 Alright, good morning everyone. Welcome to those who are joining us online. I hope you can hear me okay. Let's just begin with the word of prayer so maybe one of us can lead in prayer. Any one of us? Jesus, we thank You, Lord, for this day. We thank You, Lord, for this time that we have to get to know more of You, to get to know how You have done things on this earth and Lord, I pray that our hearts and minds be open and that You help us, Lord, to understand what we are being taught and that You help Pastor Paul to teach well. Lord Jesus, thank You, Lord, for this time. Amen. Thank You. Alright, so last week we were talking about Isaiah 53, the cross described. We looked at many points there. We looked at the authenticity of the book of Isaiah and of course the entire Bible as well. We talked a little bit about the Dead Sea Scrolls and how these scrolls were found, and they were found word to word perfect to what we are reading right now. Then we looked at a few aspects of how the cross was described from the Old Testament. Isaiah 52 and 53, and a lot of it revealed, Behold my servant, then his massage was marred. He shall sprinkle his blood with many nations, right? So the shedding of blood happened there. The arm of the Lord revealed as a tender plant, a root out of dry ground, meaning his tenderness, his loving kindness was displayed in his earthly life. A man of sorrows and grief, he knew all the while that the cross has some place that he has to go. Isaiah 53 talks about a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief and we hid. So it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. So was Jesus despised? Yes? Or was he glorified as a person? On the cross he was despised. They did not esteem him, right? Then we see he was a man of sorrows and grief. He bore our griefs and our sorrows. Now let's picture this, the revelation of the Holy Spirit to a person hundreds of years before, maybe he did not know what the cross is, right? Now when we look at it and we say, hey, Isaiah spoke about the cross, but Isaiah didn't know. He probably didn't, you know, the whole thing of the crucifixion was not yet, you know, come into place. But he didn't know, but he talks about it. He will bear our griefs. He will bear our sorrows, right? And it is a wonderful prophecy there. And he did it for our peace. So now in the Old Testament there was no peace between man and God, right? When the people of Israel or in the Old Testament, there was no feeling of, okay, I am with God and God is with me. Why? Because the cross was not yet there. The sprinkling of the blood for the atonement of sin was only done once, right? But there was still this feeling of guilt and condemnation, right? For through the cross we find peace and the iniquity of us all was upon him. That means all our sins, all our grieves, all our shame, our, you know, the place where we had to go was upon him, right? And that's where we stopped. Now we'll pick up from Ash Sheep before it sure is. Let's read Isaiah 53 and verse 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Look at the word oppressed there. Driven as an animal, harassed, distressed, or painfully abused. We talk about this, know the spirit of oppression. When we are praying, what do we say? Every spirit of oppression, I bind you in Jesus' name. We pray that. Yes? What is this oppression? Oppression is basically being pressed down, right? If you, I'm sure all of you must have seen, you know, the cattle working in the fields, right? It's a yoke upon them. Have you seen that yoke? Right? They put that yoke on the ox or the cow. What happens? It's an oppression, right? It's oppressed to do the work, right? So here he's bringing out that kind of an allegory and he's saying he was oppressed, meaning he was driven out as an animal, harassed, distressed, painfully abused and he was afflicted. Which means he was looked down, he was forced, he was treated badly. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter as a sheep before his shearers is silent. So he opened his mouth not, right? Look at that. He was oppressed for us. He was harassed, he was beaten, he took on that oppression for you and me, right? And he was afflicted. He was treated badly. Now all this talking about the Lord Jesus years back, right? And it says that as a sheep before his shearers. Now why is this sheep come into picture, right? We see the Lord Jesus as a picture of a lamb and a lion, right? That's very interesting. A sheep, right? Especially in the Old Testament, when you look at a sheep, the sheep was used for most of the sacrifice, right? The sheep or the goat. And every time a sheep was taken, they wouldn't defy. They wouldn't say, you know, they wouldn't try to run away from the sacrifice. They were very like, you know, they had this instinct of just being how they are, right? This obedience. It was a picture of obedience, right? So you don't see a sheep trying to run away. Have you seen, have you seen, if you go to the chickens though, what happens? The chicken, by the time you take the chicken, it's already trying to fly away. That's not what's going to happen with a sheep, right? Because by nature, a sheep, yes, they go astray, but they know that if it's time, it's time, right? And I was reading something very, very, very, you know, it really struck me. It was very interesting. This is this article about the sheep. And then I read it many years back. I forget where I read it, but it said that when a, when a snake, right? Now I don't know if this is medically proven, right? But the writer is writing and of course, he's got this medical background. But this is what he says, when a snake bites a sheep, the sheep has a certain kind of blood, right, where the sheep will not die, but the snake will die, right? I read that, I was like, wow, but I don't know whether it is medically proven. But if it is, there's a powerful, powerful act of God. This is nature. And when you look at nature, there's so much that point towards creation and how God has created things. But maybe we can read about it and find out. It just came to my mind. A sheep is somebody or someone who can very easily be led down to a sacrifice. You don't have to hold the sheep and now, now the sheep, now I don't know how they are now, but you don't have to forcefully push a sheep to the sacrifice. They go. And it's talking here about, as a sheep, Jesus, a gentle lamb, he went to the cross. Nowhere in the New Testament we see, during the Lord Jesus' persecution and when he was going to go to the cross, is there any place he says, no, I don't want to go to the cross. It's okay, let me do something else. You don't see it, right? He knew it all the while, right? Look at this, Matthew 27, 12 and 14, 12 through 14. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then Pilate said to him, you not hear how many things they testify against you. But he answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly. Now, I don't know why the governor marveled greatly. You see, in some places, Jesus answered. In some places, Jesus spoke a lot. If you've been in Matthew 24, he's speaking and speaking and speaking, right? But in some places, Jesus did not speak. It was to fulfill prophecies, right? 1 Peter 2, 17 through 23. Maybe one of us can read. 1 Peter 2, 17 to 23. It's on your notes. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commandable. It because of consents toward God on endure's grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credits is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently. But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commandable before God. For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Who committed no sin, nor was deceived found in his mouth. Who when he was revealed, did not reveal in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten but committed himself to him who judges righteously. Thank you. So here Peter is writing to the believers in the church and he's reminding them about the cross. He's reminding them that walking in the imitation of Jesus is important in our everyday life. So what does he say? Verse 21, initially he's verse 17 onwards, he's talking to the brothers in the church. And verse 21 he says, for this, for this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Who committed no sin, nor was deceived found in him. He committed no sin, nor was deceived found in him or in his mouth, who was then reviled but he did not revile in return. He suffered, he did not threaten but committed himself to him who judges righteously. So this is a wonderful example for us. Our people, there will be times. Now remember that the church where Peter's writing to is a persecuted church. The same letter he says, you are living stones. You are God's people. You are God's, you're coming into God's kingdom and he's encouraging the believers. Why? Because they were persecuted church. Now the general tendency is if somebody persecutes us, we want to, for example, somebody says something to you. What do we do? General tendency is to retaliate. Right? Say, hey, you know, you didn't do this properly. What about you? What did you do well? General tendency. So Paul is, Peter is writing to the believers and saying, see, people are going to persecute you. People are going to say all this Christianity, we're going to persecute you, we're going to kill you. So he's writing to the believers and he's telling them, hey, look at the Lord Jesus, what he did. There was no sin in him. There was no deceit in his mouth. Yet he willingly took up the cross. He willingly suffered. He did not threaten, he did not commit himself to any sin. He did not commit himself to the people, but he committed himself to God. So basically Peter is saying, follow this example. Follow what what Jesus and that's more than enough. Next one, from prison and from judgment. 53 and verse 8, he was taken from prison and from judgment and who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgression of my people, he was stricken. Remember Jesus, Matthew 27, Jesus was put into prison. He was held there in the palace overnight and then he was brought to judgment before Pilate. Again, even the intricate, the small details written by Isaiah, that's why this Isaiah 52 and 53, it basically talks about the whole life of Christ. And I always wonder, imagine Jesus going back and reading it and he's saying, hey, this is me. This is me. This is what's going to happen to me. The Bible says that in the book of Matthew, it says, the Lord Jesus grew in wisdom. So as a young boy, probably he went, started reading, this is me. So one day I have to do this. One day I'll be carrying the burden of the cross. I'll be carrying all the sins, the grieves of people are going to ridicule me. People are going to mock me. And imagine reading the portion where they pulled off his beard and they spit on him. Jesus is probably reading that he knew it was him. Right? He knew that he has to go through it. And he was willing to do it. Right? Next one, with the wicked and with the rich, 53.9. And they made his grave with a wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Now, he made his grave with a wicked. Where did Jesus die? Between two thieves. Now, if you look at the difference between the two thieves and Jesus, the two thieves probably were not beaten and scourged as much as Jesus was. Why is that? I always, as a young boy, I always think, why did they beat Jesus so much? They could have just crucified him. No. First of all, they said, okay, pilot's plan was we'll beat him and we'll leave him off. Okay, so they scourged him properly. Could have left him or they could have directly said, okay, get crucified. And God knows. Okay, crucifixion done. But the point was the blood had to be shed. The blood had to go. The entire suffering of sin, the entire grief and pain and sorrows had to be taken up by him. So, it was not a quick death. It was not something that, you know, okay, just die. That's easy. God made it in such a way because it is the judgment of God upon his son. And all the judgment was put on this person, the Lord Jesus Christ as a human being. And historians say that the whole fact of Jesus carrying the cross and going up to that mountain is physically so difficult after that scourging. Physically, remember that he was a normal person. He had strength. He had weaknesses in his body. He was tired. He was sleepy. He did everything. It's not like Jesus said, okay, you know, now my stomach is full. I can be all right. No, probably his leg pain from all the walking. And the ship he was happily sleeping. Maybe he was very tired. But we see that, you know, the historians and theologians say that for him to carry the cross and go up that mountain is a big challenge. I don't know how he did it, but he did it. It was because of you and me. That whole, the entire judgment of God had to be on him. What have Jesus said? Oh, no, I cannot. Please take me to the nearest doctor. I'll come back after two days to be clear. No. Once you remember what Jesus said in the garden of Getsemane to Judas? What did he say? Do what you have to do. The time has come now. Do what you have to do. So it was like a, you know, he was resetting his mind and saying the time is now. No more. I'm going to be, you know, a person who's going to do all these wonderful miracles and all. I'm going to be a sheep, a lamb. They will spit at me. They will ridicule me. They will mock me, but I'll keep quiet. Why? Because I have to take the judgment of God on the cross. How long would it have taken for Jesus, you know, when they were ridiculing him on the cross where he's saying, if you heard of Messiah, come down. No, from the cross. How long would it have taken? Few seconds. Probably Jesus said, Father, send two angels or he didn't really need angels. He would have just said, you just got down from the cross. As simple as that. Could he have done it? He could have done it, but he didn't. As a sheep to the slaughter. So was he. And then we see that with the rich at his death, Joseph of Arimatai, a rich man pleaded for the body of Jesus and Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimatai. And finally, Pilate could find no fault against him. And there's this book where we talk about, you know, this writer writes and he says, imagine Pilate. Here, there's Jesus standing in front of Pilate. Imagine Pilate standing in front of Jesus during the last judgment. What's he gonna say? Right? Or forget about Pilate. Imagine these, you know, these people who have, you know, persecuted Christians. What about the Jews who killed about 5 million Jews, Hitler? What are they gonna do? They're all gonna stand. And this time, it's not going to be a lamb. Right? It's not like Jesus is saying, oh, whatever you say is fine. Oh, oh. So he's the lion and the bus he'll be the lamb. Right? But to others, he'll be the lion. Right? And you'll learn more in eschatology in terms. Okay. He shall see his seed and prolong his days, Isaiah 53.10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his house. Look at that. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Now, you know, if you have good friends, right? And once you, you know, you get married, you have children. When your child, you know, just gets hurt or falls and, you know, it gets hurt. Now, no parent is pleased. You must have told that child a hundred times, don't do this. You may get hurt. But after telling a hundred times when the child falls, you're not going to say, I told you, you know, you'll fall. You will not do that. Why? Because it's your child. No matter what it is, you will say, you will go and try to look after the child. Make sure that he's alright. But here you see that the father was pleased to bruise the son. He was pleased. He was happy. Can you believe that? He was pleased to do it. Why? Because he knew that this was the sacrifice that was needed for the forgiveness of sons. Otherwise, it's going to be the same old story, Old Testament. What is the story? Cows and bulls, blood, sacrifice, same old offerings. It's going to be the same old thing. But this was needed. So, God was pleased. Basically, what happened on the cross? This is a picture, right, that I'm giving you. Father, son, three of them get their one. Jesus said, the fathers in me are the father. Yes. And many places we see the Trinity coming together in the baptism. The father spoke, son and the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove. Right? So, Jesus walked in the same spirit, the same Holy Spirit that you and I are walking in. Right? Now, what happened in this whole time was, now, the father, the son, the Holy Spirit, three of them are one. But on the cross, there was a separation. So, remember, Jesus said, I and the father are one. Father is in me and I am in the Father. But at the cross, there was a separation. And the father is putting all the sin and grief and shame and all the judgment of God upon his son. There was a separation. So, when Jesus cried out, why have you forsaken me? It was at that moment when he realized his separation from the Father. And it was only on the cross where Jesus says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Anywhere else, does he say, God? Everywhere else, he says, Father. Right? It pleases the Father. I've come to the Father's heart in heaven. And he says, God, he doesn't. Because at the cross, there's a separation. He became like you and me, like sin. So that you and I can call him Father. On the Old Testament, you can't call God Father. Can we? We can't. That's why when Jesus, you know, when Jesus was there and he told the disciples, told him, teach us how to pray, what does he say? Oh, Father, what in heaven? Now, this is still the cross has not yet happened. Imagine the disciples, our Father. We're talking about God, the Father. We're talking about God, the Father. We're talking about Yahweh, Jehovah God, the God who was with Abraham, Isaac and Moses, that God. Yes, he's going to become your Father. So it would have been a big revelation for them. So I can call God Father. I can have a relationship with him. They never understood it. But Jesus knew that when he's going to call Father God, there was this separation. He became like you and me, that now you and I can call him Father. Remember the last sentence, what does Jesus say? Father, into your hands. Come on, my spirit. It was as if that relationship was restored. He said, God, why have you forsaken me? Forget about these nails and forget about these crowns and, you know, the beating and forget about everything that is happening to me physically. This is painful, but you leaving me and that separation from you is that forsakenness, it is too much, I cannot bear that. Because I am in you and you are in me. Now it's like you're saying you're no longer with, you're not with me right now. You're not in me. It's like, you know, the Lord Jesus is saying, God and God is just turning His face away to His own Son, so that when we come, He will not turn His face away. You see that substitution? We'll talk about substitution in the next chapter. A literal fulfillment here, we see that He shall see His seed. He shall prolong His days. He arose to see His descendants, so it was not the end when you say, prolong His days was the resurrection. Right? A figurative fulfillment where the plan was that He give Himself as an offering for sin, so that He'd see life come from it, life, life and more life, and God's plan was will deeply prosper through Him and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Right? Later on it says in the book of Hebrews, he writes that when He died and when He rose again from the dead, right? He went, He took the keys, the authority of Satan, of death and hell. He's basically telling Satan, you see what I did on the cross? I lived a perfect life and now you're on the cross. I've defeated you. You're destroyed. So He takes the keys, the authority from the devil. Right? And when He takes that, the Father says, now at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. Right? All honor, dominion, authority belongs to Him. Was it there before? Yes. He's come back. His place is being restored but there's a difference now. The difference is in 2 Timothy it says, there is one mediator between God and man. Who's that? The man Jesus Christ. Right? There's one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. So now when we go to the Lord Jesus, last Sunday we were talking about the gift of righteousness. Right? So when we go to the Lord Jesus now and we say, God, I don't want to sit for class today. I'm very tired. Now Jesus understands what is tiredness. Yes or no? Right? God, my Lord Jesus, my legs are paining, my body is paining. I'm so tired, He understands. Now you tell the Father, my leg is paining, body is paining. Of course, there's this nature where He understands but as a mediator, Jesus completely understands. He knows what it is. God the Father may not know what is pain. Of course, He understands with us. All that is there but as a mediator, He's saying, He's telling the Father, Hey Father, I know what it feels like. Right? And then, you know, there's temptations. The devil is coming. He's the accuser of the brethren. He's tempting us and every time this temptation comes, sometimes we fall, sometimes we overcome and then when we fail, we say, Hey, I don't want to go back. I don't want to, you know, how many times will I ask forgiveness? I'll remember Jesus is the one mediator, the man, Jesus Christ. Right? So we can always go back to Jesus and say, Jesus, I know you attempted, you overcame, help me to overcome. And we have a high priest who sympathizes with us. Amen? Right? So we don't have to, we don't have to feel, Hey, guilty. Right? And say, I didn't do this. I didn't do that. Right? But we can just go to him and say, this is what it is. In the Old Testament, we could not do that. Right? Okay. Next one. He shall justify many. Isaiah 53 and verse 11. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many for he will bear my inequities. Right? Sin had to be punished. And his sacrifice on the cross. Jesus put, sorry, the father put every demand of sin, every judgment, everything on Jesus. And he was satisfied that he did it. Right? How many of you had a good meal and you're satisfied? Never happened here? You know, if you go to a restaurant and you have a good meal, he's just satisfied. What happens? You give that person the, you know, the costliest food or the tastiest food again, he'll say, no, it looks good. I wouldn't mind tomorrow or later in the day, but now satisfied. How many of you, this happens to me. We drink all this, you know, these soft drinks and fruit juice and all of that. But for me personally, I need water. I can drink all these, you know, the coffee and juice and, you know, all these things that are there. But only water crunches thirst. Yeah, because the other things can satisfy you for some time. And actually, if you see, you have these soft drinks after some time, you're even more thirsty. It's just that that moment to just hear what does the Father say? I have satisfied everything. No more will I have to put judgment upon my people because of what Jesus did. Now, as a difference, we were talking about the covenants, right? If we want, we can walk away from the covenant and say, I don't want. Then what is happening? We are opening ourselves to the enemy. So the enemy is going to come and cause trouble. But if we are in covenant, God has already put every judgment upon the cross. So things are not going well in our life. It's not the judgment of God. And sometimes God, you know, we must understand that God has his ways of dealing with things. He has plans. He has ways how to open doors for us. Of course, all of us know we want to be in ministry, we want to do something. If God says, okay, initially, you go, arrange the chairs and church. It's not judgment of God. It's just that God is, you know, opening up a door. You know, yesterday, we were talking to after the prayer here, I was talking to some of them here and they said, Hey, how did you learn playing the kahun? I said, I don't know what happened was when we were in Mangalore, right, we had a lot of worship leaders like two, three worship leaders. So what I did was I started playing drums a little bit. Very little. I don't know much. So just little just to keep the beat, right? I don't know the technical terms and all that. But I did that for three and a half years. So when I came here, I don't know that, you know, it's going to help me later on. For me, okay, there's a worship leader. So it made sense to play another instrument. And so in that way, God has his ways of training us in different ways. So never look at God's way as a judgment. Oh, God, maybe I've not prayed enough. So that's why no opportunity is coming to me. Or maybe I've not read the Bible enough. That's why no opportunity. God does not look that way. He will open the right door at the right time. We just need to be faithful, right? By His wisdom, the Lord put to naught the wisdom of the world. And we talked about this as well. The wisdom of the cross being far greater than the wisdom of the world. Why is it wisdom? All across from the Old Testament, if you see, God is a God of wisdom, right? So from Genesis chapter two, he knew the plan. He knew everything that he was going to do. So it was, it was the wisdom of God. God, why did you choose crucifixion? It's the wisdom of God. Why not, you know, like Apostle Paul, he would, you know, just chop his head off. No, it was the wisdom of God. They had to be full suffering, right? Now, when you talk about the cross, it's not wisdom. It's foolishness, right? But for God, it's wisdom. But when God did this to the cross, when he came up with this whole, you know, the cross and sins of the world being on this person, it is, it may look and sound foolish for some of us, but it's the wisdom of God. Even now, you know, yesterday, we were, you know, during the prayer, we heard about how these wonderful revival movements and even now, yes, it's true. Punjab is seeing a huge harvest. How is it? Is it because these are, you know, probably, you know, I was reading this article, that India Today article, which Vasu is talking about, carpenters will go plumbers, plumbers and carpenters, they work the whole day, right? Whatever in their shops or in apartments, they work the whole day, carpenters and plumbers. During the workplace, they are talking to other believers, other people, bringing them to Christ. Every evening, they have prayer for three hours, right? And every Sunday's, they have four or five services. Who's the pastor? Carpenter or a plumber? They hardly know anything about the Bible, right? Of course, now what people are doing is because of the revival, people are traveling there, providing them resources, providing them teachings, but they are saying, no, we don't want anything. All we need is God, right? All we need is, we don't want your finances. We don't want your money. We don't want anything. How it's going on? Let it go on. So there's this article and this plumber, plumber, you know, the plumbers, the guys who fix water taps and all of it. He, in one of the rural parts of Punjab, started, you know, just like a small church and right now, there are 400 to 500 people coming to the church. Now the best part is, they have open fields, so they pay the owner or if they are the owner, then it's good. But they pay the owner and say, you want to use the field. There is no mic system. There is no LED screen. There's no stage. One person standing and preaching. You know, they were saying that, you know, God supernaturally gave strength to these people where when they spoke 300, 400 people could hear. Right? And eventually, of course, they got speakers and all, but initially they could hear. Is this something which the Holy Spirit cannot do? Because sometimes we think, oh, we need all of this. God is above that. What did Jesus do when he stood on that mountain? He spoke to 5000 people. No mixer, no analog digital mixer, no in-ears, nothing. He spoke. They all heard 5000 people. Can he do it now? He can do it now. Right? And you should read about it. Go to Google and read about this. It is true. What God is doing in India. Only thing is, I think yesterday somebody sent me a video where this news channel, they come to a Christian program in North India, right? They come to this Christian program and say, why have you become Christians? You're making India as a nation. You're making it, you're not making, letting it become, you know, the nation that it has to be a Hindu nation. You're, you know, you're all becoming Christians. And these guys are fearless in the interview. Maybe I'll share the video that was sent to me. Fearless. They're saying, this is, I think last week, they're saying, why should we become, we will do what we want to do. And the reporter is saying, then we'll take you to jail. Take me to jail. And these guys are, you know, they're so strong. And they're saying, no, you're getting money from other countries. Why you all don't get money from other countries? You all don't get, and you know, they're so strong. They're so convicted. And this other person is saying, or we believe in all gods. So this, this guy is saying, we believe, we don't believe in all gods, but among all gods, this is Jesus is the greatest God. And it almost, you know, became like a violent attack on the Christian, but they were fearless in front of the cameras. And this is, you know, national news, it's going everywhere. I was so happy when I saw that I said, God, thank you for this authority. And sometimes we only look at the bad or the sad things that are happening. Church is being beaten up, pastors put into prison, but there is a move of God happening. There's this whole boldness. And it's happening in our nation. You know, with the anti conversion bill, they are fearless. And they are on the news. They're saying it's okay. I'll probably share the video, you can see it, but how is all this happening? Is it our own intellect, their own understanding? God's wisdom, the wisdom of the cross, making the world foolish, greater than the wisdom of the world, right? Last point here, a portion with the great Isaiah 5312. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors. And he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Because this, therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great Christ triumph at the cross and entered into a place of honor, the right hand of the Father exalted above all powers. So, therefore, I will divide the portion with the great, right? So, when the Lord Jesus, he triumphed on the cross, he finished what he had to do. God, he went, the Bible says he was seated at the right hand of the Father. The Bible, the right hand means the hand of authority. Jeremiah says, stretch out your hand of God, stretch out your right hand upon this nation, right? A hand of authority. Right is always a place of authority. We use it, right? Even now, hey, he's my right hand. Meaning, after me, he has all the authority or she has all the authority, right? So Christ, when he triumphed on the cross, he became the right hand of the Father. He went and he was seated there. Christ shares his triumph with us and we become his powerful one. Now, I always give this example, right? It's not like Jesus won and he's saying, okay, I defeated the cross, I defeated the devil. So, it's not like it was a competition between the devil and Jesus. No, on the cross, the Lord Jesus was looking at each one of us, right? He was not looking at the devil, right? In his mind, on the cross, it was not like Jesus was thinking, oh, devil, I'm going to defeat you. Now, let's see who's going to be the winner. You or me, I've overcome temptations. I've never, I've never sinned. Now, this cross is here. Once I finish the cross, I have destroyed you. No, that was not in his mind. In his mind, on the cross was you and me. When I die on the cross, my people, my children can call God above Father. It was you and I on the cross. It was not a competition with the devil, right? It was for you and me, right? But when he won, he said, now I'm giving you the authority. You and I, Ephesians 1, are seated with Him in heavenly places. We have the authority, right? We are victorious. We are righteous. We are justified, sanctified, holy because He has given us the strength, right? And He shares His spoil with us. It is for anyone, anybody can come to the cross. Finally, the uniqueness of Christ, Hebrew 725. Therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for us. While on the cross, what did Jesus do? Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing. He stood as an intercession for His own accusers. Now, He's doing the same thing. He's standing next to the Father and He's making intercession. What is He doing? He's saying, God, Father, this boy or this girl, this is His weakness. But give Him the strength, give Him an opportunity. He will believe in, He will do the work of the ministry or maybe He's called to do this. Right now, He's turning away. Don't put your judgment upon Him. Remember the cross. Remember the blood that was shed. What is the Father doing? Right? It's like this, okay? This is a person and God is looking at the judgment. When the Father looks at sin, what must He do? What does the Father do when He looks at sin? He has to bring His righteous judgment. Right? When there's sin, the Father brings judgment. But all of a sudden, Jesus comes and stands in between Him and the Father. Jesus is standing. Now, Jesus is saying, He's weak. He's tired. He's not able to overcome temptations. It's okay. Give Him some time. Don't pass your judgment on Him. Right? I'm just painting a picture for you and the Lord Jesus is probably there with the blood because the Hebrew says He's making intercession with His own blood, not the blood of rams and goats. So He's standing there with the blood and He's saying, don't bring judgment on Paul. Remember this blood? Remember the cross? Another Father is looking at me through the eyes of Jesus and saying, okay, even though you have sin, even though you are living in sin, when you ask forgiveness, I will look at you as righteous. I will look at you as just as if you have not sinned because the Son is here. If there's no Son, gone. He will pour out His judgment on us. You see what the cross did for us? He is able to save two the uppermost. No matter how far we go away, if we come back to the cross, we can find forgiveness. This should be an encouragement for us, especially when we are ministering to people and when we are ministering, we feel that this person or that person, I don't think they'll accept Christ or the Prime Minister or the President. How will they accept Christ? They have other things to do. He's able to save to the uppermost. Amen? Amen. Alright, let's take a break. We'll come back and we'll do, we'll get into the next chapter.