What every happened to purgatory?

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Tonight I want to talk about the subject of Purgatory. Tonight I want to talk about the subject of Purgatory.
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You may say, why would you want to talk about Purgatory? Well, one of the reasons that I'd like to talk about Purgatory is that 80 % of your neighbors, if they would believe what their church teaches them, would believe in Purgatory.
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Now certainly some of them are Jack Roman Catholics, that is, they saved the Roman Catholic by birth and they'd like to be buried in a
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Roman Catholic fashion, but they would not be practicing Roman Catholic. But this is what their teachers would teach them, and they would believe, and so I think you can be helped when it comes to evangelism.
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Secondly, it's certainly timely, isn't it? Everywhere you look, you see who on TV. The Pope is everywhere you look.
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I mean, constantly, and I pretty much am sick and tired of hearing the words, Holy Father, referring to a human being who is sinful, and not my
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Father. Jesus says when it comes to people who are spiritual teachers, you are not to call them
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Father. And so Roman Catholicism seems to be on everyone's mind.
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Thirdly, I would like to teach Purgatory because I want to increase your joy and satisfaction in a full atonement that is complete, final, and satisfying.
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And then lastly, number four, I want to teach Purgatory because it's interesting. It's an interesting doctrine.
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Even errant theology to me is interesting. It's interesting when you look at a system that says the
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Bible is not a closed system. It's interesting to me that you like to have prayers for the dead, and then you better figure out a doctrine that you can create to allow you to do that.
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So number one, let's start off with the definition of Purgatory. And I believe it is unfair and sinful to somehow characterize the
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Roman Catholic Church in a way that would be wrong. So I'm going to quote from the horse's mouth, what does
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Rome say about Purgatory? By the way, tonight I can tell we have a smaller group here, and so I'm going to ask some questions.
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Who could give me a definition of Purgatory? John. Okay, good.
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Do you have a Roman Catholic background? Okay, good. Anyone else want to add to that? Becky? Okay, good.
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Are people perfect in Purgatory? Okay, so would they still keep sinning in Purgatory?
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How would they ever get out? Okay, that's for later. Anybody else want to add to that?
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And I'll quote the Catholic Catechism and a few other things in just a moment. Wesley?
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Okay, anyone else want to add to that? How many people have never heard of Purgatory?
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Most everyone has. Okay, good. Well, listen to what the
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Indulgetaria Doctrina 1967 from the Roman Catholic Church teaches.
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Quote, The doctrine of Purgatory clearly demonstrates that even when the guilt of sin has been taken away, punishment for it or the consequences of it may remain to be expiated or cleansed.
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In fact, in Purgatory, the souls of those who have died in the charity of God and truly repentant but who have not made satisfaction with adequate penance for their sins and omissions are cleansed after death with punishments designed to purge away their debt.
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Now, before I break that apart, let me read to you the Catholic Catechism. Section 1030.
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Defining Purgatory, the Roman Catholic Church would say, Quote, It is purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
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Who needs to experience this? Those who die in God's grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified.
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Mark this, congregation. Purgatory is not for an unbeliever, someone who doesn't believe in the
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Jesus of the Catholic Church. It's for a believer in the Catholic Jesus. It goes on to say in the
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Catholic Catechism 1030, This final purification is of the elect and it is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.
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Section 1031. So you've got three sections, right? Those who are good enough can go straight to heaven. Those who are really bad and wicked go straight to hell.
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And then the elect who haven't been good enough, that is, as John said, having venial sins, we'll talk more about that in a minute, need to be cleansed.
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And the Roman Catholic Church would teach that it is either a place or it is a condition.
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It's not necessarily one or the other, but it's a place or condition. The word purgatory comes from the
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Latin, purgare, which means to make clean or to purify. And one thing you want to have in your mind is that it is a place of temporal punishment in time.
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It is a place of temporal punishment as they have to pay for their venial sins.
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And basically what happens is this, if you're a Roman Catholic, original sin has been taken away by what sacrament?
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Baptism. And all the venial sins that have not been dealt with with penance between your baptism and your death will cause you to spend time in purgatory, purification, if you will, so that you are being able to be fit for heaven, admissible for heaven.
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The Catholic Church teaches, quote, the whole penitential system of the church testifies that the voluntary assumption of penitential works has always been a part of true repentance and the
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Council of Trent reminds the faithful that God does not always remit the whole punishment due to sin together with the guilt.
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God requires satisfaction and will punish sin. And this doctrine involves as its necessary consequence a belief that the sinner, listen, failing to do penance in this life may be punished in another world and not so be cast off eternally from God.
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Roman Catholic Church would believe that there are certain souls that are not worthy of heaven the moment they die.
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And I found interesting this week that there are even purgatorial societies and fraternities, confraternities, whose whole sole purpose is to do things to get people out of purgatory faster, kind of like a religious elks club except having different goals in mind.
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Certainly the Roman Catholic Church would teach those souls who are not Roman Catholics and not
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Christians would be assigned to hell. But here we have Roman Catholics with venial sins.
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True or false, the Pope has jurisdiction over purgatory according to Roman Catholic doctrine. He does.
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He can grant indulgences for the sake of those in purgatory and I'm getting ahead of myself but Luther would then say then why don't you in kindness let everyone out?
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If you can get them all out, why would you keep them there? A few more initial thoughts and we are going to get into Hebrews.
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Did you know purgatory is not solely believed by the Catholic Church? Did you know there are other pagans that believe in purgatory?
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I found out this week that some Platonists believe that, some Jewish missional doctors,
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M -I -S -H -N -I -C -A -L doctors, Pythagoreans believe that, some
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Latins did, Virgil believed that who was a Greek, Brahmins believe that, and the idea comes floating into the
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Christian church through two channels. One was because of the Jewish people and their distorted view of Hades and the other was through this kind of the soul's good, the body's bad,
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Plato deal that origin brought in. Is there a verse in the
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Bible that talks about purgatory? Well, if you look in the
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Apographa, Roman Catholic canonical books, in 2 Maccabees 12, you would see the verse that says,
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Therefore it is holy and wholesome to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins. You would see in Tobit 4, something about prayer for the souls of the departed.
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You would see verses like this. Let me show you a few verses before I get into exposition. Turn with me if you would to Matthew chapter 12 and I'll show you books that the
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Catholics and the Protestants would consider as canonical that is inspired by God, breathed out by God and are their basis and part of their basis for the belief in purgatory.
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Matthew chapter 12 verse 31 is one of the texts that the Roman Catholics would use for purgatory.
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Let's just assume we take 2 Maccabees and other Apographa books out of the question and we'll only look at the
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New Testament and we'll look at Matthew chapter 12 verse 31 and 32. Therefore I say to you any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people but blasphemy against the
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Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but whoever speaks against the
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Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come. And so Rome would believe that there are certain sins that cannot be forgiven and certainly that is true in the text but they must be forgiven if these people are to enter heaven because Rome believes that heaven must be pure and holy and so these sins committed in chapter 12 would be dealt with in purgatory.
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You think that's what the text really says? Let's look at another one. Let's look at Matthew 5 .25.
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Matthew 5 .25 is used by Rome and again if I say anything incorrectly I would love to make a correction because I think it would be stupid to kind of create a straw man.
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I'd like to quote my sources correctly. Matthew chapter 5 verse 25 it says,
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Sermon on the mount make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer and you be thrown into prison.
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Truly I say to you you will not come out of there until you have paid the last cent.
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Divine justice must be met out and therefore Rome looks at these verses and says the only place that he could do it is if somebody was helping in purgatory through prayers of the saints because he has nothing to pay so maybe the saints could pray him out.
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And then lastly let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I don't think so far either of those would make me believe in the doctrine of purgatory but I have to give them a hearty A for effort because they've got to stretch it someplace.
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And 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 10 and following is really their main text outside of 2
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Maccabees and Tobit. And so 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 10 it says in the text according to the grace of God which was given to me like a wise master builder
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I laid a foundation and another is building on it but each man must be careful how he builds on it. And then it says for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is
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Jesus Christ. If any man builds on the foundation with gold and silver precious stones, wood, hay, straw each man's work will become evident for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.
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And so Rome would say that if clergy need purgatory if that house somehow says that then we must all need purgatory as well.
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The outline I'm going to use tonight is a very simple one. The reasons you should not believe in purgatory.
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Reasons why purgatory should be purged from your mind if you happen to believe it. And I don't think many people here do, if any.
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Maybe one or two, I'm not sure. Maybe you want to believe it because your grandma taught it. I'm not exactly sure.
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But I want you to find from the Bible your beliefs and your faith. I don't really care about councils and catechisms.
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I don't care about Baptist confessions of faith. I don't care about Trent. I don't care about the Pope. I don't care about John MacArthur.
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Wouldn't you like to have your theology based on the Bible? That's where I want my theology based. So reasons you should not believe in purgatory.
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Number one. The first reason you shouldn't believe in purgatory is that you should submit your feelings and emotions to the
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Word of God. Said in another way, you shouldn't believe in purgatory because you shouldn't lead with your feelings.
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You should lead with the Word of God. Well, what do you mean by that, Pastor? I believe that if you understand how bad hell is, you'll certainly want some other kind of option.
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You want wiggle room. You want some space because there is either hell or heaven and when your feelings start thinking about loved ones, you would be anything less than human if you didn't think about the horror of the damned loved ones you have.
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It's hard to stomach that. It's hard to say, you know what, we have the God of the second chance. We have the
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God of the third chance. We need a do -over somehow. And what we have to do is we have to confine our minds to the box of Scripture.
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You ever hear those people who talk, you know, you've got to think outside the box? I don't want you to think outside the box that is
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Scripture. If Scripture tells us something, whether we hate it or we love it, we must believe it.
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And hell is so bad, if you start thinking about how bad hell is, you're going to want to come up because of your feelings and the subjective nature of it and how much you love other people, you want to come up with something in between giving them a second chance.
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Walter Elwell said, Well, it must always be remembered that the Bible is our rule of faith for the doctrine of hell.
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However difficult the doctrine may seem for natural reason or for human sentiment, Scripture leaves no doubt about the terrible judgment and eternal duration of hell.
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Rejection or neglect of this doctrine will have dire effects upon the true health and mission of the church.
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And what I want you to do is submit your feelings to the Word so you don't come up with some kind of in -between thing.
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True or false? The strongest support we have for the doctrine of eternal torment in hell is taught by our loving
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Lord Jesus Christ. True. You can go to Matthew chapter 5, and I think we should just go there for a moment.
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Jesus obviously taught it, and I know we're taking a roundabout approach here, but I think we should speak of hell as Jesus preached about it.
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Matthew chapter 5, verse 22, You fool, he says at the end, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
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Verse 29, whole body thrown into hell. Verse 30, for your whole body to go into hell.
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Chapter 8, chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 18, chapter 22, chapter 23, chapter 25,
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Jesus speaks of hell. John the Apostle, true or false, preached on hell. True.
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Paul the Apostle preached on hell. True. Peter the Apostle preached on hell.
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True or false? Peter preached on purgatory. True or false? John preached on purgatory.
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True or false? Peter preached on purgatory. True or false? Jesus preached on purgatory. Not one thing said about purgatory.
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But I'm telling you, if you actually understand how bad hell is, you won't want to believe it.
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I've said many times, if the scripture was not clear, I could not believe in hell. Who could come up with such a place?
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Calvin said of hell, For there can be no doubt but that by such modes of expression, describing hell, the
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Holy Spirit intended to confound all our faculties with horror. I mean, don't we want a second chance for our grandmother, our mother?
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When the text in Hebrew says there's punishment there. Revelation 14 says torment. Matthew 3, 5, and 13 say it's fire.
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Matthew 18, eternal fire. Mark 9, unquenchable fire. Revelation 19 and 20, the lake of fire.
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Who wants that for our loved ones? Weeping and gnashing of teeth. The pit and the worm.
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Can you imagine the idea of a worm gnawing on someone's body? It is supposed to create revolt.
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I believe people in hell are conscious. I believe they suffer pain. I believe they know how they are separated from the state of those experiencing bliss.
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I believe they have a memory. I believe they experience no hope. I believe there are no common mercies for the damned.
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No benefit in any way, shape, or form of God's mercy, and goodness, and kindness that they experienced on earth, even though not saved.
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And I think Baxter is right if he said, and when he said, if the wrath of God be so light, why did the
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Son of God himself make so great a matter of it? Forever, forever lost,
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Spurgeon said. On every chain in hell there is written the word forever. In the fires there blaze out the words forever.
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And Martin Luther said during this time, with purgatory on the rise, by the doctrine of purgatory people are brought to trust in a false security so they think they can put in store their salvation and delay things until the day of their death.
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Friends, we've got to take our feelings and subject them to the word of God. You believe that, that's why you're here at this church.
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Number two, why do I think you should not believe in purgatory? Because, secondly,
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I think purgatory minimizes God's holiness. It minimizes God's holiness. Could somebody please explain to me the difference between a mortal sin and a venial sin?
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What's a mortal sin? Okay, what's a venial sin?
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Anything less? All right, now think about God's holiness. Remember this morning in Revelation chapter 4, holy, holy, holy.
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Is there a difference really between a mortal sin and a venial sin? Aren't all sins mortal sins?
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One sin and you're done? Why? Because you don't measure the sin, but you measure how the sin is against the one who's on the throne, the judge.
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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. I think we've got to remember the holiness of God.
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Did you know God's name is called holy? Holy is His name. Did you know holy is used more often as a prefix to God's name than any other attribute?
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Did you know Moses records in Exodus 15 that God is glorious in holiness? Did you know it says
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His name is holy in Isaiah 57? God is so holy that objects and places around Him become holy just by association, burning bushes and mountains.
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God is holy. Separate from any moral evil or sin.
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I think if you remember how holy God is, you won't have this kind of little trick called mortal and venial sin.
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Number three, you shouldn't believe in purgatory because the Word has to rule over your feelings.
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Number two, you've got to remember how holy God is. And number three, you've got to look to the
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Word of God alone and not tradition or church fathers for your theology. Very much related to number one.
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We believe in sola scriptura. Scripture alone is thorough and sufficient for everything pertaining to life and godliness.
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The Catholic Encyclopedia admits, quote, In the final analysis, the Catholic doctrine of purgatory is based on tradition, not sacred scripture.
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Let's close in prayer. They tell you it's not based on scripture. So why they do the shenanigans and dance around 1
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Corinthians 3 and Matthew 5 and 12, I don't know. But let me read this from the Catholic dictionary and listen attentively and see if you can find the words traditions and the fathers for their doctrinal system.
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I quote, The Catholic doctrine of purgatory supposes the fact that some die with smaller faults for which there was no true repentance.
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And also the fact that the temporal penalty due to sin sometimes not wholly paid in this life.
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The proofs for the Catholic position, both in scripture and in tradition, are bound up also with the practice of praying for the dead.
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And it says one only has to read the testimonies here and after alleged to feel sure that the fathers speak in the same breath of oblations for the dead.
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So all you read when you read the Roman Catholic doctrine is not scripture but tradition and the fathers.
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It's amazing to me. It's amazing how they figure out the doctrine when they say, you know, let's forget about scripture but let's quote people that even the
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Protestants like. Let's do that. How about Tertullian? He loves prayers for the dead. He says, you know, widows pray for the souls of your husbands who have died.
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They quote Cyprian who said, you know what, if you don't pray for the dead you've violated ecclesiastical law.
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They quote Clement of Alexandria who wants to be reconciled on his deathbed with God and didn't have time to do penance.
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They quote Origen whose doctrine of purgatory is crystal clear. They quote
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St. Cyril of Jerusalem. They quote St. Gregory of Nyssa.
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They quote the apostolic constitution. They quote the catacomb writings. They quote
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Ambrose. They quote Augustine. They quote patristic tradition. Why do they quote all them?
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Because it's not found anywhere in the Bible. And you have to make sure that you say it is the word of God alone and it is not tradition.
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There's nothing wrong with tradition until it comes on par or usurps Scripture. And now for the one you came for tonight and the one
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I want to preach on. I believe you should not believe in purgatory. This is the main reason. This is why I'm preaching tonight.
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If you do believe in purgatory, you're going to minimize the greatness of Christ's death. You shouldn't believe in purgatory because you're going to minimize the greatness of Christ's death.
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Is Christ's death complete or incomplete? And I believe
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Jesus is made as superior because He purified sins. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 1.
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If you're looking for exposition tonight, I think every sermon should have exposition even if it's on a topic. And so the topic tonight is the greatness of Jesus' death.
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This morning we learned about the greatness of Jesus' return and judgment. Tonight is the greatness of His death.
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The very heart of the matter, the book of Hebrews. I love the book of Hebrews and the writings of Apostle Paul.
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I don't know who wrote it, but if I had to guess, that would be my guess.
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Scripture teaches here in Hebrews that Jesus is superior because He purified sins.
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And here it says in chapter 1 verse 1, God, interesting way to start the book, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom
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He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. Then He says more about Jesus, and He is the radiance of the
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Father's glory and the exact representation of His nature. He does more than that.
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He's sovereign. He upholds all things by the word of His power. And then we come to this little phrase, when
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He had made purification of sins. There was something greater than what
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God did in verse 1, speaking, revealing Himself. There was something greater than what
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God did in verse 2, where He made the world. How great is making the world on a list of things?
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It's pretty good. Here there's something greater than all that. There's something greater than in verse 3, than upholding this creation by the word of His power.
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The grand work. Why did Jesus come? He came to seek and save those that were lost.
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He came to die for sinners' sins. He came to be a sin bearer.
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That is more glorious and more grand than creation. It's better than providence. It's better than continually holding up the universe.
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The once and for all sacrifice is better that He purged the filth and the guilt of our sins.
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Jesus was the priest and He was the sacrifice. And on Good Friday, I like to call it
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Finished Friday. And what does this text say here? He made purification of sins.
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Who can tell me the Greek word for purification? Because I think if you think about it, you can probably guess. How do you make something clean?
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If you want to do something to a patient in a hospital and you want to make them clean, what might you do? What would be a good word for this?
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Sterilize would be a good one. Good. Any other guesses?
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Boy, you look like you're a tired crowd tonight. I wonder what word this would be.
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Kind of sanitize. Good. I like that. Some good thoughts. Sterilize, sanitize.
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One more S and you're a Southern Baptist, Tom. Whew! Let me spell the
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Greek word for you using English letters. K -A -T -H -A -R -I -S -M -O -S.
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Purification. K -A -T -H -A -R -I -S -M -O -S.
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It's cauterized. It's like a catheter when you want to clean out a bladder, as it were.
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By himself, Jesus makes purification for our sins. He cleanses them.
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It's an amazing picture. He removes by cleansing our sins, our stains.
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You know, when I think of staining sins, I don't know about you, and this is just an easy illustration.
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Maybe you think it's a dumb illustration, but I like it. I had two kinds of jeans when I was a kid, and I don't mean
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Wrangler and the Kmart brand, although that's probably what they were.
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But I had play jeans and I had school jeans. I had good jeans and I had other jeans. And I had some jeans that have, you know, the things that you would iron on top of the knees to try to keep them going for all those years.
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What were those called? Patches. Boy. Kind of like tough skin kind of things.
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But one thing my mother didn't like is when I went out playing football with the other boys and I came home with what on my jeans?
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Grass stains. Just embedded in there. I mean, you just can't get them out. You might as well just dye them all green and wait for St.
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Patrick's Day. I mean, it was over. And I think about our sin -stained hearts, all our guilty stains.
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It's not coming out. And so like our jeans that you just might want to throw away because they don't serve the intended purpose of good school jeans anymore, we could have just been thrown away because of our guilty stains, but we have had the blood of Christ applied to our souls and we have been cleansed.
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That's what the writer of Hebrews is talking about. The cleaning of our souls. You can hear this high priest language from Leviticus 16 on the
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Day of Atonement. There shall be a permanent statue for you in the seventh month. On the tenth day of the month you shall humble your souls.
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For it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you.
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You will be cleaned from all your sins before the Lord. And don't you think the writer of Hebrews might quote the most essential chapter in the
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Old Testament on the Day of Atonement for cleansing sins? Of course he would. The idea is talking to the
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Jews about cleansing. Oh, we might say forgiven. We might say, oh, we've been redeemed.
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But the Jew wanted to be cleansed because he knew that he was infected and affected by sin.
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And the text here is, it's a completed act. For those of you that know the language, it's an aorist.
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Completed act done. It's not ongoing. It was once and for all that Jesus purged our sins.
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That's what cleansed means. He purged. And the sins that you'll notice mentioned in the book of Hebrews aren't kind of viceless sins like adultery and fornication, kind of personal sins.
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The sins mentioned in the book of Hebrews happen to do with unfaithfulness and idolatry and all the unfaithfulness and all the idolatry that this group of people would have, yes, made of individuals, but collectively
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Jesus comes to die for that kind of sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, the apostle
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John says in chapter 1, verse 7 of his first epistle, cleanses us from all sin.
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I love Acts where Paul says God's going to shepherd the church which he purchased with his own blood.
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When did this purging take place, by the way? If you're a Mormon, it took place in the
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Garden of Gethsemane. Is that true, Steve? Okay, I want to make sure I'm right. But we know it happened at the cross.
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He made purification of sins. Past action, completed, done, once and for all.
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Doesn't that strike you as odd? Do you think the tabernacle, there was ever kind of a respite at the tabernacle?
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Wow, the people aren't sinning anymore. We can finally kind of take a break. One person after another, after another, after another, after another.
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No wonder they had to be in shifts. And this word here, katharismos, is used of ritual cleansing.
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The context here though, removal of sin. Turn with me if you would, keep your finger on Hebrews, and turn over to 2
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Peter 1, verse 9 where that word is used, and I think you'll like it.
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2 Peter 1, verse 9. The same idea, for he who lacks these qualities is blind or short -sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
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Gone, done, cleaned, purged. Now here's what
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I'm going to do. In the next five minutes, I'm going to take you through just kind of a sweeping overview of the book of Hebrews and to show you how
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God dealt with sin. And you're going to see completed, done, over. You're not going to see some ongoing thing.
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And we're going to do just kind of a little jet tour. You think I can do a jet tour of Hebrews? I called that this morning.
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It's a rocket ride through Revelation. That's what's up on the internet. And we're not going to go through the whole book, but I want to highlight.
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It's like I'm going to take a yellow marker and just go, all right, this is going to be a good lesson even for you to say, all right, let's just go through Hebrews and just kind of underline six or seven places where the atonement comes up and we see the complete, final nature, once and for all nature of dealing with sins.
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Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17. Hebrews 2 .17. This whole letter is about Jesus and his dealing with sins.
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I believe the writer of Hebrews, if it was Paul or someone else, it doesn't matter, he was taken, he was in love with, he was gripped by Jesus' death for him.
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Hebrews 2 .17. At the cross, Jesus made propitiation for sins. Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in all things, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
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The just holy wrath of God being poured out on the people was intercepted by Jesus.
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And Jesus satisfied God's holy wrath by absorbing it all.
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Chapter 8, verse 12. At the cross, Jesus put away sins so God remembers them no more.
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He put away sins. I mean, we could just see in the text, he cleansed us, but there's all these other motifs and metaphors and words, so we just see the wonderful sides of all the cross offers.
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At the cross, Jesus put away sins. Hebrews 8 .12. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins, what?
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No more. Until they die, and I'll bring them up in purgatory. Chapter 10, verse 17.
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Same kind of language. And their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more.
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Don't you hate it when you say to someone, please forgive me, and then you do the same thing again, you didn't want to do it, and they kind of rub your nose in it?
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That's not how God does it. Jesus has paid for those sins, and they're done, and they're over.
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Colossians would say past, present, and future. Number three, at the cross, Jesus brought redemption for people's transgressions.
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Chapter 9, verse 15. We've got propitiation. We've got not remembering them anymore.
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Great language. And we've got bringing redemption. Hebrews 9 .15.
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And for this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant. In order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
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And here's this great redemption where Jesus purchases out of a marketplace these slaves to sin, held in sin's bondage, and he releases them from that sin with the price of Christ's death.
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Chapter 9, verse 26. Number four, at the cross, Jesus annulled sin by his sacrifice.
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He annulled sin. Hebrews 9 .26. Otherwise, he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world.
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But now, once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the single sacrifice of himself.
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Number five, found in Hebrews 9 .28, at the cross, Christ bore sin. At the cross,
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Christ bore sin. Hebrews 9 .28, so Christ also having been offered how many times? Every single mass.
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No, once to bear the sins of many shall appear for a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him.
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And he just keeps piling it on. It's once and for all. It's done. It is finished. Paid in full.
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Chapter 10, verse 12, at the cross, Jesus of Nazareth offered a sacrifice for sins. Hebrews 10 .12,
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but he having offered one sacrifice for sins for what? All time.
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I mean, you have to have a theological system to keep when you come to a text like this.
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How can you keep it? At the cross, number seven, the
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Messiah made an offering for sin. Hebrews 10 .18, now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.
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When there's been true forgiveness, why do you need another offering? That's going to relate to purgatory in a minute, big time.
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And then the last at the cross, number eight, found in Hebrews 10 .18, he's brought remission of sin.
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And I'm going to use the same verse, but just a little different nuance. For where there is a forgiveness of these sins, there is no longer any offering because they've been remitted, forgiven.
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Proper satisfaction and atonement has been made. Words used of canceling a debt.
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Now back to Hebrews 1. Something happened after Jesus made purification of sins.
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And you know what he did after he did that? He didn't go back to the cross every single mass.
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He did something else. Hebrews 1 .3, Hebrews 1 .3,
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when he made purification of sins, done deal, what did Jesus do? Isn't it the best language?
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I remember the first time somebody taught me this, I thought, I never want to forget that. I never want to forget it.
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He sat down on the majesty on high. When you have a job that's done, what do you often do?
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I don't know, I kind of like to sit down. I taught the Bible yesterday for five hours and one of the first things
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I did after I was done is what? Decided I'd stand for another five hours just to see if I could do it.
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No, I'm just kidding. You sit down. Well, what's so big about that? You say, well, as many of you would know, in the old temple, where was the seat?
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There's no seat. Why? Because the work was always undone.
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There were more work to do because there's more sin. Now the sin has been dealt with and he sits down. And you know what?
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It was kind of a half -hearted atonement. It wasn't quite according to the Father's liking.
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And so the one side is for majesty and honor and this is where my best son sits.
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And so Jesus didn't quite do the job because he's going to have to run back and forth to take care of some other sin. So Jesus sits down on the left -hand side of God, right?
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No. He sits down at the place of preeminence, the place of honor, the place of rule and rest and authority and intercession.
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After Christ did his salvific work, he sat down. And no Old Testament priest would ever sit down performing his duty because there were no chairs and the work was never completed.
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Jesus received the sour wine. He said, it is finished. I love that.
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And what does the text say? He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
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It means greatness. Can you imagine? That seems to be a name for God. The right hand of the majesty.
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He sits down the majesty on high, literally the highest height, exalted, elevated, lifted up, high up, upper up.
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Superiors sit before inferiors. Well, that's not what he means here. He sits because it's done.
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Cessation of sacrifices forever and all the lambs and the ewes said hallelujah.
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He sat down on the majesty on high is another way of saying God's work was done and complete and he did the right thing.
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He sat down on the highest height. Highest seat. What's the best chair?
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You ever have a visitor come? You want to give them the best chair. Same kind of idea here.
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By the way, on a side note, does Jesus ever stand up? To use the language of Scripture. He's seated.
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But is there ever a time he might stand? When did he ever stand? For Stephen, that's right.
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When Stephen needed his help, that's Texas. He stands to show us that he's ready to help those that need the help.
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Jesus is a creator. He's a prophet. He's a priest. He's a king in Hebrews, but he is the
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Savior who has perfectly died for believers. By one offering, he has perfected them forever.
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And so then I go to Rome and I think, what do you do with some of these verses? I have a question.
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If you're in Rome, what do you do with the thief on the cross who repented? Jesus said to him, this day you will be with me in Pergodice.
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You're going to be with me in Paradise. Now I don't know about you, but kind of hot, firing, cleansing isn't going to be very kind and paradisical.
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But then the Roman Catholics say, well, the reason why the penitent thief is in heaven is because martyrs don't have to go to purgatory.
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And your response would be, the thief was a crook.
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The thief was a thief. He wasn't a martyr. Come on, according to the Roman Catholic system, how would this man have enough time to do penance so he wouldn't have to go to purgatory?
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Answer, there's no such thing as purgatory. It is just a thing to be able to control people with and to get their money.
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That's what it is with indulgences. Not every Roman Catholic would want money because of this, but many did over the centuries.
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Martyrs maybe except from purgatory, but I don't know where that's found in the Bible. And certainly the thief wasn't some martyr.
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He didn't die for truth. He died for thievery. I have another question for my
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Roman Catholic friends. Wouldn't you get more debt in purgatory since you're not perfected yet?
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Wouldn't you just keep adding? I believe sinners in hell are continuing to store up more and more wrath for themselves because they have a hard heart.
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They have an unbelieving heart. They have a heart that doesn't worship God, that doesn't love their neighbor, that doesn't do anything.
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And I think they just keep heaping up more sin. I may be wrong on that one, but that seems right to me.
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But certainly if someone is in purgatory, they would be stuck in this everlasting purgatory hell because how could they get out?
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People are praying for the sins that they did back on earth, but what they don't know is all the sins they now commit back actually in purgatory.
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The handbook for today's Catholic, page 47, says, If you die in the love of God, but possess any stains of sin, such stains are cleansed away in a purifying process called purgatory.
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And to say with Dave Hunt, what love is this? What kind of love is that? Catholic Catechism, paragraph 1030,
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All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
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If you had to have the stains of your sins cleansed in purgatory between baptism and your death, what does that say about justification?
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Just think about it. When God saves you from your sins, does He save you from your sins past, present, and future?
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Right? Colossians says we're saved from all our sins. And what's more, can you imagine God saying,
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By the way, I've saved you, I've made you born again, and I've placed you in Christ. When I look at you,
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I see Jesus. And so much so that when I look at you, I see Jesus, and I've got a place for Jesus, and Jesus ought to go into purgatory.
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When God sees us, we're placed in the Son. We're baptized into the body of Christ.
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And when God sees us, He sees His Son, and His echo to Jesus comes straight to us because of Christ, In my
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Son, the one I'm well pleased by. This is my beloved Son. Nothing more to be done.
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When you realize justification, you have to say to yourself, God has His Son, pay for my sins, credited to His account, all of them, past, present, and future.
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God gives me, credited to my account, all Christ perfection. And there's this great switch, this great exchange.
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And you say, yeah, that's right. How could Rome do it? I'll tell you how. They redefined justification. Catechism, paragraphs 1990 to 1992,
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Quote, justification detaches man from sin, which contradicts the love of God, and purifies his heart of sin.
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Justification is conferred in baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of His mercy.
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Friends, once you start doing the tap dance around one, what do you have to do? Just like when you lie, how do you get out of other lies?
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Tell more lies. Just when you lie about the sufficiency and the atonement of Christ, you are going to have to lie how many more times and redefine?
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When God, the Son, turns away the Father's wrath by absorption, is there anything more to be done?
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Basically, the Roman Catholic says, you've got to go to purgatory for sins not covered by your baptism and not covered by the cross.
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Everything in between. Sins that aren't covered by the cross, and sins that aren't covered by baptism, you pay the rest.
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Okay, I'm out of time, and I thought I could get through this in one time, and I don't know if I can. What should
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I do about it? Well, you should praise God that you don't have to go to a place like that, and you get to go straight to Revelation chapter 21 and 22 in the eternal state.
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And number two, don't functionally believe in purgatory. What do you mean? I think maybe some of us here functionally believe in purgatory.
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And that is to say, we have Roman Catholic friends that need to understand the doctrine of the atonement because they don't, and if you don't understand it, you're not a
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Christian. And maybe we're really hoping that some of these Roman Catholics might get a second chance because if we really believed in the doctrine of hell, and the doctrine of sin, and the doctrine of the holiness of God, I think we'd rush faster to our
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Roman Catholic friends to tell them the truth. And when
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I see this song, Backward Christian Soldiers, I say to myself, God, I don't want to be that.
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Backward Christian soldiers fleeing from the fight, with the cross of Jesus nearly out of sight.
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Christ our rightful master stands against the foe, onward into battle we seem afraid to go.
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Sit here then ye people, join our sleeping throng, blend with ours your voices in a feeble song.
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Blessings, ease and comfort, ask from Christ the King. But with our modern thinking, we won't do a thing.
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Don't be a functional believer in the doctrine of purgatory, hoping your Roman Catholics might get a second chance, because they won't.
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Well, there's more to be said about the atonement, more to be said about the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory, more to be said about what the
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Pope has now said about purgatory, and the list goes on and on. But, let's close in prayer.
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Lord, we look to you today, for everything that's good. You didn't have to tell us about any of these things.
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You didn't even have to tell us about heaven. Just hope one day that we get there, but you've promised heaven for us, and you've had your
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Son prepare a place for us. We thank you for that. We thank you that we get to go, not because of us, not due to our goodness, or our works, or our kindness, or our faith, or anything else.
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We're not even saved because of our faith. We're saved because you love us, and you've granted us faith.
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Father, we come to the cross just naked with nothing. You've covered us and cloaked us with your
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Son's regal apparel. And Lord, we are thankful with that apparel,
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Christ's righteousness. You'd never send Him to purgatory. And if we are in Christ, we'll go where He goes.
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And what a great promise, that He'll never leave us or forsake us. And we thank you then, that might be the clincher of all, that wherever Jesus goes, we'll be there with Him, because we are in Christ.
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We pray that you'd help us to be thankful, help us not to be proud, because we somehow know better, and help us to talk to our
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Roman Catholic friends about the atonement, and about sin, and about forgiveness. We want them to be saved.
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And I thank you that many people in this congregation are saved from the Roman Catholic Church, saved from themselves.
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And I think they, more than any others, will be excited and tenacious when it comes to declaring the free grace found in Christ.