Salvation Through Jesus Alone

Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel. What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right, brothers and sisters, if you would open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 1. Again, we're going to try to today summarize so much of what we need to understand in terms of the destruction of the temple, the second temple Jesus is referring to being undone, not one stone left upon another, the end of the old covenant age.

But what does it all mean though? We can talk about abstract ideas about temple and priests and sacrifice. We can talk about the history of the temple literally being taken apart stone off a stone in that generation that Jesus predicted it.

And we are going to actually do the detailed examination verse by verse through Matthew 24. I'm going to actually connect the promises of Jesus to that generation to real historical events. The point being Jesus is who he claimed to be.

What he said was going to happen did happen on time and as planned, but underneath it all for us should be an understanding of what does it all mean? So what? That's a big question, right? So what? I try to ask myself that as I preach here before you at Apologia Church, and I have for a decade now.

What does it all mean? So what? How does this actually impact me and my worship of God right now today? How does it actually affect me and my sanctification before the Lord, my obedience? The so what is what I want to talk about.

So Hebrews chapter one is a good verse. It sort of connects it all, ties it together. And I could have picked a lot of verses at least to read to start with, but I thought Hebrews chapter one's a good one because here's why.

The writer of Hebrews actually explains.

In.

Very vivid. Detail.

And very.

In very very detailed explanation. What does it all mean now that we have Christ a high priest who intercedes for us forever? A once for all sacrifice. What's it all mean now that the shadow is now gone and now we have the substance who is Christ?

And the writer of Hebrews, by the way, wrote this not too long before the destruction of the Jewish temple. And many commentators agree that in the last chapter of the book of Hebrews, there's actually a prediction, a prophecy of the destruction of the Jewish temple that's about to take place.

And so I thought here's a good launching point for today. Hebrews chapter one. Listen to how this is described and think about it in relation to the end of the old covenant age. Hebrews 1 verse 1. Hear now the words of the living and the true God.

Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world.

He is the radiance.

Of the glory.

Of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he.

Sat.

Down.

At the right hand of the majesty on high. Having become as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray.

Father, we pray, Lord, as we enter, Lord, together into worship before you, Lord, with your word in front of us. We pray that you teach us today. Lord, get this man out of the way. Please, Lord, bless your people.

Teach them. Lord, by your spirit, I pray you guard my mind, my heart, and my mouth from error. Bless, Lord. Open the eyes of the blind. Open the hearts that need to be open today. Give, Lord, hearts of flesh where there are hearts of stone.

And please, Lord, bless and teach your people. Ignite within us, God, a passion and a boldness for the good news of the kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen. Do you hear it? Do you hear it? Hebrews chapter 1.

Do you hear it? Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. That's a big deal for Jewish Christians in the first century. Hey, long ago, all that's been happening in the past leading up to this moment, temple, priest, sacrifice, wilderness wanderings, God speaking from the heavens, all of this, prophets doing some, admit it, weird stuff at times.

Cooking food with poo.

Poo.

Weird, right? There's a lot of symbolism in the Old Testament, a lot of God speaking in ways that make you go, that's interesting, but it's all powerful and meaningful. And God speaks in the Old Testament many times, many ways to the fathers, to the prophets.

But here is the glory of the new covenant and what took place in the first century. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things. Know this, that's what was expected of Messiah.

That He would be seated at the right hand of power, that He would rule and He would reign. Jerry, our deacon Jerry, read to you today from Psalm chapter 2. Remember Psalm chapter 2 was part of the Jewish hymnal.

They are singing these songs. This is part of worship, right? They knew these songs as part of worship. That's why we talk many times about the passion of the Messiah, Jesus dying on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

They knew that Psalm. They could have finished singing Psalm 22 and they would have been singing what took place in worship. They would have been singing that, wait a minute, this is all familiar to us.

Dogs wagging their heads, piercing His hands and His feet, right? Dividing His garments among them, casting lots. Wait, we've been here before. We've sang this song.

God.

Spoke long before it happened about the glory of Jesus Christ, His exaltation, His kingdom. It was all there on the page long before Jesus comes. But Psalm chapter 2 we read today is another song that they sang about.

This.

The Messiah, the Father saying to the Son. Wait, what? The Father saying to the Son, ask of me and I'll give you the nations for your inheritance. There's the triune God right there in Psalm chapter 2, the Father speaking to the Son.

Ask of me and I'll give you the nations for your inheritance. Listen, listen, the very ends of the earth for your possession. And then God warns the kings of the earth to be wise and obey the Son or they'll perish.

That's being sung in worship by the people of God long before Jesus comes. And now here's this moment in Hebrews, the temple's still hanging out. Remember that? When this is written, the temple is still hanging out, it's still there.

And you've got Jewish Christians now kind of wondering, hey, what's going on? Jesus has been raised. We know that. He has ascended. He's seated. He's the ruler of everything. He's that Messiah that we were promised all along.

But man, this is tough. We've still got people going to temple. We've still got these people persecuting us. We've still got people doing animal sacrifices, right? And the writer of Hebrews is basically saying, don't go back.

God's about to shake all this. He's going to shake it. And we have now a kingdom that cannot be shaken. This is about to be wiped away, cleared away. Don't go back to the sacrifices. Don't go back to that defunct priesthood.

Don't go back because Jesus is our High Priest forever who has given us a once for all sacrifice. The old covenant age is about to completely be gone. Remember, when Jesus comes into history and Jesus dies and rises again, ascends, the new covenant has broken into history.

But the old covenant age is still kind of hanging out, right? At least all the stuff that represented it is still there. It's still around. You can still see it, still go touch it. But any moment it's about to be destroyed exactly as Jesus promised.

All that was anticipated about Messiah, his kingdom, his salvation, all the nations experiencing the peace of God, salvation, forgiveness, justice. All of that was a reality now. And now this is what the New Testament writers were so excited about.

Is that this all means something? Listen, be honest, when you hear today as a gentile Christian, non-Jewish heritage, most of us, most of us are descended from pagan parents, right? So when you hear about the destruction or dissolution of the old covenant age and temple and priests and sacrifice,.

You know,.

It should mean a lot to us. But let's be honest, most of us are like, it's really kind of abstract concepts like, I haven't gone to temple. I haven't seen the animal sacrifices. I haven't seen the holy of holies.

Like it's not really, it doesn't really sit with us like it ought to, right? God has been telling his people about what's required of them for a long time. He has been giving them symbols and imagery and structures and stuff to tell them a story.

Not just words from heaven, he did that too, but he also gave them stuff to touch and to feel and to rehearse. He gave them dress rehearsals and they were doing this over and over and it was teaching them about God.

What about God? About his holiness, right? That he's not like us. He's not unfaithful. He's not unrighteous. He doesn't fail. He's not unloving. He's not imperfect. He knows all things. He is teaching us in the temple with the holy of holies and the veil and the priest and the annual reminder of sins and sacrifice.

He is teaching us, the people of God, about himself, about his world, about us, about our relationship with him, about what's required to know him. He's been teaching his people and in these last days, the writer of Hebrews says, he has spoken to us through his son.

Jesus is the substance of everything they were hoping for, everything they were dreaming of, everything that their hope was rested in was this, Jesus, this one, this, he's the substance. He's God, man, God and man walking among us.

Jesus is the one who was promised, who is the heir, which is what the writer of Hebrews says. He is the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power. You know what that means? Jesus, this one, who is God and man upholds the universe by the word of his power, is he carries the universe along to its intended destination.

Jesus does. He's the one that's in full control. Jesus is the one who holds you right now in your seat. How do you like them apples? He's the one, it's amazing, right? You talk about today, the world we live in today, American culture that, the culture of the west that's abandoned its Christian heritage and the Christian worldview in so many respects, wants to throw off all of the vestiges of the Christian worldview.

Jesus is even holding together and holding upright the one who is railing against him and his law right now. That's who he is. He's the one who's on his throne. He's the promised one. Now, here's what I want you to get in terms of what does this all mean with the end of the age and now God has spoken to us through his son, that he's at the right hand of power.

He's made purifications. He's sat down. His work is finished in terms of our salvation. What's it all mean?

Well,.

They should have known then that the salvation and judgment that was promised of the coming of the messiah had actually broken into history now. It was promised in the old testament, but now it's here among them.

We don't live in their time, but this was an important time for them where now they know Jesus has now sat down, purification is done, messiah has come into history, he's ruling and reigning, and now the judgment that was promised upon the covenant breakers is about to take place within history just like Jesus promised.

What did he say in Matthew 23? All the blood of the righteous is going to be upon what? This generation. He says that this generation will not pass away until what? All what? These things take place. Jesus promised it to that generation.

It's all right there. Salvation and what? Judgment upon that generation. It had entered into history. The book of Hebrews testifies to all that's true about the end of the old covenant age and now the glories of the new covenant.

But listen closely. The dissolution of the temple signaled the anticipated end of the old covenant age. It's a big deal. Consider for a moment. We don't have to do it. So we're not, it's not a big deal for us, be honest.

Like if you were a Jewish person that experienced the grace of God and received his revelation, you knew that there were dress rehearsal things God gave you to do. Forgiveness. Well, what does it look like?

Well, you have a day of the day of atonements, right? Where you've got a high priest. He's a sinner just like you. He's not perfect. He's a sinner. He's gonna first offer a sacrifice for himself before he ever tries to do anything for you, right?

So he's got his own sacrifice for himself. Then you've got these animals that have to come now the day of atonement and you've got one animal that's the scapegoat and one has to die. You lay hands on one, confess the sins of the people onto the goat and then you lead that thing away from the people of God so that they want their sins depart from them as far as the East is from the West.

You've got all this ritual, all the sacrifice, and when you want forgiveness under the old covenant, what do you have to do? You got to go to Jerusalem. Right? In a sense, you got to go to the temple.

You've got to have your priest do this whole thing, this ritual, this dress rehearsal, all this stuff, and it was a reminder every year. You're still a sinner. You're still broken. You're still foul. You still need Jesus.

Every year, it's a reminder of your sins. Every year, imperfect stuff. Every year, something is not right. That's what's happening. But watch, when Jesus says this temple is going to be taken apart, not one stone upon another, the disciples immediately say, when so shall these things be?

What's the sign of your coming? And the end of the age. The old covenant age, gone. The promise of the new covenant broken into history. Now, here's what I want to say. We can say, as we work through Matthew 23 and 24, hey look, Jerusalem is the focus.

You can escape the Great Tribulation by fleeing Judea. All these things are promised upon this generation. You cannot manipulate the words there into meaning Jewish race or something to that effect. Jesus said that generation was gonna see and experience all those things.

And brothers and sisters, they did. There's no way to manipulate the text to put it 2 ,000 years into the future. Jesus was talking about that generation, about what they would experience, and you can go point by point and show that it happened in history.

One of the things that we talked about recently on the radio program is that our position on the text is rooted in history. Right? If you take Matthew 24, very important here, guys, we're getting right to the gospel underneath all this.

If you take Matthew 24 and you put it into the future, like say 2050, right? The Great Tribulation will all be fulfilled by 2050 and it's pertaining to us. It's essentially infinitely malleable. You can make it whatever you want.

You could turn the book of Revelation into whatever you want. You could turn Matthew 24 into whatever you want. It can be a complete playground. But if what we're arguing based on exegesis, what does the text say?

What do the words mean? What's the context immediately? What's the whole of Scripture say about this? Then you are limited in terms of its fulfillment to what actually took place in history. It's fixed in history.

But if we do this and we don't understand the so what of it all, then all we are is a bunch of Reform folks that love to talk about theology, but really stink at life. You know anybody like that?

Yeah.

So we got to ask the question, what does all this mean to me, to us, for the world? Well, I'm gonna say this. We have to understand when we talk about the end of the Jewish Age and having Jesus now as the High Priest and having now a once-for-all sacrifice, we have to understand now, how does that apply to the world?

And so what? And so to do that, quickly go to Romans chapter 1. I'm gonna point you just to a few things today in terms of making sure we understand the meaning of all of this. Look how Paul talks about it in Romans chapter 1, verse 1.

It says Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, the good news of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God and according to the Spirit of Holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Hey, check this out. You got your, who has paper Bibles on them today? Okay, it'd be a little harder maybe in the if you have the electronic Bible, but you're in Romans right now, right? Look what Paul says here.

Here, it's God's good news. He promised it before, right? And now it's connected to all of history, all of God's promises, right? It says beforehand through his prophets, Holy Scriptures, concerning his son, descendant of David, according to the flesh.

All that is anticipation, right? Paul knows this is a story. I'm picking up on it. This is God's good news. It's not a novelty in history. This is what God said he was going to do, and now it's arrived.

It's the good news of God. It's God telling a story that is good news. Here it is, right now in history. Jesus has arrived, but watch. He says something interesting here. He says, we've received this grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Hashtag Calvinism. Now, if you just watch paper Bibles, just look to the left. Look at the end of Acts. This is the story of what took place in the early church, and look at the last couple verses here in terms of what Paul was saying.

In verse 28, it says, Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen. He lived there two whole years at his own expense, that's Paul, and welcomed all who came to him.

Watch. Proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. What's Paul's story? What is it? Talking about salvation, and what's he proclaiming?

The kingdom of God. The rule of God. The rule of the Messiah. Because here's what, listen closely, this is so important. Modern evangelicalism wants to take the kingdom of the Messiah and push it somewhere to the end of history, right?

Like he's kind of reigning now, but not really. They say it's now, but not yet. What they really mean is now, but not really. Now, but not really. Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, but really in heaven, the on earth part we're struggling with.

The Apostle Paul is telling the Jewish story. Jesus has come, his salvation has come, salvation's going now to the ends of the earth, to the Gentiles, right? The obedience of faith among all the nations for the sake of his name, and he is proclaiming what?

The rule of God. The kingdom of the Messiah has broken into history. This is a big deal. That's the story. It's a big part of the story. Listen, the end of the old covenant age is a big deal for the history of the world.

This physical temple, gone. These sinful priests, over. This holy of holies and the veil, gone. Listen, it's a big deal for the world to hear the good news of God, that there's salvation in Jesus Christ, the ruler of the world, through his once-for-all sacrifice.

Come, if you're thirsty, come and drink from the river of life. That's good news for the world. Jews and Gentiles now, in one body together, God breaking down that wall of commandments, in ordinances, the holiness code.

You can eat bacon now. Yes. I married a southern girl, and that's good news in the South, right? Bacon, right? Part of the new covenant. Amen, right? It's a big deal. But listen, it's a big deal that now all this stuff is pushed away, so Jews and Gentiles now brought together in one body before Messiah.

The obedience of faith among all the nations, for his namesake. What's the call of Jesus as he now ascends? He says what? All authority in heaven and where else on earth has been given to me. He says, therefore go, because it's all mine.

And he says, do what? Make disciples of the Jews. No, he says, make disciples of what? The nations. Go get them. I've got all authority. It's all mine. Now go get them. And he says what? Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey.

That's the call of Jesus. Now, can you imagine just for a moment now, just think over a second. Just stop and think about the situation. Give them some some grace here. You've got some very confused disciples in front of Jesus.

Right? Just saw Jesus die and rise from the dead. Pretty big deal. Awesome stuff. Right? Now Jesus is before this small crowd of believers. Right? I mean, in.

Palestine,.

2 ,000 years ago, no internet, no Facebook. Right? Like, no cars. They don't have bird scooters. Right? They got nothing. None of this stuff. I mean, it's a big deal. It's a really big deal that Jesus, in this really remote part of the world, says, I have all authority in heaven and on earth.

It's all mine. Now go and get every nation and teach them to obey me.

Okay.

All right. And at the same time, but Jesus, wait. The temple is still there. The priests are still doing their thing. They're still offering sacrifices. You're saying that you're the ruler of the entire world.

You're ascending to be seated at the throne of the Father to get all the nations, tribes, tongues, peoples, languages, all that. Now imagine now, Jesus ascends and your mission now is go get the entire world.

Get them. All the nations. Bring them to Jesus and teach them to obey Jesus. Admit it. That would have probably seemed kind of crazy. Kind of crazy. Especially if, in the first century, you're receiving persecution from both the Jews and the Romans.

You're experiencing persecution from both sides. Being killed even for your faith in Jesus. And you know that Jesus has accomplished salvation once for all. He is the Messiah. He's alive again. He rose again from the dead.

But they're still going on with the Old Testament sacrifices. All the stuff still happening. And you're being persecuted, being told that Jesus is the ruler of the entire world. Can you imagine? And you're saying, watch, some Roman soldier says to you, says this, hey, what's your message?

What are you saying? What are you saying about Jesus? That he is.

Lord?

Not Caesar? And who's this Jesus? Oh, he's a Jew who was what? Crucified? Why do you realize that in the first century, crucifixion was such a gruesome and disgusting way to die that it was scandalous to even talk about it.

And you're telling the world that the ruler of the entire world, the person that Caesar has to bow to, is a Jewish carpenter who was crucified on a Pontius Pilate.

What?

It's crazy. This is crazy talk. This message is crazy. But absolutely true. It's how God does it. It's how God has done it. And what Paul says here is that Jesus is the one that all the nations have to obey.

And what he does in Romans chapter 1 is he explains that everybody knows this one true and living God, but they don't want him in their knowledge. And so they switch God for idols. They exchange God for something that's not God.

And that is, by the way, the problem of humanity. All the false religion and all the cults of the world, all of the the false prophets and false teachers of the world, are really just feeding into that central problem of the image of God and sinners before God and his world.

And what is it? We don't want the true God. We don't want to know him. And so we make something that looks kind of like him, maybe. Sometimes that false God that we exchange the real God for.

Has.

People that form buildings like this one and they make their own religious texts and they make their own ritual and sacrifice towards these false gods, which are not God. Sometimes human beings made in the image of God switch God for idols that are not so religious looking, but more are in bottles and.

Pill bottles.

We switch God for something that's like God that can satisfy us like God. We're broken, right? We need pleasure and joy. We need peace. So do we go to the true God where there is real peace, real joy, true delight and.

Wholeness?

No, we switch God for an idol. We go to the bottle. We switch him for the bottle. We switch God for the pills. We switch God for the syringe and we go down this long trail of false gods, which never satisfy us.

There's another aspect to humanity in the image of God. We've been created. So we don't want the true God. We don't like his world that he's made. So we revolt against the true God. We switch him for idols.

We look for satisfaction elsewhere besides where it really is and we end up distorting even the image of God. God creates us male and female and so we say no to his order and we start having male with male, female with female.

We don't want the world that God's made. So we form a revolt against God and we say we don't want what you've made is beautiful. What you've made to show your glory, your nature. And so we end up distorting our own sexuality and we say no to God, male and male, female and female.

That's what Paul says here. It's what humanity does. It's not a 21st century problem of the West. It's a problem of the heart of humanity. It is fallen people doing fallen things with a revolt against God.

It's what Paul does in Romans 1 as he says, here's the goal. Here's where we're going, the obedience of faith among all the nations, but here is humanity. We know the true God, but we don't want him. We're haters of God.

We're enemies of God. We switch God for idols and in the background of Romans chapter 2 you hear that self-righteous Jew reading Paul's words, hearing Paul's words. That's right. Get those dirty Gentiles.

Get them. Switching God for the false gods. Perverse sexualities, revolting against you God, disobeying their parents. Get the Gentiles, Paul. Yes. Gamaliel taught you well. Good job. But then you have now Paul turning the story over to that self-righteous Jew and he says, don't think I've forgotten about you.

He says, you have no excuse, old man. Verse 1 of chapter 2 he says, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself. Now here's where Paul indicts that Jew who has Torah in the first century who brags about the fact that they've got God's law, but they don't obey it.

They tell people don't steal. Why? Because God's not a thief. He says you should not steal. Don't steal. But then Paul says, but do you steal? The point is, watch, that Jew who has the Torah has to understand Paul's teaching, listen closely, that having, being in possession of God's law will not justify you.

Just because you tell people about God's law does not mean that you are justified in his sight. Being in the possession of it will not save you. Because we all need the Savior. Jews who were in possession of the law of God still broke it and Paul indicts them.

Gentiles and the whole world, they're guilty before God. And you, self-righteous Jew, you're also guilty before God. That's Romans 1 and 2. Paul's story is, he says, watch, we're gonna get the obedience of faith among all the nations for the sake of his name.

He now begins the indictment on all of humanity, Gentiles and Jews, which should bring everybody to Romans chapter 3. And what does it say? In Romans chapter 3, verse 9. What then? Are we Jews any better off?

No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. Listen closely. You might be saying, Jeff, how are you tying all this together? Pastor Jeff, here it is. Listen.

If the end of the age, Jewish age, signals the age of the Messiah and the new covenant, we have to understand now, what's the message? What's the message we bring now? It's a message that goes to Jews and Gentiles.

And that's what Paul does. He focuses in this good news of God to Jew and Gentile, because now the good news goes out to the world to win the nations. And we need to have the gospel that Paul had. Not the gospel of the 21st century evangelicalism.

The gospel that says, it's about me and my place in the world. Pleasure. Stuff that God gives to me. My satisfaction. It's about me. I was watching, actually, today a church service. I won't name the name of the church, but I was watching a church service and listening to the worship and it broke my heart.

All the songs. Barely a lick about God. All about me and what you do for me, God, and my relationship and my me and me and there was so much me and me and me and there was nothing about God, his holiness, his justice, his righteousness, his character, his glory.

What he deserves to receive from us is all about me and every message is about me. Brothers and sisters, it's a lie. It's a lie and you can coat it with a Christian veneer and Christian language. You can dress it up in a Christian costume.

It doesn't make it Christian. This is the message that went out in the first century that turns, listen, the world upside down. We have a message today that is so ineffective, the world is turning the church upside down.

Here's a message that came from an obscure part of the world with a Jewish carpenter's son who is raised again from the dead, who says go win the entire world with a small group of people. It turned the world upside down.

It turned the world upside down and now we have a message that is ineffective. Paul says here in Romans that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. You want an explosion of power? You want the dynamite of salvation to explode in the culture and the world around us?

You need the gospel that was preached by Paul and here's what he says about Jews and Gentiles. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. Stop. No one seeks for God. Do you hear it?

No one seeks for God. Do you believe that? Do you believe it? You see when we talk about ourselves as a church, we try to identify what we believe about God. We use words to express and just bring together in one moment.

What do you believe about God? We're Trinitarian, right? Justification through faith in Christ alone and someone says what do you believe in this particular debate? We say oh, we believe in the doctrines of grace.

We believe in Calvinism and total depravity and all those things and someone says well, why? It's a word that expresses this. No one seeks for God. Salvation is a gift of God's grace alone. He's the one who saves.

When you look at the world around us and you think about now Christ ruling and reigning saying go and get the entire world, that could be a daunting task. Right? How many of you guys have family or friends and you might think to yourself, I don't know how in the world this person's ever gonna come to Christ.