Four Impossibilities

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I want to encourage you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Hebrews.
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We're going to be looking at four different passages tonight in Hebrews, but the first one comes in Hebrews chapter 11.
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So if you want to make your way there.
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Every year we celebrate Holy Week, and within Holy Week there are four main times to have an opportunity to preach.
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And it's Palm Sunday first, where we celebrate the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem.
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Good Friday, tonight, where we celebrate and remember the cross and the sacrificial substitutionary atonement of Christ.
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And then on Sunday morning, we celebrate the resurrection and we do so with two services, one at sunrise and one at our normal time.
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And it gives me an opportunity every year to have to refocus on these things.
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And depending on the year, I'll preach differently.
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Sometimes I preach through the great narratives of the Holy Week story.
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We've preached on the different days and what happened on Sunday, Palm Sunday, what happened on Monday and Tuesday, and the different events that happened, and the passion narrative of Christ going to the cross and falling under the weight of the cross, Simon of Cyrene being used of the soldiers to carry His cross for Him, and there where He was nailed between heaven and earth and placed there as the sacrifice for our sins.
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And we've talked about that over the years, and we've done that, and so sometimes it can be somewhat a daunting task to decide what it is I feel like God has called me to preach on in any given year.
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Obviously, the focus of tonight is Good Friday.
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The focus of tonight is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
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But tonight I want to preach from the book of Hebrews, and I want to preach on a topic, the title rather, the message, which is Four Impossibilities.
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Four Impossibilities is the title of tonight's message.
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There is a popular idea in our world that we should avoid using the word impossible.
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In fact, Napoleon Bonaparte said, Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of the fool.
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You will hear self-help gurus, life coaches, and many modern day preachers who will say you need to abolish impossible from your vocabulary.
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The word faith movement, which distorts scripture and promotes a form of psychology and self-help, pseudo-Christianity, often warns people, don't ever use the word impossible because nothing is impossible with God.
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And they'll cite the scripture which says that.
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In his book, Success is Never Ending, Failure is Never Final, by Robert Shuler, one of the passages is entitled, How to Banish Impossibility Thinking from Your Life.
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So the word impossible really gets a negative from many in popular culture, especially many who teach a self-help, personal fulfillment, life coach style life.
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And I realize in most cases, at least many of the cases that I've mentioned, the attempt is to try to get people to be more confident.
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If you want to be more confident, you have to eliminate the word impossible.
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But the problem is, we often forget that the Bible addresses certain impossibilities.
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And it actually says that certain things are impossible.
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And we should not allow pop psychology to become the arbiter of our theology.
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Our theology and our practical Christian living should come from the Bible.
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So in this message, I'm going to do the unpopular, I'm going to highlight the impossible.
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And I'm going to focus on the impossible.
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Because there are four passages in the book of Hebrews where the word impossible is used.
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Where God's word declares something impossible.
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And they are sobering reminders for us on this Good Friday.
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We're going to be in the book of Hebrews.
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The word impossible is used throughout the New Testament.
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But specifically in the book of Hebrews, there are four times that it comes up.
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And these four things are very important for us to understand as believers.
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Now, for those of you who don't know much about the book of Hebrews, We went through it, it took us about three and a half years to preach all the way through it.
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But we have gone through the book of Hebrews.
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But just by way of reminder, I want to remind you about a few things.
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Hebrews is very interesting among the New Testament books.
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Because we don't know the identity of the writer.
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We don't know who wrote Hebrews.
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We believe him to be under apostolic authority.
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Some people even believe that it was the apostle Paul who wrote it.
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I tend to not believe that.
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I think that there's some arguments from the text that would say that Paul didn't write it.
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But there were men who were with Paul.
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Barnabas, Silas, Luke, who could have certainly been the authors of it.
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But we know ultimately that the Holy Spirit is the one who oversaw its writing and inspired its writing.
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We don't know who put pen to paper, but that really doesn't matter.
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But what we do know is what the writer intended us to know.
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The writer of Hebrews gives us an obvious reasoning for why he's writing.
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He wants us to understand the supremacy of Jesus Christ.
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His sacrifice, His priesthood, and His covenant are superior to the old sacrifices, the old priesthood, and the old covenant.
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That is Hebrews.
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In a nutshell, that's the purpose of the book.
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Christ is better, and not only is Christ better, He is better than all.
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He is superior to all things.
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And throughout this powerful volume, as I said earlier, the writer uses the word impossible four times.
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The word impossible is the word adunaton in the Greek, and it means literally to lack the power to do something.
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The root word is dunitas.
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Dunitas is where we get the idea of power.
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Later, the word dunitas would be used to...
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it would be transliterated into English as the word dynamite.
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So the idea of something powerful is what's there.
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And to put the alpha negative at the beginning is to make it the opposite.
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So you have dunitas is power.
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Or adunitas, or adunaton, is without power, with no power.
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It's like if I were to say, can Hope lift up my truck? You'd say, no, that's impossible.
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Well, what are you saying? You're saying Hope lacks the power.
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She lacks the strength.
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She lacks the ability to get under and lift up my truck.
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Well, that's where the term comes from.
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That's what it means.
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So there are four things that the Scripture tells us are impossible.
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We lack power.
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There is no power for these things.
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These things do not happen.
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And so these four things, I'll give you the outline.
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I didn't provide you anything to write on or anything to write with, so you may just put it in your mind if you don't have your own notes.
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But these are the four things.
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One, it is impossible to please God without faith.
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Two, it is impossible for anything other than the blood of Christ to take away sins.
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Number three, it is impossible that God would lie.
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And number four, it is impossible to know that we are saved if we are not abiding in Christ.
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That's the four things.
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It's very simple.
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And I'm going to look at those four things tonight.
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And as I said earlier, I'm not going to preach one of my regular hour-long sermons.
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Not that I have to preach an hour, but I want to make this sort of more devotional in nature.
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We're not going to dig into every single part of these aspects, but I just want you to take this with you tonight.
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These things which are impossible remind us of the great truths of the Gospel.
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And that's really the heart of what we're learning.
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So let's first look at Hebrews 11, verse 6.
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It's impossible to please God without faith.
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It says here in verse 6 of Hebrews 11, And without faith it is impossible to please Him.
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The Him there is God.
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We see that in verse 5.
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It says, And without faith it is impossible to please Him.
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For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.
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Now before I go further, I just want to pray.
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God, Heavenly Father, as I seek to preach Your Word, please keep me from error.
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Please lead me and guide me.
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And use this time to draw Your people to Yourself.
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Those who know not Christ, Lord, regenerate their hearts according to Your will.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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There is a common myth that has encapsulated modern man's view of his relationship with God, and that is this.
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If I do good, God is pleased with me.
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If I do good, God is pleased with me.
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I've heard people say that.
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I don't go to church.
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I don't worship God.
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I don't seek after Him.
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I don't read His Word.
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But I do good, and because I do good, God is pleased with me.
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You may not think people actually think that.
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But spend some time talking to them sometime.
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Press a man about why he thinks he's going to heaven and not hell.
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Do you think if men really believed they were going to hell, that it wouldn't matter to them? Most men are satisfied that they're going to heaven, even though there's no reason for it.
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What is it that one of the great fathers of the faith said? Every man will assume that he...
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I'm trying to say it exactly right.
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Basically, every man will give his heart, in his heart say that I'm worthy of heaven.
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And every man will just say that to himself.
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He says, if there is a heaven, I'm worthy to go.
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If there is a heaven, I'm sure I'll be there.
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And I've heard this, and I have heard this.
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You may not think I have.
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I've heard people say, if you're going to heaven, talking to me, if you're going, I know I'm going because I'm better than you.
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Straight up.
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And, you know, I said, well, we're both sinners.
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And you don't know how bad I am.
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You don't know how much and how far God had to reach down to save me.
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So I'm not saying I'm any better.
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Certainly not.
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But I have had people tell me, well, I'm better than you.
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So if you're going to heaven, I know I'm going.
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You see, what we have done is, you know, back during the time of the Reformation, the issue was justification by faith alone.
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Is a man justified before God because of his works, or because of faith alone? And that was really the divide.
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In fact, Luther said that was the hinge upon which the whole Reformation turned.
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It was on that issue of are we justified before God by what we do, or by faith alone? And you see, that issue still hasn't changed.
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Men still believe they're justified by what they do.
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What's interesting, I've learned, especially in becoming so familiar with so many families, doing so many funerals, done somewhere around 100 over the last 10 years, funerals, most of which I didn't know the people.
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And I've learned this.
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Most people believe not in justification by faith, not even justification by works.
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They believe in justification by death.
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Because everybody who dies is going to heaven.
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It's not really their works that get them into heaven.
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It's just the fact that they die.
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Everybody who dies goes to heaven.
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Will this person please God? He walked his dog every day and made sure he had food and water.
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He was a good man.
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I've heard that one.
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He loved his dog.
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He hated his mama, but he loved his dog.
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I've never heard that, but I've heard people say he loved his dog.
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I've never heard anybody say they hated their mama.
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But here's the thing.
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The writer of Hebrews tells us something.
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He says, without faith, it's impossible to please Him.
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For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists.
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That's the first thing.
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I've told you this before, and I do believe it.
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I believe the Word of God proves this.
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Every man knows God exists.
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Even the atheist in his heart of hearts knows that God exists.
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He suppresses that truth and unrighteousness, according to Romans 1.
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But he knows that God exists.
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He has natural revelation and he has internal revelation, both of which point to the fact that God exists.
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So the atheist knows that God exists.
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But he suppresses that truth and unrighteousness.
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He lies to himself and he believes the lie, because believing the lie is more comfortable than believing the truth.
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So he says that he must believe that God exists, which means he has to give up the lie.
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That's the first thing that we have to do.
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That's the first thing that we have to do when God saves us.
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We have to get over the lie that we've been telling ourselves up until that point.
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We lie to ourselves and we say, you know what, God doesn't exist, or if He does exist, He's happy with me.
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Both of those are lies and we've got to get rid of them.
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And then what does he say? He has to believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.
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You know what that is? That's trust in the character of God.
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See, first is believing in the existence of God.
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Believing in the existence of God, that takes giving up the lie.
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Because you know God exists.
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You're just lying to yourself that He doesn't.
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You have to give up the lie.
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But what does it mean when it says that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him? Well, that means you trust in God's character.
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Not just that He exists, but that He is who He says He is.
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How many of you have ever heard the name Anthony Flew? Anthony Flew was one of the most famous atheists.
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He was a teacher, a scientist, and he was an atheist.
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And Anthony Flew took to the task of trying to prove that God doesn't exist.
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And in the midst of trying to prove that God doesn't exist, he went through all of these studies and he realized, no, it's impossible that God doesn't exist.
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And Anthony Flew became a theist.
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But guess what? He still lost.
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Theism doesn't save you.
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Because now what he believes is this, well, I do believe there is a God, because I don't believe the world could have come about without a God, but I don't know who the God is, I don't know what kind of God He is, and I don't know anything about Him, I just know that He has to be there.
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That's not Christianity.
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And that's not the faith that saves.
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Without faith it is impossible to please God.
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For you must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
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You see, it's believing in Him and who He is that matters.
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Beloved, tonight, if you're just here with a bare theism, if all you believe is that God exists but you don't know who He is, if you don't know that 2,000 years ago, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He would fulfill the law and that He would go to the cross and die a sinner's death that He didn't deserve for you, then you are lost.
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If you don't know Jesus, then you don't know God.
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So faith begins with understanding, not just that God exists, you already know that, but it's knowing who He is and trusting in His character.
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That's where faith begins.
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So that's number one.
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It's impossible to please God without faith.
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Number two, it is impossible for anything other than Christ's blood to take away our sins.
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Turn with me back one chapter to chapter 10.
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Remember we said the four uses of the word impossible.
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Hebrews 11.6 is one.
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Hebrews 10.4, and we're going backwards.
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These actually go backwards in the text only because it helps with my outline for teaching.
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We certainly could have went either way, but you'll see in a little while why we're going backwards.
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Hebrews 10.4, the second use of the word impossible says this, For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.
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Now what in the world is this talking about and why does it even matter? Well, this statement is connected with the history of Israel.
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God had instituted animal sacrifices for the sins of His people, for the sins of the nation of Israel.
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And there were several sacrifices that happened throughout the year.
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And one in particular on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, the sacrifice was made for the sins of the people.
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And the writer tells us in Hebrews something very clear.
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Not one drop of any of the blood of those animals actually took away sin.
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You say, now wait a minute.
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The Old Testament says that those animals were sin sacrifices.
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That their sacrifices were for the purpose of sin.
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And is God a liar? No.
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You see, God speaks in His Word through types in the Old Testament.
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And in the Old Testament, we see types and prefigurements of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Every time an animal was sacrificed, the blood of that animal looked forward to the blood of Jesus Christ.
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It was for the purpose of giving a visible representation of what is to come.
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They stood as a symbolic type of the one sacrifice which is to come.
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And that's why the sacrifices no longer are necessary.
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I don't believe they'll ever be necessary again.
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Because the one sacrifice that they represented has come.
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AD 70, what happened? God destroyed the temple, just as Christ had prophesied.
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Not one stone will be left upon another, and it certainly was not.
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When the emperor came through, he destroyed it, removed the gold out from between the bricks just to ensure that he had looted it all.
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And in doing so, took every stone off the other.
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And the sacrificial system of Israel was done.
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Do you think there's a reason why that happened within 40 years of the death of Jesus? Do you think there's a reason why Jesus said that this temple will be destroyed? Now, of course, He talked about His own body.
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But He did talk about the stones on the temple, not one being left upon another.
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You see, beloved, Christ's sacrifice is the fulfillment of all the old sacrifices, and in it is the covering for sin.
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No other sacrifice need be made, and no other sacrifice is worthy, for only Christ's sacrifice can be worthy to take away sin.
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And it was.
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So it is impossible.
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It says here it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.
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In my outline, I simply say this, it's impossible for anything other than the blood of Jesus to take away sin.
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Because that's what the writer of Hebrews is saying.
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It's impossible for anything else to take away sin.
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Number three, it's impossible for God to lie.
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Turn to chapter 6.
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A couple pages over.
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Now we're going to read a few verses here simply to get the context to show you what is being said.
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Beginning at verse 17, it's just talking about God's promises being certain.
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It says, So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
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We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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You see, I hear people often times say, nothing's impossible with God.
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Nothing's impossible with God.
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Well, there is a passage that says for with God all things are possible, but you have to understand there's a context there.
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And there's a context here.
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See, there are things which are impossible for God.
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It's impossible that God would act against His own nature.
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It's impossible that God would do that which is unjust.
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It is impossible that God would violate His own holiness.
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And it is impossible that God would lie.
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So in regards to our message this evening, why is that important? God has made promises to us in Jesus Christ.
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He has promised to save all who come to Him through His Son.
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And He has promised to punish those who do not come.
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All of these promises are certain for the believer because God cannot lie.
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I want to ask you a question.
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Do you ever doubt as a believer? Do your head like this or be a liar? Okay.
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Do you ever doubt? We all do.
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I was sharing with Brenda today as I was talking to her about Mariah.
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I was there with her and I was holding her hand and I said, you remember the father whose son was sick? And Jesus said, you know, if you believe, you'll be healed.
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What did that man say? He said, I believe.
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Help my unbelief.
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Sounds like a contradiction, right? He said, I believe.
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Help my unbelief.
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It's not a contradiction because every one of us knows what He meant.
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Every one of us has experienced a moment where we are put to the test and we want to believe, but it's hard.
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And it's difficult to believe sometimes.
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And sometimes it is the most difficult thing in the world to stand firm on faith.
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But how do we do it? What is the greatest weapon in the battle of doubt? It's remembering that God never lies.
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God has made a promise.
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And it is, as the writer of Hebrews says, a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul.
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And then He makes a note.
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He says it's a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul.
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Verse 19, a hope that enters into the holy place behind the curtain.
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You know what He's talking about there? He's talking about the Holy of Holies.
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You see, the Holy of Holies was behind a curtain.
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There was a holy place that the priest would enter into to do his work, but behind that was the Holy of Holies and there was a curtain that hung between the two.
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And in that was the Ark of the Covenant.
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It had the Law of God.
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It had a bowl of manna.
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It had Aaron's staff.
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You remember this, right? That's the presence of God with His people.
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That's what it represented.
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And this writer of Hebrews is saying that where do we anchor our soul? We anchor it in God, in the promise of God.
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How many of you have sung the solid rock? Remember the song? How does it go? Our anchor holds within the veil.
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That's what it's talking about.
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Being in God.
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Our trust in Him.
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The unwavering promises of our Lord.
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Now, we've looked so far at three of the four.
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Apart from faith, it's impossible to please God.
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Apart from Christ, it's impossible to have a sacrifice for our sins.
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And it is impossible for God to lie, so we need to place all of our faith in His promises finally and forthly.
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We come to the use of the word impossible.
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And this is a warning passage.
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Turn with me to chapter 6, verse 4.
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I guess we're already in chapter 6.
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Just go a few verses higher.
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And I'm going to tell you in the beginning the impossibility here.
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It is impossible to be saved.
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To be confident in our salvation.
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To know that we are saved if we are not abiding in Christ.
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And I want you to follow what it says here.
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Beginning in verse 4.
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It says, For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying again the Son of God to their own harm, and holding Him up to contempt.
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For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated receives a blessing from God.
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But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
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Now that's a lot.
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And I want to tell you something.
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If I had a mind to go very deep into this text, we could be here all night.
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And I wouldn't have a problem with that, but I think some of you might.
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I want to move simply to the meaning of this text because there is a debate that is really eons old.
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And the debate is on the question of the nature of salvation.
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The question is whether or not salvation is something that can be lost.
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And I will say this.
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Men have differed over this.
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We believe and teach that once a person has been saved and it is a genuine regeneration that that gift is forever and cannot be lost.
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It is eternal life that we get in Christ, not temporary life.
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If that comes as a surprise to you, okay.
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But we do believe that.
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We believe that salvation is a gift and it's not something that God treats like a yo-yo where He gives it to you at some point and then He takes it back and then He gives it to you and He takes it back.
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I know churches where you have to be baptized like every other year because you lose your salvation and you need to get it back and when you get it back you got to be baptized again.
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So it's over and over and over, rotation like I said, like a yo-yo.
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We don't believe that a person who is saved can lose regeneration, but, and this is a hard but, we do believe in something called apostasy.
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What is apostasy? Apostasy is a person who makes a claim to faith.
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A person who in every way has demonstrated in some way a step toward Christ, but yet has not been regenerated.
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They are playing a role.
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They are acting a part.
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And when they defect, which they will, that defection is called apostasy.
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Jesus talked about it in His parable of the soils.
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He says the seed falls on the road, it doesn't even make any inroad, it doesn't even sink in, the birds come and eat it up.
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He said but some falls on the rocky soil and that springs up for a minute, but then it dies because it had no root.
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And some falls among the thorns and it chokes out, but the seed that falls in the good soil bears fruit.
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You remember that story? He's not saying here's three different types of salvation, two that you can lose and one that you can keep.
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He said they had no root.
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When the man stands before the Lord in Matthew chapter 7 on judgment day and he says Lord, Lord, have we not done many miracles in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and dead body works in Your name? Jesus says well I knew you for a little while but you couldn't hack it.
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He says I never knew you.
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Isn't that right? That's important.
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Because when we come to Hebrews 6, I do believe that the right way to understand this is apostasy.
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This is a person who has been enlightened.
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They have heard the truth.
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They have tasted of the heavenly gift.
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Now you can interpret that in different ways, but I think that could be a reference to the Lord's table.
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They have come around the table in fellowship with God's people.
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They have shared in the Holy Spirit not as a recipient of the gift of the Holy Spirit, but they have been among God's people and likely have been baptized.
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They've tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers to come.
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They've been actively involved in learning and discipleship in the church, but yet they have abandoned Christ.
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Bart Ehrman is a man who grew up in a Christian home.
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He went to Bible college.
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He went to seminary.
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Rather, he went on to university and to college.
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And he is one of the foremost scholars of ancient New Testament writings.
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And he is an unbeliever.
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He teaches the Bible as an unbeliever.
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He debates about the Bible.
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He's written books misquoting Jesus and others.
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And he will tell you, I once was a Christian and now I'm not.
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I'll say, no, you never were, and you're still not.
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But here's the scary thing.
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Here's the thing.
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If somebody takes this from the perspective that you can lose your salvation, this proves too much because it says it's impossible to be restored under repentance.
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If you believe you can lose it and you take this passage as your proof, what you mean is you can lose it and never get it back.
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That's not what it's saying.
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But it is saying this.
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There are people who have made a pretense towards Christ and then have abandoned Him.
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And they are now hardened.
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And we don't know who they are, so we don't give up hope on our perspective.
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We pray for people.
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We ask God to break the hearts of people.
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But there is a hardness that is a scary thing.
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It is a scary thing.
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Now, did I want to end on a negative just to make you sad? No, what I want to tell you is we're dealing with serious, serious business.
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We are dealing with four impossible things.
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One, it is impossible to please God without faith.
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Do you believe that? Say amen.
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It is impossible for anything other than the blood of Jesus Christ to save you.
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Do you believe that? It's impossible that God would lie.
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And it is impossible, absolutely impossible that we can know that we are saved if we are not abiding in Christ.
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And with that, let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for the opportunity to preach Your Word again.
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I pray that I have been faithful to it, and I pray that this message will be used of You to open people's eyes to the truth that maybe they are not abiding in Christ.
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That maybe they are not trusting in His sacrifice alone for their salvation.
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Maybe they are trusting in their own works.
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Maybe they are trusting in their own goodness.
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Maybe they think that when they face You, they are going to say, Lord, look what I have done.
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As the fool in Matthew 7 says, Lord, have I not done this and have I not that? And You say, depart from me, I never knew You.
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Lord, may it never be that those under the sound of my voice would have such foolish thinking.
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But Lord, that they would know that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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And that there is only one sacrifice for sins, and that is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
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And tonight we know of the impossibilities.
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And the main impossibility is that it is impossible that we could be saved apart from Him.
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Amen.
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So Lord, let us leave this place with the word impossible in our mind.
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And know in our hearts that apart from Christ, our salvation is impossible.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.