Hebrews 2:14-18 (Help For the Tempted- Jeff Kliewer)

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Help For the Tempted Hebrews 2:14-18 Jeff Kliewer

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We're going to stand and sing a few songs together. Every blessing you pour out,
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I'll turn back to pray. When the darkness closes in,
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Lord, still I will say, Blessed be the name of the
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Lord. Blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the
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Lord. Blessed be your name. Blessed be your name.
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When the sun is shining down on me, it should be blessed be your name.
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Blessed be your name. When the road is marked with suffering, it should be blessed be your name.
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Every blessing you pour out, I'll turn back to pray.
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When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say,
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name.
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You give and take away. You give and take away.
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My heart will choose to say, Blessed be your name.
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You give and take away. You give and take away.
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My heart will choose to say, Blessed be your name.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name.
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Amen. Good morning this morning. That was great singing. We're talking about the blessed name of our
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Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
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All that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the
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Lord, oh my soul. Oh my soul.
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Worship His holy name.
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Sing like never before. Oh my soul.
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I'll worship your holy name.
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New day dawning. It's time to sing your song again.
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Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me.
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Evening comes. Bless the
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Lord, oh my soul. Oh my soul.
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Worship His holy name. Sing like never before.
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Oh my soul. I'll worship your holy name.
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You're rich in love. You're rich in love and your soul too.
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And for all your goodness,
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I will keep on singing. Bless the
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Lord, oh my soul.
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Sing like never before. Oh my soul.
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I'll worship your holy name.
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When my strength is failing, the end draws near.
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And my time has come. Still my soul will sing your praise unending.
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Thousand years and forevermore.
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Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Worship His holy name.
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Sing like never before. Oh I'll worship your holy name.
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Oh I'll worship your holy name.
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Oh I'll worship your holy name. Amazing grace.
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How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
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Grace that taught my heart. Grace my feet.
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How precious did my grace appear.
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Now my chains are gone.
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I've been set free. My God, my
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Savior has ransomed me.
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And like a flood, His mercy reigns.
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Unending love. Amazing grace.
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The Lord has promised good to me.
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His word my hope secures. Be well my shield and portion.
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As long as life endures.
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My chains are gone. I've been set free.
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My God, my Savior has ransomed me.
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And like a flood, His mercy reigns.
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Unending love. Amazing grace.
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The earth shall soon dissolve like snow.
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The sun forbids to shine.
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But God, you call. The year below will be forever mine.
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Will be forever mine. You are forever mine.
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You may be seated. We stand or sit before you by grace.
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For it is by grace that we are saved through faith. And this is not of ourselves, not of works.
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It is the gift of God so that no one would boast. We thank you for your amazing grace toward us who believe.
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Lord, we confess that we are sinners who fall short of your glory. Even now, after having been redeemed, we still are prone to wander.
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Sometimes we fall to temptation. So this morning, Lord, we ask that you would help us to overcome the devil.
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Overcome fear. Overcome sin. That we would not give in to temptation. Help those who are tempted.
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Strengthen us today by your word and by your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.
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A little bit about Abraham Lincoln. Everybody here knows who Abraham Lincoln is, right?
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Okay, good, good. That would be bad if you don't know who Abraham Lincoln is. He was the president during the
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Civil War, fighting on the side of the north. And he was ostensibly a
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Christian. He named the name of Christ. And he woke up every day to read the Bible. So he did spend time in the word.
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However, there was a time where he was afraid of dying. And on one occasion, he was going into Baltimore.
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And they had learned of a possible threat on his life. And so he entered Baltimore wearing a disguise to thwart the plot.
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Seems reasonable enough. However, the newspapers picked up on that and ridiculed him to no end.
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So newspapers haven't changed much, have they? Not exactly fair to him. But he escaped a death threat by dressing up like this.
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But after that, he realized, you know what? I just need to be fearless and not dress up and not put on disguises.
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He decided not to be afraid of death. And even just 14 days before he died, he was only eight miles away from the battlefield.
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Just outside of the battle at Richmond, he was on top of a boat, just a little riverboat and standing on the top deck, seemingly unafraid, just walking around and thinking and planning, praying.
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So he decided not to be afraid. He wrote this about the subject. He actually, first of all, he had like 80 death threats in the front desk of the
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White House there. 80 death threats. He wrote this about them. The first one or two made me a little uncomfortable, but they have ceased to give me any apprehension.
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How about you guys? When you get death threats, does it give you any apprehension? Maybe a little bit? He said, no apprehension.
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I know I'm in danger, but I'm not going to worry over little things like these. I thought death was kind of a big thing, right?
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I'm not going to worry over little things like these. He says, if I am killed, I can die but once.
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But to live in constant dread is to die over and over again. Now that's a good, that'll preach right there.
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To live in constant dread is to die over and over again, to die a thousand deaths. So he chose not to be afraid.
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Today we're going to turn in our Bibles to Hebrews 2, verses 14 through 18.
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And we're going to receive help. Help in fear of death.
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Help in any manner of temptation. I'm sure that Abraham Lincoln at some point was prone to despair.
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He would be tempted to give up, tempted to fall into depression. But instead, he chose to rise above that.
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And by the power of God, I think he did, assuming he was a Christian. Help for the tempted was purchased at the cross.
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And we're going to look at three ways in which this help comes. Number one, the devil lost his teeth.
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Number two, death lost its sting. And number three, sin lost its grip on us.
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All because of the cross of Jesus. We're going to look at this from Hebrews 2, verses 14 to 18.
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But before we dive into that passage, it's always important to catch the author's train of thought.
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I don't want to just grab a few verses and miss the big idea. So we want to kind of review just for a moment how we got to this point in the text.
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The big idea of Hebrews is that Jesus is greater. He's superior.
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And so in order to make that point, the author compares Jesus to angels.
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He compares Jesus to angels. Because angels, we kind of know what they're like. These are created beings, but they're very powerful.
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And we hear of the many things that angels were able to do. But as great as angels are,
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Jesus is infinitely greater. If they are winds and flames of fire, they exist to worship
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Jesus. They're small compared to him. So the comparison in chapter 1 is between Jesus and angels.
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And Jesus is greater than angels. Now, in chapter 2, verses 1 to 4, we kind of have a timeout from this discussion.
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And the author wants to apply it to our lives. And so he says, therefore, we must pay much closer attention.
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The point is, we must not drift, but pay closer attention to the word.
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Because we're prone to wander. We're prone to drift. So we need to think about Jesus. We need to picture him greater than angels and think about him.
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Draw closer. Then in verses 5 to 9, it's as if the author recognizes a question that might come up into somebody's mind.
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Well, if you say Jesus is greater than angels, how is it that he's a man? Because Psalm 8 says that men were made a little lower than angels.
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So if he's a little lower than angels, how is he greater than angels? And he answers that question in chapter 2, verses 5 to 9 by explaining that Psalm 8 does make man for a little while lower than the angels, but man was actually destined to rule.
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Man was given dominion over all the earth and all the beasts of the field and the fish and all things.
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And so man fell into sin, and therefore, everything was ruined and man didn't fulfill the destiny that man was created for.
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But we see Jesus, a new man, a new
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Adam, who has walked in obedience, and because of his suffering of death, we see him now crowned with glory and honor.
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In other words, he has restored what mankind lost. He's the representative man who accomplishes what
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God originally intended for man, only he's the son of God and he does this for us.
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He's one man where all of us have fallen short. Then we have verses 10 through 13.
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Look there quickly. We learn about this death that we're talking about, this death that he tasted on our behalf.
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It brings him great joy because he is our
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Adam, the new Adam, who died on our behalf and tasted death for us. Now that he's accomplished that, he has reward in that.
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He's joyful and he delights and he's not ashamed to call us brothers.
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We're completely clean and brought in and he's not at all ashamed of us. He also calls us children in verse 13.
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Behold, I am the children God has given me. So he'll quote from Psalm 22, Isaiah chapter 8, to reinforce that point.
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The work has been accomplished. Now there's nothing left for him to do. He has joy and delight in us because of his death.
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So that's kind of complicated theology. Hebrews chapter 2 is one of the more complex chapters in the
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Bible to track with. But we're doing great. So now we get into the text today.
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I'm going to read it and then these five verses we're going to unpack. Since, therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
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For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
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Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
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Hey, that guy's a good preacher back there. Yeah, let's listen to him. We had a little echo there.
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That was funny. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
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For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
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So three major things we want to see in this text today. In verse 14, we're going to see that the devil lost his teeth.
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In verse 15, we're going to see that death lost its sting. And in 16 through 18, we're going to see that sin lost its grip on us.
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Okay? So verse 14, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood.
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The children are the ones that are referred to in chapter 2, verse 10. These are the many sons of glory.
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These are the ones that he desires to bring with him. However, there's a problem. The many sons, the children, are in flesh and blood.
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Now, that wouldn't originally have been a problem. When Adam and Eve were created in the garden, they would have lived forever.
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Adam and Eve would not have died, ever. But, sin entered the world.
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And with sin came death. So we learn in 1 Corinthians 15 .50,
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I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
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Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. What does it mean to be perishable?
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You guys have vegetables in your refrigerator? They don't last forever.
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If you have some, like, three -year -old celery in the back of the fridge, you need to throw that out. That's perishable.
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Right? And in the same way, when sin came into the world, death came in.
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And so, everybody is dying. I like to watch the old Billy Graham crusades.
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Anybody watch those on TBN or something? You see him back in the 1950s. If you listen to a
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Billy Graham sermon, as he preaches out to 45 ,000 people, you'll hear him talk about death again and again.
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He'll tell the 45 ,000 people, 80 years from now, every one of you is going to be dead.
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And people would just look at him like, whoa, wow. Well, that's true. Why does he say it?
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We have to understand that because sin came into the world. Everybody is dying. That's a big problem.
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And the children are trapped in flesh and blood. Mortal, perishable, flesh and blood.
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This heart will not keep beating in my chest forever. I only have a certain number of beats. And then it stops.
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I'm flesh and blood. Well, how can God rescue mortal flesh?
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What do we see here? Chapter 2, verse 14. Since, therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, they're trapped in mortal flesh, perishing, he himself likewise partook of the same things.
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Answer. He had to become one of us. He had to become flesh and blood, only without sin.
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Born to the virgin. Born under the law, obeying the law perfectly, he partakes of the same things.
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He had to become human. This passage is very much about the humanity of Christ. It was necessary that he become a man to save men.
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Why do I say that? Look at the rest of the verse. The word that gives you the grounding.
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It gives you what comes from that. That through the death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil.
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He had to become flesh and blood in order to die. Jesus became a man in order to die.
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He took on flesh in order that his body would be broken unto death.
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He took on blood so that his blood could spill out of him.
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His life blood could be drained forth in death. He had to become man in order to die a man's death.
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That's the only way to rescue dying men. This is the concept here.
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So Jesus does this. And what does it do to the devil? It says in verse 14 in the second part, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil.
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So there's a sense in which the devil has the power of death. And by dying,
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Jesus destroyed that power. I like to think of this by referring to Job.
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Job was tempted and tormented by the devil.
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The devil had the power of death. Remember the story? He kills everybody.
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The devil goes and wrecks houses and sends these whirlwinds that kill all the children and all the cattle.
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A lot of death caused by the devil. But it's not an absolute power of death because he must present himself to God.
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And God grants permission and limits to what he's allowed to do. So the absolute power of life and death belongs to God.
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Our birthday is known by God. You know your birthday, right? What's your death day?
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Nobody knows. But God knows that day as certainly as he knows your birthday. He knows the end from the beginning.
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He's all -knowing. In fact, he's written these days in his book, we're told. So God has absolute power.
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So in what sense does the devil have power of death? Well, it's an instrumental cause.
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God allows him to do things for his purposes. But it's a power nonetheless.
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The power to kill. The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.
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This is a deadly enemy. But see, here's the thing of what Satan was doing with Job.
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Satan wouldn't have cared about Job, how righteous Job was, except that Job gave glory to God.
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And Satan hates God. And so he goes to present himself because he wants to accuse Job. Job will curse you to your face.
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That's Satan's goal. He wants to dishonor God. So Satan presents himself to God and accuses.
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Satan is the accuser of the brethren. And he pleads against mankind that God must kill you.
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You deserve to die. You're a sinner. You deserve to die. But those of us who are in Christ have already died.
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Because the death of Jesus was our death. And his resurrection is our life. His death stands as a substitute for us.
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So how is it that the teeth of the devil have been kicked out? He no longer has any ground upon which to accuse us.
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I think in the book of Job, the devil had the chance to appear before the Father.
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But after Jesus died on the cross, Satan had fallen from heaven.
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He no longer can go before the Father and accuse you and I.
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On what ground could he accuse? We have an advocate. We have one who intercedes at the right hand of the
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Father. And as soon as he were to come into that room, if he's allowed in at all, Jesus covers every sin with his blood.
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Are you a sinner? Is your tongue a little bit too loose gossiping about a friend?
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Are you prone to anxiety because you don't trust enough in God? Sexual temptations?
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Pride? Arrogance? Do you struggle with all of these sins? We all do.
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But the blood of Jesus atones perfectly for those sins. If his death was died for you, the devil has no teeth.
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He can say whatever he wants, but he can't kill. There's no death behind those words. He's a toothless lion.
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Yeah, he's roaming about seeking someone to devour. And he talks a lot of trash and it's very intimidating.
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And sometimes you'll hear those condemning voices. God could never accept you. You're worthless.
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Those words are empty because Christ's blood pleads perfectly. And he has disarmed this power of Satan.
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So the first thing to go is the devil's teeth. The second thing is the sting of death.
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Let's look at verse 15. And deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
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Now, if you were to go to a friend in the neighborhood and say, Are you afraid to die? Most of them will say,
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No. I'm not afraid to die. No fear of death. Most people will not admit to being a slave to their fear of death.
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However, the truth of the matter is that that very fear that they deny exists is the very thing that's controlling them.
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They're enslaved by fear to the point where they repress that fear. They don't admit to that fear.
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And instead, they clamor to experience life, even though rationally they know they're dying anyway.
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Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Knowing that they're dying, they repress that fear and clamor after life.
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That's why someone lives for that vacation that's coming. I'm going to experience life on that island.
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They live to eat and drink or that next sporting event that when I see this game, I'll be happy.
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I can drown out my fear of death by clamoring for life.
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It's a slavery. It's a slavery from which Christians have already been delivered.
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We just need to learn how to walk in it. And this is very important. Christ, in his dying, atoned for your sin and kicked the devil's teeth out.
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He also took the sting out of death. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55,
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O death, you can finish it, where is your sting? Where is your victory?
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The power of death has been neutered. We are not afraid. That's why Jesus says, If you believe in me, you will never die.
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Yeah, you'll cross over. But it's not dying as the world dies.
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Jesus died that death. Now you come into my presence and to live is Christ.
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To die is gain. Now this is very important because many Christians don't walk in the fullness of this reality.
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But every great Christian has come to understand this truth. They've matured to walk in this truth of this passage right here.
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That we are delivered from our fear of death. No missionary ever leaves the comfort of America to go to Saudi Arabia to preach the gospel to Muslims, where it's likely they could be killed for that.
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Unless they've already come to understand that death has no sting. And throughout the course of history, great men who stood upon the word of God were able to do what they did because they no longer feared death.
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I even think of the movie Braveheart and William Wallace. He tells his men,
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If you go home, you'll live. If you fight, you may die. Then he says that many, many years from now, when you think back on your life, you'll wonder if it was worth living at all.
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Would you be willing to give all of that for one chance? To tell your enemies that they can take their lives, but they can never take their freedom.
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Freedom! He yells. I know somebody wants to do that right now. But the point is, he came to understand that freedom was worth dying for, for his countrymen, for the love of the brethren, that they would live in a free land.
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He was not afraid to die. Abraham Lincoln, not afraid to die. When was the
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Revolutionary War fought? 1870s?
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I'm getting my Civil War and Revolutionary War. But you want to know what? The Revolution was not fought at that time.
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The Revolution happened before the war. Listen to the words of John Adams.
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John Adams said this, What do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the
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American War? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced.
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The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. A change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations.
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What John Adams understood, the war was fought when people came awake to the realities of God's word.
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It was called the First Great Awakening. The Revolution happened when Jonathan Edwards preached and George Whitfield preached and Samuel Davies preached, that Presbyterian evangelist.
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Who's the guy that said, Give me liberty or give me death? Patrick Henry. He was listening to Samuel Davies.
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Growing up as a 12 -year -old boy, that's when the Revolution was fought. When Matthew Henry stood up and said, Give me liberty or give me death, this was one out of the fires of the
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Revolutionary War. Not afraid to die. I would rather die than be a slave. Says Patrick Henry.
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Well this is very important at a time like this. And I didn't plan that this first Sunday back in the building, for first service and second service, would be the time we talk about fear of death.
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But we live in a world that's afraid of death. Because they don't know the one who trampled death and walked out of a grave.
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But we know him, so we should have no fear of death. There is a massive, worldwide overreaction to a virus.
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This virus has a .1 % chance of killing people. Now if someone's over 70, it might go up to 5%, which is significant, if that's the case.
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I don't know the exact statistics. But it's a massive overreaction, worldwide, to the threat.
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Opposed. It is a fear of death pandemic that's running wild in the world.
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That's what it really is. Not to say we shouldn't be careful and take some precautions that we can, but the point is, it's fear that's controlling entire nations.
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The world has never reacted to a virus like this. Remember when they said, back in March, I think it was, 14 days to slow the spread?
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Two Sundays, that's all. 14 days. And then they said, well, you know what? You're going to have to miss Easter, too. You're going to have to miss
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Resurrection Sunday, is what they're telling us. You know what the Bible says in response to that?
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Psalm, chapter 84, verse 10. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.
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So if some governor says, well, you can just miss a couple Sundays. We're just going to close you down for a couple of weeks.
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You tell me that we're closed down for one day? My Bible tells me that's a thousand.
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You just shut me down for three years of my life because better is one day in his courts than a thousand elsewhere.
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And then people are afraid of dying. And so, because of that fear, they forbid coming to church for a virus that has a .1
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% chance of death. Meanwhile, all of those very same people are under a death sentence that is 100 % certain.
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Death is a virus of 100 % certainty. Now, follow this, though. There is one way that we can escape death.
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And I mean even physical death. I hope my children, my wife, myself never physically die.
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And that is by the rapture of the church. If God calls us up to meet him in the air, when
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Jesus comes on the cloud and says, come, you never die, you're changed.
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There is a way to escape death. And that way is through the message of Jesus Christ.
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2 Peter, chapter 3, verses 11 to 13 talks about how this entire world is going to be destroyed in a fire.
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And so we should look for his appearing and hasten the day. Speed his coming.
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Well, God knows the day. We can't change the certainty of the day. But instrumentally, in the world in which we live, by the means of preaching the gospel, we speed the day.
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So there is one way to escape this 100 % certainty of death. It's for Christians to meet and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And so we must gather. It's the only hope of living. Even though the world will say, we're killing people for doing it.
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Don't you love the Isaiah 520 upside -down reasoning of the world? And so it is that Christians are delivered from the fear of death.
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If you want to do anything great for the kingdom of God, you're going to need to overcome your fear of death.
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You might not admit to having it, but I think to some degree, we all struggle with it. It comes out in anxieties, worries.
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But if Christ has conquered death, what are we afraid of? We have nothing to fear.
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And so we go on to the last three verses. Not only has
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Jesus kicked the teeth out of the devil and removed the sting of death, but he has also released us from our bondage to sin.
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Sin has lost its grip on us. It says, for surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
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It doesn't just say he helps mankind, it says the offspring of Abraham. Here, the believing remnant, those who have faith like Abraham, who are children of Abraham in the sense of believing the promises,
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Genesis 15 -7, we're children of Abraham. He helps us, but who does he not help in this verse?
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Angels. Again, this is a comparison with angels, and the idea here is the necessity that Jesus become a man to save men.
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Jesus did not become an angel to save angels. He became a man to save men, and angels long to look into this salvation because it makes no sense to them.
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What is this kind of love that God, the thrice holy
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God that the angels worship, that he would leave the prerogatives of heaven and the worship of angels to become a baby, a human baby, to grow up among us, live a perfect life, and die the death that we deserve?
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What kind of love is this? This is what Jesus did. He became a man to save men.
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Verse 17 is a little complicated, but it's great gospel truth right here. Just try to follow it. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect.
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In other words, he had to become human, truly, 100 % human, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God.
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Only a man could represent us to a holy God. You have a holy God in heaven, sinful men on earth, it takes a man to bridge the gap.
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It also takes a God to bridge the gap. One who is God and is man can bridge the gap between heaven and earth.
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He had to be a merciful and faithful high priest. That's what a priest is. When you think of a priest, think an intermediary, one who goes between.
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He's one who can get us to this holy God. And how does a priest do that? In the Old Testament, they would kill animals, lambs and bulls and goats.
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Animal sacrifices to appease God. But it was impossible for the blood of the bulls and goats to take away sin.
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Look at this last phrase in verse 17, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. How many of you guys, when you read a big
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Bible word and you don't understand what it means, you just kind of keep going?
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It means something good. He did something good for us. Well, if you go to a
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Bible dictionary, propitiation is a little more meaningful than that. It is good.
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He did something good. What does it mean to propitiate? To turn away wrath.
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So, God has righteous wrath against sin. To propitiate that wrath means to satisfy it, to assuage it.
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That's what propitiation is. How does he do that? Well, a priest brings a sacrifice so that God would be assuaged.
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His wrath would be satisfied. But this priest brings his own body. This priest is the lamb of slaughter.
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And all those other lambs were only pointing to him because his death actually satisfies
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God. Fully. So, think of it this way, in terms of three Ps.
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What does it mean that Jesus died to pay for your sins? To cover your sins.
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Three Ps. Penalty, power, presence. In verse 17, propitiation refers to the penalty.
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You are owed a penalty. It's a forensic term, propitiation. Something has to be paid because justice needs to be satisfied, right?
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So the penalty has to be paid. Jesus does this in verse 17. Now look at verse 18.
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For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
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Not only has Jesus paid the penalty of our sin, he's broken sin's power over us.
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And there's coming a day where the very presence of sin will be taken away from us. This is important.
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Verse 18. Because he himself suffered when tempted. Picture Jesus in the wilderness.
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He had gone 40 days without eating anything. I was a little hungry before coming into the pulpit a few minutes ago.
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So I was looking forward, oh, I'm gonna look forward to that lunch. But can you imagine 40 days without having a bite to eat?
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How his stomach would crave food. So the tempter comes and says, well, turn that stone into bread.
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Use your power in a way that's not in keeping with God's plan. Use it in this way that's just selfish.
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Not the point of why he came. What does Jesus do? He fights that temptation, but to resist temptation means to accept suffering, right?
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You suffer when tempted by resisting it. If you were to go ahead and do the thing that you're being tempted to do, doesn't that take the suffering away?
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In other words, if you go ahead and eat the bread, you're no longer suffering. If you give in to that sexual temptation, you're no longer tempted.
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You're satisfied. Temptation comes, but suffering comes when you resist it.
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Because he himself suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
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The great news of this verse is that Jesus broke the power of sin over you.
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Because he suffered, he is able to help those who suffer. When you're in the throes of temptation, whatever that temptation might be, and you look to Jesus, you have in him one who has been through the thing that you're suffering with.
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Be very different for him, because in Jesus there was never an inclination toward the thing that came from his moral nature.
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He was morally pure, so he never desired the sin, but his flesh, the flesh and bone, cried out for the food when he wasn't supposed to have it.
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He was never tempted in the same way because of his divine nature.
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Follow me what I'm saying. But as a human, in his human nature, he experienced it fully.
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He's 100 % human. And so in him we have the help that we need.
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Many Christians live as if we're still slaves. We have to sin because temptation comes.
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No, the presence of temptation does not mean that you have to endure it, that you have to give into it,
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I should say. He has broken the power of it. He broke the power of sin in his dying.
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Many of us live as slaves because when the sin comes, we give in, and it becomes a habit.
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It becomes an addiction. It becomes something that we think we have to live with, but this verse says quite the opposite.
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We're being taught that the same power that was in Christ now lives in you.
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The power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. That power of sin is broken because he suffered in our place.
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Well, what of the presence of sin? We know that doesn't get removed from us entirely until we die.
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And we leave this mortal body behind, and at the resurrection, our body is reunited with our spirit, only it's changed.
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It's no longer corruptible. There is no more sin. The very presence of sin in our lives will be done away with.
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So in closing, this is a passage that helps us in many ways. The first big one is our fight with the devil.
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Are you afraid of the devil? He's a toothless lion. Christ destroyed him, it says in verse 14.
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Are you afraid of dying? Are you anxious? Look to this verse for help.
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Verse 15. He delivers us from the fear of death.
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Are you struggling with temptation? Because he's human, he understands.
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He's walked this road, and he can help you walk it. We don't just resist temptation by willpower.
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We don't just stifle our anxieties and our temptations.
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There is a human aspect where we have to resist and discipline ourselves, but the
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Christian here is taught that we have a resource that goes beyond that. The real key to this comes in the next verse, chapter 3 verse 1.
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Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus. We are to look to Jesus.
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We learned last week, he's the archagon, the one who went, or captain, the one that went before us. When we look to him, we, from this passage, experience the power to overcome sin.
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So, we are all tempted, but don't try to fight that temptation on your own.
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Bring it to Jesus. Confess it to a friend. He's given help to overcome.
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In Christ, we have victory over the devil. So, worship team, come on up. I'm going to close in prayer.
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Let's just together, in our own spirits, pray. Asking for this help that's promised in these verses.
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Have you been afraid of the devil? Pray that you would fear no more.
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Have you been afraid of dying? Do you struggle with anxiety? Claim this promise here, that Jesus has defeated death.
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And are you struggling with temptation? The power of sin just seems too strong.
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Learn from this passage, that he has conquered the power of death, the power of temptation.
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So, let's just take a minute to pray in your own heart, and then I'll pray, and then we'll sing. So, Father, you hear your children praying, and Lord, I join in agreement with these prayers.
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Where two or more gathered, you were there with us. We know you're here right now, Lord. I pray for those in this room who have been tormented by the devil, afraid.
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I pray that we would see him forever as a defeated foe, a toothless lion, and we would no longer listen to his voice, but instead rest on these promises.
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Lord, I pray for those who are struggling with anxiety, a fear of death.
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I pray that we would trust this promise, that you have conquered death.
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O death, where is your sting? Lord, I pray for all of us who struggle with temptation.
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We pray that we would look to Jesus, our Captain, the one who suffered in every way that we suffer.
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I pray that we would be able to turn our eyes to Christ, and in looking, he would give us that deliverance.
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The same power that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us, so we pray that your spirit would give us that resurrection power to resist temptation.
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Thank you, Jesus, for the help that you give. Your word tells us here that you help the tempted, and we stand upon that promise today.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and worship. Facing a task unfinished that drives us to our knees, a need that undiminished rebukes our slothful ease.
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We who rejoice to know thee renew before thy throne the solemn pledge we owe thee to go and make thee known.
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There other lords beside thee hold their unhindered sway, where forces that defy thee defy thee still today.
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With none to heed their crying for life and love and life, unnumbered souls are dying and pass into the night.
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We go to all the world with kings of hope unfurled.
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No other name has power to save but Jesus Christ the
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Lord. We bear the torch that flaming fell from the hands of those who gave their lives proclaiming that Jesus died in those.
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Ours is the same commission, the same guide, message ours, fired by the same ambition to those who yield our lives.
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We go to all the world with kings of hope unfurled.
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No other name has power to save but Jesus Christ the
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Lord. O Father who sustained them,
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O Spirit who inspired Saviour whose love constrained them to toil with zeal untied.
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From cowardice defend us from lethargy away.
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For Thine are incentives to deliver for us.
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We go to all the world with kings of hope unfurled.
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No other name has power to save but Jesus Christ the
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Lord. We go, we go to all the world with kings of hope unfurled.
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No other name has power to save but Jesus Christ the
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Lord. Resonate there and hopefully you remember it for the rest of the day.
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It's Philippians 1 .21 For to me to live is