Hebrews 1:1-2a | The Supremacy of God's Son | Part 2

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March 14, 2021 Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, Pastor Jeff Rice Hebrews sermons playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8sIrq0gsadTndjGu3dBznMGKYtIAWjyd

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Hebrews 1:2b | The Supremacy of God's Son | Part 3

Hebrews 1:2b | The Supremacy of God's Son | Part 3

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If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1.
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We're going to be in verse 1 and verse 2a. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 2a.
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Pray with me. Oh God, you are our
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Father. You are in heaven and your will is right now, present tense, being done.
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Not only in heaven, but on earth. Lord, we come to you in the name of your
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Son, Jesus. We are your people. We are filled with your Spirit, Lord.
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Lord, we thank you for your Spirit. Thank you that you are present here with us.
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That you tabernacle in us. Oh God, please, please be with us, your people.
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Lord, as I bring to them your word, I pray that you will use it as the manna from heaven that has come down to feed them.
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That they will understand that we are not approaching the mountain that if a beast touches, it will be stoned.
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But that we, your people, approach Mount Zion. Oh God, be with us.
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Help us to understand how gracious you truly are.
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In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Last Lord's Day, I went home.
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And as always, I listened to the service. And I just found myself amazed of how blessed we are.
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You know, having Pastor Cal up here leading us in worship.
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And I was just, you know, like, I really wasn't focused in on, like I wasn't watching it with my eyes.
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But I was just listening and hearing the voices, y 'all's voices sing to the
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Lord. And participate in the catechism and the prayer together.
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Like, it really, it really fed me. And I was just like, man, we are so blessed.
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We are so blessed to have something so pure.
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I just found myself in worship, thanking God for this church. And for each one of you.
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I just want to express my thanks to you, Pastor Cal. The beautiful, pleasant, the worship that we have.
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Like, it would not be possible if I was leading. It would not be possible. Y 'all have heard me before.
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So I wanted to express how grateful I am that I'm working side by side with you. And how grateful
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I am for each and every one of you. I'm so grateful that we worship the
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Lord together. So our text, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 through 2a.
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Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
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But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son.
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In times past, God spoke to His people by prophets. And hear the writer of Hebrews saying,
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In time present, He has spoken to us by His Son.
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I want to call your attention to Galatians for a minute. And recall, we just previously got done walking through Galatians.
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I want to turn your attention to chapter 4. I'm going to read chapter 4, verses 1 through 7.
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Then I will read chapter 4, verses 21 through 31. So please join me.
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Galatians 4, 1 through 7. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave.
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Though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.
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And in the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
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But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman born under the law, to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.
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And because you are sons, God has sent His Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying,
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Alba, father. So you are no longer a slave but a son.
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And if a son, then an heir through God. Verse 21.
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Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
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For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.
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But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.
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Now, this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants.
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One is Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now, Hagar is
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Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to present Jerusalem. For she is in slavery with her children.
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But the Jerusalem above is free. She is our mother, for it is written, Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear.
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Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate one will not be more than the one who has a husband.
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Now, you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at one time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also now.
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But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son.
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For the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.
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So in this text, we see that as we walk through Galatians, we notice some things.
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Remember, I'm going to call your attention to it. We notice that Paul separated the
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Jews and the Gentiles, but he also joined them together, but he only joined them together in Christ.
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And so he separated them by law and grace. So in order to be a
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Jew, you had to follow the law. And if you were not a Jew, then you are a
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Gentile. Then he spoke about how the Gentiles now can enter, can come to God by grace, by grace through faith.
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And so here he points out that the heir is a child, so that this child, the heir was the
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Jew, and that he was no different than the slave as long as he was under the guardian.
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And the guardian is the law. So the slave would be the Gentile. He says that the heir, the
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Jew, is no different than the slave, the Gentile, as long as they were under the law.
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He says that there would come a time, he called it the fullness of time, when God would send his son.
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And so in the sending of his son, they were supposed to leave the guardian, the law, they were supposed to leave the law and cling to the son.
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And those that didn't, those that wouldn't cling to the son, beginning in verse 21, he refers to them as sons of Hagar.
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Jews pride themselves to being sons of Abraham, sons of Sarah. He says, no, you are clinging to the law.
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You are the son of the slave woman. Your mother is
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Hagar. Your mother is Hagar. And Matthew 5, 17 says this.
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Do not think, this is Jesus, Jesus speaking, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
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I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
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Deuteronomy 18, 15. The Lord your
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God will raise up for you, this is Moses speaking, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from among you brothers.
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It is he you shall listen. So Moses, talking to the children of Israel, he says that God is going to raise up a prophet like me, he's pointing to himself, like me from among you, from among you, the tribes of Judah, the tribes of Israel.
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Like God was going to raise up a prophet like him from among the people. And he says, it is him you should listen to.
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You shall listen to him. Peter quotes this in Acts 3, 22, and he quotes it and he references
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Jesus. He's saying that the prophet that Moses was speaking about that we should listen to, he's speaking about Jesus Christ.
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And yet, they hold on to the law, they were comfortable under the law, they were comfortable under the law, and so instead of leaving the guardian and receiving
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Christ, they hold on to the law and they become children of Hagar. They become a representation, not of Isaac, but of Ishmael.
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Not of Isaac, but of Ishmael. Jesus, after asking his disciples, who do people say that I am?
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Peter comes and he says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. It tells us days later, he went up into the mountains, and at this time, he was transfigured before them.
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It says that he started to shine, the glory that he once shared with the
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Father came upon him in the presence of Peter and John.
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James and John. And it says that Moses, Moses was with him, and Elijah was with him.
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That Moses and Elijah were with him. And Peter says, let us make three tents.
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One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And then all of a sudden, a cloud came over him, and a voice came out of the cloud and he said,
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This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.
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Listen to him. Remember, Moses says, there's going to come one, a prophet like me, who's going to be raised up, a prophet like me unto you, raised up from among you.
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It is him you shall listen to. And so, the glory of God on Jesus, the cloud reveals that, the voice of the
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Father reveals that this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased. Peter, James, and John, they fall down on their face like dead men in worship.
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And Jesus tells them to rise. And when they did, it was Jesus only.
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Moses wasn't there. Elijah wasn't there. It was Jesus Christ only.
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Our theme for this Lord's Day, again, is the supremacy of God's Son.
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When we spoke about it, it's our text. Hebrews 1, chapter 1, verse 2a.
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This is God speaking, and God is speaking to us through His Son.
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I'm going to read it again. Long ago, at many times, in many ways,
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God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days,
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He has spoken to us by His Son. So in our outline today, we see three ways that God used to speak to us.
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It says, formerly and at various times, now at a specific time.
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So once it was formerly, it was at various times, many times, many ways.
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Now it's a specific time in a specific way. Then to the fathers, but now to us.
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Then by prophets, now by His Son.
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And so there seems to be this overarching with the law and the gospel.
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So once through the law, now through grace.
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God spoke through the law, now He speaks by grace, in grace, through grace.
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John 1, 17 says this. For the law was given through Moses.
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Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
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So the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth was given to us by Jesus Christ.
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As we transition to our outline, let's just keep that in mind. Let's keep in mind that the law was given to us by Moses.
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Now, is that saying that the law was bad? No, that's not saying that the law was bad.
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The law had its purpose, and it has a purpose. The law had a purpose, and at present tense, it has a purpose.
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So the law was given to us through Moses, and let's remember that grace and truth comes to us through Jesus Christ.
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So our first outline, formerly at various times, and now at a specific time.
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So formerly at various times, this would be the Judaic age. So the
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Judaic age, he's saying, is long ago, at many times, and in many ways.
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So long ago, God spoke at many times and in many ways.
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So when you look at the history of Judaism and how
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God spoke, so we know that he came and he spoke through shadows. All right, he spoke to Adam.
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He created Adam. He spoke to Abraham. He spoke to Noah.
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He spoke to David. Like, he spoke in many times and in many ways.
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And so when you look, and last week, we kind of looked at the shadows and substance and how
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God spoke in many times and in many ways by dreams and visions.
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So through the prophet would have a dream or the prophet would have a vision and he would reveal to the fathers, to the people, the dream and the vision.
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But now it says that at a specific time. So we have the Judaic age and in the
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Judaic age that God would speak to the fathers by a prophet, the prophet would have a dream or the prophet would have a vision.
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It says, but now he has spoke, it is a specific time. And the specific time,
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I believe, is called the age of the Messiah. And in it, it says, long ago and in many ways that God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days.
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So this is what I want to touch on. It's the last days. So when you come to something where it says the last days, you have to ask yourself the last days of what?
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What is it speaking about? Now, many people, theologians, don't believe that we are in the last, they would say something, we have just entered the last days.
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When Jerusalem became a nation in 1948, that began the last days.
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Or people would say from the time that Jesus was crucified, buried, raised and taken up into heaven, that that began the last days.
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And we are still today in the last days.
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But if I'm correct, if I'm correct that the former times was the age of Judaism, the
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Judaic age. Remember when the Jews were under the law, they were under the guardian.
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But then the father sends Jesus into time and they were to leave the law and they were to cling to Jesus.
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And I can't remember what he said he called it. Let me turn back there real quick.
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They were to leave the guardian and they were to cling to Jesus, the fullness of time.
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So the fullness of time I'm taking it to be is when Christ came to earth.
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And so I believe that when it talks about the last days, it's speaking of the Judaic age.
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And I believe that it's from a period of time that was 3 BC to 70
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AD. So the last days would have been 3 BC to 70
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AD. It would have been 73 years. So when it says in the last days, in these last days he has spoken to us through his son, it would have been a period of 73 years.
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Because I don't believe we are living in the last days. I believe that we are living and we're still in early church history.
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Let's move forward and we'll come back to that. The second outline was to our fathers but now to us.
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So to our fathers equals the patriarchs,
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Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So God spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and his descendants.
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But now he spoke to his apostles. So who did
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Jesus speak to? His apostles. Who did the prophet speak to?
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Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants. Now the descendants, now the apostles are descendants.
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But it says, but now he has spoken to us. The us here would be the apostles first.
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Secondarily would be the church. So he speaks to his apostles. His apostles speak to the church.
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They write scripture. They write letters. And today it's again through the church but it's through scripture.
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So how is God speaking to us today? Through his son who spoke to the apostles.
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The apostles who wrote scripture. So when we say that God speaks, we're talking about scripture.
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He has revealed himself to us through the apostles whom the apostles wrote scripture.
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They wrote letters. They distributed to the church. We as the church have received the scriptures and so we can hear
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God speak. We can hear the message that God has for us because we have the scriptures.
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And again we'll come back to it. The third point of our outline.
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Then by prophets, now by his son.
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Again it's the same thing. So he spoke to us then by prophets. So Moses himself was a prophet.
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As Moses is writing the five books, he is not only representation of the prophets but he's also a representation of the law.
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The law came through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. He says that God was going to raise up to you a prophet like me among yourselves.
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So Moses is both a prophet and the one that was given the law.
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So Moses wrote the Torah and then the prophets. So in the
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Old Testament we have the Torah, the major prophets and the minor prophets.
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So we can go back. We have our Bibles. We can go to our Bibles and we can read the five books of Moses and we can see what
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God said to them. And we can also go to the major prophets and the minor prophets and we can see what
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God said to them. How he said it. In what ways he revealed it. In dreams and visions and fire.
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In a bush that was set on fire. We talked earlier in Sunday school about Theophanies and Christophanies and how
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God would come and visit his people. So we have God speaking in a specific way.
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But now it's only through the Son. It's by his
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Son. So once it was through prophets and now it is through his
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Son, Jesus Christ. And who is Jesus? Who is
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Jesus? God the Son, the Messiah, the Lord and Savior.
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We were talking about the Trinity earlier. And you know, in the story, when it comes to redemption, the covenant of redemption has
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God the Father choosing the people. But not only did he choose the people, he chose his
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Son to enter time and to save that people. And then when the
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Son goes back to be with the Father, they send the Holy Spirit. So God the
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Son, Jesus, is not only God the Son, but he's also God.
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He is Yahweh. He is a partaker in the nature of God. The second person of the
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Trinity. He is the Messiah. The Messiah was known to be the one that would come.
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The Jews believed that once the Messiah came, the end of the sacrificial system would end.
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And that this Messiah would rescue them from the hands of Rome. That the
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Messiah would rescue them from the hands of Rome. And that once that happened, they believed that he would usher in what was called the last days.
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So we stand here in agreement with him. We agree. We agree with the Jews that the
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Messiah, once the Messiah came, he would usher in what's called the age of the
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Messiah. And that he would put an end to the sacrificial system. And that once he came, it would begin what's called the end, the end of days or the last days.
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But when we say that, we mean something totally different. We're talking about the age, the age of the
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Judaic system. So the Bible speaks of two ages. We have this age and the age to come.
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I was talking with Brad earlier today about this. The Bible speaks of two ages.
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There's this age and then there's the age to come. And so the writer of Hebrews, he's writing this book and he is speaking to Jews.
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Remember I told you there's three people groups. He's speaking to true believers.
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He's speaking to intellectual believers and he is speaking to non -believers. We have in Galatians, we have
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Paul rebuking Galatians, Gentiles. And in Galatians also you had true believers.
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You had those that believed intellectually and you had those that didn't believe. In most churches today we have true believers.
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We have intellectual believers and we have those that don't believe. And so Jesus is speaking to,
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I mean Paul or the writer, whoever you want to believe wrote it, he is speaking to the Hebrew people in the same way that he was the
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Galatians. But this time he's making a different point. In verses 5 -4, we'll see a real good connection in Galatians.
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But this time he is saying that the fullness of time has come.
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It's not going to come. It has come. And he is not speaking through prophets any longer.
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He is speaking to us by his son, Jesus Christ.
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He is the Messiah. That what you believed about the Messiah is true.
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That once he come, he would rescue us from the Roman rule. When you look back in history, he did.
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He would rescue us from having to sacrifice animals because God was not pleased with the blood of bulls and goats.
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And he did. We can look back in history and see that it was all fulfilled in him. The one thing that the writer really wants to get into their heads and ours today is this, is that the writer is inviting his hearers by the
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Holy Spirit to come to Jesus Christ. And at the same time, he forbids them to go beyond Jesus Christ.
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So he invites them to come, come to Jesus Christ, but do not look for any other way.
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Do not seek visions. Do not seek dreams.
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Do not... Now they have some kind of a Christian Ouija board, supposedly.
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It's heresy. You want to hear God speak? You can hear exactly what he had to say to Moses.
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You can hear exactly what he had to say to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in your
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Bible. And what he has to say for us today is in your
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Bible. Please come to Jesus, but don't look no further.
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We have... What else can heaven give us? What else can heaven give us?
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It has given us all that it has. The Son has been given to us.
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And that's the message of Hebrews. That yes, in many times and in many ways,
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God spoke to us, spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but now at this time, from 3
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BC to 70 AD, God has spoken to us by his
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Son through the apostles. Through the apostles.
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So let's just answer the question. Does God still speak through prophets?
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Does God still speak through prophets?
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I want to bring your attention to Ephesians. Ephesians 4, verse 11.
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Ephesians 4, verse 11. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers.
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Verse 12. To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
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So Paul is clear that that God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, which is also a pastor, shepherd, pastor, and teachers.
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And that he gave them this. He gave the church this to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body.
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And to that we agree. Yes, absolutely. God gave us the apostles, God gave us the prophets, as well as the evangelists, as well as shepherd, pastor, and teachers.
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And yes, he gave it to us for the equipping of the saints and the work of ministry for the building up of the body.
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So the argument is, this is what's called the five -fold ministry. The argument is, is that that God is the same today, yesterday, and forever, and that this is a gift that God has given the church, and because he has given the church this gift, we can trust that still today all five of these are working and active.
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That there are people, apparently, who have seen Jesus raised from his death,
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I mean, from his baptism to his death, burial, and resurrection. Because in Acts chapter 1, in order to be an apostle, you have to see the baptism of Jesus to the death, burial, and resurrection.
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So apparently today, there's people that have seen this because they still believe in that there's apostles who can write scripture, who are authoritative, who have authoritative, like they speak for God, and also prophets.
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They believe that, you know, some that we wouldn't even, you know,
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I mean, like, that hold to a rich theology that are sound in the doctrine of the
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Trinity. They believe in justification by faith alone. They believe that there's only one
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God, and this one God has revealed himself in three persons. But they still believe in prophets, that God has prophets on the earth.
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Now, I would wholeheartedly agree with evangelist, shepherd, pastor, and teachers, but here's why
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I don't believe in the apostles and prophets. Chapter 2, beginning in verse 19.
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It says, So then you are no longer... So he's speaking to the church. Well, he's actually speaking to Gentile.
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He says, So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the
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Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the
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Spirit. So here we have the apostle, prophets, and Jesus Christ.
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So I believe that there is no other Jesus Christ, that the work that Jesus Christ did from AD, I mean, from 3
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BC, the incarnation, until his return, coming, and judgment that happened in 70
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AD is not going to be repeatable. So from his incarnation, his 3 1⁄2 years of ministry, death, burial, and resurrection, and coming and putting an end to the
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Jewish sacrificial system when the temple fell, I don't believe that that's going to be repeated.
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Also, because that is a foundation and it is the cornerstone of the church,
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I also don't believe that there's any more apostles and prophets for the same reason, because it is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
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Christ Jesus is the cornerstone of the apostles and prophets.
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So whenever you build something, this house, this building that we're in, the floor is not the same material as the roof.
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Paul has given us an imagery here that the apostles and prophets are the foundation.
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It doesn't say that the evangelists and the shepherd -pastor -teacher are the foundation.
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The shepherd -pastor -teacher is what you would call the rest of the structure of the building.
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So it's the walls, it's the joist, the ceiling joist, it's the roof.
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It's not the foundation. The foundation was Jesus Christ himself as the cornerstone of the apostles and prophets.
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But they will also say that there's prophecy. Well, if there isn't prophets, well, then there has to be something that's kind of equal to it, and it's called prophecy.
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And they like to take you to 1 Corinthians. Now, this is a very debated text.
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1 Corinthians 13. I know a lot of people who are familiar with this argument know where I'm going.
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We're going to look at verse 8. 1
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Corinthians 13, verse 8. Yep. It says, love never ends.
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So what never ends? Love. Love never ends.
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As for prophecy, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease.
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As for knowledge, it will pass away.
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So this is where the argument is. They said, well, if you say that prophecy passes away and tongues cease, well, then so does knowledge.
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And that's where they kind of try to get people in a headlock and try to force them to believe as a continuationist.
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But when you look at it clearly, the word knowledge here is the
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Greek word gnosis. And it means, it actually means knowledge of spiritual mysteries.
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Knowledge of spiritual mysteries. So when it says here that knowledge will cease, it's not a gain of knowledge, of understanding of Scripture.
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It's of spiritual mysteries. All right? Remember that, spiritual mysteries.
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Let's go back to Ephesians. I'm sorry this is very technical, but as for the prologue,
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I feel like it has to explain what it is it is saying. So Ephesians chapter 3, look at verses 1 through 6.
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Paul says, As I have briefly written.
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When you read this, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, in which was not made known to the...
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Listen, what this mystery was not made known to the sons of man and other generations, as it has now been revealed to the holy apostles and prophets by the
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Spirit. Listen, this mystery is that the
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Gentiles are fellow heirs and members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
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To strengthen this interpretation, turn with me to Colossians chapter 1, verses 24 through 29.
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Now rejoice in my suffering for your sake. And in my flesh,
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I am filling up with what is lacking in Christ's affliction for all,
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I mean for the sake of his body, that is the church, of which
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I have become a minister according to the stewardship of God that was given to me for your sake to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hitting from ages,
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I mean hitting from age and generation, but now has been revealed to the saints, to whom
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God has chosen to make known how great among the
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Gentiles are and the riches of his glory is this mystery, which is
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Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
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For this I toll and struggle with all his energy that he powerfully works within them.
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So the mystery is that the
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Gentiles were always to be brought into the fold. They were always to be included in Christ.
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And he says that this was not given to the prophets. This was not given to the prophets, but it was given to the apostles.
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And the mystery is that Christ is going to be in you.
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So we have God, when you read the Old Testament, when you read the Old Testament, it's where did he tabernacle?
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In a tent and in a temple called the Holy of Holies. Where does
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God tabernacle now? In the believer.
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In the believer, that this is the mystery. So when you go to 1
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Corinthians 13, verse 8, and it says,
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Love never ends. As for prophecy, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease.
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And as for knowledge, it will pass away. This knowledge is the understanding of that mystery.
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Once that mystery was revealed, there is no other hidden mysteries. There's nothing else that you can just figure out.
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The mystery is that the Gentiles are included, and not only that, but the God that once tabernacled in tents and temples now tabernacles in the believer.
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That mystery, that knowledge has passed away. There's no more knowledge of spiritual mysteries.
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It's all given to us in Scripture. Now, a big thing
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I like to point out to those who hold to tongues is this. So I was once a part of a church that taught tongues that the evidence of your salvation was that you spoke in tongues.
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Well, that's fine and dandy, but the problem is this, is that theology matters. So if you have, let's say,
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Assemblies of God was the first Pentecostal that came on the scene.
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So Assemblies of God are Trinitarian. They believe what we believe when it comes to the
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Trinity, that there's one God who has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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And they believe that the evidence that you have been saved is that you speak in tongues.
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Well, you have
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Oneness Pentecostals who believe the same thing, that the evidence that you have been filled with the
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Spirit is that you speak in tongues. The problem is, is that they don't believe in the doctrine of the
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Trinity. They believe in what's called modalism, that there's one God, and this one God plays hypocrite.
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You remember what a hypocrite is? Someone behind a mask in one play, he's someone else, and then, you know, he changes to another.
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Remember I was telling you about how I was in a Passion play, and in one scene, I was, you know,
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I was one guy in another scene, I was another guy, and they kept changing my outfits. Well, Oneness Pentecostalism does the same thing with God called modalism, and it's
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God playing the hypocrite. One minute he's God the Father, but when he sends
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Jesus, he's God the Son. Same God, same person, who's also
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God the Holy Spirit. So they portray God as a hypocrite, and then you have what's called way internationals.
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I don't know if anyone's familiar with this cult, but it's called way internationals, and I went to a service of theirs, and they believe the same thing.
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It's almost as if they're Jehovah's Witnesses with their Pentecostal bent, because they believe the same thing as a
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Jehovah's Witness, that Jesus is a created being. They don't believe
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Jesus is God. They don't believe in Oneness theology nor Trinitarian theology, but they believe in the gift of tongues, and I saw them with my eyes speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues.
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I have witnessed with my eyes assemblies of God, Trinitarian Pentecostals speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues.
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I have witnessed with my eyes Oneness Pentecostals speaking in tongues and interpreting the tongues.
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I have witnessed with my eyes the way internationals speaking in tongues and interpreting the tongues.
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Now here's the deal. If tongues are real, if they're real, which one's doing it right?
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Which one is it? They all claim the same thing. When they spoke, it sounded the same.
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I didn't see any difference about it. See, theology matters. God is not going to speak that way to someone that believes of Him one way and then speak the same way to two other groups of people that believe in Him totally different ways.
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It's a different God. You can go to some cults in Hinduism and they speak in tongues.
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That cannot be the sign. Now do I believe in tongues? Yes. I'm speaking in one right now.
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It's called English. And some people can't understand me and some people can.
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It has ceased. But love will never end.
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You know my people by their love for one another, not by their speaking in gibberish.
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I want to point you back to the law and prophets real quick. I know I'm sorry, but I want to point you back to the law and prophets real quick.
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It's Matthew 5, 17. Jesus says, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
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I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. So the
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Reformed view of the law was this. It's that there's three parts of the law.
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Ceremonial, moral, and civil. The Jews would say there's only one law. Certain Jews would say that there's two parts and they would call it ceremonial and civil.
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Civil also could be translated judicial. Now, I would say, yeah,
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I agree with it. I agree with all of that. I believe that there's one law.
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One. But I also believe that it's separated into three parts. That it's ceremonial, it's moral, and it's civil.
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This is how I see it. The law given to us is a moral law. So you have the first four commandments.
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Remember, it's in our confession. Our first four commandments point to our relationship with God. The last six point to our relationship to our neighbor.
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If you break the first four, that is ceremonial. You break the last six, that's judicial.
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If I was to sleep with my neighbor's wife at that time, they would strap you down like an
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X to the ground. They would stake you to the ground and stone you because of something
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I did towards my neighbor. It's judicial. One points to our worship to God and one points to our love for our neighbor.
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There's one law and he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And I'm here today telling you that Christ fulfilled the whole law.
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He fulfilled the ceremonial, the moral, and the judicial.
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And here's how he's done it. He is our sacrifice.
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Right? Ceremonial. He stood in our stead.
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He took the wrath of God that you deserve. Judicial.
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And in him, he lived the life that you could not live and died the death that you should die. That's the moral.
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He lived it. He lived the life that you could not live. He fully obeyed
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God in everything. And he loved his neighbor as himself. He fulfilled the moral law.
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And John makes it clear. In 1 John he makes it clear. He says, whoever believes in him has to keep his commandments.
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If you say you believe in him and you don't keep his commandments, you are a liar. But it goes on in the next chapter and it says, but this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of the
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Son of God. That's the first four commandments. In order to love God with all your heart, mind, body, soul, strength, you have to believe that Jesus is the
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Son of God. And we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Only someone that has the
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Holy Spirit tabernacle in them can love their neighbor as himself. No, we don't believe in Christ perfectly and we don't love our neighbors perfectly.
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But listen, he fulfilled that law. He fulfilled every bit of it.
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Did he abolish it? No. But he fulfilled it. He fulfilled it.
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We look at the law today and know that we are sinners. He has fulfilled it. And what he has called us to do is this.
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Because he has fulfilled it, as we have justification, we are forensically declared righteous.
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We are forensically declared righteous, just like Abraham. Abraham believed
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God and it was counted to him as righteousness. We are life.
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We walk through what's called sanctification. This is an ethical transformation. Once he saves you, declares you righteous, he gives you faith, and you are then and only then are you able to live a life pleasing to him because he is in you.
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And when you do something wrong, when you disobey, he corrects you and puts you on the right path.
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And one day you're going to die, and then that day if you have been justified and you're being sanctified, you will be glorified.
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This will be at the resurrection of the dead. And so there is no more prophets.
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He no longer speaks through prophets. He was the final prophet.
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Moses said, there's going to come one like me, but he's going to come from among you.
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Listen to him. God tells, he shows up when he glorifies Jesus. He says, this is my son.
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In him I am pleased. Is he pleased in us? No. In him,
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Jesus, I am pleased. Listen to him. And if you have not repented and put your faith in Christ, I beg you to do so, to come to Christ, but don't go no further.
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Do not seek dreams and do not seek visions. Seek Christ through Scripture.
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I'll just close with this one thought. This is what I want to leave you to think on the rest of the week. Sorry it's so technical, but listen.
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A prophet is not the perfect expression of God. Jesus is.
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A prophet is not the perfect expression of God.
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Jesus is. Don't seek prophets. Seek Christ.
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Father, thank you. Lord, we thank you for loving us.
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Thank you for sending your son to die for our sins. Lord, we thank you that.
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Lord, I thank you that I'm not perfect. Lord, I thank you that I'm not perfect.