Lesson # 5 / Part 3 - The Work of Christ (Fundamentals of the Faith by John MacArthur)

Okay, so this is part three, I think it's part three of lesson number five, but let's look at where we left off.

This is number four, the motive for Christ's work.

We did cover this already. Why did God save men according to Romans 5, 8 and John 3, 16?

He did it because he loves us. So it's out of God's great love that he sent

Christ into the world. That's a, uh, B is what attribute of God is demonstrated in his salvation of men.

And you remember what the answer was for that? Yes. What was the answer? His mercy.

His mercy. Good. So is this sounding familiar to you? I think this is about where we had left off last time.

And then C, why does the author call God's mercy great?

Great. So that would be the author, Peter, because that's from first Peter one, three. Why does

Peter call God's mercy great? And the hint is Romans five, six and eight.

What do you have written down? Why is God's mercy so great? Right? Because he died for the unworthy.

Jesus died while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

And that's a love that we don't understand. You know, we, we love those people that are close to us.

We love our family. We love our friends. Jesus taught his followers to love, love your enemies.

And that's not something that comes natural. And while we were still sinners, while we were enemies of God, the

Bible teaches Jesus died for us anyways. So that's, that truly is a great.

It's amazing. Okay. Let's move on to the next section. This is where we're picking up.

Number five, the resolution and continuation of Christ's work says

Christ's death on Calvary finished his redemptive work for man, John 19 verse 30, but salvation story does not end there.

The grave could not hold Christ. He lives and continues the work he began for us.

So question a, how was Christ declared to be the son of God?

Romans one for the resurrection, right?

By power or with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness,

Jesus Christ, our Lord Romans one for. So the resurrection proved it.

He was declared to be the son of God through the resurrection, because of Jesus didn't die.

Actually, I think we did talk about this a little last week. If Jesus didn't die, what would that mean? He was just another failed

Messiah. There had been many failed messiahs up until that point. There are men today who claim to be the

Messiah. I think there's one in Ukraine. There's one in Texas. There's people all over the world.

And the only reason anyone hears about them is because they actually gained quite a following. And there were people in the first century who gained a following and they claim they were

Christ and then they died and they stayed dead. So it didn't, it didn't turn out, but Jesus rose from the dead and that's, that's the proof.

All right. B after Christ made purification of sins, how was he exalted?

Hebrews one, three, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

So now Jesus is acting as our great high priest. So every time you pray, you know, we don't have a special priesthood within Protestantism or evangelicalism.

We don't have a little box set up where I'm sitting in it and you come in and call me, Oh father, please forgive me.

And I, you have to go through me to get to God. Like we don't have that special priesthood.

And the reason we don't is because you can go directly to God through the great high priest,

Jesus Christ. So you can pray directly to God through Jesus. You don't need any, uh, any mediator because Jesus is what the one mediator between man and God.

Now it doesn't mean the pastors and the church doesn't have a role, uh, but, uh, we, we recognize the scriptures teaching on that bar.

I read that one of the reasons that this being seated at the right hand of the father is so significant is that in the temple, in the tabernacle, in the holy places, holy place, the most holy place, there was no place to sit down.

The priest never sat down while he was on duty. And now Christ, the work is finished and he can sit down.

Yeah. That's, that's great. That's true. Because seated gives you that idea that, okay, it's done.

And I'm, I'm sitting down because the work is finished. Very, very good point. Thank you.

Any, anything else? All right. Yeah. And we talked about this last week, the once for all sacrifice of Jesus.

And that's why we have a cross where he's not hanging there anymore. The cross is empty.

The work has been done. The price has been paid. He's risen from the dead. So we don't portray him as crucified today.

He's the risen savior, the glorified savior, not the perpetual victim for all, for all time.

All right. See, we experienced spiritual death through Adam sin. What benefit do we gain through price resurrection?

And this is from first Corinthians 15, 21 and 22.

What's the answer? Spiritual life. Spiritual life. Does everyone agree with that answer?

All right. What's that? We will rise again. We will rise again. Yeah. In Christ, all will be made alive.

Now this sort of plays into the, that next thing, if we do get into the subject, but notice the statement in Christ, all will be made alive.

All of who? Those that are in Christ, all, all, not all human beings who ever lived.

All who are in Christ. So in the context here, those who will be raised to newness of life or receive the resurrection of the dead, new glorified body.

It's all who are saved. All who are in Christ. Good. Because in Adam all die in every human being is born into Adam's race.

So every human being dies because you're in Adam. But in Christ, all will be made alive.

So you need to be in the covenant. So how do you get in Christ to be in Christ?

Means you're in covenant with Christ. How do you get to be in Christ by getting

Christ in you? Okay. That's, that's a good response by getting Christ in you. How do you get

Christ in you by invitation, by invitation?

Okay. So we accept Christ as our Lord and savior. We receive

Christ as our Lord and savior. We get baptized. We join the church and we continue to learn, grow, and, and serve

Christ with our spiritual gifts until he returns or until we shed this body.

And then we will be with him spiritually awaiting the resurrection. All right. Any final comments?

Yes. Larry. I was thinking with the answer to be made alive, eternal life, abundant life,

John 10, 10, Jesus says, the thief talking about Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

But I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.

So eternal life doesn't begin after we die. It's here now.

Right. When we receive Christ as our Lord and savior and not just life, but abundant life.

So you're saying we have eternal life right now. Absolutely.

Well, everybody, well, it's either eternal life or eternal death, but yeah, I mean, every, everyone will continue on in some fashion.

Yeah. Some existence where you're conscious. But yeah, Jesus did say, he who believes in me shall never die.

He said, well, wait a minute. Every Christian dies, right? Your body dies, but your spirit continues to live with God.

So, right. If you're saved, you do have eternal life right now. Your spirit will never die. As opposed to those who don't believe when their body dies, you know, that that's called, that's called the second death.

So that's not, it's not life. Yes. I believe that that's one of the answers to the very difficult question.

What does it mean to be created in the image of God? God said, let us make man in our image.

And one of those, one of those things is that we are eternal, that we do exist eternally.

Everyone, every human being, after he created all the animals, he said, okay, that's good, but let's make man in our image.

So eternal existence of the human soul. Okay. It says here, the

Bible refers to Christ's resurrection as the first fruits. This is an old Testament term that speaks of the first fruits of the harvest.

These fruits were set apart for the Lord. When used in the new Testament, first fruits implies a pledge of more harvest to follow.

Therefore, Christ's resurrection holds the promise of resurrection for others.

So D is now that we have been drawn to God through Christ, what is

Jesus able to do? Hebrews 7, 25. What is

Jesus able to do? Okay.

It says, therefore, he is able also to save to the uttermost or to save forever.

Those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

So this is that priest, priestly work. E what role does Christ hold exclusively?

First Timothy two, five. I already mentioned this a moment ago.

He is the, okay. The one mediator, right? There's no other mediators.

Mary as godly, a woman as she may have been. She is not a mediator.

We do not pray to Mary, the saints. We can appreciate the saints and learn from the saints, but we do not pray to the saints.

They are not mediators. You think what you want of me, but I am not a mediator between you and God.

There is only one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the final question, when

Jesus was going to leave, what did he promise he would do? John 14, verse three says, and if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there, you may be also, that's what my joke is about.

Oh yeah. You want to do it now? Is this a good time? I want to wait until I get the biggest audience. Yeah, that's what

I figured. I figured you would say that. Unless you guys want to hear it twice.

You don't want to hear it twice. We'll stick to once. We'll wait until the bigger audience. Unless you can't wait.

I can't wait. Alright. He's practicing self -control.

This is growth. I'm losing it. Okay. Alright, six, application.

When some people are confronted with the reality of who Christ is, they realize they have made a terrible error in what they have believed or how they have lived.

They are deeply convicted in their hearts. Consider the example of the men in Jerusalem whose eyes were opened to the truth.

Acts two, verse 37. Now, when they heard this, when they heard Peter's preaching, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall

I do? And you remember his response? Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin.

So this is how you know it's a true conversion. Not well, you know, my life is not really going the way

I want it to. Maybe if I, you know, say this prayer, believe in Jesus, all my luck will turn around.

I don't know. Maybe it will, but that's not really the conviction we're talking about here or well, you know,

I mean, people get into, um, Christianity for all sorts of different reasons. The most significant, the real reason, at least what we're seeing here is that you have that conviction in your heart that I've done wrong and I need to be forgiven by God and that without Christ's sacrifice for my sin,

I will never be able to enter into heaven because I'm not good enough.

Until a person has that conviction, they're not going to be able to truly move forward in the

Christian life, not the health and wealth and all the other things Jesus may or may not do for you.

That's all. That's a different gospel. This is the true gospel forgiveness of sin.

Yes, Larry. And you said conviction. I was thinking of another word, similar assurance, you know, blessed assurance.

I mean, you have that, you know, not just,

I hope so, but you know, and that's where we get peace and comfort because, you know, there may be things in our lives as we age, our body takes longer to heal if it gets healed, you know, and there are just things in life that happen that aren't easy at times, but we have the assurance that it'll get better and you know, you have the assurance that what?

That you have eternal life. This is what 1 John 5, 13 says. These things

I have written to you that you may know that you have eternal life. And then he talks about the importance of continuing to believe in the name of the son of God.

But this world is not our home. It's just a passing through. But if your expectation is that Jesus is going to solve all my problems here on earth, you know, you're going to have a rude awakening.

That's not why he came. He came for a, he will make your life better, but we need to get the true teaching of scripture.

So let me just finish this. You can make your remarks and then we'll go to the next thing. So the application, what can you do?

If you have that conviction, you can acknowledge that you have sinned and are not acceptable to God.

That's what most people are unwilling to do because of their pride. So acknowledge that you have sinned and are not acceptable to God.

Then repent and call upon the name of Jesus to save you. That's where the prayer comes in.

Seek forgiveness through his shed blood for you. Acknowledge that he is the rightful ruler of your life.

That's another one people struggle with. The flesh says, this is my life. You need to let go and say that, well,

Lord, this, I'm giving my life to you. And then thank God for his love and grace.

And then it gives two boxes to check that I have repented of my sins and have called upon the name of Jesus Christ, believing in him as Lord and savior.

And most of you, or hopefully all of you have already done that. But then there's the other box that, you know, somebody, people going through this book will check that I have not received

Christ, but they're going through this book. So it says, I have not received

Christ, but I am earnestly seeking. Like there are some people that they're not quite there yet.

God is drawing them, but they really haven't yielded their life to Christ yet.