Anchors of Truth

The Atonement and the Covenant

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Sasha Bolotnikov

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Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000154


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.


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Revised 2015-11-12