NT Framework - Cross, Justice, Victory

What if justice is not about balancing scales but restoring what was lost? We dive into the New Testament framework that reframes justice as restitution and places the cross at the center of everything—your salvation, the defeat of spiritual powers, and the future of creation. Jeremy Thomas unpacks why Jesus’s death was utterly unique: a voluntary sacrifice by the only sinless person.

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today, the full lesson fromJeremy Thomas.
Here's a hint of what's to come.

SPEAKER_02 (00:10):
In the West, you know, we're so atheistic and
materialistic, and everything isphysical and material and
working science and all of thisthat we do not have a
well-developed sense of thespiritual realm.
Much less so than other culturesin times and places who do

(00:31):
believe in a spiritual realm.
So we may not really appreciatethis aspect of Christ's work on
the cross, of defeating uhSatan.

SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
It starts with a response.
Do we recognize the truth forwhat it is or do we try and deny
it and work around it, ignoreit, and move on?
And I'm not necessarily talkingabout salvation of the cross.
Do we believe Christ for who heis?
Do we accept that message ofsalvation?

(01:04):
For many, it begins far, farbeyond that.
How do they handle creation?
Do they even recognize thatthere is a God, a creator?
And if so, who do they attributeto?
Our responses to truth aretelling and so critically
important.

(01:24):
First, for salvation.
Do we accept that there is acreator God and that he has
revealed himself in the Bible?
And then, once we are believers,do we accept the work that he is
doing in our life?
Do we accept the situation, thefacts, and turn to him for the

(01:45):
solution?
The solution is never about us.
The solution is always abouthim.

SPEAKER_02 (01:52):
We've been talking, we spent some time just on the
nature of justice becausethere's so many different views
of justice in our own society.
Distributive justice, which isexpressed through various means
of progressive taxation in orderto redistribute wealth.
That's one form of justice.
We have uh rehabilitory justice,which is the concept of we put

(02:13):
people in prison and that'sgoing to make them better.
But really behind that is theidea that people who are in
prison who've committed crimesare victims.
Uh we as a job uh as a societydid not do our job to teach
these people properly, and so wereally uh as taxpayers have to
pay to support um theirimprisonment and all that is

(02:34):
entail in that.
So that's a victim system ofjustice, uh just redistribution
of wealth.
That's a concept of justice thatdoesn't rest on merit.
It's it's it's void of merit.
In other words, you know, itdoesn't matter what you do,
everybody should just be equal.
So if I don't want to work andyou do want to work, well,
that's your choice, and this ismy choice.
We should all have the sameexact amount of wealth.

(02:55):
So there's a lot of differentviews of justice, and the one
that we are developing as we'velooked at the Bible, the Bible
has two forms of justice,retributive and also
restorative, or what we callrestitution.
And that's the main one we'vebeen looking at, this
restitutionary nature ofjustice, which the Bible

(03:15):
presents.
Um this all relates to thenature of God and what he says
justice is, right?
In his idea, restitution isnecessary.
In other words, if something'sstolen, the person who stole it
has to restore that thing that'sbeen stolen.
What I'll show you by the end ofthe lesson if we get there today
is that all men actually havethis concept of restitution in

(03:39):
their mind, but they don't likeit.
And the fundamental reasonpeople don't like it is because
they commit crimes and theydon't want to have to restore
what it is that they have done.
They don't want to makerestitution themselves.
So it is embedded in the humanrace, and people tend to think

(04:00):
that, well, if someone murderssomeone, they should be, for
example, capitally executed.
Um, but they don't really wantto press that full nature of
justice because they themselveshave committed crimes, and um,
well, they wouldn't want to haveto pay back either.
So you get a lot of distortedviews of justice that have come

(04:22):
out in society.
So we've been dealing with this,and and and God's nature uh is
of justice is actually pushingfor the restoration of things.
And so I want to finish talkingabout that.
Um we dealt last week with someof the Messiah's uniquenesses in
his death, and I took youthrough a lot of passages just

(04:42):
to describe his death becausewhat's happening on the cross is
the primary picture of justicein the world.
And yet, of course, most peopledon't would never think of that
as being the best example ofjustice in the world.
Um, they might think of somecase, you know, in a court or
something like that.
But actually, this was a casethat was being resolved in the

(05:04):
high court of heaven by Christ'swork on earth.
And what was happening was hewas repaying or paying the debt
that we owe.
We have a song that we sing,right?
He paid the debt I could notpay.
Um, he paid the debt that I owe.
So we all owed him a particularlife debt, but we are dead in

(05:24):
our transgressions and sins.
We have no life, so we couldn'tgive him a payment, we couldn't
make the payment with our ownlives.
And so someone came in our placeas a substitute and he made the
payment for us on the cross, andthis satisfies God's justice and
enables, let's just say, thefloodgates of salvation to open

(05:44):
so that any who believe in himare made right with God.
So this is restitutionaryjustice.
And we looked at several umuniquenesses of what's happening
on the cross.
I talked about, you know, um,it's a misallocation of God's
decree of capital punishmentunder divine institution number

(06:06):
four.
Divine institution number fouris human government.
God gave human government inGenesis chapter 9, but the
cornerstone of it was capitalpunishment.
And yet his own son dies undercharges of capital crime, but of
course he was innocent, right?
So it was a misallocation ofjustice.
We also said that there it's aunique death in that Jesus did

(06:29):
not die for his own sins, didhe?
He had no sin to die for.
He's tempted in all things aswe, yet without sin.
Romans 8:3 says he was made inthe likeness of sinful flesh,
but he wasn't sinful flesh, justin the likeness.
He just looked like one of youor me, right?
But he didn't die for his ownsins.
So his death is entirely uniquebecause he didn't need to die.

(06:52):
Sin is the cause for physicaldeath, and he didn't need to
die.
And that's why he says thingslike, No one can take my life
from me, but I lay it down of myown accord.
Or you see the betrayal in thegarden led by Judas, and Jesus
goes, actually goes out to meetthem at the hour of his
betrayal.
And when they ask, you know, whothey are, who are you seeking,

(07:15):
Jesus of Nazareth?
And he says, I am he.
And do you remember that therewas a group of soldiers, Roman
soldiers, six, it's called acohort.
You know, we say, Well, I don'tknow what that is.
Maybe I know what a battalion isor a platoon, but I don't know
what a cohort is.
And a Roman cohort was 600soldiers.

SPEAKER_01 (07:33):
And it says they all fell back.

SPEAKER_02 (07:37):
They all fell on the ground.
You can imagine 600 Romansoldiers with all their armor,
their spears, their shields, andall this.
Now there's all this messthey've got to pick up and get
all their stuff back together.
Just because he said, I am he.
In other words, he waspermitting him, he he showed
them, first of all, hey, look,if you're going to arrest me,
the only way you're gonna beable to arrest me is if I permit

(07:59):
you, because it's obvious youguys can't stand up to me.
I'm the Lord of the universe.
And so, again, he's not dyingfor his own sins, he's saying,
I'm volitionally doing it.
He says in John 10, no one takesmy life from me, right?
But I lay it down.
He was giving his life for us.
He didn't have any sin to diefor.
So it was a totally uniquedeath.

(08:19):
We also said Jesus is the onlyperson ever in the history of
the world to decide the exactmoment of their death.
We talked about suicides andbotch suicides because just
because people say, well, youknow, you could exactly
determine the point of yourdeath if you if you shot
yourself in the head.
Well, guess what?
A lot of people shot themselvesin the head and lived.
So, no, it's not totally up toyou.

(08:41):
But Jesus Christ did, it said,He breathed his last.
He said, It is finished, and hebreathed his last, and it says
he gave up his spirit.
You and I don't give up ourspirit.
He did.
He did.
He gave up his spirit.
They were telling him on thecross, if you are who you say
you are, take yourself off.
If you can save others, saveyourself.

(09:02):
If he had saved himself, hewouldn't have saved anybody
else.
Right?
And so he kept himself on thecross to pay the sin penalty of
the world so that you and Icould be saved.
Lord, they didn't understand,did they?
Even he said that.
Lord forgive them.
They know not what they do.
They don't, they don't, theydidn't fully understand what
they were doing.
We got through all those points.

(09:24):
Um, we wanted to start and pickup with new information with
this point that Jesus' work onthe cross has cosmic effects.
So the first effect, in the onewe typically think about, is
well, he paid for our sins.
He paid our sin penalty.
That's true.
Um he did pay our sin penalty infull.
We call this the provision forsin, in that he has made a

(09:47):
payment that is equal to orgreater than the sin debt that
has been owed for all the peopleof the world.
Well, we'll talk more about thatwhen we get to the extent of his
atonement, how many people'ssins he paid for, and so forth.
But for the moment, let's justsay it's a provision for all the

(10:09):
sins of the world.
Okay?
Now, the application of thatprovision to an individual
occurs only when that personbelieves.
So I make a distinction betweenthe provision that he made on
the cross and the application ofthat provision to an individual.
Why?
Well, because the Bible seems tospeak this way.

(10:30):
So let's look at some of theseverses.

SPEAKER_01 (10:32):
Um John 3.36.

SPEAKER_02 (10:39):
Remember, John, of the four Gospels, John is the
more the what we calltheological because it's it's
giving the meaning orsignificance of the events that
happened in the other threeGospels, which are known as the
synoptics.
Okay, the synoptics.
But John is more theological andit just tells us, it gives us

(10:59):
the intent or meaning.

SPEAKER_01 (11:00):
So John 3.36.
He who believes in the Son haseternal life.

SPEAKER_02 (11:13):
So, I mean, just because he died for your sins
doesn't mean you're going tohave eternal life.
You know, he did die foreveryone's sins, but that
doesn't mean everyone haseternal life.
It's only those who believe,right?
He who believes in the Son haseternal life.
But he who does not obey, thisis a Greek word, apatho, apatho,

(11:33):
the son will not see life, butthe wrath of God abides on him.
So if a person doesn't, well, inthis case it says obey, but obey
what?
Obey the command to believe.
Obey the command to believe.
This is used this way commonlyas an expression, not that a
person has to obey, like do goodworks to get eternal life.
Obviously, one just has tobelieve according to the

(11:55):
previous verse.
But apatho is being used as asynonym for not believe or to
not obey the gospel, that whichis to believe.
What did Paul say to thePhilippian jailer when he asked,
what must I do to be saved?
Paul and Silas said, You mustbelieve.
Believe in the Lord Jesus andyou'll be saved.
That was a command, believe.
And so if they believe it, thenthey're saved.

(12:16):
They have eternal life.
But if you don't believe, thenthe wrath of God abides on that
individual.
So while the provision is there,the application of it is not,
because they have not believed.
Back up to chapter 3, verse 18,where we see the same type of
idea.
John 3, 18.

(12:37):
He who believes in him is notjudged.
He who does not believe has beenjudged already.
Why?
Because he's not believed in thename of the only begotten Son of
God.
So the provision can be therefor everyone, but the difference
will be those who believe andthose who do not believe.
And those who do not believe,turn over to John 8.21.

(12:58):
John 8.21.
These individuals will die intheir sins.
So the payment's been made fortheir sins, but they never
accepted the payment, and sothey die in their sins.
John 8 21.

SPEAKER_01 (13:13):
I may have the wrong verse here.
Let's look at verse 24.

SPEAKER_02 (13:18):
John 8 24.
Therefore I said to you that youwill die in your sins, for
unless you believe that I am He,you will what?
Die in your sins.

SPEAKER_03 (13:27):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (13:28):
Verse 30, same thing.
As he spoke these things,interestingly, guess what
happened?
Many came to believe in him.
So when they believed, okay, ofcourse, the application of his
provision was made to them, andthey were not dying their sins.
So if you're a believer, you'renot going to die in your sins.
Okay, but if you're anunbeliever, of course, you will
die in your sins, even thoughChrist paid for them.

(13:49):
He paid, he made provision forthem.
So that's the first aspect ofthe crosswork of Christ.
It extends to us as individuals.
But it does extend further thanthat.
It extends to an application tofallen angels.
So it extends to that invisiblerealm.
Let's turn over to Colossianschapter 2, verse 15.

SPEAKER_01 (14:12):
Colossians chapter 2, verse 15, one of Paul's
prison epistles, first prison,imprisonment.

SPEAKER_02 (14:23):
And if you if you have trouble finding these, uh I
always put you know Colatians,Ephesians, Philippians,
Colossians together.
And if you can't remember that,you just say, Well, God eats
popcorn.
And then you know it's theorder.
Okay.
And all God's people said, Amen.
I'm glad God eats popcorn.
And um the whole world is astage and theater and he's
watching us.

(14:45):
Colossians 2, 15.
When he had, he's talking aboutthe cross, right?
And that's the subject.
When he had disarmed the rulersand authorities, he made a
public display of them, havingtriumphed over them through him,
that is, through Christ.
So through the crosswork ofChrist, the Father disarmed the
rulers and the authorities.

(15:05):
Who are the rulers and theauthorities?
These are words that are usedfor the angelic realm, in
particular the fallen angelicrealm.
And so at the cross, there's anapplication you can see to the
angelic realm in that there wasultimately a defeat.
Christ triumphed over themthrough the Father.
Or the Father triumphed overthem through the Son on that

(15:27):
occasion.
Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14,which is one of my favorites.
We won't look at all these, butwe'll look at a few of these.

SPEAKER_01 (15:35):
Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14.

SPEAKER_02 (15:43):
If you want to be biblical, Hebrews.
That's what this book is about.

SPEAKER_01 (15:52):
Okay, Hebrews 2, 14.

SPEAKER_02 (16:00):
Notice the application of the cross to the
devil.
Therefore, since the childrenshare in flesh and blood, he
himself likewise also partook ofthe same.
Speaking of the Messiah, God,the second person of the
Trinity, taking to himself humanflesh, right?
Becoming true humanity, thatthrough death, because only
humanity can die, God can't die,but true humanity can die, he

(16:21):
might render powerless him whohad the power of death, that is,
the devil.
And he might free those who,through fear of death, were
subject to slavery all theirlives, that's slavery to Satan.
So he secured the defeat ofSatan on the cross.
And though, you know, we say,well, but Peter says he still

(16:44):
roams around like a roaringlion, seeking someone to devour,
yeah, we still have spiritualwarfare that we must engage in.
We put on the armor of Goddaily, Ephesians chapter 6,
verses 10 through 18.
Uh so while his defeat iscomplete at the cross, the
actual putting away of Satanfinally has not transpired.

(17:07):
When Christ comes back, he willlock him away for a thousand
years, and then after that, hewill be released for a short
time, right?
And then he will finally bedefeated and cast in the lake of
fire.
Uh but his ultimate demise iscertain because of what?
Well, because of the finishedwork of Christ.
It extends to the defeat of thefallen angels and secures our

(17:29):
victory.
And I want to make a point uh aquote here from the early um
earliest was about the earliestChristians.
Um you might remember, you know,if you read like 1 Corinthians
1, it will say, Not many of youwere rich, you know, not many of
you were powerful whom hecalled.
But most of us who he says whowere called were the poor and

(17:51):
you know, just the averagepeople in the Roman Empire, and
the same thing continues today.
Um But these people who firstbelieved, they they really
appreciated this dimension ofthe crosswork of Christ, the
dimension that he defeated thedark powers, the forces of
darkness on the cross, becausethey were not, you know, Western

(18:15):
Americans.
Um they would be more likepeople in in tribal Africa.
In tribal Africa, you know, youhave many gods and goddesses and
you know, occultism and youknow, worship of what they would
consider spiritual beings.
In the West, you know, we're soatheistic and materialistic, and

(18:36):
everything is physical andmaterial and science and all of
this that we do not have awell-developed sense of the
spiritual realm.
Much less so than other culturesin times and places who do
believe in a spiritual realm.
So we may not really appreciatethis aspect of Christ's work on

(19:00):
the cross of defeating uh Satanand his uh his uh fellow
minions, right?
Uh because we just think interms of everything has material
causation.
That's because we've been builtand trained by this culture to
think certain patterns.
And so we tend not to think asmuch about the spiritual realm

(19:22):
and those this type of onslaughtthat daily is against us, okay?
So I want to read this quoteabout how the early Christians
felt when they realized theimpact of the cross of Christ on
demonic forces.
This triumph over evil powerswas prized in the early church,

(19:43):
as we see from the exuberancewith which it was used and the
picturesque, even grotesqueimagery that was employed to
express it.
Thus, Satan was pictured ascaught in a fish hook and as
snared in a mouse trap.
For the first Christians, thevictory that Christ had won for
them mattered intensely.
They were mostly from thedepressed classes with little to

(20:06):
hope for in this world.
And they pictured a host ofdemons as dominating life
anyway.
That's how they viewed theirlife before they became
believers.
So they were already thinking ofthemselves as being depressed
because of demonic forces.
He says it came as a welcomerelief to have assurance that

(20:27):
the last word was not with theiroppressors, not with the demons,
right?
Whether they're human orsupernatural.
So the note of victory wassounded with joyous confidence,
and we in our day need it noless than they.
Umtice where they say, you know,they're oppressors from their
point of view, both human andsupernatural.

(20:49):
You know, we have the same thingtoday, technically.
Who are human professors uhhuman uh oppressors?
Well, they're the politicians ofthis world.
This is not a secret.
They're not there to, you know,they used to be called minister
of whatever, or servant of.

(21:09):
They're not there to minister toyou or serve you, they're there
for themselves to oppress you.
And this is a very unfortunatething, but Daniel 2, 7, 10,
these passages all teach thatduring the times of the
Gentiles, which is the timesthat we live when Gentiles rule

(21:30):
the world and Israel's notruling the world, that the
rulers of these worlds willoppress their subjects.
And and and that isunfortunately what we see.
I mean, America has enjoyed um avery unique period of history as
far as prosperity and freedoms.
Um that, of course, the thatcurtain is closing over our

(21:54):
history.
Um but you know, most people, uhmost countries in the world have
never experienced the types offreedoms that we have.
And um yet, of course, thiscurtain again is closing.
And most people have been quiteobviously oppressed by their
rulers, whether dictatorial,oligarchical, however it was

(22:18):
run.
And of course, we're tendingtoward a one-world government
now and an oligarchy that willrule that and so forth.
So we're moving toward thesethings as we speak.
But from our point of view, youknow, we also have supernatural
oppressors, you know, demonicforces that are at war with us,
which is why the New Testamentrepeatedly, not just in
Ephesians 6, talks about theimportance of arming up every

(22:42):
day because we're going intospiritual battle.
And um, we need to really takethat seriously.
Um, everything is not justphysical causation.
There are supernatural powersthat be, and they are opposed to
believers.
They want to make you impotentin the Christian life, they want
to destroy the witness of thegospel, they want to destroy
your spiritual growth.

(23:04):
But the early so the earlyChristians saw Christ's death on
the cross in terms of uh demonsand so forth and were exuberant
about it.
The last aspect of Jesus' workon the cross is that it is the
basis for the creation of thenew heavens and the new earth.
Now, most Christians know, youknow, Revelation 21 and 22,

(23:25):
there's going to be a new heavenand new earth.
Um, but on what basis?
See, on what basis is theregoing to be?
Is God just going to do it?
I mean, God's all powerful.
He can just do it, right?
But no, it doesn't work thatway.
In a way, he redeemed all ofcreation in the sense that he is
going to restore it, becausejustice biblically is

(23:48):
restitutionary.
There must be a restoration ofthe thing that has been lost.
And when God first createdeverything, everything was very
good, and then you have a fall.
And so the aim of history is notjust to save individuals and
defeat demonic forces, but alsoto restore the created order.

(24:08):
And the basis of all thesethings is the death of Christ.
So let's look at, well, are wein Colossians?
No, we were in Colossians.
We moved on, but let's go backto Colossians.
Remember that God eats popcorn,so you can find it again.
There's other little acronymsyou can use to learn this.
The order of the books of theBible.

SPEAKER_01 (24:30):
But Colossians 1, verse 18 goes beyond the angelic
realm.

SPEAKER_02 (24:37):
And he says, He is also head of the body, Christ,
which is the church, and he isthe beginning of the firstborn
from the dead.
He's the first personresurrected, right?
So that he himself will come tohave first place in everything.
So that's a future tense.
In a future situation, right?
He will have first place, firstrank.

(24:58):
Verse 19, 4, explanation.
It was the Father's goodpleasure for all the fullness to
dwell in him, all the fullnessof deity, and through him to
reconcile all things to himself.
All things, not just humans, allthings to himself, having made
peace through the blood of hiscross.

(25:20):
Through him I say, whetherthings on earth or things in
heaven.
That's the whole universe,right?
There are cosmic implications tothe work of Christ.
Romans 8, 17 through 25, turn tothe left.

SPEAKER_01 (25:37):
Romans 8, 17 through 25.
Romans 8, we'll start in verse17.

SPEAKER_02 (25:53):
We've got the Spirit testifying with our Spirit that
we are children of God.
Verse 17, if children were heirsalso, heirs of God, and fellow
heirs with Christ of the worldto come, if indeed we suffer
with him, so that we may also beglorified with him.
Now we're all going to beglorified with him, which is to
receive a resurrection body.
So we're all we all suffer tosome extent.

(26:13):
Verse 18, for I consider thatthe sufferings of this present
time.

SPEAKER_01 (26:19):
Do you suffer?

SPEAKER_02 (26:21):
Physical, mentally, emotionally.
You suffer in all sorts of areasif you're a human being on
earth.
As believers, of course.
But he says, I consider thesufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be comparedwith the glory that is to be
revealed to us.
So everything that you'reexperiencing as suffering does
not compare at all to the gloryto come.

(26:44):
This is a great promise.
It's something to go to whenyou're suffering, when you're
struggling, because you're goingto remember that in the future
we have something that's goingto overshadow all these
sufferings, right?
Verse 19, for the anxiouslonging of the creation waits
eagerly for the revealing of thesons of God.
So we've got things outside ofourselves here, eagerly
awaiting, longing for therevealing of the sons of God.

(27:07):
Why, verse 20, for the creationwas subjected to futility.
Remember Genesis 3?
God subjected nature tofutility, to the fall, not
willingly, but because of himwho subjected it, in hope, verse
21, that the creation itselfalso will be set free from its
slavery to corruption, into thefreedom of the glory of the
children of God.
See, all creation is underslavery and is under the

(27:31):
dominion of sin because Godcursed it when man sinned,
right?
That in itself is arestitutionary picture because
when man sinned against God, Godsaid, Oh, you'd like to rebel
against me?
Here, let me show you whatthat's like.
And he made nature rebel againstus.
See, God built the lesson plansinto nature.

(27:52):
How hard is it, guys, to go outthere and make a living?
Anybody ever have any struggles?
Anyone in your workplace ever,you know, do some stupid stuff
and totally mess up productionand efficiency?
Ladies, how difficult is it toraise a home?
Raise your children?
Is that easy?
Is it just like, oh, this is thegreatest stuff?

(28:12):
I love this, man.
I mean, everything just works.
These kids always obey.
Their clean rooms are perfectlyclean.
The house is just big and span.
No.
It's a pain.
Why is it a pain?
Because God cursed these spheresof our life to teach us what
it's like for us to rebelagainst Him.
It's like all these things rebelagainst us, and we're like, quit
it, quit it, quit it.
We fight that.
And He's like, well, yeah,that's you.

(28:34):
That's you with respect to me.
See, it's a lesson plan.
But see, God has creation thenunder the sufferings of sin, but
He's saying here, He's gonna setit all free from that.
Sometimes I look at our littlepuppy, our little Dexter.
I did I did this last week.
He just sits there and they lookat you, you know, and you start
talking to him, and what do theydo?
They cock their little headover, you know, like they're

(28:56):
like they trying to understand.
And I I don't know how manytimes I've done this with
animals, but I say, Yeah, Iknow, I know, it it's hard.
You're you're suffering.
You're under the curse of sinand you're you're in this
condition and you really can'tdo anything about it, but one
day one day all animal creationis going to be set free from the
slavery which they are enslavedto and set free from the
corruption that that they'reunder because of God's curse on

(29:19):
nature.
And and that's why you see inthe Messianic kingdom you see
the lamb laying with the lion,you know, and the child playing
by the den of the viper, andthere's no problem.
You know, this is great.
You don't do that today, butplease don't do that.
Um but but there is a timecoming when nature will be

(29:43):
restored.
And this is all the basis thatare based in the finished work
of Christ.
So we have a lot to to lookforward to.
And um Okay, let's press on pastsome of the these are some of
the uniquenesses of whatChrist's death Means for the
world.
I want to look, uh, make aquote.

(30:04):
All this points to asubstitutionary blood atonement
on the cross that providedrestitution by satisfying the
perfect justice of God, whichmakes it the preeminent picture
of justice and the most profoundevent in the history of the
world.
This is what paves the way forsalvation being freely given
through faith, as well as therestoration of the entire
created order.

(30:25):
So obviously, the effects of hisdeath are very far reaching.
And there's more, we would justsay there's more to come.
There's so much more to come.
We have our individualsalvation, and ultimately we're
seated in the heavenly placesabove all the satanic forces
that want to, you know, fight usdaily and destroy our spiritual
lives.

(30:45):
Um, but one day they're allgoing to be put away, right?
And then finally he's going tocreate all things new.
And all God's people said, Amen.
This is a great plan ofsalvation.
It's so much, so much largerthan we usually think.
All that goes back to the cross.
Lastly, just mentioned this.
I forgot this point.
Jesus' death fulfills Passover.
Um we've mentioned the Passover,Exodus 12.

(31:07):
We went back and discussed it asa picture of substitutionary
blood atonement.
You've got the lamb,one-year-old, male, unblemished,
right?
They would take the lamb, theywould slaughter it and follow
certain practices.
All this was laid down in thePassover, which looked forward
to the Messiah as the Lamb ofGod who would take away the sin
of the world.
So he fulfilled Passover, 1Corinthians 5, 7.

(31:30):
And so his death alsoaccomplished that.
Now, let's look at some of theresponses to Jesus in the cross.
We'll see how far we can get.
First, let's start with aprinciple.
This is the principle that theword of God does not return
void.
Now, I used to tell people thisall the time, you know, as I
taught in my previous pastor,I'd say I would get very uh

(31:53):
frustrated because people I'd beteaching, and people say, Well,
I mean, you know, that's greatas a pastor, they have all these
frustrations, but you can besure of one thing, as long as
you're teaching the word, itwon't return void.
And I was like, um, do yourealize what these verses about
the word not returning void arereally about?
They're not about how positivethe response is gonna be,

(32:14):
because it's a double-edgedsword, right?
Yeah, some will respondpositively, but most are gonna
do what?
Respond negatively.
See, it's a two-edged sword.
The word will not return voiddoesn't mean people are gonna
respond positively, it meanssome were positive, some
negative.
Let's look at Isaiah 6.
Isaiah 6, 9 through 10.

SPEAKER_01 (32:37):
Isaiah was a prophet 700 over 700 years before
Christ.
And he prophesies of the virginbirth and things like this.
Prophesies of a lot of things.
Isaiah 6 is where this principlecomes from that the word of God
does not return void.

(32:59):
6-9.
This is uh a word to Isaiah.

SPEAKER_02 (33:09):
The Lord said to him, Go and tell this people,
Israel, uh, keep on listening tothe word, right?
But do not perceive it.
Not to listen to it, but don'tunderstand it, see.
Keep on looking, but don'tunderstand.
Render the hearts of this peopleinsensitive, render their ears
dull, render their eyes dim.

(33:31):
Otherwise, they might see withtheir eyes, they might hear with
their ears, they mightunderstand with their hearts and
return and be healed.
So he's to preach the word, butthe effect is that they will not
understand.

SPEAKER_01 (33:50):
It's that they will be set for judgment.
That's the purpose.

SPEAKER_02 (33:56):
Whenever God's people, in the Old Testament
Israel, now the church, wheneverGod's people are unresponsive to
the word of God, God tells thosewho minister the word, keep on
preaching, keep on telling, keepon showing them.
Why?
They're gonna keep on goingnegative.
Why would I want to do that,Lord?

(34:16):
Because it sets them forjudgment.
God says, okay, fine, I've givenyou all this grace, I've given
you all these great Bibleteachers, and America's had.
We've had tremendous Bibleteaching, like no other country
on earth since the time ofChrist.
We've got more resourcesbiblically than you can ever
imagine.

(34:37):
We have lexicons, we have Biblegeography, archaeology, we have
so many resources.
I don't have enough time to readall of it.
Right?
It's in English.
Wow.
You know, one of my books isgoing to be translated into
Portuguese, right?
For the Brazilians.
And I'm thinking, there could bea lot better books translated,

(35:00):
but maybe that's maybe it's agood book for them.

SPEAKER_01 (35:04):
But most countries in the world, they do not have
all this that we have.
How many Bible translations dowe have in English?

SPEAKER_02 (35:13):
How many do you think they have in Brazilian
Portuguese?
Not nothing compared to us.
I mean, they're happy to haveone translation in a foreign
language.
We have hundreds.
I probably have myself over 90translations in English.
I mean, how much exposure do weneed in America to the Word of
God?

SPEAKER_01 (35:33):
And what does America said?
We don't care.
We don't care about the Word ofGod.
So what what does our futurehold for us?
Judgment.
That's not a mystery.

SPEAKER_02 (35:47):
See, the Word of God does not return void.
And if people get the word, likeIsrael did or like we have here
in America, a specialdispensation for us, and they
say, no, no, no, no, no, wedon't like that, then well,
those who are faithful will keepon preaching it, and people will
keep not responding to it, andthat will just build up God's
justice where he will finally atsome point judge.

(36:08):
In that sense, it's hardening,right?
Now, well, this is also in theNew Testament.
Look at Matthew 16, thisprinciple.

SPEAKER_01 (36:21):
16, 13 through 17.

SPEAKER_02 (36:26):
One of the things that often gets overlooked here
is where they were when Jesusgave this particular teaching.
They were in a place calledCaesarea Philippi.
This is a very pagan place, bythe way.
There's a temple to the god Panthere.
This is the most pagan placeJesus ever went.

(36:46):
Herod Agrippa ruled here later.
Very, very pagan place.
It says, when they came into thedistrict of Caesarea Philippi,
he was asking his disciples, uh,who do people say that the Son
of Man is?
In other words, what's theopinion out there on who I am?
Well, he said, some say John theBaptist, others Elijah, but
still others Jeremiah or one ofthe prophets.

(37:08):
Now, is that the right answer,first of all?
Is that who he was claiming tobe?
Is that what his words and worksdemonstrated, that he was a
prophet?
Or was it he more than aprophet?
Did his words and worksdemonstrate he was far more than
a prophet?
To the point that some of thepeople said, Is this not the son
of David?
In other words, is this not theMessiah?

(37:28):
I mean, it's got to be him,right?
I mean, look at what he's lookat his teaching.

SPEAKER_01 (37:32):
He doesn't teach like the rabbis.
He teaches his one heavenauthority.
He look at what he's doing.

SPEAKER_02 (37:41):
He's healing mute, blind, demon-possessed people.
Who can do that?
It's only Messiah can do that.
The people are like, isn't thisthe son of David?
Isn't this the Messiah?

SPEAKER_01 (37:53):
No, said the Pharisees.
No, no.
This is Bezebul, Lord of theDemocrats, doing this through
him.

SPEAKER_02 (38:03):
He's indwelt by Satan himself.
They turned the people away,right?
But people aren't interpretinghim correctly, right?
But there's a response here.
It's just a negative response.
He says in verse 15, okay, butwho do you say that I am?
And that's what I say to everyindividual here.
I don't care who you are.
I don't care if you're thepresident of the United States.

(38:24):
I don't care if you're adictator in the Middle East,
some tyrant, terrorist.
I don't care who you are.
Who do you say that Jesus Christis?
This is a question that you haveto answer.
I can answer it for you.
You have to answer thisquestion.

SPEAKER_01 (38:37):
Who do you say that Jesus Christ is?

SPEAKER_02 (38:42):
And how you answer that question is actually the
difference between spendingeternity with him and spending
eternity separate from God.
They answered, or Simonanswered, You are the Christ,
the Messiah, you're the Son ofthe living God.
Jesus said, Blessed are you,Simon Barjona, because flesh and
blood did not reveal this toyou, but my Father who is in

(39:04):
heaven.
See, the word of God does notreturn void.

There's two sides of the coin: there's unbelief, oh, he's a (39:06):
undefined
prophet, he's John or Elijah orJeremiah or something like that.
And then there's others that no,you are the Christ, you're the
Messiah.
I mean, you're the one.
You're the one who came to savethe world.
So the word, that's theprinciple.
Now, we want to look at how orwhy people rejected Jesus and

(39:27):
the cross.
Um, because this is the unbeliefside of it, right?
Why do people reject?

SPEAKER_01 (39:34):
Then we'll look at the two responses.
First of all, turn to John 3,19.
One one scholar was asked,what's the fundamental teaching
of the Bible?
And he answered, that man is notgood.

(39:56):
Man is not good.
Um the Bible's not optimisticabout man.
And it it's it's a book that youknow that wouldn't be written by
exc exclusively written by men.
Men like heroes, they like tomake men into heroes.

(40:22):
But the Bible doesn't paint manas a hero.
It paints God as the hero ofhistory, that he's done
something for man who'sbasically a mess.

SPEAKER_02 (40:33):
John 3 19 says this is the judgment.
The the light has come into theworld, and men love the darkness
rather than the light, becausetheir deeds were evil.

SPEAKER_01 (40:47):
For everyone who does evil hates the light and
does not come to the light forfear that his deeds will be
exposed.
Why don't people believe inChrist?
Well, according to these verses,is because they're hiding from
God.

SPEAKER_02 (41:03):
They don't they're evil.
They do evil, they want to hidetheir evil.
This is a this is nothing newthan Genesis 3, right?
Everybody in their mind has apicture of Adam and Eve eating
the fruit and putting the figleaves on, and then they hear
this the sound of the Lord Godwalking in the garden, right?
And what are they doing?

SPEAKER_01 (41:23):
Yeah, they're hiding.
Why?
Because their deeds were eviland they were hiding in darkness
because they didn't want to beexposed that is a profound
picture that is ubiquitous inthe world ever since that time.

SPEAKER_02 (41:41):
People are doing what?
They're hiding.
Why are they hiding?
Because their deeds are evil,they don't want them to be
exposed.
I've used the analogy before ofthe IRS, you know.
One agency in the governmentwere all like, I hope they don't
show up at my doorstep.

SPEAKER_01 (41:58):
Um who wants an audit, you know?
You i if you are short in yourtaxes, you've been fiddling
around for years.

SPEAKER_02 (42:10):
This actually happened in my family to a
member one time.

SPEAKER_01 (42:13):
Um you don't pay your taxes for 20 years, um
what's your greatest fear?
That the IRS will show up oneday.
Right?
Why?

SPEAKER_02 (42:26):
Because you have short accounts and you don't
want that to be exposed.
And just transfer that idea overto sin.
See, everybody is in the worldis out there hiding from God
because their deeds are evil andthey don't want them to be
exposed.
The irony of the situation isthat can you can you hide from

(42:47):
God?

SPEAKER_01 (42:51):
Well, he's omnipresent, right?

SPEAKER_02 (42:54):
He doesn't go places, he's in all places.
Does he see all things?
David says, if I go to thedepths of Sheol, thou art there.
You know, you can't you can'tget away from God.
Uh were Adam and Eve reallyhidden from God?
Well, no, no.
Here's what happens.
When we sin, we become blind tospiritual realities.

(43:16):
Okay, when we sin, as it goesfor believers too, okay, and
unbelievers, of course.
The more we sin, the more blindwe become to spiritual reality.
So that we even convinceourselves that we can hide from
God.
When you sin, do you do itopenly in front of everybody
else, typically?
Or is your method to do it in ahidden place?

(43:39):
But you're you're you're you'reacting like God doesn't see you
in a way, aren't you?
Now, have you really, if I say,now, are you really hidden from
God, you'll say, well, no.
But when you're when you'resinning or planning to sin,
whatever it is, you tend to hideaway because you feel like

(44:00):
you're hidden.

SPEAKER_01 (44:01):
But you're actually in plain sight.
Right?
You're you're in plain sight.
I mean, maybe other people can'tsee you, but God sees you.

SPEAKER_02 (44:12):
So this is the first reason that people rejected
Christ, because they didn't wanttheir sinful deeds exposed.
Uh secondly, the reason is overin 1 Corinthians, so let's turn
there.

SPEAKER_01 (44:25):
1 Corinthians.

SPEAKER_02 (44:29):
This will help you as a Christian to understand
why, you know, fellowunbelievers that you know in
your life why they're notbelieving.
Okay.
You have to.
The Bible tells us aboutunbelievers, and that's to help
us be able to engage them.
We know things about them thatthey may or may not know about

(44:50):
themselves, not because we're sowise, but because God told us
these things.
Uh 1.18.
The word of the cross isfoolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who arebeing saved, it's the power of
God.
Again, two sides, right?
Different responses to the wordof the cross.
One foolishness, one power ofGod.

SPEAKER_01 (45:13):
Why is it foolishness to those who are
perishing?

SPEAKER_02 (45:17):
By the way, same word used in John 3.16.
For God so love the world thatwhosoever believes in him shall
not perish.
That word.
Here it is again.
But the word of the cross isfoolishness to those who are
perishing.
Why is it foolish?
Okay, forget what you think youknow about the cross in the 21st
century, you know, as it's likea piece of jewelry or something.

SPEAKER_01 (45:36):
The cross was a horror.

SPEAKER_02 (45:40):
It was so such a horror that you did not speak of
the cross, you did not mentionthe crux, that word crux, you
did not mention it in politeRoman society.
They would just simply use aphrase, hang him on the unlucky
tree.

SPEAKER_01 (45:57):
But they would not say the cross.
So it was first of all, it was ahorrible thing.
We cannot imagine how horribleit was.

SPEAKER_02 (46:06):
The second thing is, you're actually in the first
century, let's say you believed,okay, people would say to you,
why would you believe that a guywho died on the unlucky tree
could save you?

SPEAKER_01 (46:21):
He died.
You're believing in someone whodied.
Well, we'd say, well, no, herose again.

SPEAKER_02 (46:26):
But their point is that he died as a criminal in
the Roman Empire in the worsthorrible possible way.
How could that be the way ofsalvation for the entire human
race?
That seems foolish to us.
But some people realize whattruly transpired on the cross,
and to them, it's the power ofGod, right?

SPEAKER_01 (46:49):
Same thing happened for you.
Most of the world thinks it's asilly thing, though.
What?
How could him dying for you saveyou?
That doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_02 (46:59):
Um they don't they don't get it.
But that's one of the reasonspeople did not believe.
They just thought it's a foolishthing.
Um, third thing, go over tochapter, Romans chapter 1, back
to Romans 1.
Romans 1 through 3 is allbasically about the whole world
being condemned.
I break it into three groups.

(47:19):
I say uh pagan Gentiles,cultured Gentiles, and Jews.
And each uh each part of thesechapters goes through these
three different groups.
Um cultured Gentiles be, youknow, Gentiles that live a
basically moral life or apparentmoral life.
Pagan Gentiles mean, you know,the rough crowd, you know, just

(47:42):
rebellious.
And then Jews, we know who theyare, right?
They were given the law.
So in Romans chapter 1, verse18, notice the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against allungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who what the truth?

SPEAKER_01 (47:59):
Suppress.
Kateko means to hold down.
In other words, do they know thetruth?
Yes.

SPEAKER_02 (48:05):
You have to know the truth before you can suppress
the truth.
So they know the truth, but theysuppress it in unrighteousness.
Why?
Because that which is knownabout God is evident within
them, because God made itevident to them.
In other words, God made himselfevident to everybody.
Everybody knows.
Everybody.
Everybody knows God, the onetrue God.

SPEAKER_01 (48:28):
Well, they keep telling me they're not convinced
of God's existence.
Who is their father?
He's the one who's been a liarfrom the beginning, right?
What do you think his childrenare going to do?

SPEAKER_02 (48:41):
Lie.
Keep you busy chasing your tail,trying to prove God's existence
when they know it.
They already know it.
They're suppressing it.
That's what it says.
Verse 20, for since the creationof the world, can you go any
before that?
No, not in history.
You go back to the creation ofthe world, his invisible
attributes, his eternal power,and his divine nature have been
how seen?

(49:02):
How have they been seen?
Clearly.
Now, I'm not seeing so clearlythese days when I get up close
to stuff, so I gotta put theseon, but I see clearly now.

SPEAKER_01 (49:11):
Um they clearly see God.
Clearly.
20-20 vision.

SPEAKER_02 (49:21):
I was looking the other day, we went to look at
the eagles and over in uh KurtAlane, trying to find some
eagles, you know.
Um 25 vision.
In some birds of prey, 22.5.
Um, that basically meanssomething like, and I'm not an
optician or something, but someso somebody here could correct
me.
But like they can, like an eaglecould see something, something

(49:41):
like four or eight times fartheraway than you, they could see it
as clearly as you.
That's why they can seeliterally a little over uh a
third of a mile to a half of amile, that distance, they could
see their prey and from thatdistance and go get it.
Like, what?
I can barely see the back of theroom anymore.

(50:02):
You know, these people clearlysee God, we'd say with 20-20
vision, right?
But what do they do with that?
Verse 21, even though they knewGod, there it is, they did not
honor him as God or give thanks,but they became futile in their
speculations, and their foolishheart was darkened.

(50:23):
Professing themselves to bewise, they became fools.
They exchanged, here it is, theymade an exchange.
They exchanged the glory of theincorruptible God for an image
in the form of corruptible manand of birds and four-footed
animals and crawling creatures.
That is, they took the glorythat belongs only to God and

(50:44):
they moved it over ontosomething on creation.
So we have the creator, right?
That is the one to whom allglory is given.
What unbelievers do is they takethe glory that belongs to God
and they transfer it over tocreation.
This is what we call an idol,right?
You take something that belongsto God and only to God, and you

(51:06):
give it to something that'screated.
You take it away from thecreator, put it on the creation.
Now, all created things arelimited, they're finite.

SPEAKER_01 (51:16):
But not God.
He's the creator.
Now they've got to worship.
Everybody worships, okay?

SPEAKER_02 (51:22):
Nobody's religiously neutral.
That's that's a myth.
Okay.
Everybody worships.
It's just a question of what youworship.
Do you worship the creator or doyou worship the creation?
This text is saying they make anexchange.
They exchange worship of thecreator for worship of the
creation, four-footed things,beasts, and so forth.

(51:42):
Okay.
Um, every time, you know, I wasI biology background, right?
Did biology degree, all thatworked in plant physiology for
five years.
I mean, what were they tellingme?
Well, they were telling me thatnature is all powerful and has
produced all these features inour world.
All these design creatures, thisall came from nature.

(52:04):
Nature's so powerful.
Um, is that not just taking anattribute of God, God's
omnipotence, and moving it on tocreation?
Well, of course it is.
Um, they'd say, well, I'm notreligious.
Yeah, you are.
You worship and serve thecreation, nature.
I mean, she they call hersometimes Mother Nature.

(52:24):
You know, I mean, as if youcould not be any more obvious
that you worship nature.
Um, nobody's religiouslyneutral, okay?
Everybody worships, it's just aquestion of creator or creature.
So they're doing this, okay?
They're reinterpreting the data,right, in a way that excludes
God, and they create idols thatthey think are sufficient

(52:48):
explanations for reality.
It's God says it's foolish.
They profess to be wise, becomefools.
God says this is foolish.

SPEAKER_01 (52:56):
I mean, it's it's very obvious.

SPEAKER_02 (52:58):
You look out at creation, God says it's clearly
seen that I did this.
And people still reinterpret thedata to try to explain it some
other way.
God says that that's foolish.
And and all God's people saidwhat?
Amen.
I mean, you know, that it reallyis obvious.

(53:19):
The greatest human creation, thegreatest thing we've ever made,
is nothing compared to an acorn.
Where God embedded instructionsin the DNA profile of an acorn
to build a specific type oftree.
That is that we can we can't dothat.

SPEAKER_01 (53:38):
If we start with nothing, we'll never get that.
Will we?
But God started with nothing andhe just created it with his own
voice.

SPEAKER_02 (53:47):
And it is obvious.
You just look at the thing andyou think, are you serious?
This little acorn could buildone of those.
It had his instructions for howto do that built inside of it.

SPEAKER_01 (53:58):
Who put in instructions come from where?
Minds.
Minds give instructions.
They don't just happen.
You can have all the letters ofthe alphabet, but they will
never form a book.
Will they?

SPEAKER_02 (54:15):
There has to be a mind that arranges the letters
into words that have meaningsthat are shared across cultures.
And then are organized in theproper fashion of subject, verb,
predicate, with specific syntaxand grammar, and prepositional
phrases and conjunctions to showrelationships between
everything.

SPEAKER_01 (54:34):
And these all have to be shared in cultures.
They share the language.
This doesn't just happen.
And that type of thing is inseeds.

SPEAKER_02 (54:46):
That type of thing is in the gonads of various
creatures around the world thatundergo either asexual or sexual
reproduction.
How can this be?
Well, it's not just there.
But the world see they have toexplain it all away because of
point number one.

SPEAKER_01 (55:02):
See, they don't want to come to the light.
They don't want to come to thelight.

SPEAKER_02 (55:10):
Now, um, those are the basic principles.
First of all, word of Goddoesn't return void, right?
Unbelief or belief.
Two sides to this coin.
Most usually do not believe.
Why?
Because of these three things.
These are the main reasons.
Okay.
They're sinful.
They don't want them to come tothe light, lest their deeds be
exposed.

(55:30):
The message itself is consideredjust foolish by many people.
And then they're out or theirway of justifying their unbelief
is to reinterpret data to fit aworld that doesn't include God.
Right?
Isn't this exactly what's goingon every single day in every

(55:53):
unbeliever's life?

SPEAKER_01 (55:54):
Here's the thing, because we're going to stop here
because it's time, but here'sthe thing.
The cross of Christ is alsoattractive if it's understood.

SPEAKER_02 (56:10):
Jesus said to his disciples, I will make you
fishers of men.
Now, what were these guys byprofession?
They were fishermen.
On the Lake of Galilee.
Do you think they knew the lake?
I mean, have any of you everbeen on a professional fishing
tour?
I've been on.

(56:31):
You'll get a guide, and they'lltake you right to the fish, and
you're you're catching fish,usually you're catching fish.
It's very interesting.
It's kind of, I mean, it's superfun, right?
Because if I go out there on alittle boat or something, a
little dinghy, then I'm notgoing to catch any fish, more
than likely.
But they actually track thepatterns of the fish each day of

(56:52):
the week.
They know where they're moving,they know their feeding grounds,
they know their cycles.
They know all this stuff.
They know what they like to eat,they know what type of lures or
bait to use, they know what typeof rods to use, what type of
weight of line.
They know all the the guideknows all these things that you
don't have to figure out.
Now, when Jesus said, I'm goingto make you fishers of men, do
you think they understood alittle bit more than the average

(57:16):
person?
Sure.

SPEAKER_01 (57:17):
They understood that, oh, what he's saying is he
is going to teach us how peopleoperate and think so that we can
catch them.

SPEAKER_02 (57:31):
Not a trick, we're not trying to trick them, but
appeal to them, just like youwould appeal to fish.
I mean, you I hope you put somegood bait on there that actually
attracts the type of fish youwant to catch, right?
Because otherwise you're notgoing to catch that fish.
But if you know what attractsthe fish, you know where the
fish are, and you know all theseother things, then you can
become a really good fisherman.

(57:52):
You can be very successful.

SPEAKER_01 (57:54):
That's what he was saying he would do.
Now I think that the gospel isfundamentally attractive.
Because well, I mean how many ofus don't admit readily that we
do have a sin problem?
How many of us don't have sinfulthoughts?

(58:18):
Yeah, ever had any one of theone of those?
Um did you ever do anythingsinful?
Did you ever lie?
Did you ever cheat?

SPEAKER_02 (58:26):
Did you ever, you know, fornicate?
Did you do any of these things?
I mean the the list goes on forhours and hours.
Now all these things are sin.
Why?
Well, because God is holy.
That's why.
He's the standard for what isright and what is wrong.
So if we've done anything that'sout of harmony with who he is,

(58:48):
well, we're in trouble.
And you say, well, God willjust, he'll just I yeah, I've
done those things, but I've donegood things too.

SPEAKER_01 (58:54):
This is the first response most people think.
You know why that's a problem?
Because of everything we've saidabout justice.
That it's restitutionary innature.
Now, when you sin, you stolelife from God that He gave you.
Now, you don't have any life togive.

(59:16):
So, how many good works do youneed to do to make yourself
alive again?
You're a dead person before him.
In his eyes, you're just acorpse.
So the corpse is going to dogood works and God's going to be
pleased with that?

SPEAKER_02 (59:31):
Now you're saying, well, no, that's stupid.
Yeah, of course it's stupid.
You can't.
There's nothing you can do.
That's why somebody had to comefrom outside of us who didn't
know any sin at all.

SPEAKER_01 (59:44):
He has life.
And that's Jesus Christ, right?

SPEAKER_02 (59:48):
And he gave his life for us.
So when he gives his life forus, he didn't have to die,
right?
He didn't have any sin, hedidn't have to die.
But he's giving his life for us.

SPEAKER_01 (59:59):
Why?
So that he can give us his lifein exchange if we believe in
him.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:06):
I mean, really, this is a um attractive message
because it shows us, first ofall, God loves us enough to send
someone to do this for us.
How much does God love you?

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:17):
Enough to send his own son, the second member of
the Trinity.
Philippians 2, to humblehimself.
Come down here and be a man.
Right?
And live in the filth.
Right?
But not pick up any of thefilth.
Never sin himself, right?

(01:00:38):
And then give himself for us.
Pay our penalty in full.
So this is a this is attractive,right?
I mean, he loves us that much.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:51):
More than that, he says, now I'm gonna give you my
life if you just believe in me.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:55):
And it's a free gift.
It's a free gift.
I'm not asking for anything fromyou.
God's not asking for anythingfrom you.
Nothing.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:07):
He's saying, I'm giving you something.
Will you receive it?
At Christmas time, somebodybrings you a gift, right?
They hand you a gift.
They say, Merry Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:16):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:17):
Do you have to do anything for that gift?

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:20):
Just have to accept it.
But it's yours.
It's free.
You don't have to give anythingback.
You don't have to promiseanything.
Right?
It's just a free gift.
Now why are people so opposed tothis?
See?
It really is an attractivemessage.

(01:01:43):
If people just get tounderstand, see, God loves you
so much and He's done everythingfor you, if you'll just receive
it.
But I think what goes on is thatpeople's people want merit.
People want to contribute.
They want to say, you can't tellme that everything I've done is

(01:02:05):
is not enough.
And um God says, Well, but Isent someone who did everything
that is enough.
And um, if you'll just receivehim, you have the right to
become children of God, even tothose who believe in his name.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:25):
So salvation is just a free gift.
And does it take you to humbleyourself?
Yeah, I mean, in a sense, yeah,you you you gotta come
empty-handed and say, All right,I believe in Christ, that I
trust that he paid my penalty infull.
When you do, at that moment, atthat instant moment, you are
legally saved, you arejustified, you are right with
God, and nothing can ever changethat.

(01:02:47):
That's why it's called goodnews, right?
It's good news, the Euvangelion,the good news.
We have enough bad news in thisworld, don't we?
This is good news, and I hopeyou're attracted to it if you're
not a believer in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:04):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls
with Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube,
Underspook and Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today's lessonproductive and useful in growing

(01:03:25):
closer to God and walking moreobediently with Him.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app.
And until next time, we hope youhave a blessed and wonderful
day.