Romans 15:16 - What It Means to Be a Believer-Priest, Pt. 2 (09/25/2022)

A Believer-Priest and the Meaning of Romans 15:16

Morning, everyone. Wow, this is the youngest group I've seen in a long time. All look great. I just spent 48 hours with my graduating class from 1972, our 50th anniversary. 50 years since I graduated from high school and they all look so old.

I could not get over it. But anyway, no, I don't normally, like I've never gone to one of those things. They have them probably every 10 years or every five years and I just don't go to them. But I had three people that kept telling me, you got to go to this one.

One of them's a guy named Pepper Posey that I graduated with and he works with me in Tradeway, but he just really wanted me to go. He goes to quite a few of them. And then Terry Aycock, who a lot of you know, but he's a grade below me, but he wanted me to go.

And then Cissy Garber, who married a guy from my class, wanted me to go. So I decided to go and I was as nervous as I was the first day of high school. I was just scared. I couldn't sleep the night before.

Charlotte was with some of her classmates, some of the girls in her class get together once a year. And so she was with them, so she wasn't with me. But I did have Pepper with me and that was good because he was a close friend all through these years, even first grade, even before high school.

So I really didn't know what to expect. I wasn't real popular with my classmates because I started school when I was five years old instead of six, so they're all a year older. So most of my friends were in the year below, the grade below me or the grade above me.

And so I just really was nervous about going, but it turned out to be amazing. I won't be done thinking about it for weeks probably, the different things, the thoughts the Lord put in my mind about it and everything.

One thing I noticed is everything, you know, people do mature and not only in looks, but they become more empathetic. Like I'll just give you an example because I don't know if any of you ever will do this with your class and notice these things, but you might.

But I felt like it was interesting because you can remember for 50 years, you can remember if you weren't one of the popular kids, right? And you know who they were, right? And so what was interesting is that those individuals made a point to sit with the ones that weren't the popular kids rather than with who they wanted to sit with.

I mean, this event spanned two days and a whole bunch of things we did together. And I thought that is really neat. I don't know what to make of it other than it's a good thing, but it was really interesting to observe.

And so I made a point to sit with all the unpopular kids and make them feel better. Actually, they sat with me, but anyway, the popular ones. But it was very clearly a change in their attitude. It was really neat to see.

And the other funny thing is like you got to figure out a plan because if they come up to you and you didn't see them, you're not going to know who they were. If you don't have like many seconds to think, you won't know who they are.

So I figured out, well, as soon as I see them, I go, hi, I'm David Mitchell. And I'm hoping they're going to say, and I'm, you know, and tell me their name that way. No one's embarrassed. But anyway, so we had some systems going, but it was the only one that got me was this one girl.

And I had talked with Pepper about her the night before because she was one of the sweetest girls in the class. And she was behind me and I didn't see her. And she tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, she's right there.

She said, you know who I am? And man, my brain just went. And I'm looking at her. I'm just trying to focus on her eyes and her face because usually you can figure out who they are if you do that. And I, and my brain knew who she was, but my mouth couldn't say it.

I know, I know, I know who you are. But she was one of the sweetest girls. And sure enough, she ended up being a missionary her whole life in places like China and all over the world. And she, she and her husband and they're retired now, but anyway, I could go on such an amazing event.

I will be going through it for days and days and I'm eyeing on what the Lord taught me from it about me, about other human beings and, and how really how funny we are as people. You know, none of, none of us have a whole lot of self-confidence really, you know, you're talking about pride and Sunday school is an interesting topic today, Ben.

And I'm so proud that my son's such a great teacher. I was thinking about that while he was teaching and Ashton told me, well, the trick, see her, her grandmother is a preacher's wife, right? So her grandmother, her granddad's a preacher.

And so the grant, she told me, well, what the trick she uses is when she's trying to talk about her grandbaby, she won't say, I'm proud of my grandbaby. She'll say, my grandbaby's just tickled me to death.

So see, Ben, there's ways you can say it and be prideful. No one knows your pride. Good lesson though. But anyway, it, I really did. I was, Charlotte was so tickled about the whole thing because of all people she knows me.

And of course, Katie's tickled too. My kids know me. It was so out of character for me to even go, but let alone to Charlotte. So Charlotte calls me from where she is with those. She says, well, what are you, yeah, the night before she says, well, what are you going to go to?

I said, well, I'm going to everything. Well, everything. Well, what are you doing in the morning? I said, well, I got to go at 10 o 'clock and help decorate. And she just went, decorate. It is funny too, because Pepper, Pepper told his wife the same thing and she got real quiet.

And he said, honey, what's the matter? She said, isn't that what all the girls come to do? But anyway, it was, it was great. All right. We better get the business here. Maybe I'll think of some, you know, spiritual things to relate to you that I learned from it as we go.

Not today, but I mean, as I think it through, cause I'm so glad I went though. Well, let's turn to, uh, first Peter chapter two. And, um, you know, our launch pad is actually Romans chapter 15, verse 16, where it says that God accepts the offerings of Gentiles.

They're acceptable to him because of Jesus Christ. And that's, that's got a study in this question of why, what makes it acceptable? And what is it? What, what are the offerings? We don't offer goats anymore, do we?

Or sheep or any birds or any of the things they offer in the old Testament. So what are the offerings? And we've talked about that. So now we've worked our way over to a little bit deeper study of what, what the believer priest is, who they are, how can they be qualified to be one and what are they supposed to do in all this?

So we just started out in first Peter chapter two, and, and we looked at verses one through five last time. And then we looked at revelation chapter one. Now these are, we're going to come back to the first Peter chapter two passage in a few minutes, but it's, there's one passage there in verse five of first Peter chapter two, where it talks about that.

We have been built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So it talks about us being named by God as believer priests. And so we started looking at some other places.

It says the same thing. And in the book of revelation, it says it a lot. So last time we looked at chapter one, I think verse five through about verse eight, verse six says we are kings and priests unto God.

All right. So then we went to chapter 20 of the book of revelation in verse four, and it sort of says the same thing again, but what's interesting, I think you might remember last time that, um, I mentioned, and I mentioned this a lot.

I, I grew up, uh, believing all my mentors believed in the, what they call the pre-tribulation rapture theory that there's a rapture and then seven years to go by. And then the second coming happens.

I believed that my whole ad all through my adult life, all my mentors believed it, including brother Otis, who used to sit right there, uh, including Dr. Irwin Freeman, who had four earned doctorates.

He was a genius, a Jewish believer, wonderful man, really proud of my relationship with him. But, uh, yeah, he was, uh, an amazing man. He believed it that way too. And of course they taught it to me that way.

So that meant that, you know, for the rest of my adult life, up until how many years ago did I meet, uh, did, uh, Russ get me to think about it? I wonder, right. Katie, you'd be good at guessing that how many years ago, about the time Dave came to work with us or was he still there when you first came?

Right. He was still there. Right. Okay. So about how long ago? Okay. About 2005 is when I, I was challenged by a friend of mine to, to at least take a look at it myself, rather than just accepting what I had been taught and some of the stuff I've read in books, textbooks through theological studies.

And he, one of the things he said, would you at least consider letting Jesus' chronology of the end times in Matthew chapter 24 be more important to you than the books you've read? And I thought, well, that's fair.

And I said, yeah, I will do that. I'll consider that. And some other questions, one other question was interesting. How many last trumps can there be? And, uh, I knew what he was getting at because I had a few little questions.

The Holy spirit would convict me a little when I would try to teach that in certain passages where it was very clear that it didn't teach that. So I would just skip that part, go next. Cause I didn't know how to put it together.

And I didn't want to, I wasn't interested in it. Basically. Uh, I was more interested in, you know, character of God and studying salvation and all the wonderful things about salvation, preaching those kinds of doctrines than I was the end times when I was a younger man.

So finally I looked at it. And when I, and when I started studying, I studied for about a year on my own, I looked up, I had all the books, you know? So at least the good thing about them is they show you where all the scriptures are that people go to, to prove their different positions.

Even when they don't agree with each other on the position, they still have to use the same verses, right? That's only so many verses that we're going to talk about that. So, but it's a bunch, it's a bunch of, so I knew, I knew where they were and I would go through and read them.

And the only difference was, was I'd go back and read the entire book that it was in. And especially the first part of the chapter that these proof texts were in and get them in context. And by the time I finished, I completely changed my view of it.

Um, in fact, um, all those passages where I was a little bit under conviction because they wouldn't fit. Now they fit perfectly. I mean, there's no, there's never a contradiction when you understand, uh, what God actually says, because he can't contradict himself.

So if you get it right, it won't contradict itself. And, uh, if you get it wrong, if there is a contradiction, you've either got one of the verses wrong or all of them are wrong. And you've just got to go study and keep studying because it will fall together.

God cannot contradict himself. That's a good starting place. So anyway, um, what's interesting, one of the proof things they do, and there's, they don't have many, to be honest, I actually, um, I would go out to brother Bill and his family used to go out to California once a year and hear, uh, Dr. what's his name?

You, you went, MacArthur, um, um, for a week, there's a Bible conference every year. And I went one year with him and, uh, Dr. MacArthur is one of the true conservative Bible scholar voices that actually has a voice in a large church and a voice that people listen to and, uh, praise the Lord for his ministry and his life.

Um, but he has, uh, a seminary was, I don't guess is it probably is a seminary. It's at least call it a Bible college. And I think they call it a seminary now on his campus. And he hired a gentleman to run that seminary.

He actually was instrumental, uh, as one of the authors of the new American standard Bible or editors, I should say. And so he runs the college. Well, I have a disagreement with him right there because I don't think the new American standard Bible represents the correct Greek underlying the new Testament.

But anyway, I didn't get into that with, with anybody when I was there and wouldn't even think of doing that when I was there, it's their show. Right. But it was interesting because that particular man had a, they had sessions where pastors could sign up for different things they were interested in.

So one of the things I signed up for was the end times stuff. Well, he was the teacher of it and it was over in the seminary and his class. And he was sitting there with his feet up on his desk when we walked in and, uh, we all probably 60 pastors in there and myself.

Well, what's interesting is, uh, one of the other pastors raised his hand and said, well, could you show us one verse, one verse in the Bible that proves the pre-tribulation, um, rapture theory? Oh boy.

We need some spray. You know where it is. Got to fly up here. He, he will, he'll bother me the whole time you watch him like this. So if you have it, bring it up here, just say it right here. And I will shoot him in a minute.

This thing working Ben. Okay. I had a message for me down there and said, kill the fly. All right. So, all right. So they asked him that question, which I think is an honest question. You shouldn't teach something you can't prove from scripture.

Right. And he leaned back in that chair and he folded his arms. This is a PhD that, okay, Satan, I know you don't want me talking about the truth, he'll bother me. I'll come down here and sit with you.

It won't bother you. All right. Anyway, so he laid back in his chair and he said, well, gentlemen, he said, well, gentlemen, there's really not a person who says that when I look at all the holes in the Bible, I'm leaning towards you.

That's all he can say. No, I'm saying that if I'm a PhD writing citizen, and I'm asked by anyone in this room to prove that it's literally, I've had this ritual. I mean, I can prove it to you through textbooks, through history.

So he could not do it. And, and this was just after, not too long after I started studying it over at home, you know, and I thought that's very interesting. And some other people started asking important questions about how to do good at that.

The thing I don't want to do, when I get to really preaching here in a minute, I don't want to inhale the flock. All right. Because preachers start sucking air when they get going. You know what I mean?

You've seen me do that. I'm so outgoing. So that was interesting to me in the early days of my study of this topic. Well, what's interesting is they really only have a few proof points, and they'll go pull a verse to prove the point.

But the problem with the verse is, it is out of context every time. A hundred percent of the time, if you study it in fairness with the 10 proper rules of proper Bible interpretation, they are not in context, and they're not even talking about what they're trying to prove with the verse.

Now you would think the seminary professors of all people would not make that mistake. But universally, every seminary that I'm aware of in this nation, among the Baptists and the Pentecostals, most of the Charismatics and the Bible churches, follow that theory, knowing full well what the rules of Bible interpretation are and teaching them in their schools, but not using them for that one point.

And I'm sitting here thinking, has there ever been, in the history of the church, a lie propagated on the church greater than this lie by Satan, so that all the seminaries have taken hold of it? And my answer was, you didn't find it.

Okay, we'll get by. My answer was, yeah, there is one other one, and that is that we should be using the New American Standard Version or the Revised Standard Version or some of these modern versions.

That's really the biggest lie, because all universally, all the great seminaries, none of them use the King James Version. Well, I'm not a King James only guy. I don't break fellowship with you if you don't use it.

I'd rather you use the New American Standard than not read anything. But I have spent two years studying manuscript evidence, so therefore I don't use those, because they are full of errors, and they're drawn from the incorrect Greek, the wrong Greek manuscripts.

Easily proven if anyone dares study, but it's very fascinating how Satan has shrouded that too, and those two are the two biggest lies in my lifetime perpetrated on the church. Well, so if you want to look at one of the proof texts for this rapture theory, it is like they will, and you'll see it even in the Scofield footnote, because Scofield bought into the theory too, and he's one of the ones that made it worldwide popular, because he put it in the footnotes of the Bible, and a lot of people think that's part of the Bible.

They think if you got a Scofield Bible and it's in the footnotes, it's inspired by God, which is not true. It's just a theologian's ideas of what he thinks down there, and so it's in there, and he believes it.

So you can sometimes see them in a Scofield Bible. You'll see a footnote that says, well, this proves this, and you can find where these points are, and if you just go read the whole chapter, you'll see it's not in context.

Brother Bill, one of the smartest men I've known in my life, a great Bible teacher, he said, you know, maybe I shouldn't teach the book of Revelation, because we don't agree on this, because his family held out on that.

They wouldn't change. It's because I change. They wouldn't change. It's because I change, which is great. I don't want you to change, because I change, and so he wondered if I'd allow him to teach it, and I said, yeah, I don't mind you teaching it, Bill, because we've had coffee enough for me to know that you believe in using the ten rules of proper Bible interpretation, and I don't think you're a cheater.

You will not cheat to win this argument, so you have to teach through it, and so he taught through it, and I could hear him correcting himself out loud. Some of you were here for that. I know you guys heard it, and he would point.

He would read the proof text. This one in particular, in chapter three of Revelation, it says the church is not found anywhere in Revelation after chapter three, which is a lie. That was one of the ones, but several of the ones he would read, and he'd say, you know, class, we just got through studying from verse one down to here, and that's not really talking about that, is it?

And the class will go, nope. It's by the end. He changed his view on his own. The Holy Spirit changed his view, so anyone who will just, you know, you've got to get to a place where you're an adult as a Christian, and you say, look, I'm an adult now.

I have the right to question my mentors, my preacher, my teachers. I can question them if I think they say something that's not biblical, and it's okay. I can question, like, myself if I think I have taught and believed something my whole life, and it's wrong.

I am okay to change it, and your topic on pride is a big issue there because, like, Brother Otis, for example, I wrote him about 25-page paper on several things, but that one, on that, I wrote him the paper.

He reads the paper. He comes back, throws it on the table at coffee one more and says, okay, I'll never teach that again. You're right. It's not right. It's not biblical, and he had taught it that way for 50 years, and he said, I'm sorry, Lord.

I apologize. I was wrong. I wish I could go back and tell every student I taught that it was wrong, but of course you can't, but so that's the way we should all be. Now, if a man who was approaching 80 years old taught the Bible 50 years can be that humble about it, certainly we all can do that.

We all have to be that way. It is not about the argument. It's about the truth. Now, one of the things they say is the church is not found anywhere in Revelation after chapter 3, so last time we just touched on that because in Revelation chapter 20, which I would say is pretty far past chapter 3, is one of these places where it talks about us being believer priests, but it also gives information about whether the church is mentioned in the book of Revelation beyond chapter 3 or not, so we touched on that a little bit last time, but in chapter 4, what you see is you see elders.

Now, who are elders? Elders are the, you could call them pastors. You could call them, what are some other names? Brother Larry, you know all this theology stuff. Bishops, right? You can call them bishops, and when you look at it, it's all the same, pretty much the same office.

They must be apt to teach, it says, and there's a lot of other qualifications. A one-woman man, they're not supposed to have eyes for other women and be married to five different women. There's a few qualifications, and the deacons have a lot of similar qualifications as well, but the one they don't have is they don't have to be apt to teach, but the elders do, so the elders are the pastors.

So, here we see a group of elders in heaven already, and they're looking down in chapter 20, looking down on the earth, and they're seeing Jesus Christ. They're seeing people that they call their brothers and sisters being beheaded for the faith, because the Bible that they read and because of the gospel that they preach, they're being killed, and there are places in the book of Revelation where they question the Lord Jesus and said, well, how long will you wait?

Don't you think that's interesting, but it's okay to be honest when we pray, isn't it? Like, if we have something that's burdening our heart, we can share that with the Lord, and a lot of times we do think he did something wrong, don't we, on timing of stuff Sometimes we think his timing is not quite right.

He's always late, isn't he? Especially with money, wouldn't you say? But he's not really late, is he? He's not really ever late. He's right on time to teach us whatever we need to learn. So, here they are questioning, when will you come, Lord, because they'll be beheading our brothers.

You need to go down there and stop that and take control and start the thousand-year millennial kingdom and rule over the send these people to hell. That's what they're telling him. Well, now, who do you think they're talking about if they call them our brothers and sisters, and it's elders talking.

They don't call them elders among the Jews. They're called priests and rabbis. Among the Christians, they're called elders. It's the church. Anyway, so there you have it. That's just one of the proofs there in chapter 20, verse 4, but every single point these people have is either out of context or it's a lie, and I can't say it any nicer.

I mean, if you say that the church is not mentioned in Revelation chapter 3, you are lying, and you're doing it on purpose if you're a PhD scholar because you're smart enough to know. So, you're blinded or something.

I don't get it. I just honestly don't get it, except I guess I could get it because I did it for a number of years just simply because I was regurgitating what I had been taught. So, maybe they're doing that.

I don't know. I do know this. There are two types of false prophets listed, and one is found in the book of Jude, which was foreordained by God to be a false prophet and didn't end up in hell. That's one type of false teacher.

The second type is a type that just gets it wrong, and they teach it wrong maybe for a number of years, and then the Holy Spirit and the Bible corrects them, and they correct it, and they say, I apologize.

I was wrong. Here's what it really means, and that's the second kind. So, there's both. So, you have to be careful judging people. You don't know which kind they are, right? But the point is all of us, if we're going to get up here and teach, we need to strive to teach the truth, and we need you to help us, and if we're off, you need to tell us, and we will fix it.

That's just the whole for a thousand, for two thousand years of church history, even before that, that's how it should have been, should be. So, this is one example of how a lie can creep its way into the church, be accepted by a few big preachers.

There were two, basically, that accepted this one. Scofield was the second one. The other one, I know his name. I can't name it right this minute, but he was a huge mega, for that day, a mega church preacher that heard the theory, bought into it, started preaching it from his pulpit over in England back when this was invented, and there's a little book you can get that'll give you the history of when it was invented, and before that, it never existed in church history.

The theory never existed before that, and so it was invented in a house in England by a woman who spoke in tongues, and that tells you a lot about it right there, and that's fact, fact of history. So, anyway, when I want to go on with this one now, we had already covered chapter 20, verse 4, through about verse 5, and even down through verse 6.

It says, blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection, on such the second resurrection has no power. So, there are only two resurrections, by the way, and by the way, these people that propagate this false theory, they try to act like there's a whole bunch of resurrections.

They invent other resurrections that aren't taught in the Bible. For example, they'll say, well, when Jesus was on the cross, you got an earthquake, and people were resurrected and walked around. Isn't that true?

So, that's really the start of the first major resurrection. It has an A, B, C, and D component, and this is number 1A, number 1B, number 10, but that's not a resurrection, and if you really thought it through, you would know that, because when people are resurrected, they don't die again and get buried again like those people did.

A resurrection is like you're glorified. You live forever in a glorified body. It's not a resurrection, but there are books that say that in it, and just think people just won't look into this. It's amazing the means that people will go to try to prove something that's false.

You get all tied up in a line, and you just get deeper and deeper in it. So, verse 6 says, but they shall be priests of God and Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. So, the people who are resurrected on that day, and then along with the resurrection, but after it, in other words, with it, but shortly after it, are the people that are raptured.

So, the resurrection has to happen first. So, that's how we know that the rapture does not happen seven years prior, because the resurrection happens at the end of the church age. So, there's another proof, but it's simple once you see it.

It's like one of those things where once you see it, God opens your eyes. You go, wow, wow. All the scripture fits when you get it right, and it was not fitting. So, here they are going to be believer priests for a thousand years and reign.

So, they're not just priests, but they're king priests. So, it's like Jesus is a king priest, but we're Christians, which means we're little Jesuses. We're followers of Christ, and we're going to rule and reign with him for a thousand years.

If you jump backwards to Revelation chapter 5 and look at verse 8, and when he had taken the book and the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down. Now, here you have elders mentioned two chapters after chapter three.

So, these are preachers who have died and gone on to heaven, and they fell down before the lamb, and they're falling down before the lamb along with some angelic beings who are there as well. Sometimes it calls them creatures in the Old King James, but creations is a good translation.

They are angelic beings that God created that are in heaven, and the elders are there, and having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which represent the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song saying thou art worth.

When I say represent, they actually were the prayers of the saint, but it pictures it as almost like incense going up before God is how it pictures our prayers, but it's actually our prayers they're talking about, and they sang a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God.

Now, let me ask you, who is that? Who is the us that got redeemed to God when Jesus died? Well, it's both the church and the Old Testament saints. Would you agree? It's all of God's people, but it includes the church, and redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred, so it's not just Jews.

It's Jews and Gentiles, and out of every tongue, and people, and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and priests. So, who made us have that position? Did we give it to ourselves? That would be prideful, wouldn't it be?

Did we give that position to ourselves, or did someone bestow it upon us and make us to be that, and it was God, right? Jesus Christ made us to be kings and priests, and we will reign on the earth. Think about that reality right there.

Think about that reality. You know, being with classmates that some of, most of, most of them you hadn't seen for 50 years, but you spent lots of time with them for four years, or some of them I was with them all the way from first grade, and then you see them again, and you think about, okay, what's the purpose in all this?

What have we accomplished? You know, we had dreams when we graduated, y 'all's age, you know, right? We had dreams. Now, we're out here on the far end of it, and a full 25 of my class is already dead.

25 are either in heaven or hell right now that I graduated with, so what's the purpose? We're on the other side of it now. Did we accomplish our dreams? Did we accomplish our purpose? And then what if you extrapolate that out into the future about a thousand years?

Was all of that training in high school with these people, did I know every one of those people on purpose so that they would, in a sense, mold me into who I am so that I'd be who I'm going to be the day I face Jesus and the day that I rule and reign with him for a thousand years?

The answer is yes. All of it's important. It's hugely important. So, and has made unto us our God, he made us kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. Verse 11, and behold, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beast and the that's church people, and the number of them was 10 ,000 times 10 ,000 and thousands of thousands.

Dave, we got that number last week. What was it? How many people is that? It was 100 million people, and that's the minimum because it doesn't just say a thousand times a thousand. It says thousands times thousands, so it's a minimum of 100 million people, but it could, if that means 7 ,000 times 7 ,000, then it could be even more.

Yeah, it probably was, and even that, we don't know how many thousands times thousands, so it's millions of people, and they're saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb, so picture that for a minute.

You got hundreds of thousands, probably a few millions of millions of millions. Yeah, a hundred million, right, not hundreds of thousands, a hundred millions of millions, and some angelic creatures, but here we're talking about including the church, people that had already died and gone to heaven, and even Old Testament saints saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb.

Now, tell me that's not a revival meeting. Now, when they say in heaven it's loud, that's loud. That is loud. Saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches. Now, what is praise?

Tell me what the difference between thanksgiving and praise is. What's praise? Giving him the glory, so thanksgiving is sort of thanking him for stuff he's done for us, right? Praise is thanking him for who he is, or talking, just talking about who he is, his characteristics, and things like that.

How wonderful, amazing. Well, here you're about to get some adjectives you can use. When you want to praise him, here's what they're using. Here's some of the adjectives they're using to praise God in heaven.

They're saying he was slain to receive power, so he's all-powerful. He's omnipotent. He was slain to receive riches, so he owns everything. He was slain to receive wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing and to be praised for all these things Jesus Christ wants, and by the time he resurrected and ascended back into heaven, you can be sure that most of the attributes of God that he had laid aside to be made lower than an angel so he could die for us, he had them back.

Now, maybe, you know, there's some things he doesn't exactly have. For example, he is a man. He is a God-man now, which means he is in a physical place which has time in the third heaven. He's in space and time, and he wasn't before he came here.

He was outside of all that, so that he didn't take back, but at the same time, he said that no man had seen God at any time save the son of man who has seen him and been with him, so he can be with him out there and come back and all that, but still there are some attributes that he laid aside and still will have them laid aside until after age and age and age and age, and all those ages are over, and then everything is brought back into God, and then he'll have all of his attributes back.