Participants:
Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS025019S
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00:00 [uplifting music]
00:12 [uplifting music] 00:14 >>Eric Flickinger: Welcome to "Sabbath School," brought to you 00:15 by It Is Written. 00:17 We're glad you're joining us today. 00:19 We are taking a look at how to study Bible prophecy, 00:22 something very significant for us living in, well, 00:25 really the last days of earth's history to understand. 00:28 And today, we're going to look at how 00:29 we can understand sacrifice. 00:32 How does understanding sacrifice correctly or misunderstanding it 00:37 have a very real role to play in the way that we 00:39 live our lives today? 00:41 We're going to find that out. Let's begin with prayer. 00:44 Father, thank You for being with us today 00:46 and giving us an opportunity to understand You more 00:49 through our study of Your Word. 00:51 We ask that You'll bless our time together 00:52 and we thank You, in Jesus' name, amen. 00:56 We are delighted, once again, this week to have the author 00:58 of this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson 01:00 with us, Pastor Shawn Boonstra, Shawn, welcome. 01:02 >>Shawn Boonstra: Hey, thank you. Thanks for having me back. 01:04 It's always a miracle when I get invited back another week. 01:07 >>Eric: Well, you keep giving us good information, good stuff, 01:10 and so we just keep inviting you back. 01:12 So, we'll see what next week looks like. 01:13 >>Shawn: And you can address all your complaint letters 01:15 over everything I've said to Eric Flickinger-- 01:18 >>Eric: That's right. >>Shawn: ...at It Is Written. 01:19 >>Eric: And I know exactly what to do with all of those 01:21 complaint letters. [Shawn laughs] 01:23 We're grateful that you're here, Shawn. 01:25 "Understanding Sacrifice"-- so this is a significant-- 01:28 not to downplay the significance of the other weeks 01:31 that we've been going, but understanding sacrifice, 01:33 this is big. >>Shawn: This is core. 01:35 >>Eric: This is really core. >>Shawn: In, you know, 01:38 we see in Revelation 1, I mean, this is all about prophecy. 01:42 And I don't really do a whole lot of verse-by-verse 01:45 exposition of prophecy. 01:47 Instead, we're looking at foundational concepts 01:49 that make it easier to understand. 01:51 Revelation, Jesus introduces Himself 01:52 as the one who died and who is alive 01:55 and will live forevermore. 01:56 The crucifixion's in there. 01:58 In Revelation 4 and 5, Jesus walked 02:00 into the throne room of God. 02:02 Right, "Who is worthy to open the seals?" 02:04 And we know that human history 02:06 cannot proceed from that point forward. 02:08 That's what the seals are in Revelation 6. 02:10 None of the church's history can start till somebody 02:13 is qualified to open those seals, and John weeps, 02:16 "Oh, nobody can be found worthy. This is hopeless." 02:18 And Jesus walks into that scene as a slain lamb. 02:23 The crucifixion of Christ is the reason 02:26 the church can exist. 02:28 It's the reason that history could unfold. 02:30 It's the reason that prophecy is headed somewhere. 02:33 It's the anchor point. 02:34 And it's impossible to understand prophecy 02:37 unless you have an accurate understanding of the cross. 02:41 Now, I say that knowing that we've discussed the cross 02:45 for 2,000 years as Christians and will never 02:47 hit the end of it. 02:48 An accurate understanding doesn't mean 02:51 an exhaustive understanding. 02:52 I think we'll be studying it for all of eternity. 02:54 >>Eric: I think you're absolutely right. 02:57 This week, you start the week's lesson on Sabbath. 02:59 You draw a contrast between the sacrifices 03:02 that the pagans make versus the sacrifices 03:05 that God requires in the Old Testament. Unpack that for us. 03:09 >>Shawn: Yeah, we could probably spend the whole show right here. 03:11 However, here's what I find fascinating. 03:15 Go around the world, sacrifice is a common theme 03:17 in almost every culture, and there's a couple of reasons 03:20 for that, I think. One is, there's a leftover memory 03:23 of something that dates way back when. 03:24 I'm working on a documentary right now that traces mythology 03:27 from around the world all to Mesopotamia. 03:30 They all share those roots. Sacrifice shows up everywhere. 03:33 If you go down and look at the Incas in South America, 03:37 they sacrifice a llama one day a year. 03:39 They still do this to this day, mostly ritualistic these days, 03:43 and often just for tourists' sake. 03:45 Why, why does sacrifice show up? 03:47 Why does everybody have this concept 03:50 that something needs to die in order 03:53 to make my life complete? 03:56 Where does that come from? 03:58 And then I started to dig a little bit deeper 04:01 because there's more than one concept 04:02 of how sacrifice works. 04:05 And I have seen people shy away, inside of Christianity, 04:08 mind you, shy away from the cross of Christ 04:10 because they look at the way pagans offered sacrifices. 04:14 And they think that it's analogous somehow, 04:16 that the cross of Christ is analogous to-- 04:20 oh, what were some of the mystery cults of Rome? 04:23 The Taurobolus where they put a cow on a grate, 04:25 and you go underneath, and the blood soaks you and so on. 04:29 And because I've heard some Christians shy away 04:32 from the idea that Jesus dies as my substitute, 04:35 I thought we probably need to drill down here. 04:38 There's this idea that dates back 04:40 to the days of Anselm that really what Jesus did-- 04:43 you'll hear theologians call it "moral influence theory"-- 04:45 what Jesus did was die on the cross to show me 04:48 how much He loves me. 04:50 And that will change my mind, and now I will align with God 04:53 because I understand how much He loves me. 04:56 And that is absolutely a part of what happened at the cross. 05:00 There's no question it demonstrates 05:02 God's love for me, that He's willing to go to that length. 05:07 But does it solve my problem knowing that God is nice? 05:11 Does it really solve the problem? 05:13 Pagans would offer a sacrifice to buy off a deity. 05:18 We talked about this in another lesson. 05:20 Basically, it's a shortcut to intimacy: 05:22 "All right, what do I owe you for this week's sins? 05:24 Here we go." 05:27 So, Christians have shied-- and I get why, maybe-- 05:29 they've shied away from 05:31 the substitutionary atonement at the cross 05:33 because it just seems so horrible to them. 05:36 But it's got to be more than that; 05:38 that doesn't deal with guilt. 05:40 In fact, this idea that all Jesus did was show me 05:43 how much He loves me and that there's no exchange-- 05:45 He doesn't pay. I've had people say, 05:47 "No, God doesn't pay for anything at the cross." 05:49 No? The words used are "redeem" and "ransom." 05:53 I know people have their little loopholes 05:54 and workarounds, but it gets harder and harder 05:56 to work around it as you make your way 05:58 through the Bible-- it happens too often. 06:00 And ground zero, in my humble opinion, 06:03 is probably Isaiah 53. 06:05 There is zero chance you can get through Isaiah 53 honestly 06:09 and not come out realizing that Jesus took my place. 06:12 He took my punishment for me. Let's take a look at this. 06:16 Isaiah 53, verse 4. 06:18 And if this is all we do today, this will help the foundation 06:21 of this lesson. Isaiah 53, everybody knows this one. 06:26 It really begins in Isaiah 52. 06:27 This is one of those places where the chapters and verses 06:32 might be in the wrong place, and maybe the last few verses 06:34 of 52, but let's start in verse 4: 06:37 "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." 06:41 Now, what some people will say is, "Okay, 06:43 "basically, He had to suffer because we were so bad 06:46 and we mistreated Him; that's all this means." 06:49 "He has borne our griefs"-- he carried them-- 06:52 "and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, 06:55 smitten by God, and afflicted." 06:59 All right, so they'll say, "Oh, yeah, but it just looked 07:01 "like God was afflicting him. 07:02 That's all that happened there. It was our misunderstanding." 07:05 Well, verse 5: "He was pierced for our transgressions." 07:08 Some people say, "No, no, that means 07:10 "because of our transgressions; we were so bad, 07:11 we did that to Him"-- no, no, no. 07:14 "He was pierced for our transgressions; 07:16 He was crushed"-- "daka" in Hebew-- 07:19 "[bruised] for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement 07:24 "that brought us peace, and with His wounds 07:27 we are healed." 07:29 He suffers; I'm healed. 07:32 There's an exchange that happens here. 07:33 What should have fallen on me falls on Jesus, 07:36 and what He-- well, it's the Ellen White quote 07:38 that I love so much: He "was treated as we deserve, 07:41 [so] that we [can] be treated as He deserves." 07:44 Verse 6: "All we like sheep have gone astray; 07:46 we have turned--every one-- to his own way; and the Lord"-- 07:49 here's where it gets hard to defend moral influence theory-- 07:52 "the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." 07:57 Now, did God place something on Him? 07:59 What? "The iniquity of us all." 08:01 My lawlessness, my sin placed on Him. 08:04 Yes, my lawlessness, our human lawlessness, 08:07 crucified Him, but there's something more here. 08:10 Something's laid on Him. 08:12 "He was oppressed"--verse 7-- "and He was afflicted, 08:14 "yet He opened not His mouth; 08:16 like a lamb that is led to the slaughter." 08:20 The language here is identical to the language of Leviticus 4, 08:24 Leviticus 9-11; it's hearkening back 08:27 to the lambs in the Levitical system. 08:30 He is the sacrificial lamb. 08:34 "Like a sheep... before its shearers is silent, 08:36 "so He opened not his mouth. 08:37 "By oppression and judgment He was taken away; 08:39 "...as for His generation, who considered 08:41 "that He was cut off out of the land of the living, 08:43 stricken for the transgression of my people?" 08:49 It's really hard, especially-- you know, 08:51 I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but if you do read this 08:53 in Hebrew, it's using the language of Leviticus 08:56 to describe Jesus, where they laid their hands 08:58 on the lamb, confessed their sins over it; 09:00 the lamb is slain instead of me, the sinner; the blood is carried 09:03 into the sanctuary by the priest. 09:06 That's what Jesus is doing here. 09:08 And the other language, Galatians 3: 09:10 "He became a curse" for me. 09:13 See, that's more than me mistreating Him. 09:16 "He was made sin for us." He becomes sin in my place. 09:21 Here's what I think is the issue, Eric. 09:24 I understand the tendency to look at the cross and say, 09:27 "That's too horrible. That can't be what I think it is." 09:30 And it seems like-- and we're using 09:32 the pagan reference: "Oh, we're appeasing an angry, 09:36 "bloodthirsty God here, and we're paying Him off, 09:38 "and Jesus is murdered by His own Father 09:41 in order to pay." 09:43 No, He did pay for my sins, but that's the real price of sin. 09:47 The real price of sin, God said, "The wages of sin is death." 09:54 Why? Why is it that way? 09:57 Well, God is perfectly just and merciful and good. 10:00 One of the key themes in Bible prophecy 10:02 is the character of God. 10:04 When it makes reference to God's name, 10:06 your name was your character in biblical times. 10:08 The Father's name written on the foreheads 10:10 in Revelation 14, that's us understanding 10:13 and coming in alignment with God's character. 10:15 Our character begins to reflect His. 10:19 He creates a perfect universe, and He puts us in there 10:22 as free moral agents because without that, 10:24 there is no love. Unless I have the choice to say "no" to you, 10:27 I can't--you know, my wife, I know she loves me 10:30 'cause she's still there at the end of the day, 10:31 and she has the freedom to leave, right? 10:34 God made us free moral agents. 10:35 Love is meaningless if there isn't a choice. 10:38 We made the wrong choice, and we started to live for self. 10:42 Now a perfect God, whose creation reflects His glory-- 10:45 you find that all through the Psalms, 10:46 and we might touch on that when we get to the Psalms. 10:49 His glory is reflected in His creation. 10:51 There's just one major blight on all of it. 10:55 Here is an entire race of people that lives for self. 11:00 Fallen angels can point to the human race and say, 11:03 "God made that, too." 11:05 Our existence becomes, in sin, 11:08 a lie about the character of God. 11:11 Our very existence tells a lie about who He is because, 11:16 "Hey, we're made in the image of God, 11:18 everybody's God's child, and look how they behave." 11:22 There's only one solution for that. 11:25 Now, God could have just said, "You know what, 11:27 "I'm blowing the whistle. Everybody out of the pool! 11:29 Scrap it"--you find this in pagan mythology: 11:31 "Let's just scrap the whole thing and let's try again." 11:34 The Mayans had a story; they restarted it two or three times. 11:37 They made people out of mud, no good; 11:38 made them out of wood, no good; destroy them with a flood. 11:42 God could have just wiped us out. 11:45 But instead, He chooses to display His mercy 11:47 and His character over the long haul, 11:49 as we've looked over several weeks. 11:51 By rights, we shouldn't exist. 11:53 By rights, in a universe created by a perfect, holy God, 11:56 we shouldn't even exist. The righteous penalty is death. 12:01 Now, could God just say, 12:04 "Look, I'm just going to overlook all this"? 12:09 Well, let's ask this question from a human perspective 12:11 and see if it makes sense. I'm going to--oh, I'm out of time. 12:14 We're going to have to take a break, aren't we? 12:15 Maybe I should pause and come back to this story 12:18 in a minute because a human court 12:20 might illustrate why it is God can't just overlook sin. 12:24 >>Eric: And you've just illustrated something, 12:26 that we've got a lot in this lesson 12:28 that we're not going to be able to cover. 12:29 >>Shawn: Oh, no, no. We'll never get done. 12:30 >>Eric: We wish we could. >>Shawn: It's the slain lamb 12:32 foundation of all prophecy anyway. 12:34 >>Eric: Yep, so we need to hit that. 12:35 We're going to talk about the human courtroom situation 12:38 here in a second. Tell us about the companion book. 12:40 >>Shawn: All right, I did write a companion book. 12:42 They called me and said, "You're supposed 12:43 to write a companion book." "What?" I forgot about that. 12:45 So, I did write one, though, and the stuff 12:47 that doesn't make it into the quarterly, 12:49 a lot of that goes into the companion book. 12:51 So if you're teaching the lesson or sitting in the lesson, 12:53 there's additional material that might help 12:55 with a meaningful discussion from Scripture. 12:57 >>Eric: Very good, so if you would like 12:59 to pick up that companion book, it is very easy to do. 13:03 You will find it at itiswritten.shop. 13:06 Again, itiswritten.shop. 13:08 You are looking for the companion book 13:10 to this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson. 13:12 And as Shawn just mentioned, 13:13 it is going to go more deeply 13:15 into this subject, the significance of sacrifice. 13:19 And really, each and every week, 13:21 it goes deeper in the subject matter 13:23 that he covers in the study guide itself. 13:26 So you'll want to pick that up, and it will deepen and broaden 13:29 and strengthen your study of these subjects. 13:32 We're going to be back in just a moment 13:33 as we continue looking at "Understanding Sacrifice." 13:36 Be back in just a moment. 13:38 [uplifting music] 13:42 >>John Bradshaw: In one of the most dramatic stories 13:44 in the Bible, the world's mightiest kingdom 13:47 gives way in a remarkable fulfillment of prophecy. 13:51 As a bloodless hand appears from out of nowhere, 13:53 and the writing is on the wall for a king and an empire. 13:57 Don't miss "The Writing on the Wall" 14:00 as we study Daniel, chapter 5 in our ongoing series 14:04 on the book of Daniel. 14:06 An irresponsible king parties while a fierce enemy 14:09 is literally at the gates of his capital city. 14:13 And after his brazen display of blasphemy towards God, 14:16 heaven declares he has been "weighed 14:18 in the balances and found wanting." 14:21 "The Writing on the Wall," Daniel, chapter 5, 14:25 God's prophetic word is fulfilled 14:27 in a faith-building story that gives us insights 14:30 into the final days of earth's history. 14:32 "The Writing on the Wall," Daniel, chapter 5, 14:36 brought to you by It Is Written TV. 14:42 [uplifting music] 14:46 >>Eric: Welcome back to "Sabbath School," 14:48 brought to you by It Is Written. 14:51 Shawn, you mentioned about an earthly court 14:54 teaching us something here. 14:57 >>Shawn: The Bible teaches-- it's somewhere it is written-- 14:59 it's somewhere in the first five books of the Bible: 15:00 God can't just overlook sin. 15:02 He can't just overlook it, and maybe this helps. 15:05 There is no earthly analogy that actually 15:07 paints an accurate picture. 15:09 There's a reason we will study the plan of salvation 15:11 for all eternity. 15:12 But let's suppose, for half a moment, 15:15 it's horrible, but they discover 24 bodies in the crawl space 15:19 under my house, I'm a serial killer, 15:21 I'm Ed Gein or whoever, and so they haul me into court, 15:25 and, "Yep, he's guilty; he killed 24 people." 15:27 Pretty horrible what I did, but I promised the judge. 15:31 I said, "You know what, judge, I get it, this was pretty bad. 15:33 I'll tell you what, I promise not to do it anymore." 15:37 And he says, "You know what, 15:38 in that case, God be with you, go home. Just go." 15:41 And you know, nobody would think justice had been done. 15:45 It's not enough to stop doing it. 15:48 I have already compromised the safety of society, 15:51 and I'm a risk, and that has to be dealt with. 15:54 When you and I sinned as a human race, 15:56 we already compromised the happiness of the universe, 15:59 and for God to say, "You know what, 16:01 let's just--fine, just promise not to do it anymore." 16:06 He does want us to promise not to do it anymore. 16:08 That's clear with the woman caught in adultery, 16:09 "Go and sin no more." Don't do that anymore. 16:13 But we all instinctively sense that's not enough. 16:16 What if Hitler had said in '45, instead of committing suicide, 16:19 he said, "You know what, that was my bad, my bad." 16:22 And we go, "Oh, okay, he's learned his lesson." 16:25 No, nobody would think that justice has been done. 16:27 As a matter of fact, ever since '45, 16:30 people have been going looking for the perpetrators. 16:32 I think they're almost all gone now, 16:34 but we look for the perpetrators. 16:36 Why, why, why, why does almost every culture 16:39 on the face of the planet offer sacrifice? 16:41 I get that pagan idea of sacrifice has been perverted. 16:44 It is a bloodthirsty, angry god that you're paying off. 16:48 But the fact remains that every culture 16:50 is still doing it because there's this sense 16:52 that it's not enough to just stop doing it. 16:54 There is guilt behind what we've done. 16:57 We have a, for lack of a better term-- 17:00 but it's not a horrible analogy-- 17:02 there's a huge debit in our side of the column. 17:06 It's like it's all red ink. 17:07 And to just, for God to say, "That's not that big of a deal," 17:10 makes a liar out of Him when He says, 17:12 "The wages of sin is death." You can't exist forever 17:15 in this shape. "I can't allow sin." 17:18 Sin is not an oops. 17:20 Sin is not a toddler who writes on the wall 17:22 because they don't understand. 17:23 I do believe there are sins we commit 17:26 because we don't fully understand what sin is. 17:29 There are things we do inadvertently, 17:31 but sin itself is not an oops; it's not a speeding ticket 17:34 that the judge goes, "You know what..." 17:37 It's much more serious than that. 17:39 And I think that the tendency to say, "Oh, you know, 17:42 "the pagans are evil, and that whole concept is pagan; 17:44 Jesus didn't have to die in my place," 17:46 we're actually downgrading sin to make ourselves 17:48 feel more comfortable with it. 17:50 And what I find fascinating is if someone were 17:53 to point out my sins, you would have no problem 17:56 telling everybody what that's worth 17:58 and how I should be punished: 18:00 "That's pretty serious what Shawn did." 18:02 But if someone says, "Here's what Eric did," 18:04 suddenly, we start to downplay it. 18:06 So, I find moral influence theory 18:08 taking off in a couple of cases. 18:09 Number one, sometimes people are raised 18:12 in a super legalistic household 18:14 where absolutely everything you do is a sin. 18:16 Everything must-- and they get fed up with it. 18:18 Like, "Everything I do is a sin, like absolutely everything, 18:21 and I have to"--and they live in this constant environment 18:24 of guilt; there's very little forgiveness. 18:26 So I understand that when they see that, they're projecting 18:29 what happened at home onto God. 18:31 They think God the Father is severe, 18:32 like maybe their dad was. 18:35 Or...we still haven't come to grips with the fact 18:38 that sin is that awful. 18:40 When you read the Bible's descriptions of it-- 18:42 and we're spending a lot of time here, but, folks, 18:44 this is so foundational. 18:46 The Lamb that is sacrificed in Revelation, that's big. 18:50 There is no story if that doesn't take place. 18:55 What does the Bible say about the nature of our sin? 18:58 "All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags," 19:01 the Bible says. That's pretty graphic. 19:04 I don't even want to get in-- that's Isaiah 64. 19:06 I don't want to get too graphic with that, 19:07 but filthy rags doesn't mean a rag 19:09 that you wiped up a grease spill with in the garage. 19:12 It is--I don't know how far we go on TV-- 19:15 it's a menstrual rag; that's what it is. 19:17 It's that--consider we've got to get rid of that. 19:20 When Jesus dies, look in the Psalms, 19:22 Psalm 22, verse 6. 19:24 It begins with, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" 19:27 Under what conditions does God have to push His own Son 19:30 that far away and that He feels abandoned by His own God? 19:34 What would be so serious that God the Son feels abandoned 19:37 by God the Father? 19:39 At the moment our sins are placed on Him. 19:42 And it says this in verse 6 of that same psalm; 19:45 it's clearly foreshadowing the cross: "I am a worm." 19:49 It's putting these words in Jesus' mouth. 19:52 "I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind 19:57 and despised by the people." 19:59 That worm--it's "toat," I believe, is the--"towlaat." 20:03 I'm a horrible Hebrew scholar. 20:05 All the Hebrew professors, address your complaint letters 20:07 to Eric Flickinger, care of It Is Written, 20:10 because, like, I can't answer-- but the worm is a crimson grub. 20:16 That's the literal word, "towlaat." 20:18 It's a crimson grub. It was used to dye things. 20:20 I think we're still doing that. 20:22 Not all of your yogurt that is red 20:24 is red by natural causes. 20:25 There are insects, you know, cochineal bugs that we crush 20:28 to get that red dye out of it. 20:31 Cochineal extract isn't what you think it is. 20:33 But the crimson grub was used the same way, to get dye. 20:36 The only way to get that dye was to crush the thing. 20:39 Jesus had to be crushed to cover us. 20:43 It's not a small matter. 20:46 Romans 7: "Has then what is good become death to me? 20:51 "Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, 20:53 "was producing death in me through what is good, 20:55 "so that sin through the commandment 20:57 might become exceedingly sinful." 21:01 God says, "No matter how serious you think sin is, 21:04 it's worse than that." 21:05 Verse 15: "What I am doing, I do not understand." 21:10 We, with human reason, can't even figure out 21:14 what is sinful and what is not. 21:15 We've become so corrupted by it. Our minds are so twisted by it. 21:19 We've become so self-centered that we can't recognize it. 21:23 That's why sanctification, we're told, 21:25 "is the work of a lifetime." God is saying, 21:27 "Okay, lesson learned this year in '24, Shawn. 21:29 Guess what I got for you in '25? You're still off the mark." 21:32 Sin means to miss the mark, right? 21:34 "Hamartia," it means an archer who keeps missing. 21:37 I keep missing all the time. 21:40 I think sometimes we turn to moral influence theory 21:42 because if we can downplay what happened at the cross, 21:44 then maybe I'm not all that bad. 21:47 I'd like to encourage people to look at it 21:50 the way the Bible talks about it. 21:51 It's that serious. He had to be made sin for us. 21:54 Suddenly, the love God displayed for me is so much-- 21:58 I mean, if He just hung on the cross--I mean, 21:59 there's a million ways that God could tell me 22:02 He loves me and demonstrate it to me. 22:04 Take me out for dinner. Why the cross? 22:06 Why would Jesus resist the temptation 22:08 to bypass the cross? Why? 22:10 Because the cross is essential. 22:12 It's not a nice addition to the plan of salvation, 22:15 it's central to it, and you're not saved without it. 22:19 "On Him was laid the iniquity of us all." 22:22 It is that serious. 22:24 But the flip side of that is when John is standing there 22:27 weeping in Revelation 4 and 5, and the slain Lamb comes in, 22:30 "Worthy is He, worthy is He to open the seals," 22:34 to start the church. 22:36 Nobody can do anything-- Jesus told the disciples, 22:37 "You wait here. 22:39 "You're going to go to the whole planet, 22:40 but you wait here until the Holy Spirit comes." 22:42 He goes, His sacrifice is accepted in heaven. 22:44 I'm convinced--another subject-- maybe for another day, 22:47 that's Revelation 4 and 5. 22:49 He appears, and now the church can begin its work. 22:52 It begins at that moment. The seals are open. 22:55 That means that the level of my forgiveness 23:00 is much greater than I can conceive of. 23:03 I've been forgiven for more than I can wrap my head around. 23:06 The gift is bigger than I think. 23:08 Not only is my sin bigger than I think; 23:10 the gift is bigger than I think. 23:12 God loved me that much. 23:14 That's something I can't comprehend 23:15 how wicked it is? He died for that. 23:19 What's that quote? I love this one. 23:21 I hope I wrote it down here somewhere. 23:23 "Christ was treated as we deserve, 23:25 "that we might be treated as He deserves. 23:27 He was condemned for our sins"-- the condemnation for me 23:30 falls on Him--"in which He had no share, 23:32 "that we might be justified by His righteousness, 23:34 "in which we had no share. 23:36 He suffered the death"-- there's no around this-- 23:40 "He suffered the death which was ours, 23:43 that we might receive the life that was His." 23:47 We have a choice. 23:48 You've got the entire human race is under Adam. 23:51 Adam was the covenant head of the human race, 23:54 and he blows it. 23:56 That drags us all into the equation. And God is fair. 23:58 He knows I didn't choose to be born sinful, 24:01 with sinful tendencies, right? 24:03 Came out of the womb, ready to fight. 24:07 A lot of it is conscious. 24:09 I had to make a choice to entertain that propensity. 24:14 But He says, "Look, how about another Adam? 24:16 How about an obedient Adam?" 24:18 The Adam that is without sin, Peter calls Him 24:20 "without spot or blemish." 24:22 He lives the life that should have been yours. 24:25 So, here we have one human being, 24:27 the only One in all of history whose life 24:30 really is a perfect reflection of the character of God; 24:33 He is the image of God. 24:35 It says so, Paul writes the image of God 24:37 was fully in Him. 24:39 Now, there's one file in the filing cabinet in heaven. 24:41 Here's a perfect human being who actually was the image of God. 24:45 God says, "You can choose. 24:46 "Corporately, Adam can be your head, 24:48 or corporately, Jesus can be your head." 24:50 And then He goes to the cross and takes the penalty 24:53 that should have belonged to everybody in the other camp. 24:55 How that exactly works? 24:57 I had somebody ask me years ago, "Sin and salvation, 25:00 explain it to me." "What, in 10 minutes?" [laughs] 25:02 In 10 minutes, here's where I go on what the Scriptures say. 25:06 That sacrifice is enough to correct what I did 25:11 and consider me innocent. 25:14 The sin is worse than you think it is, 25:17 but that means the gift is bigger 25:18 than you think it is, if that makes sense. 25:20 >>Eric: Yeah. In the short amount of time we have today. 25:23 >>Shawn: We barely touched the topic. 25:25 >>Eric: I know, we've at least hit 25:27 some very significant ground. 25:30 There's so much in this week's lesson, 25:32 Cain and Abel-- and the Passover and so forth. 25:38 Let me--good stuff, great stuff in this week's lesson, 25:43 but you've brought something out that I think is important. 25:47 There are going to be people who are watching this, 25:49 maybe who are going through the study guide, 25:51 and they're reading this, and they're going, "Okay, 25:53 I see the sacrifice. I realize that I am sinful." 25:57 >>Shawn: Right. >>Eric: "You know, Shawn, 25:59 "you don't know what I've done. Eric, 26:01 you don't know what I've done." 26:02 And we probably don't want to know what--we don't wanna know 26:05 what you've done, and you don't want to know 26:07 what he and I have done. 26:08 >>Shawn: You really don't wanna know what Eric has done. 26:10 >>Eric: [laughs] It's bad stuff, guarantee it, but here we are. 26:14 We have sinned. "The wages of sin is death." 26:17 Give that person some hope. 26:19 Give that person some encouragement 26:21 and point them in a positive direction. 26:23 >>Shawn: I brought this up a couple of lessons ago, 26:25 but this is such a foundational verse for me. 26:27 Here's where I anchor my hope. 26:29 It's in Romans, chapter 5 and verse 8: 26:32 "While we were yet sinners"-- 26:34 God could see what you did exactly. 26:39 There's no varnish over it; there's no hiding it. 26:41 You know, God saw it the way it really was. 26:44 He saw it more clearly than you did. 26:46 He knows what you did. That's kind of the point. 26:49 Again, God's not waiting for you to fix your resume. 26:51 "While we were yet sinners, Christ"--God shows His love. 26:55 Here's what it says, Romans 5:8, for us, "In that while 26:58 we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 26:59 As filthy as you are, Jesus looked down and said, 27:02 "No, I need that person, I want you, I want you, 27:04 and I'll give my life for you now." 27:07 As one great book I read pointed out, 27:10 you don't even have to repent to first come to Christ. 27:13 Just come, just come. 27:15 He saw what you did, and He did this anyway. 27:17 He did this because of what you did. 27:19 "He knows your frame," the Bible says. 27:21 He understands how weak you are, 27:23 and so He stands in as your strength. 27:25 If it's your sin that's holding you back, 27:27 what in the world? 27:29 "If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just." 27:32 Get with the program. 27:34 God knows you did that, give it over to Him. 27:36 He says He'll forgive it. 27:37 He'll forgive it. It can be done. 27:39 >>Eric: I love that. Our job is to just confess. 27:41 He says, "From there, I've got it." 27:43 >>Shawn: Yep. >>Eric: Yep. "You just confess; 27:45 "I will forgive and cleanse you 27:47 from all unrighteousness," and that's His promise. 27:50 We're glad that you've joined us today. 27:51 We'll be back again next week as we continue 27:53 looking at how to understand Bible prophecy. 27:56 God bless you. We'll see you then. 27:58 [uplifting music] 28:24 [uplifting music] 28:26 [Captions provided by Aberdeen Captioning www.abercap.com] |
Revised 2025-05-01