FACT 2003 - Proving that Jesus is the Messiah - Dave Hunt

[Music] [Music] father as we look into your word once again we recognize this is indeed the word of the living god and it is only taught to us by your holy spirit and we ask that our hearts now we open our hearts to you and we ask that you will speak to us powerfully through your word we pray in jesus name amen my talk yesterday was proving that the bible is true today proving that jesus is the messiah and i thought after chuck missler's presentation i just come out here and rest my case he certainly gave us many prophetic proofs but let's consider a number of things first of all why is proof necessary why do we have to have proof why can't we just believe um well faith is not a leap in the dark you don't just decide to believe something you know you've got your faith i've got mine this is a very popular idea today especially in the united states i can speak with some authority about the united states i don't know much about britain but uh we have uh the idea over there it's a phrase people of faith and all people of faith got to get together defend one another i think you are probably aware that prince charles because that's a gentleman's name uh here in england uh you know that the oath that the monarch takes is to be the defender of the faith and i guess you know he's going to change it from the faith just to faith i mean whatever faith you have you've got a faith that's good isn't it and faith is kind of um the equivalent of religion so by faith we mean religion you got a religion that's very good you're a religious person you are a person of faith we have something in the united states that president bush by the way i i don't know president bush but i have some friends who know him quite well and say that he is a real born-again evangelical christian but he makes some strange statements and he started what he calls the faith-based initiative well it means anybody of any faith we even have a day of prayer in the united states wow that sounds terrific it has been headed by vonnet wright and shirley dobson for many years and in their announcements their advertisements they say they encourage everyone whatever your faith whatever your religion let's all get together you can imagine elijah asking the prophets of baal let's get together and we'll pray for god's blessing upon well whatever god you have it doesn't matter that's kind of the idea today you saw it perhaps we certainly did in the united states the memorial services after september 11th you've got a muslim a hindu a buddhist a sikh evangelical pastor and they're all praying together giving you the idea that they're all praying to the same god not true i wish we had time to talk about the fact that allah is not the god of the bible although vatican 2 says that allah is first of all the quran says allah is not a father and he has no son allah hates jews the god of the bible 203 times calls himself the god of israel 12 times he calls himself the god of abraham isaac and jacob never once does he call himself the god of the muslims or the god of the arabs or the god of the british or the god of the french or americans only the god of israel and we talked about that yesterday israel is plays the key role and has the largest part of the bible is is about israel and prophecies concerning israel but i meet people all over the world who have lost their faith i mentioned to you yesterday i think sitting next to a man on the airplane a top executive of an airline company who said in in um he told me in university i became a born-again christian now i don't know what i believe i told him i could prove god exists the bible is god's word and jesus is the only savior and so forth and he very earnestly said would you do that could you help me i remember sitting next to a very brilliant young man much younger than the other gentleman probably in his late 20s and mba master business administration from harvard university and his words to me were in high school i became a believer in jesus christ as my lord and savior now i don't believe anymore and i said well what do you think about jesus and well he said i think he's a good man i think he was a historical figure i think he was a good man i said you've got to be kidding you can't say jesus was a good man well you know this is a very simple argument he said that he was god he said he would rise from the dead he said he would judge the entire world he said he was without sin he said he would rise from the dead he would come again if he was merely a man he's not a good man he's either a liar or a lunatic but a good man does not go around saying that sort of thing and you cannot escape what jesus said we used to sing a a hymn when i was a boy in sunday school i don't know whether you've seen that over here in england but it went something like this what will you do with jesus neutral you cannot be one day your soul will be asking what will he do with me you cannot escape the claims of jesus you cannot escape the bible is a historical factual document and we can prove that and i think you had a lot of proof during these two days you better have some proof for what you believe faith is a sincere earnest conviction and you shouldn't have an earnest conviction about something that you are not 100 percent certain isn't true does that make sense uh i remember saying something like that in a very beautiful part of america uh jackson hole wyoming uh snow-capped mountains all around in a small valley and it's a little bit scary when the plane comes in there and uh i had about five or six people come after me after when i got off the platform and they said wait a minute if you can prove it where's faith well i said i think you must have a different idea of faith from the idea that i have the idea and idea that i got from the bible faith is not a leap in the dark you don't just decide to believe something i was born a buddhist and i'll die a buddhist i was born a catholic i'll die catholic i was born you know in the church of england i'll die in the church of england i'm going to be loyal to wait a minute why tell me why some of the reasons that people give you for the church they go to i wouldn't buy a refrigerator or a used car well i like the choir oh the pastor is so kind well it's really convenient it's not far from where i live my family has been members of this church for for generations really that's not going to get you to heaven you better investigate and find out whether it's true you should not have confidence in something especially you're banking your eternal destiny on something that you are not 100 certain is not true is true i'm sorry so we need to have proof and that's my topic today proving that jesus is the messiah well is this really biblical is proof biblical doesn't the bible just say have faith remember when jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection they thought he was a spirit being remember what jesus said well take it by faith guys just take it by faith is that what he said he said handle me and see a spirit does not have flesh and bones like you see me have and you could go to acts well let's let's go i tend to just quote the bible because it's much faster but it takes time to turn but we could go to acts chapter one maybe we'll look at a few places in in the book of acts and notice what it says it's talking about after his resurrection before he was taken up into heaven he's with his disciples for 40 days verse 3 to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion that is after his death by many infallible proofs it doesn't tell us all the details you know that there were some who doubted it says he appeared to 500 brethren at once and some of them doubted even after the resurrection of christ some of his disciples still doubted remember we heard this morning about doubting thomas except i put my finger in the print of the nails and my thrust my hand into his side i will not believe well jesus proved that he was the very one who hung on the cross who was laid in the grave who rose from the dead and by many infallible proofs he personally proved it to his disciples now you might say well then how come why didn't he show himself to the pharisees why didn't he come out and and really prove it to everybody he had already given the pharisees so many proofs and it says though he had done so many miracles yet they believed not on him you remember they knew that lazarus had been raised from the dead it was eyewitnesses of this event who came to the pharisees and said you better check you got to do something to stop this guy he just raised lazarus from the dead and he's been in the grave four days they knew it and what did that do to them they're going to kill lazarus too they're going to kill jesus they were so stubborn and so determined in their hearts so you can prove things now we're talking about proof and i want to give you some proofs and i believe we need to give proofs to people they need to have a solid foundation for their faith but that doesn't mean that they're going to roll over and accept jesus there are some people who are absolutely stubborn reminds me of the maybe you heard of the there's a little difference between american humor and british humor and i don't know whether whether i communicate or not but anyway you've probably heard of the gentleman that thought he was dead in fact he was convinced he was dead and nobody could convince him that he wasn't dead and they took him to one psychiatrist after another and they all tried but they failed and finally they took him to a psychiatrist tell us i can cure him of this so what he did the method he used for the weekly visits he took this dead man the guy that thought he was dead he took him to a morgue and he would pull the sheep back and prick the finger of a corpse squeeze it and say what what are we learning about dead people well dead people don't bleed you're convinced well look look yeah dead people don't bleed next week he did the same thing took him to another another corpse and punctured the finger squeezed it dead people don't bleed and about five or six weeks in a row finally he brought him into his office for the next visit sat him down he said now what have we learned these last five weeks well he said we've learned for sure dead people don't bleed well the psychiatrist grabbed his finger punctured it and squeezed it out comes some blood what do you say to that well look at that i'll be dead people do bleed after all so there there are some people that even when you lay the facts out before them they're not going to be convinced they're not going to change their mind but we must give them the facts so they have no excuse okay and so that those who will believe will have a solid foundation by many infallible proofs go to chapter 9 and notice you get it all through the bible chapter 9 saul of tarsus has just become a believer and verse 22 acts 9 22 but saul increased the more in strength and confounded the jews which dwelt at damascus proving that this is very christ he absolutely proved it beyond the shadow of a doubt that jesus was the christ the messiah who had been promised and who had been crucified and risen from the dead and what do they do they went about verse 24 they were they're lying in weight was known to paul well verse 23 the jews took counsel to kill him it was proved so thoroughly they could not deny it and they have two choices either they're going to believe in jesus as the messiah or they're going to kill this man who is proving to them that jesus is the messiah and they decided they would kill his his witness they would kill paul well proof then does not guarantee faith it's a matter of the of the heart uh it's a matter of the willingness of the person to believe in jesus christ and you've heard many proofs various proofs that evolution is not true we can prove that evolution is not true it is ridiculous it is absurd it is a lie it is a fraud and i get angry it is being taught as truth it's fiction it's being taught as fact and these people will not change no matter how much evidence you give them because if they do then they are acknowledging that there is a god a designer who created us and we are accountable to him and they are not going to stand for that for a moment they're going to go into hell determined to have their own way and to stand firm in their rebellion against god jesus gave them plenty of proofs and they killed him they crucified him and you know that in doing that they fulfilled the scriptures the disciples doubted and you remember what jesus said to the two on the road to emmaus in luke 24 you idiots he used very harsh language you fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ought not christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory and then it says beginning at moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself you you're down cast you're discouraged you've abandoned i mean your hope your dream of the messiah because they put him on a cross if he wasn't on a cross he's not the messiah because your own prophet said he would be crucified that is exactly what was foretold he had to be crucified don't you know the prophets you fools you better pay attention to what the prophets have said if you had paid attention you would know that this is the messiah himself well i found out traveling around the world and talking with probably thousands of people most people believe what they want to believe you ever talk to a mormon talk to jehovah's witnesses i find that most people are in a cult because they want to be in the cult now i've seen people delivered from colts but it seems that they're few and far between but still we are going to continue to present the truth well we've got to give proof we've got to give our children sunday school kids a solid foundation for their faith we've got to train them so they can stand in the street toe-to-toe with a buddhist a muslim a hindu an atheist and put them to flight confound them and prove from the scriptures that the gospel of jesus christ is true and i don't think we're doing that very well in many instances at least and this is why so many of these people who thought they were believers once have abandoned their faith that they thought they had there may be some even here at a conference like this there may be some who are just stubborn are going to continue to believe what they want to believe in the face of all the evidence to the contrary well how did paul go about this and how should we go about proving that jesus is the messiah we're in acts chapter 9 so turn over to chapter 17 and notice what he did verse well we'll read from verse one now when they had passed through amphipolis and apollonia they came to thessalonica where was a synagogue of the jews and paul as his manner was if you underline in your bible underline that this is his modus operandus you want to know how paul preached the gospel this is how he did it now my wife says come on now don't lay down rules like this is the only way okay but i think this is the biblical way all right and how did he do it as his manner was went in unto them and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures we've got to use the bible folks this is sword of the spirit this is the evidence here we have the absolute proof that jesus is the christ that the bible is god's word we've tried to talk i think this has been a great conference and i have told ron i appreciate the opportunity to be here i think it's rather a unique conference i think you've been overwhelmed with evidence that should strengthen your faith and should help you in seeking to win others to christ but he opened their own scriptures he said look what your own prophets isaiah jeremiah ezekiel habakkuk and on and on it goes hosea and joel and amos and obadiah look what your own prophet said they told you they gave you signs they gave you evidence so you would know who the messiah is when he came and you cannot deny that jesus of nazareth jesus of nazareth has fulfilled this in his life death and resurrection he is the messiah this is what paul did and i think this is what we should do let's not abandon the word of god let's not abandon the proofs god has given us let's be conversant with these proofs and let's know how to use them uh in presenting jesus christ to others so this is what paul did verse 17 therefore disputed he in the with the jews and with the devout persons in the market daily with them that met with him we got an idea today i mean it's incredible dialogue that's the big word today the catholic church has been in dialogue with the muslims for about 30 years and the baptists are dialoguing with the catholics we're all dialoguing with one another come on uh you don't dialogue about mathematics i mean i don't know about this two plus two is four i mean yeah but how about couldn't once in a while it be five you you laugh because it's absurd you don't dialogue about truth truth does not change jesus christ the same yesterday today and forever i am the truth i am the way i am the life no man comes to the father but by me that is so clear you just can't change it and you don't dialogue about it you are deluding yourself and others tragically the church of england is involved in this sort of thing the faith that once was so firm is up for grabs it's up to the highest bidder well they don't even care about it anymore truth doesn't really matter let's just get along with one another after all we're all taking different roads to get to the same place you know that do they use that in england as well yeah you know that passes for being broad-minded well it sounds broad-minded we're all taking different roads to get to the same place that's not broad-minded that is more narrow-minded and dogmatic than anything jesus ever said that's saying oh we'll let you take any road you want but you've got to go where we're going and i'm not going where they're going by god's grace i'm going somewhere else and jesus was not so narrow-minded and dogmatic as to say there is only one destination he said there's two [Laughter] and you take your pick but you better pick the right one and you better pick it on the on the right basis you know i fly about 150 000 miles a year maybe chuck flies more than that i don't know but i would i fly united airlines almost always i would love to get that mic but if i did the fbi is waiting for me when we land but i can tell you what i would say very simple um oh my gracious i'm in england i don't know what is a liberal here somebody that just believes anything anything goes okay some countries that's not true uh well i would say to my fellow passengers how many liberals do we have aboard hands go up and i would say well then i'm sure you all hope we have a liberal pilot flying this thing a pilot who says let's not be near a mind and dog man i think one direction's as good as another why why don't we just punch some buttons and see where it gets us i mean we're all taking different roads to get to the same place you laugh because it is absurd it is absurd no i guarantee you no matter what foolish philosophical and religious ideas these people have they all unless they're psychotic and suicidal they all hope in their hearts they've got a narrow-minded dogmatic fundamentalist pilot flying this thing a pilot who knows where he's going and follows the rules to get there it's that way in every area of your life you wouldn't want to go to a doctor and after he examines you you say doc what's the diagnosis and the prognosis and he says well i wouldn't be so nervous dogmatic is to come up with a definite diagnosis i mean what would you like open heart surgery has been very popular lately i could transplant a kidney i think i think everyone is entitled to the operation of his choice it's absurd you laugh but when in any area of life but when it comes to that which is most important is there a god does he have any ideas you can't even play a game without rules even cricket you can't even play a game without rules and yet well i have a little fun with people sometimes i walked into the doctor's office a few months ago and i happened to sneeze and the nurse was standing there and said god bless you i said how does a sneeze qualify me for a blessing from god and how is it that you are the one who has the authority to pass this on and what god are you talking about well i'm serious don't say god bless you when people sneeze please that doesn't qualify anyone for a blessing and i had a little heart procedure and i was in the hospital and nurse was putting an iv in me and uh i i love to talk about god about christ and so forth with these people it's a great opportunity being in the hospital and so we get to talking about god and so forth and she says well i can believe anything i want to believe let me out of here take that iv out of here give my clothes back i'm getting out of this place what do you mean well you can believe anything you want you got no medical procedures around here every nurse and every doctor just acts independently oh no no no we've got medical procedures oh you have procedures and rules when it comes to taking care of the body but when it comes to the soul and spirit and man's eternal destiny then anything goes that's not reasonable and paul said deliver pray that god will deliver us from unreasonable and wicked man you know because all men have not faith and i can tell you if you don't have faith you are unreasonable and you will ultimately be wicked because that's the direction it goes you're going to take your own way you're going to go by your own rules well paul debated he didn't dialogue he debated with them and i better move along we don't have time but everywhere he went he disputed in the synagogue he reasoned with them chapter 18 verse 19. he came to ephesus and and they left him there but he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the jews reasoning we've got to reason with people the only reasonable thing a person can do is to believe in god the creator of this universe to believe in the word of god that tells us about him the problem between man and god and to submit themselves to him this is reasonable we need a reason with people and we got too many evangelists or whatever and they just want to get somebody into an emotional experience an emotional commitment or decision and it does it doesn't last verse 28 one of my favorite verses in the bible this is about apollos for he mightily convinced the jews publicly showing or proving by the scriptures that jesus was the christ well this is what we must do from the scriptures well that brings us back to prophecy and we mentioned yesterday two main topics of prophecy israel and the messiah who comes to israel remember the messiah is promised to israel and through israel to the world there are no prophecies for buddha for muhammad for confucius for anyone the prophecies are about the jewish messiah the messiah of israel and this book the bible is unique and the messiah of israel is unique how are we going to recognize him when he comes it is all laid out in scripture prophecy after prophecy after prophecy you can't possibly mistake who is the messiah if you are willing to pay attention to the prophecies so notice he proved from the scriptures that jesus is the messiah and that's what we should do ourselves well go to romans we're we're almost there so go to romans chapter 1 and notice what it says i'm not going to try to give you many proofs i'll give you a few others chuck mentioned there are a lot of them he didn't touch on i'll try to mention uh some but why and how do we do this and what what is the basis of this romans chapter 1 paul a verse 1 a servant of jesus christ called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of god i mentioned yesterday being on this program spiritual seeker if god hasn't spoken forget it i'm not interested in human opinion what does god say and can we be sure of what he said nothing else is worthwhile this is the gospel of god i was reading a book by a rabbi titled the myth maker and he claimed that paul invented this gospel and passed it off and it became christianity paul says this is the gospel of god well that's easy to say how do you prove it well he says which he that is god promised of four by his prophets in the holy scriptures we've got what they said it's all laid out you can't deny it this is the gospel of god if it's not the gospel of god and if jesus christ did not fulfill what the prophet said he is not the messiah i don't care how emotional you may feel about that he is only the messiah if he fulfilled the scriptures you remember in matthew 16 for example when peter said you're the christ the son of the living god jesus said okay let's get out there guys and let's convince everybody no he said don't tell anyone strange thing for him to say wasn't it don't tell anyone why well chuck i think it was alluded to the day jesus rode into jerusalem on that donkey and now they are hailing him as the messiah and the and the pharisees say rebuke your disciples jesus says if they don't say it the stones will cry out because today is the day what day was it well chuck told you 69 weeks of years from the going forth of the command to rebuild jerusalem daniel 9 gives the very day the messiah when ryan introduced him i think brother roseviere referred to luke 12 where jesus rebuked the rabbis you guys can tell what the weather's going to be like you can't tell the signs of the times why don't you know go back read nehemiah chapter two he gives you the very day that he received the authority from from artaxerxes longimanus to rebuild jerusalem and daniel 9 tells you from that day that was the 20th year of artaxerxes who ruled from 445 bc to four to four uh i'm sorry four four yeah 465 bc to 425 bc the 20th year is 445 bc nissan first and from that date to the day the messiah would ride into jerusalem on that donkey 69 weeks of years don't you guys know just a few more days and you're there why don't you know the day of your visitation chuck referred to that you're going to be destroyed because you didn't recognize the day of your visitation it is all laid out so clearly and i think this is what we have to do in presenting the the gospel and one of the problems is the gospel involves a remedy for sin and there's a lot of people are not willing i don't i don't want to make jokes here but it reminds me i think sometimes it helps uh illustrates it reminds me maybe you heard of the man that had both ears burned to a crisp you know that story and his friend said how did that happen what he said the phone rang and i reached out to get the phone but my wife would put the ironing board with a red hot iron right there and i got that iron up to my ear and that was a wrong number and and and the guy said what about the other ear well he says the stupid idiot he called back again not my fault somebody else's fault but it is our fault we have sinned and god has a remedy for that and this is what the messiah is about why the messiah and the promise of the messiah begins in genesis chapter 3 the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head it was a serpent that deceived eve sin entered into the world god is a holy god he had to cast them out of the garden man is separated from god but the serpent isn't going to win he'll bruise your heel but the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head will deliver him a death blow and then you get it again in genesis chapter 12 as as god gives moses i'm sorry it gives abraham this land you know it's it's amazing what preachers sometimes say i'm trying to talk fast and uh sometimes my wife says now you didn't mean to say that did you anyway at least i caught that one it wasn't moses it was abraham and he gives him the promise of the land and then what does he say in you and in your seed paul tells us in galatians the seed is christ in your seed will all the the nations of the earth be blessed how would they be blessed through abraham's seed because it is through abraham through the jews that the messiah comes and by the way that's a simple explanation for anti-semitism why are the jews hated why have they been persecuted and killed down through history very simple it's satanic i hope none of you is an anti-semite here today these are god's people he calls himself as i said the god of abraham isaac and jacob 12 times the god of israel 203 times these are his chosen people and whatever you want to think about them they he has chosen them and they belong to him of that land belongs to them but because the messiah comes through israel if satan could wipe out the jews no messiah you see that in revelation chapter 12 the woman is about to give birth this is revelation is mostly uh foretelling the future but this also gives you the past and the red dragon is there it's satanic this is satan and he's going to devour the seed if he can wipe out the messiah he's won his battle with god and even after satan was defeated by christ on the cross if hitler could wipe them out if the muslims could wipe them out he has won his battle with god he has proved that god is a liar because the bible is filled with promises that god would preserve these people in spite of the hatred persecution and the murder of the slaughter of them down through the gener centuries god would preserve these people and in the last days he will bring them back into their own land as an identifiable ethnic group of people and one day the messiah rescuing them in the midst of armageddon will return and rule over them on the throne of his father david there is no second coming i'm not talking about the rapture that's a separate event there is no second coming unless israel is in its land and don't give me this nonsense about 10 lost tribes we don't have time to go into that but just simple logic would tell you if 10 tribes are lost god can't fulfill his promise to bring them back in his land what did jesus say to his disciples you will sit on two thrones ruling the two tribes of israel is that what he said you will sit on twelve thrones ruling the twelve tribes of israel and don't tell me there's ten tribes somewhere hidden out there we don't even know who they are they don't know who they are amazing and one day voila a sudden revelation oh these guys over here they're the lost 10 tribes what about that hey come on tell me who they are you got any candidates that's nonsense but i don't have time to go into that but anyway no second coming if the jews are destroyed if there's not 12 tribes back there so what do we mean by the messiah this is the savior the savior savior from what savior from the penalty for sin god is a holy righteous god as we as we just said and god's wrath against sin against sinful man is revealed from heaven man has rejected him he cast adam and eve out of the garden and he kept the way to the tree of life with a flaming sword you're not going to get to this tree unless you pass god's judgment this is the sword of god's judgment and one day the second man he's called the last adam walked up to that sword we all fled that sword was a big thing people complain about the death penalty the death penalty oh that's so harsh no god pronounced the death penalty go and read it in the old testament and if you want to know the ultimate example of the death penalty is the cross when christ stood in our place he took our place he was put to death by by god himself don't think that it was that he was crucified that that saves you that's not going to save anybody ooh heresy i want to make the sign of the cross you know the fact that jesus was crucified would not save anyone that would only add to our judgment that's what we did to him but the fact that when he hung on that cross it pleased yahweh to bruise him thou hast put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin it was the wrath of god that fell upon him that he took for us and that is why there is redemption there is salvation and this is what the messiah had to do he had to come and pay the penalty it's a matter of justice i don't know so many people don't understand this you are dealing with god well i don't think i've been so bad you know i i'm no worse than than other people and and i i've tried to live a good life and i i i think god you know recognizes that i'm sincere i i think i'll make it you know does god have anything to say about this have you paid any attention to god do you recognize that he is infinite in his justice and for you think you could pay the penalty for your sins it would take you eternity it's an infinite penalty and we are finite beings i i i wish i had more time to talk about islam one of the delusions major delusion of islam i recently had a discussion with a leading muslim in southern california at california state university northridge and we're each telling how you're going to get to heaven how do you get to heaven as a muslim well of course you die in jihad that's the only sure way and i don't have time to document that but that was in the mind of these of these hijackers as they hit the twin towers um but uh mo for most muslims most muslims don't have the opportunity to die in jihad so they think that in the last day this is one of the five pillars of islam that every muslim must believe in the last day what's the last day it's the day of judgment it's the day when your good deeds are weighed in the balance against your bad deeds and if your good deeds come out ahead on the scale then you make it to paradise come on there is not a court of law on this earth that would go by that rule is there you get a ticket for speeding do they do that here in england uh you get a ticket for speeding and you stand before the judge and you say yeah judge i know i was speeding the other day but i've driven more times within the speed limit than i have exceeding it now wouldn't my good deeds outweigh my bad i know i killed somebody a month ago but i saved the lives of two people from dining yesterday surely my good deeds will outweigh my bad there is not a court of law in this world that would go by that rule and you think god will but i know catholics that think that i know anglicans who think that presbyterians and men oh yeah my good deeds will weigh my bad you better forget it it won't work in a court of law on this earth and it will not work with god and who are you to say that your good deeds will outweigh your bad who are you to say you haven't lived such a bad life jesus said you look on a woman to lust after you've already committed adultery in your heart sin is a matter of pride pride is the chief sin things that we don't even recognize are sinful in the eyes of a holy god and you think you haven't been so bad after all if you and i are honest with ourselves we would have to acknowledge that each one of us is the chief of sinners i know some of the things that i have done i know some of the temptations that i've submitted to i know some of the thoughts i don't know that about other people i couldn't say that i'm as good as other people and god's standards are perfect and the bible says you break one commandment you are guilty of all why is that because one commandment to break one commandment that's rebellion against god that's the sin that's the root of sin just one small sin is rebellion against god taking your own way so the penalty stands between god and man and god loves us he loves mankind he doesn't want to put his judgment upon us but he can't just forgive sinners how can god be just and forgive sinners that would make him a party to our crime the penalty must be paid god can't just say well i just forgive you his own law stands in his way he can't change his law he has pronounced the soul that sinneth it must die and that is eternal separation from god what is he going to do he loves the world god so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life so the one of the unique things about about christianity about the bible is god himself must come and pay this penalty god himself if you want to isaiah 43 just as quickly as we can i'm running out of time here that's why i don't turn to the bible it takes so long but anyway isaiah 43 verse 11 i even i am the lord and beside me there is no savior wow now we're not going to take the time but you can you can look it up uh well you look at verse 3 for i am the lord thy god the holy one of israel thy savior you could go over to chapter 45 verse 15. verily thou art a god that hides thyself o god of israel the savior verse 21 have not i the lord uh well i'm sorry who hath told it from from that time have not i the lord and there is no god else beside me a just god and a savior there is none beside me and all through the old testament god says that he is the only savior that's one of the problems with jehovah's witnesses they deny that jesus is god if jesus is not god he can't be our savior because the bible very clearly says over and over god says he's the only one that can save us it's an infinite penalty he alone is infinite we're finite beings and only the infinite god himself could pay the penalty for our sins how is he going to do that it's only possible because of the trinity go to chapter 48 verse 16. i wish we had time to talk about the trinity it's all through the bible we've had some teaching on that already at this conference verse 16 come you near unto me hear you this i have not spoken in secret from the beginning from the time that it was there am i who is this one who's been there from the beginning go back as far as you can go and he's there he's god but he's the god who speaks he's the word of god but notice what it says and now the lord god and his spirit have sent me what god says the lord god and his spirit sent me sometimes people say wait a minute if jesus is god when he died on the cross who was running the universe well that's a whole other subject we don't have time to get into it but the father didn't die the holy spirit didn't die without the trinity there would be no savior god himself could not come as a man and pay the penalty for our sins and you know the scriptures you know isaiah 7 14. unto us a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son and call his name emmanuel which means god with us you know isaiah 9 6 for unto us a child is born that's the babe born in bethlehem unto us a son is given that's the eternal god who the son god the son the government will be upon his shoulders he's the messiah his name shall be called wonderful counselor you don't have to go to some psychiatrist let alone a christian psychiatrist one of jesus names is counselor go to him for counsel counselor the mighty god the what everlasting father what the babe born in bethlehem was the father yeah jesus said i and my father are one you cannot explain it away god himself is the only one who can be the savior and god had to come as a man to pay the penalty for for for our sins this is unique absolutely unique uh to the bible absolutely unique uh to christianity well what are and we have the prophecies to prove it what are some of the prophetic proofs well chuck he overwhelmed you uh with proofs and that's not all you have an interesting verse galatians 4 4 in the fullness of time god sent forth his son born of a virgin born under the law and so forth what does it mean the fullness of time the precise time the exact time well the temple had to be there i'll just give you four things to tell you the time there was a narrow strip of time in which the messiah had to be born the temple had to be there because malachi 3 1 says the lord whom you seek will suddenly come into his temple and he did that when he came in and overthrew the tables of the money changers and so forth so the temple had to be on the earth when the messiah came this is one reason why the jews want to rebuild the temple if we just have the temple the temple's got to be there for the messiah to come there yeah but wait a minute just after the messiah comes he's going to be killed and the temple and the city jerusalem will be destroyed daniel chapter 9 tells us that so he had to come when the temple was there he had to come just before the temple would and the city would be destroyed that's a narrow window of time their genealogical records had to be there because he must be the son of david you must be able to prove it the genealogical records were destroyed in a.d 70 when the temple and the city of jerusalem are destroyed no one can come along today and prove that he is of the seed of david you've got the right chromosomes you can prove that you're a levi but not of the seed of david and this is why the bible begins in matthew and in luke we have the genealogy of jesus through his the surrogate father joseph in matthew and through his father-in-law through mary uh in in luke then genesis 49 10 is another interesting prophecy way back then jacob gathers his sons together and he says get around me now i'm going to tell you what will befall you in the last days that is your descendants and when you get to verse 10 he says the scepter shall not depart from judah nor a law-giver from between his knees until shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be shiloh is the messiah when did that happen well they tell us about 7 a.d the the jews had autonomy they had uh the the authority to practice their own religion under the romans although they were under the heel of rome and one of the things you had to be able to do to practice judaism was execute people with stoning and about ad7 they lost that right the scepter departed from judah okay we could give you others but we don't have time there was a book back there 40 years ago i don't know whether some of you older folks remember it whether it even got to england it was called the passover plot oh an ingenious idea jesus knew the prophecies and he and judas conspired to fulfill them yeah when i was in the fifth grade i can still remember there was a new history book that came out it waxed a little bit too eloquent about abe lincoln because it said that abe lincoln was born in a log cabin he built with his own hands well how did jesus get born in bethlehem he had to be born in bethlehem how did he conspire to fulfill that prophecy and i could go on and on i mean he's going to get pierced with his son in his side how did he know who would be the roman guards on duty that day the roman soldiers so he could buy them off and get them to do exactly what they needed to do to fulfill the scriptures furthermore you know the prophecies you're going to get yourself killed and rise from the dead come on passover plot nonsense but the scriptures were fulfilled and chuck has given us enough and wow i've about run out of time here and i want to get to the resurrection this is the gospel what's the gospel the gospel is the power of god unto salvation everyone who believes right romans 1 16. but what is the gospel if i said go to uh where does it tell where does paul explain the gospel oh well first corinthians 15 verses one through four paul says this is the gospel i preached unto you that you believed when you so forth the song whereby you were saved how the christ died for our sins was buried and rose again the third day is that what it says that is not what it says that is not the gospel i'm sorry what is the gospel how the christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures and you must back up the gospel with the scriptures that is with the prophecies okay this is how paul preached the gospel and we can prove the resurrection well turn real fast as fast as we can to first corinthians chapter four don't know if some of my colleagues are going to deny my disagree with my interpretation of this first corinthians 4 9 for i think that god hath set forth us the apostles last as it were appointed to death for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men as i read that you know it's a point when a man wants to die but everybody doesn't have to die i hope that all of us will leave in the rapture we will not all die the scripture says but we will all all be changed okay but paul says we apostles are the last ones who must die why must they die they were unique witnesses we got martyrs today i mean these guys that blow themselves up on a bus in tel aviv or whatever oh they're martyrs they do it out of loyalty to islam to muhammad and out of the hope that that will launch them into paradise so how were the apostles different because they died as witnesses to facts they said he did rise from the dead he did heal the sick he did open the eyes of the blind he did walk on water he did feed five thousand the few loaves and fishes and so forth there is nothing you can do to me that will cause me to deny that you can't kill me and not one of them said wait a minute guys please please don't kill me i'll tell the truth we stole his body we hid in peter's basement i mean the whole thing's a myth we made it up nobody is fool enough to die for what he knows is a lie paul said we apostles are the last ones who must die a great proof of the resurrection of jesus christ paul himself is the great proof he hated the jews i'm sorry he hated the christians he had them hailed into prison he had them beaten and he was there when they were killed and so forth suddenly he turns up a christian the christians were afraid of him they they they couldn't believe it and barnabas had to take him and introduce him and say the guy's genuine he's a real believer and so people say wow look at that that transformation uh saul of tarsus you became paul the apostle why would you leave turn to galatians chapter one while i'm talking here why would you leave the security you had you were hero to the to the jews you had a great future and you threw it all away to become one of these despised christians these followers of the way that you were persecuting you will be persecuted you will be beaten you will be imprisoned you will be killed why would you do this paul says i met him on the road to damascus he is alive and that's as far as i've heard any apologies i'm sure there are some that go farther but i haven't heard any that is not enough folks that tells me paul was sincere he really thought he met jesus but it doesn't tell me he really did he may have hallucinated he may have had some guilt feeling and and so forth uh he maybe he didn't really meet jesus how do we know he really met jesus galatians chapter 1 verse 11 i certify you brethren the gospel which was preached of me is not after men i neither received it of men neither was i taught it but by the revelation of the holy spirit is that what it says well scriptures inspire the holy spirit that is not enough for in paul's case it's a revelation of jesus christ and he goes on and he says verse 17 neither went i up to jerusalem to them that were apostles before me i went into arabia and so forth and after three years i went up to jerusalem to see peter and he rebuked peter paul says i didn't go to the running of the apostles and say i think i met him on the road to the mask because i i'd kind of like to be a christian too i'd like to be an apostle i'd like to go around preaching this gospel but i could make some really bad blunders because i didn't study under jesus with you fellows you better give me a quick course in christianity paul says i didn't go to any of them what i know i learned from the resurrected jesus christ himself he tells us for example in first corinthians chapter 11 verse 23 i received of the lord what i delivered to you how the lord jesus the night in which he was betrayed broke bread and so forth a person who wasn't even there at the last supper tells us exactly what happened at the last supper and paul who hated the christians who persecuted and killed them not only does he become a christian he's the chief apostle he writes most of the new testament and he rebukes peter to his face peter you are wrong and i tell you that on the authority of the risen christ whom i have met and talked with him personally and you cannot deny that transformation didn't take place by an hallucination he really sat at the feet of jesus and he knew what he was saying and what he wrote was by the revelation of the resurrected christ himself well we have the fulfillment of all of this in christ and i'm going i know i'm over time here but i think they can squeeze it in somehow or other let me just say a few last words without which all that i've said i think would wouldn't be enough what are we going to do about this what must i do to be saved well you got to get baptized and catechized and you got to join the church and you've got to work real hard at it and turn over a new leaf and live a good enough life is that what it says believe the philippian jailer says what must i do to be saved believe believe on the lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved think about it logically for a minute what else can you do if christ paid for the your sins an infinite penalty he paid a price you couldn't pay can you add to this what can you do all you can do is believe that this is who he is this is what he did the bible says very clearly this is the gift of god what's a gift well this dear man here has been watching so intently i want i just you know my wife and i in our basement we discovered a long-lost rembrandt worth hundreds of millions of dollars a few weeks ago i just want to give it to you and and he says uh dave i'll give you what's your smallest thing here a penny no yeah dave i'll give you a penny for it he's done two things he has insulted me number one right offer me a penny for a priceless painting listen carefully this is the word of god not my word and logic will tell you this is true you offer god anything you offer him your good deeds your gifts to charity your prayers your church membership you offer god anything in exchange for the infinite gift that christ bought at an infinite price you are insulting god do you understand that the bible says the wages of sin is death the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord only possible because of who he is and what he did for us second thing he's done offers me a penny for a priceless gift he has refused the gift hasn't he isn't that a rejection of the gift a gift has to be free you offer god anything again you are rejecting the gift that christ purchased for you and god wants to give it to you as a free gift nothing else you can do but believe in him and receive him as your savior maybe some of you have never understood that although you're at a conference like this this is the word of god and this is logic and this is justice you don't appease god you don't negotiate with god he sets the rules and the rules are set by his perfect infinite justice the penalty had to be paid and only christ could pay it you know remember in the garden jesus wept he swept as it were drops of blood falling down on the ground what what was he saying father he's not worried about the nails driven his hands and feet he was going to be made sin for us he was going to take the waves and the billows of god's wrath his anger against sin were going to be poured out upon him and his holy soul shrank from this and he said father isn't there some other way that mankind could be saved if there is don't make me go through with this what does the father say there's no other way penalty has to be paid because yahweh laid on him the iniquity of us all he put the judgment for our sins upon him so when christ gave his spirit into his father's hands what did he say he didn't expire in weakness jesus said no man takes my life from me i lay it down to myself he cried out in triumph to telesty it is finished as a translation our bible but tetelestai is a greek word that was stamped upon promissory notes documents in that day it meant paid in full jesus christ paid in full the penalty for our sins and if he didn't there is no hope for mankind and if he did don't you dare try to buy it all buy him off with something else don't you dare deny that he's paid the full penalty don't you dare try to do anything except receive from him this gift that he wants to give to you father thank you for your word oh god it is so powerful it is so tremendous and we can't even begin in a short time to present it but father we know without the shadow of a doubt that you are god this is your word and jesus christ is one with the father he is god from eternity past who became a man to die for our sins lord jesus thank you thank you for loving us so much that you would do this and lord i pray that there is no one here today who would leave this conference without opening their hearts to you and accepting that free gift by faith on the basis of the evidence and they will be transformed from death to life and lord help us to go in the power of your spirit and with your word and to present the gospel of jesus christ the gospel of god from the holy scriptures and prove that jesus is who your word says and father help us to open the eye eyes and help us to deliver many before it is too late we ask in jesus name amen

Channel: Koinonia House

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Length: 69min 59sec (4199 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021