Unfathomable Riches of Christ - Gods Image and the Unfathomable Riches of...

We have spent three weeks building a foundation for what the Bible teaches on the image and likeness of God and how human beings were made in the image and likeness of God. This is, as we present here, Genesis 1.26 and 27. I'll go ahead and read it.

So here's when God created, there on the sixth day, and God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. So, one of the things, just summarizing the last three Sundays, we've seen that God created mankind in his image and likeness. These are aspects of God himself. that are reflected in how human beings have been created.

For instance, it is a personal likeness as opposed to a lot of the other religions out there. It is a personal likeness as opposed to, say, Hinduism or the branches of Buddhism that believe in a god. because not all do, that look upon God as being impersonal, ultimately impersonal. So it's a personal likeness, it's a relationship likeness. Another aspect that we talked about, and we're not going to be exhaustive here, is a creative likeness.

And one of the points that Jim pointed out It's important to recognize the angels were created as spiritual beings, like ourselves, but there's no evidence from scripture that the angels were created in the image and likeness of God. So, very different.

Plus, when Adam sinned, he is our head, so to speak, was our representative, and all mankind fell and the earth was cursed. So there were consequences from it, and for subsequently born human beings, born in a like spiritual state. The angels, however, were the angels born. The evidence is that they were all created at once, that there was a time window where God gave them the opportunity.

Look, you choose for or against. The evidence from Revelation chapter 12 is that about a third of them decided against the Lord. But the angels are very different creatures. There is no plan of salvation for them from anything that we can tell. They fell and decided to fall out of favor with the Lord all at once, and there is no opportunity to be restored, but they were not made in the image of God.

Human beings were. We pointed out the last couple of weeks, what's in the diagram there is that Human beings are made with five physical senses in the classical recognition of those, and then five spiritual senses that correspond to that, reflecting God himself, being said in anthropomorphic terms, God sees, God hears, et cetera. So what that brings us to here is then let's look at how it impacts our unfathomable riches. Our unfathomable riches are only possible the way they were done because we were made in the image and likeness of God and that is not erased at the fall, but rather That set things up for us to be saved and for us to be blessed. So this Sunday we want to look at how is our salvation possible because we have been made in the image of God even though that image is marred and corrupted.

And we brought this up before. Christ is a sacrifice in our behalf. And Christ is often pictured as, for example, in John chapter 1. Twice he's called the Lamb. He is in 1 Corinthians 5.7 called our Passover. He is from Revelation early on till late in the book of Revelation called the Lamb, repeatedly. Even after he's resurrected and heavenly, he's called the lamb. In the new heavens and new earth, he's called the lamb.

Could a lamb have done it? If a lamb could have done the job, why not God just there on crucifixion day sacrifice a lamb? The Romans go and nail a lamb up to the cross and get her done. What's wrong with that? Not a man. Yeah, it's not a man. So all that the Lamb could do is picture the sufficient and adequate sacrifice of Christ, who is uniquely qualified to be our representative on the cross. And we'll see representative at just the start.

In Isaiah 52, 13 to 53, 12, which is just a phenomenal passage, we're going to look at specifically, and it's quoted in the bottom of page 1. Isaiah 53, 4, and 5, Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for whose transgressions? Our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

So that substitutionary payment was only possible even though He is pictured as a lamb in multiple places in scripture. He is pictured as a lamb and as a sacrifice on our behalf. He was truly the only and uniquely qualified sacrifice on our behalf. Nobody and nothing else can do it. So let me just ask a question here.

Michael the Archangel is mentioned in scripture. Only two angels actually are named. Two angels following the Lord are named in scripture. One is Michael and the other is Gabriel. Gabriel is the one who appeared to Mary. So only those two are named. Why cannot Michael be sacrificed on our behalf? Why isn't it sufficient for Michael to be sacrificed for you and for me? Wait a minute, is he righteous? Had Michael sinned? No. So what's the problem?

What you said earlier, he's not made in likeness and image of God. So people will say rather succinctly or simply, he's not a man. But the full biblical, full orbed, full spectrum biblical picture is made in the image and likeness of God. That's a key. So when you say he's not a man, saying he's not a man is a summary, right? But the full picture is the image and likeness of God.

Yes? So did the believers continue to sacrifice lamb after Christ was crucified? Okay, so let's ask that question. We say the believers, which believers? Well, the believers in Christ. Yeah, and matter of fact, that's exactly what we're looking at in Acts. The Apostle Paul went in to have four other brothers from Jerusalem there kind of complete their vows and whatnot by carrying out sacrifices. And he funded that, because that cost money, as a means of stating, hey, I'm not giving up on Judaism and telling everybody to disobey the law. So you'll find that they did. When did that stop? AD 70 was the final, final end.

We'll be looking at pictures of Antonia Fortress, at least a model of it. The Jews rebelled in 66 AD and part of that rebellion was they overpowered the soldiers at Fortress Antonia. slaughtered them all. Every single Roman soldier at Fortress Antonia, and there are hundreds present, was slaughtered. The Romans retaliated by slaughtering all the Jews over in Caesarea.

But that was the beginning of the end for the sacrificial system. Sacrifices continued, but it was The beginning of the end, the Fortress Antonia itself ended up being overwhelmed and destroyed in the process, and the Romans themselves did it, in the process of getting on to the Temple Mount and taking out the Jews that were protecting the Temple.

So the sacrifices were continued in general, though, however, by the Jews. The Christians, Jewish or otherwise, who were in Jerusalem were allowed to escape Jerusalem and not be a part of the slaughter. They were allowed to go to Pella, which is north, not quite to Galilee, and on the east side of the Jordan River. That's where the Christians went, so as to escape the slaughter.

Isaiah 53-7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter, like a sheep that is silent before its years, so he did not open his mouth. I've seen that personally. We filled the barn full of sheep. who were all making horrific noise, climbing on top of each other several layers deep in places, and making a horrific noise and ruckus, bleating at the top of their lungs, so to speak. But when we would pull one out, to do, you know, cropping the tails and spraying, you know, checking them for disease and putting marks on the ears and shearing them, all the different things. But pull one out, absolute silence. There it is. That's what Christ did for you and me. Yes? When it says smitten and afflicted, are they referring only to the period right before the cross?

Or was Isaiah also talking about him as a man because he was always being, you know, people thought he was crazy, they thought he was weird, you know, the Pharisees treated him bad. Yeah, so that's a very good question. I think it specifically in this instance refers to the crucifixion and things directly surrounding that. There are other passages that talk about him being rejected as a prophet and those kinds of things and people not thinking much of him. So there are other passages that specifically and directly address the question you have, which is a good question. Is the cross in this particular passage? I'm not that familiar with it. Yes.

Does it mention the cross? It does not mention the cross here. It does in Psalm 22. And it describes in Psalm 22, a death by crucifixion, a thousand years before it actually took place. Here, the cross is not what's pictured, but it talks about him being, you know, he bore our griefs, and he was smitten and afflicted, and words like that.

What you see at the top of page 2, John 1, 29 and 36, then the next day he, and who's he? This is John the Baptist. John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now that word for takes away, let's talk about that. He did not make the sin of the world just go away.

It's a specific word that is used also in John 15 about the branches. And so this is the first half of what Christ did, the second half of bearing our sins upon himself. That's in Isaiah 53 and also in the book of Hebrews. So here's the picture. He lifts up the sins of the whole world from all of us. And then the other half of that is to place them upon himself, to take them upon himself. That's what Isaiah 53 talks about. That's what Hebrews talks about. He takes the sin upon himself. That's the second half of what is necessary.

So this in John chapter 1 is lifting those sins off of us in order to take them upon himself, which is stated elsewhere. So behold the Lamb of God who takes off of us the sins of the world in order to take them and bear them upon himself. See that? So between these passages here in John chapter 1 and the other passages, Isaiah 53 and Hebrews, where it talks about He bore our sins, we have the full picture. So let's ask this question. Did Saddam Hussein, were his sins born by Christ on the cross? Yes. How about Adolf Hitler's? How about Verne Peterman's? So he took away the sins of the whole world that include Adam. How about Cain? Cain? Even Cain? Even Judas. Judas sinned.

This is really amazing. Jesus washed the disciples' feet. Later that evening, and not too much later, Judas departed and went out to betray Christ. Do you know that Jesus expressed love to Judas, washing his feet, but the disciples couldn't tell who the betrayer was. Isn't that amazing? He would express and lovingly wash the feet of Judas, and then go on hours later to bear Judas' sins, even the sins of betrayal, upon himself. Isn't it in that passage that he said Peter didn't want him to do that, but didn't Jesus say, but the rest of you is clean? He's only washing his feet, but the rest of him is clean. Right, but he even mentions the betrayer in that passage too.

So, yeah, John 13 is the passage we looked, just a couple Sundays back, we looked at in the main service, John 13, where Jesus says, my disciples love one another, right? And then John 15 is where he says, my disciples abide in me and I am in them, and therefore bear much fruit, which is what the Father is looking for. So, yeah.

I just thought of something. Michael, or a man, is not a sufficient sacrifice for us. Yeah, and why not? If Jesus had not become a man, he would not have been a sufficient sacrifice. Yeah, so think about several what-ifs. What if we just said, hey, Michael the Archangel is going to do this. Is that going to do it? He's going to die on the cross, and we'll just have him there. We can't identify with him.

Yeah, and that's going to be our next subject, is identification, right? But as a substitute, Michael doesn't cut it, even though he is a sinless spiritual being and an angel, that doesn't cut it. By the way, when we die, do we become angels? No. Even those who are redeemed, do not become angels. We are instead to be like Christ, made like him.

So we have here, behold the Lamb of God who lifts up the sins of the world, the sins of only those who are elect. No, it doesn't say that. The sins of the world, and he looked at Jesus, and this is verse 36, John the Baptist, as he walked and said, behold the Lamb of God, and at least at that point it doesn't have the next part repeated. He may have said it, but it's not written.

So the Old Testament on into the New Testament points to animal sacrifices as a picture of sacrifice on our behalf. There remained a problem. Animal sacrifices did not get it done. So Hebrews 10 1 through 4. So for the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near." Were the Jews supposed to do the sacrifices? Did they keep doing them every year?

Yep. Keep doing these things, just keep going and going and going and going and doing and doing. It didn't get it done. Yes. To me it's kind of like flying an airplane. You can do it manually or you can do it in autopilot. And so when Christ died for the sins, you're automatically forgiven because you believe.

Whereas in the Old Testament, you had to mechanically go out there and do the sacrifice over and over. And over and over and over again. So what you had to do was to relive the picture. every year, continuously, and the reason he had to keep doing it was all it did was continually picture. And you had to do it. Yeah, and you had to do it, whereas this sacrifice, God did it. God pulled it off. Yes.

So is this where, is this why John uses the word growing lamb here, because it's a sacrifice, whereas you talked about in the Revelation study that John uses a different word for lamb. Let's quickly refer to that. Only John calls Christ the lamb. These two verses in the Gospel of John and then repeatedly in the book of Revelation all the way to the end. There is a slight distinction between the two and this is a lamb up to a year old in John chapter 1.

Which they use for sacrifice. Which they use for sacrifices. They could also use however a younger lamb and that's the one used in Revelation consistently a tiny lamb, weeks old at the most. Isn't that something? So in Revelation you have this dramatic, sharp contrast. Here is the tiny, tiny little lamb, just barely on its feet. If you've ever seen pictures of them or seen them personally, big gangly legs and all that, That's how Christ is pictured, this tiny, tiny little lamb that can barely hold its footing, who is also the Lion of Judah. I think one reason is simply to talk about, here is Christ with no ability to resist.

He had the capacity, but in terms of his desire and what he sought to do, he did not resist at all. He was this tiny, helpless, little tiny lamb. He was predestined. Predestined and voluntarily. It says early in Genesis that he is constantly loving us. But that one, and he is also the Lion of Judah. Yes.

But isn't it also a picture of a new life? I know that Christ was eternal, but he actually died. He came back to a new life, or a different life. So the tiny lamb would indicate a new life. Well, there is that, plus I think we have one other. First of all, that would be allowed as a sacrifice. And also the younger lambs were less likely to have been injured or marked in some way from that first year of life because they're only weeks old.

But another point of contrast here is the tiny, tiny little lamb who is the Lion of Judah and has a five foot long barbarian battle sword coming out of his mouth. What a shocking contrast. He's got a tiny little lamb looking as if slain with a barbarian battle sword coming out of his mouth. And he's also the Lion of Judah.

What a sharply contrasting picture we have. going on in Hebrews 10 there, otherwise they would not have ceased to be offered because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

It's really difficult, it's hard, It happens once in a while, occasionally. It is impossible. It cannot happen. It is impossible, no matter how much you follow the law, no matter how carefully you are carrying it out, it just can't happen. But, Christ's one death is sufficient and never again needed.

Yes? I used to always see that word here, consciousness as guilt. In other words, you would feel the guilt of sin, but that's not the case here. Consciousness, it's a reminder, correct? It's like the Old Testament has so many reminders. Yeah, it's an awareness, right? By the way, you as a believer, and some churches will really get into this, should we be preoccupied with our sins? No. No! And a lot of churches, boy, they have all kinds of things that, boy, you better keep thinking about those sins, you know? And I remember going over to a lot of the cathedrals over in Germany and seeing these cathedrals in which they invested lifetimes of effort and immense amount of resources into these things.

Here's Jesus still on the cross. And all these saints suffering. They show saints with heads cut off. arrows and all sorts of horrible things, the Bible does not sit there and say, look, you guys have sinned all over the place. That's not where the Bible goes.

Are you to behold your sins? No, you're to behold Christ. Walk in the Spirit and you will have constantly your sins before you, right? No, that's not it, right? So these sacrifices are a reminder of sins, but the sacrifice of Christ is not a reminder of our sin. That's why we call it Really Good Friday, right? Because it's not a constant reminder of our sin.

It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, but it is only possible for those sins to be taken away by Christ, the one uniquely qualified by being perfect and righteous, fully God, and being also made in the image of God, like us, fully me. Christ was uniquely qualified to be a sacrifice on our behalf. It is generally well understood among Christians that Christ was uniquely qualified to be a sacrifice on our behalf in our place, but what is often not well understood is that Christ's unique qualification to be a sacrifice on our behalf in our place is founded directly and firmly upon our having been made in Adam in the image and likeness of God, Christ was uniquely qualified to be the sacrifice on our behalf, specifically because only he could fulfill the exacting requirements of the sacrifice on our behalf. Nobody else could do it.

We mentioned Michael the Archangel can't do it. By the way, there are two cults that teach that Jesus is Michael the Archangel, Seventh-day Adventism and Jehovah's Witnesses. What? Seventh Adventism and Jehovah's Witnesses. Jesus is Michael the archangel. And here's the problem. It had to be made in the image of God. Was Michael made in the image of God? No. Do people become angels and angels become people? No. Angels can appear as, from all we know, a man. Sorry, touched by an angel. A man. But only a man can be a man. Yeah?

One of the things that this verse in Hebrews is showing is that the blood of the bulls is not adequate, and there's only the pouring out of his life, with the evidence being the blood, that is adequate, will be perfect, absolutely perfect. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Absolutely necessary. It's just not going to happen. But not just the shedding of blood, the shedding of the perfect blood. So again, he was uniquely qualified.

Michael the archangel can't do it? Boy, hey, let's ask another question. Suppose we said, okay, Mary, Joseph, go to Bethlehem and have Jesus be born and right there that night before Herod can mess it up, do anything, we want you to sacrifice Jesus on a cross that night. Is that going to work? What's wrong with that plant? And they would beat Herod to the punch, right? They wouldn't have to run down to Egypt.

I mean, just get it all done and take all the risk out of everything. I mean, imagine all the hazards. What if it didn't work out that Christ got crucified like he was supposed to? So you could just shortcut the whole thing, make it all happen, and Christ would be crucified that night that he was born. Why not do that? What's the problem with that plan? Lots of problems. Lots of problems with the plan. I'm glad you noticed that, and can you give us some of them?

Well, he had to live as a man, not as a baby. He had to live as a man, and why is that? I think you're correct, but I'm looking for why is that the case? Lots of things he did was for our benefit. To be able to relate to him as a man. He went through things that he went through that he had to... rejected and he had to live the life that we as humans live. He was a man. And the teaching that he did.

So he went out and established ministry as an adult, right? And he actually lived decades of life. And he established ministry and he selected Disciples? Those disciples would go on to do what? Continue teaching. They would continue on as apostles in the church? Is that going to happen if you kill the infant the day he's born? No. Not happening.

What else would he need to do? He was going to go to Israel and do what? Say, I make the best matzah in the world? What did he do going to Israel? But you had to give the nation a chance to believe in him as Messiah. Yes. So one, there is presenting himself. He says, look, I'm going to die in three days. So there's presenting himself as the sacrifice. But also, he had to present himself as the Messiah. You couldn't shortcut that process. He needed to be an adult. He needed to spend time with those disciples.

As a matter of fact, when it was time to replace Judas, who did they pick? They picked Matthias from among two, and both of the two that they had as possible options had spent time with him as disciples. So they weren't, until then, among the twelve, as Matthias was eventually, But still, they were with Christ, and that was a requirement for whoever was going to take Judas' place. Primarily, Adam lost the ability to rule and reign on the face of the earth, and it was given to Satan. So Christ comes down here, and he has to be in that same environment that we're in, where Satan is still in charge of the earth. Subjects who are the same set of temptations as we. Right? Right. And that couldn't happen if they say, well look, Jesus is born, get this kid crucified and let's get this over with. Right? He could have given instructions to Joseph. Nothing to relate to. Pardon? Nothing to relate to. Yeah, there's nothing to relate to. You say, well yeah, he came here and was here for a few hours and then they crucified him and that was all over. That would fail to fulfill a whole bunch of things.

Here is John, he writes at the end of John, he says, if all the things that Jesus ever did were written, and like we sing in the song, we would drain the oceans dry writing all the things that he did. That's not going to happen if he's a little infant, hours old, and you crucify him. He would have been made in the image of God, yes, He would have been the perfectly righteous one had he ever sinned? No. So he would have fulfilled very minimal things, but there's a whole bunch of other things that would never have happened. There were a great number of things, dozens of things that were prophesied in the Old Testament that were only fulfilled when he was crucified as an adult. Even the number of pieces of silver that he would be betrayed over, right? Yes.

But Satan wasn't forewarned. He didn't say that this was going to happen. The evil spirits knew who he was, but they didn't know what he was going to do. why he was here, so this was all kept from the ruler of the earth. Yeah, they're befuddled as to what this all means and how this is supposed to happen. What am I supposed to keep from happening, and what am I supposed to do, and how do I win this game, right?

And they haven't got the slightest idea. Because one thing is, if you look at Satan and all his demon followers, they are spiritually insane. They oppose God, but they are not equal to Him in any respect. So it isn't one God versus another, right? They think they are. Yes, and that's the spiritual insanity. And the insanity thinks, hey, if I do this, it might come out different. Well, guess what? It doesn't come out different. No. Sorry.

And when it's time to bind Satan, how many angels does it take? One. One angel, one chain, and one abyss, sealed up with the key. That's it. He's done for a thousand years. It doesn't even take, Revelation in several places has a strong angel. It doesn't even take one of those. So in his time, Satan will be bound, he'll be bound for a thousand years, and he'll be sealed in to the abyss, and he'll be locked. Bound with a chain, sealed, locked. One angel. We don't even know the angel's name. Gotta get it done.

We saw in scripture that when Christ was born, made in the image and likeness of God, While Adam was made in a moral image and likeness that was corrupted, and we with him, Christ was not morally corrupted. Made in the image and likeness of God, but not morally corrupted as Adam was, and we in Adam. That moral image in Christ was eternally righteous, and that moral image and likeness was uncorruptible. As the one who was fully God and fully man, born into the image and likeness of God as a man, Christ having an incorruptible moral likeness made him uniquely qualified as God's sacrifice on our behalf. Nobody and nothing else is going to get it done.

So Romans 5, 8-21 So, then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation of all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the disobedience of the one the many were made righteous. The law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here's Adam, made in the image and likeness of God, not righteous but innocent until he fell. We along with him. But Christ, as this lays out, is the one through whom many will be made righteous. That includes you and me. So grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord because He was the perfect God-man, fully God, fully man, made in the image and likeness of God, and that moral image and likeness which in us was corrupted. In him, was it corrupted?

Not at all. So Christ was the unique fulfillment of every exacting requirement for a sufficient sacrifice. He didn't fall short or fail to qualify on any single point. Because we, having been made in the image and likeness of God that was corrupted in the fall, needed a like-kind sacrifice in the image and likeness of God, who is not morally and spiritually corrupted, but righteous and holy. Fundamentally, eternally, and infinitely. Only Christ could have done it. Christ alone could fulfill that requirement, and he most certainly did. Yeah! Alright.

And He loved us and He gave Himself for us as only He could, and for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. So as we look at this, as we've been seeing for the last three Sundays, and now we're beginning to look at it, we see a fuller spectrum. What does it mean to be made in the image and likeness of God? And then that makes it all the more clear how Christ could be the one uniquely qualified sacrifice that, unlike all the lambs that were ever sacrificed, gets it done. Yes. This is sort of like a rabbit trail, but how did the Seventh-day Adventists, who really based their position on the scripture, you know, the law, how in the world did they get an angel to be Christ?

Yeah, well, you start looking at this, and this doesn't make good sense, right? No, it doesn't. We're not under law, we're under grace. Well, except we're under some laws, right? So they like to go and pick and choose, and then they actually like to tweak them. Because they don't have the same laws about the Sabbath as the Jews did and do. And the food laws. The Jews had certain food laws, and the Seventh-day Adventists liked to tweak those, too. But then there are other laws that they ignore. How many Seventh-day Adventists do you see, or Jews, who let their law and life follow every seven years? or crops or anything else.

They don't do that, right? So they pick and choose what they want to do. How is that going to work? Can you pick and choose which of the 613 you're going to follow? No. Book of Galatians, Paul writes, if you sign up for one circumcision, you've signed up for the whole thing, all 613. If, this is James, you break one, you break how many? All of them, all 613. Someone who decides I'm going to live by the Ten Commandments has decided I'm going to violate 603 laws. How's that going to work? If it takes one to break the whole thing, 603 ought to really do it. So yeah, it's hard to fathom and justify, you know, how am I going to do this?

The other thing is, you know, you can lose your salvation in Seventh-day Adventism, and if so lost, then you're annihilated. Well, that doesn't square up the scripture at all. If you are indeed saved, you're saved eternally. Scripture makes that abundantly clear. Yes?

Well, the cults have to adjust the law because they like the peace. Well, several characteristics of the cults. One is that they all lean legal, which makes it depend upon you. If you lean legal, you also diminish God. You diminish God. Why? Why does that diminish God?

I'm better than you think. I'm better than you think, God. And I can decide which laws I want to follow and which ones not. I'm so good. And so pretty soon you have this phenomenal arrogance against God. Here God lays out 613. You decide you can try to live by them whether or not they're given to you or not. By the way, if you're not a Jew, you're stealing them. Yes. That would be called a satanic error. Yeah, and think of it, what are the doctrines of demons in Paul's writing to Timothy? What are the doctrines of demons?

Forbidding two things. Marriage. Forbidding marriage. Two, you can only eat certain foods. That sounds to me like Seventh-day Adventism and Catholicism. Second Timothy? I'd have to look it up to be sure, but it might be first. But nonetheless, these are the doctrines of demons. We've got groups within Christendom who claim exactly those things. Yes?

To do that, you're saying God's law is not perfect, which it is. Yeah, so here's the law of the Lord is perfect. This is Psalms, right? The law of the Lord is perfect. He gave a complete and total law, but I need to tweak it. Because God somehow, even though you said it's perfect, I don't believe it, so I've got to fix your law. What incredible arrogance. And thank God for grace, and salvation by grace, because I'm not in some crazy lunacy of thinking I'm going to do the law better than God spelled it out. I'm going to fix the law so that it works for me, because God somehow messed up.

Yes? is, this isn't the right wording, but the representation of the glory of God and how perfect He is, then to violate even one is to violate the entirety of His glory and His righteousness, right? Imagine, we went through the Law and Grace series years ago, I had a picture, here is a large piece of tempered glass. I had a picture of a guy who took a hammer and struck one corner. Guess what happened to the whole piece of tempered glass? Shattered. The whole thing was shattered. Just from hitting one corner, boom, the whole thing just fell into tiny pieces. And that's the way the law is.

You can't just go and say, well, I'm going to snip this part off and snip that part off. I'm not going to worry about that. I'm just going to do X, Y, and Z, and that's the part I can handle and understand. I think I can keep that just so. Not going to work. Not going to work. Yes? You should be able to answer this in just a couple seconds.

Back to the chart. where it says the physical realm and the spiritual realm. Yes. Obviously the physical realm is the corruptible body. So when do you receive the incorruptible body right away and in the uncorruptible body do you have to have a brain and I mean it talks about the senses and stuff here and it says soul instead of brain. You must have some kind of control center in your neurological system, even in the uncorruptible body, right? And how long before the corruptible and the uncorruptible take place?

I mean, you have a soul sleep sometime, right? Okay, so, no, not a soul sleep. The Bible doesn't actually teach that. Okay, great. But, so, let's think about this. If you ask a good question, we may not have enough time to cover it all. But let's think about this. What is the moment of that time that we call the rapture? How long is that? Is that five minutes? The twinkling of an eye. The twinkling of an eye is one of the time perspectives given. So just flash.

So in the twinkling of an eye, you ever known a believer who's gone home? has died physically? Have you ever known a believer who has died physically? We've had memorial services for believers who have gone home here for years. Now, is that person going to miss the rapture? No. No believer from Acts 2, the day of Pentecost up to the day of the rapture is going to miss the rapture.

All those who have gone before, all the apostles, all the ones who became believers as a result of their ministry, all the ones over centuries of time, the people that you and I know who have already died and gone home, all those people in that twinkling of an eye will be brought into that moment.

And from our time perspective, so I'm going to explain it this way, from our time perspective, they're brought forward to that moment. So as soon as you die, regardless of when you die, because of the time, the next thing you know, you're going to see the Lord's face.

So you go out of this three-dimensional, or four, five, whatever it is, three-dimensional world, you immediately go out of that and go into the eternal state. Which would be, you would then catch the rapture, right? Yeah. So here's the Apostle Paul, and you can see, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

And they talk about the twinkling of an eye. I look at all the passages, and what makes perfect and good sense is that every believer from all time, from Acts 2 up to the rapture, is brought to the Lord in that instant of time, and brought forward to that place, or into that place, where the next thing they see, the next thing they see is the Lord Jesus Himself.

So this is where we kind of get wrestling with our time perspective, because we're stuck in a time tunnel, aren't we? And we've got one moment, and the next, and the moments are sequential. And I know sometimes you ever have time fly, and you ever have moments that seem like they last forever. And so in spite of all our subjective sense of that, we're really stuck in a very mechanical sense of time.

All that goes away when everyone is brought to that moment. of seeing the Lord at the rapture. So the believer who dies, they close their eyes in death here, and the next time their eyes open, they see the Lord. Isn't that great? Hallelujah. And even the person, let's say I'm in the middle of teaching the elective here and just about to pray and the Lord says, OK, that's it. It's fine with me. So the Lord says, that's it.

So what's the next thing I'm going to see? I am not going to be looking down and see my pants all neatly folded and my socks laid out. Not happening, right? And you can say, oh, Vern, you need to cover your eyes, right? Not going to happen. So this will be in a twinkling of an eye. We'll be here, and we'll be there. And what's the neatest thing about doing a graveside service, I'd say this is as respectful as it ought to be. This is honoring of the person that we once knew.

But you've got to remember, this is temporary. This is just temporary. Because this person does not stay up here. This person is not staying here. We're handling the physical remains, but they're not stuck here. This is temporary. And if the rapture happens today, it's real temporary. I see people starting to look in the window and all that. So we're going to pray.

This is wonderful stuff. We'll be looking at the image of God for a couple more weeks here in order to get the full picture. Thank you Lord for your word. Thank you for these immense and wonderful, unfathomable truths. And we just thank you Heavenly Father for the privilege that we have to run into the heavenly royal room and to run into your presence and jump on your lap and call you Papa. We thank you for the amazing and unfathomable set of riches that we have in you. We just pray Lord in Jesus' name, Amen.