Temple Envy

I don't know. I don't what it was but with the falling back or maybe that's the maybe moon spots moon spots

You know, I this is the kind of day literally where I feel like I need to go back to bed and just restart Yeah, I want to do over I'm in a fog

All right. Let's pray and we will get started Lord Jesus again as we open up your word

We pray that you would open our hearts and minds that we may rightly understand it market Learn it idly digest and meditate on it that we may see you in it

Understand what you have revealed for us to believe repent of what we have done wrong and bear fruit in keeping with repentance and good works towards our neighbor as we hope and wait and Anticipate your glorious return.

We ask all of this in Jesus name. Amen All right before we get started were there any questions that arose in your minds during the sermon?

Okay, I see Maryland I remembered this time this yeah, okay, let's take a look so Matthew 23

Matthew 23 what verse? Okay, woe to you scribes and Pharisees verse 20 you blind

Pharisee First clean the outside. Okay. So notice here. This is kind of a rhetorical device

All right, so it so woe to you scribes and Pharisees verse 25 you hypocrites plural plural, right?

For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate but inside they are full of greed and self -indulgence you blind

Pharisee First clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside may be also clean

The idea here is is that he's addressing the group and at the same time by switching to singular

He's singling out every single one of them, you know, so you can't sit there and say well it doesn't apply to me

Well, yeah, actually it does, you know, it does Isn't that how we always are?

Uh -huh Sure.

Uh -huh. Uh -huh.

Yes. Great question

Right in in this particular context Jesus is talking really specifically about what goes on in the life of the church

These are religious leaders and this has to do with religious leadership and false teachers

And so what we'll say is that in the right -hand kingdom and this is the church it would be inappropriate to exalt a servant in the church in such a way it really it turns that person into a guru and You know, this is why over and again.

I reiterate I am Kongsvingers slave that's You want to know if you were to put if you were to like take the organizational charge historical

Organization charts always kind of look like a pyramid with the CEO on the top just flip it for Kongsvinger You guys are on the top.

I'm at the bottom My job is to serve my job is not to lead my job is not in any in any of the worldly senses and so what in what you're gonna notice here that the the

Warp -and -woof and the total feel of church leadership in the theology of glory

Is that the pastors really are the ones who are the focal point rather than Christ?

They're at the top. They are the honored not Christ My job is to get out of the way and this is why we you know

I wear vestments and cover up and all this kind of stuff because it's not about me because one of these days If the

Lord continues to tarry as long as he's been tearing, you know I'm either gonna die or retire and there's going to be another fellow who's going to be called to serve this congregation

So you want him to be the same thing? He's the church's slave. He's the church's servant. His job is to serve and so that's the idea and so you'll notice and compare then the

Pharisees who They love to be seen in the marketplaces that have the highest honors, you know

It's the honorable seats and all this kind of stuff Everything is about them them them them then compare that to the people that Jesus is sending the prophets the scribes

The wise people and you know, these fellows are going to be persecuted. They're going to be despised.

They're going to be lowly There's nothing about that group that makes them stand out in a way that this other group does

I mean, you know, I mean seriously if Peter were to show up today, we think wow Peter's here, man But who would

Peter be talking about, you know, he'd be talking about Jesus and he said there and go Okay.

Yeah, he's like one of us. We're all equal in the kingdom of God. So Correct.

So then in the right in the in the left -hand kingdom Mr. President Trump is mr.

President, you know in the in the left -hand kingdom judges are your honor in the left -hand kingdom

Mom is mom dad is dad, you know, mr. President. Mr. Mayor things of this sort because we're

Recognizing in that sense the offices that they are placed into so father mother head of state, you know and Offices within a government those are

God -ordained offices And so that title really is it is to be you know, but we honor in that sense

So what Jesus is talking about here is not left -hand kingdom He's talking about right and you'll notice that it's absolutely correct in the left -hand kingdom to say mr.

President But it's wrong in the right -hand kingdom to say Father Rose, bro

Yes, please. Would you yes, yes, please. No, I think that that's that's missing the mark

It's missing the mark badly You know, so if you want to call me, hey you Okay, you can it's kind of the idea.

It's like, you know Yeah, and I and I think it's it's in what's really fascinating is when you read

Catholic apologists on this Last night the Aletheia service somebody sent me a link and I looked at read it last night

They literally have to manipulate this text to justify their practice and I think their practice is bad

And it actually falls in line with their understanding They believe that ordination is a sacrament and that it changes the character of the person who's ordained

This this is not what scripture teaches their scripture Nowhere reveals that something mystical happens to a pastor when he's ordained an ordination service is literally just the public ratification of the call that God has given through a

Congregation and so when we talk about the pastoral office It's important to understand that everybody's a priest as Christians.

We're all priests, but not all our pastors pastors are slaves They're servants And if you look at the Apostle Paul when you read his letters

Paul it says I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ And I'm a slave over and again Paul refers to himself as slave

So when somebody's ordained to the pastoral office the way it works is God the Holy Spirit chooses a man

The congregation gathers and votes. It's through the voting then that God is the one who's choosing you know to extend a call to and When a person you know receives and accepts that call

Since the the preaching office is a public office within the church You don't want to just smuggle some guy in surreptitiously

Then what ordination is is the public ratification through kind of a church, right?

And it's mentioned in Scripture the laying on of hands So we know that this is an actual thing that you know

That is part of good order that when a pastor is called he is you brought forward in front of the whole community

Hands are laid on him and said and he's placed into the office It's just the public ratification of the call from God through the church.

Does that make sense? And so, you know, there's nothing mystical in that sense about it whereas Rome they actually believe that ordination is is mystical and it's a sacrament and that it changes the

Person it changes something of their character and it then makes them Worthy or have the right characteristics in order for that person to preside in the mass to transform

Bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. I guarantee you I have no power

To transform bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. It is way above my pay grade. I just work in sales

It's Jesus and and the Holy Spirit and the Father who are in you know in management

Okay, so I have no ability. I haven't there's nothing in me that makes that possible. It's it's the Word of God that does all the work

Jesus keeps getting employee of the month. He know he's he's like the top man. He's the head so Yeah, all right any other questions then

Any other questions in the cropped up from the sermon? Yes Okay.

So the Jewish prayer cloth is technically different than the tassels The prayer shawl is so when a

Jewish man prays he puts his puts a covering over his head Often you can actually you see these online if you want to Google, you know, you know

Jewish prayer shawl It's usually blue and white striped and it's got tassels on it. That's actually different than the

Jewish prayer shawl It's actually different than the sits the oath that are mentioned here about the tassels Let me see if I can find this

Is what is this Mm -hmm. Let me let me see if I can do a cross -reference on this.

I think I can find it if I do it this way Let's see here No Okay Here Here we go and Jesus perceiving the power had gone out from him if I touch the garments

I want to see the cross -reference there 28 You know,

I don't remember. Okay. I'll just I'll do this from memory. Yeah you did So in the book of Numbers and I'd have to look this up in the book of Numbers there's a command given by the

Lord for all the men of Israel and So back in the day, they didn't like I said, they didn't have shirts that you bought at Walmart and stuff like that So, you know garments were made on a loom and a man's shirt was kind of like a poncho

So it was you know a long rectangular piece hole cut in it for that where you put the head through and Oftentimes they would come up with a way of working out the sleeves and or attaching them and other things but what one of the distinctives of it is is that there were always four corners to the shirts and so God actually commanded that all of the men of Israel and Jesus himself actually had these himself is that they had to have a tassel and usually just a piece of a leather strap

You know thin leather strap coming off each of the corners and it had it has significance as far as reminding them something about the

Torah and setting them apart and and so the Pharisees they

They made theirs as long as possible I mean there's would be swinging every time they would walk by you could see there and they're called sit

See oath is what they're called And then if you remember the story of the woman who had the issue of blood the woman with the issue of blood

This is the woman who bled for 12 years when Jesus was going to The house of Jarius the synagogue ruler whose little daughter was dying.

Remember, you know, remember the story It's in Mark 5 when he was traveling on the way to Jarius's house

The woman kind of came up through the crowd and she says if I just touch the hem of his garment

That's actually a bad translation because that's more like a an English version. It was it's literally she she was gonna

She was looking for the city oath. That's what she was looking for. And so that's what she touched

It was it was it was one of the little things coming off of the corner of Jesus's shirt And so she touched that and that's how she was healed so Yeah, but different though than a prayer shawl, yeah, and and y 'all know that the

Jewish way of praying Face up hand palms open to heaven You know, that's that's one of the ways that in fact

Scripture really didn't as far as posture of prayer is concerned To two postures this way and on your knees

Down face down. Those are the two postures I've mentioned in Scripture regarding how to pray just kind of interesting thing.

So all right, let's take a look at 2nd

Samuel chapter 7 and Let me ask you before we get started when

Jesus was on earth, how many sins did he commit? Zero not one right.

He was completely without sin Right, let's pay attention to this prophecy now in 2nd

Samuel chapter 7 This is the story of how King David who is now reigning as the king of all of Israel from of all places

Jerusalem, right? Says this now when the king lived in his house and Yahweh had given him rest from his surrounding enemies the king said to Nathan That just disconnect.

Yes, it did Wow Okay, not sure what happened there. Yeah, did somebody not pay the

Internet bill what's going on here? Oh That don't even have any Wi -Fi at all. Well, that's different All right.

I'll wait for my settings to come back. Maybe I'll restart my phone All right weird

Okay, so the Lord had given him rest from all of his surrounding enemies the king said to Nathan the prophets see now

I dwell in a house of cedar But the Ark of God dwells in a tent Nathan said to the king go and do all that is in your heart for Yahweh is with you

But that same night the word of Yahweh came to Nathan go and tell my servant

David thus says Yahweh Would you build me a house to dwell in?

I? Have not lived in a house since the day I brought brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day

But I have been moving in a tent For my dwelling in all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel Did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom

I commanded to Shep to Shepherd my people Israel saying? Why have you not built me a house of cedar?

Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David thus says Yahweh Sava oath

I took you from the pasture from the From following the sheep that you should be prince over my people

Israel And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all of your enemies from before you and I will make for you a great name like the name of the great ones of the earth and I will appoint a place for my people

Israel and will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more and Violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly from the time that I appointed

Judges over my people of Israel, and I will give you rest from all of your enemies

Moreover Yahweh declares to you that Yahweh will make you a house now a little bit of a note here who

And what is this all referring to? Can you think of a time in Israel's history where they have had perfect rest from all of their enemies

I? Don't know if you've noticed, but the Middle East seems to be just a very awful place to live

You know especially since the Jews have returned it has been just a battlefield non -stop

Has this been fulfilled yet? so what is this that God is promising and When is that going to be fulfilled while you're figuring that out?

I'm going to reset this And I want to hazard a guess and Today is when

Christ returns So you'll notice here one of the things I've talked about in the past several times is when we read

Hebrews 11 Hebrews 11 Explicitly states that the patriarchs died having not received the promises and that the promised land in The Old Testament was type and shadow of the thing that's coming and the thing that's coming is the new earth when

There was he will cause all of his enemies to no longer do the enemy thing Right and this is why scripture over and again refers to the time when

Christ returns and things working out You know in the end times that that will be the time when we take our

Swords and beat them into plowshares. We go from being

Soldiers to being farmers right the church militant now is no longer militant

It's a time that's still coming now another theme that's also important in this.

Let's see if that's gonna work That says it's got to connected. Let's see.

I told you I need to redo for today. It's the weirdest day Everything is just off by about one degree

You saw the emoji movie. No Hang on let's see if I get this to work finally

Well, that's an improvement What is going on Let's see here mirror

Apple TV Okay, hang on we're

There we go. Okay. Now another theme and this is the one I want to talk about So up to this point the children of Israel offer sacrifices where?

No, it's not the temple Where is the place where the sacrifices are taking place up to this point?

tabernacle tabernacle big ugly movable Tent Yeah, nothing spectacular to look at quite humble and This is what

God commanded the children of Israel to build when they were in the wilderness now

Tabernacle itself is type and shadow of Christ and his

Incarnation and presence now, let me kind of explain this. This is actually explicitly taught in the

New Testament Let me show you a passage so that you get the idea here Because I don't want this to be lost on you.

Take a look at the gospel of John chapter 1 John 1 and We're all familiar with this text

This is a passage that explicitly teaches that Jesus is none other than God himself in human flesh

You should be familiar with these words John 1 1 one of the most famous verses in all of Scripture in the beginning was the word the word was with God and The word was

God How many? How many Gods are you counting there in the beginning was the word word was with God and was

God Yeah, it's kind of weird. Yeah, you're gonna note here that the doctrine of the Trinity is in play All right.

So the word was with God the word was God all things were made through him without him was not anything made that was made in him was life and the life was the light of men and The light shines in the darkness and the darkness is not overcome it

There was a man sent from God whose name was John He was he came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him

He was not the light but came to bear witness about the light the true light which gives light to the world was coming into The world he was in the world and the world was made through him yet.

The world did not know him He came to his own and his own people did not receive him But to all who did receive him who believed in his name

He gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of a man but of God and the word became flesh and Some translations will get this more specifically the word became flesh and tabernacled among us it's what the

Greek says the word became flesh and Tabernacled among us we have seen his glory

The glory as the only son from the father full of grace and truth Tabernacled Jesus came and stayed with us

In a tent an earthly tent of his body, right? That's that's the idea and so here coming back to our text then here.

We have a fascinating thing going on Number one, it's important to recognize that the tabernacle points to Christ and his incarnation which it does and That here

God is at this point Although he is recognizing that David's desire to build him a permanent dwelling here on this earth

Was a commendable desire God's not having anything of it

Okay I have tabernacled among you and When did

I ever say build me a house of cedar build me a permanent edifice never right? so he had that's that's in play and Then God flips the tables and God now is saying listen

David. You're not gonna build me a house God's gonna literally say to David.

I'm gonna build you a house And watch what's going on so we can see the eschatological promises regarding the ceasing of all hostilities the eschaton coming his people the people of Israel finally having unceasing peace and rest from all of their enemies, which is coming still in the future and Then we continue now in verse 9.

I Will make for you a great name like the name of the great ones of the earth I will appoint a place for my people

Israel I will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more and Violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly from the time that I appointed judges over my people

Israel And I will give rest from all of your enemies moreover Yahweh declares to you that Yahweh will make you a house

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers I will raise up your offspring after you

Who shall come from your body and I will establish his?

Kingdom, I wonder who that's about All right, so you notice in this text explicit prophecy about Jesus He shall build a house for my name

Not you David Your Descendant will and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

I Will be to him a father he shall be to me a son now watch this

When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men with the stripes of the sons of men

But my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom

I put away from before you So, what do you do with that?

How many sins did Jesus commit? Zero, but it says when he commits iniquity

The the referent hasn't changed Yeah, this is in the context that the referent is still this this one whose throne whose kingdom will be forever

It's unmistakable who this is talking about. It's talking about Jesus So what do we do with this when he commits iniquity?

I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men Yes Yeah So you're gonna note something here.

That's very fascinating So this gets into the biblical doctrine we cut that it goes by different names the vicarious atonement or penal substitutionary atonement and You're going to note here that in order to understand this you have to understand that our sin being imputed to Christ is

And reckoned to him in such a way that he is actually the one guilty of committing the sin

It says he it's as if he's the one who committed it All right.

Let's take a look at a New Testament text that Mm -hmm.

Yep, 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. Let's take a look at 2nd Corinthians 5 Of course

I can't spell today either 5

I'm gonna start in verse 16 For context and let's walk through this from now on therefore

We regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh

We regard him thus no longer Therefore if anyone is in Christ He is a new creation

And that's also she's he's in she's the old has passed Behold the new has come all of this is from God who through Christ Reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation

So you notice we are the passive recipients of this reconciliation That God himself has reconciled us to himself through Christ That is in Christ.

God was reconciling to the world the world to himself Not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of Reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors of Christ God is making his appeal through us.

So we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God for our sake

He the he there is God God made him the him there is Christ God made

Christ listen to the words to be Sin Who knew no sin?

So that in him we might become the righteousness of God This is dealing with the doctrine.

You can call it double imputation if you want But the idea is this is that when we commit sin

We ourselves are guilty of it and we ourselves Are the ones who deserve to be punished for it in ourselves and So you'll notice that sin isn't something that's just separated from you

In fact, it's a bad thing to say. Well God loves hates the sin, but loves the sinner

It's not true. God sends sinners to hell not their sin

But God has somehow taken our sin our guilt and our

Iniquity and found a way somehow and I don't know how this works To have it removed from us and all of it placed upon Christ if it's all placed upon Christ Who then is the one of being guilty of?

committing those sins He is Yeah Yes Yeah, and that we'll take a look at that cross -reference in just a minute because that's your other that's your other clear cross -reference but I want you to kind of conceptually understand this so he then is punished and You'll note then this text that we just read watch a couple of the details of Christ's passion are

Mentioned when he commits iniquity. So notice he's the one guilty of committing it I will discipline him with the rod of men with the stripes of the sons of men was

Jesus beaten with a rod Was he flogged? Yes, so you'll notice two of The pieces of Christ's total suffering for us are explicitly mentioned in this text

Now we've talked about so our sin our iniquity is imputed to Christ He is now the one guilty of committing it he

Suffers in your place and receives exactly what you deserved. That's half the equation

Now we've already noted at the beginning of the class How many sins did Jesus commit?

zero If he committed zero sins, that means he was one righteous, dude

Right, and I'm using the word righteous in its truest sense there You can literally say of Jesus that fellow is righteous

Right So when you are brought to faith in Christ Your sins are forgiven.

You're united to Jesus in his death and his resurrection What is given to you?

His righteousness so all of Jesus sinless righteousness is now given to you

What does that make you? know

No, it makes you righteous But watch watch the text again.

Watch watch watch watch watch Okay, watch it watch verse 21

For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him

We might become watch the righteousness of God if Jesus is the sinner and he's guilty of the sins that you committed

Conversely the other half of this is because he was righteous his righteousness is given to you that means you are perfectly sinlessly righteous and holy in God's sight ah

Hold on a second here You you're not Do you remember you remember the movie back to the future doc would say to to Marty McFly?

You're just not thinking fourth dimensionally. Okay, the issue here is you're not thinking in yet.

We're talking in terms of imputation Is Jesus guilty of all of the sins you committed?

Yes or no? Yes He is because God took all of your sins threw them on to him and then he bled and died for every one of them

So he's the one who's guilty of committing that iniquity When you're brought to faith in Christ, his righteousness is given to you as if it's your own.

Are you righteous? Yes, or no? Yes You are straight -up righteous

Yeah Yeah Now so here's the thing in this lifetime

This is an article of faith and the reason being is because we still have a sinful nature

Okay, because I'll be blunt I look in the mirror I look at my life and The last word that I come up to describe it is righteous

Okay, last word. Okay and see but the thing is is you look at Jesus and His perfectly sinless life.

The last word you come up with for Jesus is Iniquitor sinner

You that doesn't even sound right to describe Jesus but see that's the mystery and the depth of what goes on on the cross and Here in 2nd

Samuel 7 we see an explicit Prophecy regarding Christ dying for our sins because it says when he commits iniquity in God's sight

Jesus is the one who committed all of those atrocities Jesus is the one who bled and died even for Hitler's sins in God's sight

Christ is guilty of the genocide of the Holocaust Come on All right

He's even guilty of that time when you swiped a pack of bubblegum at Hugos right from the smallest to the greatest

God has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Here's our next text. Let's take a look at it.

It's Isaiah 53, but I think I want to start in 52 Uh -huh

Okay Uh -huh, uh -huh

So you're putting it all into the future Yeah, you're putting it all in the future scripture teaches us to pull it into the present and To believe it in the present.

You're right that on the day of our judgment. We will see it But you have it now

You have it now Yeah Yes That we don't and we don't know the answer to that question

Scripture doesn't allow us to answer it. That's what is called the crux the oligarum. It's the theologians cross.

It's an unsolvable mystery We do not have the answer. So what we do is we affirm two things in Scripture that seem contradictory

Understanding that God has not given us the full revelation and the two things that we simultaneously Confess are both truths explicitly taught in Scripture Everyone who is saved is saved because God has given them faith as a gift and has raised them to life

Everyone who is damned it is their fault Straight up.

It seems contradictory but scripture says both those things clearly and it doesn't tell us why

I Don't know. I couldn't tell you It like I said it before I'll say it again.

I work in marketing The Trinity is up in management. They have not told me in my division how this works so Yeah, and they're foolish to say that because Jesus just straight -up contradicts them.

You keep coming back to Christ on this Yep, Christ is the Almost in Scripture.

He's almost the single most greatest authority and revealer of the doctrine of hell Nobody even comes close to Christ in revealing that horrible doctrine, but it's true.

Nonetheless Alright, so a text Isaiah 52 13 Behold my servant.

This is the suffering servant song of Isaiah behold my servant shall act wisely he shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted as many as were astonished at you his appearance was marred beyond human semblance and His form beyond that of children of mankind, you know, you want to understand just how severely

Jesus was beaten And what he'd look like on the cross He was beaten so badly and so marred you probably wouldn't have recognized him.

That's the beating that he took So shall he sprinkle many nations kings shall shut their mouths because of him

For that which has not been told them they see and that which they have not heard they understand

So who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him. No beauty that we should desire him he was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and Acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hid their faces.

He was despised and we esteemed him not Surely he has borne our griefs carried our sorrows yet.

We esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted

But he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds.

We are healed All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all

So who was he pierced for? us

Right, so you'll note he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed For our iniquities God has laid on him

The iniquity of us all and yes the same word here for iniquity is the same

Hebrew word that we see in our text in 2nd Samuel 7 14 and He shall be to me a son when he commits iniquity

I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men So now you're starting to see what scripture reveals regarding what

Jesus is doing on the cross God the Father has literally taken all of our sin all of the sin of humanity

Placed it squarely on Jesus so much So that he is considered by God the one who committed the iniquity and then he suffers

Bleeds dies in our place Okay.

Now this gets into a difference that we've talked about and we're it bears repeating This is where we're going to make a difference between what is called objective justification versus Subjective justification.

Let me explain. Is it true that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?

It is Does this text do we not just read that God has laid on him the iniquity of us all?

Is that true? Are there any sins that are not bled for died for? None Why is it that some people are not saved don't know the answer to the question.

Oh You're learning Okay, well, let's let's

Uh -huh All right. Let's I can't do theology without a biblical text

Let's take a look at a biblical text open up to Acts 11 mark. Oh, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah see here you got to understand what you are

Misunderstanding how salvation works if you think that repentance is your part

Okay, if you think that's your part, let me explain Acts 11 acts 11 is the big meeting that Peter had with the

Apostles and others after Cornelius the Roman Centurion and his family were brought to faith in Christ they were the first Gentile believers in Jesus and They received the

Holy Spirit and so Peter was actually called out on the carpet about this and had to Explain his actions and we're going to pay close attention to what text says

Acts 11 1 The Apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the

Gentiles also had received the Word of God So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcision party and you can almost hear the soundtrack going done done done not them again

Yeah, all right circumcision party criticized him saying you went to Uncircumcised men and you ate with them.

Do you get the feeling that this circumcision party was a group of racists? It sounds like it doesn't it?

Yeah Peter began and explained it to them in order I was in the city of Joppa praying in a trance

I saw a vision something like a great sheet descending being let down from heaven by its four corners. It came down to me

Looking at it closely I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air

And I heard a voice saying to me rise Peter kill and eat But I said by no means

Lord for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth But the voice answered a second time from heaven what

God has made clean do not call common this happened three times and Always drawn up again into heaven and behold at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were

Sent to me from Caesarea. The spirit told me to go with them making no distinction

These six brothers also accompanied me we entered the man's house and he told us how he had seen the angel standing in the house and say send a

Joppa and Bring Simon who is called Peter. He declared to you He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved

You and your household as I began to speak the Holy Spirit fell on them

Just as on us at the beginning and I remembered the word of the Lord how he said John baptized with water

But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit if then God Gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the

Lord Jesus Christ Who was I that I could stand in God's way? When they heard these things they fell silent and they glorified

God saying then to the Gentiles also God has

Granted repentance that leads to life Repentance is not your piece of the salvation puzzle

Repentance is granted to you by God and it's worked in you by his Holy Spirit Through the preaching of the word.

Do you want to know why pagans out in the bush never? repent on their own

Because the Word of God hasn't come to them and that's exactly what scripture teaches

Let me give you another text I think it's Romans 10 Yes, it is.

We'll start at verse 11 Romans 10 for the scripture says Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek the same Lord is Lord of all

Bestowing his riches on all who call on him for everyone who calls on the name of the

Lord will be saved Straight up anybody who calls on the name of the

Lord will be saved Well, how come the pagans out in the middle of the Amazon forest aren't calling on the name of the

Lord Paul goes on So how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in him of whom they?

Have never heard and how are they to hear without someone preaching and how are they to preach unless they are sent as it is?

Written how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? But they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says

Lord who has believed what he's heard from us. So faith comes from hearing Hearing through the word of Christ.

This is why we send missionaries. This is why we have churches This is why we have pastors

My job is to preach the word So what's doing the work?

Is it me? No, really? It's not I can tell you It's the word

The word is living and active the gospel so when somebody goes out as a missionary to an unreached people group who've never heard the

Gospel and they tell them here's what scripture reveals That we are all here because God has created the universe spoke it into existence in six days rested on the seventh and We as human beings being part of his creation the crowning pinnacle of his own glory were made in his image

But our first parents rebelled and threw us into sin and we've been living under a curse and you're under that curse as well

This is why we all die But the good news is this that God has himself

Come to earth born of a virgin Suffered and bled and died for our sins and iniquity and has been raised again on the third day

So we need to repent and call upon his name and be forgiven of our sins

And he promises eternal life and salvation to all who do right You sit in the ground.

I've heard that sermon a thousand times right But there are many people around the world who've never heard that sermon ever heard that message

But you're gonna note here that message you find it in Scripture So when someone takes it up in their mouth

They are taking God's words into their mouth and God now is the one really doing the speaking Faith comes by hearing hearing through the word of Christ Cornelius was granted repentance by God Through the working of the

Word of God in the message that Peter preached to him This is exactly what was in his report that they heard from God that hit this

Peter is going to preach to them a message By which they will be saved Notice the emphasis is on the word doing the work and through the

Word of God God the Holy Spirit grants repentance to you makes you feel sorry true contrition and sorrow for your sins and Through the word works in you faith to believe the good news

So that you trust the promises that are offered by God for the pardon and forgiveness of your sins and eternal life

Because of what Christ has done So everybody who is saved is saved because God has done that to them granted them repentance given them faith and he does all of this through the working of his word which the

Holy Spirit is inextricably linked to Right, does that make sense?

No, I tried so hard yes, no

Maybe Don has some clarification

Yes, that's the weird part Yes That's the one thing we do have the ability to do is say no

We do not have the ability to say yes, that's that that is given by God Which is the strange part about all of this?

Then you have hell to look forward to Yeah, which is foolishness, it's absolute foolishness

Not exactly, okay Yeah, you're you're you're you're kind of mushing the horizontal and the vertical

Okay, now we're talking specifically right now of the vertical Okay in our relationship to God We're all sinners and God is the one who has to grant us repentance and give us faith itself as a gift

No, you see this is where you can take take Christ's death on the cross and put it in its history

That was 2 ,000 years ago God laid on him 2 ,000 years ago the iniquity of us all

You coming to faith in Christ in the 20th century as you did

That is a separate event than the atonement Okay, I Didn't know you were smooshing these two together until you told me

Okay Yeah, okay So so think of it this way.

I've used the analogy before and it's a good analogy. Okay How far away is the closest electrical power plant to us from here?

thief River How many hours away is that? 45 minutes of 45 minutes away the electricity that's consumed here is

Made there, right? Okay, how does the electricity made 45 miles away turn these lights on?

No, it's not magic tell me what's the delivery system

Wire Right. We see that they're all over the place. You drive out in the countryside. You see the big, you know electrical, you know

You know, you see the pieces of the grid, right? All right. So the idea is this Christ dying on the cross is the electrical plant in thief

River We don't live there. We're not tapping into the electrical plant directly.

So it has to be delivered somehow It's delivered via wires. So what Christ accomplished on the cross we can't go back 2 ,000 years ago event

As much as we'd want to we can't So then how is it that what Christ accomplished on the cross is delivered to you?

What's the delivery system? Missionaries right who else the

Bible who else pastors you too Right.

So the idea then is is that we become the delivery system nice and that's include all of us

Because have you ever told anybody about Jesus's death on the cross for their sins Yeah, you've done that So you're now the delivery system for the gospel faith comes by hearing hearing by the

Word of Christ How are they supposed to call on somebody whom they've never heard of? Well, they can't So tell them about Jesus now you become the delivery system the

Word of God in your mouth is delivering what Jesus accomplished on the cross and Because God's Word is living and Active double -edged sword and the

Holy Spirit is inextricably linked to the Word of God When you speak

God's words Who's doing the speaking? God is

God is making his appeal to them through us

That's exactly what the scripture says So we become the telephone poles of the electrical wires by which the the finished work on the cross now is brought to people here in this century in our place in our time

That make sense. Maybe I should draw and you'll be good.

We're gonna draw this out for you Might have to all right