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[0:00] Ephesians chapter 3, if you will, in keeping with the study that our Pastor Marv is continuing this morning, I will leave it to you to dig it up and discern the context, if you will.

[0:19] But I'm going to begin in about verse 5 and finish through with some highlights that have been speaking to me especially.

[0:32] In other generations, this revelation of the church, the body of Christ, was not made known to the sons of men and has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

[0:47] By the way, Paul the Apostle did not change the law to become Christianity.

[0:59] Paul the Apostle spoke what he did because the law was nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ and God told him to say it. This is from God. These are God's words.

[1:12] To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs now, fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

[1:23] In order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. In accordance with the eternal purpose which he, that is God, carried out in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

[1:43] And then he will finish the chapter with, To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

[1:57] I will begin with socially, politically, and essentially it is a fundamental issue to our society today.

[2:13] It is in our handouts. Avail yourself of all the printouts in the literature rack. This is an excerpt, or not an excerpt so much as an adaptation of a speech lecture delivered at Hillsdale College on March 30, 2021, by Christopher Ruffo, who is the founder and director of Battlefront, a public policy research center.

[2:47] He's a graduate of Georgetown, which if you've been following or look up now, this is pretty amazing. That this man graduated from Georgetown University and he can write like this and speak like, well, now be careful with that.

[3:07] But fundamentally, the academic system has been taken over by Marxists. So I'll just, this is an article called Critical Race Theory, What It Means and How to Fight It.

[3:27] And I said what I did because it's not just critical race theory, but that's what we hear most about right now. And that's where the battle is most frequently fought, although it's becoming fought also on critical theory involving sexuality.

[3:50] So it, they are related. Critical theory on its face, by the way, does not seek, it is not theory as we have traditionally understood theory.

[4:01] Critical race theory or critical sexual theory or however it may be couched, critical theory itself is not a search for truth.

[4:12] It is a search for change. So be careful when you read it. And I urge you to take this article, read it, and read others.

[4:24] By the way, as a balance on the literature rack, which if your birthday is in June, please avail yourself freely of any book that you find on that table.

[4:41] If your birthday is not in June, avail yourself of that literature anyway. And if you are so moved to donate toward that part of the ministry, there are envelopes back there and suggested donations for it.

[5:00] But as I was saying back there, there is a book. He's not a Christian. He is conservative.

[5:12] A conservative speaker, Ben Shapiro. He is an Orthodox Jew. But he has a book that balances this critical theory, too.

[5:23] And it's what made the West great, essentially. I've forgotten the title exactly. But it has to do with the Judeo-Christian heritage and thinking that has made our lives so wonderful and great and is now so critically threatened.

[5:50] But as time marches on, by the way, we've read the end of the story. I don't like to go through it, but I do find great comfort to know how it ends.

[6:05] And in keeping with great comfort to know how it ends, we mourn with Mrs. Bishop, who has joined us this morning.

[6:18] Her husband has gone home to the Lord this past week. And the Hildebrand family, with whom I personally am not familiar, but they were formerly from this area.

[6:34] Mr. Hildebrand has gone home to the Lord. Remember, we will try to remember those families. Dave and Sugi are going through critical stages right now.

[6:50] And so please remember Dave and Sugi in prayer as well. So to move on, we were not able to staff a booth at the fair this year.

[7:06] However, we have not lost hope to do so in the future. So don't give up on that. There is a desire to have a church-wide family picnic.

[7:25] And this is over the 4th or for the celebration of the 4th of July. The dates are wrong there, but you'll adjust them.

[7:39] Sunday is the 4th, and Monday is the 5th. But you'll get that. So if you need to speak to Marvin Marie this morning, because today is the day of decision as to when that will be carried out.

[8:01] We want to remind you that Aaron Evers and Brenda Brannati have been welcomed into our fellowship as members of the church.

[8:17] So remember to remember them in prayer and enjoy their desire to join with us as members of the church.

[8:33] Remember that the CDs of the services and the Marriage on the Rock and Christianity Clarified are available for your taking and your distributing.

[8:52] And please, please feel free to do so. June 15, that's this Tuesday. It's only a couple days away. The men's Bible study class will meet at Studebaker's in Springfield there up on the hill.

[9:11] And right above where the mall, I say, used to be. The building, the edifice is there. The stores are almost all gone, I guess.

[9:26] But that will begin at 7 for breakfast, and then the Bible study, they usually are out by 8.30. Wednesday, June 16, that's this Wednesday.

[9:39] There will be service here tonight or in the evening at 7 for prayer meeting. And then Thursday, June the 24th, is the monthly Bible study and prayer breakfast.

[9:58] That will be at 9 o'clock. And the study on the rapture continues there. July 5, now this is going to be an interesting thing.

[10:12] So you're all going to have to talk this out. But July 5 is the Monday that the Ladies' Fellowship resumes at 11. So how that all works together for that weekend, you decide.

[10:28] Then the, I've dropped what I was thinking. But I remember now, the Berean Bible Society's convention, if you will, is held over at Tip City at Community Bible Church.

[10:58] And it is beginning Sunday night, a week from tonight. So their first meetings will be Sunday night, and the meetings continue through Thursday next week.

[11:15] So remember those as well. Now, if you will, please join me in prayer. Our Father, we thank you so much for this day and for gathering us together. There are those of us who are here with heavy hearts, mixed hearts.

[11:37] We're thankful that we know where husbands, brothers, and sisters in the Lord are. But nevertheless, there is an emotional hole left in our lives.

[11:54] I pray, Lord, for Mrs. Bishop and for strength for her and for the Hiltabran family as well.

[12:04] Shelly Jenkins and her family are going through some big decisions today. I ask that your will be done there.

[12:16] And protect her and strengthen her, I pray. And for Dave and Suji, in these days, they are, humanly speaking, dark days.

[12:29] And I ask, Lord, that your Holy Spirit give them a measure of strength and security that only you can give, and only faith in you can provide us.

[12:41] And so for all of us as we meet together today, Lord, may your word go forth in strength and accomplish all that you send it to do. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, and thank you for the day.

[12:55] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[13:06] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Roger. And seeing you up here just reminds me of something that ought to be brought to your attention, and that is your board of elders have been laboring all summer with the mowing responsibility out here.

[13:32] And many of you probably are not even aware of it, but this is something that they volunteered to do, and they took on that responsibility on themselves, and we do appreciate it so much. And from the standpoint of dollars and cents, we've got considerable acreage here that would require, that does require mowing.

[13:52] And I can assure you that were it farmed out commercially and done, it would cost us several thousands of dollars over the period of the summer.

[14:03] So we are grateful for their willingness to do that. They take turns doing it, and they get the job done, and the place really looks nice. And we appreciate their doing it. We also appreciate the considerable amount of money that is being saved by their doing it.

[14:19] So if you see an elder, I thank him for his part in that. We do appreciate it so much. For the past several months, we have been pursuing a kind of dichotomy study in that the 9 o'clock hour, which has been less attended, of course, than what this is, which is pretty much the case everywhere.

[14:45] We've engaged the study that is referred to as prophecy. And it relates to primarily the nation of Israel and what God has deemed to accomplish through this fledgling nation and through the principal character of the people of Israel that he plans to actually accomplish this.

[15:09] And that, of course, is Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah. Many people are not aware of the fact that Jesus was not a Christian.

[15:22] Jesus was a Jew. He was born a Jew. He always was a Jew. He always will be a Jew. Jesus is not a Christian. In the first place, to qualify for being a Christian, you have to be a sinner.

[15:38] You can't be a Christian if you're not a sinner. Because it is those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ due to their sin, which they know they are responsible for, and which they also know they cannot overcome by themselves.

[15:57] And it is through this Jewish Messiah, whom the nation of Israel rejected, that we embrace as our Savior. Now, this really sounds strange to a lot of people.

[16:11] And the point of fact is, it is quite strange. Because here we are addressing a group of Christians who owe everything that you will ever enjoy throughout eternity to a Jewish Messiah, a Jewish Savior.

[16:30] And it's even more ironic when you consider that the vast majority of Jewish people do not accept Jesus as the Savior of Israel or as their Messiah.

[16:44] We look for Him to return because He promised that He is coming again. We don't know when, but we know that based upon the accuracy of His first coming, we can depend on His coming again because He said He would.

[16:58] Our Jewish friends, however, are looking for the Messiah to come for the first time because they don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was their Messiah.

[17:10] So we've got this enormous kind of theological conflict that has taken place for the last 2,000 years, dating back from the time Christ came on the scene.

[17:21] And at the 9 o'clock hour, we've been talking about the subject of prophecy, which involves Israel and how Israel is involved with the Messiah, Jesus, and so on.

[17:35] And when He came, how they rejected Him, did not consider Him to be the Messiah. But eventually, some non-Jews did.

[17:46] Now, you'll recall, of course, that Jesus had a considerable following. But don't be misled by that because He had a far greater rejection than what He had as a following. Whereas, again, with the 12 apostles who accepted Him as the Messiah, when John the Baptist introduced Him as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, all of these Jewish people, not all of them, but so many Jewish people, got on board when they saw the miracles that He did and the teachings, and they embraced Him as the Messiah.

[18:21] We know, in fact, that there were thousands who did because we have the record of 5,000 that were healed or that were miraculously fed at one time, plus numbers of people that were healed of all kinds of diseases.

[18:35] And we're talking about blindness and leprosy and deafness and Lazarus even raised from the dead. All of that with the evidence notwithstanding, the nation of Israel continued in a mode of rejection.

[18:51] So while Jesus was embraced by a number of His fellow Jews who did believe Him to be the Messiah, they still constituted a tiny minority of the whole nation.

[19:05] The Scriptures tell us in John chapter 1 that Jesus came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

[19:16] His own were the Jewish people. The Jewish people as a nation officially rejected Him and were actually complicit in handing Him over to Pilate to carry out for Jesus a sentence that they themselves did not have the authority to carry out, and that was capital punishment because at the time, Israel was ruled over by Rome, and the Roman representative who was in charge at the time was a fellow by the name of Pontius Pilate.

[19:55] But understand that the Jews hated the Romans because they were there occupying their land, and of course, the Romans hated the Jews because they were a difficult people to control and they were hard to deal with.

[20:12] But between the hierarchy of Israel, that is the shakers and movers, the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, and everything, they got along rather well with the Romans because the Romans allowed them to stay in power to maintain their position, their perks, and their privileges.

[20:28] So they didn't want to do anything to upset the apple cart. Jesus of Nazareth threatened to upset the apple cart because He was being presented as the King of Israel, whereas the Jews had no care or concern about Jewish religion.

[20:54] They cared very deeply about Jewish politics because Rome was all about politics, politics and military power. And Jesus actually threatened Rome when He was presented before Pilate as a king.

[21:13] And Pilate asked Him in the Inquisition, so are you a king then? And Jesus said, yes, you said so. Well, now that puts Him in a different category because out there in that audience of Jewish people who were watching Pilate conduct this kind of interview with Jesus, there were those who knew that it was in their best interest for Jesus to go because more and more people were coming in line with Jesus and that threatened the political power of Rome.

[21:53] And when you talk about a king, you're talking about somebody who is over all. So when Pilate was tempted to release Jesus, he said, they said, crucify Him.

[22:08] And Jesus said, well, what shall I do with your king? Now, understand, Pilate didn't believe that Jesus was a king. He didn't believe that for a moment.

[22:21] And he was mocking the Jews when he said, what shall I do then with your king? And they cried out and said, we have no king but Caesar. And Pilate said, well, okay, I'll tell you what I'll do.

[22:36] I'll scourge Jesus and then release Him. And one of the Jews out there cried out and said, if you release Him, you are no friend of Caesar.

[22:49] Now, that struck a chord right in the heart of Pontius Pilate because Caesar was his boss. Caesar was his king.

[23:02] And the idea is, you see, the Jews out there who rejected Jesus wanted to play Pilate against Him, manipulate Pilate into doing their bidding because at all costs they wanted Jesus dead.

[23:19] That's the only way He's going to be out of the way. That's the only way. Because if we don't, more and more people are going to believe on Him. And then Rome is going to come down with a heavy foot and it's going to be very nasty.

[23:32] And we, this is in John Gospel chapter 12, they say, then the Romans will come and take away our position and our power and our perks.

[23:47] So when they cried out, we have no king but Caesar, understand if you will, they didn't believe that. They hated Caesar. They hated the Romans and everything.

[23:57] But what they did was, they jockeyed Pontius Pilate into a position. They manipulated him so that he had no choice. And finally he gave up in disgust and he said, all right then, take him and crucify him.

[24:12] And you know the rest of the story. Well, now we've got a crucified Savior and the Jews in the aristocracy, the chief priests and the Sadducees are heaving a big sigh of relief because our main problem now is out of the way.

[24:34] And the crucifixion was a scene in and of itself that we won't go into. But after they're congratulating themselves for having removed this terribly embarrassing and difficult obstacle named Jesus of Nazareth, horror of horrors, he's back again.

[24:58] He's back again. And Peter said, Peter said that he was risen from the dead because it was not possible that death could hold him.

[25:12] Wow. And for six weeks, he was alive on planet Earth and he appeared not only to the apostles and fed them a fish breakfast on the seashore of Galilee, but we are told that he was seen of above 500 brethren at the same time.

[25:35] And Paul tells us, not only that, but most of them are still alive. You can go talk to them. They're all witnesses. They saw him in the flesh. So now he is ascended back to heaven and the apostles have a new message to preach.

[25:50] It isn't simply go and preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand, but now you have added to that an incredible dimension that was previously unthought of and that is he whom you crucified is alive again.

[26:10] He has risen from the dead. Jesus is alive. And do you know who the first ones were that rejected that truth? It was the very ones who most wanted it to be true.

[26:22] And when the women, first witnesses of the resurrection, Mary, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, came to the apostles and told them, I'm telling you, we saw him.

[26:36] He is alive. We saw him. We handled him with, and the text says, their words seemed to them as idle tales. Tales.

[26:49] Twelve apostles. Now, at least eleven. Thomas probably wasn't there then. I can just see Peter, James, and John, Andrew, Bartholomew, looking at each other and these women are so excited.

[27:01] They're beside themselves and they're trying to tell the apostles, we saw him. We talked to him. He's real. He's alive. And these guys just look at each other and say, you know, these women, they really get excited.

[27:19] You know, nobody said this, but I wonder, one of them didn't wonder that, you know, this is why a woman's testimony is not admissible in a court of law. You just can't, you know, they just get all excited.

[27:32] They imagine things and so on. And of course, that all changed because they became very much aware that he was alive. And now, after spending nearly six weeks with them, he ascends right before their very eyes on the Mount of Olives and goes back to heaven and he left them this commission.

[27:57] And the commission was, you shall receive power from on high not many days hence. And he's talking about the day of Pentecost, a Jewish feast that was 10 days down the road because the word pente means, comes from the word, our word 5, 50 comes from Pentecost and Pentagon and so on.

[28:20] It's a five-sided thing. Pentecost means 50 days after and that's when the Spirit of God came and they were given these marching orders and you are to be, you are to be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth.

[28:37] And Jesus is gone. He's back to heaven. That's the commission that he left them. And they began carrying it out. And where did they start? They started right where Jesus told them to start.

[28:49] You shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. That's pagan territory.

[28:59] That's to the north and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And when you read the scriptures and you go through Acts, the first several chapters and arrive at about Acts chapter 10, it's 10 years later.

[29:20] 10 years after the resurrection, 10 years after the commission he gave them to go into all the world. 10 years.

[29:33] And the question is, what are they still doing in Jerusalem? What's going on? What about Jerusalem? Judea?

[29:46] Samaria? The uttermost parts of the earth? And they're still in Jerusalem? Yep. Why? Well, that's where they were supposed to start.

[29:59] But what was the message? The message was to proclaim this gospel of the risen Christ and his being the Messiah of Israel to these people.

[30:11] And the idea was when Israel complied and got on board, then what was the next? The rest of the world would come along.

[30:21] Then they would go to all the rest of the world. Problem is they were never successful in Jerusalem or in Judea. Because in Acts chapter 4 the persecution begins.

[30:37] Who is persecuting persecuting whom? Jews are persecuting Jews. What's that all about?

[30:49] Same thing. It's all about the person of Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth. Was he or was he not the one sent from God, the Messiah?

[31:04] the vast majority said he was not. You know who one of the principal deniers was? He was a fanatical Pharisee by the name of Saul.

[31:18] Came from the town of Tarsus and Cilicia. and Saul was so vehement and so angry at these Jews, these fellow countrymen of his, fellow Jews, who ought to know better, embracing this Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.

[31:42] That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of. And you can be sure what convinced the Jews that they were right, that Jesus could not possibly be the Messiah, the one that God sent.

[31:55] Look at there on the cross. You think for a moment that God would allow his Messiah, whom he sent to be Israel's Messiah, would end up on a Roman cross?

[32:07] That's the craziest thing I've ever heard of. Can't even imagine that. This is, well, it does sound pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?

[32:18] I mean, don't you think God could take better care of his chosen vessel than that? And he ends up on a cross? That's proof positive that God didn't send him and that he's not Israel's Messiah.

[32:34] Men were able to crucify him. And so far as this bunk about him rising from the dead the third day, that's just a bunch of hooey. You can't imagine these stupid people falling for something like that.

[32:46] But do you know what? they keep preaching this and they keep talking this and the people don't have any better sense than to believe them. What are we going to do about this?

[33:00] And the answer is you take them out of commission. You shut them up. You neutralize them because these people are delivering a lot of information that is all wrong and so many of these common people are just stupid enough to believe it.

[33:21] Well, I'll fix them. And this man called Saul of Tarsus headed up a special delegation. I like to think of it as the original Gestapo troops.

[33:37] Think of that. Jewish Gestapo. And who are they going to round up? Whose house are they going to break into at two o'clock in the morning and take them away, put them in jail, make them stand trial, torture them, punish them, execute them?

[33:55] And the man who is going to head it up is Saul of Tarsus. And when he writes his letter to Timothy, he talks about I was a persecutor and a blasphemer and I did it ignorantly and in unbelief.

[34:16] Isn't it ironic? The thing that Saul of Tarsus was charging all of his countrymen with was stupidity, ignorance.

[34:27] They ought to know better. And who was it that turned out to be really the ignorant one who even was able to admit it and say, I persecuted them, I hailed men and women, led them off to jail.

[34:43] And he says, I was injurious to them. He had a streak of sadism in it. You know what this means? This means that Saul of Tarsus enjoyed it.

[34:57] He enjoyed afflicting pain and torture and punishment on these people. gave him a sense of power and satisfaction.

[35:09] And not only that, but the most important thing was, he was doing it in the name of God.

[35:26] He was fulfilling. telling what Jesus had warned his own disciples about shortly before his arrest. He had them together and he told them, fellas, the time is coming when those who would kill you will think they are doing God a service.

[35:49] have you any idea how many utterly horrible, horrible atrocities have been committed in the name of God?

[36:04] And God had nothing to do with it. And then they heard that Saul of Tarsus was on the rampage.

[36:17] What are you going to do? Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm packing up my family and we're getting out of town. We're not going to stay. I can't subject my family to this. You know, they'll be in prison.

[36:28] They'll be tortured. They'll be who knows what. Where are you going? We're going to leave the country. We're getting out of here. We're going to Syria. I've heard that there are places in Damascus.

[36:41] Damascus, Syria, was the oldest continuing inhabited city in the world. still is. No city on the globe is older for continually inhabiting residents as the city of Damascus.

[36:57] And that's where they're going. And you know the story. On the Damascus road, he was confronted by none other than the risen Christ in this incredible vision.

[37:09] Bright, dazzling light. So bright, it blinded him. Couldn't see. He heard this voice from heaven. Saul, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

[37:23] You're stunned. Who, who, who are you? I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.

[37:39] Wow. Can't be. Can't be. But it was. And he wasn't alone. He was with a group of men.

[37:52] And they, they saw the light and they heard a voice, but they couldn't make out what was being said. And they had to lead him by the hand into the town of Damascus and sit him down there.

[38:08] And for three days and three nights, he wrestled and he struggled with his blindness, not eating, not drinking, reliving, replaying, telling himself it wasn't true, telling himself it was just a dream, telling himself, did I really hear that?

[38:24] Was it really? Replaying it, replaying it, replaying it. And then he thought of Stephen and the stoning of Stephen, of which he was complicit. He remembered that vividly.

[38:37] And all those things came crashing down. And he started putting some things together in his mind and horror of horrors. He came to the conclusion he had been dead wrong all along.

[38:57] How could I have been so blind? How could I and now you would have thought, you would have thought that God would have said, all right, Saul, I just wanted you to get the lay of this and understand how wrong you have been.

[39:18] Now, you go on and live your life as you please and we'll just take it from here.

[39:30] No, no. Something entirely dramatic, new, different, unheard of, unthought of is going to happen.

[39:44] And he says, Saul, you're going to suffer a lot of things for my namesake. You caused a lot of suffering, now you're going to receive a lot of suffering.

[40:01] And I am going to equip you with a message, a new message that nobody has ever heard before. and it's going to cost you your life for proclaiming it, just like it cost me mine.

[40:21] But you're going to do it nonetheless. What's more, you're going to be glad to do it. And he was. Saul came into contact with a whole new concept, a whole new item of information that had never been proclaimed before.

[40:48] In fact, it's going to be so different and so strange to so many that people are going to find it hard to believe and there will be those who will actually threaten your life and try to take your life for proclaiming it.

[41:06] And the message is this. Because of what I did on that cross, because of what was accomplished on that cross, for God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.

[41:29] What does that mean? That means that all of the sins of all of the world, of all people, of all times, have been paid for in full on that cross.

[41:49] That when Jesus died the death he did not deserve as a sinless sacrifice, satisfying the righteous judgment of God, God obliterated all sins of all humanity of all times and the payment that he made.

[42:13] Now the natural response is, well how in the world could he do that? Well it is only because of who he was. Jesus was not simply a man. he was Emmanuel.

[42:27] He was the God man. He was God in the flesh. He was deity. As the son of God he is the same essence, character, quality, nature, and makeup of his father.

[42:45] He and his father are one. Subsisting in three persons in the triune Godhead in a way that we cannot contemplate. Yet there is one God, not three gods, there is one God subsisting in three persons.

[43:01] And this one person was made flesh, made a human being, made himself susceptible to mankind, died on that cross, and in his death he erased the sin debt against all of humanity for all time.

[43:21] and what that did was, it balanced God's moral scales for the universe.

[43:34] Think of that. What took place in those three hours? Jesus was just on the cross for six hours.

[43:48] that's all, six hours. Some people lasted six days. Jesus was dead in six hours. And after the first three hours, the earthquake happened, the darkness happened, prevailed over the land, lasted for a long time, could not be explained by, by, what do you call it?

[44:16] I can't think of the term, the sun, the moon, pardon? Yeah, eclipse, thank you. Couldn't be explained by an eclipse, it was much longer than that. But it was a time of extreme penalty and judgment poured out on Jesus.

[44:33] He who knew no sin bore our sins on that cross. Now, I don't understand how that works either. I only understand that it did.

[44:44] And I understand that it is from God's perspective, not ours. Please, don't try to capture in your mind what is God's perspective because you can't go there.

[44:57] Just accept that limitation of humanity. But God was satisfied. He shall see the travail of his soul and he shall be satisfied. It is only because Jesus in his own person and character was infinite and eternal that he was able to satisfy the demands for the sin of the entire human race.

[45:24] And what that meant was, that meant that God could maintain his justice, maintain his holiness without compromising it, and yet he could throw open wide the gates of salvation for all who would enter.

[45:53] This six hours encompassed the most incredible event in the entire universe for all time. nothing could ever top it.

[46:08] During those hours, he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us and God dumped his wrath and his judgment on his son who volunteered for the job.

[46:28] father, father, if there's any way this can be accomplished other than by my drinking this cup, let's do that.

[46:46] But if not, not my will, but thine be done. And what shall I say? What shall I say?

[46:56] Father, save me from this hour. But for this hour came I into the world. Oh, my dear.

[47:09] This is the ultimate transaction with which no other transaction can ever be compared in all of history.

[47:23] My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He whose eyes were too holy to behold sin, ignored, looked away from, would not answer, would not respond to his own dear son.

[47:41] God forsook him. We apply our human intellect and we say, well, he forsook him, but three days later, he's going to get back again.

[47:55] Well, that again is our puny humanity speaking and reasoning in a way that might even amuse the almighty because for deity, for the eternal trinity, in some way we can't begin to understand, undergoing a type of fracturing for any period of time, that these three enjoyed from eternity past, a kind of fellowship and love and interaction the likes of which we can't even imagine.

[48:38] Before there was anything, before there was a universe, before there were angels, before there was anything, there was this being called God subsisting in three persons and from there on it was the angels created, the man created, and the earth and the heavens created, and all the rest of it.

[49:00] That brings us to where we are in the crucifixion and there was some kind of horrible, unthinkable separation that took place between the father and the son.

[49:13] Jesus was not delirious when he cried out in his humanity, why hast thou forsaken me? Because he did forsake him. And don't you forget the reason that God forsook him was so he would not have to forsake you.

[49:34] It is almost as though in some way the father traded in the son for you.

[49:55] You have any idea how loved you are? God so loved, I told you before that little Greek word hutos into Greek, it means in this manner.

[50:13] It means that God's love was of such a kind that he gave his only begotten son so that so that those who believe in him, those who trust in him, those who rely upon him, doesn't mean those who believe he existed, almost everybody, even the devil believes that, but to believe in Jesus Christ means that you put your case for your spiritual life, for your eternity, for your salvation, you put your case in Jesus' hands and he puts his righteousness into you and he makes you something that you could never be but he makes you something that is now acceptable to God because he bestows his righteousness upon you and in you and that's what it means as Paul uses the phrase over and over again in

[51:24] Christ, in Christ, in Christ. How do you get to be in Christ? You believe on Jesus Christ as your Savior substitute as the one who died for your sins so you wouldn't have to.

[51:36] You put your trust in him. Do you know of anybody else that qualifies for the word Savior? Is there someone else you would suggest?

[51:51] He's the only one. He's the only Savior we've got. But he's the only Savior we need. He paid it all.

[52:04] When he said it is finished he meant the great transaction of the universe has been completed and he hung his head and he died.

[52:20] And Jesus was a Jew and this message went to Jews and the twelve apostles were Jews who proclaimed it and those who believed it for the first ten years were nobody but Jews.

[52:31] And the first Gentile, the first non-Jew that came on board with that message, I think this is pretty neat. He was a Roman army officer by the name of Cornelius and he's found in Acts chapter ten.

[52:45] And it caused a big stir among all the Jews who believed because this guy was a Roman army officer. He was a Gentile. God doesn't want anything to do with Gentiles.

[52:57] Oh yes he does. Why? Because Jesus gave his life for the world and that includes Gentile.

[53:10] It includes everybody. Who got left out? Nobody got left out. Nobody got left out. So what this means is because of what Jesus did on the cross and because of why he did it, every single human being that was ever born or ever will be born is saveable.

[53:35] Not is saved but is saveable. That means can be saved. that means they are in a position to be saved. That means they are eligible to be saved.

[53:50] And because God also created a thing called human volition, that comes into play because God will not save anyone against their will.

[54:04] And I don't think he even saved Saul of Tarsus against his will. I think he saved him because of his will. And it took Saul three days and three nights to come to that conclusion that Jesus was who he says he was.

[54:18] And you know what? The text doesn't say it. I don't want to be guilty of reading in between the spaces. But at the end of three days and three nights when Saul was exercised over this vision that he saw Jesus, he came to the conclusion at the end of it, you're right.

[54:42] I was wrong. I'm your guy. I like to think that Saul was saying, listen, there isn't anything I can do to undo the damage that I've done because I've already done it.

[55:03] But I want you to know I'm available at your disposal for whatever you want. And Saul of Tarsus signed on with his will.

[55:19] I am convinced that he had a choice. And when he discovered how wrong he had been, he was willing to change sides.

[55:29] let me tell you something, that takes quite a person to do that. That's called repenting, change your mind.

[55:42] Saul of Tarsus had to do a 180, but he was a man who was committed obviously to truth and he had gotten the truth and he couldn't deny it and now what's he going to do?

[55:53] Is he going to go with it or is he going to walk away from it? And he decided to go with it. And changing sides is a big thing. I've discovered it to be and I've described it to be what I call the hard part of the gospel.

[56:08] The hard part of the gospel is coming to grips with your need and the fact that you cannot meet it. You are not contrary to what a lot of people think, you are not a nice enough person to satisfy God.

[56:26] You are not a good enough person. You are not a moral enough person. You are not a deserving enough person to satisfy God to the point that he's going to say, well I understand that you've had some ups and downs in your life and some reversals and etc.

[56:40] But you're okay basically and I'll just accept you as you are. God cannot do that and he will not do that and he does not do that. God has just one standard and you either meet it or you don't.

[56:56] Now with God being perfect, what kind of a standard do you think he has? Yeah, same standard. Perfect. Well who can do that?

[57:08] Nobody I know. We don't even come close. But that's what God requires. So what God does is he makes a position of perfection available to those who will admit their lack and their need and make themselves a candidate for what God will give them by way of the righteousness of Christ.

[57:36] That's the hard part of the gospel. That's the part that's difficult to break through people's exterior because the thought is I don't need that.

[57:47] I'm good enough. No, don't get me wrong. I'm not perfect but I'm better than most people and God will surely accept me just as I am. No, he won't.

[58:01] Unless you stand in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you are headed for rejection. Listen, that's why Jesus died.

[58:12] So God could have a way to save people, to rescue people, to give people eternal life who do not deserve it but it is made available to them on the basis that their sin debt has been canceled, paid by another.

[58:32] And all they have to do is pick up the ticket that says this is your get out of hell card free and it is the finished work of Jesus Christ.

[58:52] It's not what you did. It's what he did for you. But the hard part of the gospel is admitting that. have you succeeded in overcoming the hard part?

[59:09] If you haven't, you need to do business with that because you won't be interested in the easy part if you flunked the hard part.

[59:23] The hard part is, all right, I admit my need. I admit my sin. I admit my guilt. I admit I'm not perfect.

[59:34] I admit I'm a member of the human race. I admit I cannot be what God wants me to be in order to accept me. I acknowledge that.

[59:47] Now what? Now comes the easy part. And the easy part is you just say, thank you Jesus for dying for my sin on that cross.

[59:59] I embrace you and I accept you as my Savior. That's my volition, acting and accepting Christ as my Savior.

[60:10] And when I do that, God gives to me the very thing that he required that I couldn't fulfill. God gives to me as a free gift.

[60:26] This thing called salvation or justification by faith is just by believing. It is the easiest thing anybody could ever do.

[60:40] And some people hold it in contempt because of that. They want to offer their puny goodness, their good intentions, their church membership, their this or their that, all of which God rejects.

[60:52] God will only accept the perfection that was provided by Jesus Christ. That's why he came. That's why he died. That's why he was raised from the dead. All for you because God has this incredible love affair with those who bear the image and likeness of himself.

[61:12] So the way of salvation is wide open. Have you come? You don't join anything other than the spiritual body of Christ.

[61:24] You don't give anything. You don't promise anything. You don't deserve anything. You just come as you are. Just one more admitted sinful human being like we all are and you plead what Jesus did on your behalf and God accepts it because he's well pleased with his son.

[61:54] And if you are in Christ he is just as pleased with you. No you're not perfect. No you don't you don't become you can still do stupid things sinful things dumb things contrary things but that does not change your official status and that is one of absolute perfection.

[62:18] You have the righteousness of Christ imputed to your account. It's the most amazing thing and and God told Saul of Tarsus that's the message I'm going to give you. Now you go out and proclaim it and it's called justification by faith.

[62:34] Salvation is a free gift. So we've been proclaiming it for 2,000 years and do you know why most people don't receive it? You know why most people don't believe you know why most people throughout the world are not Christians?

[62:46] It's because they've never gotten past the hard part. Once you deal with the hard part and you know your true state where do you go from here?

[62:58] Then you go to Jesus. That's the easy part. That's beautiful. That's salvation by grace. Salvation is a gift. It is full and free because Jesus picked up the tab and he gives it to you free of charge.

[63:14] Hey, you know what you call this? You call this the gospel. Tell me, tell me, what does the word gospel mean?

[63:26] Yeah, it means good news. It means there's never been news like this news. This is not only good news, this is the news by which all other news pales in comparison.

[63:40] This is what it's all about. This is Christianity. And let me tell you something. This Christianity has been so disguised and so obfuscated and so replaced with this and that and the other that it's confusing and people have no idea what's involved.

[64:03] But let me tell you something. God wanted to make this information so simple and so easy that anyone who really wants it can have it. And all you have to do is believe it.

[64:17] And would you pray with me, please? Father, once again, as so many times, such a privilege to proclaim this absolutely amazing message.

[64:31] that John Newton wrote his wonderful hymn about called Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, saved a wretch like me.

[64:44] Once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Father, there may be those here today or those listening by computer or some other technical avenue, and maybe for the first time some have been able to connect some dots, maybe reach some conclusions that they were never able to reach before.

[65:16] And that's why it's such a high and holy privilege to be able to proclaim this good news. And our prayer is for everyone within our hearing, whether through radio radio or computer or here in the auditorium, that they may know the amazing joy, the release, the freedom that comes from knowing your sins are all forgiven.

[65:47] Jesus paid it all, including yours. and all he wants from you is a personal appropriation. So you could say, Lord Jesus, you did that for me.

[66:01] Of course, I want to put my case in your hands. I want to trust you. I want to thank you for dying for my sin, and I look forward to seeing you face to face so I can thank you.

[66:14] If that's your prayer, dear friend, I trust that you have courage to tell somebody so they can rejoice with you, let us know. We've got some wonderful literature items that would be so enlightening and so comforting and so helpful to you.

[66:32] Thank you again, Father, for the privilege of relating this old, old story that's still new and fresh every time we tell it.

[66:43] We are so grateful for it. Thank you for the privilege of serving and loving people like this, and a God like yourself who's called us.

[66:58]  We shall forever be grateful and we'll have some time and eternity to thank you personally in Christ's wonderful name. Amen.