The Man Christ Jesus (part 10)

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The Man Christ Jesus (part 11)

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Our Father in heaven, Father, we thank you that we have the blessing, the opportunity to study your word, to see what it says about the incarnate
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Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, come to earth, taking on a second nature, a new nature, an additional nature as a man.
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Father, all the implications of that. Lord, we pray that you would bless our time, that we would come to love
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Jesus all the more as we study what he went through and how he lived life just as we do, but without sin.
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Lord, bless our time, in Christ's name, amen. Well last week we were talking about the centrality of penal substitution,
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P -E -N -A -L, substitution. And I wanted to just say something, I remember this years ago.
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I don't know if you've heard this phrase before, but the death of Jesus, the atonement of Jesus is sufficient for all and efficient for the elect.
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You ever heard that? Sufficient for all, meaning the death of Jesus could have paid for the sins of an infinite number of people on an infinite number of planets.
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Is that true? And then the second part of it is, but it is efficient only for the elect.
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In other words, it only has an effect on those that God chose. Is that true?
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So both parts of it are true, and yet I reject the statement. Thank you.
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Thank you very much. Let's close in prayer. Why do I object to that?
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Why should you object to it? That's a better way of putting it. If you're thinking rightly, why would you object to it,
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Bruce? Go ahead, get out on that limb and then saw it off behind you.
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I agree with what you said. I'd like to make it a little pithier. Yes, Corey.
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Okay, so then the question is, Corey asks, would it be unfair for God the Father to punish
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Jesus for the sins of those who are going to hell? Because that's what we would be saying, that he, you know, in effect, it had enough value.
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We could argue about that. But I mean, you guys are both dancing around the issue, which is this is the central issue.
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What was the purpose of the atonement? What was the design of the atonement? Was the design of the atonement, and here's the problem with that statement.
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It's sufficient for all. That is true, but it misses the point.
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Did God have any kind of plan when he sent Jesus into the world?
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You know, did he say, you know, I'm just going to write a blank check and we'll just see who cashes it.
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That's the problem I have with that. It's, you know, it's what our good friends, the four -point
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Calvinists, I like to say that they're Calvinists, 4 .75 Calvinists with three and a half twists in the pike position.
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You know, it's an Olympic sport. You should try it. But the point is, was there a purpose?
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You know, so in Matthew 121, which Pastor Mike taught on a little bit
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Friday night, the concert, when the Bible says that you shall name the son,
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Mary, you shall name it or you shall name the child Jesus because it is he who will do what?
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Save his people from their sins, not make it possible for anyone who's willing to be saved.
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So we get into, you know, the purpose of the atonement, but I wanted to just bring that up because that particular phrase,
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I just find it's not, it doesn't sufficiently describe the design of the atonement.
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You know, did God have a purpose? And the answer is yes. And how do we know that? Well, we can go through Ephesians 1, we can go to a bunch of different places.
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But did God have a plan? Did the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit have a plan?
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Or were they just, you know, we'll just kind of see how it happens. And the answer is, you know, the former, the first one.
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So centrality of penal substitution, penal substitution being this, that Jesus Christ is our substitute and he took the penalty that we deserve.
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I think in life, that would be a wonderful thing, you know, to have somebody who will say, I'll pay that traffic tickets.
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I'll do this, I'll do that. We don't get that, you know. You don't worry about it. I'll pay your credit card bills.
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There would have been several times in my life where I would have said, rejoice. You know, that would be awesome.
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We talked about he died for our sins and he paid for our sins, both of them. He actually paid the penalty.
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And I mentioned this last week, this, I hate to call him a minister or a pastor.
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This man of the cloth, I wish he was referred to as reverend.
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It always makes me feel good when people want to be called reverend and they're false teachers. I don't know why.
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Because I don't want to be known as reverend for the record. It's because reverend means feared one.
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And I'm like, don't fear me, you know. But this British Baptist said this, he said, the fact is that the cross isn't a form of cosmic child abuse.
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I talked about it a little bit last week. And how he says what it really shows is how far God is willing to go to demonstrate his love for us.
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And I said, well, I think it really shows what? What does the death of Jesus show?
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That God loves us? Well, that's true. But what does it really demonstrate? He punishes sin.
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It shows how much he hates sin. How much does he hate sin? Well, this is the price that has to be paid to redeem
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God's people from their sin. So we talked about that Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan, that he came to destroy, in essence, sin.
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We talked about the necessity of Jesus being fully man, where it said that nothing less than human flesh and blood could atone for sin and bring victory over Satan.
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Well, imagine, you know, the Old Testament is full of all these animal sacrifices. And we read in Hebrews that the blood of bulls and lambs or bulls and goats or whatever it is, animals, could never atone for sin.
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Well, if we think about it this way, in Genesis, we are described as, well, when
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God says, let us make man in our own image.
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So we are image bearers, that is, we reflect God. He didn't say that about any other animal.
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Not one. So when they're taking these other animals and sacrificing them, there's not a, there's no soul there.
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They're not image bearers. There's no equality. So they were never intended to do anything but remind people of the severity of their sin, the cost of sin, and the fact that sin would demand a blood sacrifice to pay.
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But the animals were just signs of foreshadowing of the price that Jesus ultimately would pay.
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And we talked about how God would basically take the death of these animals and apply it to the sins of the
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Jews. Why? It was kind of like on the credit card plan, the installment plan, however you want to look at it.
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The saints of old looked toward the cross and they did the things that God commanded in faithfulness to them, but they were saved not by the sacrifices, not by their works, but by faith.
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So we got to the point last week where we were talking about, we're just wrapping up this section, talking about how
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Jesus had to be human in order to succeed where Adam failed.
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We talked last week about Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15. What do those chapters tell us?
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Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15, what do they have in common? There's a theme there.
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Through one...you guys are really on top of it. Through one man. Okay, through Adam, sin came into the world.
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All the human race is plunged into sin and the ultimate outcome, which is death.
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Then God sends Jesus, who's also known as the second
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Adam, that's A -D -A -M and not A -T -O -M, sends the second...
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Well, you know, sometimes my enunciation may not be all that great. The second Adam to undo what the first Adam did, to make things right.
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And he had to be a man to do that. Where it says Christ had to be human in order for this imputation of our sin, imputation being
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God accounts or reckons our sin to Jesus.
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That's one imputation. The other one is Jesus or His righteousness being imputed to us, right?
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If He were divine, where it continues, if He were divine only, God, it is inconceivable and impossible that our sin would be imputed to Him.
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Why? If Jesus was only God and not man, why would it be impossible for our sin to be accounted to Him?
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Well, because He wouldn't be the second Adam and because He couldn't be
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God. That's kind of a disqualifier for God to have sin, you know, as we heard this morning, for those of you who weren't there in the first hour.
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God is holy, holy, holy, separate from sin, can't be tainted by sin. So whereas, how could
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His eternal sinless and holy nature take on sin? He couldn't, so His humanity had to.
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The imputation could not have taken place unless Jesus was fully human, but He also could not have paid the natural consequence of our sin.
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What's the natural consequence of our sin? What happens because we are sinners who sin? We die.
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The sentence is death. And we know that from Romans 6 .23. The death had to occur to Jesus for Him to be our substitutionary propitiatory sacrifice.
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And what is propitiatory, class? His wrath is satisfied, right?
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When God, in Romans 3, it talks about that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, it means
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He's the satisfaction. God's wrath is satisfied by the death of Jesus Christ.
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Let's turn to Romans, or I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 15. We're going to see this passage several times this morning, so listen to what
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I'm about to say. We're going to look at this passage several times this morning, so you might as well just turn there and we'll get it out of the way.
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That's what I was going to say. I need a better script writer.
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1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 to 4. Would somebody read that, please? Verses 1 to 4 of 1
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Corinthians 15. Going once, going twice, sold to the front row.
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This is, it's not just the heart of the gospel, this is the gospel, he says. These things are of primary importance.
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Ware says this, he says, Christ died for our sins, which would be impossible without His human nature, right?
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Because God, not only can He not be tainted by sin, but He cannot die.
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The sinless Son of God came in human form, bore our sin in His body on the cross, and died, listen, as a result.
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Why did He die? Because He bore sin. Because He bore our sin in His humanity, it was the humanity of Jesus that was subject to death.
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And he writes, and I think this is great, and I would encourage you to do this, when you think of the song, And Can It Be, we like to sing that song, it's a great song by Charles Wesley, he says, this is the sense in which we must sing the refrain from Charles Wesley's glorious hymn,
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And Can It Be, that thou, my God, shouldst die for me. Now just think about that line for a moment.
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We must have in mind that this is true, but only because in this case, God the
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Son has been joined with human nature, so that only the human nature of the
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God -man dies. That thou, my God, shouldst die for me, well, God doesn't die, the
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God -man, the humanity of Jesus Christ is put to death. Jesus, the second person eternally of the
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Trinity, doesn't cease to exist. There's no spiritual death for, or there's no end of existence for Jesus.
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So He had to be fully manned to die and to take on our sin. And now we're going to get into the last section of the book, which
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I entitled Raised, in other words, Resurrected, Reigning, and Returning in Victory.
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And thankfully, he focuses on 1 Corinthians 15, 1 to 4, so we're right there. He says, surely
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His resurrection is clearly related to His human nature. Now, these are just things that I don't, we might think of, but we don't think about them in the depth that Ware puts it.
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For He died in His humanity and was raised bodily from the dead. His return,
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His second coming, is also related to His humanity. But what of His reign? And I think our tendency might be, if we think about Jesus Christ ruling and reigning, we say, well, of course
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He's reigning because He's God. But there's more to it than that, and we're going to see that this morning.
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First, we'll talk about His resurrection. Ware writes this, he says, it is the humanity of Jesus that was raised from the dead.
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And it is in the humanity of Jesus that He is exalted to the Father's right hand to reign over all.
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And it will be in His humanity that He returns to earth just as the disciples watched
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Him go. Remember in Acts, He ascends and He says, you know,
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He just goes up into heaven. He's coming back the same way, he tells them. First, let's look at the fact that He was raised from the dead, which
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Ware cites as proof of the, here we go again with the big words, efficacy, just means it was effective, the efficacy of Jesus' sacrifice.
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The proof of it is that He was raised from the dead. How do we know that Jesus Christ's death actually paid the price for our sins?
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And the way that we know that it actually paid the price is He was raised from the dead.
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Let me put it another way. Why is it that Christians do not go to hell?
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Why is it that Christians do not go to hell? Yes. 2
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Corinthians 5 .29? Because Jesus is our sin bearer, right? That's true.
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Other thoughts? Okay, because there's no double jeopardy.
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The penalty of our sin is placed on Jesus, as Janet was saying, and so we don't go to hell because Jesus already paid it.
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But listen to how Ware phrases this, because some people say, you know, if you're not going to go to hell, why is it?
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Well, it's because Jesus died for my sin, okay? Listen, why does Paul insist in 1
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Corinthians 15 .17 that if Jesus is not raised from the dead, we are still in our sins?
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Why does he insist on that? Let's look at 1 Corinthians 15 .17, or somebody can read it because you guys are already there.
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1 Corinthians 15 .17, Corey? So it's not
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His death that keeps us out of hell, right?
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Well, it's His death that pays for our sins, but how do we know that it's paid for our sins?
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Ware goes on and he says, sin presents us with a penalty, right? When the price for sin is death, how would we ever come back to life?
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We can only do that by the power of God. But he talks about the power of sin, and he talks about how it compels us, it urges us to do a variety of sins.
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He says we can resist it, but we cannot, and here's the key word, defeat it. We, of our own, cannot defeat sin.
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We can't escape the penalty or the power of sin. The penalty for sin is death, and its power is death.
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Returning to verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 15, Ware notes that Christ died for our sins.
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He says, if Christ died for our sins, He must conquer both the penalty and the power of sin.
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If He paid the penalty for our sins, what is the proof? He says, if He remains in a grave dead, then the penalty of sin is still being paid.
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If Jesus is still in the grave, the payment is not fully paid, and He's still paying it, unless payment has not been made fully.
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The payment was not enough, it wasn't sufficient. He's still being punished for our sins by remaining in the grave.
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He is in the grasp of death, thus death has not been defeated. Similarly, if Jesus remains in the grave dead,
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He has not defeated sin, but is still, and it's not just He paying the penalty, but He's also still in the power and the grasp of death.
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Ware says, the resurrection, that is, Jesus Christ being raised from the dead, is the only way in which the efficacy of Christ's atoning death for sin can be demonstrated.
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In other words, you want to know that Jesus actually paid for sin, that you're actually going to go to heaven, that you're not going to go to hell?
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The proof is the empty tomb. He must be raised from the dead to show that He has defeated both death and hell.
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You know, when we say, death, where is thy victory? Vice versa, grave, where is thy victory?
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Death, where is thy sting? The answer is, they're gone. Why is that? Because Jesus Christ has removed that penalty.
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And he says, we must realize, again, how critical it is that Jesus was fully human. Just as God, or His being deity,
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Jesus being God, cannot die, so God being God cannot be raised from the dead.
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In other words, if He wasn't really actually physically dead, then He couldn't be raised, and we would have no confirmation, we would have no proof that our sins were paid for.
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The penalty being fully paid, the power being broken. But because He is fully human, and because He has been raised from the dead, so will those who are in Christ be raised from the dead.
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Look at verses 20 to 22 of 1 Corinthians 15. But in fact,
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Christ has been raised from the dead. The firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. That's just a euphemism for dying.
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For as by a man, there we go, that man being Adam, the first Adam, came death, by a man, the second
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Adam, has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.
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Why is He the victor over death and over hell? Because He's been raised from the dead.
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Now let's talk about Jesus ruling in His humanity. This has some eschatological overtones.
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Some what theologians like to call already, not yet. Jesus is ruling and reigning, but not as fully as He will be one day.
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Listen to what Ware says. He says, it seems clear that one must conclude that He is reigning as a man who has won the right to rule over the world
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He has purchased and conquered. And again, I think our first, you know, our kind of reflex is when we think of Jesus ruling and reigning, we think, well, of course
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He is. He's God. But there's more to it than that. We're going to see Him develop this scripturally.
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How can we say that the ever existing second person of the Trinity has been granted authority over the world or that He has been given the nations as an inheritance?
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If we think about Him being eternally God, Him being the creator, well, how do these other scriptures come to be applied to Him?
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Let's look at Psalm 2. Psalm 2. I think this one is really fascinating.
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I'm going to read verses 5 to 9. Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury.
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This is the Father saying this, in His fury, saying, As for me,
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I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree the
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Lord said to me, You are my son. Today I have begotten you.
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Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.
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You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
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It's just interesting because when you look at that, you go, well, how is it possible that the creator of the universe,
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Jesus Christ, is the creator of everything, the Father having created things through Him.
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How is it that He is going to receive the nations as a heritage and the ends of the earth as a possession?
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How can we say of Him that He has been begotten? How are these things true? And we think, well, okay, what's the beginning?
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Maybe it's, you know, as a baby. Well, we'll talk about that in a moment. First, I want to read verses 1 to 4.
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Would somebody read those, please? Psalm 2, verses 1 to 4. Bruce.
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So, I mean, essentially, you know, when I start, when we start talking about Psalm 2, I get kind of a
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Tower of Babel feel to me. You know, it's like all the nations are going to get together and they're going to ascend to the most high.
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Only in this case, they're not going to build a structure. They want to gather together and rebel against God.
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And what does He say? He laughs. It's like, child, please.
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Why? You know, what's His response? And His response there was in verses 5 to 9. He's going to set up His own king who's going to deal with these other people.
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So what is this begetting? Today I have begotten you. Now, Wehrer argues that it can't be an eternal begetting, either in a traditional theological sense, that He is eternally begotten, that He is eternally begotten of the
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Father. That would be orthodox. Or this other idea that there is a time where He goes from being the second person of the
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Trinity to being the second person of the Trinity and the Son of God. Or Wehrer also argues that it can't be at the time of the incarnation.
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Today I have begotten you. He argues instead for a third time, a third point in time, the time of the resurrection and the ascension.
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I just think, I think this is very interesting. Listen to what He says about Psalm 2, verse 9.
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Jesus brings condemnation and destruction. Right? That's what happens.
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He gives Him, ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them.
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You know, et cetera, et cetera. He says, Wehrer says, but this was not true of the
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Son of the Eternal, or true of the Son as the
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Eternal Son. In other words, the second person of the Trinity who created the nations, nor was it true of the
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Incarnate Son who came to save the nations. Instead, He argues,
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He will come to those nations in judgment, executing the fury and anger of His Father.
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So the Sonship, today I have begotten you, this begotten situation here is not of His Eternal Sonship, nor of His Incarnate, excuse me,
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Sonship, meaning when He was born as a baby, but rather the Sonship granted Him as the risen, ascended, exalted, and reigning
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Lord of Lord, King and King of Kings. Let's turn for a moment to Acts 13, because Wehrer says,
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Paul affirms this very thing, and I think this is, again, a very interesting passage.
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Acts 13, verses 30 to 33. Paul's preaching here and he says,
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But God raised Him, speaking of Jesus, from the dead. And for many days
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He appeared to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now His witnesses to the people.
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I mean, the shades of the Great Commission there, right? Verse 32, And we bring you the good news that what
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God promised to the fathers, this He has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising
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Jesus. As also it is written in the second Psalm, You are my son, today
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I have begotten you. How did He fulfill that? Today I have begotten you by raising
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Him from the dead, Paul says. So that's part of the argument that Wehrer thinks, and I think it's a pretty good argument.
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And he says, that the Father makes the nations and inheritance of the Son, tells us what?
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Well, what does that tell us? That the Father makes the nations of the world and inheritance of the
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Son. What does that tell us about the Father? If I say,
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Okay, the Son is inheriting what the Father already has. He is, I mean, that would be difficult, right?
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For me to say, you know what, I'm filling out my last will and testament, and by the way, each of you is going to be given a billion dollars in my last will and testament.
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And you might all think, Oh, that's great, I can earn the way for Steve to die. I wouldn't go out and borrow a billion dollars expecting to receive that.
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Or, you know, set about plotting my murder. You can only, you can only give it as an inheritance, that which you have charge over.
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And so the point Wehrer makes is, he says, listen, Jesus was the creator.
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He set up everything. But, at a later time, the
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Father gives the Son authority over these nations.
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He gives them as an inheritance. So there's a sense in which the Son did not previously own them.
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Well, what is that? It's the sense that in His humanity, He didn't own them.
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And we're going to discover why. We're going to discover why in a moment. But first notice that this
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Father will have His victory. He will be victorious over these rebels through His Son.
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And you'll notice, if you just think about it this way, Jesus said in John many times and other places, that He came to do the
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Father's will. And this is another case where He's going to do the Father's will.
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In Psalm 9, you shall, Father speaking to the Son, you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
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And He's talking about, of course, His enemies, those who have declared war against Him. Well, when do you suppose that's going to happen?
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You know, the Old Testament talks about what? The great and terrible day of the Lord. You know, the day of judgment.
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The final day. Well, let's look at Revelation 19 and see if this doesn't sound familiar to us.
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Revelation 19, verses 15 to 19. See if there aren't images here that we can just readily see right out of Psalm 2.
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Revelation 19, verses 15 to 19. Would somebody read that, please? It's not going to end well.
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But, you know, I think we lost our PG -13 rating right when the birds were eating all that flesh there.
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I can't see that going very well. But this is a picture of the
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Father having the victory that He wants, deserves, putting down the rebellion of mankind through His Son.
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But notice also, back to Psalm 2, that it's not like God just says, you know what,
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I've had it with these people, I'm going to judge them, and it happens right away. What does He do instead? He makes a plea at the end of Psalm 2.
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What does He say? Kiss the Son. Kiss the
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Son, love Him. Repent. Stop rebelling against God.
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Where it says, Nevertheless, at His second coming, the fury of God's judgment is manifest, is shown as His Son, the one and very same
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Son who died for the nations, now takes up His sword and smites the nation in their ongoing idolatry and rebellion against their
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Creator. God will have the victory in Psalm 2, and He's going to have it through His Son who is going to,
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He's their Creator, and now He's going to smite, He's going to judge the nations. Where it says now,
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All of these observations are reflections on the reigning and ruling of the triumphant Son who is fully and truly human, right?
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He's raised from the dead. Look at all the language there. Well, we read it all in Revelation 19, on a horse, etc.,
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etc. This is not symbolic language. This is talking about a real battle that will take place and how
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He's going to smite them. It is the human Jesus who has given the nations as His inheritance, the human
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Jesus who takes up the sword of judgment, and the human Jesus who comes again to break those nations with a rod of iron.
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Then He says, Marvel, if you will, that all of this is true of one who is fully and truly human.
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Although sent by the Father and although possessing the divine nature, He nonetheless carries out
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His work in the power of the Spirit and does so as the man, the second Adam, whom
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God made Him to be. That's so weighty.
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I mean, this is the perfect man. God empowers him and he does exactly what God has designed for him to do.
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Now, the next section He says, talking about His authority,
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Jesus' authority is granted in His humanity. Let's look at Matthew 28.
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I briefly mentioned the Great Commission and now we're going to read it. Very familiar passage. Matthew 28, verses 18 to 20.
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And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
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Well, what do we know about, just from that passage there, what do we know about the authority of Jesus?
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It's been given to Him, which means a couple of things.
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He didn't have it. And it was given to Him, obviously, by another, but by the
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Father. And with that in mind, well,
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I'll just read quickly what Ware says and then I want you to, while I'm reading this, you can turn over to Luke 4. Luke chapter 4.
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Ware says, As God, Jesus, cannot be given authority over heaven and earth for He possesses it.
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So this is in His humanity. And He says that this particular section of Luke is helpful to illustrate this.
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Luke chapter 4, verses 5 to 7. Talking about the temptation that He undertook with Satan.
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And the devil took Him, Jesus, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
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And He said to Him, To you I will give all this authority and their glory.
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For it has been delivered to Me and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship
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Me, it will all be yours. Where did
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Satan get the authority over the nations? Given to Him.
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And he offers it, what? To Jesus. If, there's one condition, if you then will worship
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Me, it will all be yours. So, follow this. If somehow,
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Jesus is there, and Satan's there and he's trying to tempt Him, and he says something that Jesus knows
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He can't deliver. If He doesn't have the actual authority to do that, then Jesus would just say, what? You can't give me that.
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Who died and made you in charge of everything? Something snappy like that,
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I'm sure. Or how about this? Excuse me, buddy, but you can't give me what is already mine, right?
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Everything's mine. I created everything. Psalm 24. But Jesus doesn't challenge the authority of Satan to offer this.
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Instead, He challenges the terms of the offer. What do I mean?
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Well, what's the term of the offer? He says, Satan says, you know what? If you want all this authority, all you have to do is worship me and I'll give it to you.
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So Jesus' response in verse 8 is, it is written, you shall worship the
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Lord your God and Him only shall you serve. In other words, I'm not going to worship you. If that's your condition, forget it.
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Yeah, Charlie. I don't know if it was more Satanic, but there is a sense in which
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Jesus is given and we'll get there. He's given,
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He's elevated, He's exalted, He's given new authority. You know, has
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Satan been dethroned completely? No, but He's been defeated.
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So, I mean, there's an, I guess I was saying earlier, there's an already,
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Jesus already ruling and reigning, but it's not to the extent that He will be someday. You know, and you say, well, how is it that He's ruling and reigning since Satan's running the world?
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I can't really quantify that for you. I could just say that it says that He's reigning and that His reign will be fuller and greater and complete later.
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But I think certainly, you know, was it more Satanic back then?
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Right. Take... Well, I don't know about that, but I will say this.
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Listen to what Ware says. He says, but the pathway that the Father designed for Jesus receiving the nations, getting
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His inheritance, was the pathway of the cross. He must live a fully obedient life, take upon Himself the sin of the world and die a death of unspeakable torment and pain.
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Now, listen to this part. And this is the killer clause. All of this, the cross, everything, could be avoided simply by bowing before Satan and receiving the nations in a quick, easy, painless way.
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And he concludes, he says, so yes, this was a real and forceful temptation.
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It's a shortcut. Listen, you don't have to go to the cross. You don't have to go through all that.
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I've got the authority. I'm speaking, you know, of course, in my role as Satan. I've got the authority to give you the nations.
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I've got the authority to give you everything that the Father's promised. All you have to do is worship me.
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All you have to do is sin. That's what Jesus would not do.
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That's what He would not do. But, I mean, imagine, I mean, you know, He may not have known everything at this point.
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I don't know of everything that was going to happen. He knew it was not going to be easy. He knew it was going to be very difficult and very painful.
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Yes, Tom. Well, I think He was always going to, you know, by the
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Father. I mean, that's the answer to your question. You know, did He think that Satan was just blowing smoke and that He wouldn't fall through on the offer?
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Is that what you mean? I mean, I think it's a... Well, you know, I would just say this to that.
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If we look at Jesus' response, you know, He doesn't say you're lying. He doesn't say anything like that.
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He just says, I'm not going to worship you. The condition that you're giving me, I'm going to reject the condition.
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Whether or not, you know, the offer is valid, He doesn't really address that, but I would have to presume since He doesn't respond to that part, that in fact the offer is legitimate.
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I mean, you know, let's go back to the Garden of Eden when Satan appears and tempts Adam and Eve.
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And what does he do? He twists the Word of God. And the right thing for Eve to do, or Adam actually, as her representative head there, should have said, you're twisting the
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Words of God. And here, I think if he didn't have that authority, I think the right thing for Jesus to do, and He always did the right thing, would have been to say, you don't have that authority.
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So I think it's a legitimate offer. It's illegitimate in the sense that it would circumvent
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God's plan and that wasn't going to happen, right? Because God is sovereign. But it's a legitimate offer in that He could actually deliver on what
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He was offering Gary. Didn't Satan actually have authority?
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Yes. Right. Because Satan is, as Luther called him, he's
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God's devil. He only does what God permits. But again, look, he says, for it has been delivered to me.
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This authority had already been given to Satan. And he says, I will give it to whom I will.
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Well, not exactly, because it will be taken from you. And I think we, all of us,
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I think if we underestimate Satan, I mean, I think it's possible to do two things.
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One is to overestimate him. People always say, you don't want to underestimate your opponents. And I always like to say, you don't want to overestimate them either.
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If you think they're going to do everything right all the time, then you're probably going to be wrong too. In this case,
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I don't think we want to underestimate Satan and say that he's not really all that powerful. And on the other hand, we don't want to overestimate him and put him on a level with God.
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I think that's what maybe some charismatics and some other people do, is make him out to be like the exact opposite of God.
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Well, that's not really true in terms of power. Not at all.
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Anyway, Bob. Yes. I think that's a great point.
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And I'll summarize it this way. Bob says, whatever Satan was offering to Jesus, and I'll just make this illustration that we need to close the prayer for the sake of time.
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It'd be like saying, I have a brand new car for you, and that's true. Okay. And it might have been a
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Toyota. On the other hand, he could wait and get the Maserati. In other words, whatever kind of sense that Satan had authority and power over the nations, it's not the same level of authority and power over the nations that God the
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Father can give him. And I think that's a great point. That is definitely true. Anyway, we need to close the prayer and we'll continue this next week.
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Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, for him being both fully divine and fully human, for him living out, working out your plan, for him obeying you fully, for him being the second
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Adam, the faithful one, the one who would die for our sins in our place, that we might be granted eternity with you.
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Father, we pray for each one here and just pray for the rest of our worship today. In Christ's name.