Participants:
Series Code: HC
Program Code: HC180015A
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00:24 Welcome to 3ABN's Fall Camp Meeting
00:27 Homecoming 2018, 00:32 featuring inspired messages from your 3ABN family, 00:41 and featured speaker, Ty Gibson 00:44 all to prepare your heart for the coming of the Lord. 00:49 Hello, friends, and welcome back 00:51 to the final evening 00:53 of the 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting here, 00:57 right here in 2018, can you guys believe it's 2018? 01:02 That's incredible. 01:04 We have been so blessed here at this camp meeting 01:06 with all of the wonderful music, 01:08 and the wonderful messages. 01:09 Do you guys agree with that? 01:11 And then we are so thankful for each and every one of you 01:13 who have joined us here at the Worship Center here 01:16 at the 3ABN headquarters, and all of you at home 01:19 who are joining us around the world live and tuning in, 01:22 we are so blessed, 01:23 and I know we are going to be continued to be blessed 01:27 'cause it's not over yet, 01:29 we still have a wonderful song 01:30 that's going to be brought to us 01:32 by Ms. Yvonne Lewis and the title of that song 01:35 is, "Remember Me." 01:37 And as soon as Ms. Yvonne is finished with her song, 01:40 then the next person you will see 01:42 is Brother Ty Gibson, and the title of his sermon is, 01:45 "Our Covenant Identity in Christ." 01:48 So, thank you. Ms. Yvonne. 02:06 The thief lay dying on the cross 02:12 And he knew all along 02:16 That he had done wrong 02:21 And for his sins, he must die. 02:28 And so he turned and saw the Christ 02:35 With his blood flowing down 02:39 He knew he had found the One 02:44 Who could save his soul 02:48 And so he cried 02:50 Remember me when You come 02:55 Into Your kingdom, oh, Lord 02:58 Remember me when You talk 03:02 To your Father 03:06 And tell Him that I know I've not been 03:11 All he wants me to be 03:15 But in mercy now I plead 03:22 Remember 03:23 Me 03:31 Jesus said have no fear, my child 03:37 You shall be with Me eternally 03:45 It is for you that I die 03:50 Oh, now I know Christ lives again 03:58 And He stands all alone 04:02 Before the white throne 04:05 With his own righteous life 04:09 He covers mine 04:12 So now I cry Remember me when You come 04:18 Into Your kingdom, oh, Lord 04:21 Remember me when You talk 04:26 To your Father 04:29 And tell Him that I know I've not been 04:35 All He wants me to be 04:37 But in mercy now I plead 04:44 Remember me 04:50 Remember me when you come 04:56 Into Your kingdom, oh, Lord, 05:00 Remember me when You talk To your Father 05:07 And tell Him that I know I've not been 05:13 All He wants me to be 05:15 But in mercy now I plead 05:22 But in mercy now I plead 05:30 But in mercy now I plead 05:40 Remember 05:44 Me 06:00 Thank you. 06:01 Beautiful. 06:03 Well, good evening, everybody. 06:05 This is our final time together. 06:08 And the message tonight is best served by the ladies 06:13 helping me out here for a moment. 06:16 Women, I want you to imagine that you and I have never met, 06:20 you don't know who I am, you've never seen my face. 06:23 You come home, you open your door, 06:26 you walk in, and you see me 06:29 sitting on your sofa eating a sandwich. 06:34 Now something immediately happens 06:36 inside of you. 06:38 The first thing you think of course is, 06:40 why is this strange man in my house, on my sofa, 06:45 eating my sandwich material. 06:48 Those avocados were for later. 06:51 But the next thing you think is, 06:54 and maybe you don't wrap words around it, 06:56 but you have a sense that you have been trespassed, 07:01 that you have been violated 07:03 because this space on planet earth, 07:06 your home is your domicile, your domain. 07:11 It's a territory that you hold in the world. 07:16 It belongs to you. 07:18 The door locks. 07:21 You come in and you have a perfect right to be there. 07:25 I come in, I do not have 07:28 a perfect right to be there. 07:31 You, your domicile, 07:34 your territory has been breached, 07:37 it has been violated. 07:38 And just as you are about to tell me 07:42 to get out of your house, 07:46 your husband emerges from a back room and says, 07:49 "Oh, hey, sweetie. 07:50 This is my new friend, Ty. 07:52 He likes sandwiches, I invited him over. 07:56 So he is having a sandwich with me." 08:00 Did anything changed in the scenario? 08:03 Did anything changed inside of you? 08:06 Of course, it did because you and your husband 08:08 hold this domain, this territory together. 08:13 It is jointly held, is it not? 08:15 And I was invited legitimately into your space, 08:20 into your domain by someone 08:24 who has a perfect right to invite someone in. 08:28 Suddenly everything is fine, 08:30 and you have a seat on the sofa next to me, 08:33 and have a sandwich as well. 08:36 Everything is fine now. 08:38 I'm going to suggest you this evening 08:41 that whether we ever explain it to ourselves in detail, 08:47 we have an intuitive sense 08:50 about this thing we call "territory." 08:54 Because we are free moral agents, 08:57 we sense that we exist 09:00 in a shared world, 09:03 and that there are legitimate boundaries. 09:06 We also sense that those boundaries 09:09 can only be crossed by permission 09:12 because we are free moral agents. 09:17 Now I want to bring to you this angle 09:21 on the plan of salvation by calling your attention 09:24 first of all to a remarkable book 09:27 that I need on the screen in front of me. 09:30 A remarkable book by William Barrett. 09:33 William Barrett was a philosopher 09:35 and probably one of the best thinkers in philosophy 09:39 over the last 50 to 100 years. 09:43 And Barrett summarizes in his book, 09:46 this amazing treatment, "The Irrational Man," 09:50 he summarizes that there are only two ways 09:52 really of processing reality, 09:55 two ways of thinking as human beings. 09:58 Two ways of thinking, 10:00 Hebraism, and Hellenism, 10:04 between these two points of influence moves the world 10:10 or the world moves. 10:12 He's saying, there's the Hebrew way of thinking 10:15 and there's the Greek way of thinking, 10:17 Greek referred to here as Hellenism. 10:20 There are only two ways of processing information. 10:24 It doesn't matter who you are, 10:25 whether you ever sat down and really thought it through, 10:30 you think in a Hebrew manner or in a Greek manner, 10:35 or maybe a mixture of the two that needs to be sorted out. 10:40 The Bible is a Hebrew book, it's not a Greek book. 10:43 The New Testament was written in Greek by Hebrews. 10:49 Jesus was and is a Jewish Messiah, 10:54 He was a Hebrew. 10:56 And Jesus came into the world through a Hebrew narrative 11:01 so that everything that is occurring 11:03 in the New Testament 11:04 is occurring against the backdrop 11:07 and upon the stage of that Hebrew narrative 11:11 that we call the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. 11:15 Now the Greek way of thinking is centered on power. 11:20 God is conceived of in terms of sheer power. 11:24 Doesn't matter if you like Him or not, 11:26 He's in-charge. 11:28 The Hebrew way of thinking is that God is love 11:33 and that actually God's character 11:37 either solicits 11:39 or repels our engagement. 11:43 The Hebrew way of thinking says, 11:45 God is a particular kind of God 11:48 who is to be worshipped and praised 11:51 because of the attributes of His character. 11:54 The Greek way of thinking says, 11:56 "It doesn't matter what you think 11:57 or what God is like. 11:59 You had better get with His program 12:01 because He has power over you." 12:04 Christianity down through the ages 12:06 has been infiltrated by Greek thinking 12:10 so much so that many believers in Christ, in name, 12:16 have lost track of the fact that we as believers in Christ 12:20 are living out a Hebrew narrative, not a Greek one. 12:24 So within our framework for our purposes this evening, 12:29 I want to peel back a piece of the Hebrew story 12:34 that is vital to understand who Jesus is 12:38 and why He came to the world. 12:40 So we go back to the beginning of the story 12:42 as we have every previous message. 12:45 Genesis 1:26, 27, 12:49 tells us something that we are familiar with 12:51 but we are going to re-familiarize ourselves 12:54 with this passage 12:55 and we are going to notice something 12:57 that we don't normally take into account. 12:59 The scripture says, "Then God said, 13:02 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, 13:08 and let them have 13:13 dominion over all the earth.'" 13:16 Now the image part 13:18 of the text we quote frequently. 13:20 "God made man in His own image." 13:22 The dominion part we lost track of 13:25 and it is distinctly territorial idea 13:28 like your home that was breached 13:31 by the guy who loved sandwiches. 13:34 So here what we have 13:35 is we have a presentation of the fact 13:38 that God created human beings in His own image. 13:41 Now we normally think that 13:42 that text is saying something to us like, 13:44 "God made man in His own image, that means He made us 13:48 with characters like His character." 13:52 That's true. 13:53 But the context widens our perspective. 13:57 We were made in the image of God not only character wise, 14:02 we were made in the image of God 14:05 functionally, vocationally. 14:08 Do you hear me? 14:09 Functionally and vocationally. 14:12 God operates in such a manner as to have a universe 14:18 over which He presides as God. 14:21 He creates a world, 14:22 and he creates the man and the woman, 14:24 and rather than micromanaging them 14:28 setting up His own throne on earth, 14:31 God says, "Let's create them on our image," 14:34 and what is His image? 14:35 Character, yes, but also, "Let's give them dominion." 14:38 That's the context. 14:40 "Let's give them autonomy. 14:42 Let them operate with freedom over this domain. 14:47 Let's give them a domicile." 14:49 Are you still with me, have I lost you? 14:51 Okay. 14:52 So if you fast forward in the story, 14:53 this is the way Hebrew prophets think. 14:57 According to Psalm 115:16, 14:59 listen to this language very carefully. 15:03 "The heavens 15:04 are the Lord's heavens, but," 15:10 qualifier, the word, 15:12 "but," here is a grammatical qualifier, 15:14 "The heavens are the Lord's heavens, 15:16 but the earth He has given 15:20 to human beings." 15:22 This is delegation language. 15:26 God is not like the Greek gods. 15:30 The one and only true God isn't like Zeus. 15:32 He is not a power mongering kind of God. 15:35 He doesn't operate by sheer control. 15:38 God in fact, the God of Scripture 15:40 is not a micromanaging control freak. 15:44 He is a delegator. 15:46 God is the kind of God who gives autonomy 15:49 and delegates authority. 15:52 He says, "We are going to create the world 15:55 and we are going to give them dominion." 15:56 This is fascinating. 15:58 When you read the Genesis account, 16:00 God sets up Eden. 16:04 Eden is one piece of ground, a small piece of ground, 16:08 we don't know how many acres it was, of ground on the earth, 16:12 and God says, "Okay, this is what things look like 16:15 when they are beautiful and wonderful and incredible." 16:18 But I'm just giving you a little example 16:21 of the kind of stuff that you 16:23 with your God given creativity can do. 16:27 So now what I want you to do is I want you to look around 16:29 in this little piece of ground 16:31 that I have myself cultivated for you, 16:34 and now I want you to expand the beauty, 16:36 I want you to beautify the whole earth, 16:38 I want you to go out from this central point called Eden, 16:43 and turn the whole world into a garden 16:47 exercising your autonomy, your authority. 16:50 Make it however you want to make it. 16:52 Do whatever you want to do within the parameters 16:56 of goodness and love, and covenant or faithfulness. 17:01 So God gives autonomy and delegates authority 17:04 at the beginning of the story of Scripture. 17:08 This is fascinating. 17:09 Now in the Greek way of thinking, 17:12 God never delegates authority, God exercises authority. 17:16 According to Plato and Aristotle, 17:18 God is sheer being and power. 17:22 In fact, there's a term you've probably heard 17:25 that came to us out of Greek philosophy, 17:27 specifically a term that was coined by Aristotle 17:30 and that term was that God is, 17:33 in Aristotle's thinking, God is the unmoved mover. 17:38 Have you heard the term? 17:40 Now think about it for a minute. 17:41 "The unmoved mover." 17:44 That is to say that God Himself is static, 17:48 He's impassible, or without passion. 17:50 He never experiences anybody acting upon Him. 17:55 God only Himself moves all others. 17:57 We are puppets on strings, we are characters in a novel, 18:01 a story that's already told. 18:03 You didn't decide to have Cheerios this morning 18:06 even though you are under the illusion 18:08 that you made a free choice to have Cheerios. 18:11 You were predetermined to have Cheerios this morning 18:15 because God is sovereign overall. 18:18 This theology comes into Christianity 18:21 in what's called determinism or chauvinistic predestination 18:25 in which the idea is expanded to take on the form 18:29 that nobody ever chooses to be saved or lost 18:33 but that God predetermines who's saved, who's lost. 18:37 This is where you get the doctrine of, 18:39 "Once saved, always saved," because God unilaterally 18:42 makes all the decisions in His universe. 18:44 God is in fact according to chauvinism, 18:47 a micromanaging controlling kind of God. 18:51 Nothing happens unless God makes it happen. 18:55 So it doesn't matter if you get a cancer diagnosis, 18:58 or you are violated 18:59 as a little boy or a little girl 19:01 by an uncle or a brother or a daddy, 19:03 the message is always the same. 19:05 God had a plan in that horrific thing 19:08 that happened to you. 19:10 The fact is that God stands against what was done to you, 19:15 and God condemns all violating actions 19:19 that are contrary to covenantal love, 19:22 and the only way that any of us can process God 19:26 in a way that we would come to love Him 19:28 rather than to grovelingly fear Him 19:31 and serve Him as slaves is to be 19:34 from the Greek way of processing God in reality 19:38 and be delivered into the messianic 19:40 or Hebrew way of thinking 19:42 in which a human being was created 19:45 in the image of God with free will, 19:48 God is love therefore God created creatures 19:51 capable of love which means 19:53 we are also capable of not loving. 19:56 All the bad stuff going down in human history, 20:01 all of it is traceable to violations 20:06 of the covenant of love. 20:09 God is not ultimately responsible 20:13 for any horrible thing 20:14 that has ever happened to anybody. 20:16 And the Great Controversy unfolds in such a way 20:19 that when all is said and done, when all is said and done, 20:23 the character of God is completely exonerated, 20:27 vindicated, from all 20:29 confusing Babylonian theological paradigms 20:32 that lies sin at the door of God. 20:36 So what's happening in the biblical narrative, 20:39 in the Hebrew flow of thinking is that God gives autonomy 20:42 and delegates authority. 20:44 So we are not surprised then when Jesus comes to the messiah 20:47 and he says, "Let me tell you how to pray." 20:50 Our Father who is in heaven, 20:53 hallowed be Your name, your character is amazing. 20:57 Your kingdom come, 21:00 Your will be done on earth 21:05 the way it's done in heaven. 21:06 Apparently, God's will is not done 21:09 in all instances on earth. 21:11 Your will be done on earth as it in heaven. 21:14 Give us this day, our daily bread, 21:17 etcetera, etcetera and then there's this part. 21:19 "And deliver us from evil," or Luke's gospel says, 21:24 "Deliver us from the evil one." 21:28 Our territory has been breached. 21:31 A foreign Lord has taken control 21:35 of planet earth. 21:37 Planet earth is a territory held hostage 21:41 by a power that is contrary to the will of God. 21:47 And so believers pray in a great controversy sense. 21:51 Let me just tell you something about prayer. 21:53 Prayer in a Calvinistic sense, in a Greek sense, 21:57 is trying to get God do things He is not willing to do. 22:02 Prayer in a Hebrew sense 22:05 is an act of war in the Great Controversy. 22:09 It is me leveraging my free will as a child of God 22:13 against the kingdom of darkness by inviting people, 22:17 by inviting God and his angelic forces 22:20 into people's lives and situations 22:22 where they are not giving permission. 22:25 I'm the husband in the house that's inviting God 22:29 to have influence in my children's lives 22:32 when they are not inviting God in to have influence. 22:36 Prayer is an act of war in the Great Controversy. 22:41 It's not trying to get God to be better than He is, 22:44 God is always doing all the good He can 22:47 to the degree that He can, 22:49 in every circumstance that He can barring one factor, 22:54 one variable, one line that God will never cross, 22:59 and that is the autonomy, the free will of human beings. 23:05 God isn't made better than He already is through prayer. 23:09 God has given permission to access situations 23:13 that He has barred from accessing 23:15 because we are free moral agents. 23:17 He'll never kick the door down, He knocks. 23:21 And prayer is the means by which we say, 23:23 "Come on in, Lord, to my house. 23:25 Have a sandwich if You'd like, do whatever You want. 23:28 You are welcome in my house. 23:30 You are welcome in my town. 23:32 You are welcome in my nation. 23:35 You are welcome in my world." 23:38 So our voices are united in intercessory prayer 23:42 to give God increased access. 23:45 This is what Jesus means when He says, 23:47 "Hey, if two or three of you get together, 23:50 I'll do whatever you say because I want to. 23:54 But I need for two or three of you 23:57 to leverage your free will in the Great Controversy 23:59 to give me access." 24:01 That's what's happening in the Great Controversy. 24:04 So check this out. 24:06 In this context, the Old Testament, 24:09 that is the Hebrew story assumes 24:13 this territorial view of reality. 24:18 When we come to the Book of Job, for example, 24:20 now there was a day, 24:21 there is a chapter 1 starting with verse 6, 24:23 "Now there was a day when the sons of God 24:25 came to present themselves before the Lord, 24:27 and Satan came also among them." 24:31 Now it's logical at this point to ask, 24:33 "What is he doing here?" 24:37 But listen. 24:38 Satan shows up in some kind of heavenly conclave. 24:42 There's a congress going on, there's a meeting. 24:44 And you'll notice that in the Scripture 24:47 there was a day when the sons of God 24:50 came to present themselves before the Lord. 24:52 They were summoned, 24:53 they were brought together before the Lord. 24:55 There's some kind of meeting taking place, 24:57 and Satan just kind of shows up. 25:00 But watch how the conversation ensues. 25:03 "And the Lord said to Satan," 25:05 not what you and I just asked, but something different. 25:09 Not what are you doing here, but, "Where do you come from?" 25:12 It's a territorial question. 25:15 God doesn't say, "What are you doing here? 25:18 What is your justification?" 25:20 He says, "What is your point of origin?" 25:23 Because the sons of God are here 25:25 and they are representing various territories 25:28 in God's vast universe. 25:31 Satan comes and he's there and God says, 25:35 "What part of My universe 25:37 are you purporting to represent? 25:40 From where exactly do you come? 25:44 What part of My universe are you here 25:46 to supposedly speak on behalf of?" 25:51 Check this out. 25:52 "So Satan answered the Lord and said, 25:54 'From going to and fro on the earth, 25:58 and from walking back and forth on it.'" 26:02 Have you ever brought a piece of property? 26:05 What's one of the first things you do, 26:06 if not the first thing you do 26:07 when you buy a piece of property? 26:09 You walk the property line. 26:10 You stake it out. You figure out. 26:12 You walk to and fro all over your piece 26:14 and you figure out, and you put stakes, 26:16 "Okay, this is it, this is my territory, 26:18 this is my domain, 26:20 this is my plot of ground on planet earth." 26:25 The devil is telling God, "Hey, 26:27 I'm here to represent planet earth 26:30 and the human race." 26:33 Now this is a very bold claim. 26:36 But God doesn't throw him out. 26:39 There is a legitimacy to his claim 26:43 that we are about to see in a minute. 26:45 It is a claim that has been taken 26:50 in a dastardly manner, 26:53 but it's a claim nonetheless that has been given teeth, 26:58 and we'll see who is given teeth by. 26:59 So God responds and doesn't say, 27:00 "Oh, fine, have a seat. 27:03 I like you." 27:05 God says, "Then the Lord said to Satan, 27:08 'Have you considered My servant Job, 27:12 that there is none like him 27:14 on the earth, 27:18 a blameless and upright man," 27:22 that's a moral evaluation, 27:26 a moral evaluation. 27:28 Watch this. 27:30 "And he fears God and he shuns evil?'" 27:33 Well, evil has its source in Satan 27:36 who is in this heavenly congress 27:38 purporting to represent planet earth. 27:40 So in that context, what is God essentially saying? 27:42 God is saying, "Okay, you are here 27:44 claiming to represent earth 27:48 but I have a counter claim, 27:50 and his name is Job. 27:53 You think you have control of the earth, 27:55 but I have a beachhead in that territory. 27:59 I haven't given it up. 28:00 And I plan on taking it back from you," 28:03 this is between the lines 28:04 that we'll see in just a moment. 28:07 The war between good and evil is a territorial dispute. 28:11 This is why when Jesus comes, one of the things He says 28:15 to those who are listening to His teachings. 28:17 He says, "When this is all said and done, 28:21 the meek will inherit the earth. 28:26 It's coming back to you. 28:27 I'm here to take the earth back 28:33 and put it back in your hands." 28:34 This is where Jesus says things like, 28:36 "Fear not little children, 28:39 it is your Father's good pleasure 28:41 to give you the kingdom." 28:45 The war between good and evil 28:47 on one level is a territorial dispute. 28:50 C.S. Lewis articulates it like this. 28:53 "There is no neutral ground in the universe." 28:57 Just let that sink in for a minute. 28:59 "There is no neutral ground in the universe. 29:01 Every square inch, every split second 29:05 is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan," 29:10 including your frontal lobe and mine, 29:14 including the space between our ears 29:16 as well as the terra firma under our feet. 29:20 Every square inch, every second, 29:23 claimed, counterclaimed. 29:24 There is a great controversy going on that traces 29:26 all the way back to the beginning of the war 29:28 between good and evil. 29:29 So then we come to the New Testament. 29:31 We are crossing the bridge now, 29:33 from the Old Testament narrative 29:34 to the New Testament, 29:36 from the Hebrew story that's being told 29:37 to the Hebrew Messiah 29:39 who is bringing it to a conclusion. 29:44 So Jesus comes into the world 29:46 and He is somehow 29:51 put in a position, well, not somehow, 29:54 He's lead by the spirit 29:56 into a war with Satan. 30:02 Luke 4:5-7, watch this, don't miss this. 30:07 "Then the devil, 30:09 taking Him up on a high mountain, 30:11 showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment." 30:15 Now just pause right there and just imagine this. 30:19 So Jesus is now in the world 30:24 and at the beginning of His ministry, 30:26 a conflict occurs. 30:28 And the conflict that occurs between Him and the devil 30:30 is not a physical conflict. 30:33 It's not an arm wrestling match, 30:35 it's not a dual, it's not a sword fight, 30:38 there are no bombs. 30:41 It is a political engagement. 30:45 It is a dispute over territory. 30:51 The devil takes Him to a high mountain 30:52 and he shows Him all the kingdoms 30:54 of the world in an instant. 30:56 Now watch this, the next verse. 30:58 "And the devil said to Him, to the Messiah, 31:02 'All this authority I will give You, 31:07 and their glory, 31:09 for this has been delivered to me, 31:12 and I can give it to whomever I wish.'" 31:18 What a claim, huh? 31:19 Now if you know the Hebrew story, 31:22 if somebody hand you New Testament in Psalms, 31:25 but you actually have the Old Testament 31:27 between your covers, 31:29 and if you've taken the entire narrative, 31:31 you know exactly what's going on here, 31:34 there's a backdrop. 31:35 When the devil says, 31:38 "If you bow down and worship me, 31:40 I'll give you all the kingdoms of this world 31:43 and the authority," and he says, 31:45 "because it was all given to me, 31:46 and I can give it to whoever I want." 31:49 He's referring back to what event 31:52 in the biblical story? 31:55 The fall in Genesis. 31:58 So when he says, "It was given to me," 32:00 who gave the world to Satan? 32:03 Did God give the world to Satan? 32:05 No. 32:06 Adam gave the world to Satan. 32:08 How did he give the world to Satan? 32:10 Was it his to give? 32:12 Yes, because we had noted 32:14 that God gave him dominion. 32:19 And because he had dominion, 32:22 the fall of mankind involved an abdication of authority. 32:28 And this is why it is a legitimate title 32:30 that Satan bears at this juncture 32:32 of the great controversy 32:34 that scripture is describing here, 32:35 in John 12:31, 32:37 Jesus Himself says that Satan 32:40 is the ruler of this world. 32:43 He just is. 32:44 So when he shows up in the heavenly meeting, 32:49 and God doesn't just throw him out, 32:52 it's because 32:54 there's a legitimacy to the claim, 32:56 because the ones who had authority 33:00 gave it to him. 33:02 So he's the ruler of this world. 33:04 2 Corinthians 4:4, 33:05 he's called the god of this age. 33:07 And Ephesians 2:2 says that 33:10 he is the prince of the power of the air. 33:13 That doesn't mean by the way 33:15 that he is the ruler of the oxygen supply. 33:18 That's not what the word air means there. 33:20 Oxygen is not the issue here. 33:23 It's more like the idea, he's the prince of the power 33:25 of the popular trends and society and in the world. 33:31 He's the one who presides over pop culture. 33:34 He's the one who is pushing the buttons 33:39 for the general moral trends of society. 33:43 This is what the Germans called the Zeitgeist, 33:46 the spirit of the age. 33:47 He is the one who is presiding over the trends in society. 33:53 So John was saying, 33:55 "The whole world lies under the sway 33:58 of the wicked ones." 33:59 Sway means there is a current, 34:02 there is a moral current to society, 34:05 and the devil is the one who is presiding over it. 34:09 So he is the god of this age. 34:11 He is the prince of this world. 34:14 So let's draw conclusion 34:16 from where we've come from so far 34:18 in order to launch forward with clarity now. 34:21 Essentially what we've said 34:23 to this point in our time together 34:24 is that the fall of humanity was, yes, it was a moral fall. 34:29 That's the part we're generally familiar with. 34:31 Adam and Eve sinned and we take that to mean, 34:34 and rightly so, 34:35 that they fell on a moral level. 34:38 Yes, there was a moral fall. 34:39 But the fall of humanity was a moral fall, 34:42 and as a result, it was a governmental fall, 34:46 a political coup occurred. 34:48 The fact is that a foreign invading force, 34:54 a fallen angel took the world 34:58 from humanity through deception and temptation. 35:04 So a moral fall gave way to a governmental fall. 35:09 Or we could say it this way, 35:10 if you like this language better. 35:12 The go with language is simply to understand. 35:15 So if this helps, essentially, the fall of mankind 35:20 constitutes a transfer of dominion. 35:24 A transfer of dominion occurred. 35:29 Now this transfer of dominion 35:31 happened by the free choice of Adam and Eve. 35:35 Adam and Eve abdicated their dominion over the earth. 35:37 Now in order to make the point, 35:39 I want you to just reason with me here for a minute. 35:42 I want you to hypothetically imagine 35:44 that the fall had never occurred. 35:46 What if Adam and Eve had said no to the deceptions 35:50 and temptations of Satan? 35:52 What if the sin problem had never entered the world, 35:55 hypothetically, question, 35:57 would Adam and Eve still be alive today? 36:00 How old would they be? 36:02 Just take a wild guess. 36:03 Approximately 6,000 years old. 36:07 Where would they live? 36:09 In Iraq. 36:11 Would it be beautiful there? 36:13 Oh, it would be gorgeous. 36:15 But not only would it be beautiful there, 36:17 the whole world by this point would just be, 36:20 what did Isaiah say? 36:21 Blossoming like a rose, the whole world. 36:25 So Adam and Eve would still be alive, 36:26 they would live somewhere over near Babylon, no doubt, 36:29 and listen, 36:33 who would they be to us? 36:36 Oh, they'd be great, great, great, great, great, great, 36:39 great, great, great, great, 36:40 great, great, great, great, great, 36:42 totally great grandma and grandpa. 36:45 And they'd be really young. 36:48 Adam and Eve would look like, 36:49 if they did that whole guess my age thing, 36:51 if Adam and Eve were still alive right now 36:53 and they said, "Hey, hey, guess how old we are." 36:55 Just by appearances we'd say, "I don't know, 22?" 37:00 Because intrepid would have never happened, 37:02 the aging process would have never kicked in, 37:05 the sin problem would have never tarnished creation. 37:09 They would be young and old simultaneously. 37:13 And who would they be to us? 37:16 They would be the representative heads 37:18 of the human race. 37:20 And any time God, what did he say in Job, 37:23 "There was a day when the sons of God 37:25 came to present themselves before the Lord." 37:27 Who would go to represent us? 37:28 Adam and Eve. 37:30 Yeah, we would have our representatives. 37:33 But what is the devil saying when he tempts Jesus? 37:36 He is saying to Jesus, "Hey, I took it. 37:40 It's mine. 37:42 And if you bow down and worship me, 37:46 then I'll give you the authority 37:48 of the whole world 37:50 as long as I'm above you 37:53 as ultimate Lord of earth. 37:56 I'll let you run the whole thing. 37:59 I'll delegate it all to you 38:01 right under me if you worship me." 38:04 This is amazing. 38:06 So now look back to the beginning of the story. 38:09 Back to Genesis 3:15 which we've read 38:10 in every single time that we've been together 38:12 and that's not accidental 38:14 because this is the mother of all prophecies, 38:16 this is the point from whence comes 38:18 the entire great controversy 38:21 and messianic prophetic world view. 38:24 If you want to think like a Hebrew, 38:27 you need to begin with Genesis. 38:29 And Genesis 3:15 tells us, 38:32 God speaking to the serpent who took the earth 38:36 from Adam and Eve and is now the Lord, the ruler, 38:39 the god of this world in this age. 38:41 God says, "I will put enmity, hostility between you, Satan, 38:45 and the woman, 38:46 between your offspring and hers, 38:48 he will crush your head, 38:50 he singular will crush your head, 38:53 and you will strike or bruise, 38:55 one version says his heel." 38:59 I'm going to suggest to you something that I haven't said 39:02 in the three previous presentations 39:04 where we've quoted this text. 39:06 I'm going to suggest to you that 39:07 if you look at the passage carefully 39:09 that Genesis 3 constitutes a declaration of war. 39:14 God is saying to Satan who has taken the world. 39:16 He's saying, "This isn't over yet. 39:21 You took it by deception. 39:24 I'm going to take it back by truth." 39:28 Misrepresented My character 39:31 and drawn them away from Me 39:34 on the premise of a lie. 39:37 But I'm going to draw them back to Myself 39:41 on the premise of the truth of who I really am. 39:46 The lie that Satan told our first parents, 39:50 it was a three pronged lie, but the essence of that lie 39:53 collectively was simply 39:56 that God is only looking out 39:59 for His own best interest, God doesn't love you, 40:04 so you better live for yourself. 40:06 That's Genesis 3:1-5. 40:11 Jesus comes into the world in order to demonstrate 40:14 unequivocally and beyond 40:15 all question that God is love, 40:21 and it is that revelation that constitutes 40:26 the fatal blow to Satan's kingdom. 40:31 So Genesis is a declaration of war. 40:34 So now that we have this Hebrew background, 40:36 we come to the New Testament and we encountered Jesus 40:39 and we are not surprised when He tells us 40:40 this little parable, this little story. 40:43 He says in Luke 11:21, 22. 40:47 He says, to the disciples 40:49 and those who are around Him listening. 40:52 He says, "When a strong man," 40:55 what? 40:56 "A strong men fully armed, guards his own palace, 41:02 his goods are in peace." 41:05 So the first part of this little parable. 41:06 There's a strong man, his strength is acknowledged, 41:10 and this strong man has a palace, 41:12 he has a territory, he has a domain, 41:14 and he has goods, he has possessions. 41:18 And then Jesus says this, "But when a stronger than he," 41:24 there's a strong man, and now Jesus says, 41:27 "But when a stronger than he comes upon him" 41:32 the strong man, 41:34 "when a stronger than he comes upon him, 41:35 and overcome sin, 41:37 he takes from him all his armor 41:40 in which he trusted, and divides his spoils." 41:44 What is Jesus saying here? 41:47 Jesus in this context had just sent out 41:50 the 12 and the 70. 41:52 And they've come back rejoicing, 41:54 "Hey, even demons flee at your name." 41:59 And Jesus is simply explaining to them 42:01 why the demons are fleeing. 42:03 As the 12 and the 70 our proclaiming the gospel, 42:07 the devil is trembling 42:08 and demons are running for cover 42:11 and Jesus in this little parable 42:13 is explaining why. 42:14 He's saying, "Okay, I'll tell you 42:16 what's going on here. 42:17 The devil is the strong man and he took the world, 42:19 but I'm here now to take it back." 42:23 He's telling the disciples that Satan has taken the world 42:29 and he's guarding his palace, and his goods. 42:33 And Jesus says, "But a stronger than he 42:35 is here now. 42:36 And that's me. 42:38 And you are my emissaries, 42:39 and you are going out not with force and deception 42:42 but with the proclamation of the good news of God's love, 42:45 and the kingdom of Satan is falling 42:49 proportional to the revelation of God's love. 42:52 The devil knows that his gig is up 42:56 and I'm here now to take away from him 43:00 all the armor in which he trusted." 43:03 That is his lies, 43:05 his deceptions regarding the character of God. 43:10 And his kingdom is going to fall now 43:12 and he knows it. 43:14 And then Jesus says, "And when I take it back, 43:18 when I regain the world, when I take it back, 43:21 I'm going to divide the spoils among my followers." 43:25 The earth is coming back into human lordship. 43:29 We will again become the stewards of our planet 43:33 and the devil will be expelled from the world. 43:38 So then, having told us what's going on 43:41 out of His Hebrew narrative, 43:45 Jesus' explaining that he is here to fulfill 43:47 Genesis 3:15. 43:50 He then, as He comes to the close of His ministry, 43:54 He tells us, 43:55 "Something is going to happen at Calvary," 43:58 that again, in a Greek paradigm, 44:02 we don't notice. 44:03 We read it, we don't know what to do with it. 44:05 Doesn't make any sense to us. 44:08 We opt for the more Greek way of thinking that Jesus died, 44:13 so I don't have to, 44:15 so I can go to heaven when I die. 44:18 Well, Jesus doesn't know anything about 44:19 this way of thinking. 44:21 Jesus knows that you're going to go to heaven 44:23 for a short period of time in the millennium 44:25 but that the earth is your home, 44:29 new heavens, new earth, we're coming back here. 44:31 In fact, we could hypothetically have a reunion 44:34 about a million years from now. 44:36 If you want, we schedule it. 44:37 We could have a reunion right here on this very spot. 44:40 This very earth itself under our feet 44:42 is under the process of being redeemed 44:44 by the Messiah. 44:46 And He's going to give it back to us. 44:48 Now yes, Jesus died for our sins, 44:51 but what about this dimension 44:55 of the death of Jesus at the cross. 44:57 Jesus explains what's going to happen when He dies. 45:00 Now He says, 45:01 "Now is the judgment of this world, 45:04 now the ruler of this world will be cast out." 45:10 Satan at the cross of Calvary will be cast out. 45:13 Cast out of what, where, how? 45:16 Well, in the large sense, 45:17 he's going to be cast out of having any more credibility 45:21 or authority with the human race. 45:25 In a more detailed sense, 45:26 he's going to be cast out of the affections 45:29 and the perceptions of human beings 45:32 so that the true knowledge of one and only true God 45:36 takes up residence in our thinking 45:38 and we fall back in love with God 45:42 on the premise of His love for us. 45:45 How do we know that's what Jesus means? 45:46 Well, because He says so in the next verse. 45:48 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth," 45:51 he's referring to the Calvary, right? 45:52 When I'm lifted up from the cross, 45:54 when the devil marshals his force against me, 45:59 when the devil in all of his demons 46:03 come against Jesus at the cross, 46:07 there is a poetic justice that occurs, 46:11 and the devil doesn't see it coming. 46:13 The devil thinks that through deception and force 46:16 he can win the war. 46:18 He doesn't understand that there is a deeper power 46:22 at work in the universe that's foreign to him now. 46:26 He once knew it. 46:28 He once knew that God is love, 46:31 and he once knew what it felt like 46:33 to be loyal to God out of love, 46:37 but he deceived himself 46:38 into believing that God is self-serving 46:41 in order to justify his own selfish interests. 46:45 This is what Freud would later call projection. 46:50 Viewing somebody as guilty of what you are guilty of 46:53 so that you let yourself off the hook. 46:55 The devil is deeply entrenched in selfishness to the point 47:00 where love is now foreign to him. 47:03 He doesn't even know what it feels like to love 47:05 and he doesn't know what love looks like, 47:07 and he doesn't see it coming. 47:09 He can't even remember 47:11 what it felt like to worship God 47:14 with adoration. 47:16 All of that's gone from him now. 47:20 And Jesus comes, and he says, 47:22 "When I die on the cross, something is going to occur 47:26 that is going to produce two effects. 47:29 It will bring the kingdom of Satan down, 47:33 and I, 47:37 if I am lifted up from the earth," 47:38 well, here's the key word, draw, 47:41 "I'll draw, attract, allure, all to me. 47:46 There will be such a revelation 47:51 of My love that it will topple 47:56 the lies that Satan has spun regarding My character." 48:00 The great controversy is won 48:02 on the premise of the revelation 48:05 of who God really is in Christ, 48:08 and most specifically, at the cross, 48:10 so that Paul says it like this. 48:14 Colossians 2:15, 48:16 Paul says that something happened at Calvary. 48:21 "Having disarmed the powers and authorities," 48:25 he's referring specifically here to Satan 48:28 and all his demonic hosts 48:30 who preside over various territories 48:33 on the earth. 48:36 But he's referring also to human regimes, 48:38 human kingdoms, human political engines, 48:43 human political machines that operate 48:46 by principles of deception, 48:50 that operate by principles of force. 48:52 Every kingdom of the world that operates by deception 48:56 and force is coming down. 49:00 It's not wise for followers of Jesus 49:05 to be deeply tied to any political system. 49:08 I won't say much more about that, 49:10 but I think you know what I mean. 49:14 We are captive to the kingdom of Christ, 49:19 and we are just passing through this world to heaven, 49:23 so we can look back and rule it by covenantal love. 49:28 So every kingdom of this world, 49:32 and the entire psycho edifice 49:35 of Satan's kingdom is coming down 49:37 because Jesus having disarmed the powers and authorities, 49:41 "he made a public spectacle of them," at Calvary, 49:45 "triumphing over them by the cross." 49:48 Now this is so counterintuitive 49:50 that we hardly know what it means. 49:53 You have to pause, you have to take a deep breath, 49:55 you really have to process this, 49:57 because this scripture as well as 50:00 the rest of the New Testament is essentially saying 50:04 that God has won the great controversy 50:07 in precisely the way that nobody expected Him to. 50:11 Even the disciples themselves right up until the resurrection 50:16 and ascension and the testimony of Jesus 50:20 after His resurrection itself 50:23 and on the walk on the road to Emmaus. 50:27 The disciples themselves the whole time 50:29 were expecting a military Messiah 50:33 that would take the Roman Empire 50:36 down by force of arms, 50:39 that the Messiah by force of arms 50:42 would be seated upon an earthly throne, 50:46 that James and John would be his right hand thugs, 50:49 according to their mothers' request, 50:53 and that God would, listen, 50:55 basically operate by the same principles 50:59 as the kingdom of Satan just with greater power. 51:04 This is what is called, in history, 51:07 the myth of redemptive violence. 51:11 This is the idea 51:12 that is articulated in scripture 51:14 when the Bible says, "Be warned," 51:17 the Bible says two times in the teachings of Jesus, 51:20 and then it's repeated in Revelation 13, 51:23 "He who kills with the sword will be killed with the sword." 51:27 Don't operate by principles of force and coercion, 51:31 don't force the conscience, leave people free, why? 51:36 Because freedom is the only way that it is possible 51:40 for human being to love God. 51:43 The moment force is entered into the equation, 51:46 whether it's emotional force, or physical force, 51:51 or theological force in doctrines like 51:53 "eternal torment," it's a form of force. 51:56 All of these doctrines constitute 51:59 theological and emotional coercion 52:03 and that's the principle that Satan is operating on. 52:05 But what's happening in Christ 52:08 is that He is toppling the kingdom of darkness 52:11 not by force of arms 52:14 but by subjecting Himself 52:18 to the violence of humanity and responding 52:23 to their hatred and violence with love and forgiveness. 52:27 Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. 52:30 You can just picture Satan at this point, 52:34 chomping at the bit... 52:35 No, no, not forgive them, retaliate. 52:40 "Save yourself," the Roman soldiers said, 52:43 "save yourself," 52:45 the two thieves beside him said, 52:47 "save yourself," the mob cried. 52:53 If you are the Son of God, 52:58 save yourself. 53:01 That was the temptation. 53:03 If Jesus would've crossed the line 53:08 to exert force or coercion 53:10 in any form to save Himself, 53:15 the kingdom would have been forfeited 53:20 to Satan's control. 53:23 The devil is mad, 53:27 as in insane, 53:31 with an insatiable desire 53:34 to through violence push Jesus 53:37 over the line to stop loving you and me 53:42 because of what we are doing to Him. 53:45 But when Jesus dies 53:48 with a covenantal faithfulness of God intact 53:53 in His heart, 53:55 the kingdom of Satan is defeated 53:58 in his expiring breath. 54:02 Jesus comes forth from the grave 54:06 not by some kind of 54:09 arbitrary active God, 54:12 Jesus comes forth from the grave 54:14 by virtue of the victory that He gained 54:18 by loving us to the end. 54:24 Our savior, 54:26 our brother, our Lord, 54:30 is one who has conquered the kingdom of darkness 54:34 by truth and love rather than deception and force. 54:39 The gospel commission therefore is a call of God 54:44 upon us as human beings to spread the good news 54:49 of who God is and what He is really like 54:51 as displayed in Christ. 54:54 The point of the biblical story 54:58 is not that God as God 55:03 would regain control of the world. 55:05 That wouldn't have taken 6,000 years. 55:07 If it were merely a matter of sheer power, 55:10 God has the sheer power. 55:13 If it were merely a matter of force, God has the force. 55:18 He could snap his fingers 55:21 and by sheer force destroy all His enemies. 55:26 But the point of the biblical story 55:28 is not that God as God 55:30 would regain control of the world 55:32 but the God as man, the second Adam. 55:37 The Son of God would regain control of the world 55:40 by truth and love. 55:42 The whole thing came back into human control, 55:45 and according to the Gospel of John, 55:48 as many has received this Messiah 55:52 in the display of His love, 55:55 as many has received Him, He gave the right, 56:00 the authority to become sons of God, 56:06 even to those who believe on His name, His character, 56:08 the display of God's love that is manifested in Him. 56:11 So that finally when we come to end of John Chapter 1, 56:17 the narrative very clearly tells us that the one who is 56:20 the Son of God, John 1:49, 56:23 is the Son of God in the Davidic sense 56:27 of the Hebrew narrative. 56:28 He is the Son of God in the sense that 56:31 He is the King of Israel. 56:34 He is now here the rightful ruler of world. 56:37 And now John 3:16 finally makes sense 56:42 in this very trajectory, 56:43 in this very narrative form. 56:48 "For God so loved the world," 56:53 with the covenantal love that the Hebrew prophets 56:56 articulated and foretold, 56:59 "God so loved the world," Jews and Gentiles alike, 57:04 "that He gave," out of covenantal faithfulness, 57:08 "His only begotten, covenantal Son, 57:13 that whoever believes," 57:15 that he is in fact the new Adam, 57:17 the new head of the human race, "should not perish," 57:22 under the covenant curses articulated by Moses, 57:25 "but have everlasting life," under the covenant blessings 57:28 articulated by Moses. 57:31 John 3:16 57:33 is not trying to communicate anything to us 57:36 like we have generally thought. 57:39 John 3:16 is telling us 57:42 that the Son of God and the Savior of the world 57:46 is the one in whom planet earth has been regained 57:52 for human regency and stewardship. 57:56 We are sons and daughters of God 57:59 by virtue of the victory 58:00 that Jesus gained on our behalf. 58:02 Thank you for your time. |
Revised 2018-11-19