The Minor Profits

[0:00] I want to mention that there is available, if you're interested, just outside before you exit a stack of CDs. We are really grateful that the airport cafe has granted us this space out there so that we can display these.

[0:16] And I want to give you just a moment's information about them. Because this is a new venue for these CDs and they're placed in different places throughout the area. But we start with Volume 1.

[0:30] And Volume 1 gives the explanation as to how this whole thing, Christianity Clarified, came about. And the impetus for it was the death of my first wife, Barbara, to whom I was married for almost 50 years before she passed very suddenly and very unexpectedly.

[0:51] And I can't believe that that's been 14 years ago that it has. And out of that, the church gave a huge amount of money and memorial gifts for Barbara, something like $15,000 or $18,000.

[1:07] And asked me what we wanted to do with it or about it to honor her memory. And Christianity Clarified is a result of that.

[1:17] So these CDs are available. And each CD has 20 segments on it. But a segment is just three and a half minutes long.

[1:28] Because they're actually designed for radio. And they are being played five days a week on 20 different radio stations in other states.

[1:40] So the content is available. And for your information, we just recently completed and had copied Volume 50.

[1:52] And that means that so far there have been 1,000 segments that have been produced. And they are available. But what you see out here is just Volume 1, Volume 2.

[2:05] And then the one in the middle is an evangelistic kind of volume. And it is designed for anyone who is looking for answers. And it deals with on being sure of heaven.

[2:19] Can we be? And it's very brief. It's only about 20 minutes long. And then there's another that is a little longer and more involved. So as you exit here, you're welcome to take any of them that you want or as many as you want.

[2:32] And for those of you who take them and give them to others, I would say thank you. Thank you so much. Because our objective is to get the word to as many people as we can in as short a time as possible.

[2:44] So these are all free. And they're all prepaid. So feel free to utilize them any way you can. We'll be distributing them at the Urbana-Champaign County Fair. When that opens, we've got a booth there.

[2:56] So there will be an evangelistic segment there that is available as well. So thank you for your kind consideration. And we will go right ahead and get underway.

[3:08] And remind you now, from now on, until further notice I guess, we will be here 8 o'clock every Tuesday. And that has been a quantum leap for us because when this class started in 1965, it was Thursday.

[3:26] And it's been Thursday for all those years. But now it's Tuesday because of the accommodations being available and the conflicts available that we had to deal with, etc. So if you would, please, let's give you a brief recap of where we have been.

[3:42] And by the way, I've got a confession to make. I had every intention of resuming the study that we had to discontinue because of the coronavirus. And we are in Zechariah, which is heavily prophetic content.

[3:57] And we're going to get there. And I plan to be there this morning. But last week, when we dealt with the issue of the covenant and we looked at the Mosaic covenant and so on, I realized that I really did not do the subject justice because all we talked about was the provision for the new covenant.

[4:18] And this is that of which Jeremiah spoke way back in Genesis, I mean, in Jeremiah 31, when 500 years before Christ was born in Bethlehem, God said through the prophet Jeremiah, Behold, the days are coming when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I established before when they came out of Egypt, which covenant they broke.

[4:58] But this will be a new covenant and the response to it will be entirely different. And then from that, we looked at where it is repeated in Ezekiel.

[5:09] I think it's Ezekiel 37 and 26. And Ezekiel refers to the same covenant written about the same time as Jeremiah. And he refers to it not as the new covenant, but he calls it a covenant of peace as opposed to a covenant of opposition.

[5:29] It will be a covenant of peace. And it is the same covenant of which Jeremiah was speaking. So what he's saying is a time is coming that will be absolutely glorious for Israel because when they get the new covenant, they will not respond to it like their forefathers did with the old covenant.

[5:50] This covenant, the new one, they will embrace in its totality. And the reason they will is because when that time comes, God will place his covenant in their hearts and in their minds and they will be obedient to it and will desire to be obedient to it.

[6:10] It won't be like the covenant under Moses, which they disobeyed repeatedly. Then we looked at Luke 22. And we won't take time to go there, but if you're thinking about where you want to go in your Bible, you can go back, if you will, to 2 Corinthians, where we'll be in just a few moments.

[6:30] We'll be in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. But in Luke 22, the night that Jesus was betrayed, as the disciples gathered around him, they had no idea that this was going to be his last night with them.

[6:45] And at that last supper, he took the bread and broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is for you. They had no idea what he was talking about. I could see them looking at each other with a puzzled look on their face.

[6:59] What did he say? Did you hear what he said? What did he mean by that? And then he took the cup. It was a common cup. It wasn't one of those little plastic things that we use when we have communion.

[7:09] It was a common cup. And he held it up and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

[7:23] And as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you do show the Lord's death until he comes. Nobody had any idea what he was talking about.

[7:34] What he was talking about was what Jeremiah was talking about. It is the new covenant in his blood. And as Moses activated the old covenant, remember what he did?

[7:50] He presented the tables of the law. He gave the law to the people of Israel. And this is a very important point that not many people understand. God did not impose the Ten Commandments or the law of Moses, including the sacrifice of animals, including the keeping of the Sabbath and all the rest of it.

[8:09] God did not just impose that on Israel and say, This is my law. This is what I require of you. And boy, you better do it. Because you really have no choice. No, no.

[8:20] It wasn't that at all. He gave the law to Moses and says, You go down and tell the people what the terms are. And you tell them, If they will accept the covenant and obey my laws, then they will be a special people under me.

[8:37] I will watch out for them. I will provide for them. I will protect them. However, if they disobey my covenant and the laws, there are going to be very serious consequences.

[8:51] Go give them the word, Moses, and see what they say. Moses went down and explained the whole thing to the people. What God said, the terms of the covenant and everything. And then he says, So what do you think?

[9:03] What's your decision? Yeah, we'll do it. Yeah, we'll do it. And the expression they used was, All that the Lord has said, will we do. And they said that two or three times in response to the terms that were given them.

[9:20] You go back up, Moses. You go back up on the mount. And you tell God, He's got a deal. We'll be His people. He'll be our God. Now, fellas, we have no idea how revolutionary this whole concept was for the simple reason that virtually all of humanity, as it existed at that time, and we're talking about 17, 1800 years before Christ came, the entirety of the globe, what consisted of it, centered there in the Mediterranean basin, was utterly steeped in and given over to paganism and idolatry of every kind.

[10:00] So what God was asking Israel to do was to revere Him alone as the one true God and recognize the phoniness of all the others.

[10:11] And He starts out with, I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before Me. In the very first commandment, that gets up front. So that was the revolutionary thing at the time because none of the nations recognized that there was just one God.

[10:26] Then when Jesus made that statement, and by the way, before I pass that off, when they gave God His answer and said, all that the Lord has said we will do, Moses said, okay, we're going to ratify the covenant.

[10:44] We're going to seal the deal. And the blood of animals was taken, which prefigures the whole concept of sacrifice.

[10:56] The whole concept of innocence dying for guilty. That's the principle that's established with the sacrifice.

[11:06] That's the thing that Israel is going to have to live with for a long, long time. The sacrifice of all of those animals. What's that all about anyway? The required sacrifice of all of those animals where the innocent animal, poor dumb animal, hasn't done anything, is giving up his life for the lives of guilty people, sinners.

[11:29] What's that all about? That was establishing the principle of sacrifice which simply means sin and wrong behavior toward God is an offense and it has to be dealt with and justice must be served and there is going to be a penalty and the penalty is the soul that sinneth that shall die.

[11:52] So you, something has to die and all of those animals that were sacrificed prefigured the one final, ultimate sacrifice that would be made for all, for all time.

[12:06] And that's what Jesus is talking about. When Moses heard the words that they would obey the Lord, he took the blood of animals and he sprinkled it on the tables of the law, the terms of the contract, and he sprinkled it on at least some of the people, sprinkled the blood and that was the equivalent of the people and God mutually signing off on the deal.

[12:34] They signed the contract. The party of the first part and the party of the second part agreed to the terms, signed it with blood, animal blood.

[12:45] Now, we today, we just take a sheet of paper and we draw off the terms of the contract and we put a line there and a line there and the party of the first part signed it here and the party of the second part signed it here and there isn't any blood involved at all.

[12:57] What's that all about? Well, this is just one thing that we have changed over the years. We don't sacrifice animals to seal it with blood, but they did then. And because of this cultural gap, we've got to understand the significance of that, which means almost nothing to us in this generation, but it meant everything to them.

[13:18] So, when Jesus was gathered with his disciples on that last night, when he said, this cup is my blood in the new covenant, wow, fellas, that was so huge.

[13:38] None of us can begin to appreciate the implications of that. We'll see later in Hebrews where the writer of Hebrews says, not with the blood of bulls and goats, for it's not possible that the blood of animals could take away sins, but this man entered into the holy place with his own blood, making and providing eternal redemption for us.

[14:03] All that animal blood signified is there is more blood coming, but it won't be the blood of an animal. It'll be the blood of the Son of God. And none of them understood that at the time.

[14:17] Hours later, and I don't mean too many, hours later from that time, probably less than 12 hours after Jesus said that, he would be on the cross.

[14:37] And that's where he would be giving his blood in fulfillment of what was established that night before. So, when this new covenant was presented to the nation of Israel to take the place of the old covenant, which they really messed up, what was their response to it?

[15:03] What do you think Peter was talking about on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God came and people spoke in languages that they had not learned, and the practicality of that was very significant, because all who were gathered there on that day of Pentecost, if you read in Acts chapter 2, were all Jews.

[15:25] In fact, the Gentile wasn't even allowed there. You had to be a Jew to be there in the temple for the Feast of Pentecost. And when the Spirit of God came and they began speaking in languages they had not learned, the reason that was so strategic is you read there in Acts 2, where these Jews were from.

[15:44] They were pilgrims! And they were coming from all over the Mediterranean world. Some of them had traveled hundreds and hundreds of miles just to be there, because the law of Moses prescribed that.

[15:55] So they were there. And they were all Jews, but because of all the different geographical regions from which they came after having been scattered, they spoke different languages.

[16:06] These people couldn't communicate. They had one thing in common, and that was their Judaism. And that's why they were there, to celebrate that Feast of Passover, or Feast of Pentecost.

[16:16] Passover was earlier, 50 days earlier. Now they are gathered there to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, and they can't communicate with each other. So God simply, for that time, reversed what he imposed on the entire Bible.

[16:35] When everybody was speaking one language, this is Genesis 11, everybody was speaking one language, 9 and 10 of Genesis, and God separated their tongues so they could communicate, and they were forced to scatter, and that's what they did.

[16:51] And then all of these different languages are involved, but when Peter delivered his message in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, no matter what language you spoke or where you were from, you got the word, you got the message.

[17:05] And the Spirit of God came down, and the manifestation was incredible, and what do you think all of those people from all over the Mediterranean world, what do you think they told the people back home when they returned home?

[17:16] They told them about what happened on that day of Pentecost, and the word began spreading all over the Mediterranean world, getting ripe, because now the Greek language had been introduced to the Mediterranean, and if anybody spoke two languages, you could be sure one of them was Greek.

[17:34] That was the language of the day, universally. So all of these things are coming together, and when Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, he was reminiscing the time when Moses took animal blood and sealed the covenant with the animal blood.

[17:52] blood, and now he's saying the new covenant is going to be sealed in my blood. And that was essentially what Peter was offering to the Jewish people as a nation on the day of Pentecost, and the reason it was there is because there's a huge number of people there.

[18:13] You get every Jew who can be there is there for that feast, because the law of Moses prescribed that every male Jew, once he reaches the age of 20, if at all possible, is supposed to attend at least one of the three annual feasts.

[18:29] Feast of Pentecost, Feast of Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, one of those three, at least in your lifetime. And by the way, the Muslims have picked up on that, and there's a lot of copying from Judaism brought into Islam, and they do the same thing when they celebrate Ramadan, and everybody goes to Mecca for their celebration.

[18:49] It's nothing more than being a copycat from the Jews, but they might slit your throat if you tell them that, so be careful who you say that to. But nonetheless, that's exactly where it came from, that pattern.

[19:02] So, here's the problem, if you want to call it a problem. When Jesus died on that cross, a number of things happened instantaneously.

[19:16] There was the earthquake. earthquake. That was really, that gets your attention. And it wasn't just a tremor. It was a great earthquake. The word that's used in the Greek is mega.

[19:29] Mega! It was a mega quake. And the earth was just really, and then, darkness settled in over the whole land. Fellas, this was between nine o'clock in the morning and three o'clock in the afternoon.

[19:44] sun. And the darkness settled in over the land, and the earthquake happened at twelve noon. And the sun refused to shine.

[19:55] Well, it was shining, but the atmosphere just blocked it out, and it must have been really, really eerie. And Jesus uttered his seven sayings from the cross, and one of which was, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[20:14] And God forsook him because he was bearing your sin and mine and everybody else's on that cross.

[20:29] There he was shedding his blood instead of the animal blood. And because his blood was shed there, because he paid the price, you see what Jesus did, among other things.

[20:43] He balanced the moral scales of the universe. He put humanity back on an even kilter. This is why Paul said, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

[21:04] How many people did that include? He included absolutely everyone. That means the payment for the sins of the entire world were placed upon Christ.

[21:18] And he alone could bear them simply because of who he was. Jesus was able to do what he did because he was who he was.

[21:30] And it was because he was who he was that he was willing to do what he did. Amazing. How many people were affected and impacted?

[21:41] How much of humanity was impacted in Adam's sin, in Adam's transgression? Everybody. Everybody. The old McGuffey reader that's really archaic, nobody uses anymore.

[21:57] But this was back in the days when it wasn't against the Constitution to mention God in school. You know? And in the alphabet, the alphabet in the old McGuffey reader that kids got when they went to the first grade to learn to read and write was A.

[22:18] A is for Adam. A. In Adam we sin all. What a great way to start off a public education.

[22:31] In Adam we sin all. And when Christ died, He made salvation available for everybody.

[22:44] Doesn't mean everybody's going to be saved. We know that's not true. But it does mean everybody became savable. Because the grace of God that was realized in the death of Christ was more than adequate to pay for the sins of all humanity.

[23:07] And this is what Paul's talking about in 2 Corinthians when he says God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. And then in the very next verse he says, we pray you in God's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

[23:19] What's that all about? What it simply means is, Paul is saying that God through Christ has made the way open. He's made the way available. Jesus Christ has become the new and living way.

[23:30] And by the way, that's one other thing that happened when Jesus died. Three, the three synoptics all tell us this. The veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom.

[23:48] What's that all about? This was a very heavy, thick, woven curtain that weighed hundreds of pounds. And it was draped between the most holy place where the Ark of the Covenant was, where God said he would meet with his people, and on the other side was the holy place where the other items of furniture, the table of show bread, the gillen, candelabra, etc.

[24:13] were kept. And there's where the high priest would go in one time a year, once a year, not without blood, and he would sprinkle blood upon the altar, the mercy seat, which was the lid of the covenant.

[24:26] He would sprinkle blood upon that for his own sins, and then sprinkle blood upon it for the sins of the people, and the nation of Israel was covered for one year. That's called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

[24:41] And next year, he had to go back in again, do the same thing all over again, and they got reprieved for one more year. But this man, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

[25:00] And the reason he sat down was because the job was finished. He sat down. Amazing. This is what Jesus is talking about when he says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, not the animal blood, in my blood.

[25:19] and when that was presented to the Jewish people in Acts 2, and they said, what is this all about? Well, these guys are drunk.

[25:31] That's terrible. They come into the temple drunk. Then Peter said, no, no, no. These men are not drunken as you suppose. It's only the third hour of the morning. It's nine o'clock in the morning.

[25:42] Nobody's swashed this early in the morning. He said, this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel. And that too was several hundred years before Jesus was born when Joel gave that prophecy.

[26:00] And then in Acts chapter 3, Peter resumes his message and he presents the claims of Christ to the nation of Israel and he says, this thing comes in two parts.

[26:14] One is the provision and, fellas, that's already been made. And the second part is the acceptance. What say you?

[26:28] And the authorities came in. This is in Acts 3 in connection with the healing of the man at the temple gate beautiful. And the authorities came in and started questioning and hassling Peter and the twelve.

[26:43] And they told them, they threatened them, you've got to stop speaking in this name and talking about his being resurrected from the dead. That's crazy.

[26:54] That's crazy. And you're getting a lot of people to believe that and you're leading them astray. And that's when the persecution began and Israel's, I think, Israel's final answer to the claim that Jesus was their Messiah is probably in Acts chapter 7 at the stoning of Stephen.

[27:13] that seems to have been a real watershed issue. So what we're talking about now is the price was paid for the establishment of that new covenant but it has not been accepted by Israel.

[27:30] And to whom did Jeremiah say this new covenant was promised? Israel. The same people to whom the first covenant was promised. I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the one before which they broke.

[27:42] This will be a new covenant. And Peter was offering that to his exclusive Jewish audience there in chapter 2 of Pentecost and they rejected. 3,000 accepted.

[27:54] 3,000 accepted. And we tend to become enamored. Any preacher would be delighted to have 3,000 people respond to their message. But we don't know how many people were there. And there may have been 50,000 people there.

[28:11] In which case 3,000 responding wouldn't be that much. You wonder about how big this space was, how many people could have gathered there. And I told you erroneously some time ago, I remember, I told you that it covered the area of like 10 football fields in the area.

[28:32] And I went back to recheck that and double my efforts on that, and I discovered that I was wrong. It was more like 30 football fields.

[28:43] This is a big, big area. Could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people. And this was a feast day, and the Jews from all over the Mediterranean world poured into Jerusalem to be there to celebrate the feast.

[28:57] And it was something to behold. So, out of the 3,000, we're grateful for each of them. They submitted themselves to John's baptism, which they earlier rejected. And they became the nucleus of that band of believers in the first century.

[29:13] And their number is going to grow, and they are going to begin suffering terrible persecution. And the persecution will be Jew persecuting Jew. And the point of contention will be the identity of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel.

[29:32] The 3,000 were saying, we believe it, we accept the fact, we believe that he was raised from the dead the third day, we buy into it. They became Hebrew or Jewish believers in Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah.

[29:47] You can't call them Christians because the term hadn't even developed yet and will not until Pisidian and Antioch of Syria later where they'll be first called Christians. So we've got some fantastic stuff that is developing here and I hope you're somewhat connecting the dots because it's really, really important.

[30:06] So now the question is this, since Israel rejected the new covenant and they are still in a mode of rejection of the new covenant, they still do not accept the idea that Jesus was the Messiah.

[30:27] Where are they? Well, Romans 9, 10, and 11 makes it very clear that Israel is set aside temporarily in their unbelief until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in.

[30:46] Gentiles make up 99.8% of the world population.

[30:58] The Jews make up 2.10% of 1% of the world's population. And that's kind of lopsided. They are, however, the strategic people and God is going to bring them back on board in the latter day and they will be recipients of that new covenant.

[31:19] And they will be the remnant of Israel who will then, as Zechariah says, which we've got in store for you later as we get back to Zechariah, Zechariah says, and they shall look upon him whom they pierce.

[31:34] This is Jesus' second coming. And there will be a massive revival among the Jew regarding Jesus as their Messiah. And they will accept him then.

[31:47] They will mourn for him whom their ancestors pierced on that cross. And it will be incredible. But what about now?

[31:58] Where is this new covenant now? It has never really been finalized. And do you know why it hasn't? Because the covenant is between two parties.

[32:11] And it requires a sign-on of both parties. Israel signed on to the old covenant, the first one, and then proceeded to violate it. And what was their principal sin?

[32:23] Idolatry! That's why they were led into Babylonian captivity. That's why the Assyrians came down from the north and led the ten tribes away. It was all because of idolatry. They violated, they fractured the very first of the commandments.

[32:37] That was the old covenant. That was the first covenant. And Jesus says, His blood will establish the basis for the new covenant. And Israel remains unsigned.

[32:54] God set it forth. In other words, God through Christ provided the basis for the establishment of and the acceptance of the new covenant.

[33:07] covenant. And Israel's response as a nation was, thanks but no thanks. And it was only a tiny element that signed on.

[33:23] But the leadership of Israel, the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, these were the shakers and movers. They were the ones who turned the tide against Jesus that resulted in his crucifixion.

[33:40] They were the intelligentsia, they were the shakers and movers, they were the ones in position, and they still are. And they still were as of the time in Acts 3 and 4 and so on.

[33:51] And by the way, who was it that actually physically conducted the stoning of Stephen after they arranged for a kangaroo trial when they gave these two ne'er-do-wells that they found out in the marketplace, people who had a reputation of doing anything for money, and they gave a testimony that yeah, we heard Stephen blaspheme God.

[34:19] And they got another or two to agree, and the law of Moses says, in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall a thing be established. And these men gave testimony to Stephen, and the high court, the Sanhedrin, presided over by the chief priest, said, you've heard the testimony of these witnesses that this man Stephen blasphemed God.

[34:42] And why was this whole thing put up? It's because Stephen's preaching and teaching, we're told in Acts 6 that the authorities who wanted to shut him up, they could not refute his arguments.

[34:58] They could not answer his claims. And when they debated with him, he made them look ridiculous because Stephen was armed with the truth.

[35:09] And they were not. And when you cannot defeat a man's arguments, you eliminate the man. Don't let him speak.

[35:22] What do you think is going on in our college campuses right now? Amen. Same principle. Same principle. When you know you don't have an answer for his arguments, shut him up. Don't let him speak. Why?

[35:33] Because he may convince others of the truth. And we want them to hear only what we want them to hear. That's precisely what's going on in our nation today. Now my question to you is this, and I intended this to be the finale of this subject, but it's obvious that it ain't going to be.

[35:53] So we've got to deal with the application of this now. If the new covenant provided for Israel to sign off on, and they didn't, how does that affect us as Gentiles?

[36:11] Because we, believe it or not, we are not a people of covenant. God never gave the law of Moses to us.

[36:24] Never gave it to Christians. He never gave the law to Egyptians, never gave it to Assyrians, never gave it to Babylon, he gave it specifically to Israel.

[36:35] And that included all things Jewish, including the kosher diet, the observance of the Sabbath, the whole nine yards, all Jewish, all Jewish, all Jewish. Now Jesus is saying that his blood represents the basis for the new covenant, and it will be one that Israel will respond to, but they haven't.

[36:58] And where does that put us? Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and I want to at least get this on the table because our time is going to be gone. She's going to be here to serve. 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

[37:09] Let me make this as quickly as I can because I know our time is getting short. And there is a principle, there is a time principle in scripture that the provision for something doesn't always mean the application of that which has been provided.

[37:27] Probably the best example of this is in Romans chapter 8. And don't go there, but just let me give you a highlight of it.

[37:38] In Romans chapter 8, Paul makes the statement, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.

[37:55] And let me tell you fellas, the man who wrote that, he knew something about suffering. Remember when the Lord called him and told Ananias to go to the house of Judas, the street called straight, lay hands on him so he could receive his sight, and then he says, and then God says to Ananias, for I will show him what great things he must suffer.

[38:24] Are you kidding me? You're going to call an apostle and give him the honor of writing one-third of the New Testaments and going all throughout the world establishing and preaching the gospel, and you're calling him to suffer?

[38:44] Is that any way to look out for your hired help? Call him to suffer? That's going to be the natural consequence. Because wherever Paul goes and preaches this message, someone says he's either going to have a riot or a revival.

[39:02] It's going to be one of the two. And I'll tell you something, Paul had more riots than he had revivals. And do you know who all his opposition came from? It came from his own countrymen. It came from the people who held the position that he himself formerly held.

[39:17] And he knows exactly how they feel and what they're thinking because that's exactly the way he used to feel. And his heart was broken over his people, Israel. And he tried to reach them and they stoned him and he was shipwrecked and he was a night in the day in the deep and he was flogged three different times.

[39:35] 39 lashes and all of this suffering. suffering. And the man never complained. Incredible. Because he knew what it was all about.

[39:46] And that's what buoyed him up. That's what gave him the courage. That's what gave him the unction to go on. That's what enabled him to say, got no regrets, Timothy. I fought a good fight.

[39:57] I've kept the course. And fellas, with what's going on in our country now and the meager opposition that we in the body of Christ may present to counteract it, just be mindful of one thing.

[40:09] We are not called upon to win the fight. We are called upon to fight a good fight. To be faithful in the fight.

[40:21] And in the final analysis, in the world's lingo, we might well lose. But we know ultimately who the winner is. And I am persuaded that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

[40:44] The provision for that was made when Christ died on the cross. But let me ask you this. Has it been applied? Nope.

[40:56] Not in most cases. The provision for our eternal life has been provided. It's been made in the death of Christ. But has it been applied?

[41:08] Nope. Even believers with a devout faith in Christ are still going to die physically. And the reason is because even though provision has been made for the resurrection of your body, it hasn't been applied.

[41:22] What has been applied is the wonderful provision that Jesus Christ made for you when he died for your eternal spirit.

[41:34] And when you believed on Christ as your Savior, that's the part of you that was regenerated. Your body wasn't changed at all. I still don't have any hair.

[41:46] You know? Our bodies remain the same. But our spirit is changed dramatically, regenerated, and when you die, you are absent from the body present with the Lord.

[41:57] But has the full benefit of that been applied? No. When will it be? The resurrection. The resurrection. Then the rest of it will be applied. And so it is with Israel.

[42:09] Right now, provision has been made for Israel. Provision has been made for the world. But in so many cases, virtually every case, it has not been applied.

[42:24] And this is exactly what Paul is talking about in Romans 8 when he says that the whole world groans and travails in pain together until now. Waiting! Waiting! Waiting! Waiting! For the adoption of the sons of God and for the redemption of your body.

[42:47] your spirit has been redeemed. That is in Christ. Your body, your physical body, is yet unredeemed. The principle of redemption has not been applied to our physical body.

[43:03] And when it is, that's when you'll have a glorified body. And that's what we're waiting for. Yet you die, you shall live. Yet you die, you shall live.

[43:14] Amen. Amen. And because I live, you too shall live. So, this gives you a little bit of perspective. And I knew that I could cover this in one more session, but I was wrong.

[43:27] And I have become so used to being wrong in my life. But what we're going to do next time is see what has been applied, because even though it has been provided for, it has not been applied to Israel, but it has been applied to you and to me spiritually.

[43:47] And this is what Paul's talking about in 2 Corinthians 3 when he says, God has made us, meaning himself and his colleagues who were preaching the gospel, God has made us able or capable ministers of the new covenant.

[44:05] Ooh. What about that? That's what we'll explore next week. And it only gets better. So, hey guys, thank you for your kind attention. And by the way, when the food comes, just go right ahead and eat.

[44:17] We've already returned. Thanks. And don't let your food get cold. But while some are eating and some are thinking about it, anybody have any questions or comments you'd like to offer, we'd be glad to entertain them.

[44:28] And I didn't leave you much time for that. So what else is new? Any comments or questions? Feel free. Yeah. Kind of aside, I was thinking about when you were talking about the massive area where that gathering was of the masses.

[44:47] Any idea where that was? It was on the Temple Mount. Jerusalem. On the Temple Mount. Where the temple was located. Oh yeah. Absolutely. That was the only place.

[44:59] That was the only place where Israel was authorized to offer sacrifice because God says, that's where I will meet with my people. And it was on, on the Ark of the Covenant.

[45:14] The Ark of the Covenant had a lid. Lid. This was like a box. And it was like two feet by three feet in dimensions. And a couple of feet high.

[45:26] It was just, just a wooden box made out of acacia wood. And it was hollow. And inside the box was the golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod that budded.

[45:37] And the tables of the law were placed in that Ark. And then the lid was put on. And by the way, this was all overlaid with gold. And the lid was called the mercy seat.

[45:51] And on the mercy seat, there were two overarching gold-caste cherubs. Angelic beings with their wings overspreading the Ark of the Covenant.

[46:06] And the Lord said, there in the middle on the mercy seat is where I will meet with my people. And it's really significant that that's called the mercy seat. Because that's where the blood was sprinkled.

[46:17] And that's where Israel gained their reprieve for one more year. And that was called the mercy seat. A beautiful, beautiful... And this Ark, by the way, had large rings on each of the four corners.

[46:30] Large, round rings. And through those rings, a long pole, about ten feet long, was placed through those rings. And that way, two poles, one on either side, that way, the people, the Israelites, could heft the Ark up and put it on the shoulder of the men to carry it.

[46:51] And they would carry that thing wherever they went through the wilderness. And the poles were never to be removed. So even when they were in position there in the Holy of Holies, the poles stayed in the Ark.

[47:04] And it was just a... Well, you've all seen Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark. there's a lot of fiction in that.

[47:17] A lot of fiction in that because Hollywood is an expert at that. But there's also a certain amount of truth in it. And you just have to be able to separate the truth from the fiction and that's not always easy.

[47:27] But...