Heaven Rules All The Times - God Was, Is & Is To Come | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from acts church. We hope this message

will light up your day. We are really into the fourth quarter of twenty

twenty three, fourth quarter. It's really really fast this year. It's definitely

been quite an event full year. And every year is eventful. That's never

a day which goes by without different things happening for us individually, corporately,

know even as a nation, as a country, and internationally, there are

lots of things. I know we have been reading news of the news of

different things happening. It's almost like reading out the stories and all the prophecies

in the Bible, which is coming to pass day after day after day after

day. And so I try to constantly remind myself that I need to keep

on reflecting on this team Heaven rules, because really it should not only be

a team that comes to mind or the fact Heaven rules. No, we

only equated to this year twenty twenty three because there was when the church had

the team and Heaven rules. It's only applicable once a week when the different

preachers sharing and talking about it. I hope that Heaven will rule perpetually in

our lives. Heaven will continue to rule in our lives all the time,

whether it's in peace time or whether it's in times of conflict, whether it's

in prosperity or whether it's in persecution. Heaven continues to rule in our lives.

And so I was asking myself some questions. No, sometimes you know,

when you reflect and when you think about things, questions come to mind.

And so I prepared my message today not based on different things that I've

been reading and going through, in the form of some questions to be asked.

Okay, we're going to ask questions. So today the initially the chatpersons

like, all right, everyone take out your Bible because this flour will refer

to many, many, many, many many verses. And I was like,

Okay, today I'm going to refer to the whole Bible, so just

hold it. I'm not sure if you're going to be going into line by

line of different verses, but I just want us to just have an overview.

Okay, let's let's talk big picture. Let's talk big picture. Okay,

So these are some of the questions. The first slide to theay got

table of content. Okay, So having rules all the time, it's a

title of my message. Having rules all the time. Our table of content

table of content for someone got started, okay, thank you free slides.

Okay, So these are the few things that we are going to be touching

on as we move along. Stay with me. I will always tell you

all to stay with me, because if you lose track of what I have

to say, then you might not see the whole picture. And I pray

that we will be more enlightened than anything else. Okay, So this first

question that we always ask ourselves. I still ask myself this question, is

there a God? Ever find yourself being or at least one point in your

life you would come and encounter this question, is there a God? And

I know not. There are a lot of different ideas about God in this

world, and sometimes it's almost impossible to say anything certain or anything reliable about

God. After all, actually, no one has ever seen God, I

mean literally see your own eyes. And this is a true fact. And

a lot of people actually abandon the search for God even before they have begun

because of the fact that they can't see him, they can't really understand it,

they can't really relate to him in that manner. So it's it is

necessary actually to start with something that we can examine. Very important, and

if you ask yourself, is there a God? Let well, let's start

with something that we can examine. Okay, Toby, actually I needed a

water hit. It's okay, Apparently the sliver and variety looks like it's going

to be a long day for all of you. Okay, no, no,

thanks, thanks to be God, thank you. Yeah. Yeah,

I just purposely made your exercise a bit, helping you with your ten thousand

step count. Okay, bless you. Okay. So it's necessary for us

to start with something that we can examine, and one of the most obvious

places to start with is the universe. Right, why what is there?

Not to what is? Is it not obvious enough that this world that we

live in, this universe that we live in, because it is there,

it is this year, It's very existence poses this thunder mental question, how

did it get there? Ever? Ever? Ever? Ask yourself, because

it's strange not that many people who say they want to find out about God

ignore this very basic question, how did the universe come about? Today?

There's more than enough proof that we live in something, okay, something we're

living in this universe? No, we've got telescopes that we have sand rockets

to far away places, and we have discovered a solar system, et cetera,

et cetera. So this is not something that is we don't know.

You mean, imagine back then when they had nothing and they were slowly discovering

about the world. But today we can see the world as it is in

that sense, So fundamental question, how did it get How did the universe

come about? And it's strange, right, people don't actually ask this basic

question, and there are different answers on offer today. Actually think about it.

Some people will say the answer to the question how did the universe get

there? Is that it did not It is not really there at all.

Some will tell you that this whole thing is a figment of your imagination.

It's just what you have in your mind is an illusion because matter simply does

not exist. Care that one may be living in some sort of sci fi

reality, but you'll be surprised there A lot of people will tell you that.

And then the second, probably most popular answer is to say that the

universe has always been there. It's always been there. It has changed,

it has developed, it has evolved, but there was never a time when

method did not exist. But Of course, this idea is increasingly more difficult

to defend because actually more and more scientists believe that the universe is not infinite.

That means that means they believe the universe is not infinite in space or

in time. They believe that there was a start, and they also believe

that there will therefore be end. And so you can also say that,

well, the universe has always been there. Okay, that's the second popular

answer. The third answer is this, and you could be summerup by just

one word chance. Really, basically, some people will tell you, at

some remote point of history, long long, long, long long time ago,

when none of us were there, by chance, the ingredients occurred for

a spontaneous creation like boom. By chance it came about. Basically, a

lot of eighties will believe that the universe was created by chance, because technically

they can't ascribe it to a higher power or a higher form of person.

But in all honesty, I think it probably takes a lot more faith for

the it is to believe in by chance than it is for Christians to believe

in God. In all honesty, if you ask me to compare, I

mean, you're talking about nothing out on nothing is like something happened, and

that is what a lot of people believe. I think it takes a lot

of faith actually to believe that it just came about like like like that.

Okay. And then of course the fourth answer is the religious one, that

the universe was cree hated and that there must that that very fact of his

existence is proved. That there must be a power and an intelligence greater than

the universe which actually will its existence. Does that make sense? So that

power and that intelligence is the being to whom we as believers give the title

God to. That's that's what I'm trying to get, because you see,

the Bible actually says is no true everything God made in Romans chapter one,

verse twenty. They can clearly see his invisible qualities, his external power and

divine nature, so they have no excuse for not knowing God. In other

words, our existence is the proof of his existence. So Scripture is actually

saying, a man who can look at the universe around him and say that

there is no God has in a way denied his own reason and talked himself

out of the truth. But bad, But let's just assumer Let's just assume

we do not have the Bible. Let's move on to our next question and

assumption. Let's assume we don't have the Bible with us, because even without

opening the Bible, man can see some content or some substance to this word

God. Let's imagine you never had the Bible, you didn't open it.

Can you actually see the substance of God around you? Because behind the things

around us that we can see, there must be a power greater than those

things that we can witness with our physical eyes. And people have always believed

that that power is gone from time in memorial because it's true that sometimes this

has sort of like expressed itself in the belief in many gods. And actually

we study some point of history, you realize now people will start worshiping anything

nature. You know, the tree, this flower, or this flower then

suddenly or this tree bark or awesome tree back. No, I walked past

it, and then straight away I felt enlightened. You know, we started

ascribing divinity to a lot of things, and souless we think that, oh,

that's really what can happen when we start seeing God in everything around us.

But if you go back to human history, you find that the very

beginnings of man's religion was not a believe in many gods. It was usually

in one God who created everything. If you study far enough, as far

as it can go, and only later this entirely different kind of I believe

in everything kind of thing. It degenerated into a plurality of gods. You

know, people started worshiping mountains, rivers, you name it. Like any

form of nature which is powerful and almighty, people started worshiping it. But

really, uncomplicated human eyes looking at the world as it is, and uncomplicated

minds thinking about it come to the conclusion that the world was made by one

God more often than not. So we do not need the Bible to tell

us that, nor do we need the Bible to tell us other things about

God, which we can actually did you or we can draw a conclusion by

just using our eyes and using our minds. Just use your eyes, look

around, just use your minds and think, because it is possible to list

down some of this self evident truths about God. Think about it. Let's

think about it, okay. Firstly, firstly, some self evident truths about

God. He must be a god of tremendous power. You think about it.

Every tiny atom in the universe is packed with potential power if you understand

your physics, which I don't for the life of me. But all I

know is that something happens in a little thing and boom, it's pure power

at tom molecules, et cetera, et cetera. Imagine the Sun with all

the energy and it fills up our entire solar system. You know, it's

almost inconceivable power. You know, the Sun actually determines seasons, It determines

I don't know. I can't imagine something tilting just by a few degrees and

you will have catastrophe. You will have I don't know, unimaginable kind of

natural disasters that can actually take place. And the Sun, no, is

so powerful. Just think about it. Oh, God has to be there

has to be something bigger than the Sun, right, so so just just

think about it. Think about it. Okay, then he must also be

a god of tremendous intelligence because he's the one who made it all. So

let's take take for example, water, what the sun is. We take

for granted all these simple things. No, uh, it's such a complex

substance. But this simple yet complex substance keeps the whole planet clean. Uh,

it keeps all the plants fertilizes, and it keeps us cool. How

about that? Ever, imagine, uh, you know how the tides move

washing up the shawls. No, ever, imagine how millions and millions of

liters of water actually gets caught up many many kilometers up in the atmosphere,

and then it's dropped back onto the land many many kilometers down. And yet

it's dropped down so gently that it sustains life and not destroys it. Ever

thought about that. It doesn't harm the plants, it doesn't harm the animals.

God is not only almighty, he's intelligent. God is also imaginative.

Again, I'm asking you all to think, even without the Bible, we

can come to some conclusions because you see, men always tries to create variety,

right, we want to create variety. But you see, ultimately what

we succeed in creating is always sameness the things in which we create. Yeah,

I mean we all create some creation. A car is a color.

It doesn't matter how many designs and how many brands you have. Is a

car. But God, the creator is a supreme artist because his creations are

an infinite variety of colors, shapes, textures, sizes, you name it.

Just take a walk. Sometimes, if you take a walk out and

take it all in the splendor and the glory of God's creation, it's something

that our minds cannot fully understand. You know, sometimes as humans know,

we dressed up in something really colorful and everyone thing, Man, this guy

is a bit cuckoo, no sense of color. But you go to a

I don't know, you go out in a nature and you realize that everything

is colorful, and you don't go like, man, this creation is so

ugly and so master and it's you know, it's so contrasting, and it's

so jarring. You don't go like that. Because our God is a creative

and an imaginative god. The logical conclusion is that there is one God and

only one that is managing, and that it's holding together the universe that he

has made. And then we can go on to deduce this also, God

is personal. And as we look at the world, the highest and the

most advanced and probably the most significant creature, who is it? Ursula?

Me and you what your talks so long to answer? You're comparing yourself to

some animals? No, no, no, matter what, we are the

most advanced and most significant creature that has been created. In that sense,

men and you see, a personality is what distinguishes us from animals, and

this seems to be probably the most important quality of mankind in the universe.

Can God, who created personality, be less than what he created? Then

God too must thing, feel, decide, speak, relate to one another.

Right, So, without making reference to the Bible, I've really learned

a great deal about the nature of God simply by just sitting down and thinking.

And perhaps one of the reasons some people do not find God is that

they are not prepared to just sometimes do that. No, sit and think

for a moment. Is there a God out there? Nevertheless? Nevertheless,

sitting and thinking, of course has its limitations, because we can't reach certain

conclusions about the nature of God. But how can I be sure that they

correspond to the truth and reality? Right? We always ask ourselves that question

how And the answer is that I can't if this search for truth is entirely

one sided. Think about it, now, if it's entirely one sided,

A finite creature? What a finite creature is? It's like me and you,

There is a stunt and there is an end can sit and think on

earth, but it will get It will not get us beyond mere ideas,

which means there will still be a lack of certainty. There will be a

lack of authority, which is what is needed to really, you know,

change lives and make us committed to something or someone that is the reality of

it. But suppose that this search is not one sided. Suppose that the

personal God has spoken about himself, and suppose the record of what he has

said about himself is still available to us today, then surely we could be

in a position to confirm or reject ideas about Him which we arrive at simply

by using our reason. Right, So let's go to the third supposition,

because we have the Bibles. You see, Christians belief that God is a

God who has spoken, who has voluntarily revealed the truth about himself, and

he has done it true human ages agents all down through the centuries. That's

what Christians believe. Christians believe that God chose one small nation is real to

be the channel of his communication with mankind. From that one nation, he

chose a handful of men, the prophets, to be his mouth peace,

and through them he has given the human race a picture of his own nature.

Now this question, does that picture coincide with what we have already come

to understand just by sitting and thinking, or does it conflict with what our

brain tells us about the world around us? Ever, ask yourself that question,

because the amazing thing is that when we turn to the Bible, where

the words of God's prophets are recorded for all time, we find that all

the things shown by reason are actually confirmed by revelation. Do you see that?

And that's why when we read scripture as believers, we are identifying with

it because it's not a stranger, it's not gibberish. It's basically the creator

of the things in which we see, and we experience the place in which

we live in writing it, and we are able to identify with it.

You know, God tells us, for instance, that he is the creator

of the universe, because the very first words of the Bible tells us that

in the beginning God created He told Joe, you know, that outspoken prophet

Job, that he had made and planned the world long before Job existed.

Basically, Job wanted to pick an argument with God, right, and then

God's reply to us they emun give him an answer, ask him questions,

only were you there? Did you measure that everything the creation? Were you

the one that surveyed the place? Did you say to the seas, this

is where your showerline is? Basically, it was one of those drop moments.

No God like asked him questions and then walked away, And then Job

was left a bit dumbfounded because he realized, yeah, who am I to

actually ask? The Bible also shows that God is infinitely powerful. You see

that in First Chronicles the world came into being at his word of command without

any exaggeration. Actually, one can say of God's creation and no sooner said

than done. That means that the minute he said it, it was done.

God said, let that be light, and there was light. God

said, let the earth team with life, and life came about, and

every time he spoke it happened. That surely is the mark of infinite power.

He spoke and it was amen. But this God of power and might

has also told us that He is personal, and he is creative. You

see his intelligence, his imagination, his creativity. It expressed themselves through personality,

so that God thinks, God speaks, God feels, God decides,

and God is able to relate to other beings in a personal way. And

all of this is revealed in the Bible confirming ideas of God we have gleaned

through just the process of us sitting down and thinking, am I right or

am I wrong? And sometimes people object that we are making God into nothing

more than a glorified human being. Son, that's when we sit down and

think about God like as though we are making God in our own image.

Ever find yourself doing that? Therefore God must have You know, if I

make God in my own image, what would that look like? You know,

science, we question God? But why you do that? Let's do

he's one of you. No, let's though you guys are bosom bodies.

No, you can question him, but that's not the reality of it.

But when we do that, it's almost like we are making God in our

own image because we think that he's at this, he's on parody with us.

And because of that, we think that God also will have human faults

to match. And that's why we will always ask why you allowed that?

Why did you do that? But here comes the next question. The next

question is this, is God like us? Is God like us? Because

this question is like asking her It's like asking if someone's father is like his

son. Does that make sense to you? He's asking, is the father

like the son? Usually usually yeah, it's the wrong way around. You

realize we always asks a son like the father. The Bible tells us that

we are like God, made in his image and likeness, and that does

not say that the greater is contained in the lesser, and that God is

like us. But when we question him, we are in effect limiting him

to who we think he is in our lives. And of course, in

many ways his personality is like ours. But also in many important respects,

many important respects, God, God is utterly unlike us. Actually, he's

not like us that it's so unlike us that sometimes our minds just can't fully

understand the difference. That's the reality of it. Here are some areas in

wi God is. He's just he's just everlastingly different. Okay, he's eternally

different from us, and he's actually revealed in the Bible. The first one

is this, he's spiritual. God is spiritual. He is a spirit who

cannot be seen, cannot be touched, cannot be located in that sensor.

But we are tied to a particular location by our bodies. I don't care

how much drugs you take to tell me that you're tripping somewhere else. You're

still where you are. That's the reality of it, right, Because we

are limited by where our bodies are, because material things can only be at

one place at one time. But God can be everywhere he feels his creation.

No, it's very difficult for us to think of a God who cannot

be captured by our normal sense of touch, our normal sense of hearing,

our normal sense of sight, smell. But he is spirit and we have

to relate to him spiritually. The first thing. The second thing is this

God is omnipotent. Ah big word coming ready. But you all know these

words well, at least some of y'all know. Just means that he's quite

powerful, in fact, extremely powerful. But it does not mean that God

can do anything think about it, but that he can do anything he wants

to do. Because omnipotence means that God only has the ability to do anything

that is compatible with himself. For example, God cannot lie because sometimes when

I say God is omnipotent, people will be like, then God can lie

there? Right, You know, God can make mistakes because he's he's all

powerful, and then he can he can lie, he can make mistics.

No, he he only has the ability to do anything that is compatible with

his nature himself. Then the third thing is this God is omnition. He's

all knowing. He knows the future as well as the past. Nothing is

hidden from him and there is nothing beyond his understanding. Needless to say,

this is an attribute that is unique to God. If anyone comes and tell

you that I have the give of foresight to look into the future, that

person is a liar. I kid you not. If not, the person

will be the richest person in the world in all honesty, because I will

probably go to him all the time to ask for the six digit number and

know any betting agency man. That will be like my best friend. But

no one, no one can predict and tell you what the future holds in

that sense. Fourthly, is this God is omni present. He's present everywhere.

God is everywhere. He cannot be limited to just one locality. He's

not tied to place or space. You know, if I were to ask

Lord, where in the universe are you? He might answer like this,

No, you have asked the wrong question. I am not in the universe.

The universe is in me. That miss God is greater than the universe

itself, and yet even nearer to me than my own heartbeat. That's who

God is to us. Another attribute of God is that he is eternal.

He is without beginning all end. And so a lot of people have over

the centuries asked this question, who made God? And then we think that

man, that's the best ever question we have asked, should trap everyone who

made God? But the question is almost a keen to asking what is a

square circle? Try answering what is a square circle? I know someone will

be like no, I can come up with the whole I asked, gpt

come up with a whole disease or what a square circle is. But by

definition, God simply exists. There cannot have been a time when he did

not exist, and there can never be a time when he ceased to exist.

Otherwise he would simply be a finite being, just like me and you.

And God is not a finite being like me and you. In fact,

his name in the Bible is Jehovah. It simply means I am Basically

God is in the permanent, present tense. I am Another word that I

like to refer to God is always. He's always now. Of course,

it's hard for us to fully grasp this, in a sense that we probably

will never be able to grasp it because our minds are finite and simply cannot

comprehend infinity. But God exists in his own right as part of his nature.

That's it in p. Ninety sis from Everlasting to Everlasting, I am

God. For every created thing. There are three tenses. What's not before

we existed is, which is the now and present and will not be,

which is eventually when I cease to exist, me and you will go through

that. What's not is and will not be. But God describes himself as

the one who was, is and is to come. In other words,

he is always there. So remember this. No, God is not made

in our image, and we cannot claim that He is totally like us.

But it does mean that we are like him in some important respects. And

perhaps the only way to hold these two things in balance is to see them

in Jesus Christ, the son of God. For the greatest thing God ever

did was to visit this planet as a human being, bringing the greatness and

glory of eternity right into the daily life of mankind. That is why Jesus

could actually say this, He who has seen me has seen the Father.

Quite honestly, every other picture of him, but the one provided by Jesus

is you will never be adequate. Jesus gives us the full picture. And

therefore when we find Jesus, we have found God, which then now leads

us to the next question, who on earth is Jesus? Right? You

see, the true picture is there. It's available. His very words and

actions were all reported by eyewitness and they are all there in the New Testament

for anyone who would take the trouble to actually read it. The first thing

one has to say about Jesus of the Gospel is that there can be no

doubt that he was a real human being. You know. The amazing thing

about the Gospel is if you think about how the Bible came about, and

we are talking about the burden of proving the authenticity of the Bible based on

evidence. Any law students here, lawsts okay, none again, I'm not

going to bore you with a law lecture, but evidence, the law of

evidence. I'm telling you how the Bible came about is nothing short of a

miracle. The fact that you have eyewitness records, very fine. What happened

that many years ago? These are printed copies of the Bible. That's why

today there is no other historical record that can actually match the evidence that we

have on proving the authenticity of the Bible. And these are different. You're

talking about people last time, not photocopying the manuscripts. No, they were

literally writing it. Nothing short of a miracle, if you understand how we

have the scripture today. So please never treat the scripture like it's it's just

a bunch of words, like your sixty thousand word dcs that you can write

for four years of your life and toss it one side once it's done.

That's not That's not God's word. It's alive and it's true. Amen.

So the first thing that one has to say about the Jesus of the Gospel

is that he was a real human being. He had a body like ours,

He needed rest, he became hungry, he was thirsty. He understood

pain, he felt discomfort, He had a mind like ours. He had

to learn to read and write. Jesus went through the whole thing of childhood.

No, he didn't straight away come on and then he was writing a

sermons. Really, I don't think that happened. No who says that Jesus

he had a sense of humor, And really Jesus did have quite a noted,

quite a holy sense of humor. He employed logic, he employed reason,

He had a mind like ours, he had a spirit like ours,

because he felt the need to pray, and he joined in public worship at

the synagogues on Sabbath all the time. But if we say that Jesus was

a man like us, then we ought to go on and ask the subsequent

question, like which one of us me? You? You? What's a

job? Because when I examine his life, and any of us examine his

life, we find the fact that he was not born as any of us

were born. He did not really live as we live, nor do things

like we did. And he surely did not die like the way we will

die, because all we're still a life, and you're not dead yet.

And if one studies the three years of Jesus's public ministry, it is impossible

to find a point where you can actually say there there's a fault in him,

there was an error, there's a knee, there's something that's a blemish.

And one of the most disturbing things about the ministry of Jesus was the

way in which he actually took himself the sacred name of God. Now he

identified himself as I am. How many of you have been going to homes

we are going through this series that I am series, very very bold for

someone to use that kind of terms. I am. No. Sometimes,

like in the Garden of Gethsemane in the count his hearers were so terrified,

they were so petrified at his presumption that he the presumption that he claims to

be I am. The many they hear that that they start throwing themselves on

the ground, they start tearing the badjoo ah. Then there are half of

them. I'm sure the disciples were expecting lightning to strike him blindly and struck

him day. Really, because this is this is a mere human using a

word in which the Jews do even there say, let alone, right,

let alone acknowledge there is no name of God in the Bible. Is a

bunch of uh, what's the opposite of bowels? A bunch of consonants,

That's what it is. But that's the reality of it. But so every

time he says I am, his disciples were like, who he's lightning going

to strike him by that? And his trial he was again asked directly who

he was. Are you the son of God? And he replied equally as

directly, I am. And if you put all this together, it's quite

a ridiculous thing to say that Jesus was just an ordinary human being. He

simply cannot be fitted into any human category, a truth that took even his

disciples quite a long time to fully understand that, because they thought, hey,

this is Jesus, is one of us, one of the blogs.

And one day Jesus took his disciples to mount hermon and say to them no.

And you read this account in the middle of a couple of gospels,

especially in Mark I, also in Luke. He says, I've got a

question for you. We have been together for two and a half years.

You have lived with me, talk with me, shared my whole life with

me. Now who do people think I am? And then they replied that

people regarded Jesus as the reincarnation of one or another great Jewish properly thing,

John the baptize Elijah. And then Jesus put the first question to them.

Again, he asked them, but who do you say I am? And

then Peter, at that spot and that very moment in times say you are

the Christ, the Son of the Living God, not a superstar, not

a reincarnated prophet, not a great human philosopher, but God incarnate, basically,

the Son of God who came to earth. And what a moment.

Now, because Jesus had waited throughout his ministry for that answer. Until that

answer came, he could not fulfill the purpose of why he came, because

it was only after this that you see him begin his journey to Jerusalem to

die and to rise again. No wonder, Jesus could then only start talking

about building the church because now there is something to build on on the confession

that its founder is the Christ, the son of the Living God. Amen.

And the church today is in the millions. It's made up of all

the same people who share the same confession that Jesus are the Peter made those

many centuries ago. Heaven rules all the time because Jesus died and rose again.

Remember that, Remember that, So what do the cross and resurrection then

mean to us? Stay with me, I'm at the last stage and this

is what the Bible tells us what the Cross means to us. Let's let's

break it down a little bit. In relation to the world. The Cross

was a reconciliation. Think about it. Reconciliation just means to bring together two

alienated parties, two parties who are estranged, two parties who can't look eye

to eye, and it's a coming together. God loves men. He has

never hated him or made man his enemy, no matter what man has done.

However, there is an offense on God's part, not on not an

offense towards man himself, but towards man's sin. God loves sinners, but

he hates sin, and it is his RAF. It is this offense to

sin which is described as the RAF of God. It's not directed to individuals

directed to sin. It is his righteous anger at the presence of sin in

the world which he created perfect So his RAF is not directed at the victims

of sin, but is directed at sin itself, and sin is the greatest

negative force this universe has ever experienced. The Bible clearly teaches that the Cross

not only takes away man's hostility towards God, because there's something that men cannot

see eye to eye with God as well, but it deals most importantly with

God's hostility towards sin, and when these offenses are taken away, reconciliation can

take place. When you're offended with one another, you'll never be able to

see eye to I. And that's why in the divorced people will always site

e reconcilable differences. To reconcile, you need to overcome differences, and the

Bible teaches us that that is what the cross means, and that's how reconciliation

can be achieved. So therefore, in relation to the world, the cross

was reconciliation amen. In relation to God, the cross was an offering.

See John the Baptist. One said of Jesus, No, that is the

lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world. Jesus provided

the final and complete sacrifice, which alone is able to truly and totally atone

for our sin. And so in relation to God, the cross was end

offering. Does that make sense. In relation to the law, the cross

was a satisfaction. Let me explain this, because the reality is we are

all governed by law. If you read your Bible as a law student,

the Bible was like ours, main source of law. It's called canonical law

canon law. A lot of legal systems in the world derive their statutes from

canonical law, from the law that was in the Bible. So law undoubtedly

solve some problems, but they also create problems because you always have to ask

yourself this question, what should be done to those who break the law.

When you have lost, you will automatically ask yourself that question what needs to

be done? And you see all this war. The dilemma is this,

should we punish or should we pardon? Do we show justice or do we

show mercy? Course we cannot do both. So whenever we have to deal

with the wrong door, it doesn't matter whether the wrong door is a little

kid or the wrong door is a hardened criminal, we have to decide which

it shall be. I'm sure passa every day in X kids, not the

kids, So punish or pardon. God alone can avoid the dilemma because God

alone can be both just and merciful at the same time. He alone can

punish and pardon, And of course we all ask this question, how can

he do this? You see, in human experience, one can only be

done at the expense of the other. The only situation in which both mercy

and justice can be done is where an innocent person voluntarily accepts the punishment due

to the guilty. You'll never be able to find an innocent person, let

alone. If you think um blemish lambs and unblemish animals were sufficient, it's

not, and you will never be able to find Why do you think the

priests back in the Old Testament had to keep on going back into the Holy

of Holies and sacrificing, sacrificing year after year after year, because firstly they

couldn't. I mean, it's not enough, and unblemish animal is not enough.

And then if they say, okay, maybe we offer ourselves. But

none of them would have made it enough, because none of them were unblemish.

And so it was only at the cross that divine justice was satisfied,

that the price of sin was paid in full. Yet the sinner, though

as guilty as he is or she is, is set free provided he or

she accepts the offering God made on his or her behalf. Does that make

sense in relation to the law. The cross was a satisfaction. It was

the only thing that was enough in relation to the sinner, which is me

and you. The cross is a substitution that, in effect is what we

have just seen. Christ was substituted for me, the guilty for the sinner.

So the cross is a complete and satisfactory way of dealing with man's sin

without going against the principle of justice. What's the principle of justice? If

you do something wrong, you must pay for it, you must be punished.

The cross is the only satisfying way to deal with men sain without going

against that principle because someone paid for it. But its effectiveness requires faith on

our part, because it's when the sinner believes that Jesus died for him.

In that moment, his sins are forgiven and he has place in heaven.

But that is not all. No, that is simply the beginning of a

new kind of life, a life lived out every day in the light of

the cross. You see, the secret of the life is not just to

say he died for me, because a lot of times you will say,

yeah, the gospel is Jesus died for me. But you have to add

this, and I die with him, because Christ is meant to be my

substitute, not only in death, but in life, so that the life

I now live is no longer mine, but the life of Christ, who

died for me and now lives in me. I died with him on the

cross, and he has reased, and his reason life is mine now as

well. We have to take this on the exchange the substitute. You have

to appropriate it. So the cross is central to the whole business of becoming

a Christian. Really, anyone who tells you that the cross did not happen

is telling you an outright lie, because the cross had to happen. And

that is why we until today as believers, still preach Christ crucified, and

that has become the means of our life. Amen. The resurrection is also

the fact that that sets Jesus apart from all the other kings and all the

other rulers in this world. And before I even go to the resurrection,

let me just also point this out to you. In relation to the devil,

what do you think the cross is to the devil? Bible believing Christians?

What does the devil look at the cross as defeat? A man defeat?

That is the answer, because he was completely defeated on the Cross of

Calvary. In relation to the devil. The cross tells us that the devil

has already been conquered. The conquest is done, it is completed. Don't

we ever think that we are still subjugated to the devil. We are not,

because he has already been defeated. And to top that of the resurrection,

the resurrection. You see, there's not one king, or not one

ruler in history who has been able to overcome death. You try to find

one for me, because everywhere you go in the world you still see tombs

and mausoleums and places of remembrance of royalty and kings and rulers and dictators.

And if you open up the tomb, I assure you their bones are there,

unless they weren't put there in the first place. Because no ruler,

no dictator, no king, no other lord, no warlord, no president

has ever been able to overcome and conquer death. Only Jesus defeated death.

They died, but he rose again. You see the crucifixion. The world

passed its verdict on Jesus. He was too bad to live, that was

the accusation. Too bad Blessphemius, he was a blessed, femious person.

He claimed to be God, and the world otherwise, and that's why they

say he must die. But at the resurrection, on the other hand,

God reversed the world's verdict on Jesus. He is the son of God.

He told you the truth. And how do we prove that the truth was

revealed and told the empty tomb? Because we know Jesus overcame death. He

overcame the penalty of sin, which is death. He overcame the power of

sin, which is death. Because today the Jesus in whom we worship is

our living God. Amen. Amen, you can claim because Jesus is the

Way, the Truth, and the life Heaven will rule in our lives when

we follow his way, accept his truth, and received his life in exchange

for hours. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more information

on our church, please visit as Church Org. We are also active on

Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week is going to be a good

week. I hit for you. God bless