Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship call 1109 Facing the wrath of God - 2024/07/11
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lullbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. Jesus had two specific prayers. He had the one prayer in the garden, Father, if it's your will, left his cup pass from me, but not my will, but your will be done. He also had another specific prayer when he was on the cross. Father forgive them for they do not know what they do. Which prayer would be answered and which prayer not or are they both answered? Let's take a look at this. This is the fifth day of the week in God's created order, the 11th day of the seventh month, 2,024th day of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Let us pray. Father in heaven thank you for this opportunity. It's morning fellowship in your word, and we pray heavily. Father God, the Holy Spirit will continue to lightness to these truths. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. And got a little fill off, I guess you could call it philosophical or whatever. I'll note from my buddy Steve, and I like it, and I'll read it to you. You're holding a cup of coffee and someone accidentally bumps into you, causing you to spill it everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee? Because someone bumped into me. Wrong answer. You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in the cup. If there were, if there had been tea in the cup, you would have spilled the tea. Whatever is inside the cup is what will be spilled out. So when life shakes you up, whatever is inside, you will come out. It's easy to pretend that everything's fine until you're shaken. And the fact is that's philosophical, but it really does come down to faith as well. Whether you're religious or whatever. Whether you're a kind and compassionate liberal or a very good, nice, religious person. When times are good, when everything's going right, that's not the measure. That's not what's inside. It's pressure that's going to bring out. If you're walking in faith, if you're a man or a woman and you claim faith on the best days, and say, you know, I have faith. Well, what comes out when pressure is on is really what's inside. And sometimes I don't even think we know what's inside until the pressure is put on. So yes, it's philosophical, but it's also, I think it also has some application as well. We could continue. I'm reminded, yes, I'm reminded. I'm reminded, Beck reminded me yesterday that there is context, keep my eye on context. We looked at paradise yesterday as it was, and Jesus promised the thief that, or the thief, the robber, that if that today you will be with me in paradise. And let's look at that Luke 2343. I revisit that today, they do a little walk back a little bit, a little correction, and I think it preaches. And yeah, we'll start up at 39. One of the criminals who were hanging, who hang there were hurling abuse at him saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us." But the others answered, rebuking him, said, "Do you not even fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?" And we indeed are suffered justly for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise." This word "paradise" is "paradysos," "paradysos." And the lunidas tells us that it is a dwelling place of the righteous dead in a state of consciousness, generally equated with heaven, Uranos. And it's a blessed dwelling place. And I equate it yesterday as "paradise" is equated to be Abraham's bosom. And that's true in another context. But I don't believe any more that it's this context and that's where I want to correct it. It is a blessed state of rest. It's absent from the body. It's where we're going to be. In paradise, the Abraham's bosom was where the Old Testament saints went. It's a compartment of eighties. It's a holding place until the victory of Christ on the cross, until they are waiting for the payment of their sins to be paid. And until then, that's where they're at. You see, throughout that they went home to be with their father. So like David died and went back home to be with his father or was buried along with his father's. So we have a paradise in 2 Corinthians 12-2. I know a man. This is Paul writing. I know a man in Christ, who 14 years ago, whether in the body, and I believe he's talking about himself here, whether in the body, I do not know or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. Such a man was caught up to be in the third heaven. And I know how such a man, whether in the body or part of the body, I do not know. I'm sorry, was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. So we find what is it? Was caught up to the third heavens up into paradise. So here it is that the third heavens is referred to as paradise here. And in this case, paradise is not down in the Old Testament. Paradise is in Hades, we're looking down at that point. Paradise is up. And it's a place where Paul himself had actually visited. We also read this to what Becca brought up yesterday, Revelation 27. He was in the ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat from the tree of life, which is an paradise of God. Going back to my study with Michael Heiser, I remember the teaching that he had on the ancients. Michael Heiser did a lot of ancient viewpoint and how people thought in that day. And their gods walked in gardens. That's where we had the Garden of Eden. They walked on mountains. They were, mountains were dwelling places for the gods. And they had gardens. So the ancient mindset was looked at, saw their gods as this. And God has a garden, that garden is in Eden. We could also picture that Eden was in a mountain. Remember, when you read there, that there was a river flowing out of Eden. And that river branched into four other rivers. So we're looking at a high elevation and water coming out of it, watering the land. So we could look at Eden as being a garden of God on a mountain top. We think Zion is a place where Jesus is going to rain over this earth. Zion is also thought of as a mountain. So the corrected thought is that Jesus is not talking about a temple existence in Abraham's bosom or a holding cell. We're talking about where the thief is going to be after the victory. That cannot be, that the Abraham bosom cannot be the case here. Jesus will go to Hades, yes he will. But he goes there to free the captives who had been dwelling there because victory had been won. So here on the cross, we have the, initially we have the two thieves. And Matthew, we see the two thieves and they were both hurling insults at Jesus. If you're the son of God, free yourself. Now there's a lot of time going on. And here is the, here is the, and Jesus doesn't respond to their insults. He doesn't respond to any insults. And this gives the opportunity for the other to witness, to look outside of himself, to look outside of his own pain and suffering and see the grace and the mercy and the kindness of the one who's, going back to what we said before, the pressure was on. And they, and here is one who's observing all three of them are under pressure, but observing how the one in the middle is suffering and how he is suffering. You see, that's one thing that Tim has mentioned on a number of occasions. It's not, it's not the question of whether we're going to suffer or not, we are all going to suffer at some point. It's how well you suffer. And Jesus, Jesus was given a testimony not only by word, but by action as he was there praying, continually to pray on that cross, rather than, rather than voicing complaint or, or hurling insults back as, as the other criminals may have been doing as well. But he was praying for those who were insulting him. This apparently made an impact with one of the criminals on, on that cross. This one, he recognized the innocent. This one criminal recognized the innocence. And he also recognized the, the authority, the one possessing the authority and the power to save him, even after death. This is the key to our salvation. This is our salvation comes from faith. We recognize the one who has the power and the authority to save us even after death. And note that his repentance, and this is important, notice that his repentance did not have to do with water baptism. His, his repentance didn't have to do with, with laying out all his sins and saying, I did this, I did this, I did this, forgive me of this. It wasn't even, it, it wasn't asking for forgiveness. Notice that he, he didn't look at Jesus say, forgive me for this. He didn't say that. What did he, what did he say? Remember me. Remember me. You see, this takes off. This takes off all the things about me. When I, and, and I think it's, it's sloppy. It's, it's, I think it's sloppy doctrine. The gospel people are saved from it nonetheless. But when I tell you, you got to tell God what you did. You got to, you got to admit that you're a sinner, that ABC's. Mom, you know I'm talking about the ABC's. Admit that you're a believer, believe and confess. No, wrong doctrine. It is, it is that simple folks. Jesus, remember me. Remember me. Recognizing the authority. And recognizing who and what Jesus is. You get in your eyes off of self. This what we're seeing on the cross is a death bed conversion. You realize that a death bed conversion. That this man is dying. He is going to die. He knows he's going to die. He sees death coming. And the issue is for him. And that issue is for every unbeliever. This is the issue when it comes to salvation. It's not about your sin. It's not about what you did in life. We're all sinners. We come short of the glory of God. The issue is that you're going to die. What are you going to do about it? I think a lot of us in, a lot of us are like with, with Eve. When the, when the surface said no, you will surely die. I think many of us are still believing that. The truth is none of us know if we're going to survive this day. We are all young and old. We are all destined for the grave apart from the rapture. We are all going to be absent from this body. This body is a temporal body. And you are in Adam. When we are born, we are in Adam. And Paul says that in Adam all die. We're all subject. We're universally lost in this world. And we're subject to death. But the question is, you know, well, that's the problem. The question is, what's the solution? Sooner or later, when your time on this earth is done, we will, you will stand before God. We'll stand there as members of the human race, of Adam's fallen helpless race. And the question is, what are we going to do? I have to think about the Roman gladiators. You see the movie gladiator and I've seen other gladiator movies and stuff like that. And Spartacus, it was in Spartacus. And you had the gladiators. They were in the ring. And what they would do is they would salute Caesar. And they would say those who are about to die salute you. And the fact is that we are all about to die. Shall we salute? Not Caesar, but salute God. And say that we are, who are about to die salute you. Acknowledging the authority and the power to give and to save. Caesar couldn't save anybody. He was just enjoying it, but not God. But we salute him for salvation, not for death. And believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and now shall be saved. Is calling out to the Lord, remember me. Remember me Lord in your kingdom. So if you question 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sense, he's faithful and just forgive us our sense and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is for the believer. That's for post salvation sins. The question prior to our salvation is not our sins, but our position. Our position, Christ. When we don't have a position Christ prior to being saved. That's the question. It's not about our sins. When we are born again, those sins are wiped out. Those sins are blotted out. They're remembered no more. Gone. Completely. We are born again new. Unlike our first birth where we're born as a prodigy of Adam, our second birth, we're born perfect. The slate has been wiped out. No more sin. We don't have to worry about it. We don't deal as an unbelief. We don't deal with our sin by asking for forgiveness or seeking forgiveness. We deal with the position. Where are you Adam? And that position is calling out to the Lord in face, trusting in him in his authority and power to forgive you. So when this thief took his very last painful death, he found himself free from the pain and death. Instead of before the living God, can you ever imagine this? I imagine it. Imagine what I could just think Jesus smiling. This is my imagination. I can do it. Jesus smiling at the one who stood beside him. Who hung beside him? He goes, "See, I told you so. Here we are in the kingdom. Here we are, we're talking. Here we are, and in paradise, the third heavens, here we are." And you know, when we have the opportunity to talk to this guy, and we will, those of us who are born again, believers, will have the opportunity. I can imagine what he's going to say. He would say to us that, "You know what? The best day of my life on earth was hanging on the cross next to Jesus." And so Jesus told the disciples, John 16, 21 to 22, "Whenever a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come. But when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into this world. Therefore, you too have grief now. But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take away the joy from you." And then Revelation 21, 4, "And he will wipe away every tear from your eyes, and there will be no longer any death. There will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things have passed away." Amen. So get back to it. Notice that there were two prayers in the garden. In Luke 22, 42, the Lord's Prayer, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, not my will, but yours be done." Now, we have to say that Jesus' prayer was answered, but this is a two-fold request. He says, "He wants this cup. He does not want..." And again, the cup has to do with the Seder cup, the cup of bitter herbs. And the bitterness within this cup was the sin of the world. What was in this cup was the wrath of God coming down against that sin. The just of God, we spoke the other day about the dreadfulness that man was not even able to look upon the justice of God. But Jesus knows he's getting ready to face it, the most horrendous. And it trumps every suffering that could possibly be on this earth. For God's justice is just like any other, the attributes of God. It is infinite, it is powerful, it is something that dreadful. When Jesus comes back, it is known the great and terrible day of the Lord, where he comes and his wrath goes against the unbelievers, the wicked. And it is truly going to be a bad day for people. But Jesus is going to experience this justice. He's going to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of him. And being made sin's substitutionary atonement, the wrath of God is going to come down upon him. And he's saying, if there's another way, I think this is what he's saying. Father, if there is another way to do this, let that way be it. But yet not my will, but your will be done. The higher calling, the higher calling, but if there's another way that it be. But here's the other prayer, here is in Luke 23, 34. But Jesus was saying, Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they cast lots dividing up his garments among themselves. So evil is being perpetuated down on the ground of people who in their ignorance were in sin, were lost. And both here, so for one sin, there's going to have to be the first prayer that the Lord sets aside. It's not answered in this way that the cup is passed. The cup has to be handed upon, this is what I'm trying to say. To forgive those that Jesus is asking for forgiveness for. He was going to have to take the cup. If that cup was passed from them, then there would be no salvation. So you remember the principle, perfect justice, where there is a breaking of God's law, there has to be a, there has to be payment. A debt is incurred and that debt has to be paid and God holds perfect books. Man sin, when Adam sin, when Adam sin, we all sin. Through Adam, we all die. We are the progenies of Adam and we are universally lost. Okay, so we are subject to Adam sin, all the personal sins, everything we are accountable. And the wages of sin is death. So somebody had to pay that price. Again, the term is substitutionary atonement, the innocent dying for the guilty. And so if that cup was passed from Jesus and that he didn't have to take it, there would be no way that the second prayer could be answered. There would be no way that forgiveness could be given to them. They would be lost in their sin. Somebody had to pay for it. So the answer came immediately. Just about immediately, when Jesus prayed, first of all Jesus prayed and said follow, let this cup pass from me, not my will, but your will be done. The thief on the cross says, remember me? I don't know why. It's like the train getting ready to go into the dark tunnel. This is, things are happening so quick and it's getting ready to go into the dark and the thief's looking at the, he says, Jesus, remember me when you're in your kingdom. And he says, today I tell you that you will be with me in paradise. And then immediately, all right, with that praying for them promising the thief, now God is going to answer the prayer. God is going to answer the prayer to forgive them and it's going to be through a payment. So it was noon and darkness fell over the hill, Luke 23, 44. It was now about the sixth hour and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. And this word, darkness and this is scotas and scotas in the lewiditis means to a condition, it's a condition resulting from partial or complete absence of light. And I can't help but to think that this is the latter part, a complete absence of light, a darkness that can be felt. We had two conditions here we talked about, we have already discussed the veil to shield people from looking upon the full measure of God's justice that was coming down upon Jesus, that's one reason for the darkness. But the other reason for that, the absence of light, the absence of light that is the removal of the divine presence apart from God's justice. God removes himself and listen, at this point his darkness, the light, everything moves away from God. The removal is absolutely Jesus except for that wrath of his wrath that's getting ready to be poured out upon him in that darkness. Man had already done his worst, but here is God getting ready to pour down the full brunt of that justice, 1 Timothy 616. Who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see to him be the honor and eternal dominion forever. James 1 17, every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadows. In 1 John 1 5, this is a message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. The father is veiled, he's veiled from his son or a son is veiled from the father because the sin of the world. God is a holy God, cannot have anything to do with sin and so he separates himself from the son who is receiving the penalty for our sin. This was no blue dark, as my kid used to say, this wasn't blue dark, this was a blackness that could be felt. So the answer to Jesus prayer for forgiveness was about to take place, but the answer will come with the price. And that price wasn't going to come cheaply as 1 Peter tells us and I believe it's 1 Peter 1 17 and 18 around there that our forgiveness was bought with silver and gold and precious stones. But by the precious blood of Jesus, his life, that was poured out, he was the drink offering for us and order that our sins may be given to him that we might receive the righteousness of him that we might live forever with him. There was that price that had to be paid and that he had to take the cup. You see, Jesus took the place of Barabbas on that cross, he took Barabbas's cross, but he took our place before the very wrath of God. Let's close that out. Father in heaven, thank you for our so great salvation and we praise you for it. We woke up this morning, we may have problems and pressure throughout this day and things are coming up or we may even be good things today, it doesn't matter. It's what matters and our greatest effort, our greatest problem has been taken care of. That's where we're going to spend eternity. Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, saying to him, remember me when you enter in your kingdom, calling to him for recognizing his power and his authority to forgive sin. That our sins may be as a result be wiped away when we are brought into position with him. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen. All right, another fine day, the Lord keep your armor on, keep fighting, good fight of faith. We will be hosting George Whitten this evening, hope you're here with us. At we'll start at seven, I will be streaming that and be a prayer for me. I do gotta work today that I can make it home at a reasonable hour, we're looking to be home at a reasonable hour and be praying for that so we can get set up for that. So, till then, stay motivated and Lord keep your armor on, keep fighting, good fight of faith. Lord Will and Spirit God and rapt your penny. We'll be back here this evening. [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] You