Announcer: This presentation is brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry. male announcer: Coming to you from New York City, at the historic Manhattan Center, with your host, Doug Batchelor. Join this exciting journey of discovery as we learn the truth about Bible prophecy. Explore the timeless wisdom of God's Word, and see how it relates to our lives today. Stay tuned, your "Amazing Facts" adventure begins now.
Doug Batchelor: We've got a problem, and it's called sin. And we have an answer called a Savior. We've got a problem with this disease of sin in our natures, and it is deadly, and Jesus came to take that deadly disease, to take the penalty for that and to save us. So, I've kind of told you what the problem and the answer is right here at the beginning, but I always like to start with an amazing fact, and so we're going to go to the screen, and see what we learn about this important subject along the way. The largest meteorite that they've ever found on Earth is called the Hoba space rock. It was discovered in Namibia in 1920 when a farmer was doing--when he was working with his plow, and he struck something, and he thought, what is that? And he dug around a little bit, and it was a piece of iron. But he kept digging and it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, until pretty soon he realized he had found this massive rock, they discovered after a while, it was a meteorite over 9 feet long and maybe 9 feet wide, and largest meteorite that they've ever found. Several people have come and tried to chisel off pieces of it, but it is so hard it breaks virtually every hacksaw blade and chisel that they take to it. They've never moved it from the place where it struck the earth because it weighs about 66 tons. And so it is a massive--a rock of ages you might say, and thousands of tourists every year come to look at the Hoba meteorite.
You know the Bible tells us that God, when He gave us the most important words, The Ten Commandments, He wrote it with finger on stone representing its unchanging nature, and that is the law of God. So, we're going to be talking tonight about this very important subject. And you know, before we go to our first question, sometimes we like to go out on the streets and see what we can learn about that. And so if--at this time, we're going to go find out what do people think about the law, does it still exist, and maybe something about the answer as well.
Male: I think it's important that we have laws of society because it keeps things stable by creating a level of consistency and knowing that justice will be served to everyone, hopefully, equally, even though that doesn't always happen.
Female: To keep people in line, to know that somebody's going to do something, you know.
Male: You got to keep things in order, honestly, really, got to keep things in order. Run around lawless, it's going to be chaos, you know.
Female: People need guidelines. You know, just as a little child, you know, they need rules to follow, and if there are no rules which are laws, it could be chaos.
Male: Not one in particular that stands out--anything more important than the rest.
Female: Probably not to covet your neighbor. Be happy with what you have, not worry about what everybody else has.
Male: Thou shalt not kill or murder.
Female: I can't name them all, but thou shall not kill, I'm not real sure.
Male: Well, that's as if you were--to the Jewish religion, if you went into the Jewish religion, because the Old Testament's still sort of believed by Christians, but they don't believe--you know, they obviously believe the Son of God came and gave them a new Bible, so, yeah.
Male: By the law, no.
Female: Yeah.
Male: I'm not sure, I don't know.
Doug: Once again, we find that people's ideas about how do you relate to the law of God are all across the map. You know, what we've done before, it's really interesting, is you go out on the street and you say, "Have you heard of the Ten Commandments?" People will say, "Yeah." "Okay, can you name them for me?" You know, the average person on the street can only get about four out of ten of the commandments. It is incredible. When our country was founded, everybody knew it, I remember--and I, you know, I was raised pretty much an atheist, but I went to several public schools, and when I was a kid, they had the Ten Commandments on the wall in public school. How many of you remember that? Any of the older saints want to date themselves here?
You know, question number one, we'll begin with, and we're going to talk about this, and we've got just a lot of very valuable information to share. First question, who is symbolized by the Lamb in Revelation chapter 5, verse 6? Now if you got your Bibles, either on your phone or the paper version, you at home, you may turn to chapter 5, and if you look in chapter 5, verse 6 of Revelation, this is a prophecy subject. "And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven heads and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and He took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne."
Well, right away I think that some of you realize, are you expecting to see a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes? And if you get to Revelation chapter 17, it talks about a woman sitting on a beast that's got seven heads and ten horns. Some of you, you get out in the country, you'll see a sign that says deer crossing, it's got a little picture of a deer. You're never going to see beasts crossing with seven heads and ten horns. These things are Bible symbols, but they're not that hard to understand.
If you want to know who the Lamb is, you can read about this right there in the New Testament. It says, Jesus is the Lamb of God. Now what does it mean by the seven eyes on the Lamb, and the seven horns? Jesus is the Lamb, seven eyes represent all-knowing, all the time. The Bible says, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth. And that's in 2 Chronicles, and you can read--what about the seven spirits of God? Isaiah 11, verse 2 talks about the Messiah would have, "The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, Spirit of counsel, might, Spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord." These are seven facets or attributes of God's Spirit, but it's one Spirit and there's one Jesus, it's just telling us that he sees everything, and he knows everything, and a horn in the Bible represented power. Luke chapter 1:68, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, he's visited his redeemed people," talks about the horn of His power and of salvation.
And so, these symbols that you find in Revelation are telling us different things about the characteristics of God. When you think of the name of Jesus, we typically say it, it's connected with a Greek translation. If you're Spanish, you say Jesus, Jesus, Hebrew would be Yeshua, and it means Savior. Jehovah is Savior is what His name means. Revelation, you know how many names the Lord has? He's the Alpha, the Omega, He is the Door, the Bible says He's the Good Shepherd, He's the Way, the Truth, the Life, He is the Living Water, He is the Vine, and we are the branches. He is the Light of the world, He is the High Priest. I mean, there are many names of Christ that tell us different attributes of His character, because He's God, He's rather complicated, you know. He's got a lot of different characteristics.
So, we see this picture there in Revelation chapter 5, of a Lamb that was slain. It is the solution for the problem of a law that was broken. We'll be talking about that tonight. So next, you can read in John 1, verse 29, we know who the Lamb is. It says, "John saw," who? "Jesus coming towards him, and he said, 'Behold! The Lamb.'" So, who's the lamb? Jesus. Abraham is going up the mountain with his son Isaac. Abraham has been told by the Lord, I want you to offer your son as a sacrifice. Obediently, he heads up Mount Moriah, the wood is placed on Isaac's back, as the cross was placed on the back of Jesus. And Abraham has the makings of a fire and Isaac is going, he sacrificed with his father many times before, but something's missing today. Says, "Father," Abraham had been unusually quiet. He says, "Yes my son." He said, "We've got the wood, and we've got the fire, but where is the lamb?" And Abraham said, in those words that have echoed down through history, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb."
And when they got to the top of the mountain, just--Isaac was a willing sacrifice as Jesus was. He allowed his father to tie him up. And before the knife came down, God stopped him and said, "Abraham, Abraham, do not harm the lad." And He pointed to a ram, a male lamb, caught by his horns in a thicket, and the word there in Hebrew is a thorn bush, a male ram with a crown of thorns. Jesus wore a crown of thorns for you and me. Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. The whole sacrificial system all pointed to Christ. What can wash away in my sins, not the blood of lambs and goats and bulls, nothing but the blood of Jesus, amen. You know that. So Jesus is that Lamb that you see all through the Bible.
In the beginning, when Adam and Eve had sinned, they tried to cover their sin with what? Fig leaves. God said that will not work. First of all, it says they made aprons of leaf, an apron--it was like a mini skirt. So, it was the wrong material and not nearly enough material. People still do that today with not nearly enough material. And it said God gave them tunics, the word there is robes of skin. God did not suddenly speak vinyl naugahyde into existence. It was an imitation skin. God established a sacrificial system. A lamb needed to die to cover their nakedness, and Jesus needed to die to cover our nakedness, and Revelation tells us that He provides beautiful white robes of glory for us in heaven, amen. Prodigal son comes home, the Father covers his filth with his best robe, and Jesus died to provide those robes for you and me.
Question number two: why was it necessary for Jesus to suffer and die? The Bible tells us, Romans 3:23, "For," how many? "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Second part, it says, "For the wages of sin are," what? "Death." We've all sinned, the penalty is death, but we're still alive, why? Because God sent His Son into the world to--for a couple of reasons. One, to die in behalf of those who will accept His sacrifice and the new heart He offers, and, why are the wicked still alive? Jesus died to buy them time to make a decision, otherwise you drop dead the first time you sin.
Everybody's alive because of the grace of God, amen. But a lot of people are living under probation and it's going to end unless they turn to Christ and accept His sacrifice. The Bible says Christ died for our sins. We have all sinned. We are all guilty and sometimes we think the sins are just little things like, oh, I ate a cookie between dessert and dinner, and I wasn't supposed to. Sin is deadly. The Bible says the penalty for sin is death. It's contagious and it's deadly. 1 Peter 3:18, "For Christ also suffered once, the just for the unjust." He is just, He took our place. I used to sing a song, it was He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay. I needed someone to wash my sin away.
So, what is sin? The Bible tells us, what does Revelation call this plan to save people from death? This is from prophecy, Revelation chapter 14, verse 6. This is in what they call the first angel's message of Revelation 14, "Having the everlasting gospel," the word gospel means the everlasting good news. The gospel is very good news because of the bad news. The bad news is the world is dying. The whole creation groans and travails. We are dying, from the time you are born, you're about as perfect as you're going to be. But from that time, you are on a conveyor belt to the grave. It is a certain thing. You have a life to live. Someone said once, one life to live will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last.
Most important thing in life is to know God in His love and share God and His love. That's it. Two great commandments, love the Lord with all your heart, love your neighbor. We've got to learn how to love, and that's the purpose of the plan of salvation. The good news is we're dying, but Jesus said, I don't want you to die, I will die for you. I will take all of your sins and die in your place, if we believe. It's the plan of salvation called the gospel, the good news. Sometimes it's so good people have trouble believing it. They say, "How can I believe that? I've got to earn it somehow."
I remember hearing one time about this man, he worked in a mine and a preacher was doing an evangelistic meeting, and the evangelist was telling these miners every night, come to Jesus, He'll forgive your sins. And the miner met the evangelist afterward and he said, "I don't understand how--that doesn't seem like it's fair. I mean, I've got to do something to earn it. How can He just give it to me, I've sinned." And the evangelist said, "You go to work every day, right, at the mine?" "Yeah." Says, "You take an elevator way down, don't you?" Said, "I do." He said, "Do you have to pay for that elevator?" He said, "No." He said, "Did someone have to pay for that elevator to bring you back up?" "Yes, very expensive." He said, "God has paid for the elevator to get you back up. You've gone down, but He'll bring you back up."
According to the Bible, what is sin? Jesus came to save us from sin, what is sin? You got several definitions. The simplest is found in 1 John 3, verse 4, "Sin is lawlessness." If you've got the King James Version, it says, "Sin is the transgression of the law." When you break the law of God, it's a sin. Now the Ten Commandments, they talk about things like don't lie, don't rob, don't kill, don't steal. When you disobey His law, it's sin. And the penalty for sin is death, because it destroys, it's a cancer that destroys all happiness. It is completely contrary to the nature of God and His universe, "For by the law," Romans 3:20, "Is the knowledge of sin." The law isn't there to save us from sin, the law shows us our sin.
Question number five: can God's moral law be changed or repealed? Now when we talk about the moral law, we are talking about the Ten Commandments. There are many laws in the Bible. You've got the civil laws that Moses gave. Many governments of the world also still follow the civil law. In fact, if you go to the Supreme Court building, right there at the very pinnacle on the outside, you're going to see Moses, it's sitting and he's got the Ten Commandments straddled on his lap, because it is the most concise, complete coalescing of God's law that you're going to find anywhere.
So, answer--Luke 16, verse 17, Jesus said, "It is easier for a heaven and earth to," what? "Pass away than for one tittle," the word tittle is--it means a crossing of a T, for-- "To fail from the law." Heaven and earth must pass away first. You know, in Revelation, it talks about the ark of God in heaven. God's got a copy up there. You have to get rid of heaven to get rid of God's law. Again, Psalm 89, verse 34, "My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that is proceeded from My lips."
When God gave the Ten Commandments, He spoke it with His own mouth, He wrote it with His own finger in the presence of an entire nation. Never before or since has He done anything like that, where people heard the voice of God speak. And what did He--He spoke the Ten Commandments, so it must be important. Again, Psalm 111, verse 7 and 8, "All of his precepts are sure. They stand fast for," how long? "Forever and ever." Malachi chapter 3, verse 6, the Lord says, "For I am the Lord, I change not. I do not change." God is eternal. He wrote His law down.
Now the reason this subject is important is you'd be surprised, there are even pastors now that are saying, well, Jesus came to do away with the law. How many of you have heard that? That's what you call a doctrine of devils. You know why the devil hates the law? Because the law shows us our sin. Transgression of the law is sin. If people don't think there's a law, they don't think they've got sin, if they don't think they have sin, who needs Jesus? So, the devil wants to get rid of the need for the Savior, so he's even got preachers saying we're not under the law.
Now the Bible talks about not being under the law, but it doesn't mean you're not under obligation to obey, it means because of Christ we are not under the penalty of the law, but you're not free to disobey His commandments, Paul says, "What shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid." We don't continue to sin--because we say, "I'm under grace now, I can just sin." Jesus did not die to give us a license for sin. Because if He could do that, He didn't need to die, it's because there was no other way, He had to die.
I'll tell you another reason God's law cannot change. God says, "I do not change." The law is an expression of God's character. For example, I've got the slide up on the screen I want you to look at. The Bible describes characteristics of God. You'll notice on the left side here it says God is good. Then it also says in another verse, Romans 7:12, the law is good. The Bible says God is holy. You can read that Isaiah 5:16. It says, the law is holy. The Bible says that God is perfect, Matthew 5:48. The law is perfect, Psalm 19, verse 7. 1 John 4: 8, God is love. The law is love. We're not done. Get your credit card out, there's more. We'll double your order. It says, God is righteous, I'm not even going to read all these. You can take your phone out and snap it, it's also in your lesson. God is righteous, the law is righteous; God is truth, the law is truth; God is pure, the law is pure; God is spiritual, the law is spiritual; God is unchangeable, the law is unchangeable; God is eternal, the law is eternal. So how can any Christian or Jew say that the law was changed, you've got to get rid of God. See, the law doesn't need changing. The purpose for the plan of salvation is to change us, we need changing. We're the ones who fell. The law is there to show us our need of Christ.
Question number six, ultimately Christ is our example, amen. Did Jesus keep the Ten Commandments? Answer, yes, he did. The Bible says, "For I have kept My Father's commandments." "But wait, Pastor Doug, doesn't the Bible say that Jesus was a winebibber?" No, it says his enemies accused Him of being a winebibber. "Well, doesn't it say that He was a glutton?" No, it says his enemies accused Him of being a glutton. The scribes and the Pharisees, they accused Him of being a Samaritan, He was not a Samaritan. They said He was Beelzebub; He was not. They said He was a deceiver; He was not. Some people say, "Well, Jesus, you know, He didn't keep the law." Of course He kept the law, that's why He could die in our behalf. He was a perfect Savior. It says, who committed no sin. Jesus committed no sin, He lived a holy life, so He could be our example.
See, Jesus came for three reasons. He said, I've come to show you the Father. People don't know who God is, they misunderstand. They think God is a great big sadistic policeman in the sky wanting to beat us up every time we do something wrong. And Jesus said, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father, Jesus was patient, and loving, and compassionate, and good. He came to show us the Father. He came to show us how to live. He lived 33 and a half years as a human, face-tempted in every way as we are tempted, yet without sin. And He said, the Bible says He's given us an example that we should walk as He walked.
A Christian is a follower of Christ, amen. And then He came as our substitute, our sacrifice. After He showed us the Father and after He gives us an example, He says, now you're not going to make it without Me. You've sinned, your penalty is death, but I don't want to lose you. I love you so much I will die for you. I will take what you deserve, and I will give you what I deserve. I will take your badness, I will give you My goodness. I will take your sin, I'll give you My righteousness. He trades places with us, if we believe it and accept it. Without faith, it's impossible to please God, you must believe it. It's like, He gives you a check, if you don't cash it, it does you no good. You got to take it to the bank, friends, can you say amen? Believe it. He committed no sin, I read this to you. 1 Peter 2, verse 22, "Nor was deceit found in His mouth." He lived a holy life.
Are New Testament Christians required, then, to keep the Ten Commandments? Oh, I thought--but we're not under the law, now we're under grace, it's okay to disobey. What does the Bible say, from cover to cover. Matthew 19, verse 17, "If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments," those are Jesus's words. John 14:15, Christ again is speaking, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." "Oh wait, but Pastor Doug, you're thinking, you got the Ten Commandments, then you've got the commandments of Jesus." Don't fall for that, friends, they're the same thing.
Let me give you a scripture. The Bible says all things that were made were made by Him. Gospel of John, right? How many things? Who wrote the Ten Commandments? All things that were made were made by Him, do you think Jesus has said, well, Father, You got Your commandments, but I got mine. He said, I and My Father are one. So, when He says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments," it's certainly the Ten. And He says, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those that keep the commandments of God," and the faith of Jesus, right? That's Revelation 14, verse 12, and you can even go to the last chapter in the Bible, Revelation chapter 22, and it says blessed--last chapter in the Bible, blessed are those that do His commandments that they might have a right to enter through the gates of the city and to eat from the tree of life.
Now, has anything happened since, the last few moments--is a little distracting. What is the problem? There's something wrong with my appearance? You think so? You know, before I came out here, I'm really careful--you can ask Karen, I'm very fastidious, I brush my teeth, I gargle, I deodorize, and I check my gig line, used to go to military school, New York military. So--but you think there's something wrong? Are you aware that I don't see anything wrong? How am I going to see if there's anything wrong? Your testimony, or maybe I need to see for myself. Where am I going to find a mirror? Oh, look here, how convenient. All right. So, I feel pretty good right now, we've been having a good time studying together. Oh my, that's not right, I felt great until I looked in the mirror.
Doug: Friends, I hope you've been blessed by today's message, but really the reason we do this is so that people might know Christ. You know, information is not going to save us, it's a relationship with Jesus, the one who died on the cross for your sins. You must personally accept Him. And that's the most important thing, and why we do these programs. If you've not asked Him into your heart before, then I'd encourage you to do it right now. His arms are open wide, just come to Him as you are, and ask Him.
Doug: Hi friends, I trust you're being blessed by what you're watching. If you want to be doubly blessed, then you're going to want to get the Prophecy Odyssey study guides that go along with these presentations. There's 15 study guides, they're beautifully illustrated, and they will greatly enhance your Bible comprehension. So, if you'd like to get them, simply follow the instructions that you see on the screen, you will be glad you did.
Doug: Can anybody really keep the law of God? To learn the answer to this vital Bible question and discover why it matters in your walk with Jesus, then make sure to request your free copy of "The High Cost of the Cross." To get your copy, simply follow the instructions on the screen, and we'll send it to you absolutely free.
Doug: What you've seen just now is only part one in this presentation. Make sure and join us for part two in our next broadcast for some of the most important points on this topic, and to complete the corresponding study guides. Until then, God bless.
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