155: David Zammit - Exhortation: Changing Hearts

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to Good Christadelphian Talks. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. And I'm Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week, with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to listen to.

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   And now, let's talk more about this week's talk. This talk was an exhortation by Brother David Zamet given in June to the Moore Bank Ecclesia. Outside of Sydney. I really enjoyed this talk. He does a lot of interesting things that make this talk kind of easy to listen to. It's an exploration of the verse in Malachi about how Elijah turns the heart of the children to the fathers.

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   And he kind of examines this by looking at, you know, imagining what it would be like for Isaac to be brought back to life in the kingdom and learn about the, you know, the sinfulness of his children, but the eventual hope that we all have through the Lord Jesus Christ. So, it's a really fun and compelling talk.

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   Easy to listen to that I found very helpful and was excited to share. This is a, this talk was a suggestion. So, thank you to the person who sent this in. Please do contact us with anything that you think is worth sharing to the email address or on our social channels. I really appreciate the suggestions that we get.

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   So, here is Brother David Zamet, Changing Hearts. Well, thanks, Brother Brandon. And good morning, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the story of Israel is really the story of the Bible, isn't it? I mean, you could summarize it like this, that God made special promises to a man named Abraham.

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   And that promise was passed down to his descendants. And so, that was passed down to people like Isaac and Jacob and Levi and Moses. And they became the fathers of Israel. Unfortunately, many of the children of Israel departed from God and lost the faith. And God pleaded with Israel, you know, sending prophets to bring them back.

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   But it got to such a point that God ended up having to exile, sending those people into exile. And then, but, you know, there's a time of, I guess, about 2,000 years where God has allowed that time where there was blindness. It says blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

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   And so, it allowing us to become part of that family of Jacob, that family of Israel. And then, in the future, there's going to be a massive restoration, a beautiful restoration of Israel. And if you read the Old Testament, it just keeps jumping out at you that the focus of the Scriptures is really looking forward to that time when Israel is restored.

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   And all Israel, both Jews and Gentiles, are brought together in the kingdom. And so, we come to the, it's in that context we look at Malachi chapter 4. In Malachi chapter 4, it ends on those verses 5 and 6, which are, you know, like a very powerful verses or powerful to me. Where it says, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Yahweh.

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    And it says there, and this is his, this is going to be Elijah's purpose there. It says, he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. And that last phrase there, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse, basically saying, if the world was allowed to carry on, and there's going to be no change in God's people, well, then he might as well just bring about a flood and destroy the place.

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    But it's not going to be like that, because there is going to be a change. There's going to be a huge change in the children of Israel, as indeed there will be a change in the people who remain on the earth, and change for the better. And so what I want to focus on this exhortation is that phrase there, he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

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    And so we think, what does that mean? What does that really mean? What's that got to do with us? So to help us, I've seen some explanations. We're talking about turning the hearts of the fathers to children. It's talking about a time when families will be united and so forth. And I don't think it's talking about that, because when you, let's just come with me into the New Testament.

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    Come over to, you don't have to go very far, to Luke chapter 1. We're given a little bit of a definition of what that means, because we want to know who are the fathers and who are the children here that it's talking about here. So Luke chapter 1 and verse 16, it's talking about John the Baptist here.

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    It's saying, he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. Okay, so here we go. So John the Baptist is a type of Elijah. He was a forerunner. John the Baptist came 2,000 years ago and preached to the generation of Jews that were in the time of Jesus.

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    Elijah will come in the future, who will preach to the Jews who are going to be gathered from all around the world and brought into the land. Okay, but so, but the work of John the Baptist is similar. It says that he would turn many of the children of Israel to God. So that, that's the purpose there.

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    But then he says, it says in verse 17, it says, he will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah. That's because that's what Elijah is going to do. And he quotes from Malachi chapter 4. It says, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. So that's directly quoted there.

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    But then he, but then he sort of translates or changes the, the next bit a little bit. Instead of saying and turning the hearts of the children to the fathers, he says, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make a ready, a people prepared for the Lord. So, so we can define who the children are.

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    So when it says he's going to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, the children defined as the disobedient. In other words, the disobedient children of Israel who had departed from the faith of their fathers, their fathers being the patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So the prophecy tells us that when Elijah is raised from the dead, he's going to, his job is to turn hearts.

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    He's going to turn the hearts of a future generation of Israelites to the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I mean, Jesus said, Elijah will truly come and will restore all things. The apostle spoke about a future when the Lord Jesus Christ will bring about a restoration of all things. It's going to be a time of great conversion when there will be a true repentance amongst the Israeli population around the world.

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    They will acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and as their Messiah. But the real enigma of that verse in Malachi 4 is the bit that says that Elijah will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. What does that mean? Like, I mean, if you think about that in that sense, what does it mean to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children?

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    Like, in what way does Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob need to have their hearts turned? It's an interesting question. And that's the bit I want to explore now. To help us understand this, I want you to use your imagination a bit. I want you to picture yourselves in the shoes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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    So you lived your life, you know, thousands of years ago. You lived your life in faith. You made mistakes in your life, but you always leaned on God. You lived a life in faith, waiting for the kingdom of God to come. And you reached the end of your life and died a good old age.

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    But now I want you to specifically imagine yourself as the old man Jacob. You're in your deathbed in Egypt. You've had a very difficult life, raising 12 sons from four different women, living in a family of bitter envy. You suffered persecution from your father-in-law and your brother Esau. Your wife dies in childbirth.

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    You thought that you had lost your favorite son, Joseph, when he was just a young man. Your sons had lied to you about Joseph and held on to that lie for many years. But at your deathbed, you put that all behind you because you could see a change in your 12 sons. They're now different men.

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    Having experienced hard, you know, difficult lessons in their own life. You see their children and their children's children born. And in your final words, you passed on your advice to your family. And you die with the expectation that your descendants would be faithful to God. Now, what I want you to do now, I want you to imagine you are Jacob in the resurrection.

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    You wake up. As I say, you wake up. You're raised from the dead. You're mortal. But you're raised from the dead. Three and a half thousand years of history have passed over that. But to you, it seemed like just a moment in time. You look around you and there's people you recognize. You recognize your 12 sons.

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    You see, and the daughters that were born to you. You greet your wives, Leah and Rachel. You're happy to see them again. And you embrace your concubines, Zilpah and Bilhah. You look around. There's my father, Isaac, and my mother, Rebecca. And after reuniting with your immediate family, you look and you find Abraham.

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    Abraham, your grandfather, who died when you were only 15 years old. And then you start asking questions. Because the last thing you remember is your last breath whilst lying in a bed in Egypt. You died knowing that God would lead your family into the promised land. And so you're keen. You don't know what's happened.

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    I mean, just think about it. I don't know if you've ever thought about this before. But people like that. They don't know what happened. We've got the benefit of hindsight. We've got the Bible to say what happened. They don't. And so they're raised from the dead. They're keen to know how it all went.

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    So you soon meet your great grandson, Moses, who tells you about the 10 plagues in Egypt and how God miraculously delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt.

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    But then you learn about this tragedy in the wilderness, how your children rebelled in the wilderness. And a whole generation died without faith. You then learn about this man Joshua, how he led the children of Israel into the promised land and conquered the land through great acts of faith.

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    But then, you know, and you can imagine the smile on your face. This is a good story. And then you learn about the period of the judges, how Israel just did what they thought was right in their own eyes. And it's this mixture of faith and tragedy. You learn about these Gentile women like Rahab and Ruth who took on the faith of the patriarchs.

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    But then you learn also about the majority of Israel who turned away from God to worship idols. And so what happens next, he wonders? He goes searching for other Israelites because he wants to know what happened. And eventually meets up with people like David, like Jeremiah, Malachi. And they're really happy to meet you because remember, you're Jacob, right?

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    You're the resurrected Jacob. They're really happy to meet you because they've been really wanting to meet this man. But as you're discussing things, you're asking questions and you're trying to piece together what happened to your people. You learn that Israel had a civil war and the nation divided into two. And eventually things got so bad that God had to expel Israel and Judah out of the land because of gross idolatry.

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    And so you are really confused now. I know I'm using my imagination here, but think about it. He doesn't know what's happened. So he thinks about, he's confused. What about the seed? What about the seed, the promised seed? Where's he? And you learn that he was born 2000 years ago and was sent to preach the gospel and to save Israel from their sins.

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    And you're happy that he was born. You think this is going to be a good news story. Surely the nation came good because of this savior. Surely they would have embraced him. But now you're even more perplexed.

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    You said, tell me again, what did you just say? He was killed. My people killed him. No way. And he's shaking. You can imagine. You'd be shaking. You'd be thinking, why on earth would they do such a thing? How could they kill God's shepherd? And then finally, you, Jacob, are introduced to the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

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    You bow down and kiss his feet. But he embraces you. As he was looking forward to the day of meeting you. And he looks you in the eye. And suddenly you feel this energy come into your body. You feel this warmth. And you realize you've been changed. You are now immortal. You now have the divine power.

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    The divine nature is you. But you still have questions. What happened to Israel? Is the nation still there? And you learn that 40 years after the Messiah came, that they were destroyed by the Romans. And the remainder were sent captive into all nations. You learn about their hardships. But then you learn that in the year 1948, whatever that means to Jacob, the year 1948, they returned to their land.

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    Some did. Not all. Some returned to the land. But you learn it was not in the belief of the Messiahship of Jesus. They didn't return there for religious reasons. They returned there to become agriculturists. They emigrated there as agriculturists and traders in the hope of ultimately establishing their commonwealth. But more immediately of getting rich in silver and gold.

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    Sound familiar? Help us, Israel. You inquire about them and see that this generation of Israel had also forgotten God. So much so that the modern nation of Israel had fallen into the depths, the depths of immorality. And someone pulls out a Bible. He wants to do the exit. Someone pulls out a Bible, whether it be on a phone or a bit of, you know, in a book like this, and shows Jacob a prophecy about Israel.

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    I just want to share this with you. Ezekiel chapter 39. So Jacob is shown this prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 39 about modern-day Israel. Let's turn to Ezekiel 39.

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    You've got a future chairman. I think he wants to be a chairman. Ezekiel 39 verse 22. Jacob's shown this prophecy. Verse 22. It says, So the house of Israel shall know that I am Yahweh their God from that day forward. The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they were unfaithful to me.

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    Therefore I hid my face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. And you think, well, okay, was that talking about a past generation? Is that talking about AD 70? Is that talking about a modern generation? Because it says they were unfaithful to me.

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    But then we read on a little bit in verse 25. It says, Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel. I will be jealous for my holy name. When? After they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness, in which they were unfaithful to me.

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    When? When they dwelt safely in their own land, and no one made them afraid. It's talking about the modern generation. The modern generation of Israel is going to fall into the depths of immorality. I think it's something that is yet to get worse before it gets better. Because the time of peace and safety hasn't happened yet.

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    I believe that time of peace and safety will happen when we are at the judgment seat. And so, as a father of this nation, you're shaking. You can't believe it. You think, What happened to my children? Why did they do this? How could they abandon God? How could they kill his son? And, These are not my children, he'd be thinking.

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    These are not my children. No way. These are not my children. I refuse to believe it. And he's feeling ashamed of them. Now, sure, you, being Jacob, had been let down by your children in past times. Yeah, you look, you were ashamed of Simeon and Levi when they just, when they deceived and massacred the nation, the men of Shechem.

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    So much so, you felt like disowning them at the time for the bad name that they gave you in the community. Sure, you were ashamed of Reuben when he slept with your concubine. Sure, it was hard to forgive your sons when they deceived you about Joseph and what they did to him.

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    But Jacob's heart was, was turned to them when he saw the genuine repentance as they learned, as his sons learned from their mistakes. But how can he call this generation of Jews, his children? They haven't learned from their mistakes or the mistakes of their father, fathers. And so, we have a huge problem because we have a father, Jacob, who is ashamed of his latter-day children.

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    And Jacob wants to distance himself from the nation of Israel, both, both past and modern. Now, you might be thinking, Dave, you're, you're really stretching your imagination here. This is a bit far-fetched. I can't really get this. Is Jacob really, really going to be feeling like this? Well, I want to show you that he will feel like this because I want you to turn to Isaiah 29.

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    This is all trying to explain what does it mean turning the hearts of the fathers to the children. Isaiah 29. Isaiah 29, just to give a little bit of context, is a prophecy about the siege of Jerusalem. And when you read Isaiah, Isaiah is very confusing because in the same, almost the same verse, the prophecy can span multiple time periods.

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    It can jump from one to the other. And so, and you can see a bit of AD 70 in this chapter. and you can also see the future siege that is yet to happen. So, just for example, just to give you a bit of context, verse 13 in Isaiah 29, there's a verse that Jesus quotes.

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    It says, inasmuch as these people draw near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from me. And isn't that interesting because that's, that goes along with Malachi. You know, there's, there's a, that Jesus at his time, there was a generation of Jews who gave lip service to God and did everything to look good, but their heart was very far from God.

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    And so, so, when you see the context of the siege of Jerusalem in this chapter, you think, all right, AD 70, I can see where that fits in, in that. And then you have verse 10, which, where it talks, God talks about a period, there's going to be a period of deep sleep that's going to go on Israel.

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    Well, the apostle Paul quotes that in Romans chapter 11. He talks about a spirit of stupor, a blindness is in part that's happening in Israel. So, it's talking about the time when, when Israel would be asleep, it's talking about the last 2,000 years, allowing the Gentiles to come in. It's Romans 11. And then, but then you read verse 5, verse 5 talks about a multitude of your foes, a multitude of nations, and, and uses the word chaff, for fine dust, they shall be as chaff that passes away.

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    They'll come, the invading nation will come instantly and suddenly. Verse 6 talks about thunder, earthquakes, storm, and tempest. Does that remind you of Ezekiel 38? A multitude of nations? AD 70, I only remember one nation invading. But here, this is the siege is talking about a multitude of nations. Verse 7 mentions about a night vision.

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    This is the latter day invasion of Israel is talking about. Now, why am I talking about this? The verses 17, from verse 17 onwards, is a prophecy of restoration. Not only the restoration, I guess, of Israel, and you find that the more you read the Old Testament, the more you'll see the prophecies of the restoration there.

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    But verse 22 is the one I want to focus on here. Because it says, it says, therefore, thus says Yahweh who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob. That's Israel.

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    It says, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now grow pale. But when he sees his children, the work of my hands in his midst, they will hallow my name and will hallow the Holy One of Jacob and fear the God of Israel. These also who erred in spirit will come to understanding and those who murmured will learn doctrine.

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    So there's a, I, this is a prophecy that's yet to be fulfilled. And I think it's more than just a figure of speech. I believe this is a personal prophecy about the man Jacob. It says that he will no longer be ashamed ashamed. And that's because there will be a time when he will be ashamed.

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    His heart needs to be converted to accept his children again. And so, and, and, and that's only going to be, that's only going to happen when the Jews are converted. the one third of the Jews who survive Armageddon in the land, there's going to be a great repentance when they realize that Jesus is their new king.

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    That's the time when Isaiah 53 will be fulfilled. I know I've said this before, but Isaiah 53 is not a prophecy about the sufferings of Christ. Ooh, that sounds a bit harsh. Isaiah 53 is not a prophecy about the sufferings of Christ. Isaiah 53 is a prophecy that is yet to be fulfilled.

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    It's a prophecy about Jews looking back at what they did to the Messiah. Of course, it tells us about the sufferings of Christ. Don't get me wrong, but really what it is, it's a prophecy about the Jews looking back and feeling bad about what they did. It's a true repentance about what they did to the Messiah.

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    And it's their acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ in the future. Now, Malachi 4 specifically states that it will be Elijah who turns the hearts of the Jews. And his work will be with scattered Israel, the Jews living in the other nations. And he will gather them together and what we know, what we've termed as the second exodus, and at that time, the Jews from all around the world, this is after Arm again, all around the world will be brought into the land.

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    They'll be brought through the wilderness of the peoples and make it to the promised land. And at that time, their hearts will be turned. And when the resurrected and immortal Jacob sees the result of that work, that will be the point at which the hearts of their father Jacob will be turned back to them.

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    Their father will no longer be ashamed of his children. Now, you might be wondering why it is the work of Elijah to turn the hearts of scattered Israel. I mean, why not Jacob himself? Why not Moses? After all, Moses led the first exodus. Why is it Elijah is the one chosen to do this role?

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    I think to help us answer that, have a quick look at 1 Kings chapter 18. In 1 Kings 18, you may remember Israel, this is talking about the time of Israel, at the time when they were very misled by their king, Ahab, and perhaps more so by Jezebel, his wife. And it was Elijah's heart's desire to convert Israelites back to God.

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    They had fallen very, very far from God. Israel. And you may remember the events on Mount Carmel. All Israel had gathered together to witness the contest between Baal and Yahweh. And that day, Elijah prayed and fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. and on that occasion, Elijah said the following prayer.

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    Let's have a look at 1 Kings 18 and verse 36. This is his prayer. It says, And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done these things at your word.

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    And here's the essence of his prayer. Hear me, O Yahweh, hear me, that this people may know that you are Yahweh God and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. And you can see, so the reason he did this, he just wanted to turn the hearts of the people back to the fathers, back to the faith of the fathers, back to God.

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    And Elijah really believed that this would be the moment that God would turn the hearts of Israel. He thought that the miracle of fire would do the trick.

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    Unfortunately, he was bitterly disappointed. In fact, he got so depressed, so depressed after that when that didn't happen. But God will fulfill Elijah's wish in the future. And the future holds a different picture. Come with me to Isaiah, back to Isaiah 2, 2, and I think this is the last verse we'll turn up.

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    Isaiah 2, and it's the vision that God gives the Jews. It's one that we know really well. Isaiah 2, verse 1, it says, the word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

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    Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of Yahweh's house shall be established on top of the mountains. It shall be exalted above the hills. All nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh to the house of the God of Jacob.

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    I just want you to notice how many times the name Jacob appears here, right? He will teach us his ways. He will walk, we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations shall rebuke many people.

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    They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. And here we have a beautiful vision of the kingdom of God. It will be a time when all the remaining Jews will become God's people and Elijah's work of turning hearts will be complete when he has played a role in turning their hearts back to their fathers.

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    You know, the man Elijah was depressed and disappointed after the events at Mount Carmel, but he will be given the privilege of working out the desire of his heart to convert people back to God. And in this vision, we see people from all over the world wanting to come to Jerusalem to worship the God of Jacob.

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    And in the kingdom, it will be our role also to turn the hearts of ignorant Gentiles to believing in the one true God of Israel. It's going to be very different to the godless world that we currently live in. It's almost hard to believe that such a change could take place. Are you looking forward to this work of converting people?

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    I am. But, you know, the work of turning hearts is not an easy thing. Elijah learned a hard lesson in Mount Carmel that day because he thought that by impressing people, that would convert hearts. But impressing people doesn't convert hearts. You know, at the seminars, we teach the gospel. We appeal to the intellect of people so that they learn about the one God.

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    they may be impressed by the knowledge that is imparted to them. They may be confident that what we preach is, in fact, the truth. However, conversion doesn't happen until their heart is turned over to God. And for some, their conversion comes. It comes when they see the love shared by brothers and sisters and the way we interact with each other.

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    Would I say that was true of George and Nabi? Would I say that happened at the Katoomba weekend when you saw how we interacted? I think that, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that played a big role in their conversion. It's the same, and they say, I want to be part of that community.

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    It's the same with our children too. They need to go through a heart conversion process. And it's the same with us, brothers and sisters. We might be impressed by the wonderful creation that God has given us. We might be impressed by the structure of his word and the gems found in scripture. We might be awestruck by the prophecies of the Bible that are coming true before our eyes, but it's not until our hearts are turned to him that we can be called his sons and daughters.

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    And we soon realize that we can't make people turn to God. It's either in their heart or it isn't. We will do our best to encourage them, but we can't force it upon them. You know, in that passage we just read there in Isaiah 2, it's in a context of Israel falling right away from, actually Judah, falling right away from God.

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    And God slips in this vision of the kingdom, say, this is what you're going to become in the future. I just want to give you this positive message of what you're going to become. And so he tries to encourage them by a vision of the kingdom and showing how important it is for you as Israelites to live by example.

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    Because if you live by God's example, then if you live by example, others in the nations will follow you. They will come to Jerusalem because of what you believe.

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    And he appeals to them in verse 5, if you've still got that open. Look what he says. This is in the context. We quite often know verses 1 to 4, but we don't know verse 5. It says, O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Yahweh. That's the appeal he gives to them.

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    Because big things could happen if you do that. God will try and lead his people, but he won't force people into the kingdom. it's got to be something they want to do. You can't force someone to do it unless they want to do it. And I guess that's true with most things in life, isn't it?

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    It's just like the doctor telling you that you need to eat healthily and exercise more. And unless it's in your heart to get better and you're determined to do it, you're not going to do it. There's no point someone forcing you to do that.

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    Salvation is a personal choice, brothers and sisters. The creator did not make us into robots. He gave us a heart and a mind to choose him or not to choose him. He gave us free will. God wants volunteers to be in his family, not conscripts. And God's still reaching out and calling for a people for his name.

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    He wants to be our God and he wants us to be his people. We all made a choice at our baptism to follow him. nobody made us do it.

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    We're about to break bread in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation. This is a good time for self- assessment. Are our hearts right with God? God's God's really struggling at the moment? Are we like the children of Israel who gave God lip service and whose hearts were far from him?

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    Or do we serve God with a good and honest heart? God's God's God. If you are struggling to keep your heart focused on the kingdom of God, you're not alone. I'm struggling too. I sometimes feel like the cares of this life are just choking the word that's been planted inside of me. The best advice I can offer you, if that is you too, is to pray about it.

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    Ask the Father for help and recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ is working in your life as he's working in mine. He will answer your prayers and help you. Just put it out to God. Say that you're struggling. Turn my heart towards you. Just to conclude, I'd like us to imagine now at that judgment seat, that the resurrected Jacob, I want you to imagine him bumping into you at the judgment seat.

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    And he asks you why you chose to become part of his family. He asks you, what is it? Why did you choose to become part of? Because we are part of Jacob's family, aren't we? We're adopted into that family because Jacob's family is God's family.

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    And how are you going to answer that? Perhaps you will tell him how impressed you were with the scriptures of truth. Perhaps you will tell him how the accuracy of Bible prophecy convinced you that God was going to provide you with a better world in the future. Perhaps you will tell him how your heart was moved by the love of the creator God towards his creation.

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    And that's why you answered his calling. Why were you converted, brothers and sisters? Or maybe the question should be, what will it take for you to be converted?

98. 44:25

    What will it take for us to turn our hearts to God? God? And perhaps now it is a good time to stand at the foot of the cross. And we look at the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross who willingly gave himself to die, not for himself. He gave himself to die so that sinners can be forgiven and so that people like us can take of that tree of life.

99. 44:59

    He did it for you and he did it for all the seed of Jacob, for all of Jacob's children. He went to such great lengths to save us, brothers and sisters. That's how much he wants us in the kingdom. That's how much God wants us in the kingdom.

100. 45:18

     Would you organize that sort of death for your son for nothing? For nothing? That's how much God loves you and me, brothers and sisters. That's how much he wants us. Our hearts are touched by the knowledge that the God of the universe is calling us and wants us to be in his kingdom.

101. 45:45

     What a wonderful thing it is, brothers and sisters, that we have the God of Jacob on our side. where else would we want to be?

102. 46:13

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103. 46:29

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104. 46:58

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