 Okay, welcome back. Let's continue with the class Right before we go ahead any questions And you any of you have any questions any thoughts that you'd like to share from what we are learning No questions Like to share any thoughts. Are you able to follow along? Is it something that is? You know, are you receiving? Everything okay, shall we continue? All right, let's read Romans chapter 3 23 to 26 Romans 3 23 to 26. Yes, could one of us please read that? Romans 3 23 to 26 Yes, anybody Romans 3 23 to 26 Romans 3 23 to 26 for all have seen and fall sort of the glory of God and All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus God presented Christ as a sacrifice for a apartment through the setting of his plot to be received by faith it did he did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his Perverance, he had left the sins committed beforehand Unpunished he did it to Demonstrate his righteousness at the present time So as to be just and the one who justifies through those who have faith in Jesus Man, thank you. Thank you All right, so here Paul is writing to the Romans. He's saying this so wonderfully for all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God now because of sin Because of the cross God could pardon the sinner freely, right, but there were two legal imputations that occurred where Even though God put all his wrath on Jesus He was acting out of his righteous judgment, right? What were the two legal imputations? That was imputed right first one the sins of the world were imputed to the perfect impeccable humanity of who Jesus Christ was and to the perfect righteousness of God Imputed to every believer at the point of salvation Right two legal imputations, right the word impute means to You know, it's basically to fall upon You know to impute to Is to fall upon somebody there were two legal imputations first one the sins of the entire world was Imputed was, you know, put upon Jesus at the cross the perfect man and Because of that the second legal imputation is when we Believe in the Lord Jesus and we accept the Lord Jesus at the point of salvation You and I have the perfect righteousness of God. We are perfectly righteous with God, right We can reconcile two things here even when he God's character has not changed even when he is angry with man's sin God loves man and is concerned about man Right, even though he was angry with sin God loves man Right now, let's let's picture this right some of us Who are parents and what do parents do? They correct a child They, you know, sometimes if there's the correction is not being, you know Followed there are times they will take the next step, right? Probably, you know Give a stricter punishment But just because I punish my son What I say, okay, you know One of the things my son does is he we stay in the apartment and he keeps going down He plays with all the kids down and I tell him this You are not to go to the towards the road because there are vehicles coming there And there was this one time I saw him going near the road And I told him I You know, I told him I was Visibly upset and I said told you not to go towards the road You went towards the road that day so for the next week, you're not going down and playing That was his punishment. So every day he would say I want to go. I said no one week You cannot go down. He said no, I will I will you know obey I will not go said no, but I have to give that period of You know Punishment that has to be there only then you will learn you will learn. I know now you understand but that Period of punishment should be done. Why because I love you. I love my son It's not like I hate him or I Angry with him that I'm not sending him. No, he has to learn right the same way God He loves us But when we sin We're building a wall. He hates the sin. God despises the sin in us Right. So every time we sin we are the Bible says that Do not grieve the Holy Spirit with whom you are sealed for the day of reconciliation When we sin we are Basically, what we are saying is we are crucifying Christ again So that's painful Right, and it's a hard thing to think about imagine we sin. We are the Bible teaches us that they were crucifying Christ again when we said Right, but there is divine love God is You know putting judgment on sin Because he loves us If he didn't love us he didn't care for us He would not have sent his son Jesus To die on the cross for us and he would not have put the sins of the entire world on this one innocent man Just for us. He did it because he loved us But does he love the sin? No, he despises it the Bible even says in a few versions says he abhors the word abhor means to you know Despise it deeply despise abhor it. I hate it right Sometimes you know, there's this saying, you know, I read this in an article in a book says God is love and So because God is love he must also hate meaning right His nature is God is a loving person. He loves us But he hates he despises sin And so we must be assured of that we must think of this and you say okay God It is a love that is true. It is love that is divine. There's a purifying fire It's a love that you know is willing to Leave the 99 and go after that one. It is a love that is so eternal It's so powerful that it draws all people to him, but We can only taste it when we walk With our identity in Christ Right? God is a loving God Atonement teaches us that God wants to make a relationship with us so that he himself made a price Paid the price for us. God wants to have a relationship with us You know one interesting thing is there's no other religion where The whole aspect of God having a relationship with us even Judaism In the old covenant There was no God having a relationship with man when God spoke through his prophets and You know, but but the relationship of being or restored a good relationship only happened through and after the cross I love the book of Romans where it says The first three chapters talks about God's the sin of man and How sin has turned people away from God and chapter three onwards. He starts saying God is faithful and Through his son chapter four. He talks about how you know, we can call him up our father through the Spirit There was a work of redemption. There was a work of reconciliation Redemption means purchased and glorified The court of heaven could not legally release us from bondage and slavery and subjection until a price is paid The courts of heaven meaning heaven himself could heaven could not say, okay, this man is a good man So I let him go Jesus says there's no one good only but God You know in the world that we live in People have come, you know, a lot of young people have spoken, you know that I've spoken to they say I live a good life Right. I I don't I Love my parents. I provide for them. I I love my neighbors. I'm good at my studies. I don't have any bad habits. I don't drink I don't smoke. I don't have any bad friends. I don't use bad language. I don't you watch bad movies I've not into any adultery or I've not into any fornication. I live a good life right now their standards of good is Just by what they do now. What is the problem with that? That means I'm coming to God And to God's presence by my own works. I'm saying I am good Because I don't do this. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't have bad habits. I don't You know watch it. So it's all about me. I'm coming by works Now the court of heaven meaning God himself cannot can say see you're doing all this you're saying you're good Yes, you don't say you don't speak lies. You don't, you know, do all you don't have any bad habits. All that is true but Your nature is sinful Like my nature. You're sinful. You have felt jealous about people. Nobody knows it You have got angry. We have not showed it. Nobody knows it. That's sin You have pride very fact that you're saying that I am not like this. I'm not like that. It's pride So pride is sin again So heaven cannot release you and say, okay, you are righteous because we don't drink. We don't smoke We don't use bad habits. It's not going to happen There's a sin nature in us which has to be dealt with and so what did Jesus do when Christ paid the ramson the price for sin was paid and there was dominion and the dominion of sin or the power of sin and death and Satan was the chains were broken off Now when you say, okay, I Accept Jesus as my personal savior. I'm washed by the blood of Jesus and now we can say I thank God That I don't have any bad habits. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't why Because I'm washed by the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit empowers me. It's not through my own works. So The whole dominion of sin and death can only be broken off by the cross Without the cross not possible right There can be no redemption of people without the payment of price and the cross was the Was an act of redemption The ransom was not something paid to satan. Remember this Right the ransom the price was not paid to satan because God does not owe satan a ransom God owes satan nothing I remember this now and The beginning of time when satan tempted Adam and they fell into temptation God or even before that Pride was found in lucifer and he and his angels were thrown out three fourth of the angels were thrown out from heaven And you know, uh, and so satan and his demons Are thrown out. They are cast out from heaven now It's not like satan is telling okay, wait, I will tempt adam Now adam is fallen because of me All right, so you have to do something for me only then You know People will walk without sin It was not a price paid for satan. The cross was not a price paid for satan. It was not a place of okay Okay, since you tempted adam adam fell now On behalf of that, I will die on the cross. And so now, please don't tempt my people don't You know, don't do anything to my people. No, no, no the The the you know the ransom was paid not for satan, but the ransom was paid for God The ransom was for God for his people satan has nothing to do with this Right, uh, it's it's only what has happened is he's only crushed the enemy even more He has defeated the enemy He's cut off his head. He's his heel has You know broken off the works of the enemy He has been defeated And he will be completely defeated later on when we see in the thousand day after the thousand year millennium in revelations He will be thrown and casted to the lake of fire. He knows his end, right? So he's already defeated through the cross. He's he's completely defeated Right. So the price was paid not to satan But for God's righteous judgment Right. Mankind was redeemed from the life Of curse that is from living under the law to living under grace We are now redeemed from the fall And we begin to enjoy the blessings Redemption teaches us that God desires so much to restore us That he himself would pay a price to make it possible Romans chapter five talks about how How the sins of one man Brought sin into the entire world But through Jesus Christ this All the sins of the world the last atom he took it up on the cross and we all have redemption through him One man's obedience disobedient many became sinners, but one man's obedience Many became righteous one man sinned death passed into many and one man was sinless Many received eternal life One man was disobedient judgment was passed on many One man was obedient and there was everyone was made righteous One man sinned many became slaves One man was obedient and many have become children of God One man sinned many lost the sonship One man obeyed many regained that sonship You see that complete you know everything was reversed So that's you know that whole portion in Romans Romans five talks about the reversal that happened right and so God has done these wonderful things the cross made it making it powerful There are so many blessings that we receive through the cross The the challenge that we face in the world that we're living in now is one To believe it because it's foolishness to those who are perishing it's foolishness. It's not going to make sense One is to believe that is the first challenge two Is to walk in that belief Because remember the enemy is going to come and he is going to make us feel that everything That we know about the cross is just a story Or it's just something that happened many years ago And you know, we don't really it doesn't really make sense or he may say it's a wonderful story You know the enemy has his ways of deceiving people As this writer who says who wrote about you know a couple of writers they said that You know Forget his name, but the name of the book is the last imitation of Jesus Christ by Nicholas He's got a complicated last name Struss on the Corvill or something right? It's a French name But Nicholas the last temptation of Jesus Christ and in that book He writes that when Jesus was on the cross He looked up to the father and he said can you give me one more opportunity? I want to Live a life and experience the things of this world And so in the book it says that God the Lord Jesus got down from the cross And the body of somebody else was replaced to look like Jesus Jesus went with Mary Magdalene They went away to another nation He got married they had children And Jesus died in in an old age And the book became so famous that they made a movie out of it Now whose work is this The enemy knows his ways to deceive people many people believe it There's another writer An Indian man, I forget his name, but he wrote that you know, there's proof that Jesus escaped the cross and reached Kashmir and even went to Nepal There's proof. I don't know what proof that is but he says there's proof And these are and they have big followers Then there are other people in the west Who say that you know, they are very incarnated Jesus So as of now as we are speaking there are Apparently something to laugh about but it's serious Because the enemy is deceiving people As of now there are three people who claim to be the reincarnated Jesus Christ One is in Australia One is in the US and one is in Uh, I think Mexico So they all three say I'm Jesus reincarnated Now who's who we don't know Right, but one thing we know is the Bible teaches us that the Lord Jesus Will come on the clouds. He's a glorified Jesus Right, and we read the book of revelations chapter 2 Chapter 1 End of chapter 1 it describes the appearance of Jesus and he says I saw one who was The lamb of God His eyes were like blazing fire. His hair was like wool his feet like burnished grass And out of his mouth came a double edged sword and when John the disciple who used to put his Hand or place his head on Jesus's bosom at all times John that same disciple sees it and says he fell at his feet as if dead Now Picture this people are coming and saying I'm Jesus All of these things This is the work of the enemy. This is deceiving spirits that the devil is You know releasing in the nation. He wants people to believe it Oh, maybe he is a reincarnated Jesus. No The enemy wants people to believe these things, but you and I We know the holy spirit in us Brings revelation Brings reveals the truth in our hearts Right, so we thank God for that Let's go on to the next portion Chapter 19 the power and the blessings of the cross. Let's look at a few aspects and then We'll see what we can learn from here, right? Now we know that the cross is a powerful thing, right now. It's not about wearing a cross And saying okay, it's powerful. It's not about just looking at a cross and saying wow, it's powerful. No It is to understand what happened Remember what the book of james says Even demons believe there's one god and they shudder Demons also believe what jesus did demons also know, you know, but their belief is an empty belief They know what jesus did on the cross. They know that they defeated Yet Why is it that they don't have the power they don't have the blessings of the cross because it is an empty belief What we are going to talk about is The power and the blessings of the cross will be released upon his children to those who believe In him those who believe in what he did for us So to understand the cross or the power of cross we must understand This word called identification right What is identification, you know, sometimes we say So for example Somebody is, you know Gone through a very rough childhood right say for example this person named David he's gone through Very rough childhood. He's lost his parents at a young age But somehow, you know, some people looked after him. He grew up. He finished school. He finished college He started his work and he began to do well Years later david becomes a preacher Right just an example, right? Or he becomes a motivational speaker Right and And he meets somebody else And he meets this person named john And john says, you know David at a young age I lost my parents and I I'm still in this process of you know healing and there's nobody to look after me I'm still in college. So what is david going to say David is going to say hey, I I I identify with you I I know what you're feeling because I went through the exact same problem Right, that's that's I just use this example to help us understand identification So I say david says hey, john, I identify your problem I identify I identify with you because even when I was growing up I lost my parents and I you know how to go to school Go through college without them and it was very difficult. But here's what I did Right. So I'm I'm identifying that person now. What did Jesus do in terms of identification? Hebrews chapter 2 was 10 11 and 14. I'll just read that Jesus identified with uh, okay, let's read that Hebrews chapter 2 10 11 and 14. Yes, could one of us please read that um Hebrews chapter 2 10 11 and verse 14 Yes, any one of us please go ahead Hebrews 2 10 11 and 14 Sally would you mind reading it if you're There's your question Okay, Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10 For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom Sorry for it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom Whom are all things in bringing many sounds to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect true suffering For both he who sentifies and those who are being sentified Are all of one for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren verse 14 In as much then as the children have Partaken of flesh and blood He himself like was shared in the same the truth that he might destroy him Who had the power of the dead that is the devil? Hey, man. Thank you. Sally right. So here Hebrews chapter 2 10 11 and 14. Let's look at what we can understand from this right Firstly, uh, we see that Jesus identified with his birth Right, uh, Jesus identified with us in his birth so now All of us have been born into this world right now Jesus was Before the creation of the world Right, he was there. He was the one who created the heavens and the earth But how did Jesus identify with us? Jesus Identified with us in his birth He decided Now Jesus didn't decide. Okay. Um, I'll just come into this world as a 17 year old young man Stay in this world for maybe, you know another Couple of years Do a few miracles do choose the disciples to he could have done everything even if he had come when he was 17 years old Yes, all of us agree with that right 18 17 18 even if he was 20 years old Jesus could have come and he was 20 Uh, you know by the time 10 years of preparation 30 started his ministry Three and a half years done everything that he that we read about in his ministry Right, uh, but he didn't do that. He identified With us in his birth Right, so he became a human being He was born Like a baby. He was he was in his mother's womb for nine months The conception was a miracle But the process was natural Nine months the baby grew in the stomach Right Now he identified us with us in his birth so that we could be identified with him in his death Now the same way he died He didn't die in his spirit He died in his body Right and through his death Even when we die We are identifying with his death Right so that we could be identified with him in his death So because of his death We are identified in him So he can say I know how painful it is He has tasted death for us He has tasted being a child And he has tasted being The things of this world And he has tasted death for us So that We can be identified with him Now we we looked at all of this previously as well You know, there was no use of god, you know, jesus just came And then after one week being crucified and he dies No, there's no there's no identification there satan would have said what is this he came for one week He's just living I didn't get an opportunity to tempt you in every way. I didn't get an opportunity I would have made sure that you would have sin Satan can come and say that but now satan has no grounds He had 33 and a half years All his attempts failed Right we can identify here with him in his death Jesus became like unto us so that he could represent us on the cross He he became like us Jesus had the same human features right And we looked about it looked at it last class as well in Isaiah that There was nothing that was beautiful or very great about him Right And so he became like us What was jesus doing he was doing his father's business helping out his father The book of james Says that you know mark also says Uh when they all came and saw that this man is talking full of wisdom They asked him Which school did you go to which where did you get his education or his teaching from? Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't he the carpenter and the carpenter's son aren't his brothers with us And his sisters as well Right they identified with jesus Just not like jesus was somewhere sitting in the mountains and no they he identified with people He people identified him Being god he was willing to drop down to that level In the mind of god we were in him on the cross Wow, this is so wonderful imagine God is crucifying his own son Jesus is on the cross sinless man But in the father's mind As he's looking at the cross from heaven He's seeing all of us All our sins All our shame all our guilt our condemnation our sicknesses and our Diseases everything he's seen in the cross. He's not seeing his son He's not seeing okay. This is my beloved son He's seeing us And jesus in the cross He's seeing as if we were in jesus On the cross. So he's putting all the judgment upon him What happened to christ on the cross happened to you and me because we were in him only thing We didn't have to experience it We didn't have to experience that painful death You know, what about people who are believers who are going through painful death Going through difficulty. You know, I know a lot of you know, well meaning very Good believers Who have gone through painful times of cancer? You know the fourth stage they've been so You know painful times chemo and radiation and all of these things and Their body has just been so weak and it is very very painful to see these things But you know what the best part was each and every one of them Were joyful That even if death passes Even if death comes I would be with the lord forever So none of them were fearful of death Yes, there was pain There was intense pain being in the hospitals being in the going through these radiations and chemo and all these Medicines and adverse effects on the body. Yes, there was pain But Through that pain, they still had an assurance That you know, I remember this one person this man he was diagnosed suddenly with fourth stage cancer and He went through a very difficult time He was a young man in his early 40s Went through very difficult times of chemo and radiation. He was doing well Then again, it became malignant again. It started spreading But throughout the whole ordeal even through all that pain. One of the things he told me was I am desiring to see Jesus as he is So that is surpassing all the pain That that weight that joy of waiting to see Jesus I would know I will see him face to face. I will be with him That joy was surpassing the intense pain of coughing blood and all these things in the hospital That is the difference What happened to Christ on the cross happened to you and me because we were in him On the cross Jesus Christ broke sin's power of of over our lives Now when we are in Christ the power of sin has been defeated Are we sinners right now? No But if we have fallen into sin or we are living a life of sin It is because we are allowing the enemy Or giving him access into our lives But the scriptures in roman chapter 6 teaches us that the power of sin has been defeated over our lives Imagine there's a temptation that's coming coming. It's coming. It's getting stronger It's getting stronger and as a believer you're trying your best not to fall into that temptation but When we stand on this truth The power of sin has been defeated. We ask the holy spirit to empower us We will be able to overcome any temptation Doesn't matter what kind of temptation we'll be able to overcome it Right There are three things in terms of The power of sin broken in our lives first thing we must know it We must know in our hearts that okay the power of sin has been broken Two We must reckon this to be true. This should be an absolute fact now There will be times when the enemy will come and say No last time You Fell for sin. You were you did this such a wrong thing And now you're praying. What will God think of you? What will God say Right. Do you think God can forgive such a terrible sin that you have made? And what is the enemy doing? He's putting guilt. He's putting condemnation This is the time we must know That the power of sin in our lives has been defeated Remember what we studied God does not owe Satan anything Nor do you and I owe Satan anything Because we are God's children. We don't owe Satan. We don't owe him even an explanation Oh Satan actually that time you had come with the stronger demons, but now I'll be able to we don't have to explain it We must know our standing in God To must know it as we should reckon this to be true The enemy will say last time you sin this time also you can sin And you can continue it because it's not going to help you anyway by you know walking in the truth That is the time we say no I reckon this truth that the power of sin Of sin and my life has been defeated Three we must walk in this truth I'm not saying that we will not face temptations But when we know these three no walk and reckon the power of Of of Satan the power of sin over our lives will be broken Right, so let's take this example. So if the enemy comes and puts a thought into our mind, you know What you can do? You can you know just commit suicide better, you know Just end your life so that You know, uh, you don't have to go through all these challenges go through all these difficulties put an end to all this You know you're living in debt You have these problems that problem and you're living in sin. Anyway, you're not pleasing God through what you're doing Why don't you just end your life? Now when this comes remember, it's the work of the enemy. What must we do? We must know what Jesus said The power of sin has been defeated. We must reckon it. We must say no I'm not going to obey or I'm not going to take this thought We must overpower it with the word of God three. We must walk in that truth When we do these things We'll know that the power of the enemy has been defeated Right, so we'll stop here And we will continue from next week from On the cross how Christ annulled the power of the enemy. So we'll stop here And we'll pick up from next week. All right. Can we just close in prayer, please? Isaac, is it okay if you can please close in prayer? Yes, pastor. I'll try. Yes, go ahead. And I want to thank you for this wonderful time we have together I want to glorify your name I want to ask you to continue to bless our faculties our pastors who are impacting knowledge, you know I want to ask for that father god that he give us the receptive heart so that we hear Obey listen can implement your words so that we also will be a blessing to others Who want to thank you for every other thing that you are doing for the ministry and for apc Father want to thank you. I want to glorify your name. May your name be glorified from eternity to eternity These are every other Help ask in the name of our lord and savior Jesus christ. Thank you father. Thank you God bless us all Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Isaac. Thank you everyone For joining have a great week ahead. See you next week. God bless