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[0:00] Okay, if you will take your sheet of Salvation's 33 things, we are working our way down and we have come to item number four, and I think we kind of got stuck there because there's a lot of good content.

[0:15] And I want to remind you that propitiation in item number four, a believer is related to God through propitiation.

[0:27] And that means literally, well, the word propitiation means to be satisfied. It means to have something declared as enough and sufficient.

[0:43] And the propitiation that was earned in the person of Jesus Christ was, well, let me put it this way. Well, let's let Isaiah put it this way.

[0:56] Isaiah chapter 53 for just a moment because there's a passage there that's familiar to most of you, but it is a reference that elaborates on this propitiation thing.

[1:12] It has the idea of conveying the idea of satisfaction. And when we talk about God being propitiated, I'll grant you it's a 25-cent word that we don't use in our vocabulary about every day, but it's a great theological term and it means to be sated or to be satisfied.

[1:35] It's kind of like the idea of, well, if you want to transfer the analogy to food, you partake of a meal until you are propitiated.

[1:50] And that means you are satisfied. We would say, I'm full. That means you've had enough. And it is adequate. And that's the idea that is conveyed in the death of Christ.

[2:05] And the word actually is related to an English word. Well, there's a crossover from the Greek, but in the Greek it is hilasterion.

[2:17] Hilasterion. And it is the word from which we get the English word hilarious. Now, if something is hilarious, it is satisfactorily amusing.

[2:32] It is so funny that you can't handle any more humor. It is hilarious. And that's, believe it or not, in connection with the death that Jesus Christ died on the cross, He made His heavenly Father hilariously satisfied, sated.

[2:59] So, let's just jump in here at Isaiah 53. I'm going to have to skip most of us, but we'll begin with verse 10. And it says, The Lord was pleased to crush Him.

[3:12] Well, the Lord is all caps, and that means Jehovah in Hebrew. And it is all caps, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, all capitalized.

[3:29] And when you see the word Lord spelled in a different way, it means something different. But this is in reference to the Father as Jehovah. And when it says, The Lord was pleased to crush Him.

[3:43] The Him is His Son. It is the Lord Jesus. This is a prophetic passage that is found in Isaiah 53. And it is one that just gives our Jewish friends fits.

[3:58] Because they just don't know what to make of this. They insist that it does not mean what we say it means. But they don't know what it means. And the best that they can come up with, and I think it is woefully inadequate, but it's the best they can do if you refuse what the text actually says.

[4:19] And that is, all the way through here, this suffering servant that we believe is a clear-cut case for the prediction and the prophesying of the Messiah when He comes.

[4:34] What He is going to suffer and experience is spelled out here in Isaiah chapter 53. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. Chastisement of our peace was upon Him.

[4:46] Who is this person? We know who it is. We believe there is a proof positive case for it being none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.

[4:58] But, if our Jewish friends accept that, then game over. So they have to find an alternative. And guess what the alternative is? All the way through Isaiah 53, it is not speaking of the Messiah.

[5:15] It is speaking of Israel, of the nation, the nation of Israel. Israel. What? Well, can you deny that the Jewish people have, through the centuries, suffered a great deal of persecution, isolation, torture?

[5:40] Six million of them eliminated in the Holocaust? I cannot say there is absolutely no case at all here that can be seen for the Jewish nation because there is.

[5:50] But that still doesn't mean that it refers to Israel. And when you read the text and you replace all of the personal pronouns, particularly in the singular, with he, him, and his, and you make it to be Israel each time, grammatically, it makes absolutely no sense at all.

[6:14] It is such a tortured way of speaking and conveying information that is just unacceptable. But that is the best they can do and that is what they cling to. So the text is actually saying, and what this is prophesying, is the experience and the treatment that the Messiah is going to undergo when he comes.

[6:33] And Isaiah wrote this 700 years plus before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. So we've got an outstanding case here.

[6:44] And not only that, fellas, but this is just one of many in the Old Testament that refer to the Messiah when he comes. And the text says, back again to Isaiah 53 and 10, The Lord, that is the Father, Jehovah, was pleased to crush him.

[7:04] And the him is Yeshua, Hamashiach, Jesus the Messiah. Who was crushing him? The Father was crushing him. And we've been through this before, so I won't elongate on it now.

[7:17] But there were numerous parties who were responsible for the death of Christ. Among them, you and me and the whole world. But it pleased the Father to bruise him.

[7:31] It pleased the Father to bruise him. It pleased the Father to exact punishment, pain, suffering, and death upon his own son because of what the son would accomplish in so doing.

[7:49] And that is what pleased the Father. And let me just put it as plainly as I can. God was pleased to do this to his son because he loved you. Don't ever lose sight of that.

[8:02] God was pleased to do this to his son and to allow others to do what they did to his son because he so deeply loved you.

[8:15] And not only that, but the son loved you the same way to the extent that he was willing to do it.

[8:25] We have here the most incredible thing that has ever happened in the universe. And that's precisely what Isaiah is talking about.

[8:37] The Father was pleased to crush the son, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

[8:57] As a result of the anguish of his soul. And I think there is more there than just on the surface. It is the soul that is the totality of one's being.

[9:11] And in the anguish of the soul of Christ, that involves both his body physically and his spirit.

[9:24] Non-physically or immaterially. So this is with the totality of his being, Christ underwent this. It's an amazing thing. And the term soul means the whole person.

[9:37] It means your material part and your immaterial part. So it was the same kind of expression that Mary used in the Magnificat in Luke's Gospel when Mary says, my soul does magnify the Lord.

[9:58] And what she meant was, with my immaterial part, my spirit, and with my material part, my physical body. It's another way of Mary saying she was all in.

[10:11] The totality of her being is in that expression of soul. And that's the same meaning that is given to it here. As a result of the anguish of his soul.

[10:23] So Jesus suffered physically, materially, with the persecution, the physical beating, the crown of thorns, the sword in the side, the thorns, the nails, and all the rest of it.

[10:37] His body suffered physically. And he suffered emotionally, spiritually. In that, which by the way, hard for us to imagine, but the spiritual suffering that Christ underwent was even greater than the physical.

[10:59] Because in the spiritual, it's why he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[11:12] In his humanity, he cried out there. And fellas, we have here an incident of the father and the son undergoing and expressing some kind of division, a cleavage, a cleavage in the triune God, whereby a separation occurred that had never occurred from eternity past.

[11:39] And that was even greater than the physical. As great as physical pain can be, and some of you know what we're talking about, because pain can be pretty excruciating, there is an emotional pain that is even greater.

[11:59] And that's what we're talking about here. So with this, he shall see the travail. I think the King James says, he shall see the travail of his soul. That means the father will see the travail and the painful undergoing of the soul of his son and be satisfied.

[12:19] The father will be propitiated. The father will be pleased with the payment that his son made because it was a payment in full.

[12:32] Left nothing unpaid. In full. Roger? Can we say that Jesus could have came off that cross at any time? Was he able to do that?

[12:43] Say, I ain't going to do it anymore. I'm done. Well, that's, you know, you're posing a hypothetical, and I don't have any way of answering a hypothetical. But he was taunted to do this, you know.

[12:57] And he saved others. Let him save himself. If he be the Christ, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe. And they taunted him with that. And I don't have any doubt in my mind that Jesus was ever tempted to do that because it was for that very purpose that he came into the world.

[13:18] So, even though we apply our humanity to it and say, Boy, boy, if I were in a position like that and I had the ability, I'd not only come down off that cross, but I'd clean house there, you know.

[13:32] Take care of all of them. But that's our humanity speaking, and that's not the Son of God speaking. Yes? Forty days in the desert, Satan tempted him all the time saying you have this power, do it.

[13:42] Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. If you are the Son of God, you've got all these stones around. See all these rocks? Turn them into bread. Eat. Satisfy yourself.

[13:54] And hunger is a very legitimate thing. But Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone. In other words, life is a lot more than the physical and the food you put into your body.

[14:08] Did I see another hand? Dan, what? Jesus knew this was coming to his life. He said several times in scripture, My time has not yet come. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

[14:19] And when it got near to that, he prayed and he said, What shall I say? Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for this hour, came I into the world.

[14:35] Fellas, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. And the only way he could be the Savior of the world would be to pick up the tab for the sin debt of the world.

[14:49] And that's precisely what he did. So back to Isaiah 53. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied.

[15:01] In other words, the Father will look upon the Son and the price that he paid, which is, as I mentioned before, this is the centerpiece of the universe.

[15:15] What transpired on that cross in three hours from approximately, well, Jesus, best we can determine, was placed on the cross about 9 a.m.

[15:27] in the morning and at noon. That's when the sun refused to shine. The earthquake took place. There was a great rumbling. And death was being provided for the Son of God, He who gave life and was life.

[15:47] And it was being taken from Him. And that went on for the space of three hours. And about three in the afternoon, He uttered His last cry, Tetelestai, it is finished.

[16:01] And He gave up His spirit. Father, into Thy hands, I commend my spirit. And He died. So for those six hours, three in particular, during that separation time, the very centerpiece of the universe for all time took place.

[16:23] And what happened there made all the difference in the world. So, and the Father was satisfied because the payment was made. And fellas, we, we view, we tend to view death in a different way, but we need to keep in mind, and never forget this, that death, whether it's your physical death or whatever, death is not a cessation of your being.

[16:52] Death is a separation. A separation takes place at death. And when it is your physical death, your spirit is separated from your body.

[17:07] Your immaterial part breaks off, if you will, from your material part. And there is a separation there. And, as I've said before, there's no such thing as dead people.

[17:23] There are just dead bodies. But, dead people do not exist anywhere. Because when death occurs, that is not the end, it's only the end, or the temporal end, even, of the body.

[17:38] death, but there is that immaterial part of you that continues right on. So, what death really is, is a transference. The only question is, to what place are you transferred?

[17:52] And that's another subject. I better not go into that, or that'll be the end of the study. All right? He will see it, and be satisfied by his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear their iniquities.

[18:08] Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong, because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors.

[18:21] Jesus took his place on that cross just as if he were one of us, just as if he were a sinful being like us. Yet he himself bore the sins of many, and interceded for the transgressors.

[18:38] Who are the transgressors? You! Me! We're all transgressors. And he interceded for us, and that is just absolutely astounding. All right, let us move on here, if we may.

[18:50] I could park here for the rest of the time. Believer has been redeemed, bought back, paid in full. Believer has been reconciled.

[19:03] Whenever people have a falling out of some kind, and, well, probably a marriage is the most dramatic example of this, when a husband and wife are at odds and they decide that they're going to go their separate ways.

[19:22] They're going to have a divorce, something that occurs all too often in our culture. What is really needed, rather than a divorce, what is really needed is a reconciliation, because what has taken place, and this is always the way it is, I don't want to be overcome with my temptations here, but there's something to be said about this, so let me just park here a little bit.

[19:50] There's only one thing that is ever responsible for a cleavage, for parting of the ways, whether you're talking about marriage, or friendship, or workplace, or school, or whatever, or wherever, whenever two people have a falling out, there's bad feelings between them, it is always, and I want to emphasize that word, guys, always, always, always, the result of an offense, or multiple offenses, and by an offense, we simply mean nothing more than something that you say, or something that you do, and usually, it is a repetition of saying and doing, it is a collection of offenses, we say things and do things to each other, that create an emotional distancing between us, and it can become an intense dislike, even an abhorrence, and in the case of a marriage, it can extend even to the length of refusing to live together anymore, so you call that a divorce, and it is always the result of the same thing, and there is no exceptions to this, it is always a result of offenses that were committed and never resolved, and as a result of that, the two parties part and go their separate ways, and this isn't just in marriage, this can be in a neighborhood, can be in a family, can be at school, can be at the workplace, can be anywhere, there, but there is always some reason why we are not on good terms with another person, and it's because of what they said, or what they did, or what you said, or what you did, that creates the rift, and what is needed, a reconciliation, there needs to be a coming together, and a healing needs to take place, and fellas, that is exactly why Jesus Christ was on that cross, never lose sight of the fact that God is so committed to the importance of relationships that he sent his son to this earth for the specific purpose of establishing, of reestablishing a broken connection between creator and creature.

[22:49] This is why Jesus is referred to as our mediator. He is the go-between. He is the one who comes in between the parted, the separated couples and brings them together again through his negotiations, and in the case of our offenses, that we've committed one to another, the only possible remedy is admission, confession, apology, apology extended, apology received, and so on.

[23:28] All of these dynamics come into play. But fellas, there isn't anything more wonderful than for that reconciliation to take place.

[23:40] I call it a kiss and make up. That's what it's all about. You know, in connection with what Jesus Christ did on that cross, it enabled the Father as a creator to kiss the creation and make up with it.

[24:02] Because it is the creation and the creatures have gone astray. God never needed to be reconciled. We needed to be reconciled.

[24:14] He never moved. We were the ones that moved. And we moved through our first parents, Adam and Eve. And when the reconciliation takes place, it is humanity coming back, being brought back to God and the one who's doing the bringing is Jesus Christ on that cross.

[24:35] That's what it was all about. That's why he was there. So, this reconciliation, we are restored to fellowship by God and restored to fellowship with God.

[24:47] In other words, he did it all. He did it all. What, Roger? Did we lose that fellowship with Adam or is it when a baby becomes aware and starts to sin?

[25:02] Well, it must have been lost at some point. It was. I'm satisfied that it was lost. And the thing that caused it to be lost, you know, I said that the basis for all separations is an offense.

[25:18] And someone has said, there are only two ways. There are only two ways that I can offend you. One is by what I say and the other is by what I do.

[25:31] But that's enough. I don't need any other ways. Those two are adequate. And what happened in Adam and Eve's disobedience and sin was they were in perfect fellowship with God until something was said or something was done.

[25:59] And Eve was the one who said it and did it first and Adam followed. And that caused the alienation. That caused the separation because God had placed them there with the stipulation that, well, I won't go into that, but at any rate, when the separation occurred, Adam and Eve were aware of it.

[26:24] God hadn't changed at all, but they had changed and they knew they had changed and they experienced as a result of that a sensation that they never had before. And that sensation we call guilt.

[26:37] Guilt. Guilt set in. And when one experiences guilt, there are only a couple of things that you can think of and one is, uh-oh, what's this going to cost me?

[26:54] What's the penalty going to be for what was done? And there is a fear of punishment, a fear of separation, so what's the natural thing to do?

[27:09] You avoid that. And that's what they did. They hid. And you know the story when the Lord came and said, well, we, because we're naked and so on. So anyway, what took place was the great reconciliation.

[27:21] And reconciliation means that the two parties that are separated are brought back together again. And that's why Jesus was on the cross. And the point has been made that as the mediator, he served as the singular purpose or person for reuniting God, the creator with humans, the creatures.

[27:49] And he brought us back together again. And he, when you talk about the guilt and the punishment and the price that is paid for it, that's why Jesus was there.

[28:01] He paid the penalty that was due for the sins of the whole human race. And we're talking about billions with a B. He was able to do that because of his identity.

[28:14] That's why, guys, it was Jesus on the cross because nobody else was qualified to do that. Only he had the credentials that could be presented to care for our sin.

[28:31] And because of who he was, not merely as the son of God, but as God the son, he was able to pay that penalty that no other human being could pay because God was in him, reconciling the world unto himself and not committing unto us and so on.

[28:54] So, let us move on. I'm determined to get through this. Okay. He is restored to fellowship by God and restored to fellowship with God, a believer is related to God through propitiation and that is Romans 324 and let's look at that for just a moment.

[29:19] It's too good a passage to pass up. Romans 324 through 26 being justified, that means being declared righteous as a gift, as a gift, and the reason it's a gift is because it was prepaid and offered to you as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly.

[29:54] I love that word, God displayed publicly. when the apostle Paul was giving his testimony before old King Agrippa and talking about the death that Christ paid and he says, this thing, speaking of the crucifixion of Christ, this is back in Acts 20 something, if it hadn't moved, he says to Agrippa, this thing was not done in the corner.

[30:20] Think about that. Jesus didn't die on the sly. He died as a human spectacle. Witnessed no doubt by hundreds or thousands because you know what this time was?

[30:35] When Jesus died? It's Passover. He died as God's Passover lamb. And do you have any idea what the population of Jerusalem was like when Passover came?

[30:49] Or Pentecost? Or Tabernacle? Why? Jews flooded into Jerusalem from all over the Mediterranean world. And it was not unusual to have a million people in Jerusalem in connection with these feasts.

[31:06] And what are these people going to do? Well, they're going to visit, they're going to eat, they're going to dance, they're going to pray, they're going to do all kinds of things, and they're going to go to what's one of the greatest attractions.

[31:21] The public execution. Yeah, yeah, they're going to crucify a couple of thieves, and somebody else, I don't know, I can't remember, he's from Nazareth, something, I don't remember what about him, but let's go and take that in, see that.

[31:37] and that was a big attraction, just like the public hangings they used to have in London where they're hanging people who are thieves and the pickpockets have a field day because they go throughout the crowd picking the pockets of the audience who's there to look at the hanging because of people being stealing.

[31:58] Go figure, only in humanity will you find this kind of nonsense. But, yeah, Rick? I think it probably knew a lot of people too that knew Jesus because they were expecting some of the rachis. We don't know what to do.

[32:10] We ought to do something. There were all kinds of different expressions and motivations for being there, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there weren't some mothers there with their children saying, see that man?

[32:23] See that man? That's what happens to transgressors. That's what happens to people when they don't behave. They have to pay a terrible payment. Hey, wouldn't that make an impression on a five-year-old kid?

[32:37] And they have all these spectacles. So the apostle Paul says, yeah, he was crucified and it wasn't done on the sly. It wasn't done in a corner. Okay, we're in Romans 3.

[32:50] Through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, verse 25, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation.

[33:02] There's that satisfaction again. In his blood, that's the blood of Christ through faith. That is, through believing. Once you identify yourself with that one who was on the cross and in acknowledging your sin and you say to yourself, that description of Jesus on the cross dying for his sins, that's what I deserve.

[33:30] That's what my sin deserves. But my substitute was there on that cross in my place and he bore the penalty for my sin.

[33:42] And you know what that, fellas? What that means is, among other things, it means as far as God is concerned, if your faith and trust is in Jesus Christ, you were there on that cross with him.

[33:57] You died with him. And your sins were paid for on that cross. This is an amazing concept, but it is such a glorious truth. To demonstrate, this was to demonstrate his righteousness.

[34:12] That demonstrates, that means it demonstrates God's righteousness. Jesus was on the cross because God is righteous. Jesus died because of our sin, and God was offended because of our sin, and it was his righteousness that demanded a balancing of the moral scales of the universe, and that's exactly what Jesus did when he died on that cross.

[34:46] He balanced the scales of the universe. My, oh my. In the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins, previously committed. I wish I had a better handle on that.

[34:58] Paul talks about it a little bit in Acts 17 when he's addressing the philosophers on Mars Hill, and he talks about the former times, the former times, God winked that, is the expression used there.

[35:16] He passed over them. He gave them a pass. He, I don't understand, I've told you before, and it's still a problem with me, I still do not have at all what I believe is an adequate handle on Old Testament salvation.

[35:35] I know Abraham was justified by faith and so on, and yet, it's easy to see justification with the death of Christ, because that was a one-time specific act, and it is not difficult at all to identify our salvation with what happened on that cross.

[36:01] But what about before the cross? And that's what Paul says, the times God winked at. Some translate, the times that God overlooked.

[36:14] Well, I have a problem with that, but I don't want to stop there and hassle you with my problem. But anyway, I'll appreciate any feedback that you might have later.

[36:26] He says, the demonstration, I say, of his right, that's God's righteousness, at the present time, that he, God, might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

[36:41] What that means, guys, that's a marvelous, marvelous statement, that God might be just and the justifier. It means that God might be righteous in his demands and the fulfiller of his own demand.

[37:01] Think of that, guys, think of that. God made a demand on us that we could not fulfill, so he in his grace fulfilled it himself.

[37:14] Oh, my goodness. This is what grace is. God not only required it and demanded it from us, but when we didn't have it to give, he provided it for us and gave it to us as a gift.

[37:29] That is astounding. And you know something, guys? this is not the way the world works. This is not the way the world works.

[37:42] And this is a major reason why so many people have difficulty with justification by faith. You mean, you mean you can go to heaven just by believing?

[37:56] Yep. I don't believe that. That's too easy. That's too easy. Well, you know what? They're right. Why do you think God made it so easy?

[38:07] Because He loves you, dummy. He loves you. That's what He did to demonstrate it. God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners.

[38:21] Christ died for us. Wow! He made a demand that we could not meet and then He turned right around and met it Himself in the person of Christ and He gives it to us as a gift.

[38:34] And I say, it is too easy. Guys, listen, don't you ever get the idea that salvation is cheap. Salvation is free, but it isn't cheap because somebody else picked up the tab.

[38:54] Guess who that was? And He offers it to us as a free gift so that when you believe on Him as your Savior, He gives you the very righteousness that Jesus Christ possesses and He infused it into you and you become the righteousness of Christ.

[39:17] That is your position. That is amazing. Dennis? I was wondering, when was this all decided in God and Christ? Before the earth was created?

[39:30] Was it all planned? Yeah, I think so. And I think Ephesians 3 probably spells that out better than anything else. That this was in the mind and heart of God before anything was ever created.

[39:45] created. And even Paul tells us that even the concept of the church, of Jew and Gentile being one body and the cross, that too was in the mind of God from way back when, but it was never revealed until God raised up the apostle Paul to go to who?

[40:06] Gentiles. Are you kidding me? God doesn't have any interest in Gentiles. Oh, yes He does. Because God so loved the world.

[40:18] And Gentiles make up 99 and nine-tenths percent of the world population.

[40:29] Think of that. The Jew. The Jew is just one-tenth of one percent. And God loved the world and He gave, oh my, this is just marvelous, just marvelous.

[40:44] So, for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness, God demonstrated His righteousness by Jesus being on the cross. And God is as much as, God is as much as saying to humanity, God is as much as saying to the whole human race, look, look on yonder cross and see the one there, dying, bleeding, suffering, He's doing that for you.

[41:17] He's doing it to make you acceptable to me again. This is the Father and the Son. And who else was involved?

[41:28] Jesus was offered up through the eternal Spirit. You've got Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all active and involved in your redemption.

[41:45] Greater love hath no man than this. I tell you, there's a saying that a man laid down his life for his friends. Yeah, there is a greater love than that.

[41:56] It's for a man who lays down his life for his enemies. What are we talking about here? We're talking about the most magnificent, incredible, far-reaching event that ever took place or ever will take place in the history of the universe.

[42:14] That's what we're talking about. And you know something? Yeah, you know this. We all know this. It's still the world's best-kept secret. Isn't that amazing?

[42:27] Still the world's best-kept secret. And we are privileged to know it and to tell it. so we are to go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born and what he did.

[42:44] Dan? Mark, one of the things I learned when I was in Israel was study the culture. Study the culture. Okay. Now, we can go to church on Sunday morning and do the right thing, but then we have other things to do.

[43:02] This was their life back then. They lived it and they believed it so intently that anything opposing to that was, you know, Katie bar the door.

[43:19] Yeah. Yeah. The intensity that these people believed was different than our culture. Yeah. Absolutely. And for one reason, they were so much closer to it.

[43:34] Yes. Many of them were even eyewitnesses of Jesus. Right. And we are 2,000 years removed. And today, we have the responsibility of telling people something that on the surface makes zero sense.

[43:49] You mean to tell me that somebody who was crucified died on the Roman cross 2,000 years ago that that's got anything to do with me?

[44:07] I wasn't even thought of then. That's ridiculous. That's crazy. Well, you know, Paul said when he wrote to the Corinthians that when this message of the gospel, this good news is preached, do you know how it was regarded?

[44:24] Back then, 2,000 years ago, how is it regarded? To the Greeks, Paul says, it's foolishness. The word, I pointed out to you before, the word means moronic.

[44:36] Moronic. To the Gentile, it's moronic. You're telling me that somebody who died on the cross, he wasn't even smart enough to prevent his own execution and he's supposed to be the savior of the whole world?

[44:52] Baloney. That's moronic. And that's the way the world often sees it, even today. They did back then because they do not understand the concept that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

[45:12] And for the Jew, Paul says, it's a scandal. It's an embarrassment. This is 1 Corinthians 1. He says, it's a scandal. You are associating righteousness and acceptance with God through a Jew, one of our own countrymen for whom we are embarrassed, Jesus of Nazareth, died on the Roman cross and he's supposed to be Israel's Messiah.

[45:45] Give me a break. And this is how the Jew regarded it. And many still do to this day. You know, it's insulting to think that in fact, we're embarrassed that he was even a Jew.

[46:02] And that's all the typical impression of Jews. Christ died on the cross for us and when he was dying, he said it was finished and the temple curtains were torn.

[46:14] Amen. And that was signifying the time of change from the old to the new. Right. That was, there was a catalyst there. Whoever thought, whoever thought that the ripping of a curtain could symbolize something like, but this was a massive curtain stretched all across in the temple in the holy place between separating the holy place from the most holy place where God was with the Ark of the Covenant and so on.

[46:42] And this was a thickly woven intricate pattern that covered the whole distance between them.

[46:56] It would have been, it would have been 10 by 30 feet. Yeah, 10 by 30 feet. And it was just as if the giant hand reached down.

[47:08] And this wasn't, of course, what happened because, but it might as well have been. And it just took that curtain and ripped it from the top to the bottom. And it was as much as God saying, the way to God is now wide open.

[47:27] The barrier is torn in two. And this is what the writer of Hebrews was talking about when he said that the body of Christ is the veil.

[47:39] The veil. That's God's new veil. It's the body of Christ. So you came to God then through that veil, but now you come to God through Jesus Christ who himself is the new veil.

[47:55] Wow, what a concept. Just amazing. Somebody else with a comment or question? Okay, I'd really like to get through this if we can, but they're so interrelated that it's just...

[48:08] Colossians 2.13 and Ephesians 1.7 A believer has been forgiven all trespasses. Ephesians 1.7 Colossians 2.13 All his sins are taken care of past, present, and future.

[48:26] And I want to look at that one in Colossians too because as long as the food isn't here. Okay? Colossians chapter 2 and Paul says in verse 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.

[48:53] This is a spiritual circumcision of course. In the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him. Think of that guys. This is your identity in Christ.

[49:06] You were crucified with him. Paul said I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live. This is what he is talking about. He is talking about positional truth. And he is speaking here from God's viewpoint.

[49:18] From God's standpoint. And sometimes he cycles back and forth from the human standpoint and from God's standpoint. Here he is talking about for God's standpoint. And he says we were crucified with him.

[49:30] We were buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. Think of that guys.

[49:42] Positionally you were on the cross with Christ. You were buried with Christ. You were raised in newness of life with Christ. And then if you look across the page at Ephesians chapter 3 he's even got us resurrected with him.

[49:55] If then and this is the first class conditional clause in the Greek and it doesn't mean if as in maybe. We use the word if and it's a big maybe. Maybe will maybe it won't.

[50:07] If. That's not the way the Greek uses this. It's the first class conditional clause and it's translated with the word since. Since. And he's saying since then you have been raised up with Christ.

[50:21] Keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So we were buried with him raised with him in newness of life glorified with him and the whole thing is a package deal as far as God is concerned it's all over and done and here we are living in this present world and we say well I'm situated right here in Studebaker's restaurant and I haven't gone anywhere.

[50:45] As far as God is concerned you're already seated with him in the heavenly. It's a done deal. Amazing amazing grace how sweet the sound.

[50:55] Hey guys enjoy your breakfast and we'll continue on next week. Thank you for your kind attention. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. You know I try to write down the points that we cover when you're doing this.

[51:16] Then I go home and I share the good stuff with my wife and just for the record when I tell her these things she always comes back with these very logical questions which I can't answer.

[51:36] I think maybe I'm going to have to take you home with me to get some of these things straight. Well I appreciate that brother. But what you were talking about is a common malady among us believers.

[51:50] That's just the way it is. But I will say this guys. These sessions are recorded and if any of you would like copies of them so you can take them home.

[52:02] We've got there are thousands of these that have been sent out all over the country. And we make them available here right out in front at the entryway here.

[52:13]  And there are several other restaurants around the county too. So thank you for your kind attention. Enjoy your breakfast.