SRR 123 WLC: Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be man?

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March 16, 2020

00:01: You're listening to Semper Ephraim on the radio where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of life
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01:34: Larger catechism.
01:51: So at any time if you guys have questions, feel free to jump in interrupt just whenever it's fine and So let's
01:59: I guess let's read it here. Let's jump to it Sure Heavenly father we thank you
02:09: Lord for this day for Christmas for sending your son to die for our sins
02:15: Lord. We ask that you bless the fellowship in our study together and that your help is to Edify you and be edified by it and to apply the truths of your word
02:24: And of the the doctrine the sound doctrine that we learned today. We thank you father. We ask this in Jesus name.
02:29: Amen Okay, so let's read the question First So question 39 says
02:40: Why was it requisite that the mediator should be man? And before we even read the answer
02:45: Come on in guys before we even read the answer. I want us to focus on a very important word
02:53: Requisite Who knows what requisite means? Yeah necessary Prerequisite requirement
03:04: So notice how the question is phrase is already saying a lot Why was it necessary or a requirement that the mediator should be men?
03:15: and so the answer is obviously going to go on to explain why but Necessary is a very important thing because in other words, there's no other way
03:25: God could have done this God basically himself had to become a man and there's no other way that we could have been saved that he could have done any of the things that he did and a lot
03:36: Of people sometimes will say like well God could have done anything. He could have chosen to forgive us without necessarily sending
03:44: His son to die and that's not true that it's all a very intricate system.
03:49: That's tied together and if if that was the case Then the Bible would have changed too because the
03:55: Bible prophesies all of this So it was necessary in the in the strongest sense of the word that everybody.
04:02: Yeah, come on in everybody had The only way it could have happened is the way that it actually happened
04:11: There's different views like Molinism and things like that. They talk about possible worlds and possible alternatives. There was no alternative
04:16: This was the only way that things could have happened that it was necessary that the mediator had to be a man had to become a man mediator being
04:25: Christ obviously right the God -man and so Let's go ahead and read the answer and then we'll break it down part by part
04:32: So the answer says it was requisite that the mediator should be man that he might advance our nature perform obedience to the law
04:39: Suffer and make intercession for us in our nature Have a fellow feeling of our infirmities that we might receive the adoption of sons and have comfort and access with boldness unto the throne of grace
04:50: So this is an extremely pregnant question This is why it was necessary for in summary why it was necessary for the mediator to be a man in addition to God which was the previous question and so The first phrase here is
05:07: That he might advance our nature so in the Catechism there should be a reference there.
05:14: I can pull it up here What does the reference say in y 'all's? booklet does anybody have the
05:22: The reference the scripture reference Think it's yeah, let's turn to that to Hebrews 2 16 who wants to read that Hebrews 2 16, right?
05:56: Yeah, but yeah
06:06: Okay, right so This is one of the reasons why he became a man and not an angel for example, right because he died for men for us men
06:21: Mankind and so he didn't die for angels They have no mediator.
06:27: And so It was necessary for The and this is all tied to covenant theology as well
06:35: So it's extremely important to understand the first covenant and what happened there and when it was broken it was necessary for him to become specifically a man in order to repair what had been broken in the first covenant and so So that's why he had to become man and the offspring of Abraham Abraham obviously because of the prophecies talking about how
07:01: The seat of promise that Galatians also talks about that the seat of promise will redeem His people the elect of God so And then the next let's see.
07:14: Let's look at the next reference So the next reference here is 2nd
07:21: Peter 1 4 so you can turn to that one And I have a different one.
07:31: I don't have them. Yeah, so 1 4 okay, so 2nd
07:47: Peter 1 4 says I'll start with 3 his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness
07:55: Through the knowledge of him who call us to his own glory and excellence By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises
08:03: So that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire
08:10: So here the important phrase is become partakers of the of this of the divine nature
08:17: Okay, that's a very important Phrase and that's what the question is basically hinting at the answer to advance our nature
08:27: To become partakers of the divine nature. What what does that mean? Anybody want to take a stab at what that means?
08:36: Does that mean that we will become God? well
08:47: Yeah, let's draw that out what so it doesn't in Hinduism There's this thing called a big soul right like the great soul that you think it's called the great
08:54: Dharma or something and when we die, we go back to become one with the great soul and That's not obviously not what this is talking about.
09:02: Right become partakers of the divine nature is Specifically referring to something that will happen to us on the last day
09:11: It starts with a G Glorification right will be we will become perfected
09:19: At the resident at the resurrection, well, actually that was my question when when is when is that going to happen?
09:25: That's a very important question to It basically means glorification which means that our spirits so when people die now their spirits will be glorified in heaven
09:37: But their bodies are still in the grave. And so our bodies are not going to be glorified until Christ comes back at the resurrection and It's extremely important to keep that in mind, especially with a lot of modern teachers
09:50: Even people like John Piper because they say glorification happens after the last judgment So first in order to be glorified you have to be judged by God and that's a very that's a totally unbiblical notion
10:03: Because the Bible teaches that as soon as Christ comes back at the resurrection, we will be glorified instantly it says we're all going to be caught up in the air and the dead in Christ will be raised first and then
10:14: The I mean those who are alive will be raised in Christ and then the dead in Christ will also be raised In a glorified state so that glorified state will happen as soon as Christ comes back
10:26: So that's an important thing to keep in mind there that's essentially what it's referring to there and so any questions about that or comments or Okay so the next phrase here is
10:43: Perform obedience to the law right and here is The big question is obviously what law what what law is being referred to here?
10:55: What do y 'all think there's
11:06: Is it the mosaic law? What's that? essentially, yeah that so There's different kinds of laws in the
11:16: Bible, right? There's ceremonial laws. There's mosaic law there's a Judicial laws that are tied to the mosaic law
11:26: But that's not this is specifically referring to a specific kind of law namely the moral law it's called the
11:36: Historical theology the term is moral law and moral law is what
11:42: Christ came to fulfill for a very specific reason and so if you turn to your
11:49: Okay, let me run my notes here so if we go to question
11:58: I Think it's in the Catechism Turn to question 92 so question 92 says this
12:16: What did God at first reveal into man as a rule of his obedience? The rule of his obedience revealed to Adam in the estate of innocence and to all mankind in him
12:26: Besides a special command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the moral law Okay, so that's what the
12:34: That's what this is specifically referring to obviously he Christ fulfilled the entire law. He fulfilled the entire mosaic law
12:39: He was a good Jew and he kept a lot perfectly but what he specifically needed to fulfill for us was the moral law and So question 93 the next question answers that answers what the moral law is
12:55: So the answer the the moral law is The declaration of the will of God to mankind directing and binding everyone to personal perfect and perpetual conformity and obedience thereunto in the frame and disposition of the whole man's solemn body and Performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he owed to God and men
13:18: Promising life upon the fulfilling and threatening death upon the breach of it So this what it's basically saying is that this is the law that all men are bound to right?
13:30: This is a law that doesn't change because there's different kinds of laws in the Bible. There's the in reformed theology, there's a positive law and Moral law moral law never changes.
13:40: It's always the same. So it's always wrong to murder. It's always wrong to lie cheat steal all that stuff Which is essentially summarizing the
13:48: Ten Commandments That's the moral law summarized and then it's further summarized by Christ with the two great commandments, right?
13:54: Love God and love your neighbor. So that is the essence of the moral law and Positive law is commands like the one that God gave to Abraham to kill his son, right?
14:06: That's a positive command It doesn't apply to us. We're not required to kill our firstborn or to kill the son of promise
14:12: So that's positive law This is moral law that applies to all men at all times at all places and we are bound to keep it personally perfectly and perpetually and so that's in it in addition to The the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil of knowledge of good and evil the the catechism here says that God revealed the moral law to Adam and all mankind in him
14:41: So essentially what this is referring to is the conscience Right that we all have an innate knowledge of God and an innate knowledge of the moral law
14:49: And so the moral law was revealed to Adam because it was always wrong to murder Would it have been okay to murder
14:55: Eve or to murder Adam? Obviously not right
15:00: It's not it was always wrong to murder at all places and at all times even before the garden especially before the garden and so The So the concept here
15:13: This is what it's referring to in the catechism and question 39 that this is obedience Perfect in order for us to be redeemed
15:22: Somebody had to come and fulfill the law perfectly Personally perfectly and perpetually in order to satisfy the terms of the covenant that were broken in Adam Because what happened without him?
15:34: Did he keep the law perfectly? No, right. He broke the whole thing. Basically when he
15:40: Got caught and ended up blaming his wife and they basically all wanted to follow their themselves and the deception of the serpent instead of God and so They broke the law.
15:52: They broke the covenant okay, so that's another really important concept is They broke the first covenant that God made with man and that is the covenant of works
16:01: Right. So the covenant of works Does any does everybody know what that means the covenant of works the first covenant?
16:09: Who wants to take a shot at? defining it Basic just a basic overview of what it is
16:14: The first covenant the covenant of works
16:30: Yes, so basically the and we don't have Right, so Yeah, yeah, so it's a covenant we need to probably define that to a covenant
16:53: There's several different covenants in the Bible, right a basic definition of a covenant is a commitment with divine sanctions
17:02: That's the most broadest definition that basically For the most part fits pretty much every covenant in the Bible because even marriage is a covenant, right?
17:09: And so it's not always a covenant between man and God it can be a covenant between two people and so a commitment with divine sanctions and so I'm gonna read we don't have it, but I'll just go ahead and read the the
17:23: Westminster Confession and It's in the London Baptist as well. But the so the
17:29: Westminster Confession chapter 7 explains what that is Yeah What's that sanctions?
17:38: Sanctions means consequences, right? So if you obey you get a reward if you disobey you die you you get punished, right?
17:45: So Yeah, good question, so let me read Westminster Confession chapter 7 section 2.
17:53: This is a section of God's covenant with men. Actually this section was removed Well, this this section specifically was taken out and kind of moved around in the
18:04: London Baptist Confession But it's they hold to essentially the same covenant of works The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works where in life was promised to Adam And hit in him to his posterity upon condition of perfect and personal obedience
18:21: So that's a summary of what the covenant of works was in the garden Now it's interesting here because a lot of people
18:30: Reject the covenant. They either rejected the covenant of works or they're they they're ignorant of it.
18:36: They don't They don't they don't believe it. They reject it or they Do other things with with the
18:43: Bible they're even worse But a lot of people don't believe it don't believe that it actually existed that God never made a covenant with man with Adam with Adam specifically and So it's really important.
18:56: This is extremely important It has implications on everything because it explains what man's fundamental problem is
19:03: What is man's fundamental problem? It's in summary Well It's it's basically the fall right it's we broke the first covenant there was a covenant tied to the garden and They did not have eternal life priority keeping a lot of people assume that too.
19:28: They assume that Adam and Eve had eternal life Automatically and that's not the case
19:34: They had to earn they had to do something obey God in order to gain eternal life Because if they had eternal life, then why did they lose it?
19:42: They would have because if you eat if you eat the fruit you will die, right? So they did not have eternal life at that point.
19:48: They had to do something to earn it. That's the fundamental works principle tied to The the covenant of works.
19:56: That's why it's called the covenant of works because you have to do something in order to earn A reward eternal life glorification.
20:04: What's that? Yeah, it's obedience. You have to obey God perfectly and so A lot of people think that this is not in the
20:11: Bible, but you can actually it's extremely easy to prove in the Bible It's it's required.
20:17: There's there's one simple little Bible phrase a two -word Bible phrase that proves the covenant of works
20:25: Is anybody any guess as to what that could mean or which what phrase that could be and To take a hint to give a hint.
20:36: It's in first Corinthians In fact, let's go to first Corinthians verse 22
20:48: I'm sorry, 15 chapter 15 verse 22 who wants to read that?
21:04: 15 22 Anybody want to read it?
21:14: There you go, so the phrase is in Adam right in Adam is referring to that original covenant and And This is drawing a parallel here that has further developed in Romans as well
21:32: Romans 5 for example And we're going to get to that right now. But this is this is showing That in Adam There's a parallel right in Adam in Christ in Adam all died
21:44: So in Adam, we all died because we are we are all reckoned guilty. We're all born guilty
21:50: What are we guilty of? Before even sinning we're guilty of something. What is that? Adams Adam sin, right?
21:59: We're all legally guilty of Adam sin. So we're born condemned That's why none of us could have fulfilled a lot because we're already guilty
22:07: We're dead and condemned from the start. What was that? Yeah.
22:13: Yeah, right. So this all in Adam Also means that he was our the the term is called federalism
22:23: Federalism comes from the Latin for us and that just means covenant so In Adam means that Adam was our head.
22:31: He was our federal head or covenant head Covenant head means that he was our representative right
22:38: This all sounds familiar right because Christ is our what? He's our representative.
22:45: He is our head. He is our federal representative in the new covenant the covenant of grace, right the covenant
22:51: That he came to satisfy on our behalf and so likewise we were in Adam and so whatever
23:01: Adam did he did not only not only for himself, but in all of mankind all of his posterity and So this is what the covenant works is and it's an extremely important Doctrine that gets either ignored misunderstood or rejected because people don't understand it or they don't know
23:19: They don't understand where it comes from the Bible and this has implications on everything because it's it it explains why we are in a
23:26: Why we're sinners why we're why we're condemned Yeah No, they died, right?
23:38: They failed They didn't keep the covenant if they had kept the covenant what would have happened if they had obeyed
23:46: God in the garden They would have gained eternal life. They would have gained
23:52: Glorification right because the Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, right if they had kept the covenant perfectly
23:59: They would have been glorified. They would have gained glorification and eternal life. That was the goal and And for all of us it would have been for all of us.
24:08: He would have done it for for for everybody's behalf They failed they broke the covenant.
24:20: They they broke the covenant. Therefore they died right now There's it's they they believed they eventually came to believe in Christ right in the promise beside because God says in Genesis 3 15 that the seed of the woman will crush the serpent and will be
24:36: Yeah, it will lead to saving the elect but that was a foreshadowing of the new covenant but because the first covenant was broken
24:45: Somebody else in order for us to be saved and not be condemned Somebody else had to come and satisfy the original terms of that covenant, right?
25:00: You should you will surely die They knew yeah It's literally a statement.
25:25: Yeah for in the day. In other words, he's already Here ready plan for them to eat it.
25:30: It's for in the day that you eat of it You will surely die that that's more of an old
25:35: English It's not it's not like yeah It's not yeah, no, it's not it's not telling them you're you're already damned
25:45: He was laying the terms of the covenant right if you disobey you will die
25:52: That's the covenant works if you fail to obey you're going to be punished if you keep it you will be rewarded right you will be glorified with eternal life and so Genesis 3 15 is a foreshadowing.
26:14: Yeah They they they had types and shadows right there were types of shadows and It's they don't know as much as we know now because it's after the first cup the new covenant came, but they had an idea
26:27: You were saved by believing in the promised Messiah right in the Old Testament You believed in the promised
26:34: Messiah. You didn't exactly know how that was gonna look you had it There were shadows foreshadowings and things like that prophecies that it that hint at what it was going to be like but Yeah, when when that that was a that was a form of covering their sin, right?
27:03: It was a it was a symbolic of covering their their nakedness because they exposed
27:10: They sacra got slaughtered Go to lambs lambs or something like that to in a sense to cover to a symbolic covering that's what's ushers
27:23: Because in Leviticus, I think it's Leviticus 1711 it says without the shedding of blood.
27:29: There's no remission of sins, right? So blood has to be shed About the about the
27:43: Messiah. Yes, they they didn't know. Yeah, because everything it was hypothetical before Hypothetically, they could have kept a covenant.
27:50: But of course in God's plan if the he predestined it for them to disobey He made that was always the plan, right?
27:58: And so Yeah, this is a really This is very
28:06: Detailed well, there's so much in this question And so it's really important to to understand that and so if we go to the cat to the catechism question 20
28:23: Yes No, this is a this is a larger catechism.
28:30: I may have a modernized version of it. So question 20
28:46: Okay Question 20 says what was the providence of God toward man in the estate in which he was created the providence of God toward man in The estate in which he was created was the placing him in paradise
28:59: Appointing him to dress it giving him liberty to eat of the fruit of the earth putting the creatures under his dominion
29:05: Ordaining marriage for his up his help Affording him communion with himself and instituting the
29:11: Sabbath Entering into a covenant of life with him upon condition of personal perfect and perpetual
29:17: Obedience of which the tree of life was a pledge and forbidding to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil upon pain of death
29:24: Okay, so that's a really That's another kind of more detailed summary of that original covenant here they say the covenant of life which was the first covenant that God made with men and so The verse there's a there's a verse here.
29:45: Yes. Yeah, exactly That's also why
29:51: God kicked them out He said you can't be here anymore because if you eat of the knowledge of free of the tree of Life, you'll live forever.
29:59: So they're they broke it so they couldn't partake in that anymore So they were they were condemned and cast out
30:10: It's Forever in the sense that we will live forever when we are resurrected. We will never die.
30:17: We're gonna have a glorified body No before the fall they had to earn it.
30:25: There was a probe. It's called a probationary period, right? God was testing them during that time to make sure that to so that they wouldn't eat of the battery the knowledge of good and evil and And so doing
30:42: Would they would have gained eternal life? Upon that and so this this is drawn out further.
30:48: So let's go to a Galatians 4 for to kind of Unpack that a little bit more
31:06: So so Galatians 4 4 says but when the fullness of time had come
31:18: God sent forth his son Born of women born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons
31:28: So that's again showing you Christ had to be born Subjected to the law the same law
31:35: That was bound to Adam that was given to Adam and all of his posterity in him had to be he had to be born under that same law in order to fulfill it and In so doing earning righteousness on our behalf, right?
31:52: We couldn't keep the law perfectly We never we can't we're already born condemned. There's no way there's just no way and Atop of that we have a sinful nature to to to Add fuel to the fire, right?
32:02: There's just no way it's it's impossible The only way that's why the virgin birth was necessary as well
32:08: Right. He couldn't have been born of man because man is by nature corrupt now after the fall and so All of this as we start understanding this is closely tied together and related into the system of doctrine that's revealed in the
32:24: Bible and so There's so many parallels with Christ and Adam throughout the
32:29: Bible that explains what what was what Christ the reason why Christ came and so if we go to also to Matthew 3 15,
32:39: I Don't know if that one is listed there, but this is also an important Verse That it sheds light on this.
33:04: So Matthew 3 15 says but okay. Let me start in 13 Verse 13 yet then
33:11: Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan To John to be baptized by him John would have prevented him saying
33:17: I need to be baptized by you And do you come to me? But Jesus answered him let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness
33:27: Then he consented that phrase there it was fitting For him to do this in order to fulfill all righteousness
33:38: Fulfill all righteousness keep the law perfectly right satisfy the terms of the covenant that Adam failed miserably to keep and So you can even see a further one of those starches starkest parallels
33:54: Adam was in perfect paradise. He had everything he needed and yet he still failed miserably, right?
34:01: He failed he just failed flat -out failed By contrast
34:06: Christ had to endure much more severe Circumstances in order to keep his part of the covenant
34:15: To earn righteousness for us, right? What's the parallel to? Adam being in paradise.
34:22: Where was Christ thrown into for 40 days? The wilderness right the desert no food.
34:31: No water 40 days and nights. He was in the wilderness Undergoing the temptation a
34:39: Similar temptation that Adam went through in the garden with the serpent, right? That's a parallel It's it's an explicit parallel given in the
34:46: Bible to show At Christ came here to do something that Adam could not do that Adam failed to do
34:52: Right and he passed with flying colors. He passed perfectly even with dire circumstances, right because he was
34:58: Subject to infirmities to he was subject to the curse He was not himself sinful by nature, but he was subject to all of the same things that we go through in terms of hunger pain and and and all of that stuff and so in temptation to be tempted by Satan into and all of those things so We can now so let's turn to there's there's a verse that the catechism points to here
35:30: Romans 5 19 And I was saying earlier if you have any questions, like feel free to interrupt feel free to jump in comments, whatever
35:49: Yeah, yeah, let's
36:23: Let's there's a really there's a question that answers your answers your question perfectly Okay, let's go to question 25 in the larger catechism.
36:39: So that one says Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate wherewith wherein to men fell
36:46: The answer is the sinfulness of that estate wherein to men fell Consisteth in the guilt of Adam's first sin
36:53: The want of that righteousness wherein he was created and the corruption of his nature whereby he is utterly indisposed
37:00: Disabled and made an opposite unto all that is spiritually good and wholly inclined to all evil and that continually
37:06: Which commonly called which is commonly called original sin and from which do proceed all actual transgressions, that's why
37:14: Because after the fall we were all born legally guilty and with a sinful nature
37:20: So we're born guilty and with a sinful nature that prevents us from doing anything good
37:28: It's we are That's how that's how damning the effects of the fall were they
37:43: It's not a sin to be born. It's a sin. It's a sin to be Adams We're we're big by virtue of being an
37:51: Adam anybody who's born is automatically guilty in Adam Yeah We're automatically guilty even before actually sinning, right?
38:04: That that's the the federal No, no You're no, well you you you're a sinner the moment you're born.
38:23: Yeah the moment you're born you conceived even yet You're a sinner. You're you're legally guilty in Adam sin
38:30: So yeah at conception Yeah, no, no, no
38:41: That's but that is part of the fall right because the the sufferings of childbirth is part of the consequences of the fall as well
38:59: That's our nature because we are sin that yeah, we don't say that yeah, we don't
39:06: Yeah We're not sinners because we sin We sin because we're sinners
39:16: That's what Jesus was saying with the good tree and the bad tree Right a good tree cannot bear bad fruit only good fruit a battery cannot bear a good fruit
39:25: It's an ontological problem, right that's what Luther was in the Luther movie one of the Luther movies
39:31: There was he was he was that was part of the this the debate between Rome and Luther He's saying a you can't do anything good because you're a bad tree, right?
39:41: Your nature needs to be changed. You need to be regenerated, right? We need the regenerating power of the
39:46: Spirit of God in order for us to do good in the first place And so the site we saw apart from that we're sinners and only send you nothing but evil
40:00: We sin because we're sinners Because we're sinners. Yeah, we're born sinners and born condemned.
40:06: So let's go to Romans 5 Let's start with verse 4 verse 12.
40:18: This is a little lengthy. So I'm just going to read through it starting at verse 12
40:24: Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sin
40:32: For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given But sin is not counted where there is no law yet death reigned from Adam to Moses even over Those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam who was the type of the one who was to come
40:46: But the free gift is not like the trespass for if many died through the ones meant through the one man's trespass
40:52: Much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that One man Jesus Christ abounded for many and the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin
41:00: For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification
41:08: For if because of one man's trespass death reigned Through that one man much more will those who receive abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man
41:18: Jesus Christ Therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men
41:24: So one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners so by one man's disobedience the many will be made righteous and What we just read is essentially what summarized in the questions that we've been reading in the catechism, right?
41:40: It's exactly what's being summarized verse 18 is very clear as One trespass by Adam led to condemnation for all men we are all condemned because of Adam's sin and so So one act of righteousness
42:04: So one act of righteousness. Oh, yeah, it's a parallelism and in there's Hebrew.
42:09: That's it's a It's a figure of speech. It's like a it's a parallelism is what it's called
42:15: It's not saying everybody was justified. That's obviously not what I'm saying Because people go to hell right?
42:21: There's people who are condemned It's just drawing on a parallelism that all who are in Christ right in Adam all die in Christ So I'll be made alive you have to be in Christ There's no ifs ands or buts about it because Christ was the one who fulfilled that covenant and if you are not in him
42:40: What are the conditions of the new covenant? How are we in Christ?
42:46: How are we brought in Christ? And you knew with Christ? Well, yeah
42:55: Thank you exactly right the five solas by grace through faith Faith is how we are brought into the new covenant.
43:03: We we go from being dead in Adam And Adam all died right to alive in Christ.
43:09: We have eternal life in Jesus Christ No, well, that's that's a big issue
43:21: Well, that's that's the big issue What well, what what would you all say Well, what would you all say right?
43:28: This is this is the very issue of the Reformation This is what Luther was debating and the bondage of the will right?
43:35: in order for us to believe The because a man must be born again, right?
43:42: Do we have do we have the power to do that on our own to regenerate ourselves? No, right. We're sinful by nature.
43:49: The Bible says explicitly even in Romans 8 it says We are the the the natural man.
43:56: Is that constant hostility against God? He is unable to satisfy or to please God in any way
44:03: We have no desire not even a desire right Romans 3 right all are
44:09: Undersinned no one seeks after God. No one wants God all of them are
44:15: Condemned there's no desire in order for us to even have a desire to believe God first has to regenerate us
44:22: And that's the big debate And then we believe
44:29: And then we believe and then we're sanctified all of that. So yeah, that's that that's what a dad is
44:36: One of the main issues in Luther's bondage of the will if you guys haven't read that book highly highly recommend it
44:42: It is Luther's like masterpiece Bondage of the will yeah, and so This is all showing you what the stipulations of that covenant were and why it was necessary for Christ to come right to perform
44:55: Obedience to the law. That's what that phrase is talking about. So the next phrase in question 39 is
45:04: Suffer and make intercession for us in our nature So yeah, let's let's do that one suffer and make intercession for us in our nature
45:14: Well, we can do them together have a fellow feeling of our infirmities. So what verses are listed in y 'all's in y 'all's is a
45:25: Booklet for that one for the suffer and make intercession for us in our nature
45:31: Okay, yeah, that's that's the ones I have so let's go to Hebrews Hebrews 2 14. I think we already read this to 14.
45:52: Yeah, here we go So start verse 14 says Since therefore the children sharing flesh and blood he himself likewise partook of the same things
46:03: That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver all who those who through fear of death were subject to a lifelong slavery and Where is the verse okay,
46:19: I'm looking for the verse so this is just showing his his Christ had a how many offices did
46:27: Christ have? Prophet priest and King right? This is explaining his priestly office, right?
46:35: What would a priest do in the Old Testament? There is a sort of a mediator, right?
46:45: They would they would administer sacrifices of animals right to the temple as For several reasons right sin offerings guilt offerings free will offerings, but the priests were sort of mediators between the people of God and God himself and they would offer
47:06: Sacrifices because Leviticus 17 11 or 19 11 says without the shedding of blood. There's no remission of sin
47:12: So in order for God to cover the sins of the people They had to offer sacrifices, right and the
47:21: Day of Atonement Was the day in which the priest would offer sacrifices for the entire nation of Israel and that Day of Atonement was very symbolic
47:34: Which is exactly the language of that? John the Baptist was using when he saw
47:40: Christ come to be baptized. What did he say? behold The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, right?
47:48: That's the priestly office of Christ that he came to Fulfill in our be on our behalf and in order to do that like the question is phrased
47:57: It was necessary for him to become a man in order to do that right to be a mediator he had to become a man in order to Fulfill the righteousness that Christ that Adam failed to fulfill and to offer himself as a sacrifice as a sacrifice
48:16: For us and there's there's another I'm trying to look for that verse that yeah, let's go to that one
48:29: Hebrews 7 24 to 25 Yeah, yeah, there's obviously a huge In a matter of sin
49:10: It took it took a matter of centuries for the Catholic Church to develop into the monster that it is now, right? centuries of corruption of bad false doctrine and Obviously, they have a priesthood and they say call is they basically ignored the book of Hebrews, right?
49:28: Because Hebrew says Christ offered himself once For all and it was a finished sacrifice.
49:35: There's no longer a need to offer any more sacrifices because Christ satisfied and Our sins as the ultimate sacrifice, right?
49:44: There's no more priesthood for that very reason Prophet priest and King.
49:52: Yeah Yeah Yes. Yeah, so the
49:59: Bible we have several titles ourselves where we are a royal nation We are all kings and queens in God's kingdom in Christ.
50:06: One of the benefits is that we are kings and queens. We are royalty We will inherit the earth
50:11: That's what it's referring to because because Christ yeah because Christ is King right and because we are adopted we become partakers of that blessing of adoption and We will inherit all things everything
50:25: What's that We're saints we're priests everybody's yeah, everybody in Christ is a saint and we are in union with Christ and so Yeah, so let's go
50:44: Did we okay, let's go ahead and read Let's go ahead and read that that verse starting in verse 23
50:53: The former priests were many a number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office
50:59: But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for him
51:09: So even now Christ is our advocate, right? The Bible says that he is our advocate and he is our high priest
51:15: Making it making the office the Old Testament office of a priest Totally obsolete and that's why
51:22: Hebrews 9 says that the Old Covenant the Mosaic Covenant is completely obsolete. It's dead There is no need whatsoever to do anything in the
51:31: Mosaic Covenant that is tied to the ceremonial law Because that ceremonial aspect of the priestly office was completely satisfied by Christ, okay, so Let's go to Hebrews 4 15 so in verse 15
52:01: It says for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses But one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin so No.
52:13: Yeah. Okay, so so This is another aspect tied to His priestly office, obviously, right?
52:23: He became a man To sympathize with us in our weaknesses. So he was subject to the fall
52:29: He was subject to the curse of the fall But there's a major exception to that and that is by virtue by virtue of the virgin birth
52:36: What is the only exception that Christ had? As a consequence of the fall what is the one exception to that?
52:44: without sin and he had a
52:50: Sinless nature, right? His human nature was sinless unstained by Adam because he was not born
52:57: Through Adam. He was born through the Holy Spirit Impregnating Mary, right?
53:02: So he was exempt from Being born in sin and beings having a sinful nature
53:08: Now this leads to another important What do you call it implication right because Here we want to be careful not to Overextend what the
53:23: Bible is saying here. It says in every respect has been tempted as we are so when we're tempted
53:30: The Bible talks about that the reason there's problems with us is because we are tempted
53:36: What is it that tempt us? Our own lusts, right? It's an internal problem.
53:42: We have an internal problem because we have a sinful nature So because we have a sinful nature the flesh is what the
53:48: Bible calls it, right the flesh Makes us desire evil and actually commit evil, right?
53:57: Christ was not subject to any of those things. All of his temptations were external in other words
54:02: He did not have a corrupt mind. He did not have a corrupt heart. He did not have a corrupt nature So he was not in any way subject
54:11: To wicked desires He was only tempted externally but by virtue of the curse of the fall by virtue of the devil by virtue of being subject to his surroundings basically and So that it's important to keep that in mind.
54:25: That's why it says yet without sin, right because he'd never sin And he didn't have a sinful nature Right so this this is the this becomes a big a bigger issue tied to Romans 7 right
54:55: Romans 7 and what exactly the flesh is, right? Then it's also ties into regeneration because when we are born again
55:05: We receive a new heart right a new heart and a new nature
55:11: Which makes us desire God's will however There's a problem
55:17: We still sin right as Christians we still sin and we can still commit heinous sins even as Christians Nobody's exempt from committing sin even now as Christians But we are sanctified right by God's Spirit living in us and so we are actively being sanctified by God's Spirit and also we play a part right by Going to church listening to sound preaching studying the
55:42: Bible all of that sanctifies us because Christ said that we are sanctified by the truth Right John 17 17 sanctify them in the truth.
55:48: Your word is truth the truth sanctifies us and sets us free like John say 832, right so Regeneration we receive a new heart a new nature second
56:01: Corinthians 5 17 and if What any
56:09: And then yeah, he is a new creature right a new creation Behold behold means there's a visible change
56:17: You will have a new nature and you will be inclined into doing good and you will actually be able to perform good works
56:23: Before that you had no good works on your on your all of our that's what Isaiah is talking about all of our righteous deeds
56:29: Isaiah 64 6 our righteous deeds were filthy rags in God's eyes because we're born condemned and we have a sinful nature nothing that we can
56:36: Do there's nothing that we could have done. That was a good work prior to Yeah prior to To being regenerated right because we have to be turned into a good tree first, right?
56:49: There's a now there's a debate as to what the flesh exactly is right And there's differences of opinion on if the flesh includes the heart
57:01: Your inner man your spirit or if it only is your body now
57:07: So that's that's kind of a debate between and there's also an issue of whether man is a tripart being or or a dichotomous being
57:15: Whether we have a body and a soul or a body spirit and soul so there's there's a lot of Ancillary doctrines that are tied to this question
57:37: Yes. Yeah James I think right that he'll provide a way for you to deal with the temptation.
57:44: Yeah. Yeah No, no, it's not a sin to be tempted it's a sin to yield to it right then we yield to it because of our flesh
57:58: God regenerates our mind our spirit big because of our flesh, right? It depends on how you define flesh because Like like there's just different views, right?
58:09: I would personally take the view that the body is the flesh exclusively Because God give us a new heart if you if God gave us a new heart and you're saying it's still sinful and still wicked
58:18: That's kind of a problem, right? Did God give you a sinful heart? You know a sinful new heart? Well, I would say no
58:26: Some people say that no, we're still totally depraved in the sense that even though we are regenerated.
58:31: We're still There's still remnants of sin in our in our heart, which again
58:37: I don't I don't think that makes sense But some people take that view But our church pastor
58:44: Joe has preached on that if any of you guys remember but It's a but it's you have to think about the implications, right?
58:52: So God gives us a new heart that means something and so yeah, we sin because of our flesh and so So that's yeah, he has a fellow feeling of our infirmities and And So that's basically what that's referring to there and so if we continue on in the question here
59:17: That we might receive the adoption of sons and have comfort and access with boldness unto the throne of grace
59:24: So let's let's go to I think it's in Galatians Yeah, Galatians 4 5.
59:37: Okay Okay Galatians 4
01:00:04: Starting we'll start in verse 4 so but when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son Born of woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive the adoption of sons right, so That's just basically taking a straight out of that verse right when in Christ we become adopted that's one of the benefits
01:00:26: Of being saved right we receive the adoption of sonship
01:00:32: We whereby we can God call God father and we receive all of the blessings that come with being a son of God Which is eternal life glorification
01:00:43: The entire universe becomes ours. We we partake in all of them by virtue of adoption.
01:00:49: And so What was the next To the question and yeah, so let's turn to what versus that Hebrews Force it.
01:01:05: Yeah Hebrews 416. So anybody want to read that one?
01:01:28: Yeah There so that's literally just taking it from the right from that verse, right
01:01:52: We have access to God as This is extremely important because There's constant this this has implications on the final judgment as well, right when we are in Christ the
01:02:10: Judgment was satisfied by who the condemnation.
01:02:18: Who was it satisfied by? It was by Christ right Christ paid for the condemnation the punishment of sin
01:02:27: Which was condemnation right eternal condemnation And so So Rather than facing
01:02:37: God on final judgment because everybody's gonna have a final judgment, right? We're all gonna Everyone is will face
01:02:44: God on the final judgment, but for Christians the throne
01:02:50: Is going to go from being a throne of judgment to a throne of what a throne of grace, right?
01:03:00: this has huge implications for and this is where false teachers like Piper John Piper Perverts this completely because he says we're going to face
01:03:10: Christ as judge But the Bible says Christ is not our judge anymore. He's our advocate, right?
01:03:16: He is our mediator and our advocate and when we face God at final judgment We're going to face him as a father because we become adopted right?
01:03:26: He's no longer our judge The sin problem becomes a domestic issue rather than a criminal legal issue
01:03:33: Because Christ satisfied the legal punishment. So now all sin is treated domestically father and son
01:03:40: He corrects us. He rebukes us, right? He may even kill us if we send that badly and that's happened in the
01:03:46: Bible before right people sin And he'll take you out if you sin badly enough But you may that doesn't mean you're condemned that just means he rebukes us because he's a loving father, right?
01:03:57: So when we face God a final judgment That throne of judgment is converted into a throne of grace for us
01:04:04: And we we alluded to earlier when we're glorified when Christ comes back We will already be instantly glorified before even setting foot in the final judgment
01:04:15: So we already know where we're going to go when Christ comes back. We're going to know instantly. We're going to have glorified bodies
01:04:20: We're not going to have any sweat about the judgment Because we already know
01:04:25: I have a heavenly body I'm going to heaven I'm gonna approach God at the throne of grace and be rewarded for my good works
01:04:32: There is going to be a judgment of works, right? The good works will be rewarded The good works will be
01:04:40: We're not going to be yeah, we're not going to be judged we were judged in Christ We're gonna our works will be judged our works will be judged in order to be rewarded
01:04:50: Not to be not to determine if we're going to heaven like Piper says, right? That's what Piper says.
01:04:55: You have to pass the final judgment test in order to attain heaven Get access to heaven, but we have access to heaven in who?
01:05:04: He who believes shall have what? eternal life John 5 24 says he who believes in me shall not come into judgment
01:05:14: Right. The judgment is over for us. It was settled at the cross Legally settled at the cross completely he paid for them all that's what he was talks about all over the place, right?
01:05:24: So that is Basically what this quick as you can see this question is talking about a whole bunch of stuff and it's tying it together
01:05:33: By virtue of Christ becoming a man, right? So I think you could probably wrap it up there and Any other questions or comments?
01:05:49: There's a popular doctrine Which one what is it called?
01:06:00: Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah, well
01:06:09: The the the Bible does talk about you are carnal, right? You're being carnal Dispensationalism, which is not what we believe we are reformed so we believe in covenant theology instead of dispensationalism, but very
01:06:25: The more extreme versions of dispensationalism believe that you can be a carnal
01:06:31: Christian and still be saved Meaning that you you can even get to the point where you don't even believe in God anymore and you can still be saved
01:06:40: But that's not obviously not because that's basically a denial of regeneration, right?
01:06:46: so when God saves us he regenerate that means something right and I One of the and I highly recommend people
01:06:56: Check out. There's a sermon by Paul Washer called What is it called?
01:07:02: It's it's having to love you of regeneration Paul Washer I completely agree with Paul Washer and the issue of Romans 7 and Regeneration that having to love you of regeneration
01:07:18: Yeah And that that has huge consequences if you want you it's so easy to undermine the doctrine of regeneration even as reformed people
01:07:25: Because they intend to overemphasize total depravity like we remain depraved after being regenerated and that's true
01:07:32: But in a more limited sense now It's much more limited because God gave us a new heart and a new and a new
01:07:39: We're a new creature creature Yeah, right.
01:07:47: So we're actively being sanctified by God's Spirit, right? So Yeah, there's definitely a lot to chew on on this question
01:07:59: But yeah, I think yeah, we can wrap it up there yes, sure Yes, yes, yeah, so the
01:08:23: Parallels are the ones we talked about in Romans 5 The the test that Adam and Eve had undergone it was not a perpetual test they were not supposed to obey forever the the the
01:08:38: Commandment to not eat of the fruit of the bad tree right that battery was there for a specific window of time
01:08:49: And we can deduce we can deduce to what to some extent like if they had kept that if they had rejected the serpent of The temptation of the serpent then there's a sense in which you can see that they would have gained they would have gained eternal life because they would have been able to eat of the tree of life and Gain that glorified state.
01:09:13: It was not a perpetual Test Because Christ's test was not perpetual either.
01:09:21: He did not have to be a man forever To gain our righteousness, right? It was this moment in time where he had to be born live perfectly up until adulthood and then offers in his life as a sacrifice and so You can the parallels are also drawn again
01:09:38: You see in order to make sense of the covenant works. You have to look at what Christ did Because some of it is hidden in the
01:09:45: Old Testament This is part of the concept of progressive revelation, right? And the Old Testament is not as clear it does talk about it and it hints at it
01:09:53: It was a six four is another verse it talks about like Adam. They transgressed the covenant that God made with Adam, but in the
01:10:01: New Testament It gives more clearly what the terms of the first covenant were and one of those parallels is the temptation in the wilderness
01:10:08: Christ has to pass that test in a similar way that Adam had to pass the test of not being not yielding to the serpent
01:10:15: Right, and then Romans 5 continues to talk about how obedience was required in order to earn eternal life
01:10:23: There's a works principle in the Bible It's extremely important if you deny that you deny you're denying
01:10:28: Christ and what he did for us to satisfy Righteousness on our behalf. He didn't just die on the cross
01:10:34: For our sin, he had to gain perfect righteousness a perfect standing
01:10:39: It's not enough to clear to clear our guilt record, right? We have to be perfect in order to enter heaven
01:10:50: Exactly he had to fulfill the first covenant Perfectly keep it so that we could be reckoned positively
01:10:58: Perfectly and fully righteous in God's eyes. So there's a but that's called double imputation where Christ Pays the punishment for our sin, but also we are
01:11:10: His righteousness is transferred legally to us by virtue of the new covenant when we believe, right?
01:11:17: So that's extremely important and you have to tie the scriptures together You can't just stick to the
01:11:23: Genesis account because it doesn't give you that much information You have to keep looking in Romans and Corinthians all of those verses talk about in Adam By the you know,
01:11:32: Romans 5 all of that is expounding What the covenant of works?
01:11:38: required and what Christ had to do in order to fulfill that original covenant for us and Take us out of Adam right
01:11:47: So that's in some And I also did a we did two podcast episodes on the covenant of works on separate from on the radio
01:11:56: So if you want to I can send a link to to to you guys if you want to listen to it It's episodes 85 and 86.
01:12:03: I think We had a two -part series talking about this and going through what it means to do the covenant of works and all of that stuff
01:12:10: But yeah, that's basically Go ahead
01:12:51: Amen That's the condition That is a one -line summary of the condition of the first covenant do this and live
01:13:00: Therefore live if you do it if you obey, right? And we fail right?
01:13:06: That's why we have to be in Christ in order to live eternally So there yeah, it's a perfect verse to capstone it on You've heard and I've read
01:13:22: I don't remember where where it talks about how The question of why is it
01:13:29: Adams fault not ease and then it says it in the New Testament How he was to blame that he knew and she didn't so can you elaborate on that?
01:13:40: Very good question Yeah Very good question our federal head
01:13:47: Was it Eve or Adam and Eve? or Adam Adam in Adam, right?
01:13:55: specifically Adam Not Eve Eve was not our federal head Adam was Eve was in Adam.
01:14:02: She came from Adam, right? So even Eve is in Adam, right? So everybody is in Adam Now it does say in Timothy.
01:14:11: I think that this the woman was deceived But Adam went along with it He yielded to the his wife and then he blamed her for it and which made him
01:14:23: Compounding his guilt, right? He failed it miserably. He failed the covenant. He couldn't have broken it in a worse way
01:14:29: Yes He's the first man. He is the one that we are even eat is in that it's a good question
01:14:59: You can we can follow up afterwards it's yeah we can follow up and and talk about it.
01:15:04: So let's close let's close with a word of prayer and Anybody want to pray close us with prayer
01:15:25: I got it on tape. So I might post it up on them. Anyway, I'll close us out on the word of prayer
01:15:31: Heavenly Father. We thank you Lord for this time of fellowship and of learning your word help us to digest these truth to meditate on them to understand them and what they fully their implications and to apply this to our lives and In our walk with you
01:15:47: Lord, we thank you for your blessings. We for the for the ability to do this study we ask that you continue to bless it and to help us to be faithful to your word and To declare the whole
01:15:57: Council of God we thank you and we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you That That's why in the catechism question that we read it says that the moral law was revealed to Adam and everyone
01:16:22: It was a conscience and Yeah Adam Adam obviously
01:16:33: Must have told the actually I don't remember the wind if they if he told him after he was created or before I think it might
01:16:40: Have been after Yeah Right or and also by virtue of our
01:16:51: Yeah, but but but the tree The tree was a positive command That was a positive command tied to the covenant of works
01:16:59: We don't have to obey that command because we're not even in that circumstance anymore Right, that was a positive command for Adam and it was a it was a symbol of if you pass that tree test
01:17:11: You will gain eternal life from the other tree of life, right? So that's the kind of that's why there's a parallel there.
01:17:17: So but yeah, that's a great great question What's that It might have just been
01:17:29: Adam but Adam as the head had the responsibility to keep it right and his first wife.
01:17:40: Yeah That's a good question
01:18:01: That's a good question the circumstances are such that it seems like the Conditions were placed so that Adam and Eve would be exposed to the battery first, right?
01:18:13: So before they got a chance to eat of it They didn't get a chance to eat it right because the Bible says you need to get kicked out because if you eat of the
01:18:19: Tree of life, you'll live forever. So they didn't even eat it. They didn't touch it They were the circumstances were orchestrated so that God made sure that they ran into the battery first and They had to pass that test in order to gain access to them, you know in that sense.
01:18:35: So yeah Okay. Yeah Okay.
01:19:09: Yeah. Yeah Well, yeah
01:19:21: Yeah, what is she actually changed it? She said you can't even touch it. Yeah, right.
01:19:27: She changed it Yeah, no way it's like yeah in a way it's kind of like something got lost in translation there
01:19:40: And she said you can't even touch it. But that wasn't the command. The command was just don't eat it But that that's further proof
01:19:54: That's further proof that Adam was the head Right. He was holding