Colossians 1:23 - Not Moved Away From The Hope, Pt. 2

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Pastor David Mitchell

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Colossians 1:23 - Not Moved Away From The Hope, Pt. 3

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When the Holy Spirit leads us to pray, he's actually bringing us into working with God to answer these prayers.
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Isn't that amazing? So your prayers are extremely important. A lot of people think that Calvinists don't believe prayer does anything.
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I've even heard people say, well, all prayer's for is just to help make you, to help you. When you pray, it doesn't change anything.
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It just helps you. That's not true. That's a hyper -Calvinist that believes that. And what's true is that God works together with us and in us and through us, and again, together with us in almost everything that he does.
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He does very little, because he chooses to do it this way, but he does very little without humans.
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He didn't write the Bible without humans, did he? Right? He didn't part the
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Red Sea without humans, did he? Moses standing there holding the rod of God, right?
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At exactly the right time, when God told him to. And so now we're holding the rod of God.
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That's what we're here for. All right, well, let us get into the book of Colossians chapter one.
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And today we're still going to be on verse, probably around verse 23 and not much more.
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So, so good to see all of you. Thank you for our Dallas crowd coming in and our
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Waxahachie crowd, and of course our Corsicana crowd and our online crowd from all over the country.
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We, we, California crowd as well, yes. Transplanted to Dallas perhaps, or even closer would be even nicer.
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But anyway, glad to have all of you. Especially want to thank our online folks, because I don't often look at you and talk straight to you, but we know you're there and we appreciate that you're there.
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In fact, you guys had a huge turnout for Sunday school this morning at 10. Thank you for that. Because we're a little anemic today.
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We got people on vacation. We got people traveling. We've got, and isn't it strange? Have you ever seen a summer where there were so many colds and upper respiratory stuff in the middle of summer?
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You would think school had already started. Oh, it has for public school, hasn't it? So that's where the germs are coming from.
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Okay, so anyway. Our school, our school here is old fashioned. Like when I was a kid, you never started before September 5th because they didn't have air conditioning and it's hot in Texas.
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So you waited until September 5th. Of course, September 5th in Texas is one of the hottest days, usually, until like what, mid -October, it starts getting really nice here, but that's why.
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But anyway, when Brother Paul came, I told him, you know, we don't start before September 5th. He did not like that at first because it's hard for him to work everything into the year and get everything finished, but he does it.
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So sometime right at September 5th is when we start, depending on the calendar. So we're not in school yet.
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We are not passing around Park Meadows germs yet, but we will be soon. All right,
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Colossians chapter one, verse 23. Let's see here.
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Let me find, let me find the verse I want to read that's right before that. I might have to break down and get my glasses.
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Hold on a second. Oh, they're stuck in there. All right, let's see here.
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I sure hope I brought the right notes today. That would be really nice. Okay, sorry.
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Okay, so let's start with, let's look at verse 20. I'm sorry, 21, verse 21,
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Colossians 121. Get a little context for where we are today. And you that were sometime, and as I said last time, that's kind of like more like once upon a time in the
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Greek. It doesn't really mean every once in a while, like sometime does. It means once upon a time, you were alienated, like in the past, you were alienated.
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You were enemies in your mind. That means enemies of God, by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.
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So that starts out telling us where we were when we're born into this world. We are depraved creatures. Our eyes are blind to the things of God.
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Our ears are deaf. We cannot hear God's word and our spirit is dead. And so the Holy Spirit has to call us to bring us to life.
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He has to quicken us. While we were yet in our sins, hath he quickened us. That is your regeneration happens right at that moment.
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You hadn't done anything yet. So you played no role in it other than receiving it. Like a little baby born receives the family he was just born into and the breast upon which he feeds.
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It is not something he caused. It's a gift that he receives joyfully, right?
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And that's how we are spiritually. Jesus said, it's like being born physically. Being born again is like being born physically.
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So this is all something the Holy Spirit has to do because you are dead. Literally dead men can't receive
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Christ. Have you ever thought about that? Why is it that the American gospel as you bring them down the aisle and you tell them, well, pray this little prayer.
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Dear Jesus come on heart and say amen. But they're dead. They're dead. They can't do that in the flesh.
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The Holy Spirit has to call them. Now, what does the calling feel like when you're new and you hadn't read any
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Bible? You don't know the theology of it, right? But what does it feel like? Well, it just feels like all of a sudden you're getting an interest in Jesus and you didn't have it yesterday.
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All of a sudden your heart's going, I wonder where I'm gonna go when I die. So you're worried. You're kind of worried about hell.
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You didn't, you weren't worried about it all your life up till about now. And that is that you start sensing that I need
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Christ because I am going to hell. I'm headed the wrong way. I'm running my own life and I'm a sinner.
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The wages of sin is death. Sin has separated us from God. And I'm figuring that out.
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Like I'm a little bit afraid of that because I read about hell in the Bible and Jesus said it's a real place with real fire that burns forever.
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And you just, you don't die. You stay in it forever. If you go there, I'm concerned about my soul.
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That's, you're being called when you have those thoughts because goats, those are people the Bible talks about that are never going to get saved.
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They just don't, they, like Jesus said, I didn't even, or some someplace in the Bible calls them tares, like weeds.
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They're like weeds rather than wheat. Jesus said, I didn't plant the weeds. And they asked him, well, who planted the weeds?
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And he said, Satan. But the wheat, they will start having concern about their soul at some point.
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And when they do, that's the Holy Spirit calling them. And at one point in their life, every single one that is a wheat, every one that is a sheep rather than a goat, every single one of them will have a moment when the
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Holy Spirit takes their chin and points it up and says, there's your shepherd. He's got the food, you're a sheep. What are you going to do with him?
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And he will make him irresistible to you and you will receive Jesus as your personal Lord and savior. At that point, you're saved forever.
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And what we're talking about in this context is the forever part. Once that happens, you cannot lose it.
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There's nothing you could do that would cause you to be removed from God's family because you've always been in it. God knew you before you knew you were his.
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He knew you were yours forever. I'm sorry, I said it wrong. He knew you were his forever.
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You just didn't know it. And on the day you get called, all of a sudden, you know it. You're notified that, hey,
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I'm your father. You're my child. Welcome to the family. And that's what salvation is all about.
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So you see that verse 20 starts with the depravity of man. It starts with the fact that you're,
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I'm sorry, verse 21. It starts with the fact that you're alienated from God and you're an enemy of God. That's where we all start.
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It doesn't feel that way to us because our little children are so cute and sweet and stuff until they start needing a whooping, right?
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Need to be corrected. And then all of a sudden you said, well, they're not perfect. And then you start thinking about, well, wait a minute. I'm not perfect.
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Neither is dad perfect. And okay, so they're not going to be perfect. And then the older they get, the more they show that nature.
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It's a sin nature. It's a sin that has a propensity to sin rather than to do right.
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That's why you work your rear end off, teaching them to do right. And you don't have to do anything to teach them to do wrong.
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You don't have to do anything to teach a kid to lie. They will just lie. You know why? Because they don't want to get in trouble. Human nature.
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Adults do it too. I've never counseled with a couple that was in where one of the two parties was in fornication or adultery that they hadn't lied about it for a long time thinking they could cover it.
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But guess what? They're no better than the children. They can't cover it either because the Bible says your sin will find you out.
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And it always does. It's pathetic when adults get caught in that because they think they're not going to get caught.
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And they always do. Preachers do. How many preachers do we see falling? You know, if you look at YouTube or you look at wherever you get your news from, once a month, somewhere in the country, some big preacher just has to resign.
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Why? Well, for one thing, Satan's out to get the preachers. He's out to get you too, though. He's out to get everybody because he can't hurt
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God except he can hurt God's kids and that hurts God. So he's out to get us.
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So anyway, the point is we need a lot of help after we get saved. We need a lot of protection.
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And us together, being with each other is one of those protections. Why do you think the Bible says, forsake not the assembly of ourselves together and so much the more as the day approaches.
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What day do you think it's referencing? The day. What day is that? That's the end times.
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And as we get closer to the end times, we need to be together more, it says. Why? Because we help each other not want to sin.
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When I'm with you, I don't want to sin. When you're here and I get to see you, you're all almost perfect.
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If we were to come in each other's homes, it'd be a different story during the week, right?
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But still being here helps get through the next week because we don't want to disappoint each other.
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That's a huge part of it. But then the Bible says that this book right here sanctifies us.
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So if you spend some time in the book in between services, it helps you not sin as much. And then the
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Bible says the Holy Spirit's there to help too, but you can quench him. You can grieve him. You can tell him, shut up and go away.
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And then you can sin if you want to. You see the problem? But if you're in this book more, you don't want to quench the
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Holy Spirit. You know, I deal with addictions sometime, try to help people with different fleshly addictions that create sin problems and habits.
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And you know what's so frustrating about it is I've got the answer. I've got 45 years in this book.
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I've got the answer. But unless you want it, it doesn't help. If you love that sin of the flesh,
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I can show you any manner of stuff God says he'll free you from, and it won't help because you want it. So guess who gets to make the ultimate decision?
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You know, people say that Calvinists don't believe in free will. Well, I don't literally think it's free because you're influenced.
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Every thought you have is influenced. It's not free, but it is a will. And your choices are very important.
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I can't even describe how important your choices are. And so you have to make the choice to rather prefer to be holding
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Jesus' hand and walking with him rather than doing that sin habit thing. And eventually, you'll get to love him so much that that choice will make you stop that sin habit eventually.
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And if not, God will kill you and take you home early. You go to heaven early. The Bible says that there is a sin unto death.
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That's for the Christian. A Christian who is messing up your testimony and God's testimony on this earth,
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God will just take you home early from the human viewpoint. How about that? Let me tell you what the most important verse is for all the kids in the room.
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We got any kids in here? Raise your hand if you're a kid. Put your hand down, Raymond. Put your hand down.
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I'm a kid too. All right, so you know what the most important verse is for kids in the whole
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Bible? It's one of the 10 commandments. It says, honor your mother and father that you may live a long life on this earth.
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Kids, do you know what that means? If you don't honor your mother and father, you will die young. God said that in this book.
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Think about that when you get to be a teenager. You kids back there, you're not quite there yet, but when you get to be a teenager and you got all the little hormones running around and all of a sudden you think you're supposed to be an adult, you still better honor your mom and dad.
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You know, I've got kids of all different ages. I've got five, but they're, you know, they, some older ones and some younger ones, but they still honor their mother and dad.
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Isn't that, that did not change when they left the nest. And they still know that if they don't, it can be a major problem with God.
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So kids, what's the first verse for you? Honor your mother and father that you may live a long life on this earth.
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Always think about these things. So you can't tell me Mr. Hyper -Calvinist that your decisions are not important.
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They are just as important as the sovereignty of God. In fact, every verse that I see where it talks about sovereignty of God, the very next verse or two, three verses down, we'll talk about the will of man and the stuff you have to decide to do.
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They're side -by -side all through the scripture. Problem is we have a world that likes to emphasize the human side and they don't like to talk about the
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God side. And I find the older I get, the more interested I am in the God side and the less interested
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I am in humans because I got that figured out. I have pretty much figured out the world, the flesh and the devil and my human nature and how good
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I am not. I got that figured out. I'm not that interested in what we can do as humans.
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I'm more interested in what God can do in us and through us and what we can do with him side -by -side, hand -in -hand.
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And Jesus did say, without me, you can do how much? Nothing.
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All right. So this passage starts with the depravity of man but then it ends by saying that he has reconciled us.
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What does that mean? He made us, put us back in a state that is right with God. We were born into the world wrong with God, enemies of God, running from God, alienated from God and the
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Holy Spirit calls us. We received Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior and now we are reconciled with God.
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Now, what happens next? Well, let's look at verse 22.
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He then promised us in Colossians 1 .22, a doctrine that we call eternal security.
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Some people in the South call it once saved, always saved. Some people, even preachers, even myself,
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I've had times when I said, well, let's don't use that term. I do think it's overused. And I think a lot of people don't know what it means and they abuse the term, but I have to say it is true.
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Once saved, always saved is true. As long as you say it this way, I'd like to add one extra word. Once truly saved, always saved.
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Once called and born again, always saved. And that's what it starts to talk about.
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Look at it. The same people that were enemies of God, then he reconciled them at the end of verse 21.
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Look at verse 22. He reconciled them in the body of his flesh through death.
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That tells us how we got reconciled and it had nothing to do with us. It said it's through his death.
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The Puritans used to say, we're saved by the blood of nothing, the blood of Jesus plus nothing. We were saved by the blood of Jesus plus nothing.
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We're saved by his death. We're saved by what he did on the cross for the father and for us. He propitiated
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God's justice and wrath and made God be satisfied with the fact that the sin debt's been paid and for us, he paid the sin debt.
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Wow. I mean, it doesn't seem right to just say that and just move on, does it?
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He paid our sin debt and just move on. It doesn't seem right because you could contemplate that all day and all tomorrow and all the next week and the rest of your life.
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But what he did for you on the cross, when he didn't have to die because he was perfect and he put your sins on himself and hated that in the garden of Gethsemane when he sweat blood, it wasn't because he's scared to die physically because he did not like your sins and mine on his body because he was pure.
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He was holy. He did not want to face that. And he said, God, if there's another way, let's find another way.
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I don't want that. I don't want that mess on me. I don't want that sin in me. And God said, and yet he said, nevertheless, thy will be done, not mine, right?
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And God said, no, this is the only way. And God put all the sins you've ever done, the dirty thoughts, the wicked things you've done, the unkindness words, unkind words you've said, every little things you didn't do that you should have, like go to church, like go to Sunday school, like don't forsake the assembly, whatever it is.
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You can think of things you should have done that you didn't. All of that was placed on the body of Jesus, 2000 years before you were born and he died with it in him and he died for you with your sins in him and he was buried with your sins in him.
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And when he rose again, you were still in him and you're now a new man or woman or boy or girl. Once you get born again, you are that new man that rose out of that grave.
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You're risen. You are delivered from that old man. And yet he still bothers us, doesn't he?
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But as long as you hold Jesus' hand, you are delivered day, moment by moment. You are delivered for eternity.
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You're going to heaven and you can't lose it because look what it says. He reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death.
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Why? To present you. Now this is Jesus' job, okay? It wasn't just his job to die on the cross.
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That's what we call the finished work, the stuff he's already done for us. But now he looks forward into the future, all of the future.
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And by the way, the future time goes on a lot longer than you think it does. Most of you who've studied the
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Bible, you realize that after this age is over, there is a thing called the thousand -year millennial kingdom, right?
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That's called the kingdom age. You're familiar with that, right? Did you know that the scripture speaks of after that, there is age unto age?
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We don't know how many ages that is or those are, but they're there.
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So time keeps going on out into the future, thousands and thousands and maybe millions of years out into the future of us living with the
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Lord, working together as king priests, right? With him out into the future and with other human beings that are born in other millennia out in the future.
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And so we see all of this and Jesus has to keep working through all of that time.
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Now he doesn't have to die again because he died once, all right? He does not have to die for your sins again, but look what it says he does.
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He reconciled us through the body of his flesh through death. So he died once to take the sins away from us.
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And that, by the way, went back in time from the cross and covered all the Old Testament saints.
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It took their sins away. It moved from the cross forward till now and it goes out to the millennial kingdom and it goes out to age and to age and to age for millions of years, perhaps however long that is and all of those sins of all the elect, not of every person, but the people that God knew were his kids because he's not in time, he already knows who it is.
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All of those people's sins were covered on that cross too. But then he goes on and says this, to present you, now that's future tense.
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That is future tense for us. And it's future tense for everyone in the future because what that means is the first day you meet
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Jesus face to face, oh, listen, you think death is scary? I do. I mean, if you're honest, death is a frightening thing to face.
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I have a feeling as we get closer to it, it gets less scary though, because I watched my mom peacefully just take her last breath with her family around her, singing hymns and stuff.
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It didn't look all that scary. I mean, we didn't like it, but it didn't look like it was bad for her.
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Charlotte's mom, same way. She, very young when she passed away, she took her last breath.
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She knew we were in the room, a tear went down her cheek because she heard us singing scripture song, playing guitar and stuff.
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And she took her last breath. We walked out and it'd been raining so bad. We could barely get to Tyler from Mahea.
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It was raining so bad trying to get there to be with her in her last day. And we went out on that French porch 10 seconds after she took her last breath.
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And we looked up and that cloudy mean looking sky was the same, except there was a hole this big with the sun shining through it and beams coming down.
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And we just pictured her going right up through that hole. Didn't seem all that scary for her.
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So it's just like those of us who we're most likely not gonna die today, although we don't know, do we?
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It's a little frightening to think about it. But the thing is, I think Satan puts that fear there, how much you wanna bet.
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Because he knows that in the blink of an eye, when your heart stops, you're instantly with the
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Lord. But he wants you to think you're just covered by dirt. That's just your body.
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The real you is instantly with the Lord. Isn't that something? And then eventually when the Lord comes back, he raises the body, puts it back together, gets all the molecules and electrons and protons and neutrons and everything that was in your body, puts it back together and puts you back in it.
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And you're with him forever that way, only it's glorified. It can't die ever again. So looking at this,
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I see that his death on the cross took the sins of the elect from all ages away. And then he says, to present you in the future.
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So he has a future work to do, Jesus does. So he worked in the past, he works in the present, in your life right now, and he works in the future.
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Look what he does in the future. He presents you to God, holy God, who cannot be in the presence of sin.
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He has now removed your sin, and he presents you holy, to holy God, and he presents you unblameable, which means without blemish in the
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Greek, which is pictured by the little lamb without blemish through all those thousands of years in the Old Testament, where they had to offer a lamb that pictured
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Jesus dying, and it had to be a perfect lamb, and he presents you that perfect. You are that perfect, you are without blemish the day he presents you to Jesus.
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And then unblameable, then it says unapprovable, that means in the court of law, if Satan tries to bring you to court, you are found not guilty.
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Do you like that? Not guilty. Because Jesus took your sins upon him and paid the sin debt, and you don't have to pay it twice.
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He ransomed you. He paid the ransom, you're free now. You can't pay your own ransom,
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Jesus paid it, and you're free. So now that is the future work of Jesus to present us perfect.
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Now let me ask you this. We did study this, and we noticed that this word for present you and so forth, it's obviously the work of God doing that.
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Now, if it's the shepherd's job to present every sheep holy, without blemish, and unaccusable to God, if that didn't happen, whose fault is it?
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It's the shepherd's fault. He will be held accountable by God if he lost one of you, one of us, including myself.
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That's amazing to think about. So do you really think he could fail? You see, Arminians think he can fail, because they teach you can lose your salvation.
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An Arminian is a person who looks at scripture through human viewpoint all the time. They don't look at God's viewpoint.
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So like, you gotta do something to get saved. Well, if that's true, then if you undo it, you can lose it, right? That's their logic, and yet what they don't understand is that if that happened, it would be
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Jesus had to answer for it. And he's not ever gonna have to answer for it, because he said, of them
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I will lose nothing, but will raise it up in the last day. All right, so he promises these things.
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That is the greatest amount of eternal security that I can see in any one place in the whole Bible. And so then the interesting thing is, in verse 23, the very next word is the word if, and that is problematic.
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And I say problematic, because what it means is we're lazy and we don't like to study, so it's a problem, we gotta study, right?
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Okay, like to give you an idea, there's almost 25 pages here on if, okay?
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You can't handle all that, but I can give you little pieces of it until we're done. So last time we talked a little bit about this word if, and the fact that there are actually places in the
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Bible where the same Greek word that's translated if in verse 23, where it says that you'll be eternally secure if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled and not moved away.
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What's interesting about those words right there is if you look at the Greek, it solves the problem of you thinking that this means if, because the word grounded is in the perfect, and in grammar, perfect means something that happened in the past that never has to be repeated again, and it's passive, which means someone bigger than you did it to you, it's not something you did.
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So like people that wanna act like if means you gotta keep yourself grounded, boy, if you stray away from church, you're gonna go to hell.
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They think it means that, they don't know Greek, because in the Greek, it doesn't say something you're doing, it's not active, it's not you doing it, it's
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God doing it. It's God that keeps us grounded, not you that keeps yourself grounded, do you see that?
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We talked about it last time, and the word settled is an adjective, it tells what kind of grounded person you are, but not moved away is a verb, and that one is passive, which means
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God's the one that keeps you not moving away. Isn't that beautiful? I mean, if you go to the right church and you hear the right preacher, makes life better.
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Thank you, thank you very much. Those of you who don't have one in your area to go to, you come here,
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I'm glad, because I mean, I got a pastor's heart. I am jealous over you. I don't like you listening to stuff that's false of any kind, and if you ever find me and catch me in something false, you need to tell me, sooner the better, and show me with the 10 proper rules of Bible interpretation that I'm wrong, and I will take it back and apologize, and never teach it again, but most preachers aren't like that.
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They learn what they learn in seminary when they're 19, and now they think they know everything, and they don't learn a lot of new stuff, and it's sad, it's very, very sad, and it's prideful, and it hurts our churches, which hurts our nation, and look at our nation now.
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It's a perfect reflection of the pulpit, and I'm not saying this one's perfect, but I am telling you we're trying to be perfect.
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We are trying to be absolutely accurate on every word, and sentence, and phrase, and paragraph, and chapter, and book we talk about, so let us know if we're not, but I'm telling you the
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Greek itself proves that the word if does not mean, if you don't, you lose your salvation.
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It does not mean that, and so then we looked on down there, and we noticed that this same word in Greek, or the root of the word, is found in other scriptures where it's translated for as much as.
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Well, what if you read this verse that way? What if you said, okay, Jesus died for you, he gave his blood, he took your sins away, and even though you were bad, and you were born bad, he called you, and he took your sins away, and now he reconciles you to God, and makes you perfect in his sight, if you don't mess up.
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If it meant that, it'd be kind of bad, wouldn't it? You'd be Church Christ if it meant that. You'd be Pentecostal if it meant that.
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You'd be Methodist. The people that believe you're gonna lose it are Catholic, but it doesn't mean that, because what if you translate it like it is in say
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Colossians 1 .22, or Hebrews 2 .14, or Acts 11 .17? Where if you read it this way, okay,
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Jesus died for you, he's gonna present you perfect for as much as you continue in the faith, grounded and settled.
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You see the difference? It means since you're gonna do that rather than if you do it.
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So we looked at that last time. That's kind of interesting, I think, but what I really wanna start getting into now, and we won't have a lot of time this time, but we'll go on for a
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Sunday or two, is I wanna look at a parallel passage in the book of Hebrews, and you can turn to Hebrews chapter three, verse one.
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It has the word if in it a couple of times in the context of salvation, but it has a whole different context than Colossians does that gives us a lot of information on what the word if means, and really probably a better translation would be since rather than if, but the context proves it.
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So we looked at the word study kind of proves it, but it doesn't totally prove it, because you could say, well, but maybe it should mean if, right?
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But then the context is even more important than the grammar, I think. So we'll look at that. So turn to Hebrews three, one.
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All right. Now, starts with the word wherefore. Wherefore we're holy brethren.
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So who is this chapter talking to? The world of lost people, or is it talking to who?
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Holy brethren, the believers, the elect. It's talking to God's people, not anyone else.
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And those who are partakers of the heavenly gift, calling. So who are those? Those are the ones that have been called.
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And they looked up and they said, oh, you're the shepherd, you got the food, I'm hungry. I don't wanna run my life because I'm doing a terrible job.
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I want you to be my Lord and Savior and my shepherd and feed me the spiritual food here and let me live forever.
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That's who it's talking to, people that have already done that, right? And then it says, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of your profession,
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Jesus Christ. So it says, what I want you to do is start focusing on Jesus. I want you to focus on Jesus for a few minutes.
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But before we can focus on Jesus, we have to look at the first word. What does it say?
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Wherefore. You always have to ask what's the wherefore therefore. That means you gotta look up at chapter two and you have to now study chapter two verse by verse or you won't know what verse one is talking about or the rest of the passage.
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But let me, before we do that, which we are gonna do that, before we do it, let's read this little passage starting with chapter three, verse one.
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Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession,
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Jesus Christ, who was faithful to him that appointed him. Who appointed Jesus?
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God the Father, right? Also, very good, thank you very much. As also
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Moses was faithful in all of his house. So Jesus is faithful to the church age, the age of faith, just as Moses was faithful to the law age, which the law of works, even though they were actually saved by faith, if you go check it out.
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But it was a works system. Moses was faithful to that.
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Jesus is faithful to this. And so let's keep going. Verse three, for this man,
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Jesus, was counted worthy of more glory than Moses. And as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house.
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And every house is built by a man, but he that built all things is God. And Moses truly was faithful in all of his house as a servant for a testimony of those things, which were to be spoken of, but Jesus Christ as a son over all the house, whose house we are.
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I'm gonna stop right there a minute because the next word is if, and we're studying the word if, but I don't wanna get into that yet.
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I wanna look at this right here because it's a little bit wordy, don't you think? A little like you can't read that fast and figure it out.
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But here's what the scripture is saying. And I told Charlotte this week, I struggled with this my whole life for 45 years.
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Which book of the Bible is my favorite? Well, I've always said it's the one I'm in. It's the one I'm studying right now.
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So it should be Colossians, right? But what if it was Romans? Oh man, Romans, we finished that, only took how many years from the time
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I met Ashton to the time she had five babies or four, four babies.
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That's how long it took to get through one book. All right, so I love Romans, but you know what the truth is?
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I am now gonna pronounce it. Hebrews is my favorite book this week. Okay, now
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I think it might really truly, in the end, may be my favorite book. It is so rich and he's speaking to Jews predominantly.
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Now there's Gentiles in the audience, but he's speaking to Jews. And it goes back and takes in a lot of things you need to know from Leviticus and different parts of the
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Old Testament to understand Hebrews, but it is so rich. Now, look at this. Here's what the
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Holy Spirit's telling us in this part, even before we get to the word if. He said, now, you know,
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Moses deserves a lot of honor. Okay, but Moses is part of the house.
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We're all part of the house. Jesus is the person who built the house, so he gets the most honor.
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He's the architect and designer of all of us. He is the creator of all of us. Moses got a lot of honor as part of the house.
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Maybe he was, you know, the foundation, some important part of the house, but Jesus built the whole house.
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That's what it's saying. And you got to read through it slowly, but you will see that. Now, so Christ as a son over his own house.
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So Jesus is not part of the house like Moses was and like we are. It was his house.
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He built it, he owns it. All things were made by him and what? For him, it's his house.
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We're his house. The Old Testament saints are his house. The millennial unto age and to age and to age and to age for thousands of millions of billions of years perhaps, the saved elect people in those eras will all be part of his house and it's his house, so he has the most glory.
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Now let's look at verse six though, because we know what that means now, but I want you to see the word if here.
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Same Greek word or root word as the one in Colossians where it said if. But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm and to the end.
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Very similar to the if that we found in Colossians chapter one, don't you think? It sounds like if we don't hold out to the end, we lose our salvation.
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You were probably taught that growing up. Probably that verse came up and the one in Colossians probably came up by your preacher to use it to teach that you could lose it, but it doesn't teach that you can lose it because you gotta ask what the wherefore is therefore.
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You gotta go back and look at chapter two and get the context of this and it will define the word if and the word if means since.
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Since, since we hold fast. It's not an if, it's passive.
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God makes us hold fast. God works in us to make us want to do and to do his goodwill, the
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Bible says. He works in us, he is the shepherd. Listen, you're gonna stray, you young people.
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Listen, let me tell you. Or maybe I preached to dad over here. They're gonna stray. Did you?
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Mom, where's mom? She may be home today, but did she stray? Did I stray? Did Charlotte stray?
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Well, she didn't because I met her when she's 14. I protected her. I did not let anybody else date her from that point on.
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But you see my point, parents? Did you stray when you were a teenager? So I know people that strayed from the early teenage years till they were, you know, different ages and they finally got really close to the
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Lord, but they were saved the whole time, but they got close to the Lord. But you know what happened when they strayed? They got involved in sin habits that tracked them the whole rest of their life that they had to fight against.
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How many of you adults would say amen to that? You have that sin which doth so easily beset you and you found it when you were a teenager.
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The scripture teaches all this, is I don't have to know you personally. I just know it because God told me this is how it is with humans.
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So teenagers, be careful who you hang out with and what you are tempted to do or told to do by a crowd of people who don't even know
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God because it will track you even though later you'll come back and get right with him. The habit may not go away real easily.
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So just be so careful. I'm for you. I love you. When you graduate from here, you ain't gone.
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We still love you and we still want you to be happy. We know that you have to sprout your wings and start flying, okay?
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Especially you two that just graduated and she's not here. See there, she already strayed.
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She's not in church today. You go find her for me, you bring her back, all right? So you got to, but it doesn't mean you have to sin.
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I mean, you probably will, but it doesn't mean you have to. And so since we're tempted so easily, be really careful who you hang out with and all of that stuff and always honor your parents.
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Now, I think probably we should at this point go back and see what the wherefore is.
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And I'm just going to start that and then I'm going to quit real quick because you guys have been sitting there a long time. So this same word that we see if there in this verse is translated for as much as even in Hebrews chapter two, which we're going to look at verse 14, the same word, well, look at it.
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Look back at Hebrews chapter two, verse 14, because that's really where we're starting to see what the wherefore is there for.
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It says, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.
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So that word for as much as is the same word or root word is translated if that we just looked at.
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So you could translate it for as much as and be totally correct with the Greek. Why they translated it if in King James, I don't know.
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I don't really care because to me, even if it says if it still doesn't mean that you can lose your salvation, which
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I can prove from the context. But I think a better translation is for as much as rather than if, because we see the same word translated for as much as in chapter two, verse 14.
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So let's start reading right there and let's look at the context coming into chapter three, verse one, where we see that big word if.
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For as much as then as we are the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus likewise took part in the same.
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He became a real man. He was flesh and blood. He was God, but he was also a real man.
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So he's the only one ever to live in God's whole creation that you could call the
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God man. He is God, but he's man. And he is tempted in all points as we are teenagers.
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Did you know Jesus was a teenager at one point when he was 12 years old, he went into the temple and taught the scholar stuff they never heard of from the
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Bible, but he still was a teenager. And he was tempted in all points as we are.
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And yet without sin, he never sinned so that he could die for our sins. If he'd done his own sin, he couldn't have paid for ours.
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He'd had to pay for his, but he didn't sin. Now you think about that. When you want to sit around and contemplate Jesus as a teenager, think about this, cause you guys got the hormones going around.
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I'm not trying to embarrass you, but I mean, I still have hormones. So you keep that all the way on, however old you get.
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But Jesus had that too. And think about your temptations. He had the same ones. He had the very same ones, but he said no, every time.
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Now we don't, I don't know that we, I think I could say we could say no every time, but I think
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I'd have to come back and say, we probably won't. My mentor used to do that in his preaching. He'd say, who says you couldn't go a whole month?
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Without sinning. The Bible indicates you could. And then he'd say, but you probably won't, but you should try.
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That's the point. Now, when you, when you talking about Jesus here, who was tempted, but never sinned, that's why it starts talking about that.
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He was partakers of flesh and blood. It is very, very important that Jesus was a real man. Otherwise he couldn't have died for us and taken our sins away, but he was a real man.
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He also himself likewise took part of the same, which means he took a human body and lived in a human body that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death.
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That is the devil, right? So when Jesus died, Satan thought he had killed him, but the truth is
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Jesus killed Satan. Now he's not totally dead de facto yet, but he defeated
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Satan when he died on the cross and was in rose again, three days later, Satan was defeated. Now he's still able to, by God's grace, he's able to run around this earth and act like he's still the
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Lord of this, the God of this world. Satan acts like that, but there's going to come a day when he's going to be chained in hell.
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And that day is not that far in our future because at the end of this age, Satan will be chained in hell for a thousand years.
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Then he'll be let loose for a season, but then he'll be cast into the lake of fire forever. And he knows that he doesn't believe it, but he can read the
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Bible. He thinks he can change it because he's an Arminian. Did you know Satan was the first Arminian, by the way?
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All right, so he sure was not a Calvinist. He also himself likewise took part in the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
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So we really should not fear death. So Jesus, the first point that we're going to find in this chapter two of Hebrews is that Jesus, through death, destroyed
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Satan, destroyed. Now you say, well, he's still running around.
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Now think about this. You're a new man, woman, boy, or girl, if you're saved, but the old flesh is still there.
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It's basically your brain. It's got a lot of good input into it and a lot of bad input that got put into your brain growing up, right?
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You got good and bad in your brain. That is what we mean by the flesh in the bad sense of it is there's just bad stuff that Satan can pull up in our minds and we think about it and it's not good for us to be thinking about it.
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We can even be tempted by our own mind. In fact, all temptation begins in your mind between your ears, right?
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So you need to think about this. In God's viewpoint,
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Satan has already been destroyed and so has your flesh already been crucified. So you say, well, why do
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I have such trouble with Satan in the flesh? It's because when you don't walk spirit filled, then you move back into the realm of the flesh, of the physical and Satan and your flesh can affect you.
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But if you take hold of Jesus' hand and you walk in the spirit, then your body is as if it's crucified.
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It will not sin while you're walking with Jesus and the world cannot affect you while you're walking with Jesus. So it is just, it is true on the spiritual level that Satan's already defeated and your flesh is already dead.
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And when you think, when you have a sin habit problem, you should think about that. You should think, you know what? My flesh that wants to do this is really dead.
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I do not have to listen to you flesh. Satan, you're already dead. I don't have to listen to you. You have no right to me.
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You don't own me anymore. I've been delivered. Did you know the word for salvation? We talk about being saved all the time.
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The word in the Greek for salvation and in the Hebrew is the word delivered. So we should say,
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Jesus delivered me, not he saved me. Now think about the word delivered. It means delivered from sin habits, delivered from treating people ugly, delivered from being mean to people, delivered from anything ungodly.
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You're already delivered. So just grab his hand and hold it throughout the day and you'll be fine.
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So we learn that from this. To deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
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The very fear of death makes a human being be in bondage. But once a person gets saved and delivered, he knows when
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I die, I'm gonna be okay. I'm eternally secure. The shepherd will not let me go.
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He will not lose me or not one of his sheep. I am okay. And it really helps with the fear of death.
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In verse 16, for truly he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
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So the second thing we see about Jesus here is he through death delivered the seed of Abraham who were in bondage.
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And I'm gonna stop there because we're out of attention time. You guys are about to die on me and that's good.
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You should be. We've gone long enough and we will pick this up right where we left off. And we're gonna go through this chapter two of Hebrews and see, and when we get to that verse in chapter three, where it says, if, what could it possibly mean and what can it not possibly mean?
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And it'll clear the whole thing up. All right, let's stand and have prayer. You say, why is this important? It's important because a whole lots of your friends are
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Methodists, Church of Christ, Catholic and Pentecostal and they've got this wrong and you need to show them the truth.
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The Bible does not teach you to argue with them. It teaches you to instruct them in meekness and you have to have the ammunition.
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Unless you wanna go create this 25 pages, then I'm gonna give it to you because I like doing it, okay?
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All right, let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you that you gave us a little bit extra time to preach today because we needed it to set up for this lesson we're about to have and we just ask you to bless your word in our lives and our minds and hearts.
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Help us to be salt and light and instructors of those around us by the power of your
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Holy Spirit. We ask you to bless the meal we're about to have. We thank you for it. Bless our fellowship time in Jesus' name, amen.
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You are dismissed. We'll have lunch ready. Got plenty for all the visitors. Please join us.
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Sure. Oh, we didn't do the offering, did we? I will. We didn't do offering today.