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Shortly after Israel’s exodus from Egypt, God gave Moses instructions on how to approach him in the tabernacle, and it was only one way, through the blood of sacrifices for their sins. From then on, Israelites brought their animal sacrifices to the tabernacle, and then to the temple, that is until the temple was destroyed. What should they do now?
Well, the Book of Hebrews tells us that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin, and so God established a new way to cover sins. When Jesus died for our sins, he made himself the sacrifice. One offering for all time.
No more animal sacrifices. Nothing else had to die. Imagine how the Jews took the news that they didn’t have to sacrifice.
It was a new day. Welcome to the Sunday Sermon on Through the Bible. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’m glad that you’ve hopped aboard the Bible bus for another study with our teacher, Dr. J.
Vernon McGee. Our focus is in the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel, chapters 40 to 42, where we’ll learn that during the millennium, there will be a new temple and a return to the sacrificial system. And you know this raises so many questions, doesn’t it?
If Jesus came to give himself for our sins, why then will there be a return to the sacrificial system during the millennium? What does that mean? Well, stay with us as Dr. McGee answers these questions in his sermon, The Millennial Temple, Why the Sacrifices.
Let’s pray. Father, thank you for the ultimate sacrifice of your Son, Jesus Christ. Would you speak to us through your word and then seal your truth to our hearts.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
Here’s the Sunday sermon on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
In this very enigmatic passage of Scripture, Ezekiel 40 to 48, among the many strange features that are to be re-instituted during the millennium, will be the great Passover feast. In Ezekiel 45, verse 21, I read, In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days, unleavened bread shall be eaten. And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.
The word of God presents a day which is coming in the future, when God will establish his kingdom here upon this earth under the personal reign of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament has more to say about that than any other subject. That is the great pulsating hope of the Old Testament.
It is what the poet has called the far-off purpose of God toward which all creation is moving. And today, this morning, this world that you and I are living in is waiting for that day. The physical creation, we are told, is actually groaning and prevailing in pain, waiting for that day to whip, the day of adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
A day that’s coming and right now creation is groaning. I sat yesterday morning up at Acorn Lodge. I sat out on the porch and I listened to the wind as it was blowing through those pine trees.
Have you ever listened to that? That’s not high soprano. That’s not baritone.
It’s not even a good bass. It’s an awful moaning as the wind blows through the pine trees. And as I sat there, I thought up there, and believe me, those trees need water.
They’re groaning. They’re groaning because the curse of sin, of man, has fallen upon them. And they are waiting until a glorious day when they shall be released.
That day is called the millennium. It’s called the millennium because it means a thousand years. It’s the thousand-year reign of Christ that comes from the 20th chapter of Revelation.
Somebody says the millennium is not even mentioned in the Bible. It’s not only mentioned, it’s mentioned six times in that one chapter. It’s a thousand years.
Millennium is the Latin word for it, and the Greek word was Chilius. And so that it just simply means a thousand-year reign of Christ that’s to take place on this earth. Now, the early church at the very beginning was what is known as a millenarian church, our chilius church.
They believe that there was coming a day when Christ would come and establish his kingdom here upon this earth. And in the first two centuries of the church, there was great unanimity of thought and of faith in this particular connection. The thousand-year reign of Christ, they understood, was synonymous with the kingdom that was mentioned back in the Old Testament.
And they articulated and meshed together those two, that there was coming upon the earth, this great day. And this kingdom had to do with the future of the earth. It had to do with the future of the nation Israel.
It had to do with the future of the Gentiles on this earth. Now the church was to be removed before that kingdom was instituted on the earth, because of the fact that the church would not be a participant in that kingdom, because the church were told they were a heavenly people, and they had a heavenly calling, and they would be removed from the earth scene. And after the church was removed, and a period of great trouble came upon this earth, that our Lord Himself called the great tribulation period, the kingdom would be established by His coming in great power and glory.
Now in the third century, disruptive forces were at work in the church. There was disagreement on many important issues and doctrines. It was during that period that they were beating out on the anvil of truth, the great doctrine concerning the person of Jesus Christ.
It’s during that period that the church finally came to the wonderful conclusion as the apostles had already come to that He’s very God, a very God, He’s very man, a very man, and that He’s everything that He claimed to be. But the church was busy at that and neglected many other subjects. And as a result, they lost sight of the fact of the purpose of the church in the world, and they began to entertain a notion that the church would build a kingdom down here upon this earth.
I think the great Augustine was largely responsible for bringing that notion in. And they didn’t stop with that. They went back into the Old Testament and appropriated the promises of the Old Testament that God had made to the nation, Israel, that pertained to this earth.
And they attempted to spiritualize them, dissolve them actually into thin air, and that Christ would come after the millennium. After all, the church didn’t need him. The church would be able to do the job and build upon this earth a millennium and establish the kingdom of God down here upon this earth.
And that doctrine is the very heartblood of Roman Catholicism, for their purpose is to build a kingdom upon this earth. And, my beloved, it was during that period that there arose what we know today as premillennialism and postmillennialism. And it just simply means that there were those now that had come in that believed that Christ would not come until after the millennium, that He would not come at the beginning, He would not take His church out, but that the church would build down upon this earth a millennium.
That was spiritualizing the Bible. That has probably been the most damnable heresy that has ever come to the church. And that grew, and Protestantism never did shake that notion off.
And at the turn of the century, when the 20th century came in, in all of Protestantism, post-millennialism dominated the scene, and all denominations were going out to build a kingdom down here upon this earth. It was in the ascendancy. It was in the thinking of man.
And no century was ever entered with the optimism that the 20th century began. You turn back and read some of the literature of that period. It seems unbelievable today that man had such vague notions of what might be in the future.
I read in a commentary years ago where one man said that at the turn of the century, he wrote this in 1904. He said that we are right now on the verge of bringing the kingdom of God on the earth. And he says that when it comes, he mentioned many things that would happen.
And he said, in all the oceans will be turned to lemonade. I don’t know where he got that. But the man actually waxed so eloquently that he got beyond himself.
And he was way out yonder. Let me tell you. He said to all the oceans, I thought there are not enough sun-kissed lemons to make that much lemonade.
Even mixing it with Florida lemons wouldn’t help very much. But that was the optimism of that particular period. And there was a basis for it.
After all, the great Victorian era was coming to an end. That era which saw the British Empire reach out, and they could say that the sun never set on the British Union Jack. It was during that period that there was western expansion in this country.
And there was optimism. Listen to the songs of that period. Read the books of that period.
The great day is coming. And I’m going to Alabama, my Susanna to see. That was the optimism of that era.
Seems unbelievable today that men at one time believe like that, but they did. But they didn’t know what was ahead in this century. Two world wars that engulfed the entire world in warfare and brought horrible destruction upon mankind.
Then a worldwide depression came. And then there was the rise of atheistic communism that reached out and put an iron curtain down. And before it was through, it had brought back of that iron curtain one billion souls of man.
Then there’s the threat of atomic warfare with the total destruction of the race. And may I say that all of these things now has absolutely eliminated post-millennialism from the scene today. And as far as I know, there’s not a reputable theologian on top side of the earth today.
There’s a post-millennialist. If he is, he’s been enjoying a rip van winkle sleep for 50 years. Because no man today in his right mind can look out at this world and believe today that the church is going to build a kingdom down here upon this earth.
During the past few years, there’s been a great revival of the study of prophecy. Pre-millennialism has had a revival now. The Scofield Bible has become the most popular Bible that the common man has had placed in his hands.
And if you don’t have a copy of it, you ought to have a copy of it. It is a very valuable addition today. And another system, though, has arisen today as a substitute for post-millennialism.
It’s called all-millennialism, and they do not believe there will be any millennium at all. I heard Dr. Bieber say that a young man came up to him, this has been 25 years ago now, and said to him, Dr. Bieber, I’m not a post-millennialist, and I’m not a pre-millennialist. And Dr. Bieber looked at him and said, young man, that’s pre-posterous.
And you can’t have that sort of thing. And actually, I personally believe that you’ve got to get on one side of the fence of the other. But today, there are those that say that there will be no millennium, and what the Scripture speaks of is the millennium, that we’re in it today.
If that’s true, I want no more millennium. But they say that we’re in the millennium today, and that the church is the instrument, even today, of bringing about the kingdom. Oh, Christ will come.
That’s true. But we’re in it today. It was Augustine in origin, the great spiritualizer, who originated this notion and made it popular, and it has come down through the ages, and it’s rising again today in our midst.
They attempt to spiritualize all the prophecies of the Old Testament. They attempt to spiritualize the Book of Revelation. I happened to study under one of the leading men of that particular field.
He’s, I suppose, one of the leading exponents of it today. And that man never found anything in the Book of Revelation that was literal. Everything was a symbol and everything could be evaporated and made to mean anything that you wanted it to mean.
And as a result, why they’ve attempted to do away with everything that has to do with a literal interpretation of the Word of God. And as I have said before, I consider that today one of the worst things that has happened is to see the way it has been spiritualized. And they’ll take a passage of scripture where Paul made the statement that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
And of course, Paul was talking about something altogether different. But they also forget that there are other scriptures that speak of the fact that God has given us all things richly to enjoy and that physical things are not wrong with in and of themselves. And that they are actually not contrary to that which is spiritual.
Even Paul said that we are to present these physical bodies as a spiritual sacrifice to God. And physical things can be used in a spiritual man. The church, of course, are a heavenly people.
Israel, the nation Israel, to whom God will turn in the future an earthly people. And the prospects of this people and of the Gentiles that have not turned to Christ, when he comes will enter this kingdom that’s on the earth, and that future is an earthly future. The scripture speaks of the fact that each man is to dwell safely under his vine, his fig tree.
Speaks of the fact that the lion and the lamb are going to lie down together. Speaks of the fact that the desert is to bloom like the rose. The lame man will leap, and the blind are going to see, and this earth on which we live will break forth in a prosperity the like of which it is never enjoyed before, because the curse of sin is upon this earth today.
Now, the worship of the millennium dispels any notion that that period is not spiritual. And the worship of the millennium gives us the spiritual aspect and emphasis, because this is essentially a spiritual kingdom. And these physical attributes are not contrary to a spiritual kingdom at all.
Now, I want you to notice with me briefly this morning these things. There will be a millennial temple. There will be the visible glory of God in that millennial temple.
And third, there will be restored the bloody sacrifices in that temple. Will you look at these three great subjects just very briefly this morning? First of all, there will be a millennial temple.
There’s going to be spiritual worship upon this earth during the millennium. As we’ve indicated, this last section, a large section of Ezekiel, is given to the description of this temple. In fact, these last eight chapters deal with that temple and the worship of that temple and the worship of that day.
It’s considered the most difficult section of the Word of God. Will you look at it for just a moment? First, we see here a vision of a man with a measuring rod.
We find that in Zechariah. Zechariah saw a man with a measuring rod ready to measure Jerusalem. That same thing is in the Book of Revelation, where John saw this angel with a measuring rod ready to measure the new Jerusalem.
And every time that that is seen, it means just simply what it means today. On that vacant lot next to where you live, if you see some man out there tomorrow morning, Monday morning with the tape measuring off, you will know they’re getting ready to do something on that lot. They’re gonna put up a building.
And when you find that in scripture, it means God’s getting ready to move. And this man with the measuring rod means that God is getting ready to establish The Millennial Temple here upon this earth. And then the details of that temple are given.
The blueprint of it’s elaborate. I’ll not go into any detail this morning at all. We’re not concerned about that.
But may I say to you that this Millennial Temple is the last of the many places that God has put down here for his earthly people to worship. And may I hasten to say that God has not given to the church a holy place to worship. Some of us like to speak of the Church of the Open Door as a holy place.
It’s not. This place is not holy. It’s not any holier than any other place.
You can worship God anywhere today for God is not worshiped in houses. God is worshiped in spirit and in truth. But these earthly people were given an earthly place to worship.
And God, when He took them out of the land of Egypt, the first thing He did was to give them a tabernacle. That tabernacle is very simple. It was just a simple place for these people to approach God.
And God was teaching them how they were to worship and how they were to approach Him. Then we have, after they got into the land, this, this tabernacle made of linen, flimsy sort of material, just a tent. It began to waste away.
And now a temple is built, David’s temple. We call it Solomon’s temple. It was ornate.
It was rich. It was elaborate in all of its detail. And the same glory that had filled the, the tabernacle before it filled this temple.
Then this temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The people went into captivity. They returned and they put up a little shoddy temple.
It broke the heart of a great many of the older people to see such a shoddy temple going up. And that’s called Zerubbabel’s temple. It was destroyed by the family of the Seleucidae in Syria.
And then that was Bill Herod’s temple. And when our Lord was born, that temple was in building. When he began his ministry, it had been then 40 years in building.
It never was completed. It was a great, bigger fan. It was a showplace in Jerusalem.
It was very large, the largest of all the temples. And then in 70 AD., Titus came and destroyed that temple.
And from that day on, that place has stood in ruins until Mohammedanism put a mosque there. And this morning, the Mosque of Omar is on that place of worship. May I add this morning that Israel, and I wish I had time to go into it, has a movement on right now, and they’ve literally raised millions of dollars.
And when the moment comes and they can get possession of that spot, a temple will go up again. And bloody sacrifices will be offered again the minute that they get that place, if you please. And there will go up a temple there.
It’s the Tribulation Temple. Our Lord Jesus said to the people in His day that when that day came, that when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, there’s a temple in existence. There never was but one holy place.
That’s under in Jerusalem. God does not have a holy place except there. That’s the only place on this earth that God ever appointed as a place.
And so the Tribulation Temple will go up. That Tribulation Temple will evidently be destroyed. With a horrible destruction, as the ones in the past have been destroyed.
And then we come to this temple of Ezekiel here, that in the millennium, God says, for the earth, a temple is to go up. There will be no temple where the Church is, for we are told they have no need of the temple. The Lord God and the Lamb are the temple of it, for the Church is with Him.
But here upon this earth, there will be an earthly temple. If you please, it will be a place of worship. It will be the richest and the largest and the finest and the most glorious temple of all.
Then we come to the glory of God will fill this temple. The glory of God will fill this temple. And I want you to see that for just a moment.
I turned back to Ezekiel 43 verse 3, and it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city, and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Kibar. I fell upon my face, and the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate, whose prospect is toward the east. So the Spirit took me up, brought me into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.
And Ezekiel says that when he saw that the second time, I fell upon my face. The glory of God came upon this house. Now, the glory of God is the visible presence of God.
The only time it’s ever been in evidence on this earth was when Moses built the tabernacle in the wilderness, and the Shekinah glory of God came down upon that tabernacle. That’s the thing that made that worship different from all other worship on top side of this earth. When Paul’s describing these people who were Israelites, one of the things he says, they had the glory no other nation ever had, the visible presence of God in their midst.
This Shekinah glory was a pillar plowed by day, a pillar of fire by night. Now, just what is glory? Have you ever stopped to analyze it?
I’ve attempted to make a study of this, and let me just pass on to you one or two things This morning, there are 14 words used in both Old and New Testament to describe what the glory of God is. Now, the glory of God is something that you can see. In other words, it produces a sensation that will appeal to one or more of the five senses that you and I have.
For instance, one of the words that’s used in the Old Testament to speak of the glory of God, it means size. It has to do with expanse. It has to do with bigness.
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. That’s glory. When you look out yonder into the heavens, an astronomer has come into the conclusion it’s infinite today.
Well, it’s telling out, if you please, the glory of God. There’s another word, and it means beauty. And you find that word in a passage like this, whose glorious beauty is as a fading flower.
And it speaks of the beauty. Oh, my friend, this morning, when you and I see him, someday you’re going to see the most beautiful person that you’ve ever looked upon. When you see Jesus Christ, the glorified Savior, again, he’ll be the most beautiful person that you’ve ever looked upon.
And beauty is something that God has a great deal to do with. All beauty in this world today is His creation even in a cursed earth. And then there’s another word that means adornment.
It speaks again, glorious in His apparel. Adornment. God is clothed in glory clouds, if you please.
It also speaks of majesty. Oh, Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth, who is set Thy glory above majesty. It speaks of that which is bright and light.
It speaks of that which is precious and pure. It speaks of honor and dignity. All of these things are the visible presence of God.
And that was with the nation Israel. That shekinah of glory left them. Ezekiel, as we have seen in our study, saw that glory depart.
But Ezekiel also saw the glory return, and it will come back to the Millennial Temple. I personally believe that that glory is the thing our Lord meant. When He said to these people, at the end of that period of trouble, He says, Then shall ye see the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.
And that sign of the Son of Man in heaven is the shekinah of glory that belonged to these people. And when they see that, they’ll say, That is the Messiah we’ve looked for Him. That is His fingerprints.
That’s His evidence. Because when He came here 1900 years ago, He laid His glory aside. And you remember when He turned in His final report to the Father in the Lord’s prayer in John 17, He again prayed and said, Glorify Thou me with the glory that I had with Thee before the foundation of the earth.
And when He comes again, my beloved, He comes in glory. And that glory will rest upon The Millennial Temple. What a day of worship that will be.
What a glorious day that will be. Now briefly in closing, will you notice the restoration of the bloody sacrifices? And this is the most difficult part of all.
Again, let me call your attention. These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, to sprinkle blood thereon. Again in the 45th chapter, the 21st verse, In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days, unleavened bread shall be eaten.
Upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself for all the people of the land, and a bullock for a sin offering. Now this is offered as the most serious objection to the premillennial interpretation of the Bible, that is, to the literal interpretation of the Word of God. I took a course in a man who is a liberal in a seminary, and this was the one objection he had to those of us who believe the Bible is the Word of God.
Well, if we can answer this, we’ve just about answered them, let me tell you that. I raised the question, why are the bloody sacrifices restored to the temple? It’s a good question.
It’s used to discount the literal interpretation of the Bible. They say, you see, you can’t take it literally. You find yourself in a period, even during the millennium, where they’re offering bloody sacrifices.
That can’t be. I have a question to ask. Why were the bloody sacrifices ever instituted in the first place?
Why didn’t God find some other method? Why did He use this method? It’s contrary to the aesthetic notions of our contemporary civilization.
It’s offensive to the feelings of a great many people. Actually, the sight of blood make a great many people sick. And here are bloody sacrifices being offered in the millennium in the temple.
Why weren’t they done away with? Well, you go back and look with me just a moment. The sacrifices in the Old Testament were typical.
They pointed to Christ. There never was offered a sacrifice in the Old Testament that ever took away sin. They never did take away sin.
They were typical. They pointed to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And from the day that Adam and Eve went out of the Garden of Eden with the skins of animals on them, looked back upon the blood that had been offered.
And then Abel brought a little bloody lamb as a sacrifice, and Abraham brought a lamb. Moses brought a lamb. All of those pointed to Jesus Christ.
And that’s what John the Baptist meant that day when he pointed him out. And he put the X mark right on him and said, Behold, the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. God had schooled these people for over 4,000 years to be ready for the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
And the blood of bulls and goats can’t take away sin. Never was intended to take away sin. It was given to be a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then, my beloved, it was given for another reason. And that’s the reason we’ve forgotten today. It was to picture to the sinner the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
When that sinner went in yonder to that brazen altar and took that little lamb, put his hand on it indicating that that little lamb is now his substitute, and he took that long sharp knife and ran it under the neck of that little lamb, and he saw that little lamb fall down, dying and dead and the blood gushing out. That sinner knew that he deserved that. But he also knew a little lamb couldn’t take it away.
It was pointing to God’s lamb who could and would take away sin. They say that since Christ came that it did away with all the bloody sacrifices. And they turn to Romans, to Hebrews 7, and, for instance, verse 27, Who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, then for the people’s?
For this he did once when he offered up himself. The idea is that that’s never to be repeated, and it certainly is never to be repeated. Chapter 9, verse 12, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
And then verse 26, For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And they say, all was fulfilled when Christ came, and it’s not necessary to have those bloody sacrifices again. I agree to that 100 percent, he fulfilled it all.
Why are the bloody sacrifices then re-instituted in the millennium? Will you listen now carefully in our clothes? As the Lord’s Supper is for the church, a memorial that looks back to the blood he shed, those sacrifices in the temple will be re-instituted to remind Israel and the nation brought up on sacrifices of the price that was paid.
In other words, they will be re-stored as commemorative, not typical or expiatory anymore. They are retrospective in the Millennial Temple, not prospective. They don’t look forward to anything.
They look back to the cross, for everything must point to the cross. The Lord’s Supper here is a memorial to the church. And I wonder sometimes really how vivid the death of Christ is to us.
I can’t think of anything that’s more vivid than a little dying animal shedding its blood to tell a redeemed soul the horrible pit out of which he’s been digged. While they’re enjoying the glories of the millennium here on this earth with the curse of sin removed, that past may fade into forgetfulness. And they may forget that there was a price paid for their redemption.
And those little sacrifices will be a reminder to them that they were not redeemed with silver and gold, but with a precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and without blemish. I’m not sure, but what the Church in heaven will be given periodically, a trip down to this earth, to Jerusalem, to witness the sacrifice of an animal. Because you and I never saw him die, and we’ll never see Christ die.
He died once for all for sin. He’ll never repeat that. But that little animal might tell some of us what a great price was paid for our redemption.
It might remind us that we were awful sinners, and it required the death of Christ for us upon the cross. In my book on the tabernacle, I take the position that Christ, when he died, offered his literal blood in heaven. That was written 25 years ago, and I’ve had 25 years to think it over.
I wouldn’t change a word of it. The only criticism that’s ever been made of that book that I know of, the publishers always sent me the reviews that have appeared in magazines, the only criticism was of a denominational paper in Ohio. The man was very kind.
He recommended that all the preachers buy the book, but he said, I want to warn you, this fellow is a literalist. He believes the blood of Jesus was offered yonder in heaven, and that’s a very crude picture. I say to you this morning that anything the word of God calls precious is not crude in heaven.
Peter called the blood of Christ the precious blood, and it will be there to remind you and me that a great price was paid for our redemption. And these little sacrifices down here on this earth will remind men of the price that’s been paid. I remember hearing Mel Trotter tell his life story.
One night in Nashville, Tennessee, he told Howe as a young man. He started following the races. Go from one racetrack to another.
He became a pickpocket. He started drinking. Became a drunkard, actually an alcoholic, and the fingers of his were not too nimble.
He got caught. They sent him to Joliet. He served time there.
He came out. He became a bum, and I mean a bum. He got so low, he said that he used to go into the saloons on the south side in Chicago and ask them if he couldn’t clean up the Cuspadovers for a beer.
And one night he was bumming from everybody that went in. The bartender kicked him out in the street. It was a cold night in Chicago.
And the last thing he said to him, Why don’t you go down to the river and jump in? He was drunk and in the day’s condition, he thought that was a good idea, and he started down. On the way down, he went by that great Pacific Garden mission in Chicago.
Out in front of it was another converted drunkard, and he just pushed Mel in. He just lay there that night by that great fireplace, the chimney, it was warm. He just stayed there and went to sleep.
He never heard a word that was said in the sermon. Afterward they sobered him up, they presented the gospel to him. That’s the night he came to Christ.
After he told that story that night in Nashville, the people were great and moved by it. Several of us went down to an ice cream parlor to get a milkshake. But Mel Trotter wouldn’t drink it.
He said that the liquor ruined his tummy. He says, when God converted me, he gave me a new heart but not a new tummy. So he just sat there while the rest of us were drinking milkshakes.
As he sat there, tears came down his eyes. And he says, isn’t the grace of God wonderful? I thought as we sat there, a bunch of milkshake Christians, talking about everything, the death of Christ didn’t mean to us what it meant to Mel Trotter.
I’m wondering if God won’t arrange a trip for the church in eternity to come down to this earth to look at bloody sacrifices, to let those of us of this milkshake generation know that a great price was paid for our redemption and that we were horrible, lost, ungodly sinners. That’s the reason. The sacrifices will be offered again.
They’ll point to Him, the Lamb of God, and let you and me know that a price was paid for our redemption. I’m wondering today if you have realized the price that was paid for you. nineteen hundred years ago a Savior had to go to a cross and suffer, actually had to go through the very pain of hell, in order that He might purchase your redemption.
And you and I are living in a day when God says they’re non-righteous, all are in a state of sin. He’s not accepting anything from any person today for salvation. It’s to Him that worketh not, but believeth on Him, that justifieth the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness. His faith is counted for righteousness. Oh, my friend, what a price was paid at this morning.
We might just say to you in a casual, easy-going fashion, trust Him and you’ll be saved. He that calleth from the name of the Lord shall be saved. God doesn’t ask you to do anything.
He’s done it all for you.
As Dr. McGee said, we were horrible, lost, ungodly sinners, but the penalty has been paid. For more information on how you can have a relationship with God and how you can avoid judgment by accepting Jesus’ offer to be your personal savior, just visit us at ttb.org and search for How to Know God. There you’ll find several free resources written and recorded by Dr. McGee to help you understand the importance and the urgency of this decision.
It really is the most important decision that you’ll ever make. So don’t let this moment pass. If you feel that God is speaking to you, the time to act is now.
Again, visit us over at ttb.org and look for How to Know God, or call 1-800-65-BIBLE and we’ll send you a few of these resources in the mail. Now, although I don’t mention it very often, I’d like to encourage you to partner with us as together, we take the whole word to the whole world in more than 250 languages. As a volunteer host and supporter of this mission myself, I want to thank those who are already part of this exciting ministry.
And if you’re not yet praying and supporting this program as it goes out, then please come join us. For more information, you can call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE, you can email BibleBus at ttb.org, or write to Box 7-100, Pasadena, California, 9-1-1-0-9, in Canada Box 2-5-3-2-5, London, Ontario, N6C, 6B1. You can also send your financial support when you visit ttb.org/give.
Again, that’s 1-800-65-BIBLE or ttb.org. And when you’re in touch, why don’t you ask to be added to our mailing list for our terrific monthly newsletter. I know I love reading it every single month.
Now, in each issue, you’re going to get more great teaching from Dr. McGee, as well as practical tips that will help you apply what you’re learning on the Bible bus. Something that we all need to do, as well as keeping up to date with the travels of our World Prayer Team. And of course, I’d invite you to Thru the Bible’s daily study as well.
This week, we’re nearing the end of our journey through Ezekiel, and we’re preparing for our return to the New Testament for a study of Titus. We got plenty of room for more on the Bible bus, so hop aboard and invite a friend to join us. So as we go, I’m Steve Schwetz, thanking God for His promise in Romans 4 verse 5 that when we believe in Him and trust in His name, He saves us.
End of story. There’s nothing else that we can or have to do. That’s amazing grace.
Join us each weekday for our five year daily study through the whole Word of God. Check for times on the station or look for Through the Bible in your favorite podcast store, and always at ttb.org.
