[Ben Light] I appreciate very much the beautiful offertory music and special music. Thank you for the hard work put into the practice for that. And it certainly is beautiful and an excellent way of being able to praise our God in song on this very special day.

Brethren, the Old Testament contains a record of individuals whom God specifically identifies and describes as having walked with Him. It does not mean that there were not more who followed God. Obviously, as we read through Scripture, we see that there were more who followed Him and were obedient to Him. We see many of His servants throughout the ages that served Him as He commanded. But we see three specific references in Scripture to individuals having walked with God.

The first of those mentioned is Enoch. If you want to turn back to Genesis 5. Genesis 5, and we'll take a look at the account of Enoch. Jumps in here. Genesis 5:21, kind of in the middle of a genealogy of Adam. We see the descendants of Seth described. We see ultimately this reference then to Enoch in Genesis 5 beginning in verse 21. And it states Genesis 5:21. It's going to help if I'm in Genesis. I tried to read you Exodus 5:21. It's not going to say exactly what I want it to say.

Genesis 5:21 Says, “Enoch lived 65 years, and he begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”

You know, Enoch's name, as we kind of look into him a little bit, his name means to train up or to dedicate. You know, it's possible that Enoch's father, Jared, dedicated Enoch to God, you know, as a servant of his training him up then to serve the Lord. You know, in his 65th year, he fathered Methuselah, and Genesis records that he then walked with God for 300 years, having other sons and daughters. And it's not that those additional sons and daughters weren't important. It's not that, you know, they, you know, weren't, you know, loved by Enoch in some way. Largely, what this genealogy is doing is it's working its way from Seth...ultimately, from Adam, down through Seth's line to Noah.

And so what we're seeing is we're seeing the mentions of those that were involved in that process throughout this genealogy. So, again, you know, it's just because those are unnamed sons and daughters doesn't mean anything nefarious. But what we see is that Enoch, through the great faith that he showed and the corresponding actions of his life, walked together with God.

You might jot this in your notes, we won't turn there, but Hebrews 11:5-6 discuss the faith that Enoch had. In fact, the introduction largely to Hebrews is a story of Enoch in some ways. What we see in Hebrews 11:5-6, I'm afraid of that word now, I'm going to say it again, Hebrews 11:5-6 talks about how before God took Enoch, that Enoch pleased God. And then we see this memory Scripture that we've had so many years at camp in Hebrews 11:6…

Hebrews 11:6 …that states, “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.” Again, directly on the heels of a mention that Enoch pleased God. “Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. For he who comes to God must first believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

You know, it's interesting to consider that which Adam and Eve failed to do in the environment of Eden, Enoch did in the world that resulted from their sin. Genesis 6, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. Because we see another example here, Genesis 6:1, we see Enoch's great-grandson, Noah, who is another one who is referenced as who walked with God. Genesis 6, we'll pick it up in verse 1 to kind of paint the picture here. Seeing that, you know, Noah's world was not too unlike our own, you know, the world in which we see. In fact, we see Scripture talks about how at the time of the end, it will be like the days of Noah.

Genesis 6:1-5 says, “Now it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years.' There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.’” But verse 5, we see that things got a little bit rough. “Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

You know, we've mentioned before, yes, the days of the end are going to be like the time of Noah, but we haven't reached this point yet where every intent of mankind's heart is evil. They're still good in this world. It's hard to find sometimes, but it's out there. So we haven't quite gotten to this point yet as we look around at the world around us today. It's rough, it's difficult, yes.

Genesis 6:5-8 “But God saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord,” verse 6, “was sorry that He had made man on the earth. He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I've created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing, birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’” But verse 8, we see that “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

Why did Noah find grace in the eyes of God? We see that Noah is described here as a man who was just, was a man who was, it says, perfect or complete in his generations, in his lifetime. You know, it's been assumed that to be blameless. He was a man of integrity. He was a man who was righteous before God in that generation. He was a man of great faith, trusting in God for his deliverance from the flood.

Genesis 6:9 says, “This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. Noah walked with God.”

The third individual, and I'm going to use individual in air quotes, that is mentioned is a little more obscure, but the description is found in the Book of Malachi. If you turn over with me, please, to the Book of Malachi, last Book before we make the jump into the New Testament. And we're going to pick it up in Malachi 2 as we kind of set the stage for where we're headed today. Malachi 2. Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Malachi 2, we'll pick it up in verse 4. In the midst of a passage from God here through the prophet Malachi to a corrupt priesthood and a corrupt people, those that had really at that time fallen down on their duties and had not, and were not pleasing God, we see Malachi 2:4.

Malachi 2:4-6 says, “‘Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you that my covenant with Levi may continue,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear me. So he feared me and was reverent before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth. Injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity.’”

You know, we see this reference here in Malachi as not to a specific person necessarily, not to Levi himself, but to his descendants, to those who were chosen to be a part of the priesthood. And what these verses described was the ideal. It was perhaps even the conditions at the very beginning of things when God called the Levites to serve Him, redeeming the firstborn in the way that He did. But we see that they have a fear of God, they have a reverence for God. They speak the law of truth, they speak the law of justice. They walked with God in peace and in equity. You see, the end of verse 6, “Walked with me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity.”

Now, this was not the case during the time period that Malachi was prophesying, and God is using this to provide a very specific contrast between what was going on at that point in time when Malachi was going around and talking to the kings and to the people of Israel, and ultimately, what the ideal was at one point in time in history. The priesthood at the point in time of Malachi had defiled themselves. They'd caused many to stumble. They showed partiality in the law. They did not keep His ways. The priesthood, during the time of Malachi, were out of step with God. They were out of step with God. They were no longer walking with Him as they once were.

There's a passage found in the Book of Amos. If you want to turn back just a little bit to the Book of Amos here. This sets us up once again for where we're going today with this message and why we're talking about walking with God on this day of atonement. Amos 3, and we'll pick it up in verse 3, Amos 3:3. You know, Scripture records Amos was a shepherd. He also self-identifies as a fig tender, a tenderer of figs as well. You know, he is a very normal individual. He's not someone who was trained in prophecy. He didn't go to the prophecy schools at the time. He, you know, wasn't necessarily trained in public speaking, etc. He was a regular Joe, or, in this case, a regular Amos. And he lived, and he prophesied, during the time of King Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel.

So as we explored in the message that I gave on Trumpets, we talk about the sermon that I gave on Trumpets, his timeframe was contemporary with Jonah. So he was contemporary with Jonah. He was also contemporary to Hosea. So you can kind of piece together what was going on in Israel, what was going on in Judah at that time as Hosea, again, brought a message to the people that they were Lo-ammi, they were Lo-ruhamah, that they were not God's people, that ultimately they had been largely cut off in that way, but that there would be a time in the future when they would have opportunity again. So Amos 3:3, Amos asks the question, and it is this question and this Scripture that serves as the foundation of this message today.

Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together unless they are agreed?”

Can two walk together unless they are agreed? The Hebrew word that's used here for agreed is the root word nowad, which is translated to designate to arrive, to meet, to gather, or sometimes to make an appointment. And often when we think about this passage, what we've used over the years and we've considered it, is we've talked about agreement, meaning, well, we agree on basic concepts and ideas and maybe even points of doctrine because we might say, "Well, can two walk together unless they are agreed on this particular topic?"

But the point that Amos is making here in Amos 3:3 is that it's a point of cause and effect. Expositor's Bible Commentary makes the following point on this passage. It says, "The first question..." There's seven in total, and they're rhetorical questions, they all deal with cause and effect. It says, "The first question in verse 3 asks whether two can walk together if they have not agreed to do so. The word walk is in the imperfect tense in Hebrew, denoting incompleted action. The question is, is it customary for two to walk together without agreeing to do so? Certainly, two people," and this is the words of Expositor's Bible Commentary, "certainly, two people walking side by side would not be doing so only by sheer coincidence."

Now, if you think about that, you know, what Amos is really getting at here, if you consider or you see two people walking down the street, there's a few things that you can reasonably conclude from that observation. You can conclude that those individuals likely started at the same place where they designated, at their same starting point, they're likely headed to the same destination, they've likely agreed on the route because you don't see one of them all of a sudden split and go left while the other one goes right because they're walking together, right? They've agreed upon the pace with which they walk. One's not running out ahead and falling behind. They're walking together.

And similarly, I think we can conclude on the opposite side of that coin. If you see a person who's walking well ahead of someone, someone who's walking well behind someone, someone who might be traveling in the opposite direction as the other person who's walking or perhaps crossing their path at a perpendicular or going down another street or even walking on the opposite side of the street, I don't know that a person would ever reasonably conclude that those two individuals were walking together. That would not be the first thing that crossed my mind if I saw two people walking in opposite direction. Oh, they must be together. No, that's not quite how that works.

The title of the sermon today, in case you hadn't already guessed it, is "Walking with God."

Walking with God. And as you look at the work of God through history, you know, we see that He began His efforts with individuals and their families during the patriarchal period. We see after Eden, as we saw earlier, that line continued from Seth on down to Noah to Shem, Ham, and Japheth. From there, the families grew. They became tribes. Eventually, they became nations. They each received a unique language. They each dwelt in their own territories, in their lands. And ultimately, as a result of the faith of Abraham, God entered into covenant with Abraham and with his descendants. Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, Jacob's 12 sons became the nation of Israel, a nation which God designated as His own special people. They were a people which He had selected, who He had entered into covenant with, and had provided them with His laws and with His statutes.

If you turn over to Leviticus 26. Leviticus 26. We'll see here the promises of the blessings of God. Leviticus 26, again, the blessings of God for the obedience of Israel. We see God instructs him not to set up idols in His place, tells him to keep His Sabbath, to revere His sanctuary because He is the Lord. Leviticus 26, we'll pick it up in verse 3.

Leviticus 26:3-8 God goes on and says, “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season. The land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last until the time of sowing. You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. I will give you peace in the land. You shall lie down, and none will make you afraid. I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land. You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase 100.”

It's always been an image in my head that, you know, kind of a funny image to think about, like, 5 people chasing and 100 fleeing, but God promises it. You know, there would be such a fear of God and such a fear of the people, that 5 would chase 100.

Leviticus 26:9-12 “And 100 of you shall put 10,000 to flight. Your enemies shall fall by the sword before you. For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you, and confirm My covenant with you. You shall eat the old harvest, clear out the old because of the new. I will set my tabernacle among you. My soul shall not abhor you.” Verse 12, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be my people.”

This is the promise that God gave to Israel, should they follow through on what He said that they needed to do. The actions that Israel were required to take, the statutes that God had provided, the commandments that God had provided. And if they followed through on these things and they performed them, then God said, "I will bless you exceedingly in a number of different places." They would have rain, you know. The trees would yield fruit. They would have peace in their land. Five people could chase 100. You know, there were a number of things that God said that He would do. He said He would protect them. He said He would deliver them, and ultimately, He would pour out His grace upon them. He said, "I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be my people."

Leviticus 26:14-17 God says, “But if you do not obey Me and do not observe all of these commandments, if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors my judgments so that you do not perform My commandments but break My covenant, I also will do this to you. I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease, and fever, which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set My face against you and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee,” notice what it says, “when no one pursues you.”

That you'll be so afraid you'll flee when no one even pursues you.

Leviticus 26:18-23 “After all of this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. I will break the pride of your power. I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze, and your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.” Verse 21. “Then, if you walk contrary to Me,” in opposition, “if you walk contrary to Me and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number, and your highways shall be desolate. And if,” verse 23, “by these things you are not reformed by Me but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you and will punish you yet seven times for your sin. I will bring a sword against you and will execute the vengeance of the covenant. When you're gathered together within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.”

And we don't need to keep going. We can see God continues this, but His point is made. If Israel walked contrarily, if they didn't walk with Him but they walked against Him, then He would walk against them. That He would come to them in fury, essentially, for the consequences for disobedience as those escalated and as those things continued.

Now, we know the record of Scripture shows that Israel proved unable to obey God. They reaped the consequences. Actually, many of the consequences described right here in Leviticus 26 as God declared them, you know, before they even took place. But Leviticus 26 shows us, ultimately, the continued result of disobedience and iniquity in Israel. These were the consequences of Israel not walking with their God.

But even deeper than that, even deeper than these consequences, and quite frankly, more serious than these consequences, their disobedience created a rift between them and their God, created a chasm, a separation that could not be overcome with anything but blood. If you want to think of the analogy that we've described up to this point, if you want to consider it, it's as though we've been walking with God and we saw something that we wanted more than we wanted Him. We had a desire, we had a lust that we chased after. Well, in the process, as we ran ahead or we ran off the path in pursuit of the thing that we desired, a large sinkhole opened up between us and our God, which made returning to Him impossible. We couldn't build a bridge. We couldn't jump it. There was nothing that we personally could do to fix it at all. Only God was capable of bridging that gap, only capable of bridging that chasm.

And so, as a result, on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur, the day of expiation, the people of Israel entered into this elaborate ritual that's described in Leviticus 16. Would encourage you to jot that down in your notes. I would encourage you to read through it today if you have not already. But that ritual atoned for the high priest, it atoned for the sanctuary, it atoned for the priesthood, it atoned for the people of the assembly. What we see is the blood of a bull and a goat were sprinkled in the Holy of Holies, on the mercy seat, on the horns of the altar, ultimately covering the sins of the people in the eyes of God. That's the meaning of the day. Covering the sins of the people of God.

The sins of the people were then placed upon the head of a goat that was chosen by lot, and that goat was sent out into the wilderness bearing the sins of the congregation. It was a shadow of what was to come. It was a ritual that pointed forward to a future fulfillment that would enable man to be reconciled to their God, to have that gap, to have that chasm closed through the blood of Jesus Christ on our behalf. And instead of simply being covered, cleansing the people year after year after year after year with the blood of bulls and goats, this time their sins were to be remitted and forgiven. The day of atonement reminded ancient Israel, and through its spiritual fulfillment us today, a very important lesson. Sin cannot be expiated, it cannot be forgiven, it cannot be remitted without blood. Something has to die to pay the penalty of sin.

Let's go to Romans 5 as we consider this concept. Romans 5, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 6, Romans 5:6. You know, we see the death penalty that each of us have earned as a result of our sin and the incredible payment for that penalty that has taken place in our own lives. Romans 5:6, the Apostle Paul talks about this concept.

Romans 5:6-11 Says, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.” Verse 8. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

You know, the blood of bulls and goats was never enough to pay the penalty of the sins of mankind. It could cover those sins for a time, you know, until next year when it needed to be covered yet again. But it wasn't capable of taking them away. You know, God's love and mercy for His creation is displayed because, while we were still sinners, while we were actively in opposition to God in our minds, in our hearts, and in our actions, Jesus Christ died for us. That blood justifying us and saving us from the penalty of our actions. It's like we were on death row and at the last minute waiting for the governor's pardon to come through, it never comes and we start getting walked to the chair and someone else says, "I'll take it. I'll take it in your place." That's what's been done for each and every one of us. And, brethren, that's something to rejoice in. It's something to be thankful for. It's something to honor God with in our life.

Ephesians 2 talks about this concept as well. If you turn over to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 discusses this concept also. Apostle Paul again writing here to the Church in Ephesus. Similar concept to what he was writing here to Rome. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1.

Ephesians 2:1-10 says, “And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins,” right? Very similar to what Paul wrote in Romans 5. But notice what he brings in here, again, the foundation of where we're going today, “In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and He raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.” He goes on, “For by grace you've been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

That we should walk in them. You know, Paul describes, even while we were dead in our trespasses, even while we were still walking contrary to God, God made us alive together with Christ through His grace. He provided us the gift of salvation through faith. We are His workmanship. We're His masterpiece. Poiema in Greek. We're created for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Don't let the significance of that statement pass us by. We have been created anew in Christ Jesus for good works. Those good works have been prepared by God. Those good works have been prepared by Him. There have been opportunities that are provided. There have been skill sets that have been granted, and that we should then walk in those good works.

Well, how do we do that? How do we do that? Brethren, we do that by walking together with our God. We do that by walking with our God. In John 5, we won't turn there, you can jot it down if you'd like. There's a few we're going to pop around to here to help make this point. John 5, we see the Jews sought to kill Jesus for the miracle that He performed with the man at the pool of Bethesda. Okay? We went here actually in the sermon on Trumpets. And Christ explained to the Jews that were gathered there. He said, "Look, I can do nothing in and of myself," that ultimately, what He does, He says, "What I do, I see the Father do." He says, "I do what I see the Father do." And what He said, He said very specifically to them, He said, "The Father loves the Son and shows him all things that He Himself does."

In John 10, as they threatened Christ's life, as they picked up stones to kill Him, He went as far as asking them, "Many good works I have shown you from my Father, for which of those works do you stone me?" Now, Christ ask them, point blank, "I have shown you many good works, for which of them do you kill me?" The good works which God has set out and prepared for us are the things which He is doing, the things which He has been doing since the world began. Christ walked with the Father. He did these good works due to the oneness that He and the Father experienced. And Paul states that we are His workmanship created for this purpose also, and that we should then walk in that purpose in connectedness to the Father, in the good works that He has prepared for us beforehand.

How do we perform these things? How do we do these good works that God has called us to? Galatians 5. Galatians 5. We'll pick it up in verse 16. Galatians 5:16. Once again, look for the theme of walking. Look for the theme of walking with God.

Galatians 5:16-17 Says, “I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

Remember, Paul wrote in Ephesians that we once walked in accordance with these things. We once walked in accordance with these lusts of the flesh. But now Paul's writing to those in Galatia to be called to walk in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit.

Paul kind of alludes here too to the concepts that he had in Romans 7, where he talks about the things that he didn't desire to do, those were the things he did. Those things that he didn't want to do, those were ultimately...or the things that he did do, those were things he didn't want to do. But kind of he talks a little bit about that in this section here.

Galatians 5:18-21 Says, “But if you are led by the Spirit,” again connecting those two concepts, walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit, “you're not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wraths, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies." You know, I imagine at that point Paul takes a breath. Well, he's writing so he doesn't have to take a breath. I have to take a breath, "envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

So there's a laundry list of things that are listed here in Galatians 5 as works of the flesh, things in which people formerly walked in accordance with the prince of the power of the air, as he mentioned in Ephesians. But we see in verse 22 a contrast.

Galatians 5:22-26 Says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” It says, “Against such, there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires.” Verse 25, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. And then it says, “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another or envying one another.”

So Paul contrasts the actions of a life in the flesh with the actions of a life in the Spirit. We can consider a life in the Spirit to be a life in which God is foremost, which He is preeminent in that life. That is a life in which that person is walking with God, not in opposition to God, allowing themselves to be led by the Spirit of God that's dwelling in them as they are connected to God, the Father. It says, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit," right alongside our God, performing the good works that we see listed right here in Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Sometimes I think we can overcomplicate what it means to be led by God's Spirit or what it means to be one with God. So we're sort of looking for some kind of special formula or something along those lines as to what it really is. There isn't a formula. You know, God's way is simple. It's not overly complicated. It doesn't mean it's easy, it doesn't mean it's easy, but it's not overly complicated. If you think of the relationships that you have, if you think of the relationships that you have with people and the way that you show your love to those in those relationships, if you were to be walking with that individual, let me put you in your head for a minute, if you're walking with somebody that you love, would you race ahead and yell at them to hurry up, keep up? Probably not, probably not.

Likewise, you probably wouldn't stop right in the middle of the sidewalk and refuse to go any further. You know, you probably also wouldn't decide mid-walk that there was something you wanted more and just all of a sudden peel off and walk away from that person to go obtain what it is that you want, leaving them standing in the middle of the sidewalk with a hurt expression. The reality is you love that person. You wouldn't do anything purposefully to hurt them. You would walk together, enjoying one another's company, getting to know one another, strengthening that relationship. You know, it's the same thing with our God. It's the same thing with our God. Again, God's way is not overly complicated. It's not easy, but it's not overly complicated. What complicates this relationship is the presence of an adversary. What makes this challenging is the presence of an adversary.

1 Peter 5:8 talks about our adversary as a roaring lion that stalks about, walks about looking for its prey. In fact, Peter admonishes the believers to be sober, to be vigilant, to remain ready and to be prepared for the attack. Note how it describes him in 1 Peter 5:8, that he's a roaring lion that walks about looking for his prey. You can imagine a lion and how it stalks back and forth stealthily as it's sighting down what it is that it's hunting.

There's another location in Job in which Satan comes before God. And God asked Satan, "From where have you come?" And Satan responds, "From going to and fro on the earth, from walking back and forth on it." We get this picture of Satan in some ways as being almost a little restless, perhaps a little bit hasty, you know, that he's wandering about, that he's not walking with God. Certainly not. We know that. Instead, he's roaming around on the earth, weaving his way around on the earth, hurriedly, rapidly to and fro, stalking like a lion, seeking whom he may devour. If you ever watch nature shows, you know, always feel bad for the poor little antelope on the Serengeti sometimes. You know, those camera crews know exactly where to put themselves, just right in the middle of a herd of antelope, and just wait. You know, eventually, something's going to eat them. You know, poor things. That's just what they are.

But have you ever watched a solitary lion hunt? You know, group hunting's a little bit different. You know, the males will flush the prey to the females, and the females will typically take them down in a group hunt. But when a male hunt, or when a male lion hunts on its own, what you see them do is they lie and wait on the fringe of the herd. They lie in the brush just off to the side where the herd's at, try to get kind of as close as they can without spooking the herd, and then they just wait. They just wait. And what they look for is they look for one that gets separated, one that, you know, gets maybe a little bit out, alone on its own, isolated, maybe wounded. And then, when the time is right, boom, they pounce. Brethren, we talk about walking with God. When we consider that concept, the safest place for all of us when it comes to Satan's attacks is right next to our God, right there alongside Him as we are walking with Him in our life.

James 4:7-8 encourages us to resist the devil, and he will flee. It says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee." And then notice what it says, "Draw near to God. Get closer to God." And what will He do? "He will draw near to you." He will draw near to you. God's given us the solution to remain at one with Him, to allow ourselves to be led with His Spirit, to walk with Him. And that is to be close to Him always, to be close to Him always. Staying right by His side. Not getting too far out in front, you know, running our own, charging off on our own, doing our own thing, not being obstinate, digging our heels in and refusing to go with Him and "I'm not going anywhere," right? Not running off. And, you know, examining all these different things that catch our eye off trail because it's the moment we walk away from Him, the moment we separate from Him, it's when Satan pounces. That is when he hits every single time. Brethren, we must remain at His side. We must remain in the light.

1 John 1:5-7 says, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him, and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

You can almost kind of think about it as, you know, a world that is darkness and then this circle of light that is around God, you know, in that sense, if we're walking alongside Him, you know, this circle of light that's around Him. And the closer we are to Him, the more we're in that light. But if we start running off, we start getting out into that darkness a little bit. We start getting out into our own little paths and our own little trails. That's where we start to have those issues and where we're, again, susceptible to our adversary.

But when we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And not only that, notice what it says, very meaning of this day of atonement, "The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin." When we are walking in the light, when we are walking with our God, when we are being led by His Spirit, in that circumstance, when we are in that place, we are in a repentant Spirit-led, we might say atonement relationship with our God, that we are reconciled through the blood of His Son. We are near Him. We are in that light. We're walking alongside Him in faith.

You know, this rich symbolism of the day of atonement enables us to be in a right relationship with God through the blood of Christ. Through Him as our High Priest, we've been reconciled to God. We've been provided the ability to access the Father, and as a result of that access that we now have, we can come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need. We're not alone. We're not facing this world alone. We have a High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses, who was tempted just as we are, yet remained without sin.

Brethren, without the events of the fulfillment of this day of atonement, mankind would remain separated from God. Satan would continue to have his influence on this world. These are all things that the day of atonement pictures. Without the fulfillment of this day, ultimately mankind would continue to need the blood of bulls and goats, the ashes of a heifer, and offer continually to simply cover the sins that they've committed. With the blood of Jesus Christ, they are removed. God had a better plan. God had a plan that desired a broken spirit and a contrite heart, a plan that required obedience, not sacrifices, not burnt offerings.

Let's turn over to our final Scripture today as we close. Micah 6. Micah 6, go back into the minor prophets. There's so much of the holy days in the minor prophets. As you go through and you start looking through, there are mentions of the day of the Lord. There's mentions of atonement. So many different aspects of it continued in those minor prophets. But Micah 6, and we'll go ahead and we'll begin in verse 6.

Micah 6:6-7 He asks the question, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

How are we supposed to atone for the transgressions of our life? Does God desire burnt offerings? Does God desire thousands of rams, 10,000 rivers of oil? Would He be pleased with us giving the firstborn for the sins of our soul? What does God say in verse 8 through the Prophet Malachi?

Micah 6:8 He says, “He has shown you, O man, what is good.” Those good works that we talked about earlier. We know what those are. We know love. We know joy. We know peace. We know patience. We know these things. “He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”