Here we are, off and running, January 17, 2016, lecture discussion number 226 on the Book of Romans. And just for Amy's sake, you're now going all the way to Australia, Amy. But there were 225 lectures prior to this one. How many of them has she told you about? None. That's exactly right. So you'll be fine. Someone, for you people on the internet, we have a visitor today. We're all excited. I've yet to process saying 2016. I can't help but notice that. And no one can help but notice the growing darkness in the world, the increase in chaos, which, as you know, chaos, of course, is a physics-based system or a physics-based description. That's the second law of thermodynamics. It's entropy. This order always expands. Entropy always increases. That's a physical or a physics fact. And some disagree, of course. They cite the open system that's the earth. If you're not familiar with the thermodynamics of the science of thermodynamics, there are closed systems and open systems. An open system is one that gets energy from the outside of it. So I should be more specific. More precise, I guess, more so precise. Total entropy, total disorder in the universe will always increase, irrespective of an open system. It will never decrease. So chaos, disorder, always increases in the totality of the universe, absent a supernatural act from the creator of the universe. So there's the specific or the precise language that is required whenever you're discussing entropy. which is, if you do not know entropy, is an increase in disorder. And that's why I bring entropy into the world that we're looking at. We are seeing an increase in chaos in this world. It's unmistakable. We're careening. I don't think anyone will reasonably deny that. And by the way, the fact that entropy or disorder or chaos will increase both on a micro, level and a macro level, both on a subatomic level and on a physical reality level. The fact that chaos or entropy increases is a foundational truth of scripture, as well as a foundational truth of quantum mechanics or quantum physics. God, who is Jesus Christ in the flesh, intends to end the chaos that dominates his creation. So that is one of the promises that he has given us in Scripture. Christ will terminate the groanings, Romans 8.22. Romans 8.22, to read it for you, for we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now, or up to now, to make that easier to understand. That is a fundamental. The creation, all of creation is careening, or it is moving towards chaos or disorder, and it groans. And Christ says that I will stop it. Entropy, chaos, disorder, and it's always increasing. And Christ said I will stop the increase and I will end it. Entropy, as most of you know, is ultimately the measurement of hidden information. I'm not able to necessarily tell, especially at the microscopic level, subatomic level, that things are increasing in disorder. All of the matter, all of the energy, whether seen or unseen, is moving towards a disorder and will continue to do so until the creator ends the cause of entropy. or the runaway disorder. And as you know, that's Genesis 3, that's the sin issue. The Creator will end the sin that makes the entire creation groan. And that's the great promise of Scripture, in that Christ is going to reverse the second law of thermodynamics. Now, I don't know, having spent a lot of time more time than perhaps is reasonable dealing with the concepts of the second law of thermodynamics. I don't know that he will completely stop thermodynamics, but I think that he will restore it to where it originally was. Thermodynamics has been subject to sin as well as human beings and the entire universe and all the living souls that are here. So he is going to reorder, if you will, the disorder. And that, by the way, is said all over the Bible. He says it about himself all over the New Testament. He is the resurrection. He tells you that. I am the resurrection. I am the life. Do you believe this? The resurrection process, by definition, is in direct opposition to the second law of thermodynamics. If I resurrect somebody, I have to overcome entropy. But you all know that already. I'm repeating it for the vast Internet audience. Vast being a relative term. How many do we have now, Dave, on the vast internet audience? OK. So not very big, but for us, very large. So about 2,000 of you out there every month. And I know you love every lecture on quantum physics. That's not what's happening here today, Amy. Don't worry. I just have obligations. The foundational aspect of quantum mechanics is information is never lost. Absolutely the foundation. Information is never lost. Most of you have heard of Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking did not accept information was never lost. He believed that black holes, anything that went into a black hole, he proposed, would be destroyed and would not come back out. Quantum physics said, no, information is never lost. You cannot lose it. And by the way, that Mr. Hawking's position, he was forced to concede that black holes, by the way, do not and cannot destroy information. I might explain that sometime when we have no more visitors. But all of it assumes the existence of black holes. And so far, all we have is artistic renditions of black holes and some interpretive conclusions. So black hole theory is primarily, as you know, about gravitational phenomena. And being that being the case, I am skeptical of it. I love gravitational phenomena. But never mind about all of that. I'm digressing. I hope you understand that if information is never lost, and I believe that that is so, then it is also so that we, me, you, are never lost. Does that make sense? Physics community has proven definitively that information cannot be destroyed and can always be recovered. Christ says that he is the Resurrector. He is the one that recovers the information and restores it into what he intended for it originally. We are the sum of our information. Everything that makes me me cannot be lost. and is declared so by physicists and, of course, literal biblical theologians. Now, when I say literalist, I mean those who take the Bible literally. The physicists and the literalists are in agreement. Information can never be lost. The Bible constantly insists that. God calls us living souls. Living souls are immortal. Our existence cannot be lost. We cannot cease to exist because he defines us as living souls. And every physicist that lives today agrees that that is true. We cannot be destroyed in the sense we cannot be annihilated. The verse says, fear him who can send a soul into destruction. He means encapsulate, if you will, placed into a position, but he does not mean annihilated. Information cannot be annihilated. What's at stake is not our annihilation, but our destination. Does that make sense? So, our destiny is at risk, not our immortality. So, we will have immortal reconciled to God, and we will have immortal in the lake of fire. Both are immortal in the sense information cannot be lost. So, again, the destination is at risk. And if our information is eternal, then we have a conclusion that cannot be escaped. If our information is eternal, then omniscience is a fact. And that's where everybody looks at me and goes, OK, how did you conclude that? Some of you will say, how did the one-eyed fat man conclude that? As an aside, by the way, as you know, I went to the optometrist, and what did the optometrist say about me? He said, yes, I have an advancing cataract in my left eye. So it's been determined that my left eye is subject to cataract degradation. So that means what? I really am a one-eyed fat man. Yes, I finally made it. I absolutely am. I've been calling myself that for thirty years and today is the day. Never mind about that. Jesus Christ constantly demonstrates and affirms that he has omniscience and that would make absolute sense because he also says that he is the only one that can resurrect. And resurrection requires the assimilation of vast amounts of information and that kind of informational Access requires omniscience and he says all the time, I know all things and that's how you can depend on my promise to resurrect you to life. He could not resurrect us to life unless he knows all things. It requires omniscience. I've only begun to scratch the surface of that. It is his intention, his desire that we know that he knows all things. If you don't know that he knows all things, if you don't know that he is actually, really, truthfully revealed as omniscient God himself in the flesh, if you don't have that foundation, then you are not eligible to be a disciple. He says that in Luke 14.28. That's the building of the tower. Without the essential truth of Christ being omniscient God, our discipleship tower will be in ruins. see John 21. Peter cannot get that question right. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? He doesn't get it right until the third time. He answers it wrong the first two times. The third time he says, Christ, you know all things. And then Christ says, follow me, be a disciple. If you don't understand that I am omniscient God and therefore I am the Resurrector, I am the Rememberer, I am the one that can do all of these things, that has the ability and the power because I am the Creator himself. See John 1. See John 19.28. You must know that in order for discipleship. Luke 14 and 15. The physics community agrees. The physics community has established all of these things. The impact of observation on the physical reality is called the observer effect. The philosophers have likewise established the necessity of perception or observation for reality to exist. Reality cannot exist. There can be no physical information unless there is an absolute perception. There must be an absolute observer. Existence demands observation. Someone must watch it, perceive it, observe it. And therefore, existence demands omniscience, the knowing of all things in the physical reality. And only Jesus Christ, only God himself, only of them, only of the triune Godhead is it said that he is the absolute knower, the absolute observer, the absolute rememberer of all things, that he is the one who speaks. He is the Word. He speaks all things into existence. The Word is Christ. He is the loud voice. Anyway, consider. What is required to reverse entropy? What does he have to do to reverse this degradation, this trending towards chaos and disorder? What's required? I should note Revelation 22.5 really fast here. The energy source for the open system right now is the sun. The sun is providing energy, the physicists will say, and that makes the earth and our solar system an open system because the sun is putting energy in. That's truncating or mitigating disorder or entropy. Revelation 22.5 says that the energy source for this system will no longer be the sun. He's going to end the sun as an energy source. By the way, the energy source isn't really the sun. God has to be involved in the sun's system in the sense God has to be involved even at the microscopic level in the sun itself, the nuclear process that's the sun in order for the sun to even exist. He has to perceive it. But the fact that the sun is being removed as the energy source for the earth is a profound truth. It's amazing. The Bible says in Revelation 25 that there will no longer be a light source in the atmospheric areas, in the galaxy, if you will, or the earth will no longer orbit, probably. He'll remove the sun, and yet there will still be light. Wilder Penfeld, the great neurosurgeon, asked a question in his book, The Mystery of the Mind. When death happens, what is the energy source for the mind? Because the mind utilizes the body's energy source in order to control the body and the brain. And he wondered, when the body dies, what provides the energy for the mind? Revelation 22.5 solves that for you. It is the only book you'll ever find that says that. Wilder Penfeld understood that, by the way. He recognized that the mind was not a physical entity. It was a mental entity. It was non-physical, and yet it had total, complete control over the body, which was purely physical. How could a mental entity and a physical entity cohabit or be interdependent? Why would a physical process, physical death, interrupt the existence of a mental property or a living soul? Especially if there was another energy source. God says that he is that energy source. Christ is that energy source. Revelation 22.5 answers Penfield's issues or his questions. The sun is removed. that which testifies of Christ. By the way, the sun is called the great light. I have the great light and the lesser light in Genesis 1.16. It's called the great light. It testifies of Christ. Christ is the greatest light. He will remove that which is a type of him that is a symbol of him and prove to us that he is the energy source for all things that exist. He is the light the world, the energy source of the world, right? So it is Christ, then, who provides the energy for our souls, and that is why our souls do not cease to exist and cannot be annihilated. So the questions of science and philosophy, every one of them are answered, and every one of them are found in our Bibles, found in Scripture, and you would think that people would care about that. The deepest mysteries, the deepest philosophical concerns of the world are answered profoundly and perfectly in Scripture. And again, you would think that we would care about that. OK. I talked to, I should say this, I talked to a woman who's, let me guess, let me think about it now. She's probably almost 80. Her husband's 85. And in the last year, her daughter died on her granddaughter's wedding day. Her son's wife died just last week. Her brother died two or three months ago. Her grandson was killed in a motorcycle accident. And so I asked her, how are you doing? I'm fine. I'm a living soul. I listen to your lectures. I said, good. That's the only way you handle this stuff. You've got to understand who Christ is, why he does what he does, if you wish, how it is that he does what he does, and then you're okay. And she's okay. Amazing. I put that phone down and told Gloria. I said, that is somebody that has got control of the truth. Okay, where did we end up last Sunday? Well, we made it past the Loveless of Luke 14. We made it past the cross beam. And for Amy's sake, I will repeat this part. Okay, there's somebody else here, Amy, that wasn't here either, so don't think I'm personally picking on you. Your job, of course, is every now and then to punch Amanda and wake her up. If I see her roll into the aisle, that I think is perfectly appropriate. That'll be cool. Comedy's hard, you know. The cross beam. He says, take your cross beam and follow after me. If you can't take your cross beam, you cannot be a disciple. He repeats that. You cannot be my disciple. If you can't build a tower correctly, if you can't carry the cross beam, if you're not the surrendering king, then you cannot be my disciple. The crossbeam is a Roman symbol. It was what the Romans used whenever they executed somebody to demonstrate that it is their confession. If you ever struggled under a crossbeam or carried the crossbeam, then you are admitting that you are guilty of whatever the Romans charged you with and you have deserved their execution. That is what the crossbeam means. in that society at that time. So, that's evidence, of course, that Christ would never have done that. He has no sin. He has no guilt. He is omniscient, omnibenevolent God. He's pure good, omniscient God, omnipotent God, omnipresent God. He would never confess to sin, and he did not. So, any picture you have of Mel Gibson's movies or anybody else's movies that shows Christ struggling under a crossbeam, carrying it as a confession, can't be true. So now you have to say, how did he carry it? Did he carry it at all? And I, of course, as you know, say that he used it as a pointer. And he twirled it like a baton. If he carried it at all, who knows what happened there. But you cannot have a position that is doctrinally sound that has Christ carrying the crossbeam. But he says, you must confess that you are deserving of execution in order to be my disciple. He was not baptized to give you the compliment for this. He was not baptized. John the Baptist says, I can't baptize you because you have no sin. You're God. You don't get baptized. He said, baptize me anyway. Why? Because right there in the Jordan River where Christ was baptized is the exact same place where the axe head is floated by Elijah. It is the exact same place where the Ark of the Covenant went through when Israel stood in the middle of the Jordan River. He likes this spot. That's where God chose to be baptized. It had nothing to do with sin. The cross being had nothing to do with sin either. You have to put that relationship together. OK, so we got past that and then we got past the foundation and the tower. The foundation and the tower, of course, is to repeat myself, which I do a lot, is the point that you must have an understanding of the full deity of Christ. He is always God. He is never not God. You must have that or you cannot be a disciple. And then the surrendering king, the surrendering king. And salt is good. We covered all of that and we got now to where we are now beginning the lecture. Sort of. We made it all the way now to Luke 15. And I said it's important to understand that there's one parable with three parts. So he is about now, because of the rushing of the tax collectors, after he talks about to this multitude, he calls it multitudes, this great mass of people. After God talks to them, the tax collectors and the sinners rush him and because of that he, not because of that knowingly of course, he's omniscient, but we see the cause and effect from a human perspective, he begins this one parable that has three parts. And of course, let's go back a little bit on these great multitudes. We talked about that. last week a little bit, and I asked a bunch of questions. Now, great multitudes went with him, and he turned and said to Luke 14, 25. That's how we started. I went through all of that and now we're at Luke 15. But I asked about that. How great is that multitude? Well, that is a huge multitude. I'm going to estimate for you as well in excess of 100,000 people. It could be double that. So we asked a whole bunch of questions. If it is a couple hundred thousand people and here's Christ, I'll put Christ here. How far is this guy away from Christ? That's the guy that's at the absolute tail end of that multitude. That's the straggler. So I want to know the distance. How far away is he? I'm going to tell you that if that's a hundred thousand people and that's the lightest I believe it was, then that's going to be at least a mile away. I watched a show the other day, Outrageous Acts of Science, where Jerry Mikulak takes a .357 Magnum and shoots a balloon a thousand yards away with it, which is an incredible shot. You couldn't even see the target. They tried to show us. He had a balloon there. He'd pop the balloon. Big, pretty big balloon. He's an outstanding, he can spend his whole life shooting weapons. He's amazing. But you couldn't see it. That's 1,000 yards. 1,600 yards in a mile minimum, approximately. If you're here and Christ is there, you physically couldn't see him. And let me repeat, now great multitudes went with him and he turned and said to them. So we ask questions. How many? How far away from Christ is the furthest person? I hope you recognize immediately the relationship to Israel and Moses at Numbers 21. I'll do Moses now. Here's Moses. And how many people does he have as he's traipsing through the wilderness in Numbers 21? Two and a half million. How far away from Moses is the last guy being bit by the snakes? Now, they're all being bit by snakes. But I've got this guy. How far away is he? Moses raises something, right? You see the relationship? I have a vast amount of difference. So I hope you recognize that. The nation of Israel, some Israelites are many, many miles from Moses. The people spoke against God, I hope. I'm not reminding you of anything you don't know. The nation of Israel said this. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no food, there is no water, and our souls loathe this worthless bread. Numbers 21.5. So I'm making the case that Numbers 21.5 and Luke 14 through 15 are compliments to one another. Again, there is no food and no water and our souls loathe this worthless bread. What's the worthless bread in the Moses in 21.5 of Numbers? What's the worthless bread? That's the manna, yes. What is manna? Manna is this pure, white, living bread. descending from heaven. It's one of the great portraits of Christ in the Old Testament. It is bread of life. And what did they say about their bread of life that is a picture of Christ? We loathe this worthless Christ. And because of that, they're now being killed by snakes. If you loathe Christ, here's the principle, you will be killed by snakes. Israel was declaring Christ, declaring God to be a liar because he brought him out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. That's a lie. Therefore, they're declaring God to be evil. God can't be evil. He's omnipotent. They declare him to be worthless and deserving of their hatred. And the fiery serpents attack them and death strikes. A key truth is brought forth now, isn't it? You either understand Christ or you die. It's Christ or death. That's your two choices. You choose Christ or you choose death. The bread of life or death. And as you know, what Moses did is he raised a bronze serpent on a stick. What's the obvious question? Yeah, people dying from snakes. Somebody says, what are we going to do? Moses says, okay, grab one of the snakes, heat up some bronze, throw the snake in the bronze pit, or the bronze kettle, which bronze us a snake, and put him on a stick. Great plan. How long a stick is that? How big a snake, by the way? How big a stick? Again, how far is this guy away? He could be five miles minimum, maybe ten. That is a large group of people. And what does he have to do to not be killed by the snakes? He has to look at what Moses is raising. Now, can he see it? So that's why I asked about this. All that who merely look upon it, look towards it, are saved. Now I want you to compare that back to Luke 14.25. A great multitude, some perhaps a mile from Christ or more, yet everybody hears what he says. He does not have a public address system. All hear him. So here comes the rest of the question. How many of these people in this great multitude are not Jews? How many are Jews? How many are not Jews? Make your column up. You decide. Ten percent not Jews? What are the languages spoke by the not Jews? What are the languages spoke by the Jews? Are they all the same language? Everybody speak the same language? Obviously no. But yet, he's talking to all of them simultaneously. How is it that they heard God in their own language? Well, again, to repeat from last week, that's one of the biggest duh in all of Scripture. That is Acts 2.6. You hear in your own language. When he talks, you hear your language. And the guy next to you hears in his language, and the languages are different. That's just a fact of Scripture, Acts 2.6. But here's the other question. How many of them are deaf? Of all the, if I've got a couple hundred thousand people here surrounding Christ, at the time of Christ, how many of them are deaf? Do they hear him even though they're deaf? Please answer that easily. Of course they hear. How is it, there's another ridiculous question, how is it that everybody hears the voice of God? Does he have a functioning audio-aural system for you to hear him? No. What is hearing actually? Hearing is vibration of sound coming through an atmosphere or an ambient air environment and it's causing vibration and then vibrations hit your ear. And those vibrations are then sent electrically, if you will, and chemically to a brain that is just a mass of neurological systems, most of which are chemical and electrical and different parts light up. Right. So I take a physical. impact, and I convert it to electronic pulses, if you will, electrical chemical reactions, and then something has to interpret it. I can make the case that hearing is non-physical, that it's in your mind. I know seeing is in your mind, as I've proven many times. Close your eyes. You can still see me, much to your dismay. And you dream, and you see in your dreams. I did it last night, this morning, actually. I was trying to write Cliffside, believe it or not, on a piece of paper to give it to somebody, and I couldn't write it. And I was getting very frustrated. But I saw him, and I saw me, and I saw the paper, and I saw the magic marker. It was a big, thick magic marker, and I was just making big blocks of black. And I could not get Cliffside, and he couldn't read it, and I was all frustrated about it. And then I woke up. That's my idea of a fascinating dream that is completely and totally meaningless. Please don't write me from the internet, Jennifer, about what the meaning of my dream is. I think it is meaningless. The point is, though, is I saw the person that I was dreaming about, and I saw in my mind, I had complete vision. So, I am trying to tell you that that's not an accident. A mental process versus a physical process. Does God need for you to have a functioning physical process in order to see or hear Him? Duh. Again, I submit that the evidence from Scripture is that this great multitude that was following Christ is overflowing, filled to the brim with blind, deaf, mute, diseased, crippled, dying, hungry, despairing people carrying their children. This isn't, this crowd isn't a bunch of athletes, movie stars, whatever you're, this is a bunch of dying people. I'll prove that to you. I'll give you Luke 14, 13 really fast. But when you have a feast, he's talking to somebody who wants to, we'll go over this next week by the way, this is the parable of the guest. and saying to him, when you have a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. By the way, what's the difference between maimed and lame? Well, you're back to www.godhatesamputees.com, right? No amputee has ever been, and it is a documented fact, no amputee has ever been healed by anybody other than Christ. Not one. Not one. Zero. So hence, they started a website, www.godhatesamputees, as you know. So, let me read it to you again. When you have a feast, invite the poor, the amputees. Why are they amputees? As you know, you've heard me say many times, this is not just for Amy, but be polite. When they would get into military conflicts, the Assyrians especially, would cut the arms off, cut the tongues out, gouge the eyes out, cut the ears off of Israeli soldiers and send them back to Israel. So there were hundreds and hundreds of military men who were amputeed. They had been named. So, of course, there was always accidents, but would you give a feast and invite the poor, the lame, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Now, when one of those who sat at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Christ said to him, a certain man gave a great supper and invited many and sent his servant at supper time. So who, by the way, is the certain man in the story? Who's the servant in this story? Is this the triune Godhead? And invited many and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, Come, for all things are now ready. But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, I've bought a piece of ground. I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused. And another said, I just bought five yoke of oxen. By the way, are they lying? Yes, if I ain't landed on any oxen, it's all a lie. Why are they lying to God? Who are the ones that are lying to God? Well, they come up in this story as we keep going. And I'm going to test them. I ask you to have me excuse. Still another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city, and bring here the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. And the servant said, Master, it is done as you commanded. There still is room. Then the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house be filled. For I say to you that none of these men who were invited will have my supper, will taste my supper. Now great multitudes went with him. Who's in the great multitudes? The lame, the lame, the blind, the poor, the diseased, the dying, the crippled, their children, the hungry. That's in this crowd. Huge crowd of these people. So there is your context now for Luke 14. Let me repeat this. This is not, this gathering of people is not what we see at a political rally or an outdoor music performance. This is desperate people. These in this multitude were the least of Jerusalem's society. The guys that had oxen and land and married a wife, they were there too. There are political rulership here, religious rulership, and they're following Christ around as well. Now, why? Who are they? Well, they're the snakes, and God identifies them as snakes. We'll get to that in a minute. Jesus, as he spoke, God has a loud voice, as we know. But he also has a still voice. He is not a clanging bell. If you have God attracting attention to himself in a boisterous way, you do not have God. You have one of these. God is quiet. He is still. though he has a loud voice when he thinks it's necessary. Irrespective of the language and the condition, everybody heard him. His voice reached them all. Now, how many understood what he was saying? There's a difference between hearing what he's saying and understanding what he's saying. Obviously, the tax collectors and the sinners understood, because when he was done talking about that list that we've been going over the last few weeks of the cross being and the tower and the surrendering king and the salt is good, then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him. They all came towards him. Something made those tax collectors and those people who identified as sinners go, we've got to go next to this person. almost again an act of desperation. So who are these people? All the tax collectors. So every tax collector, all means all. All the tax collectors were there. And we talked about that last week. It's very difficult for a tax collector to go into a crowd of people that want to kill him. But they all were there. But who are these sinners? Well, we have two definitions of sinning. many definitions actually. Let's just take the Pharisees. The Pharisees would define somebody who is a sinner, they would define a sinner as someone who has demonstrated deserved judgment. What I mean by that is that if somebody was diseased in that culture, they would say, the Pharisees would, that guy is diseased because he is a secret sinner. And his secret sin is causing him to have this disease. So that disease is evidence that this is an evil person. By the way, they did that with leprosy. That would give them the authority to seize the property. Again, one more time, no one was ever healed of leprosy until Christ, except for Naaman the Syrian and Elijah. No one was ever healed of leprosy until Christ came. And He healed hundreds and hundreds and thousands and thousands of them. And they all went back and got their two-bird thing from Leviticus 14, their ceremony, and they got their material back. Right? All of that happened. Only Christ did it. The common teaching of the Pharisees, that if you were sick, it is because of your sinfulness. And the Pharisees would also define the sinners as hopeless. What I mean by that is permanently condemned. If you're a sinner, you cannot be saved as they define you. So that would be the prostitutes, the drunkards, the pariahs of Jewish society. And there was no hope for them, the Pharisees so deemed. All of those people that they claim to be unsalvageable, unsalvable, unredeemable, condemned for all eternity, how ironic that the Pharisees, the teachers of law-based salvation, are now confronted with this situation. They are coming towards Christ. I asked last week what draws them. Creator God himself is drawing to himself. those whom the Pharisees had declared as doomed. And he's telling them the exact opposite of what they've been said in their entire life. The absolute opposite of the conventional teaching is on display. Christ is rejecting the Pharisees and the scribes, and he's saving the tax collectors and the pariahs, or the outcasts. I want you to consider what is being said to the sinners. All their lives they were being told that they were excluded. They're the damned. They're the forsaken. They have no hope of salvation. But now Jesus Christ, with unimaginable power, because He had unimaginable power, He did things that no one had ever seen, could ever see, and has ever seen since. No one has done or is doing anything that Christ did. www.godhatesamputees.com. Christ healed every single amputee that came near him. Unimaginable power again. And they're coming. They respond. And this is why they came. They came because he told them that he would save them. He told them the exact opposite of what the Pharisees said. And the Pharisees were disgusted by it. And the text tells us that they were disgusted. And they attacked. They said this, this man receives these sinners. He receives sinners. He receives the ones that cannot be saved. We have declared them to be unable to be saved and He is receiving them. And not only that, He's eating with them. When you eat with somebody in that culture, it is incredibly profound. It's the same as saying this, that He receives sinners and eats with them. This man says that these sinners can be saved. That's exactly what Christ said. And they drew to Him. He said, I can save you. I will save you. I am the saver. And they came to be saved. And the Pharisees are about to learn a powerful truth. Romans 2.11. In case you thought this wasn't about Romans. For there is no partiality with God. No partiality. Revelations 3.20. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. What's the definitive term there? Anyone, if anyone, whosoever comes, there is no partiality with God. Mankind, on the other hand, is marinated in partiality. God's complete lack of partiality is in stark contrast with the Pharisees' total partiality. The Pharisees hate that God would save those whom they had decided to be forever lost. Notice the religious ruling classes do gravitate towards salvation gatekeeping. That's been going on for thousands of years. It's happening today. It happened today all over Anchorage. The religious ruling classes love to be gatekeepers, and they eagerly assign themselves as the arbiters of who is eligible for salvation. This one is eligible, this one is not. The difference between this one being eligible for salvation and this one not being eligible for salvation usually has to do with some means of financial compensation. Be it membership, be it tithing, be it buying the pastor a brand new pink Cadillac. Has there been a pastor who got a pink Cadillac in this city? As inexplicable as that can be, we have it happen. People think that if I give the pastor a new car, that's going to somehow affect my salvation. It will not. Beware of those people who assign themselves the authority to determine who is saved. Salvation is the purview of only Christ. Salvation is Christ and Christ alone. If anyone hears, believes, Christ will save them every time. That's the rule. Nowhere in the rule does it say Christ will have to ask some pastor somewhere if it's appropriate. So with this as the context, with this as the reason all the tax collectors came to Christ, all the sinners came to Christ, sinners as defined by the Pharisees, all the people who were determined to be unsavable, they all rushed to Christ. With that as the context, with this truth as the cause, if you will, the cause and effect of the Pharisees to spew their hateful thing, this man receives sinners. Jesus God now speaks a parable. He spoke one with three parts. The first part is the parable of the found sheep, then the parable of the pound coin is the second part, and then the third is the parable of the found son, or the parable of the older and the younger son. So really fast, because it's so easy, let me fix what I wrote here for posterity's sake. I can't allow a mistake to go into the yellow tablet. I have to fix it when I see it. There it is. I've done it now. If anyone ever finds this holy Roman, I'm sorry, holy yellow tablet, then it will at least be repaired. I'm going to read very fast. I know the time. There is a green clock back there. Here I go. After the Pharisees say, This man receives sinners, and eats with them, Christ responds. So he spoke this parable to them, saying." So who is he speaking to? Who is the them in that statement? Obviously, I have tax collectors, I have sinners, and I have Pharisees. Who is being talked to? All or one group? answer that first. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine? Put 99 on the board, you know that's going to come up again. Does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me, I have found my sheep which was lost. I say to you that likewise. There will be more joy in heaven over the one sinner who repents than over the ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. We've got to figure out who these ninety-nine are, don't we? So let's separate out some central points in six minutes. Remember, this is a parable. If you want to think of a parable this way, it's perfectly reasonable and appropriate. It's a mystery given by God. Obviously, it has extraordinary complexity. It has depth of meaning that we can't even begin to find. I have Lord James of Texas in Arabia. He has written me recently and he is excavating the mystery of the translation, the sixth of the eleven mysteries. He's decided this is something that he wants to, he's about my age, maybe a little older, a very intuitive, intelligent man. And he's decided to take this on because it's important to him. And so he is digging into it, approaching it correctly with this perspective. He knows that when God calls something a mystery, it's really a mystery. And if you think you can figure out the mystery in a half hour, then you are dumb as a bag of hammers. No offense. OK, sorry. Not really. I want you to be offended. I'm trying to offend you. You cannot. figure these mysteries out quickly. You cannot stop it. You find somebody that says, oh, that's what that mystery is about, and it's a couple of sentences or maybe a paragraph, then go, okay, that's immediately in the trash can. Let me go find somebody that's devoted their lifetime into solving mysteries. That's the same as God's parables. Nothing is more disrespectful than these commentators. I don't mind them saying, okay, all I can come up with is two sentences because I'm an idiot. That I respect. But if you think you can figure out what's in this parable, it's only four verses. Do you think you can do that in two sentences? Go step on a rake. You need a hit to the head. Bam! Why is your head red all the time, old fat man? Notice I don't hit myself in my good eye. Nothing is more disrespectful than those who try to condense the meaning of God's parables to one or two paragraphs. What man of you? What man of you? Who's he directing that to? I think he's directing that to the Pharisees. I'll try to prove it next week. So it would be appropriate to say, if I'm correct, and of course I'm correct, it would be appropriate to say, what Pharisee of you? What Pharisee of you? Having a hundred sheep. Are Pharisees supposed to be shepherds? They absolutely are supposed to be shepherds. Are they really shepherds? No, they are not, Zechariah 11. Zechariah 11 calls the Pharisees slaughterers of the flock. They feel no guilt. So now we're in a discussion of the idol shepherd, I-D-O-L, which is a picture of the Antichrist, of course. That is why he throws the 30 pieces of silver. is because of the shepherding stuff going on. And the good shepherd, Zechariah 11. Not idle as in resting or lazy. Idle as in pagan. I-D-O-L. So why does God use a shepherd, Christ use a shepherd analogy for men he knows are killers? And by the way, they know that he knows and they know that he knows that they hate the sheep. And he says, if he loses one of them, the Pharisees don't care about the sheep. They're trying to kill the sheep. That's their whole point of existence. They don't care about any of the sheep. They would never look for one sheep. They would go, yay, that sheep's on its way to die and we don't have to kill that one ourselves. It would seem so far, then, that this parable is not applicable to the Pharisees. Pharisees rejoice. They'll rejoice. The Pharisees are not ever going to rejoice over the salvation of anyone. See Matthew 23, 13 through 36. The Pharisees, as described by God himself, the Lord God Almighty, the Great I Am, the Ancient of Days, says that they are serpents. That's what he calls the Pharisees, to their faces. Twenty-three verses, woe to you Pharisees, brood of vipers, sons of hell. When God calls you sons of hell, what are the chances you're a son of hell? Pretty good. They are killing and poisoning God's people, Zechariah 11. That's what they're doing. The fiery serpents are in front, a bronze one. A lifted-up, brozen serpent is stopping the fiery serpents from killing the people. And that lifted-up, bronze serpent is a picture of Christ. And by the way, that's a very difficult mystery. Next week we'll endeavor to attempt to dissolve it. But we are running out of time. We're down to one minute. I want you to consider the 99. You will understand this parable, this mystery, when you have decided who the 99 are. Yes, musicians begin to come forward in the correct order. Alphabetical and by height, Amanda is first both times. You notice that? That's amazing. There's a tradition that is fundamentally sound. I think if you look at the 99, that's key to the part 1 of the 3 part 1 parable. If that makes sense, you're thinking like me. He says the 99 are just persons that need no repentance. Who needs no repentance? We have a politician right now out there saying that he needs no forgiveness. I just go, oh my goodness. Please don't call yourself a Christian. Who needs no repentance? There is no such person that needs no forgiveness, no repentance, never. And note that the 99 are compared to the one sinner. On one side I got the 99, on the other side I got the one that is found. One sinner is found. The 99 need no repentance. Who thinks he needs no repentance in the story, in the context? Yeah, clearly the 99 that need no repentance are Pharisees. You figure that out, figure out how these 99 fit in here, and this section becomes clear. Next week, that's what we will do.