36 - Jesus and Salvation, Part 2 His Death

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37 - Jesus and Salvation, Part 3 The Significance of His Death

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Well, welcome to the

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Striving for Eternity Academy's School of Systematic Theology. We are in lesson number 36.

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Wow, we have spent quite a long time discussing theology, and we're not done yet.

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We are going through a series of looking at how we take the

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Bible in its entirety, categorize it, and then we take those categories and discuss them.

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And we are continuing through, we are, if you have a syllabus like that, you can, that was kind of neat, a neat effect, you can grab your syllabus, your syllabus, follow along tonight, you'll get some extra notes that are in there, a lengthy quote that we're going to go over, but that is a neat little thing to have with you.

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We do these classes free of charge, in other words, you don't have to pay to go onto YouTube or Ustream and watch it live, or go onto YouTube anytime and watch all of the previous classes with all of your friends.

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But if you want to have the syllabus, well, it costs money to print, so it costs money for us to send it to you.

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And that's actually what we do. We send it to you. Now, if you have it, say, hey, you know, I don't have some of the syllabuses, well,

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I got good news for you, because we now have something new for you.

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And that is that we've opened up the Striving for Eternity store. The store is now open, each of the syllabuses are there, so you can get them individually or you can pay for the full year, and with the full year you get typically two, two syllabuses, and the, really, okay, so I'm being told that Mitch is saying his syllabus is still packed somewhere.

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No, Mitch, it's not. Go up to your bookshelf, second shelf down, I think, and you'll see it's right there on top of the books, and today's syllabus fell behind.

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Yeah, I saw it. It was kind of thrown back there. Yeah, that's how he unpacks. Yeah, order a new one at the store.

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That's what you should do. So people that move and they think that's going to be their excuse, they don't have to pay attention in class because they don't have their syllabus.

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I don't think so. He's not going to get away with that. So because I happen to have been there,

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I saw that it was unpacked, so I know it. So as we were saying, we have the store open for you to get things,

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I'll be mentioning at the end, but I'll mention now, if you go to the store and you want to pick up the most important message

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CDs, there is going to be a sale for the rest of this month. I think it's grand underscore opening, and if you go to the

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Facebook page, it says it for sure, but grand underscore opening will get you 50 % off of your purchase of the most important message

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CDs. That doesn't include the spindle, because the spindle we actually aren't making any money on.

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If you want to get a spindle, that's 100 CDs and a spindle for $75. That's what it costs us to print those or to duplicate those.

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So with that announcement aside, let us take a look at where we are right now.

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We are in book number two of our syllabus, and with this, we have been, we called it a

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God's gift to man. We are looking at the doctrine of salvation, and this is section number three.

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We are looking specifically at Christ and salvation. Now we saw in lesson five that the

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Father planned salvation, and in this lesson we're seeing that the Son provided salvation. Now as a quick way of review, last week we looked at Christ, we started to look at Christ's death and suffering.

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We were looking specifically last week at his six examinations, his six examinations, and we saw with his examinations that with those examinations came three

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Jewish examinations, and then we saw that there were three

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Roman examinations, and with each of them we saw that whether it was the

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Jewish ones or the Roman ones, both were illegal.

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More specifically really was the Jewish trials where we saw that basically everything they did in that trial was illegal by Jewish law.

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And so we had looked at that, and that's a good point to keep in mind that when

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Christ died, people will sometimes say, if I just could find the right words, or if I could figure a way to show someone some miraculous sign, they are going to believe in Jesus Christ.

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And that is a temptation that many of us have. We think that if I just word it the right way, if I get the, you know, some of you may be guilty of this as I once was, is that you think like if your pastor, he's going to really, he's going to know how to word it best, so if I could just get them to church, my pastor could talk to them.

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I used to have dinner at my house when I was in college, and I'd invite my pastor over and have him with all my unsaved friends because I figured he could share the gospel with them better than I could.

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And it was really interesting because one day he sat me down after everyone had left and he said, you know, you can share the gospel better with your friends than I can because they're your friends.

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They know you better. I was like, wow, but I don't know so much. I don't have all the answers he had. And so,

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I would think that it's like it's just a matter of wording it right or maybe having the right kind of, you know, if there was a miracle,

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I could show them and as we think about that, and I know that there's many who argue that we have to have signs and wonders and miracles because of the fact that by doing that, you know, they can see it's miraculous.

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But think about this. During that Jewish trial, there were three separate trials, and during that trial, they could not refute the truth about who

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Jesus Christ was. The Jewish leaders couldn't refute Christ. That's really interesting.

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You know why? Because if they couldn't refute Christ, when they have God Almighty standing in their presence, and they still are willing to have an illegal trial, what would convince them?

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Nothing. They were blinded by their unbelief. That's the reality.

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They were blinded by their unbelief. And so, you have a case where we have to remember that unbelief is something that we have a case where people, how can we say this, people will believe things because it's their pre -subposition.

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They don't care what evidence you bring in front of them. They're not going to believe certain things.

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Now, you and I would not believe in Jesus Christ had it not been for Jesus Christ because He does the first work, right?

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God does the work. And so, what we have is a case of looking at these trials and seeing that even with God, Almighty God who did all these miraculous things in the presence of these

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Jewish leaders, even with Almighty God standing in front of them, they still were not willing to repent.

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There is nobody on the face of the earth that ever lived, ever is living, or ever will live that could explain the gospel to the hearts of man better than Jesus Christ could.

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You want to talk about someone that always said everything perfect? He knew the heart of the person he'd be speaking to.

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If there's anybody who can have the best way of explaining the gospel or do the most miracles, it was

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Jesus Christ. But in the face of their pride, the

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Jewish leaders couldn't stand Christ and got rid of Him at all costs.

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And so, this week we want to take a look at His execution.

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His execution. And with this, I said I want to give a little bit of a lengthy quote and I'm going to get to that.

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But first, let's deal with some issues that become a thing that some debate over a little.

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What day did Jesus Christ die? What day was it? The time of His execution.

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Now, I'm going to give you what I think and I'm going to explain why here. But He was crucified on Friday.

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And that's your blank if you have a syllabus. He was executed on Friday morning and died prior to sunset that evening.

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Now, by Jewish reckoning, and this is something you have to understand, Jewish way of counting three days would be, it would include

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Friday prior to sunset. Remember that sunset starts the new day. So, Friday He is laid in the tomb before sunset.

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We know that it had to be before sunset because the next day was a day of preparation for the feast.

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They couldn't keep Him on the cross. This was the whole background to them coming and getting the body and breaking the legs and all these things.

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So, what you have there is you have the case where on Friday, that's the first day.

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Day number one. Prior to sunset. Sunset on Friday. He's in the grave already.

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Saturday, the entire day, which Saturday starts what we would call Friday sunset, go all the way to Saturday sunset.

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That's day number two. Then day number three would be

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Sunday. Remember, Sunday started sunset Saturday night.

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So, that's Sunday. He rises from the grave in the morning after dawn or before dawn.

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So, we see those three days when

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He was resurrected at daybreak on that third day. Now, there's some who say that because they take a literal 24 -hour day to be a reckoning of a day, they push back the crucifixion to Thursday so that it would be all day

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Friday, all day Saturday, and they would argue for a partial then on Thursday and a partial then on Saturday.

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But, see, you still don't have three full days. Now, some actually push it all the way back to Wednesday. I have seen one or two commentaries that argue for a

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Wednesday date so they have full Thursday, Friday, Saturday, see if the full day is.

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There's no reason in a Jewish way of reckoning to have to push back the date beyond Friday because we would see that in Jewish reckoning any part of the day counts as a day.

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So, Friday, any part during that day, so as long as it is before sundown, which would start

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Saturday, it's that day. So, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Even though Friday and Sunday were partials, they still count as three days.

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Now, about His execution. I want to talk about the types of execution.

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Now, if you have your syllabus, you're going to see a little bit of a lengthy quote from Charles Ryrie's Basic Theology.

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I'm quoting this because it really gives a pretty good synopsis. And so, because I'm going to be quoting it, yeah,

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I wish that I put it on the screen. Then you could read along with me. But then you wouldn't go purchase a syllabus.

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Right? So, go purchase a syllabus and then you could read along with us. So, Charles Ryrie says this quote.

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Crucifixion was an Eastern in origin. The Persians practiced it and Alexander the

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Great seemed to have learned it from them. Now, Phoenicia, famed for its barbaric practices, frequently employed crucifixion.

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Rome apparently borrowed it from Carthage and perfected it as a means of capital punishment.

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The extent to which Rome used it staggers the imagination. After being sentenced, the condemned person was flogged with a leather whip loaded with metal or bone.

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He was then required to shoulder the cross beam and carry it to the place of execution.

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This beam was approximately 6 feet long and weighed about 30 pounds.

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This was affixed to an upright stake which was already in place at the execution site.

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Nails about 7 inches long with a head to keep the body from slipping off were driven through the hands and feet of the victim.

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Sometimes ropes were also used to keep the body on the cross.

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The Romans had learned to push the feet upward when they nailed them to the cross.

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The victim would lean on the nail and push himself upward momentarily in order to breathe easier.

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Death rarely came less than 36 hours, though most people survived for 2 or 3 days before they died.

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Insatiable thirst, pain from the scourging, cramps, dizziness, public shame, and horror of knowing what lay ahead before the release of death all combined to make crucifixion a horrible means of dying."

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I wish I had actually forgot to bring into the studio, I actually have a railroad tie, it's about this long, to give a picture of what a nail, when we talk about a nail, it wasn't these little thin nails, a thin nail is not going to hold a body, 150 pound body, 200 pound body on a cross.

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No, it was a thick nail, okay? It would be something that would go right through the hand.

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Actually, some think that they'd put the nail right here and not really in the hand, because in the hand, the thought is the hand, it would tear through the body.

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So there's a bone here that they think they would put it through, so that that nail would go right through here, and that your wrist bones here would actually hold the person up.

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Okay? This is what Christ chose to suffer.

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Keep that in mind. As I described all that, I mean, think about this.

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Jesus Christ chose what day He was going to enter into humanity, and what day

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He was going to die. That was a choice that He made. He knows everything, and He knew that He waited until Rome perfected this most horrible way of dying.

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I forget where it is, I think I got it from John MacArthur. There's a quote, I think one of his commentaries that talk about a medical explanation of what happens at crucifixion.

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How a person who's got their back all torn up, and as we are, if you're watching this live, you know that we're coming upon Resurrection Sunday.

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This is the passion of the Christ. This is what Christ suffered in His execution as a payment for sin.

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We're going to look a moment at the significance of His death. But when we look at this, He would have been whipped.

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A back of His that would have been torn, just ripped to shreds in the lashings that He would have had with that whipping that they gave.

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With that open back, He would have been nailed to a cross where He can't lean forward easily, because leaning forward would put more pressure on the hands, and also on the feet.

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His feet are up just a little so that to breathe He's got to push on those nails, pick

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Himself up, rubbing that open back that's ripped open from the whipping and the lashing, rubbing against the wood.

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Now it wasn't a polished wood, they're not going to take the time to smooth it off. They didn't care if the condemned person got splinters.

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So picture you're pushing yourself up with your legs on nails that are through your ankles basically, and you're pushing up on that, rubbing your open flayed back up against the wood as you try to push yourself up just so you can breathe and not suffocate.

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And as painful as that is, there is a point where a person hanging there, the desire to breathe is so intense, the burning in your lungs, the pain on your feet and hands as you pull yourself up with your hands and push on your feet and rub your back, you're going to do that to get that breath.

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Now I'm sorry if this class is a little graphic. Maybe I should have said that up front.

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Sorry. Maybe some of you tuned out going, oh I can't even think of this. But you should think of this.

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This is what Christ did for those of us who know

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Him. He died for you. He paid this cost as a payment for your sin.

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We should think about this. And it should never leave our mind of how great

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He is. Picture the torment that He had gone through.

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I mean, if it was me, I know, I'm kind of wimpy, I would have waited until lethal injection.

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I mean, done, right? Lethal injection, hey, that's fine, you know, you give me the shot, go to sleep.

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That's not what Christ did. He waited until this form of punishment was mastered so that He could die on that cross for our sin.

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Does that boggle your mind? It should. And the

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Jewish leaders that understood these things and still rejected

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Him, amazing. There's nothing that would have convinced them, nothing. And so when we look at His death, as gruesome as it is, and if you've seen the movie,

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The Passion of the Christ, where Mel Gibson, and I understand it's a Catholic movie, following the

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Catholic tradition, I fully understand that, but I know so many who tried to look at that movie to argue for displaying the passion of what

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Christ went through, and I got news for you. That movie doesn't even come close to seeing what really would have happened to Christ.

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These guys were masters of execution, so this is what He did in dying on that cross.

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So, let us take a look at the significance of His death.

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The significance of His death. And so, what was that?

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Okay, this is a little like seeing flashes, lights, or something down there at the bottom.

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Alright, so, let's take a look at His death and significance.

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Okay, this is letter B in your syllabus. If you take that out and want to look, the first one is, ooh, that's nice, the atonement.

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The atonement. I wonder if we're going to like that one, that flashing, better than the copy machine.

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You got to have some fun, I guess, you know, playing games. Alright, so, let's take a look at the atonement, and let's first start with the definition.

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The definition that you see there in your syllabus is that Jesus Christ became our substitute. That's your blank there.

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He became our substitute for sin and has eternally satisfied the punishment for sin.

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When Christ died, there is no more need for anything else.

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This is why I have such an issue with the Roman Catholic Mass. If you've ever been part of the

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Mass, or understand what the Mass is, what that is, is that they are taking this little wafer, and they're claiming that Jesus Christ is dying again.

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He is a victim. He is coming back into this little wafer as another sacrifice.

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In other words, what that really does is it belittles and diminishes the work that Jesus did on the cross, saying, basically, that when

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Jesus said it was finished, it wasn't finished. There still needed more to be done.

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Whether that more is your works, or whether it be that little wafer, no matter what it is, when anything you're going to add, as necessary, more than the cross of Christ, as an atonement, you've got a different gospel.

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There's a cult that we're dealing with now that we're seeing pop up.

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They're coming up with a new doctrine, a new theology, where they're claiming that people can have a progressive salvation.

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Now, we do have progressive sanctification, and we understand that, and we'll get to that, where we are continuing to be made more and more in the image of God.

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Understand that. But what they're actually saying is that though Christ died on the cross, any time you willfully sin, you lose that salvation, and it has to get gained back.

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And so their argument is that you have to keep working to keep yourself saved, to keep saving yourself.

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In other words, their argument is that you have to do these works to progress toward salvation.

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That is anathema, as Galatians 1 would say. A cursing, a strongest cursing that they could in the

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Greek. I mean, this is wrong. Why? Because you're adding to the cross. It's simple mathematics, right?

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What is it, the commutative principle? I forget. You add to one side. If you add something to one side of the equation, you diminish from the other.

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And if you add something to salvation for atonement, to make that atonement, that payment for sin, anything you add diminishes from the cross.

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Because it makes the cross less valuable, less necessary, and rises up whatever that thing is that you say is a more important substitute than the cross.

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It's always interesting that every single world religion, even those that profess to be

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Christian, always see that thing that's ultimately necessary is our own works.

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People always argue that their works, that, look at their works, their works. Do you know why our works are described in Isaiah as filthy rags?

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Our works are described like filthy rags in the book of Isaiah because compared to the cross of Jesus Christ, your good works are nothing.

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They're disgusting. It is disgusting and belittling to turn to Jesus Christ who suffered on that cross as an atonement for sin to say, but look at what

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I did. Oh Lord, I thank you for dying on that cross, but look at what I did.

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Really? You walked an old lady across the street. That's going to be your claim?

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You went to church every Sunday. You gave up all worldly possessions.

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That's going to be your argument? What worldly possessions could you give up that Christ didn't give up more?

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Philippians 2 says that he came to be a slave, a slave unto death and a slave of the cross to be that payment of sin.

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He gave up heaven to come to earth to die on this cross.

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If we think we can add something to that? Okay, I'm being told

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I'm preaching. Sorry. I guess I'm just getting ready for Resurrection Sunday. But do you cherish this atonement?

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Do you look at it and realize what Christ did?

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It should boggle our mind and cause us to humble ourselves before a holy

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God that would do such a thing. Now, let's take a look at some verses.

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1 Peter 3, 18. Oh, someone posted that. Okay, I'm being told someone posted that.

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Someone beat us to it. Probably we're looking in their syllabus. Posted it in the chat room. But, for Christ also suffered once for sins.

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Notice this. This is what really goes to what I was saying with the Roman Catholics. Christ suffered once for sins.

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The righteous for the unrighteous. The righteous Jesus Christ for the unrighteous.

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You and I that know Him. That He might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the

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Spirit. Let's look at one more. And that is in 2

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Corinthians 5, 21. This also talks about this payment. For our sake

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He made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.

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So what you see here is you see a case where we can see

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Jesus Christ the righteous making this payment for sin and it fully satisfies.

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You could look at 1 John 2, 2 and I don't have that one there. And that's one you could probably write in.

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1 John 2, 2 is an interesting one because it says that Jesus becomes the propitiation for our sins.

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Not ours only but for the whole world. And so what you have here is a passage where He's saying and He's talking about the propitiation.

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We probably won't get to it today so we'll deal with it more next class. Because I was preaching too long.

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Yeah, I know. We get to a point of looking at this propitiation.

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And here with the atonement we get to a question that we'll deal with in a few lessons. Some talk about the atonement and a question comes up was the atonement limited or not?

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And we are going to look at that in more detail in a couple of lessons. When we look at the issue of God's sovereignty and human responsibility.

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But there's really two ways to answer it. And this is a question when people say do you believe in limited atonement? My question is what do you mean by that?

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Why? Well very simply there's a couple different meanings that people can have.

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In what way is it limited? That's really the one thing you want to know. The atonement is the atonement.

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The atonement is Christ became our substitute for sin and has eternally satisfied our payment for sin.

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The question is whose? Right? That's where the limit is.

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The limit is not in the extent of Jesus kind of died on the cross and it counted for the first hundred people.

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Maybe if you're a Jehovah Witness first hundred twenty people. And then the rest have a secondary atonement or something.

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But it's a thing where it's the who. Now was the atonement limited?

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Well of course it was. Why? Because there's people in hell. In a sense unless you're a universalist everybody believes in a limited atonement at some level.

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Every single person believes that the atonement was not applied to every single person because if the atonement was applied to every single person

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Oh yeah okay. I wasn't being told that it's a hundred forty four thousand for the Jehovah Witnesses.

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That's correct. I said a hundred twenty. There's a hundred twenty in the upper room. Well that's what you get from me thinking off the cuff.

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Okay. Thank you for the correction though. I would hate to misrepresent our

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Jehovah Witness friends watching. Who am I kidding? They're not. Maybe they should be.

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But the thing is is that when we look at this we see that this atonement was not applied to those who are in hell.

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Because those who are in hell if this atonement was applied to them if it was applied to them they wouldn't be in hell.

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It would be unjust for God to punish somebody who has a payment already applied to them.

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In other words you have someone that's we would call it in our court system in America double jeopardy.

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You can't try a person for a crime that he already paid the punishment for.

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So if somebody already paid it you go to court and they give you a ten thousand dollar fine and someone pays it someone else pays it the court can't require another ten thousand dollar fine just because you didn't pay it.

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Okay? So anyone that believes that there are people that go to hell in other words if people believe that they don't believe in universalism then they believe that the atonement was limited in some fashion.

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Now the real question is that people come up is was it limited on the cross?

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In other words when can we say that Christ died for all people? That's where I bring up the 1

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John 2 .2 If you study that out it says in there that Christ's death was the propitiation over sins we're going to look at propitiation later but for the world now he clarifies world by whole world now whole world doesn't necessarily mean every single person because whole can refer and world can refer to groups of people and things like that but if we look at the context he says that Christ was the propitiation of our sins not for us only but also the whole world now we have a clarification of who that whole world is and that whole world is those that are believers the us and those who are not believers that's what the text says and this might hurt some people's theology but the question is what does the text say and we don't want to make a mistake here we do not want to let our theology interpret the scriptures but let the scriptures interpret our theology and it may mean that our theology might have issues

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I understand that struggle within myself now how do I reconcile these?

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I don't I don't have the mind of God to reconcile everything but what it does seem is that the atonement clearly being limited because there are people who are in hell and yet we see with this that there is a case that could be made that Christ in a way in some form his death was absolutely sufficient for every single person now sufficiency does not mean efficacy ok in other words

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Christ's death on that cross was enough to be an atoning sacrifice for all people whoever lived our living will live because who he is as an eternal being he could take the full weight of sin upon himself for all of eternity because he's the eternal being for all people but that does not mean that it's applied to all people it doesn't mean it's efficacious or that it's applicable because some have rejected that ok now some will argue but if Christ died for all people then it has to be applied to all people and the question is why?

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why? because a theological system says so or because the scripture says so just something to think about and I understand that there's going to be some who disagree because well basically most people seem to disagree with that position why?

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because they like their theological systems and this is something that actually I valued very greatly from one of my seminary professors he had said to me that the systematic theologians would get together with our seminary wasn't far from Westminster Presbyterian seminary, we're a

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Baptist seminary and so you have covenant theology and dispensational theology if you know those terms but basically the theologians from the two schools would get together over lunch and argue that's if they got together but I was told that they would get together sometimes and they'd argue over the theological points and the exegetes those who are more the

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Old Testament scholars New Testament scholars those that are looking at the texts and dealing with the texts my

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Old Testament seminary my Old Testament professor said you know the exegetes didn't argue as much they'd look at the text and say you know

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I can see that point yeah that's a good point that's what the text is teaching how does that fit into the system? I don't quite,

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I don't know and you know what? most people find that both sides of these debates have problems with their systems with different texts and we don't have a perfect theological system because we're trying to create a system for the mind of God and we can't comprehend that I'm not saying to give up on theology especially not 36 lessons into our systematic theology class but just be aware that we don't want to be too rigid on those areas where there seems to be issues of great debate where the debate may actually have some merit in some areas now

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I'm not arguing for the fact that we should just say okay hey just because of one area we should kick off a whole theological system

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I think there's very great value in theological systems but there's better value in coming to the theological systems with the text of scripture and not the system we actually had this

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Facebook debate where someone was arguing on something because it was part of their system and they were interpreting something that they admitted it was seeing

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I'm trying to remember how it was seeing Job as a type of Christ in his suffering and basically the argument was because the system that he holds to has to see

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Christ in every book of the Bible and so Christ has to be in Job and so Job has to be a type of Christ in some fashion and so they were arguing for that and the issue as I said if it wasn't for your theological system telling you to interpret the

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Bible this way would you in any other circumstance see this and the answer was no well if you don't see it that way maybe it's not that way okay and I don't know too many people that actually argued for Job being a type of Christ but there are some so we do have this case where there is a the atonement is limited or particular as some now call it because limited atonement kind of has some of these terms have gotten the label has been so watered down into meaning different things that people don't understand it and so I remember reading

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R .C. Sproul that he kind of redefined these with better words and particular atonement I think is better and that's

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I got from R .C. Sproul where he talks about the atonement being very specifically applied to those who believe in Christ alright so we're on number one of the of the death and significance and we have eight minutes of class left okay so I think people are laughing that I'm not going to get through this lesson if you look in your syllabus you see that we have to deal with redemption reconciliation propitiation wrath and offering so we're going to hold those over if I would stop preaching so much getting ready for resurrection

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Sunday maybe we could get through a class I hope I really do hope though that you

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I'm not trying to get preachy on you but I do hope that you do think about especially in this time of year this season you think about the cross and what

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Christ suffered I really want to encourage you to to meditate upon that and not just as we come into this season of resurrection

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Sunday but it should be on the forefronts of our minds and hearts every day and every hour you know thinking of what

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Christ suffered to be that atonement for sin it really does help us to gain a better and right perspective of eternity it's something where when we think about the things that we call trials in life and we think about what

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Christ suffered Christ is an eternal being he felt that punishment in an eternal way and we can't comprehend that because even our greatest suffering has an end unless of course we die and go to hell because if you die and go to hell then this is your best life now just saying but what we end up with is as believers our worst suffering has an end our worst suffering has an end we didn't suffer it in an eternal way we can rejoice in that you can be suffering with family members as I dealt with for two hours last night dealing with a family member whose child in their words they believe kidnapped now

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I can't know for sure but but possibly in their minds at least being held against the child's will in a cult whether that's true or not the burden of these parents who haven't been able to speak to their children and they're not alone not knowing what their children are going through thinking of someone that I had to deal with many years ago whose child may have been kidnapped and put into human trafficking the sex trade not knowing how to find their daughter not knowing where she may be not knowing what she was being put through and going through that is tragic and I don't want to make light of that but as great as that suffering is that suffering still pales in comparison to the death that Christ suffered on that cross when

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He became a payment for sin and so when we think of our suffering as believers in Christ even if that suffering is for 70 or 80 or 90 years it comes to an end it comes to an end let's rejoice in the fact that there's an end coming to all of our suffering but Christ paid a suffering that we can't even begin to fathom and He did that for the atoning work to be that sacrifice to be that substitute that would satisfy the payment for our sin we should rejoice in that regularly daily because it puts our own suffering and the wrongs that we think were done against us and our pride into place enough preaching but I do encourage you with that let me just say if you have any questions you can email us at the academy at strivingforeternity .org

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you just want to remind you we have the store that is open the store is open we want to encourage you to go to the store go there often buy our stuff because we don't make a whole lot of money which means we got to sell a whole lot more to be able to put food on the tables the more you buy the more we can do and the reality is we put these things out here for you guys we're not charging much for those who get the books we're charging costs pretty much and for those who are watching and aren't paying anything you're getting it free it still costs us money to put it on and do this so please go to our store buy our stuff buy lots and lots and lots of those

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CDs at half price so that you can get them and give away to people when you go out witnessing lastly

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Ohio Fire is coming up I was told someone may be able to make it possibly hopefully really hoping that this individual may come down from Canada a someone dear to our ministry we're hoping and praying but I can't say that but we'll just pray that she gets there so but we're hoping for that but if you guys can register if you can't make it to Ohio Fire would you consider donating for others so that we can help others make it there some people can't afford to come when

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I say can't afford they can't even afford the bus fare we pick people up and drive them there we give them bus fare we do lots of things so you can help us do that you can help us pay the speakers you know and so yeah if you want to do that please register now

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I think one of the things when we look at the person we want to have is our brother of encouragement

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I'll say this that I spent the weekend at the Justin Peters conference on the discernment conference great time

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I never heard brother Justin preach before or speak and so I really was encouraged by him

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I had the distinct privilege of being able to have dinner with him and some other dear friends in a private dinner and got to really get to know him and his heart and I can honestly say

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I never met a guy that is so humble that just has such a great perspective

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I really really really valued my time with him and he's not the brother of encouragement this week but the brother is someone

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I met at the conference for the first time became friends with him on Facebook and he recently has joined the

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Striving Fraternity Facebook group and I just want to encourage you to encourage Al Yerkes he has and I don't know much about him but he was a great encouragement to me when we were out there we had the plan was

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Friday night a bunch of us were going to go out witnessing it was called off because of rain but that didn't stop

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Al Al went out anyway he wasn't going to let rain get in his way of sharing the gospel and it really was an encouragement to the rest of us who were supposed to be there

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I was looking through his blog spot there he's got a lot of good things out there excuse me a lot of good things out there that I was reading and I encourage you to go read there he got saved through a ministry that we are that we're very good friends with and that is

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Wretched Radio used to be Way of the Master Radio and he got saved through that ministry

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I'd encourage you to do as I did and ask him about that you know he's it's it's neat to see when people get saved any person but it's neat to see how some of these ministries that some of you support to hear people getting saved through those ministries and so I encourage you to get to know

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Al add him on Facebook if you're on Facebook but encourage him this week not just today but try to publicly privately whichever to be encouraging him everyday we do this because basically let's admit it you and I are really bad at encouraging other people aren't we?

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we shouldn't be as Christians after what we just talked about with what Christ did on the cross but that put aside let's think about the fact that we really and there's times where you and I need some encouragement don't we?

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yeah we do and we need to be encouraging one another not just saying all those wonderful things once someone's oh yeah dead that's when we say all these wonderful things you know many people need to hear it while they're still alive so I encourage you to go out and encourage this week

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Al but don't stop there I mean we want to develop in each of ourselves and I'm working on it myself is a daily desire to encourage those around us and so we try to focus on a different person to encourage you to encourage and this week is our brother

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Al so we want to encourage you to do that and I will say that we will have class next week we will finish up this lesson no laughing we will finish up this lesson and then we'll have the following week just to let you know probably do a live update from New Hampshire on the

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Ivy League tour as we did last year we'll be joining Scott Smith and his crew to go around to the

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Ivy League campuses and do some preaching on those campuses should be good

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I won't unfortunately have some my brothers fellowship in this year my brother