Prophecy and Mystery Contrasted - Moses & Sabbath vs. Paul & Every Day- Mystery 17

[0:00] Let me elaborate a little bit on our modified plan and what is taking place, because it is different from what we had originally planned. At the beginning of the year, our intent was to deal with the distinctions between the subjects of prophecy and mystery, and we must confess that it is a mystery to most people what we are even talking about.

[0:24] But it need not be, and we have assigned ourselves the responsibility of trying to explain what we mean by the way the Bible uses the word mystery. So the original plan was to present for the 9 o'clock hour the subject of prophecy, which of course relates primarily to the nation of Israel, and it involves the coming Messiah and so on, and God's promises under the law and the old covenant, etc., that all has to do with prophecy.

[0:57] And it is radically distinguished from the area that is referred to as mystery. And that has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ having already come, provided his sacrificial death for the sins of the world, ascended back to heaven, and there in heaven he communicated to the Apostle Paul an entirely new program, something that would really upset the proverbial apple cart, and it is called mystery or secret.

[1:36] And Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 3 what is probably the best definition of that mystery, which we are told was never revealed before to the sons of men, never disclosed, never prophesied, never imagined, but it was deep in the heart and mind of God, tucked away only in his person, unknown by absolutely everyone else, including angels.

[2:03] And then, at a specific critical time, God was deigned to reveal that mystery, and he chose the most unlikely recipient in the whole world to reveal it to, and gave him the responsibility of propagating it everywhere.

[2:25] And that recipient was Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the Apostle, and not only an apostle, but he was the apostle to the Gentiles, an utterly unheard of concept, because the Gentiles had no apostles.

[2:45] Israel had 12. Gentiles had none. An apostle is simply an ambassador. An apostle, in a biblical sense, is one who is sent by a person in authority who has the authority of the person who sent him in his commission.

[3:06] It is kind of like an ambassador. When we send an ambassador to a foreign nation, that ambassador is endowed with the authority to speak for the United States of America, and for the president.

[3:23] He is his envoy. The apostle Paul is an envoy, and so were the 12. But they had an entirely different commission, in that their commission was specifically limited, definitely limited, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

[3:42] Well, who's that? That's the 12 tribes of Israel, and no one else were they to go to. But Paul, the apostle, is literally the apostle God raised up, singular apostle God raised up, to be the apostle to everybody else, which means 99% of the world's population.

[4:03] And the 12 were to minister to just less than 1% of the world. And that seems terribly imbalanced to us, but you know, this is going to operate on the basis of multiplication.

[4:16] And the idea is, Paul, the apostle, is to proclaim the gospel, and it begins with just a handful of people who come to faith, who then proclaim it to a greater handful of people, who come to faith, who then proclaim it to multiple hands.

[4:32] And the next thing you know, this thing has multiplied. And it got to the extent where Rome, years later, 300 years later, after all of this multiplication of the gospel of Jesus Christ in various languages, got to the extent that Rome and its government read the writing on the wall and concluded, hey, we are not going to be able to beat these people.

[5:08] We'd better join them. And that was with the edict of the emperor of Rome, the Roman Empire, Constantine.

[5:20] And his ruling was, whereas previously it was illegal to be a Christian, now it's illegal not to be. What do you think of them apples?

[5:30] And they had pagan priests who were involved in every kind of worship and religion that you could imagine, stand in line to be baptized into the Christian faith.

[5:45] Of course, much of that was phony baloney, because there was no real conversion at all. There was no real understanding at all. It was just an official act whereby, as before, we believe this and thus and so, and now we are Christians.

[6:01] And it doesn't mean that they had undergone a regenerating process at all. In fact, probably most of them had not, but it became a legal thing. And there we have the origin of a religion being commingled with a political power.

[6:21] And that had not existed until previously when the religion of Judaism was commingled with political power, in that the religion and the politics were inseparable.

[6:37] So now, religion and politics are going to be inseparable again, only it's going to be Christianity a la primarily Roman Catholicism, third, fourth century, or fourth, fifth century, commingled with the politics with the result that Rome and the Roman Catholic Church is not only going to wield enormous religious power and authority throughout all of Europe or much of Europe, but they are also going to wield a great deal of political authority whereby heads of state will be conferring with the Pope and seeking his permission for policies that they want to implement and so on.

[7:26] So we've got this enormous difference that is taking place. Now we are going back, however, to this time of the first century, and it is a time of tremendous upheaval and confusion, lots of changes taking place, lots of ideas coming forth that nobody had ever thought of before.

[7:49] It's a real unusual time. And the contrast between prophecy and mystery is often seen as a contradiction rather than the progression that it is.

[8:02] Secondly, Jewish people viewed the law that God gave through Moses to be permanent.

[8:38] It was a covenant between God and Israel at Sinai under the leadership of Moses and it was sealed with animal blood.

[8:52] Three, about 1,000 years later, following the Mosaic covenant established at Sinai, the prophet Jeremiah spoke of another covenant in chapter 31 called a new covenant.

[9:10] And Jeremiah said, Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like my covenant before which they broke.

[9:29] And he's talking about the Mosaic covenant, the old covenant. Jeremiah spoke of that in chapter 31. It is repeated again in Ezekiel, and you'll find it two or three times in the New Testament in the book of the Hebrews.

[9:43] So, this covenant that was sealed with the blood of animals, when the new covenant is established, it would be sealed with the blood of Israel's own Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

[10:00] And that's what he was talking about the night he was betrayed when he said to his apostles, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. And I am satisfied that there wasn't a single one of them there who understood exactly what that meant.

[10:18] They had no idea that Jesus was going to the cross. They thought he was going to a great coronation. But, of course, he knew exactly what was going to transpire on the morrow.

[10:30] So, this meant that the old covenant, temporary from the beginning, with all of its demands and instructions, was destined to be replaced with the new covenant.

[10:48] And item six, Christ spoke of this the night of his betrayal, we touched on. And seven, Paul the apostle referred to this in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 when he referred to himself and his colleagues as able ministers of the new covenant.

[11:10] And here is a very, very important point that I want to introduce because it contains a valuable distinction. And that is this. When Jesus Christ died on that cross and uttered those words, it is finished.

[11:30] What he meant was the great transaction for which he was sent from heaven to accomplish had been completed.

[11:43] And the death that he was to die, he had already died spiritually. And that was in his separation from the Father for this period of three hours.

[11:53] And please don't ask me to explain that because I can't understand it. All I know is that the Godhead, subsisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was in some unspeakable way we cannot comprehend, interrupted, somehow assaulted during the time that the Son of God was made sin.

[12:20] And God turned away, whose eyes are too holy to behold sin, God turned away from him, forsook him. Unthinkable. My thinking would be impossible for the Godhead, for the Trinity to be interrupted in a way like that.

[12:38] How could that be? I have no idea. But it was because he who knew no sin was made to be sin on our behalf.

[12:50] And God, his Father, abandoned him. Now, we look at that in our humanity and say, well, he only abandoned him for three hours.

[13:01] What's the big deal about that? Well, I suspect it wouldn't be all that big deal for a human, one who is intensely human and only human to be separated from anything for three hours.

[13:12] What would be the big deal? But, if you are deity, if you are part and parcel of an inexpressible, indefinable, infinite being, would make no difference if it was three hours or three seconds, the separation was accomplished and complete, causing our Lord to cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken?

[13:43] That was his humanity crying out and God forsook him so he would not have to forsake you. don't ever lose sight of that.

[13:54] So, he would not have to forsake you. And in that death that he died, in that death that he died, he provided the basis for the establishment of the new covenant.

[14:21] His blood was like only more precious. It was, it took the place of the animal blood that was shed with the first covenant in that this was his blood and in shedding his blood he made that ultimate payment for sin for all of humanity, all of humanity.

[14:44] this rendered everybody savable. This didn't make everybody Christians, didn't make everybody saved. It made everybody capable of being saved because the penalty for their sin had been made.

[15:01] But at the same time, it did not provide a full circle for the establishment of the covenant from beginning to end because it was only the beginning.

[15:13] there was a serious part of the covenant that was lacking and that was the party of the second part and who would that be?

[15:27] That would be Israel. I have told you there are two things required before the kingdom of heaven can come to earth in answer to what is referred to as the Lord's prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done and so on.

[15:40] And the first thing that has to be done is that the penalty for the world's sin and waywardness has to be paid.

[15:50] The books have to be balanced. The moral scales of the universe have to be balanced. And when Christ died and took the penalty for human sin upon himself, that did balance the moral scales of the universe.

[16:04] And the only thing that is lacking is that nation who was party of the first part to the first covenant sign on to the second covenant which they have never done.

[16:18] Israel remains in rejection of the new covenant even in spite of the fact that their own prophets prophesied it in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel spoke of it in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament.

[16:30] So what we've got is this. we've got the basis for the new covenant provided in that he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

[16:45] But the application of it has been made only for those who have become recipients of that finished work of Christ and have placed their faith and trust in him.

[16:57] And that includes all Jews who believe and all Gentiles who believe. But the kingdom and the realization of it has never come to pass because Israel is a nation with whom that new covenant is to be made has never signed on.

[17:16] Israel signed on to the first covenant. When Moses came down with the tablets of the law he presented it to Israel as this is what God requires of you. What's your answer?

[17:27] Be advised if you will. And maybe I'm being repetitive but it's important. God did not impose the old covenant the new the old covenant the laws of Moses.

[17:41] He did not impose those upon Israel. He offered them to Israel. And the terms were simple. The terms were if you will sign on and agree to what I have stipulated in this law including the Ten Commandments and all the rest of it actually it was the Torah it was the whole law of Moses if you will Israel as a nation embrace that then I will be your personal God and I will protect and look out for you and provide for you you will be my people and I will be your God.

[18:17] What do you think? and Moses made the deal he laid the terms out to the people of Israel and their response was you go back up the mount and you tell God all that the Lord had said will we do and be obedient and Moses said okay you've got a deal let's sign the deal and they took the blood of bulls and sprinkled the blood and you say what's this all about what's the blood for why would they do that?

[18:53] that was the solemn way they had of sealing a covenant today we just put our signature on the dotted line and we sign our name in ink but they didn't have that kind of provision and to lend to the seriousness the sobriety of the event something had to give up its life and that's what gave value to that document and in this case it was animals now you can see where this is going in the blood that Christ shed not with the blood of bulls and goats but with his own blood he entered into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us tremendous significance so what we've got is provision made for the new covenant but the application of the new covenant is still lacking and yet because of the price Christ paid it made salvation available for all who believe and when the nation of Israel comes in line which they have never done they will during the tribulation period in the last few weeks of the tribulation period

[20:13] Israel the remnant will look upon him whom they pierced and they will mourn for one whom their forefathers rejected and they will pray and they will beseech God to send the Messiah remember when Jesus left the temple the last time he said you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and that's what the remnant is going to be saying they will be under intense persecution from the Antichrist and this remnant will be the surviving people of Israel because two thirds of the nation two thirds of the world's Jews will have been eliminated by the Antichrist and untold millions of Gentiles as will because during this tribulation period

[21:15] Satan is going for as high a body count as he can possibly obtain and it will be in the billions with a B it's going to really be something all of this is tied together with this covenant business you see everything in the Bible is connected to everything in the Bible there is an end game there's a beginning game we are right now in the middle game everything is moving toward the end there is going to be finalization because history is not circular it is linear there's a beginning and there's an ending point and we are closer as I've often said closer than anybody has ever been Paul the apostle referred to this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 as being able ministers of the new covenant so you can take the benefits of the new covenant and Gentiles benefit from it by simply believing on Christ the letter to the Hebrews elaborates on this very thing particularly in chapters 8 9 and 10 9 the physical elements and demands of the law under the old covenant particularly physical circumcision

[22:31] Sabbath observation physical and dietary restrictions water ablutions the multiple baptisms and the Jews didn't just undergo one baptism there were multiple baptisms they had to purify themselves on occasion for all kinds of things that they entered into and this is what the writer of Hebrews is talking about in chapter 6 when he uses the word washings multiple washings and it's interesting that they didn't translate that baptisms I don't know why they didn't because they should have because in the Hebrew or in the Greek it's the same word that is used for baptisms but there it's translated washings and I suspect it's because the washings were more ceremonial but the baptisms and the washings are actually one and the same however that is going to be replaced that water baptism is going to be replaced with the spirit baptism a la 1 Corinthians 12 13 by one spirit we are all baptized into one body whether we be Jew

[23:36] Gentile bond or free etc so there's a tremendous movement from everything physical and obvious under the old covenant to things that are spiritual and not at all that obvious I mean how can you tell if someone has been spiritually baptized you can tell if they've been water baptized you can see it happen you can see the water how can you tell if somebody has been spiritually circumcised well there isn't any way you can physical is quite obvious and you can say the same with all of the other physical components of the old covenant and the law and all of which was outward obvious and hands on very literal very physical and that all moves to the spiritual the immaterial the unseen under the new covenant and the difference is dramatic so what we've got is not a contradiction but it is a progression in other words let me put it this way it is the new covenant that God had in mind all the while he just hadn't revealed it until as Ephesians 3 says until that strategic time when it was revealed to Paul that the law the law of Moses was actually going to be done away with are you kidding me can you not see the heat that the apostle Paul took when he came upon the scene and began preaching justification by faith alone apart from works of the law are you serious what do you mean where did you get that how can that be and he paid a dear price for in fact he gave his life for that message he was persecuted all throughout the time he was preaching that message and from whom did the persecution come his fellow countrymen and yet

[25:54] Paul could sympathize with him because he was able to realize I know just how they feel and just how they think because that's exactly what I thought before I had this revelation from the risen Christ I know how my countrymen see me I understand where they're coming from and this is why he said blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in he was fully prepared to give his life for this message and he knew that his countrymen were going to be rejecting of it and Paul said when he writes to the Romans brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved for I bear them witness and he goes on and talks about I could wish that I myself were a curse from

[26:55] Christ you know what if there was some way that I could persuade my fellow countrymen my Jewish brethren to embrace Yeshua Hamashiach as their Messiah if there was some way that I could do that and offer up myself instead and I myself be a curse from Christ I'd be willing to do it now that's the kind of love he had for his own country and the persecution and rejection is the kind of hatred that they had for Paul and you know something don't ever lose sight of the fact that the silent partner lurking in the scenes behind the scenes who is contributing to all of this unbelief and blindness is the adversary himself because blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in and we know that he is the

[27:59] God of this age who blinds the minds of those that believe not lest the glorious light of the gospel of Christ which is the image of God should shine unto them so the Jew has a blindfold on that is in part satanic and in part it is their own fallen nature because recall if you will a point that we have made numerous times that warp thinking and skewed logic are predictable byproducts of the fall of our first parents and they passed it on generationally and every generation since including ours has been infected with this faulty logic and faulty reasoning and what seems logical to men is illogical to God he makes that so clear in first Corinthians one and two the wisdom of

[29:01] God as opposed to the wisdom of man man's wisdom says be good be good enough do enough good things and they see the whole thing of salvation as being what shall I say it's all about quantity how good do you have to be how many good things do you have to do and that sounds logical to man and the way for justification the way to be accepted as God is be good do good things do nice things be a nice person and the ten commandments you got to keep those and so on and so on and they make it all about quantity but it isn't about quantity it's about quality the righteousness that God will accept is not determined by degrees it's determined by its kind and when you come to faith in

[30:02] Jesus Christ you receive from Christ his perfect absolute complete righteousness put to your account that is your official standing that is where you are with God legally officially judicially that's where you are with God that's your official status your walk and your practice and your life is an entirely different issue the goal of your walk is to bring your walk and your behavior closer to your position and you do that by spiritual growth you grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ for the simple reason that you may become more like Jesus that's what spiritual growth is all about so we've got all of these wonderful dynamics that are working and unfortunately the Jew is so caught up with the law and the law of Moses he just cannot see his way clear to abandon it but that's exactly what has happened and yet in a sense the law is gone but Jews still many of them of course and the

[31:22] Orthodox they still insist on the law I want to share with you and then I'm going to open this for Q&A this is a powerful powerful thing Marie and I were reading this just the other day in our devotion this is this is September 18 by the way it's found in two minutes of the Bible there are just just a couple of copies left back there but we can get more this is dynamite material listen to this this is for September 18 from Mr.

[31:46] Stamm it's called without the law in Romans 321 and 22 we find a most striking statement and here's the statement this is Romans 321 but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested means declared being shown openly being witnessed by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of God which is by Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that's Jew and Gentile that believe and Mr.

[32:33] Stamm says the righteousness of God bestowed upon believers apart from the law do you believe that this is difficult for many people especially religious people to accept yet here it is in the written word of God now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested and the passage goes on to say that the law and the prophets bear witness that this is righteousness indeed for it is the righteousness of Christ freely conferred upon the believer but how shall we interpret the words but now you see the contrast here you see what the writer is getting at you see the distinction that he's making between as before as opposed to but now we can all identify with that in many areas there were certain things going on in your life before your whatever before your 40th birthday this and so and so and so but now what does that mean it means things are different now they are not like they were back then that's the but now when was this bestowed righteousness first manifested or revealed at

[34:17] Calvary nope there it was purchased for us but not yet proclaimed do you realize that when Jesus died on that cross none of the onlookers including his own mother had any idea what was taking place think of that Mary the mother of our Lord John the beloved apostle witnessing the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ and none of them really understood you can you imagine I can promise you Mary the mother of Jesus was not standing there with her heart breaking sobbing probably uncontrollably do you think she was do you think she was saying to herself I know it's a terrible thing that my son's going through but

[35:19] I'll just be so glad three days later when he comes back from the dead and everything will be wonderful I can promise you she wasn't thinking that at all she was thinking this is the end of a beautiful life she wasn't thinking of resurrection and as we pointed out the first people to deny that Jesus had risen from the dead was his own disciples and the women the first to proclaim it nobody knew what was happening nobody understood that it was not manifested at Calvary there it was purchased for it but not yet proclaimed under our Lord's great commission to his eleven apostles then no no when Jesus sent the eleven fourth or the twelve fourth to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom it wasn't I want you to go and preach the gospel the death resurrection of your master the

[36:20] Messiah well of course not not at all I want you to go and proclaim the kingdom of heaven is at hand repent and believe the gospel what gospel gospel of the death burial resurrection of Christ no no the good news of the kingdom the good news that God is going to fix this broken world when the kingdom comes then there will be a time of great rejoicing to happen to happen to happen and Jesus said get behind me

[37:24] Satan you are thinking the thoughts of men not the thoughts of you know what he was saying he was saying Peter you are thinking with a warped intellect you were thinking with skewed logic so it wasn't bestowed then not one record of this commission contains one word that is what is called the great commission contains one word about justification through the finished work of Christ at Calvary not there and it's not supposed to be there well was it then at Pentecost then that Christ's righteousness was first proclaimed for the remission of sins nope nope what was the message of Pentecost what did Peter preach Peter preached you have by wicked hands crucified and slain the

[38:29] Lord of glory but God raised him from the dead and Peter isn't saying anything about but isn't it wonderful that even though he was crucified actually what happened was he paid the sin penalty for the whole world isn't that one nope that's not part of his message at all Peter's message on Pentecost was not an evangelistic message to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ death burial and resurrection for your salvation no no his message was an indictment he charged them with the murder but God raised him from the dead the gospel of the grace of God was not preached at Pentecost because they didn't even know it then much less proclaim it there the convicted hearers were told to what repent and be baptized for the remission of sins essentially it's the same message that

[39:33] John the Baptist was preaching carried right on this is not Christian baptism this is Jewish baptism for Jews by Jews exclusively Jews Gentiles had nothing to do with it in fact Gentiles weren't even allowed on the premises under penalty of death no Gentile could have been there it's impossible these are all Jews and they're all hearkening back to the same message that John preached and by the way this is the message that John preached that most of the Jews rejected common people heard him and many came out and were baptized of John but what about the leadership of Israel what about the rulers and shakers the guys who made all the decisions and had all of the influence they rejected John and John's message and they rejected Jesus and it led John to call them a of snakes who warned you to flee from the wrath to come and he chastised them they rejected

[40:38] John they rejected his message and they rejected the Messiah that John came to introduce it was all part of a package what wasn't at Pentecost that the righteousness of Christ was first proclaimed for the remission of sins it was not until Paul that this blessed message went forth it was Paul and no one until Paul who declared but now but now as opposed to before but now the righteousness of God without the law what without the law circumcision it's gone what about the Sabbath it's gone what about the kosher diets gone what about baptism it's gone are you kidding me how can that be and

[41:54] I'm here to tell you this morning in the year 2020 2000 years later most of the world called Christendom is still utterly ignorant about what I've just told you listen this message is so revolutionary it is so critical and yet men with their warp skewed thinking just will not accommodate it and when it is preached it is often disguised and encumbered with all kinds of tradition and paraphernalia and nonsense you can scarcely make out what the real message is and so many churches today are so steeped in ritualism and tradition and foldy roll and going through these motions and doing religious things and jumping through religious hoops and the message goes right over their head and here little old obscure grace

[43:05] Bible church and a bunch of other like obscure churches throughout keep shouting this same message but who are we giving it to primarily to the choir primarily to the choir wow well I'm not finished but I quit so have you comments or questions that you would like to entertain I'll be glad to hear from you Ethan thank you and your young legs for doing a super job here's your first comment right here pasting okay Marv your last point there about Christians and hasn't learned most of us are out of it it has to do with the schools that teach seminaries where the preachers come from they go to seminary and preaching and that's where the message that they're going to preach comes from originally for a lot of them and they these schools won't change their courses and their information and their way of teaching it because they get a lot of their money from all the churches out there they get their money from the churches out there and they say well if we start telling them we've been telling them wrong all this time we've been telling them wrong they're going to stop sending their money and so they keep teaching all the leaders that this is the message this is the way you preach it this is the truth this is what the truth is do you agree with me about that

[44:45] I'm afraid you're right I'm sorry to say it but I know you're right I know you're right we look at politics and business and everything and we say follow the money and you're usually right on when you follow the money but could it possibly be that in the area of religion in general and of Christendom in particular that there is money there to be followed also honey you better believe it you better believe and you know what the rationale of it is well yeah but but without the money we can't do anything we need the money we've got to do what it takes to get the money to have the income to make and kick over those traces they'll bail out on you they won't support you because they want to hear what they've been used to hearing that's their comfort zone and you're threatening to get them out of it and nobody wants that listen the Jew didn't want it in the first century

[45:50] Christians don't want it today it's a human problem it isn't a Jewish problem or Christian it's a human problem long since gone he was a possum that lived in the swamp down the Ocafenocca swamp the cartoon character and his greatest line was we have met the enemy and he is us he is us we have met the enemy he is us that's human nature it's a human problem what we're talking about it's not a Jewish problem not a Gentile it's a world problem it's a human problem other comments or questions I don't want to dominate I had one here that I really had before that last one came up but real quickly the old covenant the new covenant the old covenant back then it was just according to the Jews of course you do good you follow

[46:51] God you do what he says please him he rewarded you then they got rewarded they got flocks and you know everything went great for and they were bad when they didn't follow when they had other gods they had other idols then God rejected them they got scattered everything else he you know you got it then it was physical then now we are under the church this is a practical thing practical question now we're in the church age now age of grace okay and we don't get reward we don't get our in other words as the non christian or the other person in this world in this life but I have the peace of knowing that my reward is in heaven it's it's heavenly spiritual like you were saying it's spiritual now it's not physical and so and he gives you peace during this time that's the thing if you pray you won't always get what you ask for back then they pray it said you you pray and ask forgiveness of your neighbor come back to me then I'll give you what you want we don't get that he does for us what we need and what's good how do you follow the money when it's spiritual you can't you can't and that's one of the blessings of it because there are values in the spiritual in the new covenant there are values that the old can't even come close to or compete with and it's wonderful what

[48:24] God has provided it's just just amazing absolutely amazing other comments or questions well you're you're awakening you're awakening one of my major fears and my fear is that I've done such a miserable job communicating this that you can't ask an intelligent question or that I've done such a wonderful job that I've answered all your questions and you don't have any and I despair to buy into either of those okay Nathan over here Nathan out of pity has a comment or question for me good for a pity question no you mentioned early on the son Christ being separated from the father for three hours where's that come from is that you well

[49:28] I guess I guess it is surmised it there isn't any place that says it was three hours but it does say the text says that darkness covered the earth from from the sixth to the ninth hour of the day which in biblical time would be twelve noon to three o'clock in the afternoon and it was during that time that this separation was taking place and I'm not suggesting that it was for the full three hours I don't know we aren't given in a specific time frame but it appears that during this period of blackness and darkness there was also an earthquake and the hymnist wrote well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in when

[50:33] Christ the mighty maker died for man for man the creature's sin wow so there was a block of time that can only be described as intense unimaginable physical agony that was compounded and even surpassed by a spiritual agony death because spiritual death is separation of the human spirit from God that's what Jesus experienced separation from God we cannot wrap our brains around that we just don't know we know the pain that comes from our being separated from another human being physically through death we know how agonizing indescribably agonizing that is but how would you evaluate how would you compare deity and the separation that took place there we just can't even begin to imagine what that was like it was separation it was pain and agony on an entirely different level than anything we could experience and yet that's what the father sent the son to do and the son in obedience out of love for you and for me was willing to do that he knew full well in advance what that penalty was going to be what the price was going to be and that's why the night before he went to the cross in the garden of gethsemane he wept and he agonized and he shed as it were great drops of blood

[52:46] I don't know if that's figurative or literal or some physical condition etc but he cried out and on a similar nearby occasion he said he knew what was coming and he said what shall I say what shall I say what shall I pray shall I pray father save me from this hour but for this hour came I into the world my oh my that's oh wow I've got to stop would you stand please once again father we've delved into something that we don't begin to understand but enough of this truth is revealed so that even in a superficial way that we all possess we can at least touch the edge of the horror and the agony and the separation in such a minuscule way cannot begin to compare with what took place between the father and the son and a kind of separation that had not occurred from eternity past we just have to leave it there because we can't go beyond that so on the basis of what we do understand what little we do grasp we need to be so profoundly thankful because at least to some degree our ignorance has been dispensed with so that so that we can have a better appreciation of what was involved and we want it to be increased more and more because we believe that as we come into a better understanding of who who you are and what you did for us that it surely would increase our attitude of thanksgiving and our willingness to serve and be served for this incomparable

[55:11] Christ what a blessed people we are is there any way you could increase our capacity to appreciate and understand if there is we certainly want to be open to it thank you for this precious truth thank you for each one here to receive it and we trust to pass it on to others in Christ's wonderful name amen