Salvation's 33 Blessings - 02

[0:00] I want you to take your seat, if you will. We are following this Salvation's 33 Blessings. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention, last week was the first session that we had with this new material.

[0:16] And I do have a few CDs, recordings of that. And if you weren't here last week and you want one, I would advise you to pick up one of these because it will give you a better feel for where we are and where we're going and where we've already been with that first issue in the eternal plan of God with number one that we've considered.

[0:41] And if you'll pardon my morning voice, we will return to this sheet now. And we'll be using this until we get through these 33 things.

[0:51] I'm not sure how long it'll take us, but we're in no hurry. So I want you to feel free to offer any comments or questions, suggestions that you may have as we work our way through it.

[1:02] And that brings us now to item number two of the 33 things. And in accordance with that, we have made the observation that for everyone who is a believer in Christ, they have an incredible number of spiritual assets that have been assigned to them merely for their having placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

[1:34] And of these 33 things, they are listed here, they will reveal to you in a way that nothing else can, how spiritually enriched you are in Christ.

[1:48] Remember, Paul mentions in Ephesians chapter 1 that, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath enriched us with all spiritual blessings in Christ.

[2:01] And that's what these 33 things are about. We are, each of us, an incredibly spiritually rich person. But, if you don't know what your riches are, it's impossible to really enjoy them as you should be able to.

[2:21] It's almost like, it's almost like somebody depositing a million dollars in your name to your bank account. But they never told you they did it.

[2:34] And you have no idea that it's there. So you are wealthy beyond comparison, but you don't get the benefit or the advantage of it because you don't even know about it.

[2:46] So, that's what we're talking about now with these 33 blessings that are spiritual enrichers that are designed to provide you with a basis of stability and assurance and thanksgiving like nothing else will.

[3:09] And what we're dealing with now, and it's going to come up time and time again, has to do with the security of the believer. I've often said, and after having been a believer for over 60 years, I'm even more convinced of it now than I ever was, that the greatest thing in the world, no doubt about it, is to be saved, is to be a born-again believer in Jesus Christ.

[3:36] That is the first greatest blessing. The second greatest blessing is the assurance thereof that comes with that. because only when you know who and what you are in Christ can you appropriately enjoy that.

[3:55] And that also provides the basis for wanting to share it with others. It is a sad fact, but I know it to be true, that there are many, many people who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

[4:11] They're going to be in heaven. We're going to see them there. But here on this earth, they fret and stew and worry and wonder, and they lack assurance.

[4:25] They don't know what all has been provided for them and given to them because they do not understand the principle of positional truth.

[4:36] There's positional truth, and there is performance truth. Positional truth means as a believer in Jesus Christ, you enjoy a position with God that is as secure and as acceptable as is the person of Christ himself.

[4:59] Now that really sounds like an outlandish statement. And on the surface, it is. But once you realize that you are in Christ, and all that is Christ is yours, you are in him, and he is in you, it provides you with the basis of comfort, stability, assurance that the world cannot take away.

[5:24] And, fellas, along with that, is provided the impetus for sharing your faith, for personal evangelism. If you don't know of a certainty that you are saved and that heaven is your home, how eager are you going to be to share your lack of assurance with somebody else?

[5:47] Well, not at all. You can't tell somebody else in good faith and enthusiasm that they need to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ who died for their sins and gave them eternal life, and they say, well, is that what you did?

[6:01] Is that what you have? And all you can say is, well, I hope so. I think so. Maybe I have. I'm not sure. So we're not talking about some kind of fleshly cockiness.

[6:15] We're talking about a calm, quiet assurance that allows you to sleep at night and to enjoy the life that Christ has provided for you. And when you tell people, and you have to be careful in what venue you do this because it comes across wrong, that you know that heaven is your home and people are going to be thinking and coming back with something.

[6:39] Well, you must think you're really good. And they completely miss the point. We know that we are not really good. We know that we are an undone sinner just like everybody else.

[6:54] But Jesus Christ is the one who's really good. And what he did when he saved us is he imparted to us his goodness. He gives that to us as a position.

[7:08] That is our set point. That is that which makes us acceptable to God. You have, and we'll see this later, maybe even this morning's session, you have the very righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to you and it is placed to your account on the basis of what Christ did, not on the basis of what you did.

[7:34] So it all comes back to him. He is the reason for our assurance. And as we look at their sheet here, we see in item number two that a believer has been redeemed.

[7:48] Romans 3.24, the price required to set him free from sin has been paid. And if I were to add anything to what Dr. Chafer has put on his sheet here, I would add two words.

[8:05] I would add two words to that. And that is in full. The price required to set him free from sin has been paid in full.

[8:19] Jesus Christ did not make a down payment on your salvation, leaving you to pay the balance. That is not justification by faith.

[8:32] That's justification by faith plus. And the plus is what you have to add to it, namely your good works. But fellas, when you start trying to add your good works to the work that Jesus Christ accomplished from the cross, you are out of your class.

[8:51] And your good works will not commingle with his good works. His good works are perfect. Our good works are tarnished.

[9:02] Why? Why? Because all we can offer them out of is our fallen humanity. And everything about this fallen humanity is fallen, and it's unacceptable.

[9:15] But when you come to faith in Jesus Christ, he places to your account the very righteousness of Christ, and that becomes your basis for assurance.

[9:27] So it's not your goodness, it's not your good works, it is Christ and what he accomplished on the cross. And your good works, Ephesians 2 makes this quite clear, that we are not saved by our works, but we are saved unto good works.

[9:45] That means the good works that God will accept begin after you become a believer in Christ. Then you've got something to offer that God will accept.

[9:58] Because in Christ, you have the Spirit of God, and when you perform good works, they are through the Spirit of God, and they are acceptable to God.

[10:09] But those things that come from the flesh, which is our old Adamic nature, are not acceptable, because they're tarnished. And they are, as Isaiah said, 64, 6, I think it is, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and unacceptable to God.

[10:30] And pray tell me, what could God or anybody else do with filthy rags? But in Christ, in Christ we have a righteousness, whereby our robes are cleansed with the blood of Christ, and that's an interesting expression, that they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, but they're not red, they're white.

[10:53] White as snow in Christ. So it's a beautiful thing, and only the believer has this. So, in Romans 3.24, and if you'll turn to that passage, we'll look at it just quickly, Romans 3.24, and Paul says, being justified freely, and that word freely means without a cause.

[11:24] Justified freely, without a cause. That's a beautiful expression in the Greek, because here's the idea that it conveys. It is as if God is looking at you and your life, and He is trying to find some reason to pronounce you justified, acceptable, and He can't find any.

[11:52] There isn't any there, which means maybe not that we're as bad as we can be, but it means we are as bad off as we can be.

[12:04] God looks at us and tries to find some reason why He can accept us, and He can't find any. And the reason He can't find any is because there isn't any.

[12:15] We are, in and of ourselves, unacceptable to God. And that's what the text is simply saying. We are justified freely. We are justified without a cause.

[12:26] And by the way, the word justified, if you want to simplify it, the word justified means this. It means, just if I'd never sinned.

[12:37] Think of that. To be justified means, just as if I had never sinned. That's how God sees you, in Christ.

[12:49] And it is a perfect righteousness. There's nothing to be added to it. So He says, we are justified freely by, via, His, grace.

[13:01] grace is God's unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor. And He provides it for us and gives it to us, not on the basis of our desert, but on the basis that Christ died for our sins.

[13:23] And the payment that Jesus made is put to your account, just as if, guys, now get this, the payment that Jesus Christ made is put to your account officially, legally, just as if you had died on that cross.

[13:43] Because you did as far as God is concerned. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? What's that mean?

[13:55] What's that mean? It's another way of asking, are you a believer? Were you there when He rose up from the grave? Because if you are in Christ, see, this is what Paul is talking about in, in Colossians 2.

[14:10] He said, if we be crucified with Christ, if we be raised with Christ, and we look at that and we say, what's that talking about? I'm not crucified with Christ.

[14:21] I'm not raised with Christ. I'm not buried with Christ. Yes, you are. From God's viewpoint, you are. We see ourselves as right here in this building here in Studebaker's restaurant.

[14:35] And God sees us as already raised and seated with Him in the heavenlies. That's God's perspective. God's viewpoint. It's a done deal. It's already over with.

[14:46] As far as we're concerned, that's all future. As far as God is concerned, it's a done deal. It's already completed. We are raised with Him, risen with Christ. Seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

[14:57] That's our official position. Not our practical position. Our practical position is right here, living in this body of flesh. But you've got to see that God looks at us from a legal standpoint, not from a performance standpoint.

[15:13] And as I've illustrated before, when you stand before a judge in a court of law and you are guilty of the crime of which you are committed and there's no question about it, you're guilty and you know you're guilty.

[15:29] But you've got a whale of a defense lawyer and he really presents a case for you and guess what? The jury hears the evidence and the jury comes back and says, not guilty.

[15:39] And you are shocked because you know you are guilty. But, you've got a whale of a defense attorney. Fellas, Jesus Christ is your defense attorney.

[15:53] 1 John 2 tells us that Jesus Christ is our advocate. If any man sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

[16:07] And he pleads your case and he pleads for your innocence on the basis that he has given his righteousness to you and it becomes yours and even though you are guilty of sin, what really matters is the official judge and Jesus who is the judge and the jury says, not guilty.

[16:32] And the reason you're not guilty is because Jesus paid the penalty for your sins and fellas, it's just as if you had paid that penalty. Well, you didn't pay the penalty, you got all scot-free.

[16:45] But Jesus paid the penalty. That's what the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ is all about. And there's nothing in the world like it. So, the text says we are justified freely by or on the basis of his grace, his goodness to us, his undeserved favor through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

[17:11] And that's item three that we're looking at, or I'm sorry, item two. We have, we have been redeemed. And the redeemed, the idea means we have been bought back.

[17:25] Well, what were we bought back from? We were bought back from that sin nature that condemned us. We were as property in the slave market of sin, and there we stand as a sinner and as a slave to sin, and there is one in the audience as we are being auctioned off, and this one raises his hand and provides the ultimate price for you being there in that slave market of sin, and he bought you out of that slave market so you become his.

[18:05] You become his slave. And that one who bought you was Jesus Christ. and he paid the price for your freedom. So now, we are, and by the way, everybody's going to serve somebody, and we are privileged to be servants of Jesus Christ.

[18:27] Paul calls himself a bond slave, and that's a beautiful expression. We are a bond slave of Jesus Christ, and what that means goes back to the Hebrew analogy, goes all the way back to the Old Testament, and when a man under Hebrew law was the slave of someone else, and by the way, biblical slavery has no comparison at all with the kind of slavery that existed in the United States in the 1700s and 1800s from which Abraham Lincoln freed us.

[19:03] That slavery has got nothing to do with biblical slavery. Biblical slavery was purely a matter of economics, and if you owed someone money that you could not repay, you would become their slave until you worked off your debt, and these arrangements were all made under Hebrew law, and it conveyed the idea that you were obligated to your master to serve him and provide the labor, et cetera, until the debt was paid, and then you're set free, and it might be a month, might be three or four years, but it depends on what the debt is, and at the end of that time, you are pronounced free, and you're able to go free, but in the case of a bond slave, the procedure was if a slave and the slave owner had a great relationship, and by the way, these were all Jews who were slaves of Jews, by the way, it had nothing to do with the other, with a different orientation, and once your debt was paid, if the slave had a good relationship with the owner, he might prefer to stay on and continue working and serving his master, and that often happened under that economy, and what would take place would be a little ceremony, and the slave and the slave owner would, in a public setting, would go to the home of the slave owner, and people would gather around, this was an official legal act that was taking place, the people would gather around, and the slave would walk over to the doorpost of the house of the master that he was serving, and he would place his ear against that doorpost, with all these people watching on, the whole community, and then the owner would walk up to the slave with an auger, an auger, like a drill bit, and while the slave would hold his lobe of his ear up to the post, the owner would take that drill bit and drill a hole in the lobe, of the slave, and insert a gold ring in it, and that signified that he had been transferred from being a slave to being a bond slave.

[21:48] slave. A bond slave is a willing servant, not one who is serving out of compulsion or to pay off a debt, but it was an act of love and devotion to the owner, and it was a big celebration and people would get together and everybody knew it and that little ring in his ear would identify him if he were in the marketplace or wherever he was, it would be his calling card, everybody would know, he was a bond slave, he was a willing slave.

[22:20] And this is exactly the phrase that Paul the apostle uses of himself over and over again in his epistles. Paul, a bond slave of Jesus Christ.

[22:32] In other words, I'm a willing servant. No complaints, complete devotion, I owe everything to him. And that's the expression. We need to understand, guys, that we are a bond slave of Jesus Christ.

[22:48] We have been bought with a price, and the devotion and the service that we give to him is willing and eager, and we do not serve him grudgingly, we do not serve him out of necessity, we serve him out of a gracious desire of thanksgiving.

[23:07] And that's the picture of the bond slave. So when Paul says here in chapter 3 that we are by his grace through the redemption, through having been bought back from the slave market of sin that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, that's just a big 25 cent word, and it literally means satisfaction.

[23:37] When God was propitiated with the death of Christ's pay, that simply meant that God was satisfied with the payment that Jesus made.

[23:51] and the reason he was satisfied was because of who Jesus was and how Jesus was. He was the Son of God and he was without sin.

[24:05] That made him an acceptable payment that God could embrace, and he did. So he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

[24:24] Amazing passage. Roger, did you have something? I have in my Bible a little note I got somewhere. Christ was a perfect sacrifice. Right. He was a perfect sacrifice and he paid it in full.

[24:39] When Jesus said, to the last side, he meant it is finished. He did not mean it has begun.

[24:55] He meant it has ended there at the cross. Full payment was made in its entirety. Nothing was left for you to pay.

[25:07] And you know I take great comfort in that. And I'll tell you why. Because if Jesus Christ had left 1% for Marv Wiseman to pay and finish, I know me well enough, I'd find some way to screw it up.

[25:29] That's human nature talking. That's human nature talking. Jesus is not taking any risks on that for which he paid to eventually be lost.

[25:43] He has too great an investment in you and he will protect that investment at all costs. Jesus paid it all. Joe? And it also says through the shedding of blood, God always wanted a blood sacrifice.

[25:59] Of course, he started out with the animals as temporary sacrifices and Christ, of course, paid it all. life is in the blood. Is that time? Oh, yeah.

[26:10] There's Leviticus, I think it's maybe 17, 14, if it hasn't moved, it might have moved. But it tells us that the life, the life of the flesh, is in the blood.

[26:23] And blood is so often used as a synonym for life. When we talk about the shed blood of Christ, through the blood of Christ, it is nothing more than a graphic way of identifying the life and the death, because the life is in the blood.

[26:46] And, fellas, it's this thing that the medicos call the circulatory system, the blood that circulates throughout the body, this is an embarrassing thing for humanity.

[27:03] to have to deal with. But do you realize it wasn't until 1635. Now you say, well that was a long time ago. Well, not according to human existence, it wasn't all that long ago.

[27:18] 1635, I mean, good grief, that was only 15 years after the pilgrims landed. 1635, it wasn't until then that a guy by the name of William Harvey discovered that the blood in your body circulates.

[27:37] Well, duh, who doesn't know that? I mean, a first grade child knows that the blood in the body circulates, not until 1635.

[27:48] All I can figure out is they must have thought that if you poked a hole in your skin, you'd leak blood, and that was it. But we have an absolutely astounding circulatory system in our body that pumps, that heart pumps blood in and out all throughout the body, clear down to your toes 24-7.

[28:19] I was just, Joe and I were talking about this a while ago, and I remember reading the statistics about how many times the heart of a 70-year-old person has beat during their lifetime.

[28:35] I can't remember the number, but it was mind-boggling. And it just keeps on ticking. You know, the heart is just, and it pumps, circulates blood all throughout the body, and the blood carries nutrients, the blood carries waste, the blood carries all kinds of things.

[28:53] It's just absolutely amazing. When the psalmist said, I am fearfully and wonderfully made, boy, he wasn't kidding. What, Joe? The early doctors, early medicine, they thought that by draining blood out of you, it would help you.

[29:06] It would make you well and get rid of the bad stuff in you. That was actually killing people at first when they did that. They didn't realize the importance of blood being circulated. Oh, yeah.

[29:16] Yeah. And that brought about, by the way, brought about the death, brought about the death of our first president. We're told that George Washington went out and took a horseback riding around his estate there at Mount Vernon.

[29:31] This is after he retired, served two terms as president, and he was retired. and the biographer said that he came down with a cold or something and it turned into a fever and he became kind of ill.

[29:45] And they called in, of course, the best medics in existence at the time for the former president of the United States. And these best medical minds available got their heads together.

[30:00] And you know what they came up with? George Washington has got some bad blood in him. And he needs to be relieved of that. So they hooked up their apparatus and they drained some blood from him.

[30:15] I don't know how much or exactly how they did, but they took probably a pint of blood from him and next thing you know, he got worse. And did they conclude that, well, we shouldn't have done that?

[30:29] No, they concluded we didn't take enough. So they went back and they took more blood from him. And George died. 1799, he died.

[30:40] That was the best medical expertise available at that time. That's embarrassing, isn't it? Not really, that wasn't all that long ago. So in 1635, then William Harvey discovered the circulation of blood and that was only 15 years after the pilgrims landed.

[31:00] And 1635 was, oh yeah, now, that was also, 1635 was the founding of Harvard University.

[31:12] Think of that. Pilgrim's only been here 15 years and Harvard University was founded. 1635. And that was the same year by the chance that William Harvey discovered the circulation of blood.

[31:25] Well, that's through faith in his blood. And fellas, there is nothing mystical, nothing mysterious, nothing magical about the blood of Christ other than the fact that it was the blood that was perfectly uncontaminated like our blood is.

[31:46] But the Bible uses this term blood over and over again, the blood of Christ, and it is using it as a metaphor for the death of Christ.

[31:58] It was not, fellas, it was not adequate. It was not adequate that Jesus should bleed for our salvation.

[32:09] No, no. Jesus could not have cut himself and shed a little blood. No. what was required was his death.

[32:23] Death. And it's the shedding of blood that is a euphemism or a metaphor for death itself. When Jesus, well, when, when, when, I think it was Jesus in a pre-incarnate state, but when he confronted Cain and said, the blood of your brother cries unto me from the ground.

[32:51] What was he saying? That too is a beautiful poetic expression. Well, blood can't cry and blood can't, but, but it is a poetic expression and it was a powerful way of saying that you slew your brother and he bled and his blood soaked the earth and it is as if his blood is crying out to me in a poetic kind of way.

[33:22] It's a beautiful expression, but it's a very powerful one too. So, keep in mind the fact that it wasn't sufficient that Jesus bleed for us. Jesus had to die for us.

[33:36] Yes? When we do communion, we take the cup and that represents the blood of Christ, the life. Absolutely. we are forgiven and saved by grace, then as we take communion, we are taking the life blood of Christ.

[33:52] Absolutely. Absolutely. I appreciate you offering that because it ties right in with what we're talking about. And that's what it symbolizes. And the bread symbolizes the body of Christ.

[34:04] And the blood, the cup, whether it's great juice like many use or whether it's real wine like some use, it is representative of the blood of Christ.

[34:17] And you understand probably some of you with a Roman Catholic background how they believe in transubstantiation and it becomes the actual blood of Christ. And I don't think the scriptures teach that or require that, but I'm sure they believe it in good faith.

[34:31] So, the life of the flesh is in the blood and it goes all the way back to Leviticus 17. And by the way, this is why this is another reason why the Jew was forbidden in his diet to eat things strangled.

[34:52] And when they held the conference in Acts chapter 15 as to whether Gentiles had to be circumcised, one of the findings that they delivered to the Gentiles was that they also should obtain from things strangled.

[35:08] And what that means is, in the Jewish preparation of animal flesh for consumption, there were clean animals that could be eaten and there were unclean animals that could not.

[35:22] But if the clean animal was slain to be eaten, like to offer it in sacrifice, etc., it was essential that the animal have its blood drained from the body entirely, bleeding out.

[35:38] And that's why when they went to sacrifice the animal, it would always begin with the slitting of the throat. And the slitting of the throat simply enabled the heart of the animal, which was just like your heart in that it was a pump, and the heart of the animal would literally pump the blood that was in the animal's body out.

[36:05] blood, and it would be drained of blood, and therefore it would be fit for consumption after it had been bled out, the expression that we use. So the blood is an amazing, amazing thing.

[36:17] And you know, sometimes we tend to think of it in terms of negativity. We think of something being a bloody mess and it's to be avoided and etc.

[36:30] and the shedding of blood is kind of like a turn off. And I can understand that, but at the same time, you've got to understand the value and the preciousness of blood.

[36:43] And without it, you're a goner, that's all. Got to have it. And that's why so often when someone, depending on the illness they have and the diagnosis, they're given a pint of blood, sometimes a couple of pints of blood, depending on what the need is, because there is life-giving properties in that blood.

[37:06] And it's just part of the marvelous way that we are put together. It's just beyond description. So, we are justified, and it declares His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness.

[37:34] Who's? His. God's righteousness. Think of it this way, fellas. The reason that Jesus Christ was on that cross was because God is righteous. Think of that.

[37:47] Jesus was on the cross because God was righteous. righteous. And He was also on the cross because of His love for you.

[38:00] He was on the cross because God is right, and it declares His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed. And this remission means to take away or to remove.

[38:14] It means that it is gone. It's gone. And there's a little song that we used to sing in Sunday school. Gone, gone, gone, gone.

[38:24] All my sins are gone. Buried beneath the deepest sea. Yes, that's good enough for me. Praise God, my sins are gone. That's what remission is. They are taken away.

[38:39] And the propitiation means a satisfaction. God saw the travail of His Son on that cross and the death that He died.

[38:53] And God was propitiated. He was satisfied. He pronounced the payment that His Son made as enough.

[39:05] It paid the debt in full through the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness, that He, God, might be just and the justifier of Him which believeth in Jesus.

[39:28] What an amazing statement. Yeah, tell. Believeth, that's the key. Faith, believeth in Him. You have to, that's what God wants the most. Believe Him. Have faith in Him.

[39:38] Trust Him. And the belief is an act of the will. It is a deliberate commitment, a mental, official commitment of yourself to Him.

[39:53] That's what faith is. Faith, faith is not some fluff. You know, that's a, that's a word that, man, oh man, has suffered so much abuse at the hands of our culture.

[40:05] people say things like, well, just, just have faith. What they mean is think positive and maybe everything will work out. That's not the biblical use of faith at all.

[40:18] It is, well, we'll get into that later, but it's, you're justified on the basis of faith, on the basis of believing, without the deeds of the law.

[40:31] And fellas, here is precisely where Martin Luther had his difficulty. It was called justification by faith, and by faith alone.

[40:47] And to combat that, in one of the councils, one of the Vatican councils, I'm not sure which one it was, I could, I could look it up, but I've got it, I got it at home, but there is a specific statement in it, in the official pronouncement by the Pope and the cardinals as they gathered at one of these great consortiums, and it actually made the statement that if anyone, if anyone says that man is justified by faith alone, without works, let him be anathema.

[41:30] Anathema. Anathema simply means consigned to hell. That's what anathema means. It's under the curse. And that was the sticking point between Luther and the Church of Rome.

[41:45] And fellas, almost 500 years later, it still is. It still is. because the scriptures teach that we are justified by faith without works, and that it is a concept centered solely upon belief, not upon what you can contribute to it.

[42:13] And your faith or belief is a non-meritorious act or mental assent or agreement to what God has done for you in Christ, and it is a glorious, glorious thing.

[42:25] So, the official position whereby there is great difference, of course, between Protestants and Roman Catholics, is that their position is, yes, faith is necessary.

[42:39] Roman Catholics believe that. Faith is necessary. But what that does, when you exercise faith in Christ, that gives you then the right and puts you in a position to strive, to complete that which has been begun in you.

[43:02] And the striving is your works. It is the sacraments, it is communion, it is attendance at mass, and all that. And the reason I'm somewhat familiar with this is not only because I studied it, but because my first wife, Barbara, was born and reared in a Roman Catholic family, as was her mother, and so on.

[43:20] So, I learned a lot about Catholicism from way back. And the difference is, the difference is, whether you see the finished work of Christ as done, and that finished means finished, or whether you see it as having begun, for which you are to complete it.

[43:39] And the problem is, from our perspective, the problem is, you have no way of knowing whether you have strived sufficiently, whether you have done enough, whether you've prayed enough, whether you've given enough, whether you've confessed enough, you have no way of knowing.

[43:59] So there is no basis for assurance, and if there's no basis for assurance, where is the basis for joy? Can you believe this? I believe it firmly. That one of the most important things God wants you to do with your salvation is to enjoy it.

[44:19] Enjoy it. Bask in it. Revel in it. Rejoice in it. Because it was provided for you at enormous cost.

[44:30] Not so you could fret and stew and worry whether you have it or not. Because, fellas, salvation, salvation is not what one might call performance based.

[44:47] It is not performance based. And to the extent that it is, it's based on the performance of Christ. Not on your performance. It is not on the basis of performance.

[45:00] It's on the basis of position. You have an official position that gives you the same entree, the same right as that of Jesus Christ.

[45:16] Because. Well, let's go to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5 says it better than I could and it's marvelous. One of my favorite passages.

[45:28] Last couple of verses. I've got a different Bible this morning and things aren't always located on the same page where they're supposed to be in a different Bible.

[45:45] So, 2 Corinthians 5 in verse, well, let's start with verse 19. He's giving it, the to wit means to explain or to elaborate that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

[46:16] I want you to notice this because it's really very important. Who is reconciled in verse 19? The whole world. Every last woman, man, child was reconciled to God through the death of Christ.

[46:31] That means the sin debt for the entirety of humanity was paid. It's almost like Jesus in his death on the cross made an enormous deposit in a spiritual bank and everyone who comes to faith in Christ is making a withdrawal from that deposit amount that Christ put in there and you don't ever have to run, worry about the account running dry.

[47:11] Because it was the balance that was placed there was for the entirety of the human race. And this makes everybody, and I mean everybody, this makes even the vilest sinner capable of being saved.

[47:29] Doesn't make him saved, makes him savable. Get that? The difference is enormous. You mean to tell me if Adolf Hitler had believed on Jesus Christ before he died, he would be saved?

[47:44] That's exactly what I mean to tell you. Now we look at that with repugnance and abhorred. We say, well that man was a butcher, he was responsible for the death of millions of people. Yes, but listen, the payment that Jesus Christ made on that cross was more than sufficient to cover the sin even of the likes of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and everybody else put together.

[48:11] Because if it wasn't, then it was inadequate. But fellas, the price that Jesus Christ paid was infinite infinite.

[48:22] Because he's infinite. It was his own death that he died. And what made him eligible to make that payment was his identity, was who he was.

[48:37] He was able to do what he did. That's why he had to be born of a virgin. That's the whole ballgame. He had to be sinless. He had to be the Lamb of God without spot or blemish.

[48:48] And he was. And he made a deposit in the bank of humanity that humanity cannot overdraw. Nobody ever need worry that the bank deposit that Jesus Christ made spiritually will ever show up without sufficient funds.

[49:11] It will never happen. So, what we've got is an amazing and amazing thing. And it's committed to us, the word of reconciliation. I want to hurry through this. Because in verse 20 he says, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ.

[49:25] As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Now what's that all about? In verse 19, in verse 19 he says, the whole world's been reconciled.

[49:40] And in verse 20, he's saying, be reconciled. We will look at that and we think, well I thought we were. Verse 18 says that the whole world was reconciled.

[49:51] And here he's saying, be reconciled. And what he's saying is, you need to personally appropriate the payment that Jesus made. And how do you do that?

[50:02] You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that deposit put in the bank there is put to your account. And you become, listen, you become made the righteousness of God in him.

[50:18] And fellas, if you stand before the almighty with any righteousness less than the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, you're sunk. You don't have a prayer.

[50:30] It is the very righteousness of Christ that is imputed to you. How did you get it? You simply believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and he imputed that to you.

[50:43] It is justification by faith. Most marvelous thing in the world. Do you have a comment or brother? Yeah. When Christ was on the cross, he took our sins that we may be saved, be atoned for.

[50:59] Right. And when he said, Eloi, Eloi, Lama, Sabachthani, that he was then, am I correct in saying that he was saying, why did you forsake me?

[51:13] Absolutely. And God took his eyes off of him because God couldn't stand to see sin. Amen, brother. Amen. Lama, Lama, Sabachthani. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[51:25] His eyes are too pure and too holy to look upon sin and Jesus Christ was laden down in a way we can't comprehend with the sin of the world.

[51:38] And the Father, turned away, would not look upon him for three hours, for three hours, the earth descended into darkness, there was an earthquake, it was an incredible event that happened, and the veil in the temple was rent from the top to the bottom, and God was saying, I'm done with this, the payment in full has been made.

[52:06] Hallelujah. Hallelujah.