Participants: Sasha Bolotnikov
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000154
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00:12 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth, live from Surprise, Arizona.
00:21 Well we welcome you here, and we're so happy 00:24 that we have a beautiful congregation here 00:27 in Surprise, Arizona at the 00:31 Clearview Seventh-day Adventist Church. 00:33 And thank you so much for coming. 00:35 And thank you for tuning in to be a part of this special 00:40 Anchors Of Truth. 00:42 When we do an Anchors away from our headquarters 00:45 in Illinois, we call it, Anchors Away. 00:48 And that may be something that you've heard before 00:53 in a song about the Navy, but with us it means that 00:56 we're on the road with an Anchors. 00:59 And right now we've had the privilege of visiting with 01:04 the North American Division Jewish Ministries. 01:07 The head of which is Dr. Ralph Ringer. 01:10 You'll be hearing from him in a few moments, 01:12 because he will introduce our speaker, Sasha Bolotnikov, 01:17 a little later on. 01:18 So we're just happy to be here. 01:20 We're also happy to be promoting and supporting 01:24 and encouraging the Jewish work, which is what we do 01:28 especially during this particular week. 01:31 You see, the Bible tells us a lot of things about 01:35 God's chosen people. 01:37 It tells us that through this chosen people 01:40 came the Messiah. 01:41 And we have our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, 01:45 as a result of Abraham and those who followed, 01:50 and the Abrahamic covenant. 01:52 And so we have been so happy to reach back with the gospel 01:57 to the Jewish people. 01:58 The spirit of prophecy tells us that just before Christ returns 02:03 there's going to be a great movement among 02:06 the Jewish people. 02:08 I read a statement the other night 02:09 that is extremely important. 02:11 It says, "The time is coming when there will be as many..." 02:15 And it's talking about Jews. 02:17 "...converted in a day as there were on the day of Pentecost..." 02:22 Can you imagine that, folks? 02:24 I'm looking forward to that. 02:26 Three thousand people were converted in a day at Pentecost. 02:30 And I'm looking forward to that many Jews being converted 02:33 again in a day. 02:36 Acts Of The Apostles, page 381, says, "God expects His 02:40 messengers to take particular interest in the Jewish people." 02:46 You know, there have been some people... 02:47 In fact, any time I talk about this, you will be surprised... 02:51 Maybe you wouldn't. 02:53 ...at the letters I will get from those who do not 02:56 like the Jewish people. 02:59 Anti-Semitic response. 03:02 It breaks my heart when I feel that some of those were actually 03:06 professing Christians. 03:08 But they've missed what the Bible and the spirit of prophecy 03:12 says about reaching out. 03:14 Another statement I want to read. 03:16 It says, "We must get away from our smallness 03:19 and make larger plans. 03:21 There must be a wider reaching forth to work for those who are 03:25 nigh and those who are afar off. 03:27 Let there be special efforts made for the 03:30 enlightenment of the Jews. 03:33 Every soul converted causes joy in the heavenly courts." 03:38 From Manuscript 87, written in 1907 in an article entitled, 03:43 "Our Duty Toward the Jews." 03:47 Then it says, "Among the Jews are some of those who, 03:50 like Saul of Tarsus, are mighty in the Scriptures..." 03:53 We're going to hear one of them today. 03:55 Sasha Bolotnikov loves the Lord. 03:59 He understands Greek and Hebrew. 04:02 And he is a great student of the Scriptures. 04:05 And I believe that he is one of those, and there are many. 04:10 It says, "There are among the Jews many who will be converted, 04:14 and through whom we shall see the salvation of God 04:18 go forth as a lamp that burneth. 04:20 There are Jews everywhere, and to them the light of 04:23 present truth is to be brought. " 04:27 And I could go on. 04:28 But I just wanted to give you an insight that 04:31 this is not something that comes out of our minds. 04:34 This is not something that Ralph Ringer and his group 04:38 have invented. 04:39 This is something for which we believe there is prophetic 04:44 support and encouragement. 04:47 And we want to follow what God has told us 04:51 what we should do in these last days. 04:54 I want to go home. Don't you? 04:57 I want this message to go forth. 04:59 When we see the events of this week and what's happening, 05:02 and this is going to be multiplied around the world, 05:06 we realize, my friend, that Jesus Christ 05:08 is coming again soon. 05:10 We don't have a lot of time to spread this message. 05:14 For me, as far as I'm concerned, the media is one of the 05:17 best ways to do it. 05:19 That's why I'm involved with 3ABN. 05:21 Because there's just so many doors you can knock on. 05:24 But right now through media God is knocking on 05:29 millions of doors. 05:31 There are actually billions of people who could, 05:35 led by the Holy Spirit, tune in to this telecast right now 05:40 and watch it around the world by the coverage that we have. 05:44 Sometimes people ask me, "Well who does 3ABN reach?" 05:48 According to a study that was done a few years ago, 05:52 only three-tenths of one percent of our viewers 05:57 are Seventh-day Adventists. 05:59 Most of our viewers are not a part of God's remnant church. 06:05 And so we continue to spread this message 06:09 with all the power that the Holy Spirit will pour out upon us. 06:14 We have really enjoyed, as I mentioned earlier, 06:16 being here at Clearview Seventh-day Adventist Church. 06:19 I'm going to invite Pastor Murrell Tull. 06:22 Dr. Tull is the pastor here, a good friend for many years. 06:27 And I'm going to invite him to lead us in prayer at this time. 06:32 Shall we pray. 06:34 Our Father which art in heaven, 06:37 we thank You for Your Son Jesus Christ. 06:42 He left heaven, He came born in the country of Israel, 06:49 Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, baptized in the Jordan, 06:57 went back to heaven, preparing a place for all of us. 07:03 We thank You for the dedication of the Trinity, 07:09 and seeing that we are taken care of. 07:12 So today, we invite the Holy Spirit to be part of our lives, 07:17 to change our lives. 07:20 We ask a special blessing upon the Jewish work, 07:24 for those in Israel, in this loving country, 07:29 especially those in the pockets of the Jewish 07:34 parts of our country, in New York and Florida. 07:39 And I know we have our Jewish friends right here 07:42 in Arizona, in the Phoenix area. 07:45 So we invite Thy presence to be in their hearts 07:48 as they listen to this message about being our anchor 07:53 and our truth, and being our life. 07:57 In Jesus' amen I pray, amen. 08:02 Thank you Pastor Tull. 08:04 Pastor Tull knew Dr. J.M. Hoffman, 08:09 who is one of those that helped begin 08:11 the Jewish work in America. 08:13 He began that in New York City. 08:15 He later moved out to California. 08:18 But it was through his early pioneer work, 08:22 his financial support, and his reaching out 08:25 that the work actually, one of those that began 08:29 the Jewish work in North America. 08:33 I'm going to invite Pastor C.A. Murray to come sing for us. 08:36 He's a very multi-talented individual. 08:40 I love working with Pastor Murray. 08:41 It's a real privilege. 08:43 After he sings, Dr. Ralph Ringer is going to come, 08:46 who's the director of NAD Jewish Ministries, 08:50 to introduce our speaker of the hour. 08:54 Pastor Murray. 09:11 When I think how Jesus loved me, 09:17 how He waited patiently, 09:22 even when I turned my back and walked away; 09:28 when He knew I wanted everything 09:33 this world could offer me, 09:37 well I guess He knew the price I'd have to pay. 09:42 So He watched me tumble downward, 09:47 saw each compromise I made, 09:51 heard each lie I whispered just to get my way. 09:58 Still He waited there to hear me 10:03 when I cried to Him and prayed. 10:08 Then He saved my soul, and that is why I say: 10:14 Tell me, is it any wonder that I love Him 10:25 when you consider all He's done for me? 10:32 And is it any wonder that I long to do His will 10:41 and let His light shine out for all to see? 10:47 And is it any wonder that I praise Him 10:57 each time I think of how He's made me free? 11:04 And is it any wonder that I've given Him my heart, 11:12 when Jesus freely gave His life for me? 11:31 When I think how Jesus loves me, 11:37 how He watches patiently, 11:41 how His arms are stretched to meet me when I run; 11:48 when I'm feeling down and lonely, 11:52 how He's there to comfort me, 11:56 in the darkness He becomes my morning sun. 12:02 When I think of how He's healed me, 12:07 how He's touched me in my pain, 12:10 how His gentle hands have whipped my tears away, 12:18 how He's taken every heartache and brought happiness again. 12:26 Oh I want the world to hear me when I say: 12:32 Tell me, is it any wonder that I love Him 12:43 when you consider all He's done for me? 12:50 And is it any wonder that I long to do His will 12:58 and let His light shine out for all to see? 13:04 And is it any wonder that I praise Him 13:14 each time I think of how He's made me free? 13:22 And is it any wonder that I've given Him my heart, 13:30 when Jesus freely gave His life for me? 13:56 Amen. 13:59 Our speaker this morning is Dr. Alexander Bolotnikov. 14:07 But most of us know him as Sasha. 14:11 He will be speaking on, The Atonement and The Covenant. 14:27 I want to wish you a Sabbath peace, 14:32 or Shabbat shalom. 14:35 And it is the second time I am standing here in front of you 14:45 with the topic of covenant. 14:49 And last time we talked about the connection between 14:55 the covenant and the law. 14:57 But this morning we're going to talk about 15:02 the connection between the covenant and the atonement. 15:10 The word, "covenant," is not very common outside the Bible. 15:16 Isn't it? 15:18 I'm not a native English speaker, but outside of 15:24 the Bible I've seen it only in the very, very, very, 15:28 some legal documents. 15:31 Right? 15:33 So explain to me, what is the covenant. 15:39 I expected to hear, "agreement." 15:44 I expected to hear that. 15:49 How do you picture that, "agreement?" 15:54 God and some representatives from the union of the human race 16:03 sit for a talk to make a contract? 16:09 And the union of the human race promises to strike 16:14 if God will not do what the human race feels to be 16:22 right to be done? 16:24 That's the agreement? 16:28 Or God is like a bank that gives you a customer type of agreement 16:37 which you ought to sign? 16:40 Oh boy, there's lots of small print there. 16:44 It's hard to read this agreement. 16:48 You know, you start with the book of Leviticus 16:52 and you get lost right away from the first words. 16:57 "Alright, I'm going to sign. 16:58 Otherwise, I'm going to get lost. 17:00 I don't want to get lost." 17:02 It's like that? 17:04 You know, "If you don't want to get lost, if you don't want to 17:07 burn in hell, just sign this agreement with Me." 17:15 Well, don't we need the Bible to clarify 17:19 what this term means. 17:22 So I want to invite you to a text in the 17:28 book of Deuteronomy. 17:30 It is the book of Deuteronomy chapter 29, 17:36 and starts with verse 10. 17:39 And it says, "All of you stand today before the Lord your God: 17:48 your leaders, your tribes, your elders, your officers, 17:53 all the men of Israel..." 17:56 Then skip to verse 12 to save time. 18:00 "...that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, 18:09 into His oath, which the Lord your God 18:15 makes with you today..." 18:21 You see what's interesting in this text? 18:25 You have two sentences that express the same idea 18:33 in different words. 18:35 In the high biblical exegesis terms it's called, parallelism. 18:42 So look at this again. 18:47 "...that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, 18:56 into oath..." 19:01 Some translations give, "sacred oath." 19:07 Do you see what the covenant is in the Bible? 19:12 This is God's, this is divine sacred oath. 19:24 This is not what you promise. 19:27 This is not what you agree upon. 19:31 This is something that God promises to you and me. 19:40 How do we see it illustrated? 19:46 Let's go with me to Genesis chapter 15. 19:53 And there you see very clearly, 20:01 a very clear illustration of what happened. 20:11 The Lord speaks to Abram in a vision. 20:15 And He says to him, "Do not be afraid, Abram. 20:20 I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." 20:27 And Abram replies, "'Lord God, what will You give me, 20:32 seeing that I go childless, and the heir of my house 20:38 is Eliezer from Damascus?' 20:42 Then Abram said, 'Look, You have given me no offspring; 20:46 indeed one born to my house is my heir.'" 20:54 But the Lord replies, and He says, 21:00 "This one shall not be your heir, but the one who will 21:07 come from your own body shall be your heir." 21:13 Then He shows him how many descendents 21:21 would he have, right? 21:24 And Abraham believes God. 21:30 And then God says to Abraham... 21:39 Let's go to verse 8. 21:45 Abraham asks God first, "How shall I know 21:49 that I will inherit this?" 21:52 And in verse 9 the Lord replies, "'Bring Me a three year old 21:57 heifer, a three year old female goat, 22:00 a three year old ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon.' 22:06 Then he," meaning Abram, "brought all these to Him 22:10 and cut them in two, down the middle, 22:15 and placed each piece opposite to each other." 22:21 What is going on here? 22:23 Well, Abram lives in Canaan. 22:27 And northern Canaan was the part of the sphere of influence 22:33 of the large empire of Hittites. 22:37 And Hittites, their center was in today's Turkey. 22:43 And so Hittites would come to Canaan and conquer 22:51 the cities and make them swear the oath of loyalty 23:00 to the great Hittite king. 23:02 So this is how the oath of loyalty swearing 23:07 procedure looked like. 23:09 We see this in the ancient Hittite documents 23:14 written in cuneiform, which was discovered 23:18 in the excavation of the ancient capital of the Hittite empire, 23:23 the Hattusa. 23:25 So this is how it looked: 23:29 Here was the town, the gate, imagine this, and here was 23:36 the road to the city gate. 23:39 So the Hittite general, or the king, stands right here 23:46 looking straight. 23:48 And the Hittite king stands here. 23:54 And along the road they have carcasses of donkeys 24:00 that are cut in the middle, and put on each side of the road. 24:06 And so the king of that town walks slowly, 24:17 bent down, sometimes crawling on his knees, 24:23 over to his new suzerain, and he repeats, 24:28 "If I break my loyalty to you, then let your god 24:37 do to me like it is done to these donkeys." 24:44 So as soon as Abram hears the promise, 24:52 God says, "You will have your own descendent." 24:58 Abram believes, and then he asks, "Give me a confirmation." 25:06 So as soon as Abram hears, "Bring Me these animals," 25:12 he understands, "Okay, we need to have this swearing ceremony, 25:16 and I need to swear my allegiance to God." 25:21 So let's read what happened. 25:27 So verse 12, Abram is waiting for the Lord to appear. 25:35 But what happened? 25:40 Deep sleep, and horror, and darkness falls upon Abram. 25:48 And God appears to Abram. 25:54 And in verse 17 it says, "And it came to pass, 26:00 when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, 26:08 there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch 26:13 that passed between those pieces." 26:19 You see, who passed between the pieces? Abram? 26:26 It was God. 26:29 This is the divine sacred oath. 26:34 In other words, what God did was fallen. 26:39 He basically said, "I promise, Abram, that you will 26:46 have your own son. 26:47 And your descendents will be like the sand, like the stars, 26:53 of the sea. 26:54 And if I break this promise, let this be to Me." 27:02 Look at the next text. 27:04 "On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram..." 27:12 Made a covenant. 27:14 This is how all English Bibles would translate. 27:18 Because if you translate literally, you just may not 27:24 get the full meaning. 27:26 It is not, "made," in the original Hebrew. 27:29 It is, "cut off." 27:34 Whenever you read, "make the covenant," 27:39 this expression is always literally, "karath bariyth." 27:43 Bariyth is the covenant. 27:45 Karath is, cutting off. 27:48 Covenant is always cut off. 27:53 That's the expression. 27:55 Why? 27:57 You understand why. 27:58 Because Abraham actually cut the animals in two pieces. 28:06 So that's what the covenant is all about. 28:11 So what's the atonement? 28:17 That's the loaded word. 28:21 That's the loaded word. 28:24 If covenant appears in legal text outside of the Bible, 28:29 I still fail to find any English text that would not be connected 28:37 with the Bible and would have the word, "atonement," in it. 28:43 So we do really need the Bible to understand what 28:47 the atonement is all about. 28:52 It is interesting the first time the word, "atonement," 28:56 is used in the book of Leviticus chapter 1. 29:00 And there... 29:08 ...in verse 8 it says... 29:13 Sorry, in verse 4 it says, "Then he shall put 29:20 his hand on the head of the burnt offering, 29:24 and it will be accepted on his behalf to make 29:30 atonement for him." 29:34 So atonement is made as soon as the sinner 29:42 lays his hand upon the head of the animal 29:47 which is going to be brought as an offering, 29:51 as a sacrifice. 29:53 But what exactly is the atonement? 30:00 Let's look at the biblical definition of atonement, 30:06 and you will see the same pattern. 30:08 Difficult words are usually explained by another word, 30:15 which is what's called, parallelism. 30:18 Two sentences, different words; the same idea. 30:24 Let's open Leviticus chapter 10... 30:30 ...verse 17. 30:40 I have to kind of place it in the context here. 30:46 Leviticus 10 talks about two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, 30:54 whose lives were taken in the Sanctuary because 30:59 they went basically drunk. 31:03 So after this happened, everybody is really scared. 31:12 And so the priests stop coming to the Sanctuary. 31:16 And so what happened, they would not want to 31:21 come into the Holy Place. 31:24 And that's what they were suppose to do 31:27 with the sin offerings. 31:29 They have to eat the meat of a sin offering. 31:33 But instead, they decided to stay around the altar, 31:36 and all the offerings that come to the Sanctuary, 31:39 they just burned them. 31:41 So Moses sees the goat for the sin offering 31:45 and sees it's burnt. 31:47 And he's unhappy. 31:49 So he talks to the priests and he says, Leviticus 10 verse 17, 31:55 "Why have you not eaten the sin offering in a holy place, 32:03 since it is most holy, and God has given it to you..." 32:10 Now look, two sentences. 32:14 Two lines here, two phrases. 32:17 Phrase number one, "...to bear the guilt 32:20 of the congregation..." 32:24 Phrase number one. 32:25 "...to make atonement for them before the Lord?" 32:30 You see what the atonement is? 32:33 Atonement is obtained when someone bears your guilt, 32:43 your sin. 32:44 That's what atonement is. 32:46 You know, you've got to transfer the responsibility 32:52 for the consequence of your sin upon somebody else. 32:57 That's exactly what the sin offering does. 33:06 The animal bears the responsibility, 33:09 because it's killed. 33:13 See how covenant and atonement is connected? 33:20 The famous story of the sacrifice, or to be more 33:26 precise, the binding of Isaac. 33:31 Isaac was not sacrificed. 33:33 He was just bound. Right? 33:37 Because as soon as he was bound... 33:41 Go with me to Genesis 22, starting from verse 11. 33:51 God calls to Abraham from heaven and says to Abraham, 34:00 verse 12, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, 34:04 or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, 34:11 since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." 34:20 Well, Isaac is spared. 34:23 But is this the end of the story? 34:27 The next verse is the end of the story. 34:31 It says, "Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, 34:37 and there behind him was a ram caught in 34:42 a thicket by its horns. 34:43 So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it 34:48 for a burnt offering..." 34:51 The key phrase is the last. 34:54 "...instead of his son." 35:01 You see what happens? 35:03 That's the atonement. 35:07 God gave Isaac to Abraham. 35:11 That was in fulfillment of His sacred oath 35:16 He gave in Genesis 15. 35:21 But as we know, Abraham was not flawless and blameless. 35:28 So when God told Abraham, "Offer your son as a sacrifice," 35:36 He was effectively saying, "Hey, I want to take 35:43 My promise back." 35:46 Because Isaac is the fruit of that promise. 35:52 So look what happened. 35:55 Think about this. 35:57 Because I keep hearing this question when we deal with 36:04 Christians talking about Jewish perception, 36:08 "Oh, how come they don't see it's Jesus?" 36:11 Where do you see Jesus here? 36:14 You won't find Jesus in Genesis 22. 36:19 There's no Mosaic statement there, 36:24 I mean statement by Moses, at the end of it. 36:28 "All this story is symbolic to show that in the future 36:33 God will send Jesus to die on Calvary." 36:35 I wish it was there. 36:38 It is not. 36:39 So what do we do? 36:42 Well, we have to look at what happened. 36:46 And what happened is very clear. 36:48 Isaac was suppose to die. 36:54 But in his place, who died? 36:58 The ram. 37:01 This is foundational. 37:04 In Jewish tradition, in the Talmud, it says 37:09 that every time an Israelite would come to the altar 37:16 with his sin offering, a priest who officiates 37:22 over this sin offering is suppose to read to him 37:29 the passage from Genesis 22 to show him that this animal 37:39 is going to die in his place for his sin. 37:45 So that's what the Bible is very clear. 37:50 In other words, God was preparing the minds 37:56 of Israelites for hundreds of years. 38:02 Seven hundred years after Moses completed the book of Genesis, 38:12 Isaiah the prophet, in his 53rd chapter, 38:18 in the 53rd chapter of his book, compares the suffering Messiah 38:24 with the sacrificial lamb. 38:28 And this is why when John the Baptist points to Jesus 38:36 and says, "Behold, the Lamb of God," people, Jewish people 38:44 by the way, who came to be cleansed from their sins 38:51 in the water of Jordon understood 38:56 what John the Baptist was talking about. 39:01 So the Bible is very, very consistent. 39:06 And it builds up, builds up the message 39:09 over the course of history. 39:12 So this is your atonement. 39:16 In other words, what is happening here? 39:22 We have a situation. 39:27 Well, as I said, Abraham wasn't perfect. 39:33 I remember a story, I think it was in, The New Yorker. 39:39 It was kind of not a serious story. 39:43 But the author of that article said there was this commission 39:49 on September 11, all this time spent years to 39:56 talk about what could have prevented the September 11. 40:03 And they missed one point, which is in the Bible. 40:07 The ultimate prevention of September 11 40:11 should have been, Abraham should not have 40:13 slept with Hagar. 40:22 Abraham was not an ideal man. 40:28 Abraham, you know, and Sarah, they had their 40:34 rough, you know, times. 40:38 You know, covenant is indeed compared to marriage. 40:45 Many times in the Bible God speaks of Him making 40:50 covenant with Israel as a wedding. 40:55 Which is why, in today's New Testament, understanding 41:01 the church is the bride of Christ. 41:05 This is not new. 41:06 This is all coming from the idea of God's covenant. 41:13 Building the relationship. 41:15 Built on a sacred oath of loyalty. 41:21 That's what the covenant is all about. 41:24 And unfortunately, while God holds to His end of the promise, 41:34 we don't. 41:36 You know, that Hagar episode wasn't a pleasant one. 41:43 Somebody can talk, "Oh, biblical messages 41:47 are culturally conditioned. 41:51 Because look, in the Bible God permitted polygamy." 41:58 Permitted? 42:00 Well, God hasn't thrown stones from heaven on polygamists, 42:08 but it doesn't mean He permitted it. 42:13 You know, the commandment number seven is very clear. 42:21 And you can't circumvent it by creating 42:28 a second marriage license. 42:32 You know, some countries brag that they 42:38 don't have prostitution. 42:42 You know, it happens very interestingly 42:46 in those countries. 42:48 They have mullah's there. 42:51 And what they do, they make a marriage with the duration 42:57 for one day. 43:01 That's how they have no prostitution. 43:10 And in many Persian Gulf countries, this is practiced. 43:15 So you can't circumvent God like that. 43:20 And so in the Bible, you have it very clear that 43:29 any polygamist relationships are not blessed. 43:34 David and Absalom. 43:37 Had to kill his son. 43:41 You know, David has a number of wives. 43:44 He was miserable with that. 43:47 I mean, look at his son Adonijah. 43:53 And his son Amnon raping his step-sister, Tamar. 44:01 You know, this is horrible. 44:03 This is dysfunctional families. 44:07 Look at the family of Jacob. 44:10 I mean, you can't find any single functional 44:15 polygamist family in the Bible. 44:18 And they are described for us to draw lessons, 44:24 not to tell, "Oh, God permitted this." 44:28 It is, on the contrary, the message is, you know, 44:33 this is what happens when you go and do the way of the culture. 44:40 You're not going to get the blessing from God. 44:43 So there were issues in Abraham's marriage. 44:49 You know, the fact that God had to permit 44:54 Abraham to send Hagar away; not very pleasant. 45:01 It was a nasty situation. 45:03 The two wives could not co-exist. 45:06 That's why it was happening, you know. 45:09 You start on the path, the chain of events keep going. 45:13 And so that's why God said, "Enough is enough. 45:18 I'm going to take a fruit of My oath away, 45:24 effectively nullifying the covenant." 45:28 So what happens? 45:30 What happens? 45:32 Look at the end. 45:35 After the ram is sacrificed, 45:44 verse 16, God says, 45:48 "'By Myself I have sworn,' says the Lord, 45:56 'because you have done this thing, 45:58 and have not withheld your son, your only son. 46:04 Blessing will I bless...'" 46:07 Probably the best way to translate here is, 46:11 "I will definitely bless you, 46:14 and definitely multiply your descendents." 46:20 What is this? 46:22 It's a sacred oath of the covenant. 46:29 We start Genesis 22 with a procedure of 46:36 breaking the covenant. 46:39 And Genesis 22 ended with the restoration of the covenant. 46:48 What restored the covenant? 46:54 The sacrifice of the ram. 46:57 The atonement restores the covenant. 47:06 It's the ram who took the responsibility 47:12 and died for all Abraham's errors and mishaps. 47:20 So Isaac is alive, and blessing is promised 47:28 and continued. 47:32 The covenant was literally cut off, because in order for 47:39 Isaac to survive, Abraham had to cut off the throat 47:47 of that ram. 47:50 That's why the covenant is always cut off. 47:56 Why is it so important? 48:01 Look with me at the book of Daniel. 48:07 And by the way, as a Jew I can testify to you today 48:14 that without chapter 9 of the book of Daniel, 48:18 there is not any solid proof that it was Jesus of Nazareth 48:27 who is the Messiah. 48:32 Because, you know, it is sad to me sometimes 48:38 to hear how many Christian preachers focus chapter 9 48:48 of the book of Daniel on God's rejection of the Jews. 48:56 Which is absolutely not the case. 49:00 The whole chapter, the end of the chapter is focused on hope. 49:08 Because it gives you the exact time of the death 49:15 of the Messiah. 49:18 It gives you the beginning of the 70 week period, 49:23 which can be verified through historical documents 49:28 which are not in the Bible. 49:30 That's why it's very independently verified. 49:33 You know, in the book of Ezra you read that 49:37 on the seventh year of his reign, King Artaxerxes 49:41 allowed Ezra the priest to go back to Jerusalem 49:47 and start restoring the city. 49:50 That's very clear. 49:52 And you can establish through multiple historical sources 49:58 what was this year, the seventh year of Artaxerxes. 50:03 Which is 457 BC. 50:07 So after that, you have 7 weeks, and then you have 62 weeks. 50:14 And in the middle of this, look what it says 50:19 in the book of Daniel chapter 9. 50:26 And it says here in verse 25, 50:35 "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth 50:40 of the command to restore and build Jerusalem 50:46 until Messiah the Prince, 50:49 there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." 50:54 Then look at verse 26. 50:56 "After the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be..." 51:02 What does your Bible say? 51:05 "...cut off..." 51:07 Karath. 51:08 That is a correct translation. 51:11 You see the connection here 51:14 between the covenant and the atonement? 51:20 Messiah is cut off so that the covenant 51:31 would not be cut off. 51:35 How can we say that God is breaking covenant with somebody? 51:44 You know? 51:46 We often take one verse... 51:49 And I'll tell you why exactly it's happening. 51:54 You know, sometimes we just over do. 51:59 You know, when we look at the development 52:02 of Protestantism, it was the end of the 18th century 52:09 when most of the Protestants rejected the historical 52:15 interpretation of the biblical apocalyptic prophecies 52:21 and turned it into futuristic interpretations. 52:26 Meaning, "Oh, we don't know who the antichrist is. 52:30 You know, Luther identified the antichrist 52:34 as the papacy, historically. 52:38 The Protestants at the end of the 18th century and 52:45 beginning of the 19th century, late 1700's and early 1800's, 52:54 they done away with this. 52:56 There was only a small group of Protestants 53:01 who mainly gathered around the Millerite movement 53:08 who kept historical historicist interpretation 53:14 of the biblical prophecy. 53:17 Well, what the other side, the dispensationalists, said, 53:23 they said, "Oh, the antichrist should come 53:28 into the temple of God. 53:30 And so Jews must rebuild the temple of God." 53:36 Well, this is biblically incorrect. 53:39 But we shouldn't over do. 53:42 We can't now say, "Oh, Jews will not rebuild the temple of God, 53:48 because God cursed them." 53:53 Folks, this is not the right answer. 53:57 God curses nobody. 54:00 I mean, who is cursed in my family? 54:05 My father, who accepted Jesus three years 54:11 before he passed away? 54:15 Who said to me... 54:16 I couldn't believe my father actually did it. 54:19 I said to my mother, who also was baptized back then 54:24 in the year 2000, I said, "I want my dad 54:29 to write me a letter in his own words." 54:33 And he wrote, he wasn't a very talkative man, 54:37 and he wrote and said, "Sasha, I realize I am 54:41 sick and tired of atheism. 54:43 And that's why I give my heart to the Lord." 54:48 Is this a curse? 54:51 I can site to you story after story of Jewish people 54:57 accepting the Lord. 54:59 Is this a curse? 55:01 You know, God cuts off the covenant for only one purpose. 55:11 So that we would not be cut off. 55:19 This is why covenant is connected with atonement. 55:26 This is why God literally... 55:30 You know, I like this statement of Harry Truman 55:37 who said, "The buck stops here." 55:43 This is what happened on Calvary. 55:48 Calvary is a statement from the heavenly Father saying, 55:57 "Look and see, all the world, all the universe. 56:03 The evil stops here. 56:07 Satan will go no further. 56:12 Because I cut this covenant, not with the three year old 56:21 sheep and three year old heifer, but with My own blood. 56:31 I spill My own blood for Jews, for Chinese, for Americans, 56:40 for Russians, for Germans, because I don't want 56:45 to cut anyone off." 56:50 Is this a great message? 56:54 Covenant and atonement. 56:57 Let us pray. 56:59 Heavenly Father, help us realize Your great love; 57:06 how You want the relationship between everyone of us and You. 57:14 You're ready to die for it. 57:17 You died for it because You love us so much. 57:21 Help us not to neglect that love. 57:26 Help us not to ignore it, 57:28 because You were cut off for us. |
Revised 2015-11-12