Dr. James White: A New And Living Way Pt. 2

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Jeff Durbin || Jesus Is The Promised Messiah, Pt. 3

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If you'll turn with me, please, in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10, for those of you who were here a month ago, we began this series – well, the broader series, the

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Roman Catholic controversy, we began before that. But specifically looking – we looked at the concept of the

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Roman Catholic Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice. We looked at what the official

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Roman teaching in that is. What the current pope believes about that, who knows, but what the official teaching is anyways.

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And then we began looking at the book of Hebrews and its testimony to the finished nature of the work of Christ.

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This truly is, I believe, absolutely central to the issues that separate us from the

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Roman Catholic Communion, the Reformation, all the things that have come together to give us our identity.

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And I also believe that, unfortunately, since the time of the Reformation, there has been a true degradation amongst non -Roman

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Catholics, first and foremost in regards to belief in the

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Bible as the Word of God, its consistency, its sufficiency, its capacity to lead us and direct us and give us truth.

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And that has led to degradation in our view of who Christ is.

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And especially when it comes to the issue of the cross, as I said earlier in the previous sermons, it seems to me that most evangelicals, to use that term broadly, have a theology of the cross primarily derived from hymns and not from Scripture, from music and not from the written

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Word. Now, there can be beautiful hymns that greatly enrich our lives.

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They should not be the source of our theology. They should reflect the theology that comes from Scripture itself.

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But many people have a view of the cross that is sentimental rather than revelational.

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Sentimental rather than revelational. And as a result, most non -Catholics, most evangelicals, struggle to explain to Roman Catholics how the cross is finished and why their representation of that sacrifice over and over and over again is the very source of their lack of peace before God.

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But that's what we want to try to correct. We began in Hebrews chapter 10, we were talking about the non -repetitive nature of the sacrifice of Christ.

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We worked through about, we read through 15 and following, if you may recall.

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So, let's look at Hebrews chapter 10, just to get us up to speed.

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Verse 14, of course, is key. We had the citation just before that of Psalm 110, a text we all know very, very well, but need to recognize that it's just as important in regards to our understanding of the finished nature of the work of Christ as it is to eschatology.

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In fact, the eschatological application that we make of Psalm 110 flows from that.

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And then in verse 14, for by one offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

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There is a perfecting result of the work of Christ, and it's for a specific people.

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Those who are being sanctified, those who are experiencing the work of the

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Spirit of God in their lives, being conformed to the image of Christ, they are perfected in their standing before God by that singular offering of Jesus Christ.

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That's something that a repetitive sacrifice by its very nature could not do. You don't repeat a sacrifice that actually accomplishes its goal.

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The sacrifices of the old covenant were pointing away from themselves to a much greater fulfillment.

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For by one offering, he, God, in the person of Jesus Christ, has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

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That is his work. That is his accomplishment. And the reason why mankind finds ways to limit this application is because if that's true, then salvation is all of God.

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There's no room for our accomplishment. There's no room for our works. There's no room for our almsgiving or anything else.

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By one offering. And then verse 15, and the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, and we did spend a few moments just to remind you of the personality of the

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Holy Spirit, the role of the Holy Spirit, the fact that the Holy Spirit testifies to us in Scripture.

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For after saying, this is the covenant that I'll make with them after those days, says the Lord, I'll put my laws upon their heart and their mind,

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I will write them, hopefully those words jump out at you and you know exactly where they come from.

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You need to know exactly where they come from. Jeremiah chapter 31, the promise of the new covenant, which had been quoted in full in chapter 8.

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Just a matter of sentences earlier, really, remembering that chapter and verse divisions came much, much later after the writing of the

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New Testament, the writer's already quoted these words, and now he's reminding us of them, that I will put my laws upon their heart and on their mind,

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I will write them. He then says, and their sins and their lawless deeds,

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I will remember no more. And then the conclusion of verse 18, now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

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Remember, back up, big picture, what's Hebrews all about? People are being tempted to go back to the old ways.

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They're being tempted to offer sacrifice. They're being tempted to curse Christ.

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And the whole point of this epistle is, there's nothing to go back to. There's nothing to go back to.

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There is no longer any offering for sin. If their sins and their lawless deeds,

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I'll remember no more. If they have been dealt with, then there is no further need for sacrifice for sin.

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And yet, in Roman Catholicism, that's what you have. If the

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Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice that never perfects, it stands in direct contradiction to the words of Hebrews chapter 10.

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So that's where we left off before I headed out of town. I am thankful I did have the opportunity of doing two debates with a well -known

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Catholic apologist. They were very, very interesting debates. Not normal debates, but they were what they were, and thankfully

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I was able to engage in them in good health. It was about five days later when

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I got to visit with the ambulance crew at three o 'clock in the morning in Mount Pleasant, Texas.

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Everybody knows where that is, right? I didn't either. But thankfully, there was a hospital right across the street from the

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RV park. The place was so small that when I realized I needed to go in, I tried to get an

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Uber to take me, because do you know what? I have no idea yet. I haven't gotten the bill yet, but an ambulance ride ain't cheap, and so I tried to get

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Uber to come. There is no Uber in Mount Pleasant, Texas. It doesn't exist there.

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So eventually, me and the ambulance crew got together for the half -mile drive.

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I really wonder what that's going to cost per foot. I think I'm going to try to figure that out once I get the bill.

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What does that cost per foot to go that short distance? But I couldn't drive, and I certainly wasn't going to be walking it, so there you go.

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That's how it happens. So anyway, we pick up at verse 19, and I read through,

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I believe it's verse 25. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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This is the text that, by God's grace, we will open up this afternoon, and we pray that he will bless it to our hearts and to our minds.

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This really does bring us to the end in Hebrews of the specific doctrinal and theological section.

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After this comes a warning passage, a very important warning passage, and then you go into chapter 11, the faith passage, and then practical applications that take place after that.

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So here really is a summary of how the Apostle is communicating to these

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Hebrew Christians the supremacy of Christ and the work that he has accomplished. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, it is hard for us to begin to grasp the shocking nature of these words, because we know the end of the story, we've read it all before, but if you were to be able to put yourself in the place of a first -century

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Jewish person and to hear the claim being made that this little group, this little sect, as it was called, not having any history, being considered by the

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Jewish leadership as being a schism, rebels, false teachers, this little sect is literally saying to its people, we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.

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They had all been there on the Day of Atonement, Leviticus chapter 16.

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They had all seen the high priest sacrifice the animals, the blood filling the bowl, the priest in his garments taking that bowl and entering into that location of the great veil, and that veil only once in a year did a human being pass through that veil into the very presence of God, and they would stand outside waiting, hoping that the high priest offering would be accepted by God.

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So here you have this little sect saying to everyone within it, we, we, not those high priests, we have confidence to enter the holy places.

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I know I grew up with the King James, the holy of holies. That's just a, that's a

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Hebrew phraseology. When you say, when you say something holy of holies, you're saying the holiest place.

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We have confidence to enter the very presence of God by the blood of Jesus.

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By the blood of Jesus. Not by the blood of rams and goats and calves, but by the one who gave himself, the one that the

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Jews are now saying was a false messiah. We are literally saying that we can enter into the very presence of God because of and by means of the blood of Jesus.

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What an astonishing claim, but it certainly lays out what it is we're trying to say.

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It's not by anyone else's sacrifice. It's not by any other religious activities.

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It's not by the hundreds of thousands of Muslims who travel to Mecca and Medina and walk around the

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Kaaba and do their prayers and throw stones at the devil.

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It's not by the meditation of the Buddhists, the festivities of the

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Hindus. If you want to enter into the very presence of God, there is only one way, and it's by the blood of Jesus.

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And when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. If Jesus was who he claimed to be, how could there be any other way?

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How could anyone even imagine that there could be another way? If the

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Son of God became flesh, took on that perfect human nature, and gave that perfect human life in our place, how could we ask for anything beyond that?

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Would it not be blasphemy? It's true. But we have confidence to do something that the

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Old Testament believer could never do, to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.

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And then he adds a further description. By a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is his flesh.

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Have you ever contemplated this verse?

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A new and living way, which he inaugurated for us.

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We couldn't do it ourselves. We are solely dependent upon him.

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He inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. Now, if you were to take the time to look into the history of the interpretation of this text, you would find that it has been interpreted in a lot of really interesting ways.

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John Calvin, whose biblical commentaries I think are some of the best that are available to us today, he retains the concept of Christ's flesh as the veil of his deity, advising us that, quote, his flesh is not to be despised because it conceals like a veil the majesty of God.

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And since it is that which directs us to the enjoyment of all God's benefits, end quote.

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And Calvin is there following a early church and medieval tradition in interpreting the term veil here as the body, the physical body veiling the deity, the glory of the divine nature of the

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Son of God. Another individual who, by the way, is often unfairly disparaged by King James only advocates,

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Westcott, the Church of England interpreter, said that the meaning is a way through the veil, that is a way consisting in his flesh, his true human nature, emphasizing the fact that Jesus had to be a true sacrifice.

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He had to truly be man to give himself for us to open this way into God's presence.

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The New English Bible renders this text the new living way which he has opened for us through the curtain, the way of his flesh.

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The curtain being the veil there in the temple. Another normally very useful interpreter,

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F .F. Bruce, gives a rather imaginative explanation.

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See if you can follow along. The veil, he writes, which from one point of view kept

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God and man apart. So remember the veils, people are outside, the holy place inside, only once a year the high priest goes through the veil, offers the sacrifice.

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The veil which from one point of view kept God and man apart can be thought of from another point of view as bringing them together.

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For it was one and the same veil which on one side was in contact with the glory of God and on the other side with the need of men.

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So when our Lord, Godhead and manhood were brought together, he is the true days man or umpire who can lay his hand upon both because he shares the nature of both.

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I offer that for your consideration. But I think that the safest, and when

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I say safest, I mean most defensible, most connected to the text understanding, the significance then of the analogy between the curtain of the tabernacle and the flesh of Jesus is only this, to quote

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John Owen, that by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, wherein his flesh was torn and rent, we have a full entrance in the holy place, meaning as the context shows, the most holy place, the most holy place, such as would have been of old upon the rendering, the rending, tearing of the veil.

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Now I'll let you consider if our author is wanting us to go as far as Bruce did in thinking of the veil and its contact with the glory of God and the need of man and things like that.

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I will only mention just briefly in passing that it seems very, very clear to me that the veil here is referring to Christ's flesh which is torn and given and which in the tearing of the veil itself opens the way into the presence of God.

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Anything beyond that is somewhat speculative and even though it became very popular to speculate in that way, just because speculations become popular doesn't mean that we need to follow them or that we need to defend those interpretations.

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There's nothing wrong with it, it's not heretical, but what we want to first and foremost know is what would these words have communicated to believing

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Jews of the first century who were under pressure to go back to the old system of sacrifice, to curse

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Christ and to go back and offer sacrifice. So it seems to me that the new and living way which he has inaugurated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, he, as the next verse will say, is a great high priest over the house of God.

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So we have a risen Savior. He has given his life, his body has been torn, we will be celebrating the supper, the broken body, the shed blood.

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His sacrifice remains in view. That one sacrifice of verse 10, that one sacrifice of verse 14 is still in view here.

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And this is the work of Christ by a new and living way.

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He is that new and living way. He is the resurrected one. This continues that same ironic contrast that we have in Revelation, the lamb standing as if slain.

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Those words don't go together outside of resurrection, outside of God's intervention in doing something completely new.

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The old covenant scriptures point to it, but they cannot fully express it until it happens. But we can enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way that the old way cannot offer you.

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Are you willing to give that up? That's what he's saying to them. That's what would be required of them.

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You had to curse the name of Jesus to go back into the synagogue, to be allowed to offer sacrifice again.

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So you'd be turning your back. If you curse the blood of Jesus, then you're turning your back on the new and living way, which he inaugurated for whom?

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We tend to look over it for us. I tire,

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I will admit, sometimes arguing with people about the issue of the nature of the atonement and who it's offered for.

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Our Reformed Baptist forefathers were very clear on this. They saw the

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Trinitarian harmony of the gospel. They saw the harmony of Father, Son, and Spirit in the accomplishment of salvation.

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And so they knew that if these words were true about what Christ accomplishes, then he did that for a specific people.

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He has inaugurated this way for us. And just as Hebrews chapter 6 had spoken of our forerunner who has gone into the holy place, an anchor that goes into the holy place, an anchor for our souls, so too here, a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil.

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That is his flesh. That fulfillment, the picture of the tabernacle, could only be fulfilled in the self -giving of the

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Son of God. We cannot add to it. It should never cross our minds to think that we could improve it.

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It is only for us to bow down in amazement. And I truly think that when we finally do arrive in glory, people say, won't heaven get boring?

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I think as the dulling influence of this physical experience is taken away from us and we see

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God as he truly is and we come to know his truth in fullness, we will recognize that eternity itself will not be long enough for the expression of our amazement and our thanks and the condescension that takes place upon the cross of Calvary.

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Some of our old hymns do say we will never tire of that old story, and that much is true.

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That much is true. So, since we have confidence to enter the holy place, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, now you might say, the old system had all sorts of priests and they wore beautiful clothing and they ministered in a gorgeous temple.

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Well, they would for a few more years anyways. The Romans were going to take care of that in A .D.

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70. So why would this be relevant? We again, specific people, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, just one, just one, it truly seems to be the desire of mankind to constantly erect barriers between believers in God.

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There are no sacramental priests in the New Testament. There is one great high priest and then all believers are called believer priests in the sense of being the very temple of God.

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But starting in the, at the earliest, late 2nd century into the 3rd century, you start having the development in church history of a

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Christian priesthood. And they take, they take the term presbyter, which simply means elder, they divide it off from the term bishop, overseer, episkopos, and they turn it into a new office, a priest.

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There's a perfectly good Greek word for priest that's not presbyter. It's an evolutionary thing.

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It didn't take place all at once. But there was the desire to have that priest class.

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And I was talking to a Mormon online this past week, and they had posted one of the

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LDS pictures of John the Baptist allegedly ordaining

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Joseph Smith to the Aaronic priesthood in 1829.

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And I wrote to him and I said, there's just so much evidence that this was, when the

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LDS church was founded in 1830, no claims were being made of holding any priesthood at all.

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All of that was created later on. Joseph Smith edited the Book of Commandments and the Doctrine and Covenants and added all that material in.

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It's all, even David Whitmer gave testimony to that, one of the three witnesses of the

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Book of Mormon, that it was something that developed after the founding of the church. It's just, it didn't happen historically.

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But the Mormon people have their priesthood authority ideas. And Rome developed, and long before Rome came along, by the way, long before there was anything we would call

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Roman Catholicism, you had priesthood developing within the

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Christian tradition as well. We have a great priest over the house of God.

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And I would submit to you that all those systems that create more priests do so out of dissatisfaction with the one great priest.

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If you're truly satisfied with the work and power of the one, why would you create all sorts of lesser ones, especially because they cannot add anything to what he did?

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Why would you do that? And yet it has happened. But we have confidence, since we have confidence to enter the holy place, since we have a great priest over the house of God, now because of all this, the writer has now demonstrated the fulfillment in Christ of all the prophecies,

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Melchizedek priesthood, the very picture of the tabernacle, the offerings, all these things.

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Now, finally, verse 22, let us draw near.

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What's he trying to say to them? Don't go away. So what's the opposite of that?

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Let us draw near. Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.

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I would suggest to all of you here this afternoon, to those watching online when

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I travel, I watch, I would just like to say to all of you watching online who are commenting in the comments and aren't listening to a word that I'm saying, stop, listen, it's actually somewhat interesting.

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If you've never watched it, I have to admit, it's often distracting.

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The debates about completely other issues end up developing in the comments section.

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Anyway, I say to all of us here and to those watching, how much does a sincere heart and full assurance of faith mean to you and I?

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If you were to make a list of the things that have the most value to you, where would a sincere heart and full assurance of faith come?

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You can sort of tell, you can sort of answer that question by simply asking yourself, in those moments when your mind wanders, when you just start thinking about the things that fill your heart, what do you think about?

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Physical possessions, upcoming events, activities? Where does a sincere heart, an undivided heart, full assurance of faith, how valuable is that?

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How much is it worth to us? Do we pray for it? Let me tell you something.

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A person who comes before the throne of grace and says, oh

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God, give me a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, that pleases him.

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There are things that we come before God and ask for that demonstrate our immaturity, our worldliness, but I can assure you, every single child of God who has ever come before God and asked,

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Father, I want a sincere heart. I want an undivided heart. I want a heart that's the same this week as next week and the week after.

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I want to have full assurance of faith. He finds that to be a pleasing request and he will grant that request.

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And I'm not talking about the kind of faith that you see talked about on certain television networks.

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By faith you can get your Lamborghini and get your teeth straightened and your legs lengthened and stuff like that.

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Full assurance of faith is the kind of faith that endures calamity and hardship without questioning

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God's goodness. I mentioned to you during the catechism question, if you wanted to, you could take the time and my goodness, in comparison to what's on, what's offered on the net and cable

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TV and all the rest of this stuff, this would be so much of greater and eternal benefit to you. You could read the words of men and women who did not live all that long ago, who were willing to give everything for the cause of Christ.

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They were willing to experience poverty and disease and deprivation and hunger and torture and imprisonment.

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And in that process, one of their greatest concerns, I've mentioned this to you before and I'm seeing it more and more, one of their greatest concerns was that when they would experience trials and calamity, that they would not by their reaction and response diminish from the glory of God that should be his in having sovereignly ordained that they go through this suffering.

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When Jonathan Edwards died, his faithful wife, upon receiving word of his death,

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I can't quote it directly, I used to have it pretty much memorized, but the sentiment was, may

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God protect me from saying or doing anything that would detract from God's glory in the taking home of his servant,

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Jonathan Edwards. What was her first thought? It wasn't about herself, it wasn't about her loss, it was about the fact that she and Jonathan together had served that one glorious God and she did not want to get in the way of Jonathan's death glorifying

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God. In the same way, Adoniram Judson, who

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I mentioned to you earlier, when he received word of his dear wife

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Anne's death, who had so risked her own life when

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Adoniram was in prison, bring him food. They didn't give the prisoners food.

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They expected them to die. If you didn't have someone outside to bring you food, you died. She risked her life and the life of her young daughter to go into that hole and be with him until he was finally released when he received word of her death.

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Did he grieve? Of course he grieved. Did Edwards' wife grieve? Of course she did.

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All Christians grieve. Anyone who is old enough to love is old enough to grieve, but Christians grieve but with hope.

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That's the difference. And he wept, but he took up his pen eventually and he wrote the words that if he did not believe in the absolute, sovereign providence of God, that everything that comes to us comes from his hand, his loving and perfect will, he could never have borne the tragedies that his life brought to him, which included the loss of the majority of his children, two of his three wives.

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Actually, I may need to correct myself. I don't think the third wife outlived him, so maybe all three. What gave him that confidence?

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He didn't look to himself. He did not believe that God existed to serve his purposes. He believed himself to be a creature created by God, and God had graciously opened his heart and opened his mind and drawn him to Christ and provided for his salvation, and he desired to be only one thing, a faithful servant to the very end.

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That's the full assurance of faith, and it changes how we respond to what happens in our lives.

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We then have the description, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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I won't take time today because time is going by me quickly to go back to Ezekiel, but this is a direct fulfillment of the prophecy that Ezekiel gives to us.

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It's that same section that talks about taking out the heart of stone and giving the heart of flesh, sprinkling us with clean water, making us new, and it's all what

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God does. It's not through sacraments and through activities.

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God has given us certain sacraments, ordinances that picture what God does, but none of them can control what

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God does. They don't become channels that limit God's grace. We have had our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

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Our bodies washed with pure water. You have been redeemed. It is true that when we think back upon our life before Christ, we think about all the evil we did, but you have been changed.

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You are a new creature in Christ. You have been washed with pure water.

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That evil conscience has been removed. And God has done it.

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And He's done it in only one way. In and through Jesus Christ.

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So let us draw near. Let us press forward. You could only go so far in drawing near in the temple.

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Then there is the veil. We are called to the very throne of grace.

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Let us, verse 23, hold fast. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope.

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What a concept. Don't let it go. Don't let it slip.

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This is an exhortation to the entire congregation. They all knew people who had gone back.

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Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. The confession of our hope, hope key to the

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Christian life, accepting the promises of God sometimes against what our eyes see in this life.

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We have brothers and sisters right now in prison cells. Their eyes cannot see the fulfillment of God's promises.

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But they have hope. Hope in that final fulfillment.

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Sometimes we go through such deep, dark valleys that we can't see the fulfillment of the promises either.

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But we have hope. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope.

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You've confessed Christ. Hold fast.

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Don't waver. Because you are so strong, that's not what it says, for he who promised is faithful.

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Why can we have hope? Because the same Lord Jesus who said to the disciples,

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I'm going away. I'm going to die. But I'm going to rise again.

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It almost seems to us that during those dark hours between the death of Christ and the resurrection, the disciples lost hope.

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But we know that he who promised is faithful.

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Aren't you glad that this doesn't say you are faithful?

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Because so many times, so many times you learn a lesson from the

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Spirit of God. You have God's truth applied in your life.

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You go, I'll never make that mistake again. Six months later, all of a sudden you realize,

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I did it again. He is the faithful one.

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He who promised is faithful. That is so glorious.

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The religions of men, their gods put out goals that you're to reach for and strive for and you have to submit yourself to this religious class and strive and you never know where you're going to get there.

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The same way, my Muslim friends. They have no mediator.

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Allah is a fickle deity. Whether they will enter into his presence or not is completely up to him and they got no way of knowing.

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There is no one to promise in a faithful fashion and it breaks my heart.

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He who promised is faithful. That's the bedrock of the author's argument.

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Don't go back because you have a promise from the faithful one. Hold firm and don't waver.

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And once you understand that, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

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When we read Romans, the theological section concludes and immediately goes into what?

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Application, exhortation. And so we get to the end of this tremendous theology and therefore let us consider, let us give thought how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

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That's a command. How do we do that?

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There's lots of ways of doing that. Certainly in those days when people were being persecuted, their livelihoods were being cut off.

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They were in danger of exposure and death. The assembly of the believers would be vitally important, taking care of one another.

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But it's not just that. There are lots of ways for believers to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

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And not just by putting guilt trips on people. It's amazing when people give to us and serve us, the natural response of the redeemed heart is to want to give and serve in return.

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I love how we serve here in this church. I love how we week in and week out our giving ourselves.

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But we should never rest on our laurels. We do lots of good deeds, but we need to be careful that we not become cold in our love.

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We should consider how to stimulate, encourage one another to love and good deeds.

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And isn't it interesting, that's the context of verse 25, which came up so many times during the

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COVID nonsense a few years ago that evidently everyone in our country has already forgotten about.

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Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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There's a lot of discussion, some rather interesting theories that have been floated about what assembling together means, but I think it's really rather straightforward.

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You've heard the illustrations, so I hesitate to repeat them, but honestly

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I will because it's a good illustration. You light a fire at a campfire, you've got all these sticks in there and they're burning.

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You take one out and you isolate it from the rest, what's going to happen to it?

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It's going to go out. That fire depended upon the cooperation, the assembly of that wood.

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And in the same way, we should look at this time together as something absolutely precious.

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We did. The elders chose in March of 2020 to go against the grain and to continue meeting and having the supper and having prayer and the ministry of the word.

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Not because we had some prophetic insight, but we had certain commitments and principles.

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And the scripture says we are not to forsake our own assembling together as is the habit of some. It's very, very easy to say

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I love the brethren from your lounge chair in your front room when they're not there.

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It's very, very easy. But the fact is we are all undergoing the process of sanctification.

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We're sinners in need of forgiveness. Each one of us needs to practice extending forgiveness to others.

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That's one of the reasons we have to get together. But there is a sanctifying effect of being together.

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I often refer to the encouragement that I certainly receive in the way that we do the supper when

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I see those two lines of people coming down that aisle and partaking of these elements and saying it's all

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Jesus or nothing for me. And when you see those same people week after week, year after year, there's great encouragement there.

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But there are some, the scriptures tell us, it's a habit of some, I don't want that.

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Scripture says do not forsake our own assembling together. Isn't it interesting that at the end of this tremendous theological argument, what you end up with is, so go to church.

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Do the things of the Christian life. Love one another.

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Encourage one another to do good deeds. Encouraging one another.

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That's a commandment to all of us. And you know what, that might require you to put yourself after others.

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Put yourself after others. That can be one of the most effective ways of encouraging others, serving others.

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Don't do it to be seen. Don't do it to get people to do things for you.

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The whole Christian motivation of service is for Christ, not to receive anything from anyone else.

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Encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. There will be judgment.

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There will be difficult and challenging times coming. And we see them.

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We're walking through them. God is faithful. His people are faithful.

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So let me make one simple application and then ask

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Brother Jeff if he would introduce the supper this evening. This day, tens of thousands of people around us here in Mesa, Phoenix, the whole

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Valley of the Sun, have walked through the doors of Roman Catholic churches.

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And they have crossed themselves. They genuflected toward the tabernacle where a consecrated host is kept, where according to the theology of Roman Catholicism, through the miracle of transubstantiation,

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Jesus has been rendered present, body, soul, blood, and divinity in that little wafer.

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They walked down an aisle and they were given a wafer. It wasn't said in Latin anymore.

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I'm not sure if there are any Latin -rite churches in the Valley. There must be. They were very much discouraged by the current

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Pope, though. When the Pope elevated that host and said, this is my body, a miracle allegedly took place, and Christ was rendered present upon the altar as a propitiatory sacrifice, and every single one of those people walked out of that room not perfected.

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Because the sacrifice of Christ is once for all. It already happened.

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There is no re -presentation. There is no propitiatory sacrifice. There is no treasury of merit.

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Once for all, he is perfected, therefore let us draw near, therefore let us enter in.

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The done of the gospel, the keep doing of Rome is truly the central issue.

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My heart breaks for those trapped in that system. They carry a

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Bible around, and even the Roman Catholic Bible is clear enough to explain it, but they have their traditions.

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They have those things that creates a veil over the mind. We need to pray to have the opportunity to be able to explain the biblical truth to them.

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Will you pray with me to be ready when the opportunity arises?

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Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time.

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We thank you for your holy word. We thank you that you have preserved it for us, and that by your spirit you make it to come alive.

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And we thank you for the new and living way. We thank you that we can enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus.

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It's all to your honor and glory, great triune God, none to ours.

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But we thank you. We thank you for loving us. We thank you for your grace.