual was the Day of Atonement

It happened in the fall — after the harvest there would be celebrating and weeping

they celebrated the harvest — praised and worshipped God for his provision

They wept for their unintentional sins committed over the last year

On the Day of Atonement the HP goes into the Holy of Holies

There is the ark — the box of the covenant — in the box are the two tablets given to Moses — on them is the covenant God made with them

The covenant — the law on those tablets in the box condemned them — they did not and could not keep their end of the covenant

The covenant demanded God kill them for breaking the law — it was just and fair

But God said NO — God provided a way for atonement — a substitute life in place of our life

HP would sprinkle blood of a lamb (the substitute) over the covering of the box

Martin Luther — in 1500’s when translating the Hebrew to German — used words that when translated to English means — “The Mercy Seat”

The covering over the covenant (that they could not keep) is the “Atonement Place” — it is where the blood covers and blots out the people’s sin

But this was just a shadow of what was to come — this ritual satisfied God for a moment — but God wanted more for us — God had more for us and it would not require the continual shedding of blood — over and over again

So lets fast forward to Jesus

Hebrews 5:5–10 TNIV

5 In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” 6 And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” 7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Jesus has been appointed HP by God himself

Get this…Jesus does not take the blood of a lamb to sprinkle on the mercy seat

Jesus takes his broken — mutilated — bleeding body and sits on the mercy seat of God

It is not the blood of an animal that blots out our sin — it is the blood of Jesus — God in the flesh — His life blood overcomes our death

Jesus has given His life — his own blood — to blot out the sin that stains our lives

APPLICATION

How do you undo the past?

How do you overcome the guilt — shame — regret of the past?

You can’t...

You cannot change your past, but Jesus can change your future

Today is laundry day

Today we bring your old, torn, stained garments — our messed up lives — the sin we cannot remove

We come stained by our sin — willful and unwillful

We bring our stained garments to the mercy seat — there Jesus is to apply the blood and blot out our sin

His life to overcome our death

have worship team come up

Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow