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♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ...accomplished
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atonement that Jesus secured when he died upon the cross. He did not just make possible salvation, he secured salvation for his people.
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And then toward the end of Hebrews 10, you have yet another warning to professing
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Christians of their responsibility to persevere in their faith, because only those who continue in faith have salvation.
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God does not promise salvation to the temporary believer. And yet even with that warning, the writer has confidence that his readers will do just that.
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They will continue in their faith even unto their full and final salvation in Jesus Christ.
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Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10.
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For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
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Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
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But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
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Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for Me.
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In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said,
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Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book.
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When He said above, You have neither desired nor take pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings.
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These are offered according to the law. Then He added, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
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And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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And every priest stands daily at His service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
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But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins,
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He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemy should be made a footstool for His feet.
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For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
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And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after saying, This is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days, declares the
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Lord, I will put My law on their hearts and write them on their minds. Then He adds,
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I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
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Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is through His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean 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.
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And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near.
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For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
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Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
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How much worse punishments do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the
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Son of God and has profaned the spirit of the covenant by which He was sanctified and has outraged the
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Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay.
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And again the Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
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God. But recall the former times when you, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
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For you had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
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Therefore, do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.
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For yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.
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But my righteous ones shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
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But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
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Let's pray. Lord God, this is a very encouraging passage because it reminds us that you are faithful.
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It reminds us that you have done a great work. And even though this life may be filled with trials and suffering and difficulty,
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Lord God, you are on the throne and you are ordaining these things for our good and for your glory.
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And Lord, let us remember to hold fast to these things. Help us not shrink away.
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Help us not to throw away our confidence. But we pray, Lord, that we would have endurance, that we would persevere till the end.
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And Lord, as we continue to worship you through the sermon that is preached, we pray that we would behold you as you've been clearly revealed in the
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Scriptures. We pray, Lord, that we would learn something about you, learn something about your work, learn something about what you've done.
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We pray, Lord, that we would apply these truths to our lives so that we might live for your praise, your glory, and your honor.
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So Lord, be with us now. Help us to focus on the Word of God and help us to lift your name on high.
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Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, let's turn in our
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Bibles please to John 8. We've been considering this section of this discourse, fifth discourse of Jesus, for several weeks.
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There are several major themes in these words, and so it's required us to kind of work through this passage slowly and thoroughly.
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But we're making progress. And so we've addressed in some detail the meaning and implications of John 8, 36, in which the
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Lord Jesus declared, therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. And so if you desire to understand more fully however, the truth set forth in that verse,
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I want to commend a book to you. It's one that is quite well known, and it sets forth the truth of our freedom in Christ, particularly with respect to the law of God, the law of God and grace.
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And it's a book written by the old Puritan Samuel Bolton, and the title of this book is
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The True Bounds or Limits of Christian Freedom. And in order to provide a foretaste of this very helpful thorough treatment of the nature and relation of God's law to His grace,
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I included a copy of the table of contents as an appendix to your notes.
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And so at a later time, not during service please, if you would read over that table of contents, just the detail of that gives you some insight into just how extensive a matter, an important matter this is.
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That's not to say I agree with everything that Bolton wrote regarding it, but it's a classic excellent work on the nature of law and grace for the
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Christian. But now we want to turn to an entirely different theme that is emphasized in these verses that we've read several times.
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In this passage we read of our Lord distinguishing between two groups of people. They're all physical descendants of Abraham, but these two groups of people are those that are physical descendants of Abraham only, and those who are physical descendants of Abraham who are also
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His spiritual descendants. And so within this passage we have really the teaching of physical
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Israel over against spiritual Israel, and the Bible speaks of both.
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Physical Israel, of course, being comprised of those who are ethnic Jewish people descended from Abraham according to race, and then spiritual
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Israel, those who have the same kind of faith that Abraham had, and they, whether they're
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Jewish or Gentile, constitute spiritual Israel. And actually apart from Reformed churches here and there, the whole idea of spiritual
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Israel is something that is repudiated by most. And so we want to address this.
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This is an important subject, and it has implications for our understanding of who we are, and also implications for understanding the nature of the end times that lie before us.
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And here the Lord Jesus set forth in this passage, the fact is there is a physical
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Israel and there is a spiritual Israel. And so the descendants of Abraham, those being saved through Jesus Christ, have the faith of Abraham, and those who are merely or only physical descendants of Abraham, Jews, but have not faith in Jesus Christ, Abraham is not their spiritual father, and God is not their father in heaven, but rather Jesus makes this bold declaration that their father is actually the devil.
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And so we have these two peoples compared and contrasted with one another in this passage. And so here in John 8, our
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Lord Jesus distinguished between the physical and spiritual children of Abraham.
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Now let's recall the setting of our Lord's words here in John 8, 30 through 47.
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He was teaching to the gathered Jewish people in the temple area in Jerusalem, probably in the court of the women, that's where the large gatherings would generally take place.
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And of these many Jewish people we read in verse 30 that many had believed on him. Not all of these believers, however, were actually true converts who had embraced
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Jesus as their Lord and Savior. In verse 31, Jesus promised that only those who continued in his word would prove to be his true disciples.
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Only they would have salvation. And then Jesus gave this promise in verse 32, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
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And of course, this resulted in the reaction of many of the Jews present who did not believe on him. When they heard these words, they understood immediately
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Jesus was implying they were all enslaved. And he was willing, he had the power, the authority to set some of them free, those who believed on him and followed him who were his true disciples.
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And so they protested what Jesus had implied respecting their condition.
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And they reacted and rejected Jesus. And so let us now read verses 30 -47.
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And in this text I've highlighted several phrases that I identify and classify these two peoples.
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Physical Israel, spiritual Israel. Physical descendants of Abraham and spiritual descendants of Abraham.
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Those who believe on Jesus Christ. All the others, again, who did not believe on Jesus Christ, although physical descendants of Abraham had the devil as their father.
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You see things becoming accentuated here. You can just imagine the scene, the reaction.
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And so John 8, 30, as he spoke these words, many believed on him. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed on him, or believed him, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
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They answered him, we are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone.
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How can you say you will be made free? And Jesus answered them most assuredly, that's another example of that, verily, verily, truly, truly,
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I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.
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And therefore, if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you are
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Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you.
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I speak what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have seen with your father. They answered and said to him,
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Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, now he already acknowledged they were
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Abraham's descendants up in verse 37, but now he poses the question, if you were really
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Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which
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I heard from God. Abraham did not do this, you do the deeds of your father.
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And they said to him, we were not born of fornication, we have one father, God. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have
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I come of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech?
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Because you are not able to listen to my word. You have your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.
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He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.
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When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it.
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But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
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He who is of God hears God's words, and therefore you do not hear because you are not of God.
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It's quite clear, the Lord set forth in our passage the distinction between physical
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Israel and spiritual Israel. As Paul would later state, so our Lord set forth here, they are not all
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Israel who are of Israel. There you have it, they are not all spiritual
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Israel who are of physical Israel. This is a very informative passage and it has implications.
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If it were properly and widely taught in the churches, it would correct much errant thinking about the identity of the true people of God.
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Many evangelicals, and I'm talking specifically about dispensationalists, believe wrongly that the true people of God are all the physical descendants of Abraham, that is, ethnic
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Jews. And often you'll hear them describe they are the true people of God.
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They say what distinguishes them as the true people of God is their physical birth, which is in the lineage of Abraham.
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It's claimed since Abraham is their father, they will inherit God's promises to Abraham and to his physical descendants.
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They assert as foundational to understanding the Bible that Israel, which is comprised of ethnic
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Jews, must be understood as distinct from the church, which they say began on the day of Pentecost.
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Israel and the church, two different peoples, two different programs, two different purposes in God's will.
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They say that the church is comprised of New Testament Christians only, believers in Jesus Christ.
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They argue that Israel was a nation entered by physical birth. In contrast, in distinction to the church, which is a spiritual people.
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This distinction of two separate peoples, Israel and the church, is foundational to their understanding of the
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Bible and of biblical prophecy. Charles Ryrie, for example, a past professor of systematic theology at Dallas Seminary, believed this was the primary emphasis and essence of dispensationalism, which he promoted and defended, of course.
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He wrote, the essence of dispensationalism, the bottom line, the center of it, then is the distinction between Israel and the church.
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This grows out of the dispensationalist consistent employment of normal or plain interpretation, and it reflects understanding of the basic purpose of God in all his dealings with mankind as that of glorifying himself through salvation and other purposes as well.
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And so Ryrie says this is it. This is at the heart of dispensationalism. Israel is Israel, the church is the church, and the two are never to be intermingled or confused with one another.
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There are seven propositions of dispensationalism that are derived from this belief in the distinction between Israel and the church.
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First, God has two distinct programs in history, one for Israel, one for the church.
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Two, the church does not fulfill or take over any of Israel's promises. Or purposes.
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Third, the church age is a mystery, and thus no Old Testament prophecies foresaw the church in this church age.
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The present church age is a parenthesis, or an intercalation, just an insertion within history as it were, during which
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God has temporarily suspended his primary purpose with Israel. Fifth, the church age began with Pentecost and will end at the pre -tribulation rapture of the church before Christ's second coming.
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Six, the church or the body of Christ consists only of those believers saved between Pentecost and the rapture.
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And seven, the church as the body of Christ, therefore, does not include
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Old Testament believers. These are foundational beliefs of the dispensational view of Scripture.
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And to show more clearly, this errant teaching was so many good Christians embraced by the way.
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And we all came from this perspective, or most of us did. Here's a few of the leading promoters of dispensationalism.
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Louis Barry Schaeffer, the founder of Dallas Seminary, stated, the distinction between the purpose for Israel and the purpose for the church is about as important as that which exists between the two testaments.
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That the Christian now inherits the distinctive Jewish promises is not taught in the
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Scriptures. Two different testaments, two different peoples, and you're never to confuse or conflate the two.
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John Walvard, former president of Dallas Seminary, dispensational ecclesiology, in other words, their doctrine of the church, defines a church as a distinct body of saints in the present age, having its own purpose and destiny and differing from the saints of the past or future ages.
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In other words, after the rapture, God is going to go back to dealing with the
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Jews principally and through the thousand year future millennium with Israel as a nation. And Charles Ryrie, again, wrote, this is why the dispensationalist recognizes two purposes of God and insists in maintaining the distinction between Israel and the church.
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The church is not fulfilling in any sense the promises to Israel. These are the foundational assumptions, beliefs, that they use as a lens by which to interpret the
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Bible. Well, how do the words of our Lord in this passage before us inform us in addressing this issue?
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Well, the Lord Jesus made it very clear that only his true disciples from among all these
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Jewish people were the true children of Abraham. Ones who would inherit
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God's promises to Abraham, their spiritual father. The Lord Jesus declared that physical birth, in other words,
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Jewish ethnicity, on the basis of race, rather than God's grace, on the basis of race, this does not constitute or distinguish the true people of God.
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Only those who have the same faith that Abraham had may rightly be called his children.
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Abraham's children, to whom God has promised his spiritual blessing. And so Jesus distinguishes only people of faith as his people.
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Only those who have the same faith of Abraham are the true children of Abraham who will inherit everlasting life.
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Those who fail to refuse to believe on Jesus did not have Abraham as their father. The devil was their father.
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Now it's true that in the Old Testament God had promised great blessing to the physical descendants of Abraham.
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But when reading the Holy Scriptures, one must distinguish between God's promises to Abraham's physical seed and God's promises to Abraham's spiritual seed for they're distinct from one another.
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The differences may be seen as follows. First, God's promise to Abraham's physical descendants was that of a physical, earthly, political, and temporal kingdom within history,
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Israel, which would occupy a physical land, Canaan. This nation of Israel would continue in its favored status before God if and as long as it ordered its national life according to the
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Mosaic Covenant, the law of God, which set forth, of course, God's rule of law over his people.
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God certainly made glorious promises to the physical descendants of Abraham, the
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Jewish people. Secondly, however, God's promise to Abraham's spiritual descendants, who were spiritually circumcised, not just physically circumcised, was that of a spiritual, eternal kingdom, the church, which will one day dwell in the new heavens and the new earth, the new
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Jerusalem, which would be ruled over, or ruled by a spiritual king, Jesus Christ, the
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Son of God, the Son of David. And so the church, we would argue, although certainly the kingdom came into being when
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Christ was exalted and enthroned, in reality, the church of Jesus Christ is comprised of all people ever redeemed by Jesus Christ, whether they be
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Old Testament saints or New Testament saints. The church is comprised of all people in history who were redeemed by Jesus Christ, and that is a major distinction between we who hold to Reformed theology and those who hold to Dispensational theology.
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We believe there's one people of God redeemed by Jesus Christ throughout all of human history.
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They would argue that there are two different peoples, one identified because of their race, physical descent from Abraham, and the other, of course, the church that began on Pentecost, redeemed by Jesus Christ.
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Now, although the entrance and occupation of Canaan by physical or national Israel was fulfilled due to the unconditional promise of God, God told
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Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, your descendants will enter and possess the land. God fulfilled
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His promise to them. Nevertheless, the continuance of the physical descendants of Israel as an earthly people was contingent on the
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Jews keeping the Law of Moses while in the land. And if and when Israel failed and refused to do so, to order its life according to the
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Law of God, God would reject this people from the land, and this is what happened historically when
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Israel was exiled from the promised land, the Northern Kingdom in 722 B .C.,
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and the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 587 B .C. Israel, Judah became as wicked as the nations were when
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Israel first came and conquered the land, and so as God had cast the Canaanites out of the land, now
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He cast the Jews out of the land because they were just as wicked as the Gentiles.
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And the Bible sets forth now, since this is the case, God is free to extend His mercy and grace to all humanity, whether they're
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Jewish or Gentiles, immaterial, because it's all extended to faith in Jesus Christ.
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And so God has blessed, certainly, the physical descendants of Abraham. God promised to them that He would cause them to come back from exile to return to their land, which
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He fulfilled in the 6th and 5th centuries B .C. He then sent the Messiah to them to establish the everlasting kingdom that He had promised to David, that one of His descendants would reign forever over the house of Israel.
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And so Jesus Christ came and threw His life and His death and His resurrection and His ascension and enthronement.
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He brought fulfillment of this promised kingdom. But only the spiritual descendants of Abraham, true disciples of Jesus Christ, are granted citizenship in this kingdom.
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It's the kingdom of Israel, spiritual Israel. But not only are the spiritual descendants of Abraham comprised of ethnic
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Jewish people, but Gentile believers in Jesus Christ are also regarded as the promised children of Abraham.
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Many places in the New Testament, Christians, Gentile Christians, are described as children of Abraham.
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Abraham is our father. He is our spiritual father. And with regard to the blessings and promises of salvation,
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Abraham is more your father than a person of Jewish descent.
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Although he or she is a physical descendant of Abraham, there are no eternal promises brought to them because of their race.
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It only comes to those who have the same faith as Abraham. And that is regardless of whether that's a
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Jewish or Gentile believer. And we read of this in many places in the
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New Testament. And I want to read a couple passages that set this forth, of course. For example,
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Paul wrote to the Gentile Christians in the churches of Galatia, far away from Palestine, mostly
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Gentiles in a number of churches in what is modern -day Turkey. And he declared to them that they were the promised children of Israel who would inherit the promises that God gave to Abraham.
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And so, Paul wrote, it's written that Abraham had two sons, the one of a bondwoman, that would be
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Hagar, and the other by a free woman, that would have been Sarah. But he who was of the bondwoman, that would be
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Ishmael, was born according to the flesh. It was due to Abraham's lack of faith and depended upon flesh.
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And he of the free woman, Sarah, through promise, that would have been Isaac. Which things are symbolic,
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Paul argues. For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, and that's what the law does apart from grace, which is
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Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia where the Mosaic covenant was instituted, corresponds to Jerusalem, that is, earthly Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
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Those are unbelievers in Jesus, although Jewish. Physical sons of Abraham.
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But Paul calls Jews here, you know, sons of Ishmael. That itself, you can imagine the kind of reaction that would get, what kind of rise from the people in the synagogues when
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Paul was declaring this kind of message. But the Jerusalem above, that's the heavenly Jerusalem, spiritual
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Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all, that is, Christians. For it is written, and then he quotes the
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Old Testament, Rejoice, O barren, that would have been Sarah, you who do not bear, break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for the desolate has many more children than she has a husband.
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And that's a prophecy of the kingdom of Jesus Christ going out throughout all the world. And even
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Gentiles becoming children now of Sarah, promised spiritual children of Abraham.
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And then Paul makes this statement in verse 28 of Galatians 4.
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Now we, brethren, and Paul is including himself as a Jewish man, and the
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Gentile Christians in the churches of Galatia, now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
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But as he who was born according to the flesh, that would have been Ishmael, twelve years older than Isaac, then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, that would have been
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Isaac, even so it is now. In other words, Paul says, as Christians we're being persecuted by the unbelieving
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Jews. And that's what Paul encountered everywhere he went with the gospel. Nevertheless, what does the scripture say?
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Cast out the bondwoman with her son, that would be Hagar and Ishmael, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.
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So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. The children of the bondwoman,
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Hagar, were the Jews who failed or refused to believe on Jesus Christ. So once again, here we have a spiritual people, children of Abraham, who were likened unto
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Isaac, children of promise, rather than children of the flesh, the
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Jewish people who refused to believe on Jesus, Hagar is their allegorical mother, as it were.
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Paul declared to the church of Rome that all believers, even Gentile believers, were the promised children of Abraham.
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After speaking of the blessing that Abraham experienced of being justified by and before God through faith alone,
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Paul wrote of all believers, both Jewish and Gentile, that they were all children of Abraham.
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Now, I have to underscore this, folks, dispensationalists don't teach this. Oh, they might grudgingly acknowledge it if you talk to one who's pretty informed, but generally, they would never acknowledge this, that you as a
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Gentile Christian are a child of Abraham. But this is what Paul lays forth in Romans 4 so clearly.
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Does this blessedness, in other words, free justification that Abraham received, then come upon the circumcised only, in other words, upon Jewish people only, or upon the uncircumcised also, in other words,
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Gentiles. For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted?
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Or Paul is saying, when was it that Abraham was justified by faith? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised?
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It was when Abraham was uncircumcised that he was justified before God by faith. Paul reasons, therefore, just as Abraham was justified before circumcised, he was just like a
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Gentile, and you can be also justified even though you're not a
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Jewish person. It matters not whether you're Jewish or Gentile. You can be justified if you have the same faith that Abraham had.
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That's what he's arguing. Abraham received the sign of circumcision after the fact.
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A seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised. Why? Why was
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Abraham justified before he was circumcised? Paul argues the purpose that he,
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Abraham, might be the father of all those who believe though they are uncircumcised.
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Abraham is your spiritual father, and you are an heir of God's promises that he gave to Abraham.
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He is your father. We are linked with Israel, spiritual Israel, all the true believers throughout history.
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Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are our patriarchs to whom the promises of God, the promise of salvation, the promise of an eternal inheritance has been given.
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And so the righteousness might be imputed to Gentiles also, the father of circumcision, to those who are not only of the circumcision but also who walk in the steps of the faith which our father
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Abraham had while still uncircumcised. For the promise that he would be heir of the world, not just heir of that little bit of promised land, but that Abraham would be heir of the entire world, we read, was not to Abraham or to his descendants seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
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In other words, it's promise to people of faith, not because they're physically born sons or children of Abraham.
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For if those who are of the law are heirs, if people are the heirs who are physically born of Abraham, he declares that it makes the promise of none effect.
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It wouldn't be due to grace, it wouldn't be due to the promise of God, but rather simply automatic because they are physical descendants of Abraham.
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And then he reasons, because the law brings about wrath, for there where there's no wrath, there's no transgression.
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And therefore it is a faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed.
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And he means that by Jewish and Gentile believers all over the world, all through history. Not only to those who are of the law, that would be
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Jewish people, but also to those who are the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
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As it's written, I have made you a father of many nations, is what God promised
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Abraham back in Genesis. In the presence of him, God, whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead, calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope, that's
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Abraham, believed in hope, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be.
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This passage renders dispensational distinction between Israel and church as void and null.
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The true spiritual children of Abraham to whom God's promises are given are to those who have faith of Abraham.
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Not because they have the same genes as Abraham, but they have the same faith as Abraham exhibited in his life.
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And then we can turn to Galatians 3 again, in which we read the following words written to Gentile Christians.
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For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
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There is neither Jew nor Greek or Gentile. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female.
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You are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.
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Christians in the church are heirs of Abraham. The promises of God to Abraham are promises given to you and me, because we have the same faith in the same
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God and the same Jesus that Abraham had. And so it's wrong to believe that God's promises to the
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Jewish people as ethnic Jewish people will be realized in history beyond what they've enjoyed in their
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Old Testament experience. Their place and position in the world as a distinct nation in covenant relationship with God was a temporary relationship that only lasted as long as they continued to keep the
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Mosaic covenant that God had established with them at Mount Sinai. They broke that covenant long ago, and what replaced that covenant was the fulfillment of God's promise of a new covenant in Jesus Christ.
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God established that covenant in Christ through His life, death, and resurrection. And Jesus Christ is presently enthroned over all the spiritual offspring of Abraham, those who believe and worship the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Only those Jews who believe on Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior may now be regarded as citizens of true or spiritual
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Israel over which Jesus Christ is King. Dispensationalists, however, teach otherwise.
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They teach that this present church age is only a parenthesis in God's true and full purpose in history, that we are presently in a temporary dispensation that will only continue until the rapture of the church.
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And then they believe, the rapture being the first of two stages of Christ's second coming, but then they believe that God will again work in His primary goal in history of blessing the physical descendants of Abraham, the
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Jewish people by race. They teach that there will be a restoration of a physical, political nation of Israel that will become the prominent nation through a thousand -year earthly Jewish millennium, with Jesus Christ the
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Son of David ruling over them from earthly Jerusalem, although some of them teach that King David will literally be the king on the throne in Jerusalem, and King Jesus will be in heaven over the church.
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But there's no suggestion in the Scriptures that the Lord is going to return to a pre -Christian order of the world, favoring once again a people because of their physical lineage.
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With the judgment of God coming upon Israel for having broken its Old Testament covenant with God, God established
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His promised new covenant in Christ by which all people, whether Jewish or Gentile, they have the same status as citizens of the kingdom of God.
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And it's an everlasting kingdom. This is the kingdom that God promised would come to Abraham and to King David and all the spiritual descendants of Abraham, those who believe on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
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Paul wrote about the realization of God's purpose coming to fulfillment in the church.
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The church is not a temporary parenthesis or aside in God's purpose in history, but rather the church is the final, full realization of God's purpose in history.
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And so Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, which had both Jewish and Gentile members. Therefore remember you, he's talking to Gentile Christians here, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, made in the flesh by hand.
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Those Jews used to look down at you Gentiles. You were alienated from them. That at that time you were without Christ.
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At that time you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. He's implying you're no longer aliens.
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At that time you were strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
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But now in Christ Jesus, you once who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
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For He Himself, Christ, is our peace, who has made both one, that's Jewish believers and Gentile believers, both one.
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He's broken down the middle wall of separation, that was the covenant, the Mosaic covenant, that separated
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Jews from Gentiles, Israel from the nations. Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace.
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And that He might reconcile them both, that is Jewish and Gentile believers, to God in one body through the cross, and thereby putting to death the enmity between Jews and Gentiles.
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And He came and preached peace to you, Gentiles, who were far off, and those who were near, those would be
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Jews. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. And now therefore you,
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Gentile Christians, are no longer strangers and foreigners. That once was the case, no more.
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You're fellow citizens with the saints. That's the Old Testament believers. We're fellow citizens with the
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Jewish believers of the Old Testament. Members of the household of God, one family of all the redeemed through history, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
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Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, fitly being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the
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Lord, in whom also you are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the
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Spirit. There's a sense of completeness, finality, fulfillment, accomplishment in the church of Jesus Christ.
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And so to teach that God will one day return to a pre -Christian, Old Testament religious and political system is absurd.
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It would mean that God would once again cause Gentiles in a future millennium to have second class status, once again subordinated to Jewish people based upon their physical lineage.
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It would revert the Gentiles from being brought near by the blood of Christ to their standing as, once again, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
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It would mean that God will once again erect that spiritual middle wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles, that wall that He had broken down through the cross of Christ, that God would once again cause
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Gentiles to be strangers and foreigners, no longer fellow citizens with the Jewish saints. It's theological nonsense.
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God does not go backward in history to a previous temporary and failed system of dealing with the people of the world.
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Jesus Christ brought an end to all that formerly existed, and a new and living way was opened to all the world.
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And this is what God had promised Abraham, that he would be the father of many nations. Dispensationalism is terrible error, and it has many implications.
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And yet most evangelicals, this is their understanding of church, the church in Israel, and their understanding of the future and the second coming of Christ and a future
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Jewish millennium. Now, in the time we have remaining,
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I want to run through a few details of the passage. So let's work through because we really want to get through this section.
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In verse 37, the Lord acknowledges that these unbelieving people before him were the physical offspring of Abraham. I know that you're
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Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you.
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Our Lord declared to these people that though they had been born in a place of position and privilege, being the physical offspring of Abraham, they were spiritually bankrupt and were opposed to the purpose of God in Christ.
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And so the Lord indicated that their outward and physical lineage did not bring them into favor with God. A true relationship with God could only be received through believing on him, even as they received and responded to his words.
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Now, of course, their intention to kill Jesus had not been overtly seen by the people. The Jewish leaders had met together on several occasions trying to determine how it could be brought about.
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And when Jesus announced, you're trying to kill me, most of the people there probably thought that Jesus was losing it.
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You really don't see things clearly. But you can imagine the Jewish leaders. It's like Jesus was with them while they were conspiring, and he reveals them for who they truly were.
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And so he declares, because my word has no place in you, you are not truly
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Abraham's seed. What our Lord was suggesting in this verse is that he would shortly state more directly was their attitudes and their desires were very unlike Abraham whom they claimed to have as their father.
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His word had no meaning to them, no value to them that he had been proclaiming to them.
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And yet again, these people claimed to be the true people of God, ones to whom the favor of God belonged.
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God was their Father, so they thought. But their true condition was one of spiritual bankruptcy.
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Jesus said, you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. Apart from the knowledge of the truth of the
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Holy Scriptures and the faith and desire to be performed to it, the sin that indwells us would erupt in the most hideous form of sinning against God.
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And that's what we're seeing in our world today, isn't it? As we live in a post -Christian world, as it were.
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We see from our Lord's words, the Holy Scripture, the written word of God, will be only transformative if it's read and understood.
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But he said of them, my word has no place in you. You don't hear it?
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You're not willing to do so? You can't. You can't understand it. Here we see the great importance to understand the word of God as we read it regularly.
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Spurgeon wrote of this, the need to understand in contrast to the
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Jewish leaders. Scribes and Pharisees were great readers of the law. They studied the sacred books continually, poring over each word and letter.
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They made notes of very little importance as to which the middle verse of the entire Old Testament, which verse was halfway to the middle, how many times such a word occurred, and the size of the letter at a particular position.
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They left a mass of notes upon the mere words of Holy Scripture. Unless we understand what we read, we have not read it.
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The heart of the reading is absent. We commonly condemn the Romanists, that would be
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Roman Catholics, for keeping daily service in the Latin tongue. That changed of course in 1963.
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And yet, it might as well be in the Latin language as in any other tongue if it is not understood by the people.
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Some comfort themselves with the idea that they've done a good action when they've read a chapter into the meaning of which they've not entered at all, but does not nature itself reject this as mere superstition?
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If you had a New Testament in Greek, it would be very Greek to some of you, but it would do you as much good to look at that as it does to look at the
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English New Testament, unless you read with an understanding heart. Understanding is essential.
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However, the Word of God will only be read and understood if you love it supremely.
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By the way, a love of the Scriptures is one of the sure signs of conversion. I remember my dear friend
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Doug Moore, who's with the Lord now, I've quoted so many times in the past, a close friend of mine.
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He was converted at a young man in a revival meeting down in Arkansas. But then he fell sick, and so the pastor was worried about him.
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Didn't know if it was just his furious profession or whatnot, and he went over to visit Doug, and he found
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Doug sick at home in bed. But he was reading his Bible. And so the pastor knew he was okay.
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When a person's converted, they turn to the Scriptures, and they love the Word of God.
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They're words from the God that they've come to know and love. J. C.
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Ryle wrote of the love of the Word of God as an evidence of the new birth. There never was a man or woman truly converted from one end of the world to the other who did not love the revealed will of God.
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Just as a child born into the world desires naturally the milk provided for its nourishment, so does a soul born again desire the sincere milk of the
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Word. This is a common mark of all the children of God. They delight in the law of the
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Lord. Show me a person who despises Bible reading or thinks little of Bible preaching, and I hold it to be a certain fact that he's not yet born again.
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He may be zealous about forms and ceremonies. He may be diligent in attaining sacraments and daily services.
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But if these things are more precious to him than the Bible, I cannot think he is a converted man. Tell me what the
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Bible is to a man, and I'll generally tell you what he is. This is the pulse to try or test.
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This is the barometer to look at if we would know the state of the heart. I have no notion of the
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Spirit dwelling in a man and not giving clear evidence of His presence, and I believe it to be a signaled evidence of the
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Spirit's presence when the Word is really precious to a man's soul. That's a truism.
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Now, our desire and love for the Word may wane at times, and if that's the case, it ought to concern us.
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I remember 40 years ago, some preacher saying, continue to read the
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Word until your heart is stirred, until it's renewed. Don't grow indifferent.
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Love to the Word appears preeminently in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He read it publicly. He quoted it continually.
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He expounded it frequently. He advised the Jews to search it. He used it as his weapon to resist the devil.
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He said repeatedly, the Scripture must be fulfilled. Almost the last thing he did was to open the understanding of his disciples that they might understand the
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Scriptures. All reader, that man can be no true servant of Christ who is not something of his
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Master's mind and feeling toward the Bible. If we don't love the
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Word of God, the Bible, there's something deficient that needs corrected.
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Now, in verse 38, Jesus went on to contrast His hearers with Himself. I speak what I've seen with My Father.
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You do what you've seen with your Father. Back in John 8 .29, Jesus spoke of His relationship with the
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Father. Here, He's declaring that the words He spoke, He was taught of the Father.
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And later in John 12, it's stated overtly, For I've not spoken of My own authority, but the
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Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say, what I should speak. Everything Jesus spoke was coming from God the
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Father. And so our
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Lord indicted these people because they did not have a love for His words. Well, the
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Jews reacted to Jesus, of course, when He basically said,
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Abraham's not your father. They reasserted themselves. Abraham is our father.
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Verse 39, Jesus said, If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who's told you the truth which
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I heard from God. Abraham didn't do this. You do seek the deeds of your father. They weren't like Abraham.
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They were like the devil. And so their response in verse 41b,
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Then they said to Him, We're not born of fornication. We have one Father, God. God is presented as the
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Father in the Old Testament, but really only corporately. He's God the Father to the nation of Israel.
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In the New Testament, it's individualized. Every Christian can call upon God. When you pray,
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Pray, My Father, Our Father, Who art in Heaven. It's individualized. In the
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Old Testament, God was the Father of Israel. And here they claimed,
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We're not born of fornication. It may be the case that they were attempting to slap
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Jesus, accusing Him of being born illegitimately. Maybe because of a misunderstanding about the whole matter of the virgin birth and the way that Joseph married
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Mary when she was pregnant, carrying the Lord.
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It's hard to say, but that could be the case. But our Lord would not grant their claim that that brought any legitimacy to them.
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That they were the physical offspring of Abraham. And that certainly God was their
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Father. In fact, it's said in verse 42, in the middle of page 9, Jesus said to them, If God were your
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Father, you would love Me. For I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have I come of Myself, but He sent
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Me. Here we see that loving Jesus Christ is essential to every true
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Christian's heart. Our Lord reasoned that those who know God as Father would love
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Him. I proceeded forth and came from God. Salvation belongs only to those who love the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Just as they love the Word of God, the Scriptures, they love the words of Jesus, they love
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Jesus Himself, because He came forth from God. Peter wrote about the
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Christian's love for the Lord, whom having not seen, you love. You've never seen Jesus Christ.
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But as a Christian, you love Him for who He is and what He did and who
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He is now. What He's done for you. What He's promised to you. Whom having not seen, you love.
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Though now you do not see Him, yet believing you, rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. If a man does not love the
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Lord Jesus, God is not his Father. And then the
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Lord Jesus declared forthrightly their utter lost condition. Verses 43 -47 Why do you not understand
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My speech? Because you're not able to listen to My Word. They were incapable of doing so because of their lost condition.
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You have your father the devil. And the desires of your father you want to do.
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He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand the truth because there's no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources.
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He's a liar. He's the father of it. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts
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Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears
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God's words, therefore you do not hear because you are not of God. They refused to hear and they were incapable of hearing because the devil was their father, spiritually speaking.
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So the contrast between the children of God and the children of the devil could not be more sharply defined or described.
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John Calvin wrote it this way, as we are called the children of God not only because we resemble
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Him but because He governs us by His Spirit, because Christ lives and is vigorous in us so as to conform us to His Father's image.
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On the other hand, the devil is said to be the father of those whose understanding he blinds, whose hearts he moves to commit all unrighteousness, and on whom, in short, he acts powerfully and exercises his tyranny.
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They were of their father, the devil. I'll not read those extended passages of J .C.
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Ryle and also Matthew Henry that spoke of these wicked ones. We do have a presentation of the devil here in quite a remarkable way.
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He was a liar, is a liar. There's nothing the devil says which is true. The devil has no intention, no desire for good for anyone except for himself and his purposes.
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And he's a murderer and he inspires and invigorates people who are strangers to Jesus Christ.
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And as we've often said, the devil, the way he controls people within his kingdom is he entices them to serve themselves, to do their own will.
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Eve, you take of that fruit and eat it. It will make you wise. It was an appeal to her and her own self -interests.
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I'm going to order my life according to what I determine is best for me and what's going to bring the most benefit to me.
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That is not the heart desire of the true Christian, but rather the true
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Christian denies himself and takes up his cross daily. Even though this is not going to be pleasant,
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I don't want to do it. I see it's the Lord's will and so I'm going to deny myself and purpose to do his will, not mine.
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And even if it means suffering, I'm going to take up his cross daily and I'm going to follow him. And that is the attitude and the outlook of a true
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Christian. For Jesus said, the one who seeks to save his life will lose it.
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The one who loses his life for my sake, the same will save it. And what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
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I'll tell you what he'll give in exchange for his soul. I insist on doing what I want to do regardless of what
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God tells me. That is the heart of a soul that's damned or a
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Christian that's really off the mark. And may the Lord help us never to have that kind of attitude or outlook, but be wholly committed to love and serve the
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Lord, to love his word, to receive instruction from him, guidance from him, and power from him to order our lives in faith as Abraham ordered his entire life in faith throughout that earthly existence.
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May we do so as we follow those great cloud of witnesses who've gone on before us to our heavenly destiny, our heavenly
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Canaan. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. We pray, our
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God, that you would be merciful to our error and ignorance. Help us to see your glorious purposes in history.
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Thank you, Father, for calling us to salvation in Jesus Christ, for the great privilege that we have to live in these days of your kingdom.
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And help us in our journey of faith, Lord, that we might be true followers and friends of you through Jesus Christ as Abraham was as we continue this life, this journey of faith unto our heavenly destination.