Participants: Ty Gibson
Series Code: POFCM
Program Code: POFCM000005
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00:40 Live from the 3ABN Worship Center,
00:42 Welcome to Pillars of Our Faith event. 00:58 There is no problem too big God cannot solve it 01:07 There is no mountain too tall, He cannot move it 01:16 And There is not storm too dark God cannot calm it 01:26 There is no sorrow too deep, He cannot soothe it 01:36 If He carried the weight of the world upon his shoulders 01:44 I know, my brother that He will carry you, 01:55 If He carried the weight of the world upon his shoulders 02:04 I know, my sister that He will carry you, 02:16 He said come on to me all who are weary 02:27 and I will give you rest. 02:40 There is no problem too big, God cannot solve it 02:55 There is no mountain too tall, He cannot move it 03:07 And There is no storm too dark God cannot calm it, 03:19 There is no sorrow too deep He cannot soothe it, 03:30 If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders 03:39 I know, my brother that He will carry you 03:50 If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders 04:00 I know, my sister that He will carry you 04:09 I know my brother, I know my sister, 04:18 I know that he will carry you through. 04:32 He will carry you. 04:44 Amen! Thank you Tammy. That's my baby sister 04:46 Tammy Chance. I appreciate Tammy and her husband Bruce 04:49 and their support in the ministry 04:51 that they do here 3ABN. What I want to do, 04:56 I'm getting ready to introduce Reggie 04:57 he is gonna come out and sing again you all been 04:59 bless so far right, by singing in by the music 05:02 and Reggie Smith is gonna be out, but before that 05:04 I just want to say a couple of words and he is familiar 05:07 I'm sure to almost all of you, but we have new folk 05:10 all the time watching 3ABN 05:12 around the world. About our speaker 05:14 is a Ty Gibson, he is co-director 05:17 of Light Bearers Ministry they publish books, 05:19 he has written a brand new book. 05:21 Just handed me one awhile ago that can't wait to read 05:24 and Tye and his brother in the Lord, James Rafferty. 05:30 They are doing incredible ministry and they print 05:33 literally millions and millions and million of books 05:35 and pieces of literature that are going around the world 05:38 and I've known these guys since they were in 05:40 probably early 20s. 05:42 So I've known them 20 some years 05:43 and they have stuck to the Pillars of Our Faith, 05:46 they have never deviated from what we believe 05:49 as Seventh-Day Adventist Christians. So, right 05:54 after Reggie sings and Reggie you are gonna 05:55 be singing what Song? Now is the Day. 05:57 Now is the day, and so I see Chris is 06:00 coming out, you gonna be playing too, alright. 06:03 And so now is the day and is another one of our Pillar 06:06 Songs of course, thank you Reggie. 08:50 Amen, amen. 08:54 Wow! Thank you Reggie what a blessing ha! Amen I just, 08:59 I'm impressed every time I hear music that lifts my soul 09:03 with Zephaniah 3:17. Do you know 09:07 Zephaniah 317? This is one of a very select 09:13 few scriptures that actually informs us 09:16 that God almighty the creator of the universe 09:19 is himself a song writer and a vocalist. 09:23 Did you know that? That God sings the scripture says 09:26 in Zephaniah 3:17 it's God's speaking 09:29 and he says I will rejoice over you 09:33 with singing and quiet you with my love. 09:36 Is not incredible. God himself is a singer 09:41 and a song writer and that tells us something 09:44 very important and beautiful about God, 09:46 he is not just a force and energy, 09:49 he is not an impersonal being, 09:52 God is the ultimate person. Not only does he think, 09:57 but he feels because only people who feel 09:59 write and sing love Songs and God is the ultimate lover, 10:05 because he says that he will rejoice over you 10:08 and me with singing and quiet us with his love. 10:13 So thank you Reggie for that beautiful song. 10:15 Are you glad to be here at this Pillars Event? 10:18 I'm so eager to launching a subject, but you must have 10:22 a very large appetite for spiritual food. Amen. 10:25 We're having two messages back to back 10:28 this evening and as I was standing back there 10:31 listening to CA, I was thinking, 10:34 I just hope, we don't give anybody spiritual 10:36 indigestion here. How many of you 10:38 like eating? One of my absolute favorite things 10:41 to do is eat. Ah! There are so many 10:44 incredible flavors out there to just bring into you mouth 10:48 and just bathe your tongue with incredible flavors. 10:52 I love food not long ago, although my wife 10:55 was warning me as I came home 10:57 I hate to admit kind of late at night 10:59 after some meetings, I hadn't eaten since the day 11:01 before and I was hungry on a scary level 11:04 and I opened the refrigerator and I proceeded to eat 11:08 a piece of lasagna left over from the day before 11:10 and then I thought, I think I need a bowl of cereal. 11:14 So I had bowl of cereal, I said you know what 11:17 that humus looks good, I'll put that on the piece 11:19 of toast, I said Sue, we have any Rice Dream 11:23 and then I had bowl of Rice Dream. I didn't sleep well 11:28 that night. I want you to know that 11:33 if you combine the wrong kinds of flavors 11:36 and the wrong kinds of foods you can end up 11:38 with spiritual indigestion that is not going to happen 11:41 this evening. Because the message just delivered 11:45 is the preparation for the one that we are going 11:49 to explore right now. CA dealt with the sin problem 11:54 and defining sin very clearly and now it is my assignment, 11:59 my privileged assignment to open before you 12:04 the most awesome subject imaginable. 12:07 The Atonement of Christ. And I want to hasten 12:11 to share with you this evening 12:14 that this is no easy task because in fact, 12:17 the atonement of Christ is one of a very small handful 12:23 of ideas and realities to which the word 12:28 infinite maybe rightly applied without exaggeration. 12:33 In fact, we are told that the collective energies, 12:37 the collective intellectual and the emotional energies 12:41 of all the unfallen angels and all the redeemed 12:46 human beings will be concentrated to the task 12:50 of probing God's atoning love for all eternity 12:57 and we will never exhaust the subject. 13:01 Can you imagine probing the subject 13:05 from millions of years and then billions, 13:08 and still trillions of years looking 13:12 into the heart of God and still discovering 13:17 an oceanic beauty that we never imagine 13:20 was there before. Its like getting to know 13:23 a person for a long, long time. 13:28 I had the privilege of being married to my best friend 13:31 for 28 years now and just the other day some things 13:36 she said the way she turned to her head, 13:40 a little sassiness I wasn't expecting 13:44 that was cute, I said you know 13:47 what, I just encountered her in a way I've never 13:50 encountered her before. I mean, we've been together 13:53 since she was 13 and I was 14 and just the other day 13:56 I came to know her in a way. I had never known her before. 14:01 And she was more beautiful than ever before 14:04 as I have the privilege of encountering her personality 14:08 and her character. Love is in fact the only truly 14:15 exponential reality in circulation in the universe. 14:19 Love doesn't have any cap, doesn't have any floor, 14:21 doesn't have any edges. In Ephesians 3, 14:24 Paul says that God's love has height and depth 14:27 and width. So, it's multidimensional alright. 14:32 You can look into the heart of God forever 14:35 and ever, and always come forth from 14:40 that intimacy with new things to share that nobody else 14:44 has ever, ever considered or thought of. 14:47 We are told in inspiration and I love this 14:51 that the plan of salvation will be our science 14:54 and our song for all eternity. 14:59 Our science and our song. Why science and song? 15:01 Because as our science it will be our 15:04 intellectual pursuit. We will be plan of salvation 15:08 scientists forever probing the depths of the wonders 15:13 of God's atoning love. Our science because 15:16 it will be our intellectual pursuit forever 15:19 and our song because it will be our emotional pursuit 15:25 forever and ever. It will be the focal point 15:29 of all our artistic expression. 15:32 Every song that is written in eternity future 15:38 will be a song about the love of God 15:41 from some new and beautiful angle. 15:45 Our science and our song forever and ever. 15:48 Well having said that, I want you to know that 15:51 according to scripture the atonement is a subject 15:56 that is enormous in it's implications. 16:02 The atonement of Christ maybe looked at 16:04 from a variety of different angles is what I'm saying. 16:09 It is as if the atonement saves human beings 16:16 at every possible level of our need for salvation, 16:21 we need to be saved for example from the guilt of sin. 16:26 The sense of self loathing and condemnation that hugs us, 16:30 because of past deeds that we've done and are ashamed up. 16:34 It's that inner conscious those eyes that 16:36 stare back at us continually saying shame on you, 16:40 I can't believe I would do such a thing. 16:44 So the atonement of Christ has a dimension 16:48 of its wonder that specifically deals 16:51 with our guilt. But guilt isn't the only 16:57 aspect of sin, there is also the power of sin. 17:02 It has a way of addicting us and raining over us have 17:08 you noticed? And so the atonement of Christ 17:11 not only deals with the guilt of sin, 17:13 but the atonement of Christ deals with the dominating 17:17 power of sin that it exerts over us and according 17:21 to Romans chapter 6, the atonement has a way 17:24 of liberating us from the dominion of sin. 17:29 In fact, the word Salvation in the New Testament, 17:32 in the Greek is the Greek word Sozo and it literally means 17:38 to be liberated, to be set free. 17:42 And so the atonement deals with us at the guilt level 17:46 of our need at the power of sin over us level of our need 17:51 but then they are legal ramifications to the sin 17:53 problem. Have you noticed, noticed in scripture the 17:57 legal ramifications of the sin problem. 18:00 God created Adam and Eve in his own image and he said 18:03 I'm going to make you Stewards, 18:05 I'm gonna give you dominion over the whole earth, 18:08 you remember? When Adam and Eve 18:11 were created in their unfallen state they had dominion 18:14 over the world, when Adam and Eve sinned 18:16 there is a sense on a legal level 18:18 in the larger scope of the great controversy 18:21 between Christ and Satan, when Adam and Eve 18:23 sinned there is a sense in which legally 18:26 they abdicated their leadership, their regency 18:30 over this territory in God's universe, 18:33 planet earth. They gave control 18:37 and dominion to Satan that's why when Jesus 18:42 encounter the Devil in the wilderness for his three 18:44 temptations you remember? The Devil in one of those 18:48 temptations said, I will give you 18:51 all the kingdoms of the world if you will bow down 18:56 and worship me for they have been given 18:59 to me. When the Devil said that all the kingdoms 19:03 of the world have been given to me 19:05 what was he referring to vain precisely 19:08 was the world given to Satan at the fall of Adam and Eve, 19:14 they abdicated their position of stewardship 19:17 and rulership over the earth. Satan then in the 19:21 book of Job for example presses his legal claims 19:25 by appearing in a heavenly council. You remember 19:27 that story, there was a day when the Son's of God 19:30 that is the representative heads of all the 19:32 different world's God has made. There was a day 19:35 when the Son's of God came to present themselves 19:37 before the Lord and Satan came also among them 19:39 and the Lord said on to Satan from when come us though, 19:43 from where do you come. Notice the question of 19:46 the Lord is state your point of origin. What territory 19:50 in my universe do you purport to be here representing? 19:54 From where do you come and what was the Devil's answer? 19:58 From walking to and fro and up and down in the earth 20:00 that was the Devil's way of saying I have the right 20:04 the legal right within the rules of engagement 20:07 within the great controversy. I have the legal right 20:10 to be represented in this heavenly council 20:13 meeting with these other representative heads 20:14 of other worlds because I'm here as the rightful 20:18 ruler of planet earth and the human raise 20:21 because the world of humans was given to me. 20:28 And so there is a legal dimension to the great 20:30 controversy. That's why Jesus 20:32 numerous times referred to Satan as the prince 20:36 of this world. Paul said that he is the God of this world. 20:41 There is a sense in which he has a legal dominion 20:45 over the human race and the Salvation wrote out 20:49 for us in Christ the atonement of Christ meets 20:54 that need as well, because when Jesus died 20:56 on the cross in principle he triumphed over the Devil 21:01 and reclaimed humanity in planet earth 21:04 as his own possession and was given power just as he said 21:09 in Mathew 28, all power authority has now by virtue 21:15 of the cross all power has now been given back to me. 21:19 In all heaven and all earth the Devil is defeated 21:23 the great controversy has been won atonement is achieved 21:27 at the legal level. So there is the guilt level, 21:30 there is the power of sin over our lives level 21:34 that the atonement needs to meet, 21:35 there is the legal dimension, there's the substitutionary 21:40 dimension of the atonement of course. 21:42 In other words, the Bible speaks 21:46 often of the fact that Jesus died for us that 21:49 is in our place taking upon himself that his 21:54 not on his back like a sack of weighty materials 21:58 Substance, but he took upon himself in the sense that 22:01 he took within his conscious, within his own psyche 22:05 he took into himself the collective hold 22:08 of all human guilt and transgression 22:10 and he exhausted it's power by dying 22:14 for you and me. So, as you can see the atonement 22:18 and we are just scratch in the surface the atonement 22:21 has many different dimensions brought to view 22:24 in scripture. In fact, you will notice in 22:27 the first Bible verse of your outline, which I'm hoping 22:30 you have that outline entitled cosmic atonement 22:32 you'll notice in the first scripture that 22:35 in Old Testament Messianic Prophecy, 22:38 which calls Jesus the stone is a prophecy 22:43 that brings to our attention the large scope 22:47 of the atonement the multidimensional reality 22:50 of the atonement. Notice, Zechariah says 22:54 God speaking through him for behold the stone 22:59 that's Jesus symbolically the stone that I've set before 23:03 Joshua notice this on one stone or seven what 23:08 seven eyes that's kind of strange. Can you visualize 23:11 that a rock with seven eyeballs that's kind 23:14 of weird isn't it? But in the Hebrew language, 23:18 it's not eyes as in the physical eyeballs that 23:22 we're familiar with, the Hebrew says literally 23:25 and I give this to you in the marginal reference 23:27 from the amplified Bible and literally how it's rendered 23:31 from the Hebrew literally what it means 23:33 is on the stone there will be seven points 23:37 of visual contact. There will be seven facets, 23:42 so this stone is dune, it is cut as a heptagon 23:46 stone. What is septagon mean? What is Sep, 23:49 seven. What is a septagon shape it's a shape 23:54 with how many sides seven sides, so Zechariah 23:57 sees in vision, he sees the savior represented 24:00 by a seven sided stone. Does the number seven 24:03 mean anything to us here this evening. 24:05 What is the number seven indicate 24:07 in scripture? Perfection, totality, completeness, 24:12 and so he says I saw this stone that represents 24:16 the coming savior and this stone had seven facets 24:19 so seven sides and the same inscription he says 24:25 was inscribed on each of the seven sides. 24:30 And what is the inscription notice that I will remove 24:37 the inequity of that land in one day. 24:42 What is this one day in which one historic event at which, 24:50 in which sin will be atone for in totality completely 24:56 with utter perfection. What is the one day 25:00 when the Septagon Stone dealt with the sin problem 25:04 on every level Calvary at the cross Jesus fulfilled 25:12 this prophecy and he declared an end to sin 25:17 in every respect. Now it's fascinating 25:21 that when you fast forward to the New Testament 25:23 you discover that the wisdom of God that is applied 25:26 to the sin problem is called. In Ephesians chapter 3, 25:30 it is called Manifold Wisdom. What is the word 25:33 Manifold, well just divide it up many folds are you familiar 25:38 with Origami anybody. What's Origami? 25:41 It's an art, it's a Japanese art form in which a piece 25:45 of paper usually a colorful piece of paper 25:48 is folded many times in order to create a bird 25:52 or some other animal or a flower and so all those 25:56 many folds create a beautiful work of arts. 26:02 The wisdom of God that is applied to the sin problem 26:05 is a Manifold Wisdom. It is a wisdom that has many 26:10 dimensions, many folds and to this wisdom 26:14 that God has applied to the plan of salvation 26:17 is so enormous in it's implications that notice this 26:22 the apostle Paul informs us that eventually through 26:26 the church as the repository of the grace of God 26:29 by which salvation is achieved that through the church 26:33 a testimony of God's Manifold Wisdom 26:37 will be given to who? What is that say 26:38 there in Ephesians 3 to who? Well through the 26:42 church God's manifold wisdom will be revealed 26:45 to who, the principalities and powers in heavenly places 26:51 or the heavenly Rome. Now this is enchain us 26:54 in this language toured that's specific aspect 26:59 of the atonement that we want to get to this evening 27:03 and that is the cosmic level of the atonement, 27:08 cosmic of course from cosmos informing us 27:12 that the atonement not only has salvation 27:16 and redemption implications for the individual humans 27:20 but in fact, this is so incredible. 27:23 The atonement has ramifications 27:26 for the whole universe. Let's explore this 27:31 point by point, step by step, and let's discover the 27:36 cosmic level of the atonement along our way this evening. 27:42 First of all, we need to explore the oneness of God. 27:46 The word atonement has as its center three letters 27:52 that compose the word what one, 27:54 so atonement literally at its root means oneness 27:59 to be brought to a place of unity. 28:03 Now the atonement of Christ that we see rout out 28:07 in his incarnation, his life, his death, 28:10 his resurrection the atonement of Christ my friends 28:13 is rooted listen in the identity of God 28:19 for all eternity past. God himself constitutes 28:25 the original oneness, the original unity. 28:30 Notice in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4, 28:35 the Shema this is the prayer that the Israelites prayed 28:41 collectively as a body with a unison of voices 28:45 and still to this day and synagogues around the world 28:47 Jewish believers come together and they say these words 28:51 here, Oh! Israel the Lord our God the Lord 28:57 is one, what is this mean, the Lord is one 29:01 in the Hebrew language there are two words 29:04 for one. One is the word Yakid with a Y 29:09 and it means singularity like for example 29:13 this is a single object, it is a pen alright. So, Yakid 29:19 is singularity, but there is a second Hebrew word 29:22 and it is with an E, Echad and that word interestingly 29:28 enough means compound unity, it means harmony 29:33 and the word that is employed here, which word do 29:35 you think it is singularity or unity. Unity the scripture 29:40 literally says the Lord our God the Lord is unity, 29:46 harmony, connection. God according to scripture 29:52 is not a singular reality, God is a social 29:57 unit in scripture. This beautiful truth of the God 30:01 had the Trinitarian love of the Father, Son 30:04 and Holy Spirit is the far reaches of eternity 30:09 past from which the atonement of Christ 30:12 was eventually brought forth into this world. 30:16 When God is introduced to you and me in scripture 30:18 he is introduced by a name, the first line of scripture 30:22 in the beginning what? God now that's the English 30:26 but it's very limited for us. In the Hebrew 30:30 it's not God as in a generic deity it doesn't say 30:34 in the beginning deity or in the beginning the divine. 30:38 No it's a name in the beginning Eloheem it's a name. 30:43 Now this is vital to understand because this is our first 30:47 encounter with this God of scripture. Who is he? 30:50 What is the nature of God? What is the character of God? 30:54 He is Eloheem and the fascinating thing about 30:57 that name my friends is that it is a plural noun 31:02 that would be like me introducing myself 31:04 to you this evening and say please to meet you 31:06 I'm Ty's. You would draw one of two conclusions either 31:12 he is making a very sloppy and ill-use 31:15 of the English language obviously he is not referring 31:19 to himself plurally as he. Or you think ah poor fellow, 31:24 he thinks there is more than one of him 31:26 and the diagnosis would be schizophrenia, 31:30 I guess. There is no sense in which 31:33 I could introduce myself to you in a plural language. 31:39 I'm not Ty's, I'm just one individual, but listen 31:42 carefully now. There is a plural dimension 31:45 to Ty because Ty is married to Sue 31:49 and we have three children Amber, Jason and Lia. 31:52 Collectively, we are the Gibson's. Now have I made 31:56 a proper and legitimate use of the plural, yes. 32:00 So when God is introduced in scripture he says 32:03 please to meet you, I am one and yet more than one. 32:10 In other words my friends God is an eternal 32:15 relational bless. If you go back into eternity 32:20 past before all of creation before humans existed, 32:24 before angels existed. What would you encounter? 32:29 God and God alone is the only uncreated reality, 32:35 but once you encountered God and God alone 32:37 in the next nanosecond you realize that there 32:39 is another sense in which God has never been alone ever. 32:45 Because God has always existed in relationship 32:50 and this is what the scripture means when it says here 32:53 Oh! Israel the Lord our God the Lord 32:56 is what again one the Lord is one. 32:59 Now first John or John chapter 1, 33:04 you know the scripture well, don't you? 33:07 In the beginning what's the word and the word was with God 33:11 and the word was God, the same was in the beginning 33:15 with God. Do a little bit of editorial sculpting 33:19 take out some of the words put some ellipsis 33:21 and do you know what you read there. 33:22 In the beginning God was with God. How do you do that? 33:27 Well, that's like same Ty is with Sue, 33:31 Sue is with Ty that is to say God was with God 33:36 in the sense that the word Jesus had existed 33:40 with the Father and the Holy Spirit in eternity past 33:43 in an irrational bliss of other centered 33:47 self giving love. This is the idea of oneness, 33:52 now this is incredible because it's from that oneness 33:58 that God created human beings in his image 34:01 as we learned earlier today in our session together 34:03 at 2.30 from the whom of God's eternal oneness 34:10 of love in the past, he brought human beings 34:13 into existence for union with each other 34:16 and with himself. God walked with Adam and Eve 34:20 in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden 34:22 scripture testifies there was a relationship of faithful 34:28 integrity. Adam and Eve lived for one another 34:32 and for God and God lived for them 34:33 and they had sweet fellowship but the sin problem 34:37 broke up that unity. Isaiah 59 informs us 34:43 that your sin has separated you from your God 34:49 and your inequity has hidden his face from you. 34:51 There is a fracture in the universe isn't there? 34:55 There is a Severn of a vital connection that God 35:01 intended to go on forever and ever. Can you imagine 35:04 what it would have been like if Adam and Eve 35:06 had never fallen. Can you imagine, 35:08 if the fall had not occurred. 35:10 Adam and Eve would be right now themselves 35:12 approximately 6000 years old. Would they look elderly 35:16 by the way, no would Adam have his teeth 35:19 and enjoy by the bed, no. What Eve be scooting 35:23 around on a walker, 6000 years old 35:26 and they would be what they would be. 35:27 Oh! You look Adam and say I don't know 35:29 maybe are you 26 their would have been no sin problem, 35:34 their would have been no aging process, 35:36 their would have been no death. 35:37 Adam and Eve would still live in their home town 35:39 of Eden over by Iraq by the way and we could go 35:43 there and visit them they would still 35:44 be the representative heads of planet earth, 35:47 they would be our great, great, great totally great 35:49 grandparents and we could go visit them 35:52 anytime we like right, and whenever 35:55 there are heavenly council meetings called who would 35:57 go to represent planet earth. Adam and Eve not Satan, 36:02 but more importantly do you know if Adam and Eve 36:06 had never fallen. There would be 6000 years 36:10 of a progressively deepening love relationship 36:16 with the God of the universe, their would be a beautiful 36:21 blossoming maturity of friendship with God 36:26 that we can't even imagine. We would all be getting 36:29 to know him as the posterity of Adam and Eve; 36:33 we would all be getting to know God 36:35 in face to face communion. But my friends 36:39 something happened to sever that oneness what is God's 36:44 response to that severing? The atonement of Christ. 36:52 Jesus departs from the heavenly courts, 36:54 where he had existed according to John chapter 1 36:58 in verse 18, Jesus had existed for eternity past 37:01 where John 1:18 do you see at there in the Bosom 37:05 of the Father. What is this mean 37:07 in the Bosom of the Father, nowadays we don't say 37:10 anymore to guys don't say hey we're bosom buddies 37:13 but I guess back in the 1950s that used 37:15 to be a common term bosom buddies what is that mean? 37:19 Close friends, we're intimate, 37:21 we're connected right. Jesus for eternity past 37:25 was in the Bosom of the Father 37:27 that is to say he lived in intimacy with the Father. 37:31 According to Proverbs chapter 8, Jesus as personified 37:35 wisdom says that he was with the Father beside 37:39 him daily the Father's delight rejoicing 37:43 always in his presence. I mean think about this, 37:48 think of the intimate friendship, the union 37:50 that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shared 37:53 for all eternity past. Get that as a clear vision in 37:57 your mind, Jesus says I was with the Father 37:59 and he took delight in me. Is there somebody 38:02 you take delighted? A grandmother, a grandfather, 38:06 a husband, a wife, a child, isn't amazing 38:10 to have an experience as a human being 38:13 in which you genuinely with all your heart 38:17 not only love somebody else, but actually like them. 38:20 A number of years ago my wife throw 38:23 me a curveball, she would always said 38:26 I love you, I knew she had to love me 38:28 she is good Christian girl, the Bible says love 38:31 you enemies not that I'm but I thought oh 38:33 of course you love me of course 38:36 you do, it is your duty 38:37 to love me. You're born again and then 38:44 she throw me this curveball she said, she said, Ty 38:46 I'm so in, I thought I mean love with you, 38:49 you know that's would I'm so in what's the next word 38:51 usually love no she said I mean like with you 38:54 I lean to her and said really? You actually like me 38:58 after all these years she said yeah I like you. 39:03 Dear friends Jesus says in eternity past 39:06 I was with the Father and he took delight in me 39:10 Proverbs 8 and verse 30. It's one thing to know 39:15 that you delight in somebody I'm sure you can visualize 39:18 some bodies face right now that just being in their 39:21 presence that sheer joy for you. 39:25 But think about this just turn it around 39:27 is there somebody you know 39:29 for whom it is sheer joy for them to be with you. 39:37 Jesus says the Father really likes me, 39:39 the Father himself takes delight in me we are the best 39:45 of friends. Wow! That's where Jesus came from, 39:50 from the Bosom of the Father for your salvation 39:55 and mine dear friends. Jesus one moment 39:58 he had been there for all eternity past 40:01 in that fellowship and the next nanosecond 40:05 he vanished from the presence of the Father 40:09 and the heavenly host and was an embryo 40:13 in the womb of teenage girl. His omnipresence 40:22 put in remission laid aside Jesus became local to time 40:30 and space. He departed from the Father 40:33 and you hear this, you hear this cry 40:36 from the heart of God the Father in Zechariah 13:7 40:39 this cry looking, looking down through the ages 40:43 to the time of the incarnation of Christ 40:47 and his crucifixion Zechariah 13:7 awake, O sword, 40:52 sword of justice against who my shepherd 40:58 the one who is my companion. The Father refers 41:03 to the Son as what my companion, my intimate, 41:09 my friend. If you would ask Jesus, 41:12 Jesus what were you doing before you came to this world, 41:16 before your incarnation where were you. 41:18 Did Jesus exist before he became a human being? 41:22 Where did he exist? He existed in fellowship 41:27 with the Father and the Holy Spirit if you said to Jesus 41:30 where were you? What were you doing 41:31 for eternity past? He would say to you 41:34 and me exactly what he said in John 17. Father you loved me 41:38 before the foundation of the world. 41:41 Jesus would tell you and me I'll tell you 41:43 where I came from. I came from an intimate 41:46 fellowship with the Father and the spirit 41:49 for all eternity past. I left all of that for you 41:55 and he descended, he come descended 42:00 into our world not as a shred 42:05 this wasn't play acting Jesus literally took 42:09 upon himself our human nature. God became human 42:20 if we can even began to imagine that, and this 42:23 was not play acting this was a literal transmigration 42:27 of nature for God. God who had always been God 42:31 and God only, now also grafted into his divinity 42:36 a 100 percent humanity retaining the fullness 42:42 of his divinity and yet becoming also truly 42:48 and fully human. Now dear friends here's 42:51 the wonder of it all, when Jesus died on the cross 42:55 came forth from the grave on the third day 42:59 and ascended to heaven, he was resurrected 43:02 and ascended with our humanity intact. 43:06 Jesus didn't die human and come forth from the grave 43:10 having laid aside our humanity. 43:11 Jesus came forth from the grave as much 43:15 a human being as he went into the grave. 43:19 He is our brother in the flesh for all eternity future 43:26 and so Paul says that by virtue of the representative, 43:30 ambassadorship of Jesus as our fellow human being. 43:35 Paul says that we are presently through our 43:39 representative seeded in Christ in heavenly places 43:43 at the right hand of the Father. 43:44 I mean think about this even if all of us 43:48 want to say no to the atonement, there is a sins 43:53 in which humanity has been actually literally redeemed. 43:58 A specimen of the human raise came forth 44:02 from the grave and has seeded at the right hand 44:04 of the Father. Jesus is there waiting for us 44:09 by his redemptive grace to catch up 44:12 to where he is. And to take our place 44:15 according to Revelation 3 verse 21, 44:20 at the throne of the universe to him whoever comes 44:24 I'll grant to sit with me in my throne even as 44:30 I also over came in my humanity and have sat down 44:36 in the Father's throne. Can you imagine 44:40 human beings falling in sin and yet redeemed 44:44 destined for the throne of the universe. 44:48 Jesus as our ambassador and representative 44:52 in the flesh is there this very evening our brother 44:56 for eternity future. Now that atonement 45:03 that was achieved in Christ for you and me my friends 45:08 involved a very painful Severn in the God 45:12 head going all the way back to Genesis 15 45:16 this is by the way the first vision, the first enactment 45:24 ever given to the human race of the upcoming sacrifice 45:29 that would be made at Calvary. 45:32 Abraham found himself in the evening in the mist 45:36 of a vision and in that vision God said Abraham 45:40 I have some thing I want you to do, 45:42 I want you to take three sacrificial animals 45:46 I have for a goat and a lamb 45:50 and I want you to sever them, check this out 45:54 I want you to sever each of these three animals 45:57 straight down the middle are you following 46:00 the symbolism. I want you to sever these animals 46:03 straight down the middle Abraham 46:04 and I want you to place them across 46:07 from one another each half of the sacrifices 46:11 forming a path between the pieces and then 46:17 Abraham went into a vision in which he saw 46:20 well first he felt the horror of a great darkness 46:24 the scripture says. Psychologically, he felt 46:28 the darkness in the weight of the sin problem 46:32 and as Abraham watched that gantlet, that path between 46:39 the pieces all the sudden he saw a fiery entity. 46:43 God is often represented in scripture by fire, 46:49 Moses encountered God in a burning bush, 46:51 the three worthies in the fiery furnace 46:56 were not consumed by the flames 46:58 and there was a fourth one there, the Son of man. 47:00 Ezekiel, In Ezekiel chapter 1 says, 47:03 I saw visions of God and then he describes 47:06 the vision as flames of fire moving in circular motion 47:12 after one another. God is represented in 47:14 Hebrews as a consuming fire. Throughout 47:18 scripture God is represented by fire 47:21 and Abraham sees a fiery entity 47:25 in his vision and he describes that in chapter 15 47:30 of Genesis he says, I severed the pieces 47:32 that God told me to cut them right down 47:34 the middle laid them across from one another 47:37 and then he says I saw this fire past between 47:43 the severed pieces. This is the earliest 47:48 biblical prophetic representation of the infinite 47:54 sacrifice that would be made to atone 47:59 for sin and to save you and me. Ellen White, 48:03 makes the very interesting statement 48:05 that in order to save humanity this involved 48:11 the sundering of God of the divine powers. 48:15 That is father, son, and Holy Spirit. 48:18 the sundering of God just as those sacrificial animals 48:22 were sever into creating a path 48:25 between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 48:30 who had existed for all eternity past 48:33 in this beautiful relational bliss. 48:35 Oh! How they, how they loved and enjoyed 48:39 one another's friendship. And then the Severn 48:43 occurred and Jesus can't descended and he came into 48:48 our world from the Bosom of the Father 48:52 he felt the separation with intensity 48:56 as he came into the Garden of Gethsemane 48:59 bowing on the cold ground. Desire of Ages says, 49:04 clutching at the dirt, sweating according 49:11 to Luke's Gospel great drops of blood Jesus 49:15 in Gethsemane began to experience the full 49:20 ramifications of the sin problem as your sin and mine 49:26 came upon his conscious, as if it were his own. 49:31 Jesus felt to the depths of his being the full separation 49:36 that sin makes between God and guilty sinners. 49:44 But he submitted to that separation 49:46 process voluntarily. In John chapter 10, 49:51 he said no man takes my life from me, 49:56 I lay it down of myself. Dear friends, 50:02 he was never trapped, his back was never against 50:05 the wall, he told, he told Peter in Gethsemane 50:09 after Peter cut off the ear of the high priest servant, 50:12 he told Peter, Peter put your sword away don't you know 50:14 that if I wanted to I can call my Father 50:15 he would immediately send 12 legions of angels 50:18 to deliver me. I don't need you 50:20 with a sword to defend me. I could call 10,000 angels 50:24 and in a moment leave the human race 50:27 to it's demise and go back to my place 50:31 of untouchable bliss. Jesus wasn't trapped; 50:36 he gave his life for you and me. 50:40 He endured by the sheer insua, 50:42 the power of his will he chose to love 50:47 you and me more than his own existence. 50:51 Desire of Ages says, interestingly enough 50:54 his decision is made referring Gethsemane, 50:59 his decision is made he'll save man 51:01 at any cost to himself. Well, what would that cost 51:07 entail? A Severn of the God head, Jesus cries out 51:15 upon the cross my God, my God, 51:19 why have you forsaken me? Experiencing in the depths 51:26 of his heart the complete horror and darkness 51:30 that Abraham saw in vision would be the lot of God 51:36 in order to save us. He was enveloped 51:39 in a darkness, we are told in Desire of Ages 51:41 that was so impenetrable a psychological darkness 51:45 of guilt that was so impenetrable 51:47 that she says he could not see through the portals 51:51 of the tomb, bright hope did not present to him 51:54 his coming forth from the grave as a conqueror 51:56 and the restoration of his Father's approving 51:59 smile into court. Jesus literally from 52:04 the beginnings of this dark horror of guilt 52:08 in Gethsemane and leading right up to Calvary 52:10 with the cry my God, my God why have you forsaken me. 52:14 Jesus felt to the depths of his soul a separation 52:18 from the Father that were so intense 52:20 that he literally could not see life for himself 52:25 beyond the grave. Jesus made the decision 52:31 that he would be willing to die eternally if that's 52:37 what it would cost to save you and me? 52:43 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, 52:45 and at that moment a victory resounded 52:51 throughout the universe you know 52:54 don't you that we live in an inhabited 52:57 Universe, yes. We are not alone 52:59 in the universe, planet earth is just one 53:01 of the planets with inhabited life 53:06 in the universe. Hebrews chapter 1 says 53:09 that God through Christ made the worlds plural. 53:11 Paul says that there are principalities 53:14 and powers that is rulers and authorities 53:18 that reside in the heavenly realm 53:20 and heavenly places, where there are rulers 53:22 and authorities their must be population 53:24 groups that are governed right. 53:28 You read Job chapters 1 and 2 53:30 and you get the distinct impression that there is 53:32 an inhabited universe and all of the universes 53:37 according to the apostle Paul in First Corinthians 4:9, 53:40 the whole inhabited universe has been observing 53:45 the great controversy unfold on planet earth. 53:48 Paul says that we are a spectacle to the whole 53:53 universe. The word spectacle there in the Greek 53:58 is theatron from which we get the English word 54:02 of course what theatre. Paul says this world 54:07 in every human life is under observation; 54:11 we're being watched and have been watched 54:16 for our entire lives in all of human history. 54:18 The whole universe is focused on the events 54:23 transpiring on planet earth the whole world 54:25 is a theatre and they're all looking on and as they look 54:31 on they came to Calvary. Can you imagine 54:35 what the unfallen angels must have felt watching 54:38 their beloved master undergo the torture 54:47 and the crucifixion at Calvary? 54:50 We're told in one inspired statement that the angels 54:53 literally were eager to intervene, 54:57 they were chomping at the bit, they were waiting 54:59 for the Father, they couldn't bare it, 55:01 they were watching him be abuse 55:04 and whipped and tortured and they wanted 55:06 to intervene and deliver him and the Father said no. 55:12 He needs to follow through the whole world, 55:16 but even view on unfallen angelic host 55:19 all the universe needs to witness in Christ, 55:22 the magnitude of the love of God in order to set 55:27 the universe on a secure foundation for all eternity 55:32 future, so that sin never raises it's ugly head again. 55:37 As the universe of unfallen angels and unfallen worlds 55:42 looked onto this world and they saw the sacrifice 55:47 of Christ at Calvary my friends. 55:51 They were forever solidified and convinced 55:56 that all the charges of Satan level against the character 55:59 of God were utterly false and that God 56:03 is to be loved and adored and trusted 56:08 voluntarily from free will beings forever and ever. 56:14 You know, an eternity future it won't be that 56:17 we can't sin, it will be that we won't sin 56:23 because the demonstration of God's goodness 56:27 at Calvary proves false. All the charges levels 56:32 against him opening the way for a voluntary adoration 56:37 in worship, in love and loyalty that will know no 56:41 end into eternity future. We will be made to use 56:45 the words of Ellen White eternally secure 56:48 from the tempters devices. We will be brought to a place 56:52 in which sin can never rise again 56:54 because we are so utterly and completely 56:56 convinced of God's goodness. In Ephesians chapter 2, 57:03 the apostle Paul informs us that we are saved by God's 57:09 rich mercy and his great love and having saved us. 57:17 He will take us into eternity future as the trophy 57:20 Revelation of his goodness for all eternity future 57:25 redeemed human beings will be the master piece 57:28 of redeeming grace that all the universe looks 57:32 at as the evidence that God is love 57:38 and can be utterly and completely trusted without 57:40 reserve, the question for you and me this evening 57:43 is have we come to the place. |
Revised 2014-12-17