Participants: David Asscherick
Series Code: 13HC
Program Code: 13HC000014
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00:53 Well Danny, this has been one really blessed Camp Meeting.
00:59 All right. Ya'll agree? Say "Amen, praise the Lord. " 01:02 It really has. I mean we say this every year. 01:04 Isn't it amazing? How many of you come and say 01:07 "This is the best Camp Meeting ever! " 01:09 Yeah. But either our memories are short or it really is! 01:11 It just keeps getting better and better. It does! 01:14 Mollie is always saying this; she said it again today. 01:17 And she's said it every time that we've ever had a Camp 01:21 Meeting. And you know, I told her the same thing. 01:23 And actually I have more energy at the end of this Camp Meeting 01:28 than I've ever had at one. 01:30 Well, any time you're in the presence of the Lord 01:32 it's gonna be good for sure. That's right. 01:33 And I've really felt like that. All the sermons, the music. 01:36 And special thank you to Pastor David Asscherick 01:40 for being here and sharing. Hasn't it been enlightening? 01:43 Amen. And don't you like to hear somebody teach you something 01:46 you didn't already know? Yeah. You know, we as Adventists... 01:48 we kind of... we're a little bit know-it-alls, right? 01:50 I mean, we kind of know the Bible and all of that. 01:53 But I like to hear a guy who can tell you something 01:55 you didn't already know. It bothers me a little bit 01:58 he's so young and he knows so much - 02:00 yeah, yeah - but I'm happy about it, too. 02:02 You don't like kids telling you stuff you didn't already know, 02:05 but in this case I accept it. 02:07 Yeah, we really love this guy. 02:09 He kind of has our DNA, you know. 02:12 I think he would feel right at home around here, Danny. 02:16 Well, we've been telling him you know, maybe he ought to 02:19 make this his home. I think he should; I really do 02:23 because he has a real gift for sharing the gospel. 02:28 Yeah, he does. Absolutely. And a heart for it for sure. 02:31 We may not get to say too much to those on the air 02:34 when it's over. We'll be able to talk to those that are here, 02:37 but we just want to thank them for joining us 02:40 and being with us and for standing with us 02:43 and being so generous to this ministry. 02:47 We have great things ahead. 02:49 We're excited about those things. 02:52 All the things that are happening. Thank you - 02:55 for those of you at home - for your help. 02:57 And talk about going to India and Russia. 03:00 What we bit off today is huge: $25,000 a month - 03:03 yeah - added to our budget for Russia. 03:05 That's right. I mean, that's a lot of money if you think 03:07 about it. But somehow the Lord will bless. 03:09 He always has. But I just thank you, Jim, 03:11 for saying: "You know what? We're not going to worry about 03:14 the money; we're going to go forward. " 03:15 Thank the Lord. I was sitting in the back 03:17 and it just overwhelmed me that we have to move forward. 03:21 I had no choice, Danny. It was... the Lord just... 03:24 And when I called Brian, he's our treasurer, 03:27 he was driving. He wrecked a car and... 03:32 But when he got it back on the road he... 03:35 Poor Brian's getting it tonight. 03:37 he said: "I vote for it; I vote for it. " 03:40 And Mollie the same; you the same. 03:43 And actually when we announced it here 03:46 Julia... that was the first you had heard it. 03:49 And she said: "This is the second most wonderful thing 03:52 that every happened to me. " 03:54 The first was the birth of her grandchild 03:57 and the second was hearing this announcement this morning. 04:00 If you've got grandchildren, you know what that's like. 04:04 That's right; that's right. 04:06 That's a big praise the Lord. 04:07 Well, we've got some music coming. Somebody you know 04:10 pretty well. Somebody singing tonight? 04:12 This wouldn't be Darrell, would it? 04:13 Could be. Darrell Marshall. Drinkin' From the Saucer. 04:17 Yeah, there's a song that he... Have any of you heard him 04:21 sing that song Drinkin' From The Saucer? Yeah. 04:23 He says: "Everywhere I go and travel that's the people's #1 04:28 favorite most requested song. " 04:30 And so we're happy that Darrell is here tonight. 04:33 He's happy in the Lord and his wife, Brenda. 04:35 Wonderful pair; wonderful team. 04:37 But he's going to come out and sing for us 04:40 Drinkin' From The Saucer. And then after that, Jim? 04:42 Yeah well, after that our speaker David Asscherick 04:46 will come with the final presentation 04:49 on the covenants. And we're going to be blessed by that. 04:53 Darrell, we're glad you're here. Thank you. 05:12 I've never made a fortune 05:19 and it's probably too late now. 05:26 Oh, but I don't worry about that much 05:33 'cause I'm happy anyhow. 05:40 As I go along life's journey 05:46 I'm reaping better 05:49 than I've sowed... 05:55 I'm drinkin' from my saucer 06:00 'cause my cup has overflowed. Ain't that good? 06:05 Amen. 06:08 Ain't got a lot of riches; 06:14 sometimes the goin's rough. 06:19 Listen to this: 06:21 But I've got a friend in Jesus 06:27 and that makes me rich enough. 06:32 Oh yes... 06:34 I thank God for all His blessings on me 06:41 and the mercy 06:44 that He's bestowed. 06:50 I'm drinkin' from my saucer 06:55 'cause my cup has overflowed. 07:03 You know, my friend, sometimes sadness and sorrow 07:07 comes our way. There doesn't seem to be much we can 07:10 do about it. But I remember that one night when I was 07:14 at my very lowest I looked up into heaven 07:17 and I touched His precious nail-scarred hand. 07:20 God promised us that He'd be faithful 07:22 to reach down and pick us up and restore us to new. 07:25 Has He done that for you tonight? 07:29 So Lord, help me not to grumble and complain 07:36 about the tough rows 07:38 I have hoed... 07:45 I'm drinkin' from my saucer 07:50 'cause my cup has overflowed. 07:57 And if I should go on living 08:03 and if my way gets 08:06 steep and rough 08:10 I'm not going to ask for other blessings... 08:14 And do you know why? 08:15 'cause I feel that I'm already blessed enough. 08:21 Ah, this is my prayer for you tonight: 08:24 That I may never be too busy 08:29 I don't ever want to be too busy, friend - 08:31 to help another 08:33 bear his load... 08:39 You see, I'm drinkin' from my saucer 08:45 'cause my cup has overflowed... 08:51 Yes, I'll be drinkin' from my saucer, Lord, 08:56 oh yes I will, 09:00 this cup has overflowed. Tell me tonight: 09:05 has your cup 09:08 overflowed? 09:13 Amen... amen. 09:19 Amen! Thank you, Darrell. 09:23 All right. Have we had a great Camp Meeting? 09:27 Yeah... we've had a wonderful Camp Meeting. 09:29 And they'll tell you that in the back as I was getting ready 09:33 for this particular... the final, the sort of 09:36 climax to our series on the covenants, I was just bubbling. 09:38 I am so excited about this presentation I can't contain 09:41 myself. So I'm going to forego any niceties 09:44 and we're just going to pray and get into the Word. 09:46 Is that cool? All right, let's do it. 09:49 Father in heaven, we come before You just now 09:51 and we want to thank you for all of the good gifts 09:54 that come down from above. As Pastor Lomacang was quoting 09:57 that verse there, it just reminds us that everything 10:01 from a beautiful song to a good meal to a lovely 10:03 Sabbath Day, the warm sunshine and everything else 10:06 that every good gift comes directly from You. 10:08 And Father, the greatest of gifts is the gift of salvation, 10:12 the gift of Christ. And we've been talking about that 10:14 from the perspective of this covenant between 10:16 the family of God and the family of earth. 10:18 Father, as we seek to land this plane now and to bring 10:22 some of these threads - these various threads that we 10:24 have yet out - I pray that You will help me 10:26 to explain and to speak of scripture - 10:31 to dig into scripture in a way that will make this 10:34 very clear, very beautiful, and very life-changing. 10:38 Be with us now, Father. Send Your Spirit into this place, 10:41 into our hearts, and into these halls. 10:43 And we anticipate Your presence among us. 10:46 Be with us now, Father, in our last presentation 10:49 of Camp Meeting. In Jesus' name let everyone say 10:51 Amen. 10:54 All right, let's talk about the covenant. 10:56 We're going to do our review, if at all, at the end 10:59 and I want to literally just pick up the story from 11:02 exactly where we had ended it. 11:04 We had talked about the fact that God as a covenantal 11:07 reality - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - has made 11:09 a series of covenants with humanity. 11:12 We saw that He made a covenant with Adam for example 11:14 that was a covenant to eat of every tree but not of 11:17 this particular tree, and Adam was disobedient to the covenant. 11:20 God then "reset the hard drive" so to speak 11:23 and He started over with His new man - His new Adam - 11:26 and that was Noah. God extended Himself 11:29 in covenantal relation to Noah, and Noah was 11:31 partially faithful in the sense that he made the ark, etc. 11:35 But later he too failed and came short of God's covenantal 11:38 promise. And in the book of Genesis which we've mentioned 11:42 several times it's as if the author, Moses, is racing 11:44 right up to Genesis chapter 12 11:47 because he wants to get to the story of Abram - who 11:50 later becomes Abraham. Abraham becomes the pivotal 11:53 figure, the fulcrum on which the entire Old and New Testaments 11:58 hinge. And that's why you have this very-strongly-weighted 12:01 emphasis in Genesis in the last 39 chapters 12:05 it covers just a few... you know, 150, maybe 100 years 12:08 where the first covers the better part of 2,000 years 12:10 of earth's history. Racing to get to Abraham 12:13 because Abraham did not seek to... well in a sense he did... 12:17 we're going to get to that in just a moment... but 12:18 the thing that Abraham did right - we're not going to 12:20 talk about all the things he did wrong - 12:22 is the Bible says: "He believed the promises of God. " 12:26 He did what, everyone? 12:27 He believed the promises of God. 12:29 And he did have one little hiccup, and we talked about 12:31 that - circumcision - in which God gives him an ongoing 12:34 sign and symbol for him and his descendants 12:36 that they were not to try and fulfill God's promises 12:40 but they were to trust that God would fulfill His own promises. 12:42 Amen? And yet the rest of the history of the Old Testament 12:47 and much of the rest of the history of Israel 12:49 is basically an uninterrupted succession - an uninterrupted 12:53 series - of God extending His hand in covenant faithfulness 12:56 and it being rejected, rejected, rejected. 12:59 The followers - the descendants of Abraham - coming short of 13:02 the covenant: coming short, coming short, coming short, 13:03 coming short, coming short so that we finally arrive 13:06 in Daniel toward the end of the Old Testament 13:09 and we find Daniel praying. And the first thing 13:11 out of his mouth as he's pray- ing there in Babylonian exile, 13:13 "Oh Lord, the great God, You who... " 13:17 And what's the first thing that he says? 13:19 "You who keeps the covenant. " 13:22 "You have kept the covenant. " 13:24 And it's as if God has extended his hand over and over 13:27 and over and over again 13:29 in wooing and beckoning and inviting His people. 13:34 In fact, the longing desire of God's heart - 13:36 and you find this refrain over and over again in the Old 13:38 Testament - is this: that "I will be their God... " 13:41 Can you finish this? 13:42 "and they will be My people. " 13:44 You find that refrain that just comes up over and over again. 13:47 God wanted to say that of Adam in the garden. 13:49 "I am his God and he is My son, Eve is My daughter. " 13:52 He wanted to say it of Noah when the thoughts of man 13:54 were only evil continually. "I am his God 13:57 and he is My people. " 13:59 It's the same thing that He said of Job. 14:00 "Have you considered My servant Job? " And God finally 14:03 finds Abraham. And when He find Abraham 14:07 He makes this series of promises. 14:09 "I will give you the land and I will keep covenant 14:11 and you will have descendants as the sand of the seashore 14:15 and the stars of the sky. " And the Bible says 14:17 "Abraham believed God. " 14:19 Now there's a very interesting thing - 14:21 go to Genesis chapter 15- that happens right in the midst 14:24 of that. And it's... Frankly it's just a little weird. 14:28 Genesis chapter 15. 14:30 And it really is communicating here 14:35 the severity and the significance 14:38 of the nature of the covenant that God made with Abraham 14:44 and the way that those covenants were taken in ancient times. 14:50 Let me just say it that way. In Genesis chapter 15 we find - 14:52 we'll pick it up in verse 8. 14:56 This is where Abram says: "Lord God, how will I know 14:59 that I shall inherit it? " And He said to him: 15:01 'Bring me a 3-year-old heifer, a 3-year-old female goat, 15:04 a 3-year-old lamb, a turtle- dove, and a young pigeon. ' 15:07 Then he brought all these to Him. " 15:08 Now watch this: "And He cut them in two. " 15:11 Bring these various things. How do we know that this covenant? 15:15 How will we know that the covenant will be true? 15:17 That You will do all of the things that You say You will do? 15:19 We need something... And this is very much 15:20 in keeping with what's called ancient Near Eastern tradition. 15:23 OK? You bring these three animals, and then notice that 15:27 they're cut in two. Hold onto that; that's exactly 15:29 where we're going to end up with at the end of 15:30 the whole presentation. It says that they were cut 15:33 in two... It says: "down the middle. 15:36 They placed each piece opposite the other, 15:39 but he did not cut the birds in two. 15:40 And when the vultures came down to the carcasses 15:43 Abram drove them away. " 15:44 Now verse 12 is a fascinating verse. 15:46 This is the kind of strange part. 15:47 It says: "Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep 15:50 fell on Abram, and behold horror and great darkness 15:55 fell upon him. " This is like a nightmare. 15:58 In the midst of this ratification of the covenant 16:01 these animals have been severed into two. 16:04 And incidentally, what that means is 16:06 that if you are untrue to the covenant or I am untrue to the 16:08 covenant, may this happen to me. 16:11 May I be severed in two. 16:13 May I be cut in two just as these animals have. 16:16 It was a far more solemn and somber ratification of 16:19 a covenant than a mere handshake. 16:21 Just as these animals have been split, 16:23 just as these animals have been bifurcated and split 16:26 down the middle, may the same happen to you and/or to me 16:29 if I violate the terms of this covenant. 16:31 And so Abraham then lays down and he goes to sleep. 16:34 And the Bible says a deep darkness came upon him. 16:37 Notice what it says: not just a deep darkness. 16:39 It says: "A horror and great darkness came upon him. " 16:43 In other words, he had a tremendous nightmare. 16:47 He had a nightmare. 16:49 Now watch what happens in the very next verse. 16:51 Verse 13: "Then He said to Abram: 'Know that certainly your 16:55 descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. 16:57 And they will serve them and they will afflict them 16:59 for 400 years. ' And the nation... " I'm trying to find 17:02 the place here... OK, verse 17. Jump down to verse 17. 17:04 "And it came to pass when the sun went down 17:06 and it was dark that behold there appeared a smoking oven 17:10 and a burning torch that passed between those pieces 17:14 on the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram. " 17:17 What a strange thing. Abraham falls into this deep 17:20 slumber - this nightmarish sleep -and as he sort of awakens 17:23 he sees this thing that the Bible describes as a smoking 17:27 oven and a burning torch. 17:30 Some supernatural thing. 17:33 The very divine presence of God, and where is that 17:38 smoking oven and burning torch? Where is it? 17:41 It's walking between the two pieces of the animals 17:46 that have been cut in half as a symbol that if you violate 17:49 the terms of the covenant or I do, this would happen to us. 17:52 That there would be a severing; that there would be a splitting. 17:55 And Abraham in his groggy, nightmarish condition 17:59 sees this smoking... I mean what does that even mean? 18:03 It's obviously some picturesque vision 18:06 of some supernatural entity that is brooding between the two 18:11 pieces. Now here's a fascinating little insight from Ellen White. 18:14 She says that while Abraham was slumbering there 18:17 and that nightmarish darkness came over him 18:20 that God came into that and preached the gospel to him. 18:25 Now you might be thinking: "What? The gospel? 18:28 How could that possibly be darkness and a great horror? 18:30 And what is happening with the splitting of the thing 18:33 and the smoking furnace walking through? " 18:36 In the preaching of the gospel basically it was shown to 18:39 Abraham: this is how the covenant will be kept. 18:42 And it was a horror to him and a great darkness. 18:45 Are we together everyone so far? 18:47 Now, take all of that and sort of put it on a shelf 18:50 in your mind and recall with me 18:52 that when we come to the New Testament... 18:54 Let's transition now right up to the book of Galatians. 18:56 We've got to just spend a moment here in Galatians. 18:59 Go with me there. 19:00 We're going to return to that very idea of the splitting 19:03 of the sacrifice and that great darkness that came upon 19:08 Abram in this nightmarish preaching of the gospel. 19:10 The truth of the covenant. 19:12 We're going to what book everyone? Galatians. 19:15 Now obviously time is not going to allow us to go into 19:17 an exhaustive exposition of Paul's understanding 19:20 of the centrality of the Abrahamic covenant. 19:23 I'll just give you two passages, two passages, 19:25 and the first is in Galatians chapter 3 verse 26. 19:29 Galatians chapter 3 verse 26 19:31 and Paul is drawing one of a series of arguments 19:34 to a close here, and notice how profound and inescapable 19:38 the conclusion is based on Jesus' faithfulness 19:41 to the covenant. I'm in Galatians 3:26. 19:44 "For you are all... " What are we all now? 19:46 "sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. " 19:49 By the way, we've mentioned this but we've got to 19:50 revisit it. Who were the two primary figures in the 19:53 Old Testament that were the son of God? 19:56 Adam was the son of God and 19:58 Israel was the son of God. Now watch this: 20:01 Paul says: "You are now the sons of God and the daughters of God 20:07 through faith in Christ Jesus. " 20:10 Verse 27: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ 20:13 have put on Christ. " Now this is what we were talking about 20:16 earlier: the reversing not only of the sin problem of Genesis 3 20:19 which is cutting off from God but also the reversal of the 20:22 sin problem of Genesis 11 which is alienation from our 20:25 fellow brothers and sisters. Yeah? 20:27 And so look at what he says here in verse 28: 20:28 Boom! "There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither 20:32 slave nor free; there is neither male nor female 20:35 for you are all... " What are we? 20:37 "one in Christ Jesus. " 20:40 You are all what? One in... 20:43 All of those ethnic, racial, socioeconomic divisions 20:48 that you think divide you 20:49 have been eviscerated and annihilated in Christ. 20:53 And then this is the conclusion that Paul is forced to come to 20:58 based on all of the foregoing testimony of scripture: 21:02 verse 29: "And if you are Christ's 21:06 Then you are... " What? "Abraham's seed. " 21:10 Let me just say that in a more modern language. 21:12 If you are Christ's you are Abraham's descendant 21:15 and you are heirs according to the promise. 21:19 So for Paul - as well as for the other New Testament writers 21:22 but here in particular Paul in Galatians - 21:24 this is not a series of broken, fragmented pieces 21:28 between the Old and the New Testament as - you know - 21:31 various people in the dispen- sationalist camp would teach us. 21:34 No! There is a tremendous continuity here 21:39 between God's covenant with Adam which failed 21:41 and His covenant with Noah which largely failed 21:42 and then His covenant with Abraham. 21:44 The descendants of Abraham failed, failed, failed, failed, 21:46 failed, failed. 21:48 Then what does the covenant require? 21:50 The covenant requires - and don't miss this - 21:53 a faithful Israelite. 21:56 Ah, and alas, that is what we have in Christ. 21:59 Now think of it this way. 22:02 Here's God extending His hand as God. 22:04 Right? He who has been faithful. That was Daniel's prayer. 22:07 "You have been faithful; You have been faithful; 22:09 You have been faithful. You, O great God, have kept 22:11 the covenant. " And man after man after man 22:14 after man after man - and women - 22:16 have failed to keep covenant; failed to keep covenant; 22:18 failed to keep covenant; failed to keep covenant. 22:19 And so God essentially says to oversimplify it... 22:23 Not to oversimplify it... just to simplify it: 22:25 God essentially says "The only way a man will ever 22:30 keep covenant with Me and truly live by the principles 22:33 of the tablets of the law - to love the Lord your God with 22:36 all your heart, mind, and soul and the second is like it: 22:38 to love your neighbor as yourself - 22:39 the only way that anyone will keep covenant - My covenant - 22:44 a man... is if I become a man. " 22:50 So God, in a marvelous act of condescension, 22:54 in Christ becomes a man and ends up in Bethlehem's manger. 22:59 Now this pick up one of the threads that we've been talking 23:01 about: behind the veil. Satan raised his various 23:04 and sundry accusations about the kind of person and being 23:07 that God really was. But here He ends up in Bethlehem's manger 23:11 and lives a life - our life, a human life, a real life - 23:15 and walks a mile in our moccasins. And at every step, 23:19 at every turn, at every opportunity, 23:22 at every place that you see in the whole of the New Testament 23:25 Jesus is loving the Lord His God with all of His heart, 23:29 mind, and soul and He is always loving His neighbor as Himself. 23:33 He's keeping covenant with God! 23:35 And He's a man, right? 23:38 He's keeping covenant with God and He's a man. 23:40 And He will keep the covenant so profoundly and so faithfully 23:44 that He will be faithful unto death... 23:47 which is where we're going to go in just a bit. 23:49 Which is exactly what that, the cutting of those animals 23:52 down the middle meant. 23:54 Now here's a very interesting thing. 23:55 I told you two passages in Galatians. Let me show you 23:57 another one. And I don't have time to go into great detail 23:59 here, but I do want to introduce you to very briefly 24:03 a very interesting scholarly debate that's been taking place 24:06 particularly over the last 20 years. 24:07 And you'll just have to forgive me. I'm going to have to be very 24:09 slightly technical here, but you'll be able to get it. 24:13 The New Testament, of course, is written in the Greek language. 24:16 And there is a phrase that Paul uses repeatedly 24:20 and the phrase in Greek is "Pistis Christou. " 24:23 "Pistis Christou" - which literally means, simply means 24:27 faith Christ. "Pistis" is faith; "Christou" is Christ. 24:31 OK? And there's a very interesting scholarly debate 24:34 that's been taking place that basically goes something like 24:36 this: historically that phrase "Pistis Christou" 24:40 which is used regularly by Paul, particularly in Romans 24:43 and Galatians, that phrase has historically been translated 24:47 in what's called the objective genitive. 24:49 Now you might be thinking: "OK, you've lost me. 24:50 There's too much theology. " Hang on! 24:52 Just hang on for a moment. 24:53 It has historically been rendered as 24:56 faith in Christ, right? 24:59 And most of us would be very comfortable with that. 25:01 In fact, if you read your Bible 25:03 virtually every time if you have the King James or the NKJ 25:06 or even most of the modern translations, 25:08 if you come across the Greek phrase "Pistis Christou, " 25:12 it will be rendered in what is called the objective genitive 25:14 faith in Christ. 25:17 But in about the last 20 or 25 years 25:20 there have been a number of conservative theologians 25:23 who have looked at that and said: "You know what? 25:24 It is not absolutely necessary 25:27 exegetically to render that in the objective genitive. 25:31 It may well be the subjective genitive 25:34 which would not be rendered faith in Christ 25:37 but the faithfulness of Christ. 25:41 Now when you do this, and I'm not going to go into the 25:43 debate, the exegetical reasons why faith in Christ is probably 25:48 actually the better exegetical translation. 25:49 My point here is it's a far better theological 25:52 translation. And I want to show you just one passage, OK? 25:56 And it's right here in Galatians - Galatians chapter 2. 25:59 Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to read it through 26:02 in my translation here which is New King James. 26:05 And that's probably pretty similar to what many of you 26:07 have. Either New King James or King James... almost all 26:10 modern translations are going to render it this way. 26:12 And I think I've actually got it on the screen here, too. 26:14 So if you don't have the New King James and you have some 26:17 new translation, you can just see it here on the screen. 26:19 It goes like this. We'll pick it up in Galatians 2 verse 15. 26:24 It says: 27:13 "I went back and I read my own book, " he said, 27:15 "and I died to my own rabbinical way of reading it. " 27:18 Verse 20: 27:36 Now this passage here Galatians 2:15-21 27:39 which we cannot go into a thorough-going exposition 27:42 what we've just read here is a translation of that phrase 27:47 "Pistis Christou" in the objective genitive. 27:49 And I just want to ask you a question here. 27:50 You don't have to know any Greek, you don't have to be 27:51 a scholar. If we say that someone is saved, 27:56 that someone comes into a right relationship with God 27:59 because of their faith in Christ. 28:03 Where does it sound just to your ears... 28:05 just in the English... where does it sound like 28:08 the locus or the place of salvation is? 28:12 Yeah that's right. It is, isn't it? 28:13 There's a subtlety there that I am saved by my faith in Christ. 28:19 Do you hear that there? It's a subtle suggestion 28:22 that somehow it's my faith and my great confidence in God. 28:28 When if we take that very same phrase... and again, there are 28:32 excellent both exegetical and theological reasons 28:35 to render this phrase not in the objective 28:37 "my faith in Christ" but in the subjective 28:41 "Christ's faithfulness. " Which raises the question: 28:45 Christ's faithfulness to what? And the answer is saturative in 28:49 scripture: faithfulness to the covenant. 28:53 Christ's faithfulness to the covenant. 28:56 Where Adam had failed and Noah had failed 28:59 and Abram had failed and person after person after person after 29:01 person had failed and failed and failed and failed. 29:03 But here comes Jesus who literally was a man 29:06 who walked a mile in our moccasins who was in all points 29:08 tempted like as we are yet without sin 29:10 who lived His life in perfect relational integrity before God 29:13 and perfect relational integrity before others. 29:16 HIS faithfulness to the covenant. 29:18 And this is Paul's point! 29:20 The point we just read in Galatians chapter 3. 29:22 He said: "If you are Christ's, you are the descendant 29:25 of Abraham. " The covenant has been kept, and it was the 29:28 Abrahamic covenant. Now watch this: 29:30 we're going to put up a translation here. 29:32 It's actually quite a fascinating translation 29:34 called the Kingdom New Testament. 29:36 Translation by well-known Anglican scholar N. T. Wright 29:40 who renders this same passage that we just read 29:42 in the subjective genitive, and I want you to tell me 29:45 if it makes any difference in the passage. You tell me. 30:00 Did that change the passage? 30:02 Oh, it marvelously wonderfully changes it 30:05 and it gives it a covenantal context - which is Paul's 30:08 context. Continuing on: 30:13 Which by the way, that's an unnecessary redundancy. 30:15 If you look at the text, why would Paul say 30:18 "We are saved by faith in the Messiah 30:20 therefore we have believed in the Messiah. " 30:23 That's saying basically the same thing. 30:25 We have faith in the Messiah; we have believed in the Messiah. 30:27 No, what he says is: "The Messiah has been faithful 30:30 and we believe it. " 30:32 Whoo, now we're getting some- where. Give it back to me Will. 30:34 It says... it's coming: 30:51 Now I just need to pause right here and say something. 30:53 Scripture says over and over and over again 30:56 that God is righteous. 30:59 God is what? But most of us, we think: "OK, 31:02 what does that mean? What does that mean that God 31:03 is righteous? " It means He's holy. 31:05 It means that He's morally virtuous, etc. 31:07 But the Old Testament uses the term righteousness 31:11 basically in this sense: 31:13 when it speaks of God's righteousness it means that 31:15 God has done what He said He would do. 31:19 He's been faithful to Himself and faithful to the covenant. 31:24 And so when Paul repeatedly refers to the fact that 31:26 we are made righteous by the Messiah's faithfulness 31:30 he says we are grafted in to Christ's faithfulness 31:34 to the covenant. So now, back to our point here. 31:37 God has been faithful as God. He has extended His hand; 31:40 He has extended His hand; He has extended His hand 31:42 and there was failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, 31:44 failure by a man. And God basically said: 31:46 "If any man's ever going to keep this covenant, 31:48 if anyone is ever going to truly love the Lord their God 31:51 with all their heart, mind, and soul and love their neighbor 31:53 as their self, I Myself in Christ will become a man. " 31:57 And so God performs an outflanking maneuver, 32:00 ends up in Bethlehem's manger, 32:02 lives the real life of a real human being 32:05 with all of the temptations and struggles and vicissitudes 32:08 of a real human life. 32:11 And remember, this was one of the major objections 32:13 of Lucifer. "How can He understand us 32:15 the chasm between the Creator 32:16 and the created being so great? " 32:18 But He comes and He's really one of us. 32:19 By the way, this is Paul's point in Hebrews when he says 32:21 "We do not have a High Priest which cannot be temped 32:25 with the feelings of our infirmities. " 32:26 He could have just said: "We have a High Priest that 32:28 can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. " 32:30 He could have put it in the positive. 32:31 Why did he put it in the double negative? 32:33 "We do not have a High Priest which cannot be touched 32:35 with the feeling of our infirmities. " 32:37 Why the double negative? 32:38 Because the natural assumption is: "How can God relate to me? " 32:43 How could God possibly? I mean, God is God. 32:46 God is grand; God is mighty. He's omnipotent, 32:48 He's eternal and all of those things. 32:50 But when God becomes a real man, a helpless vulnerable babe 32:55 in Bethlehem's manger and walks a mile in our shoes 32:58 and lives the life that we have been called to live 33:00 in faithfulness as a man to the covenant. 33:03 Oh, now, His hand is extended 33:07 the hand of God is extended 33:10 and the family of God - the family of Abram by the way - 33:13 Remember, the call of Abraham 33:14 was the answer to the sin of Adam. 33:17 Wholeness. God has been faithful as God 33:20 and God has been faithful as man. 33:23 And you might be sitting there scratching your head and 33:24 thinking: "Well what do I do? 33:27 I mean, this sounds like God has done everything! " 33:31 Oh, you're starting to hear the gospel. 33:36 "Well what do I do? What's my job? " 33:38 And according to scripture your job is to believe it. 33:44 Your job is to believe it, and when you believe 33:46 that's what Paul just said. "We know that no man's 33:49 going to be made righteous on the basis of the Jewish law. " 33:51 We are grafted into the Messiah's faithfulness 33:56 to the covenant. And thus the family of God 33:58 and the family of men are united in the only being - 34:03 check this out - the only being who knows what it is 34:06 to experience reality both as God and as man. 34:11 He literally is the link. 34:13 He is the chain because He is fully God and He is fully man. 34:17 God knows what it is to live as a God and to live as a man. 34:20 In Christ... He's the lynchpin. Now check this out. 34:24 This is mind blowing. 34:26 Go to Psalm 40... Psalm 40. 34:29 Here we have a Messianic prophecy about Jesus 34:34 who would come. Psalm 40. 34:36 I am literally jumping out of my skin right now. 34:40 Psalm 40... and David here, this is one of the Messianic 34:45 psalms, one of the Davidic psalms that anticipates 34:47 the Messiah. And we're not going to read all of it. 34:49 We're just going to pick it up in verse 6. 34:50 Psalm 40. What verse everyone? Six. 34:53 Check this out: "Sacrifice and offering 34:55 You did not desire. My ears you have... " 34:58 What does your Bible say? Opened. 34:59 Yeah. That's what my Bible says: "my ears you have opened. " 35:03 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 35:04 What does that sound like? "Open your ears. " 35:06 "My ears You have... " "I hear You. " 35:10 "You've given me understanding. " 35:12 That's not what it says. 35:14 The Hebrew word here is pierced. 35:16 Does anybody here have a translation by the way 35:18 that says that? "My ears you have pierced. " 35:20 You do, don't you. What translation have you got? 35:22 NIV. It says: "My ears you have pierced. " 35:26 And that's exactly the correct translation here. 35:28 The NIV has its own problems in other places 35:29 but it gets this one right. It gets this one exactly right. 35:33 By the way, it gets it wrong in Galatians 2, but that's another 35:35 story. "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire. 35:38 My ears you have pierced. " 35:43 "My ears you have pierced. Burnt offering and sin offering 35:46 You did not require. Then I said: 'Behold I come. ' 35:48 In the scroll of the book it is written of me 35:50 'I delight to do Your will O My God. 35:51 Yes, Your law is within my heart. ' " 35:54 The law is the basis of the covenant. 35:56 And here is a very interesting thing. 35:57 I have to now take about 5 or 7 minutes to explain something 36:00 to you that would have been instantaneously recognizable 36:04 to a first-century Jew. 36:05 Or actually, this is not first century. 36:07 This is far before that. 36:09 "My ears you have pierced. " 36:11 "You don't desire sacrifice and offerings. 36:15 You want Your law in my innermost being. " 36:19 Go to Exodus 21. 36:21 Oh, that's easy to find. That's right after the 10 Commandments, 36:25 Exodus 20. And in Exodus 21 we have here 36:29 what the Bible simply calls - and Danny, I need you to come 36:31 out now if you're ready - 36:34 I needed somebody who carried themself as an august, 36:38 wealthy-looking person. That's exactly what we need. 36:41 Right there. That's what I need. I need a wealthy... 36:46 Not a proud, just a wealthy... 36:50 ancient land owner. OK. Yeah, there we go. 36:53 Look at him; look at him. OK, now check this out: 36:56 Exodus 21. 36:58 I told them: "Don't give him a microphone. 37:00 Just set him out. " Exodus 21... check this out. 37:06 It says: "Now these are the judgments concerning which 37:09 you shall set before them. " 37:10 OK, now this is basically God telling them how to live 37:12 a civil society. This is how you do civil society. 37:14 Here's one of the things. Verse 2: 37:16 "If you buy a Hebrew servant 37:19 he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out 37:22 free and pay nothing. " Now already this sounds crazy 37:24 to us, right? Buying people? 37:27 But it's not slavery in the North American sense. 37:30 It's not slavery in the oppressive and unjust sense. 37:33 This was an economic institution. 37:35 It was a what, everyone? 37:37 It was an economic institution in which if you did not have the 37:40 fluidity... the resources to pay off a debt... 37:43 you could indenture yourself to the person to whom you owed 37:46 the money for a period of not more than six years. 37:51 Make sense? And if the Jubilee cycle had come up 37:54 say within three years of those five or six years 37:55 that you have indentured yourself, you are all out. 37:58 So let's say that I owe Danny some money. 38:01 OK? And I have maybe borrowed some money that I am unable 38:04 to pay back, or maybe I have purchased some land from him 38:07 that I'm not able to make good on. 38:08 And we're going back to Biblical times. 38:10 We're going back to like post-Abrahamic times. 38:13 The time of Moses, and God is giving these laws. 38:15 And He basically says: "If you need to in this 38:18 financial/economic institution indenture a servant 38:21 you can do so, but only for a period of up to six years, 38:24 not more than seven. " So far so good? 38:26 Now God gives very specific instructions here. 38:29 Verse 3. It says: "If he comes in by himself... " 38:33 that's me... "If he comes in by himself 38:35 he shall go out by himself. " Well that's reasonable. 38:38 If I indenture myself to Danny... Let's say we agree 38:41 on a period of five years. Because of the debt that I owe 38:43 him, five years is appropriate. 38:44 So what the Bible is saying here... And it has to spell this 38:47 all out because they had so lost awareness of just 38:50 basic civility and basic fairness and justice. 38:54 It says if I indenture myself to Danny for five years 38:57 and I go in as a single man, 39:00 how do I go out? 39:02 I go out as a single man. So far so good. 39:04 Now watch the next part of verse 3. 39:06 It says: "If he goes in married, 39:09 then his wife will go out with him. " 39:11 OK, so let's say that I was already married 39:13 and as I indenture myself to Danny for that period of 39:16 how many years? Five years... 39:18 What is being said here is that Danny cannot 39:21 somehow manipulate or take advantage of the situation 39:23 and retain my wife. No. If I go in single, 39:27 I go out single. That's fair and square. 39:29 And if I go in with a wife and a family, 39:32 I go out with a wife and a family. 39:35 But there's yet another possibility. 39:37 And here's the possibility, verse 4: 39:39 "If his master has given him a wife 39:41 and she has borne him sons or daughters, 39:44 the wife and her children shall be her master's 39:46 and he shall go out by himself. " 39:48 Now this is very interesting. 39:50 In ancient times it was very much in keeping with 39:55 basically just the way that the world worked, the economic 40:00 world. It was an agrarian world; it was a nomadic world. 40:02 Things were different. And somebody like Danny 40:05 who was an entrepreneur who had acquired flocks 40:08 and herds and thus, like Abraham for example, 40:10 servants and many people that lived in his household. 40:14 We know on one occasion that Abraham was able to rally 40:16 a large army to go and get back the situation that had gone 40:19 south with his nephew Lot. Right? 40:21 And so Danny is not just wealthy by himself. 40:24 He has a whole entourage. He's in agriculture 40:26 and he travels. And so it's not going to be fair 40:30 if I go in and say fancy his daughter 40:33 or maybe his niece or one of his servants. 40:35 And I ask permission - say it was his daughter - 40:38 to marry his daughter and he says "yes. " 40:40 And we get married say two years into our five-year 40:43 commitment. Now at the end of that five-year commitment 40:45 we've been married for 3 years. What the text is saying is 40:47 I don't just have the right now without an arrangement with 40:51 Danny to just go ahead and take her... "I'm out. " 40:54 Because she could play an important and critical role 40:57 in the functioning of that household. 40:59 Times were tough. You couldn't just go in 41:01 and marry somebody and think it was your right 41:03 to take them off. No, no, no, no. 41:05 I would have to further negotiate. By the way, 41:07 you see an instance of this with Laban. Right? 41:09 I have to negotiate with him. And he was not fair 41:12 to the contract. Far beyond it, in fact. 41:14 Very unjust. But I negotiate with Danny 41:17 and now he could say: "You know what? 41:21 You've worked for me for these five years. You can work another 41:23 two or three years and then the vacancy that is left by my 41:27 daughter or by my niece or whatever 41:29 will be sufficiently filled and I will allow you to go. 41:31 So far so good? 41:33 So if I go in single, I go out... 41:36 If I go in married, I go out... 41:38 And if I go in single and marry somebody from his household, 41:42 can I just go off with her? 41:44 No. I have to make an arrangement, don't I? 41:45 Now watch this... verse 5: 41:48 "But if the servant plainly says.. " 41:51 And hold onto that; that's critically important. 41:53 If the servant plainly says... 41:56 If he? Plainly. And the reason it has to be plain 41:59 is that what you are about ready to read is astonishing. 42:02 "If the servant plainly says 42:05 'I love my master, my wife, and my children' " 42:09 Now look at these next words: 42:10 "I will not go free. " 42:14 What? "I will not go... " What was the word? 42:19 Free. Now let's just say in the course of events 42:22 that I realize that my family and my own life is going to be 42:26 better off staying united with Danny and his clan. 42:30 With Danny and his family. 42:32 And over time Danny has shown himself to be a Godly man. 42:35 To be a just man; to be a fair man. 42:36 To be a man that I have come to love - say I married his 42:39 daughter - as a father and I don't want to go. 42:43 I don't want to leave. I've been indentured to him 42:45 for five years. I can now say plainly... 42:49 I say it how? Plainly. 42:52 I can say plainly: "Danny: man, I love you 42:55 and I love your people and I love your camp 42:57 and I don't want to go. I will not go out free. 43:01 I want to remain under your supervision 43:05 and under your mastership forever. " 43:10 Danny, if he feels mutually and we agree to this arrangement, 43:14 watch what happens. We don't just shake on it. 43:15 No, this is far too serious. 43:17 Look at what it says. 43:18 Verse 6: "This his master will bring him to the judges. " 43:23 And very interesting for those of you that are Bible students 43:25 here, the Hebrew word here is Elohim. 43:28 The master will bring him to the Elohim. 43:31 And watch this. This is where I'm going to say plainly... 43:35 Why do I have to say it plainly? Because it's astonishing! 43:37 I am going to willfully surrender my freedom. 43:42 Did you hear what I just said? 43:44 I am going to willfully surrender my what? 43:47 I'm free to go... and watch this: 43:49 "They will bring him to the door or to the doorpost 43:52 and his master will pierce his ear with an awl 43:56 and he will serve him forever. " 43:59 Now let me ask you a question: 44:00 What's the purpose of a door? 44:06 Simple question: what's the purpose of a door? 44:08 To go in and out. 44:10 Right? So when my master and I, 44:13 because we love one another, we have a great relationship. 44:16 I love his clan and his family; he loves me. 44:19 I'm a hard worker; he's a just and Godly man. 44:21 When we go to the judges - to the Elohim - and we say 44:25 plainly - I say plainly - "I'm not being manipulated 44:28 by him, I'm not being coerced by him" 44:29 I say plainly "I love my master, 44:35 I want to serve him forever. " 44:37 "You sure about this? " "I'm sure. " 44:40 "I love my master; I love my family and I love my wife. 44:46 I want to stay with him. " "You sure? " 44:48 "I'm sure. " "Come to the door. " 44:50 And I would stand in the door as a symbol that I'm what? 44:53 I'm free to go. I'm under no compulsion. 44:57 The judges are observing to see if I'm being manipulated. 45:00 And they see that this is not external responsibility or 45:03 obedience. This is my own voluntary... I am voluntarily 45:07 "I will not go free. I love my master. 45:09 I love my wife. I love my family. " 45:12 And the judges will say: "OK, come to the door. " 45:13 And then my master pierces my ear. 45:18 He pierces my ear with an awl as a symbol 45:22 and not just as a symbol but as an announcement 45:25 to the world. "I was free to go... 45:27 I was free to go but I chose to stay for love. " 45:34 Did you get it? 45:35 "I was free to go but I chose to stay for love 45:40 because I love my master, I love my wife, 45:43 and I love my children. " 45:46 Beloved, now go back to Psalm 40 and what does he say? 45:50 He says: "You didn't desire sacrifice and offering. 45:53 No, no, no. You have pierced my ears. " 45:59 And any Jew would say: "Oh... 46:02 he's a willful servant. 46:06 He has indentured himself... " Watch this... 46:09 "to his master and to his family forever. " 46:14 He was pierced. But Jesus was not merely pierced 46:19 in His ears. Oh, no. That's far too easy. 46:24 The reason they chose the ear was very likely that it 46:26 is the most innocuous and harmless place to pierce. 46:29 But Jesus was not pierced here. Jesus was pierced here 46:32 and He was pierced here. And in that piercing... 46:35 By the way, when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane 46:38 and Peter took out his sword and he was going to try to cut 46:41 the head off... Remember that? Do you remember Jesus' response? 46:44 "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Peter, Peter. 46:46 Don't you think that I could at this very moment 46:51 call to My Father and legions of angels would come. 46:54 I'm standing in the door. I'm free to go. 46:58 I am under no compulsion to be here. 47:01 I am under no manipulation or obligation to be here. 47:04 I'm standing in the door between heaven and earth 47:07 and I could be back at My Father's side with the snap 47:10 of a finger or the blink of an eye. But I'm going to stay 47:13 because I love My Master and I love My family 47:16 and I love My wife - the church. I'm going to stay here. " 47:20 And He was led and He was pierced 47:23 and His faithfulness... His faithfulness to the covenant... 47:27 His faithfulness to God to love the Lord His God 47:30 with all of his heart, mind, and soul and to love His 47:32 neighbor as Himself... He was faithful unto death. 47:37 Now this is where it gets even better. 47:40 Just before He had been led into the Garden of Gethsemane 47:43 Jesus gave His disciples a cup and He said: 47:47 "Hey, drink out of this cup, guys. 47:49 This is My blood... " Listen carefully. 47:51 "of the new covenant. This is the blood of the 47:54 arrangement. This is the blood of the agreement. " 47:56 And the disciples didn't have a clue about what was going on. 47:58 They didn't know about this. 48:00 They just wanted to lop the heads off of the Romans! 48:02 But He said: "No, no, no, no. You drink this cup 48:04 and you eat this. You'll understand later. " 48:06 But here's a fascinating thing: 48:08 when Jesus gave it to them 48:09 He said: "You guys drink all of it. " 48:12 You know why He said that? 48:13 Because He didn't drink any of it. 48:17 He didn't drink that cup. 48:19 He did not drink that cup. In fact, we know this because 48:22 the gospel says that Jesus in Mark, He says: "I'm not going to 48:25 drink of this cup until the day I drink it new with you 48:28 in the kingdom. You drink this cup. " 48:30 Because just moments later... 48:32 Just moments later - I mean within a few hours - 48:36 Jesus goes into the Garden of Gethsemane 48:39 and now here He's going to drink His cup. 48:42 You see, He had given the cup... Watch this... 48:46 He had given the cup of union and communion 48:51 and connection to His disciples. 48:53 Even they didn't understand what was happening, 48:56 but He was bringing back together the family of God 48:59 and the family of man. He was... 49:03 They don't even get it. "Drink the cup. 49:06 That's my blood. You drink it. " 49:07 "I will be faithful to the covenant unto death. 49:11 You drink that. " "Oh, yeah, yeah. " 49:13 "And eat this bread. This is My body 49:14 broken for you. Eat it. " "Oh, yeah, yeah. " 49:17 They don't even understand what's happening. 49:18 And Jesus in just a few short hours is going to go 49:21 stumbling into Gethsemane. 49:24 And as He stumbles into Gethsemane He's not play acting 49:27 and He's not being melodramatic when He cries out 49:30 "Father, if there's another way. If we can bring unity 49:33 to the family of God and the family of man... 49:35 If there's another way that we can do this, 49:37 let this cup pass from Me. " 49:41 Three times He prays that prayer. 49:43 "I don't want to drink this cup. I don't want to drink this cup. 49:45 I don't want to drink this cup. " 49:47 Because that cup was the exact opposite of the cup 49:49 that His disciples had drunk just a few hours before. 49:51 They had drunk the cup of communion. 49:53 They had drunk the cup of connection and of family 49:57 and Jesus is drinking the cup of separation. 50:01 He's drinking the cup of severing. 50:04 He's drinking the cup of being cut off from His Father 50:07 and He's scared and He's terrified. 50:10 He could have delivered Himself 50:12 to remind ourselves. He's standing in the door 50:14 but He says: "I'll be pierced. " 50:17 The piercing of the ear in ancient Israelite times 50:19 was a rather modest piercing. 50:21 But Jesus here says: "If there's another way, we'll do it. " 50:29 And there is no response from the Father. 50:32 "Father, if it is possible... " 50:35 No response; no response; no response. 50:38 "Nevertheless, Thy will be done. " 50:43 And He's led to Calvary's cross, and He there is pierced. 50:48 And in that piercing when He cries out finally 50:50 "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? " 50:52 When He is faithful to... In fact, Satan, he overplayed 50:56 his hand. I love the words of Ellen White here 50:58 where she basically says that Satan pressed and he pressed. 51:01 He capitalized on Jesus' humanity with physical pain 51:04 and the abandonment of His friends, and pressed upon Him. 51:07 And he overplays his hand. 51:10 In fact, he ends up doing the very thing that he thought 51:13 God would do to him. Remember the demoniacs? 51:14 "Have You come to torture us before the time? " 51:16 And here he goes from concern about being tortured 51:18 to torturing. And I love what Ellen White says here. 51:21 "He bore his chest... only to receive the stroke of death. " 51:25 He overplayed his hand. 51:27 And in pushing Jesus to the uttermost limits 51:29 exhausting Him physically, emotionally, spiritually, 51:32 and psychologically, he pushed Him to the end. 51:35 And when Jesus let out that last breath - uuh - 51:41 and He died Satan thought for a moment 51:43 "Yes! I got Him! " 51:46 Only to realize in it must have been the very next moment 51:53 "He was faithful. 51:56 I never got Him. " 51:58 "I could only kill Him but He was faithful. " 52:03 "He was faithful to the covenant. He did what Adam 52:07 hadn't done. He did what Noah hadn't done. 52:10 He did even what Abram himself hadn't done. 52:12 He came as a man. He outflanked me. 52:15 Yes, He was a man subject to death but He never sinned 52:19 and I pushed my advantage against Him. 52:21 I coerced Him, manipulated Him in all various and sundry 52:24 ways. And here I pushed Him to the extreme physical and 52:26 emotional and psychological breaking point. And He broke 52:29 and I thought I'd won. And the moment I thought I'd won 52:31 I'd lost! " 52:35 Oh, I tell you beloved... it is the most beautiful story. 52:39 And here is where we encounter a great black box 52:42 of mystery. We don't even know what we're talking about now. 52:45 God dying? 52:50 And someone will object. "No, no, no, no, no. 52:51 God didn't die. " Well I am fully aware that 52:53 God is not capable of dying. But I am fully aware that 52:56 Jesus was God, and inasmuch as it was possible 52:59 for God to experience death in Christ He did. 53:03 Did you hear that? 53:04 Inasmuch as it was possible for Christ or God to experience 53:09 death, He did. Certainly His humanity died. 53:12 But even... What happened to that divinity? 53:14 And here's a quotation. It's one of the only quotations 53:16 that I am aware of in the voluminous writings of 53:18 Ellen White - the only one that I am aware of 53:20 where she speaks directly to this issue - 53:23 and I want to read it to you. 53:25 She says: "The Captain of our salvation... " It's right here: 54:05 And here's the sentence. 54:07 This is the only statement that I am aware of in the 54:10 voluminous writings of Ellen White where she speaks 54:11 to the issue of what happened to the Godhead 54:14 at the cross. She says: 54:22 Do you know what that mean? To sunder? 54:25 It means to break. It means to split violently. 54:28 It's what we say at weddings at times. 54:30 We say: "What God has joined 54:33 let not man... " What? "break or split asunder. " 54:37 And here she, as it were, pulls back the veil 54:41 to help us to see in some glimmering incandescent way 54:45 what happened even within the very nature of the Godhead 54:48 itself. She said something happened relationally 54:52 within the family of God where the family of God 54:57 was sundered at the cross. 55:00 And she says that'll never happen again. 55:02 That was a one off. And so it would not be 55:05 an oversimplification to say and it would be really the 55:08 heart of the gospel and the heart of the covenant 55:10 that the cost of our connection to Christ, 55:15 the cost of our connection to God, 55:20 was His absolute faithfulness to the covenant 55:24 even unto death. And when the sin of the world was levied 55:26 upon Him, He experienced separation from His own 55:32 eternal family: the Father and the Spirit. 55:37 The cost of your connection was His separation. 55:41 And Satan is standing there. The Bible says he was 55:44 led naked, he was standing there dumbstruck 55:48 when he realized "Not only does He know now 55:50 what it is to be a creature. 55:52 He knows what it is to suffer 55:55 and to die and to be in despair. 55:59 He knows what it is to be us. " At that moment, every accusation 56:04 that Satan had ever levied against the character of God 56:07 instantaneously fell flat on its face. 56:10 And just a few short days later Jesus is resurrected 56:14 from the grave. Can you say "Hallelujah? " 56:16 Jesus is resurrected from the grave. 56:18 and He ever lives at the very throne of God 56:23 and beside His Father to make intercession... now listen 56:26 carefully... for His brothers and sisters. 56:30 Whoo! He's there to make intercession for you! 56:35 And I want to make an appeal tonight, and here's the appeal: 56:38 right there, back on the table of truth, 56:41 "God is love. " 56:43 And here's the appeal. You've responded to appeals 56:45 before, but we're going to make a different appeal tonight. 56:47 You've responded to the appeal before and you've said: 56:49 "You know what, Lord? " I've done this... 56:51 Come forward and said: "Lord, by the grace of God 56:53 I'll be faithful. 56:56 I'm going to stop a, b, c, d. 56:59 I'm going to start e, f, g, h. " 57:01 Oh, no, no, no, no, no. 57:03 Tonight... tonight let's respond 57:07 not in our faithfulness 57:10 but let's respond to the Messiah's faithfulness. 57:15 I want to invite anyone who says: "You know what? 57:19 I believe in the faithfulness of Jesus. 57:23 I need His faithfulness. " 57:25 I want to invite you to come forward. |
Revised 2014-12-17