Heaven Rules All The Time | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

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

will light up your day. Simply entitled the message Heaven Rules all the Time.

Okay, we are still We're still in twenty twenty three and our team

for d year. Of course it's Heaven Rules. But we have really come

to the fourth quarter. How time flies? Fourth quarter? No before,

I mean, I can still remember the start of this year like it was

just yesterday in all honesty. But here we are at the fourth quarter,

getting ready for the year, and you know, yeah, people are actually

you know, different ones have been telling reminding us, Oh, we're going

to start the Christmas decorations in church. I'm like in October. Yeah,

actually, okay, sure, let's do it. No, it's coming to

the year, and before we know, twenty four will be here. But

as we inch closer to the end, you know, I've truly been reflecting

on this team Heaven Rules, and I know, usually I share and I

teach a lot of scriptures I will be quoting and going through today, I'm

going to do it a little bit differently, Okay, a little bit differently.

That will be I'll refer to some scriptures here and there, as I

go along. But I'm going to sort of like narrate a sermon, Okay,

narrate a story, Narrate some questions, ask some questions get us thinking,

because this thing about Heaven rules? Will it only rule? Because we

are constantly being reminded the whole of this year, all of our messages have

been team Heaven Rules. I think all, if not most of our speakers

have been sharing about Heaven rules. Will Heaven rule in our lives all the

time? Will it rule in peace? Will it rule in conflict? Will

it rule whether we are prospering or that we are being persecuted? Will continue

to rule? It is a question that I ask myself time and time and

again actually in all honesty, and so I've listed down a few questions now

to help me answer this whole question of will Heaven rule all the time in

my life? And I know that a lot of things happening around the world,

and we continue to pray, We continue to pray. You know,

no one can stand on any side of the device and say that no one

has done any wrong. I think a lot of wrong has been perpetrated against

one another. Every conflict. There is definitely some act of violence casts against

the other party. And I just look at it as God loves lives and

we've got to continue to pray that lives will be preserved most importantly, and

I know God wants to save life. Uh. And I think that's our

mission here in this world to continue to be salt and light so that we

can shine brightly for God. Okay. So you know, there's a table

of content, there's some questions that are some statements made. Uh, And

I'm going to, like I said, I'm going to just go through this.

I'll see how it goes. But you know, I started asking some

questions, you know, asking myself because you need to be certain, you

need to be fully committed if Heaven is going to rule all the time in

your life. I got to be sure myself of why I say that or

why I even believe it. And so I started off with this simple question,

is there a God? Is there a God? Because they day in,

day out, week in week out, I stand here and I'm sharing

and preaching about God. Okay, So I asked myself, No, is

there a God? Because there are lot of different ideas about God which are

today here present in the world, and it may sometimes seem impossible to say

anything certain or reliable about him because of all the different opinions that we have.

You know, after all, no one has ever really seen God literally

with the eyes your eyes in that Chancellor, and a lot of people actually

abandon the search of God even before they really start. And that's the reality

of it. So I think it's necessary to start with something that we can

examine. You know, when we're asking ourselves a question like is there God?

Start with something that you can examine. And the obvious place to start

with is none other than the universe itself. Think about it, you can

examine. It's around you, it is there. It's very existence actually will

force you to ask this question, how did it get there? Have you

ever wanted? Hey, this place that we live in so amazing, how

did it get there? You know? It seems strange that many people who

say they want to find out about God, but they ignore this very question,

this very basic question how did the universe get there? And there are

different answers on offer today. There are some people who actually say to the

question how did the universe get there? Some people will say is that it

did not It is not really there at all, Really there are some people

who tell you, you know, this whole thing that you're living in is

a twilight zone. Way, is a figment of your imagination. It's not

really there, No matters, simply just does not exist on Okay, so

there are some people who go down that path. And then another answer that

you sometimes hear quite popular as well, is some people will say that the

universe has always been there. It has changed, it has developed, it

has evolved, but there was never a time when matter did not exist.

And I know somehow, more and more scientists will find this idea quite a

difficult position to defend because as they study and as they find out more and

more about the universe, they actually don't really believe that this universe is infinite.

That means they don't really believe that there is This universe has got no

beginning. They think that there is there is a way in which it started,

that it had a beginning, and if it has a beginning, therefore

it will also happen. And okay, so that's the second idea. Some

people think that it's always been there. The third answer could be some In

one word, some people believe this universe is here because of chance. Chance

fluke. Basically, at some remote point a gazillion years ago, put something

farted, and then this universe came to being through some spontaneous creation. Honestly,

I think sometimes it takes more faith to be an ethies than it is

to be a believer. I mean, for you to really believe that,

really pooh, out of nothing, chance by chance, No, it just

happens. So there are some who believe in that. And then the thought

answer, of course, is the religious one. I'm sure there are many

many other answers being offered out there, but let's just look at this few.

Basically, the religious one says that the universe is or was created,

and that the very fact of its existence is proved. That there must be

a power and an intelligence greater than the universe, which wield its existence,

which caused it to exist. And that power and that intelligence is the being

to whom the religious people give the term God. Okay, so this is

where we are, and that's why the Bible actually says is not in Romans

chapter one, verse twenty true everything God made. They can clearly see his

invisible qualities, his external power, and divine nature, so they have no

excuse for not knowing God. That's what Scripture says, basically, in other

words, our existence is the proof of His existence. And so Scripture is

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

that there is no God has denied his own reason and taught himself out of

truth. But but okay, let's move on to the next part. Okay,

the next part is this. Let's just assume we do not have the

Bible. Okay, let's make the assumption that we don't have the Bible,

because we're asking questions. I was asking myself questions, how certain am I?

How should am I of this faith that I believe in. So let's

just assume we do not have the Bible, because even without opening the Bible,

men I believe can sometimes still see the content, or they can see

the substance to this word called God, because behind the things around us that

we can see, there must be a power that is greater than those things.

And people have always believed that the power is God. You know,

It's true that at times, I know this has somehow expressed itself in the

belief in many gods. And there's why it times you see people anything.

Also they worship one that's human nature. You know. We see a mountain

or mountain good holy worship, we see tree tree in good holy worship.

You know. But if you study history and religion historically and you go back

all the way, you realize the beginnings of men's religion has always not been

the belief in many gods. It's always been the belief in one God who

made everything. It was only later in the later stages, later part as

he continued to grow development, and we started just worshiping everything and anything nature

altogether. But with very uncomplicated human eyes looking at the world, with uncomplicated

minds thinking about it, most people will come to the conclusion that it was

made by one God, made by one supreme power. And we do not

need the Bible to tell us then, nor do we need the Bible to

tell us other things about God which we can somehow deduce, or we can

draw a conclusion just by using our eyes and using our minds. Think about

it, because actually it's possible to list some of this self evident truths about

God. Man, if you sit for a moment think about it. He

must be a God of tremendous power because as we advance in science. We

already know every tiny atom is pure power contained within it. The entire universe

is packed with potential power. You just imagine the sun. How much power

is there in the sun the sun. Something happens to the Sun, the

Earth tilts just by a degree and it's chaos. Basically, everything will fall

apart. How powerful it is, it's almost inconceivable power that sort of determines

the weather, the seasons around us. Think about it. I mean,

you don't need scripture to tell you that something very powerful is actually governing all

of this. Then we must also be able to realize that if there is

a god that exists, it should he must be someone who is very,

very intelligent, because you know, you think water as an example. Water,

You know, it's so complex, Yet at the same time we realize

it's this very simple substance that keeps the entire planet clean, It keeps the

soil fertile, and it keeps us cool. Right, water, the tides

move endlessly, it's washing through our shawls. And then you think about it

that there's millions of liters of water that's actually caught up in the air every

day and then drop back onto the ground. And you're talking about it's being

dropped back at the distance of kilometers many kilometers down onto the ground, but

it falls so gently that's enough to sustain life without harming plants, without harming

animals, without humming humans. There has to be some intelligent being behind how

all this works. Think about it water in itself. Then you can also

conclude or deduce that this God is, if he does exist without the Bible,

must be someone who is very, very imaginative, because you see men

human beings. We try to create variety all the time. We try to

create variety, but more often than not, we only succeed in creating sameness.

I mean we create casts I know a lot of different designs, but

they're all castler right. Well, Else, if you want to compare man's

creation and God's creation, you realize that God's creations an infinite variety of colors,

shapes, sizes, textures. You just walk out and only in nature

can you see all sorts of vivid colors coming together. And you won't go

that a man, that's a complete aberration. Or some people will be like,

oh, this guy dresser in Hawaiian sied man got bad sense of dressing

because it's just so many different colors. But walk out into nature and you

realize that the contrast the creativity behind it is beyond what we can ever imagine.

So God must have been someone who is very imaginative. And the logical

conclusion is that there is one God, and only one managing and holding the

universe he has made. Another thing that we can also sort of deduced from

this is that if there is a God, then he should be someone who

is personal. Because as we look at the world and you think about it,

the highest and the most advanced and the most apparently most significant creature.

Who's the most significant creature in this world? Is it the dog? Is

it the whale? It's humans? And personality is what distinguishes humans from the

animal kingdom, and it seems to be the the most important quality in this

universe. Therefore, can God, who created personality be less than what he

created? Therefore, we can also then deduce that if this God does exist,

then he must be able to think, he must be able to feel,

he must be able to decide, he must be able to relate to

other people. So, without making any reference to the Bible, I've already

learned quite a great deal about the nature of God simply by just sitting down

and thinking. And perhaps one of the reasons some people, if not most

people, do not find God is that they are not prepared to do this,

sometimes to just sit for a moment and look around us. But that's

the reality of it. If we do, it's hard to deny that there

is a bigger power out there. But having said that, sitting and thinking

also has his limitations, because having reached certain conclusions about the nature of God,

how can I be sure that they correspond with the truth? How can

I be sure that this is real? It is the question that we will

all ask, and the answer is that we can't. I can't because if

this search is always one sided, it's like this a finite creature and we

are a finite creature. Basically we are created things. Can sit and think

here on earth, but it will not get us beyond just ideas, which

means there will still be a lack of certainty and authority, which is what

is needed to change lives and make us committed to something or someone. But

suppose the search is not one sided. Suppose that this personal God has spoken

about himself, and suppose the record of what he has said about himself is

still available, then surely we would be in a position to confirm or reject

ideas about him which we arrive at simply by using our reason right. And

the truth of the matter is, we have the Bible. We have the

Bible. You see, Christians believe that God is a God who has spoken,

who has voluntarily revealed the truth about himself. He has done it true

human agents all down the centuries. He chose one small nation, Israel,

to be the channel of his communication with mankind, and from that one nation

he chose a handful of men profits to be his mouth, peace and true

them. He has given the human race a picture of his own nature.

He has. If we read the scripture, we will find that does this

picture coincide with what we have already come to understand or does it conflict with

what our brain tells us true observation of the world around us? Think about

it. 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 things

showed by reason is actually confirmed through his revelation. That's something that's pretty amazing.

Everything that you can reason out when you sit down, you can actually

find that it's also confirmed by a revelation in God's word. For instance,

Ah, he is the creator of the universe. That's what the scripture tells

us, because the first words of the Bible tells us that in the beginning,

God created Genesis one. And then he told Job, No, whose

job? Job? Is that? Outspoken all dude, and he made a

you know, he basically told Job that I made this whole world exist.

I planned it all out. How dare you actually argue with me? Because

Job was actually arguing with God. Job was like, God, where are

you? Who are you? Why are you allowing all these bad things to

happen to me? You know? Why are you so cruel? He was

going on and on, and then eventually God said, I made all these

things that you're looking at. And then he asked, Job, were you

there? Did you measure this place out? Were you the one that surveyed

the land? Did you say to the sea, this is where your shoreline

is? And basically a Job had no answer. He didn't know how to

respond, And that's that's the reality of it. God is the creator.

The Bible shows that God is also infinitely powerful. The world came into being

at his command, basically just him saying, let there be like like.

And so it's almost without exaggeration that no sooner say than done. That means

immediately after he said something, it happened. That is the Bible that we

read, and that is the God that we worship. Let that be like,

let that be, Let the earth be filled with creatures, and then

of course there were life thereafter. Every time he spoke, it happened.

And that really is a mark of infinite power, is power in which you

can never fully imagine, because he spoke and it was. But this God

of power and mind has also told us that he is personal and creative.

His intelligence, his imagination, his creativity expressed themselves through personality. That's why

he is a god who thinks. He's a god who speaks. He's a

god who feels, decides, and relates to others in a very personal way.

And all of this is actually revealed in the Bible, confirming the ideas

of God we have gleaned through the process of reasoning. Basically, you see,

sit down, you think about it, give it a hard thought,

look around, you walk out into nature, and then go back to God's

word, and you realize there are a lot of things that is going hand

in hand. And sometimes people object know that we are making God into nothing

but like a very glorified human being, like as though we are making God

in our own image, because again we can't see him, and therefore God,

if he's made in our image, then he should also have human fault,

human shortcomings. But then we have to ask the next question. And

the next question is this is God like us? Have you ever thought about

it is God like us? And some of this question is like asking her

if someone's father is like his son. It's sort of the wrong way around.

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. There is a difference, and of

course in many ways his personality is like ours, as we have seen,

but also in many important respects, God is totally not like us, so

unlike us that somehow our mind cannot totally understand the difference. But here are

some of the differences that I will highlight. Firstly, is this God is

spiritual, his spirit who cannot be seen, cannot be touched, cannot be

located where else. We are tied to a particular location because of our bodies.

Right, if you're here means you are here because material things can only

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

his creation. And it's very difficult for us to think of a God who

cannot be captured by our own normal senses of touch, sight, smell,

and hearing. The truth is he is spirit and we have to relate to

him spiritually. There is a big difference. The second thing is this God

is omnipotent, which simply just means he's all powerful. But this does not

mean that God can do anything, 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. Because some people ask me, can God lie

if he's omnipotent, he can on lie. Means he's not omnipotent. No,

he can only do anything that is compatible with himself. You wouldn't see

God lying, you wouldn't see God making mistakes in that sense. Then the

third thing is this God is omniscient, which just means he's all knowing.

He knows the future as well as the past, and nothing is hidden from

him, and there is nothing that's beyond his common apprehension. Needless to say,

this is an attribute that is unique to God because none of us can

claim to be OMNITIONI I'm all knowing, if you're all knowing, means we're

all in the mappy shop now buying forty because I know what the number the

winning numbers are, and we're all going to be a million millionaire straight away.

But we don't have that. The fourth thing is this God is omni

present. Basically, he's present everywhere. God is everywhere, but he cannot

be limited to any one locality. He is not tied to place or space.

You know, if I were to ask God, Lord, when the

universe are you, he might actually just answer me, or you have asked

the wrong question. I am not in the universe. The universe is in

me. That would be his answer. Because God is greater than the universe

itself, and yet even nearer to me than my own heart beat. That

is the amazing thing about God. Another attribute of God is that he's eternal.

He has no beginning, no end. Those who ask, And sometimes

a lot of people will ask, no, who made God? I get

that in Sunday School. Who made God? And you may think that that's

a very very clever question, But it's almost like asking the question what is

a square circle? How do you answer? What's a square circle? Because

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 cease to exist.

Otherwise he would simply be a finite being like the rest of us,

and not God at all. In fact, his name in the Bible is

Jehovah, Yeahweh, which simply just means I am. For you see,

God is in the permanent press and tense. God is always that is ultimately

his name all ways. Now, of course, it's hard for us to

grasp this because in a sense, we can't our minds. Our minds are

finite, our minds have a beginning and an end, and sometimes simply we

can't fully understand infinity. It's just a concept that is like, okay,

but God exists in his own right as part of his own nature, and

that's why scripture says in some ninety from everlasting to everlasting for every created being,

there are three tenses. Was not, which is before we existed,

is now, and will not be eventually when we all cease to exist.

But you see, God describes himself as one who was, and 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 very 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 lives of mankind. And that is why Jesus could actually say he who

has seen Me has seen the Father, and quite honestly, every other picture

of him, but the one provided by Jesus is never enough. And therefore

we find Jesus, we have found God. So the next question you have

to ask is is who on earth is Jesus. We have to because if

you're talking about this Christ, and the true picture is there, His words,

his actions, all reported by eyewitness that's why the Scripture itself, the

Bible that we have today, is actually a legal document. Testament is another

word for will is basically what people have seen. What people have seen and

is recorded. And you think about it, how the Bible came about.

That is true. Many many manuscripts, a lot of historical documents that we

have today. We actually verify the authenticity of those documents based on a few

copies, usually only a handful. But here we have the Bible that is

actually verified by thousands of copies, all similar, if not too similar,

because you have to understand, it's copies. It's still they used they don't

have photostat machine back then. They used to write it out. And you're

talking about copies and thousands and thousands of copies of the Bible, of eyewitness

testimonies being written out. Where we are today is nothing short of a miracle.

When you read the Bible, you are reading a document that is alive.

That is something that I pray we totally understand. And when you read

the scripture, you will find Jesus, because 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. He had a body like ours. He needed

rest, he became hungry. He was thirsty. He knew pain, he

knew discomfort. He had a mind like ours. He had to learn to

read. He had to learn to write. I don't think Jesus straightway came

out from Mary's woman, right he started reading, you know, I believe

he had to learn to read. He had to learn to write. He

had the sense of humor, He had to employ lodge and reason when he's

talking to people. He had the spirit like ours. He felt the need

to pray. He joined in public worship during the Sabbath in the synagogue.

We read all of those things happening. But if we say that Jesus was

a man like us, then we ought to go on asking the further question.

The next question is like which one of us Jesus like you? Like

me? Like like who? Because when I axe me his life, I

find in fact that he is not really born like the way I born.

A bit different. Okay, he did not live like I live as well,

quite different. And I don't think I will die the way he died

in that sensellor And so there is a dimension to the life of Jesus.

That sort of distinguishes him and makes him a very remarkable person. Indeed,

because if one studies the three years of Jesus's public ministry, it's impossible to

find a point where one can actually say there, see he had four in

him, he had wrong, he had blemish. Because one of the most

disturbing things about the ministry of Jesus was think about it is in the way

he actually assumed God's name for himself. He calls himself, I am no

Jehovah, yeah, wah no. There was once in the Garden of God,

semone his hearers hurt him and they were so terrified because he says I

am, and they're like, oh, no, something's going to happen.

Like he keeps going around. The Jews don't even there mention God's name.

That is how they revere God's name that they don't even there say it in

their own mouth, let alone write it down. And then this is Jesus

saying I am. So they were half waiting for lightning to strike him.

Actually like bloy peck. This is in Cantonese. You know it should happen.

No, this going around, That's why they'll be like Oh no,

this is so arrogant the way he says it. But no lightning struck him.

In fact, at his trial again he was asked directly whether you are

the son of God, and his reply is I am. It's almost like

in your face, I am. And if you put all this together,

it's surely it's quite a ridiculous thing to say that Jesus was just an ordinary

human being, because he cannot simply fit into any human category, a truth

that it took even his disciples a long while. It took his disciples quite

a while to appreciate, because one day Jesus took his disciples to mount hermon

and then he said to them, and this was if you read this account

in scripture, it's always somewhere in the middle one or not at the start

of it, because he went, I've got a question for you. We've

been together, and we've been hanging out for two and a half years.

No, you have lived with me. Talk with me. Sheed meals with

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

that people regarded you as a reincarnation of one of the great prophets, like

Elijah, or Joined the Baptist, or one of those things. Then Jesus

put the question back to them again and said, but who do you say

I am, and piter at that spot and the very moment say you are

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 that was an amazing moment that

Jesus had to wait his entire year ministry for that particular answer, because until

that answer came, he could not even begin to fulfill the purpose of him

coming to earth. And then it was only after that that he went to

Jerusalem to die and to rise again. It's amazing, no wonder Jesus could

then only start talking about building his church. No mention of building his church

was ever made before the disciples wreckedognize him as the son of the Living God.

And it is based on that confession. It was actually bitter that confess

that the founded the church thereafter, and that's why the church today numbering in

a million. We can actually go back all the way to the very first

confession that bitter me you are Christ, the son of the Living God.

You see heaven rules all the time because Jesus died and rose again. It

wouldn't rule all the time if not for what took place thereafter. So what

does the cross and what does the resurrection then mean? And the Bible tells

us what the cross actually means to us. Again, this is where I'm

gonna teach you See, in relation to the world that we live in,

the cross was looked at as a reconciliation just means this. You bring together

two alienated parties, two estrange parties, you bring them together. You see,

God loves men, and he has never hated him or has never been

his enemy, no matter what man has done against him. However, there

is an offense on God's but not an offense towards man himself, but towards

man's sin. There's a big difference because God loves sinners, but he hates

sin, and it is his offense to sin, which is described as the

wrath of God. Whenever you read Scripture and he talks about the wrath of

God is not really pointed out at a person per se. It's actually pointed

out at the fact of sin existing in the person's life, and it is

his righteous anger at the presence of sin in the world which he created perfect

that is the kind of anger that he has. So his wraf is directed

not at the victims of sin, but at sin itself, the very great

negative force that exists in this universe. And the Bible clearly teaches that the

Cross not only takes away man's hostility towards God, but it also deals with

God's hostility towards sin. And when these offenses are taken away, when you

take the offense away, when you take sin away, then only can reconciliation

be achieved. And so in relation to the world, the Cross was reconciliation.

In relation to God, the cross was an offering because John the Baptist

said, that is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the

whole world. And so Jesus provided the final and complete sacrifice, which alone

is able to truly and totally atone for our sin. In relation to the

law, the cross was a satisfaction. Let me explain this. You see

law, I'm a lawyer by training, and laws are there to help you

solve problems. That's the reality of it, but it also creates one.

Basically, what should you do with people who break the law and all the

world. The dilemma is this, do we punish or do we pardon?

You? Go to court is always usually there do we show justice or do

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

deal with a wrong world, whether it's a naughti kid or a hardened criminal,

we have to decide which shall it be. Are you going to punish

the child or are you going to pardon the child. God alone can avoid

that dilemma because God alone can be both just and merciful at the same time.

He alone can punish and pardon. How can he do this well?

In human experience, one can only be done at the expense of the other.

You can either punish or you can pardon if you are a human.

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. And that's why at

the cross, divine justice was satisfied. It was satisfied, the price of

sin was paid in full. Yet the sinner, though guilty, is set

free provided he accepts the offering made on his behalf and innocent party. None

of us could have taken the place of Jesus. That's the reality of it.

No matter how righteous now you think I want to be Jesus, you

cannot because you got sin in your life. Wherease Jesus is the son of

God, he was blameless, blemishless. Back in the Old Testament, what

they used to do, and the understanding has always been there. You do

something wrong, you bring an animal, bring an unblemish animal, sacrifice the

animal to atone for your wrongs. We all understand it. A lot of

religions understand this. But no matter what, that animal will never be enough.

And that's why they keep sacrificing animals over and over again, because we

keep sinning over and over again, and there is no end to it until

Jesus, who was the real, true unblemish animal, not an ounce of

Synemis. He did not deserve anything that he received on the cross, but

yet he took it for each and everyone of us. And that's why at

the cross, in relation to the law, the law was satisfied, justice

was men, but yet pardon was offered to us. It's amazing. In

relation to the sinner, the cross was a substitution. That's what it is

that in effect it's what we have just seen. Because Christ was substituted for

me, we are the ones that should be hanging on the cross. So

the cross is a complete and satisfactory way of dealing with men sin without going

against the principle of justice. You see, the principle of justice is simple.

You do wrong, you get punished. That is what justice is.

As a lawyer, that's what we do. When we say we enforce the

law means you do wrong, you get punished. You do right, you

get accolades. When the sinner believes that Jesus died for him in that moment,

his sins are forgiven and he has a place in heaven. But that's

not all, No, that is simply the beginning of a new kind of

life, a life lived out every day in light of the cross, because

the secret of their life is not just to say he died for me,

but to also add that I died with him. Christ is meant to be

my substitute, not only in death, but also 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 his recent life is mine now as well. That

is the understanding, and so the cross is central to the whole business of

becoming a believer. That is why we preach Christ crucified, which has become

the means of our life today as believers. What is the crucifixion without the

resurrection? Because he was crucified, he died to see the resurrection. Is

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

that we have seen in this world, because not one king, not one

ruler, has been able to overcome death. The world is actually liaded with

tombs. Everywhere you go, there are tombs, and there are memorials for

royalties because no king, no ruler, no dictator, no precedent has ever

been able to say I have conquered death. And only Jesus defeated death.

They died heroes again. And so at the crucifixion, the the world passed

a verdict on Jesus. He was too bad to live. They actually accused

him of blasphemy, which is what the Jews accused him of because he said

I am The Romans didn't have blasphemy as a law, so they accused him

of treason. Basically, he went against Caesar, and they say he's a

bad person. And because he's a bad person, he deserves to die.

Because he claimed to be God, he deserves to die. So the world

thought that he deserves to die. At the resurrection, on the other hand,

God actually reversed the verdict on Jesus. He is the son of God

and he told the truth. You see, if Jesus remains in the tomb

today is meaningless, but the fact that he overcame death. He is alive

today because ultimately, what was the penalty that everyone needed to pay for the

wrongs that we did. The penalty of sin is death. The power of

sin in our lives leads to death. You see, the cross would have

been meaningless if Jesus, who was supposed to be our substitute, remained day.

So resurrection just tells us this. The fact that he is alive today,

he has now overcame that. Basically, then you know, no longer

is he bound by the penalty of sin. No longer is he bound by

the power of sin. And if we have his life in us, then

no longer are we bound by the penalty of sin, And no longer are

we bound by the power of sin. I want to take it one step

further. And this is not in my nose. But you think about it

in relation to the cross, in relation to the devil, What do you

think the cross is? How do you think the devil will look at the

cross? Anyone shout out he's defeated. In relation to the devil, the

cross basically is an acknowledgment that he has been conquered. He has already been

defeated. And that's why we say we have the victory. We only have

the victory because the devil has already been defeated today. And I pray you

know, as we understand this, as we understand why we worship this one

true and living God, it's me answering all these questions to myself that helps

me continue to believe, because I can't believe in a god if I don't

really think he exists, Right, I can't really follow after someone who is

a figment of my imagination. I can't really follow someone who it doesn't make

sense. There's no rational behind his existence. Why he's here? What did

he do? But when you read the scripture, even before you read the

scripture, when you just appreciate nature, you will realize there is a God.

And I can tell you this. Sometimes we can be sitted in our

places and like I don't think so wait until you're fall sick. Wait until

you see how fragile life can be. Then you realize there has to be

something greater besides my own self controlling life. That is the reality of it.

And that's why I keep asking myself these questions because I need to be

I need to be certain myself if this is whom I believe in. And

again, it's a person that we believe in, is a person that we

are following, because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life

heaven will rule in our lives. And when we follow his way, obey

his truth, and receive his life in exchange for hours, that is ultimately

what it's really all about. And so you know, I'm just going to

leave these thoughts, these questions. I don't know what it would mean to

you. But daily I am finding assurance again in the Lord, going back

to his word and going back to his scriptures, and then at the same

time going out into his creation and really just enjoying the goodness of God's creation.

Around us. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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a hit for you. God bless